This post is intended to share what a normal schedule is for a lot of people at HBS. I would be blogging more often, but my calendar is too full. My walk to class from home is 12 minutes, of which I always use to listen to the news or to call a friend to catch up on things. In general I try to get my utility rate as close as possible to 100%, although that includes social events. I try to make as much time of the day count towards something “productive.” It’s not uncommon to find myself having to schedule a 20 minute phone conversation a week out due to time constraints. Similarly, if I’m eating lunch or dinner, I try to combine it with a meeting or an opportunity to learn something new. If not, I’ll probably eat en route to somewhere. This may not sound healthy, but time here moves quickly, and I really value the opportunities this place affords. I can’t believe the first semester is almost over… a fourth of my HBS experience! I certainly haven’t regretted making the most of every minute so far. The only thing I wish I could change is to have more minutes in the day. I doubt I will ever look back and say “gee, I wished I had just slowed down and watched more TV.”
I chose two fairly random days and put the schedule into the following image. We have 3 classes on Monday/Wednesday/Friday and 2 classes on Tuesday/Thursday. I therefore picked a Wednesday/Thursday combination. My use of transition time (calling while walking, reading while doing cardio, etc.) is not made explicit, but you can get the idea:
Looking at my schedule and thinking of my trends, I would summarize my days as follows:
| Hours | |||
| Classes | 3-4 | ||
| Case prep | 3-4 | ||
| Face to face meetings | 2 | ||
| Phone meetings / interviews | 1 | ||
| Seminars and extra lectures | 1.5 | ||
| Formal recruiting events (every other day) | 2-3 | ||
| Social events (every other day) | 2-3 | ||
| Sports and working out | 1 | ||
| Misc one time events | 1 | ||
| Emailing/Networking/Catching up | 2 | ||
| Sleep | 6 | ||
So hopefully that gives a little more insight into my student life. I will note though that some students have a very different schedule. For example, if a student is not recruiting for a summer position because of a corporate sponsorship, that frees up a large amount of time to pursue other things. Some students are involved in student government, which can take up a lot of time. Some students spend a lot more or a lot less time at social events each night. Some students try to go to all the extra lectures/seminars and take a lot of notes, some students go to none of them. So the variability is quite large. I’m just a data point.
Read the full article: A day in the life…