There were a few things I had to get out of the way before I started Flatiron.
First, I needed a solid schedule I was going to follow. I didn’t want to take 8 months to finish the program. In fact, I couldn’t take 8 months to finish the program as my expenses were too much to stretch that long. I also wanted to minimize my family’s child care expenses so I came up with a solid schedule:
M-Th 6am-7am personal care (shower, breakfast, walk dog, etc…) 7am-8am (or whenever kids wake up) Flatiron. 8am-8pm family/kids. 8pm-10pm Flatiron. 3 hrs/day.
Fri-Sun 8am-10pm Flatiron (1 hour lunch & dinner). 12 hrs/day.
Total 53 hours of school per week.
~800 hours to graduation = 15 weeks.
This seemed doable as my former career in restaurant management had me working 55 hours standard.
Secondly, I needed somewhere to do this work. The house we had just built had a closed in office which was not in use. So I skimmed IKEA’s website and picked out a desk and chair. Granted IKEA is 3 hours away from my house so it will be a pain to go pick it up but spending $100 on a desk, chair, and that plastic thing you put on the carpet so a chair can roll seemed like it was worth it.
Overall the plan was coming together.