Prioritization
I believe you all have undergone a process of sorting out things to which you assigned a certain level of priority. Once becoming a distance learner you will sooner (better option) or later embark on the journey of prioritizing your life, starting from the effort to come home from work as quick as possible (because of studies), to limiting your leisure time activities (because of studies), to adhering to your new daily/weekend routine (yes, because of studies) etc. This is the first step and very important one, indeed. The second step is Time management and this ability to organise your time will be crucial in order to succeed. Please never assume that distance learning is something very different from regular full-time studies and perhaps something easier to handle. On the contrary. To my knowledge, any distance learning programme/course is designed in a way to reflect the same number of hours a student should dedicate to studying as any standard full-time programme/course does.