While being employed 40 hours/week I started to repeat basics in functional analysis in January 2006. In April I started to do some general reading on the subject of time-frequency analysis. I wanted to have the topic of my Master’s thesis set until May, but it took me until August to file it with the working title “Gabor Analysis for Image Processing”. The finish of my thesis had originally been targeted for Christmas 2006, but it soon was clear that it would also take the whole spring of 2007.
With May 2006 I reduced my working times to 26 hours/week, and I quit my occupation in January 2007 as I was granted a 6-month scholarship. Now I had time to do numerical experiments and to actually write my thesis. The scholarship ended by July 2007, and I hoped to have my thesis finished by September. The final work, entitled Foundations of Gabor Analysis for Image Processing, was printed in the mid of November and graded an A. I had my master exam on December 18th and finished my studies with distinction.
Some statistics: It took me 8 months to read up on time-frequency analysis (while being employed). I was in the official status of a graduand for 16 months. I authored my thesis within 9 months.