Every Tuesday is Kitchen Sink day at Living Behind the Curve.
In retrospect, it may not have been the smartest idea to change jobs just before finals week. It’s not due to the time and effort involved, because I’ve actually been able to devote more time to school. For me, it’s all about the routines.
I am a creature of habit, and as long as I can stay within those routines and habits, I can run at 110%. It’s not the small things, necessarily (I can function with minor interruptions), but the big things, or rather, the accumulation of small things. My morning routine, once set as “get up, work out, shower, commute” is now blown to hell; I overestimate and end up with additional time, or underestimate and have to cut my workout short, or not do it at all. I need a new morning routine.
I take lunches now, every day. I can come home, I can study, I can sleep under a tree if I wish. Far from being liberating, I find that hour of my day unsettling. I don’t know what to do then and so I try to do everything — poke at my RSS reader, do homework, respond to email — and end up doing nothing. I need a lunch routine.
My evening routine, once a string of commute-study-school-dinner or commute-study-dinner, is now one big question mark. I have to study, yes, but my classes are falling off one by one — Accounting finished up on Friday, Spanish will be done tomorrow, and English on Friday. I need a new evening routine.
Rather than making any changes and setting any routines now, I’m allowing myself to hang in limbo. Why? My work schedule is currently on “Summer Hours”, which means I work 7:30-5:30 Monday-Thursday, and 8-12 on Friday. That only lasts until Labor Day. The week after Labor Day, I start regular hours *and* a new semester. It takes me about 3 weeks to set into a new habit, and that’s about all I have before I have to set new patterns for a new schedule.
Essentially, I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t. If any of y’all have suggestions on how to ride out the next few routine-less weeks, I’m all ears.
Oh, and the new job? It’s wonderful. The people are great and the commute is divine. There’s no doubt in my mind that this was the right move for me.
Categories: admin| career| kitchen sink
If you find yourself with extra time, I’d suggest finishing up all the icky stuff like homework first, set half an hour aside for that, or whatever you deem necessary, and then figure out if you want to blog/read blogs next, or work out, and allocate half an hour to that (or however long you want it to be)
It’s all about priorities, in my opinion… when I get back from work, I have about 3 hours before I sleep. I get in the door at 6 p.m. (sometimes 6.30 p.m.), I immediately eat something small and light (half an hour), I wait another half an hour (and in the meantime I read over my work stuff if I have to, and/or blog) then I go for a 45 min workout, come back, shower for about 30 minutes, and I have 45 minutes left of downtime before I pop into bed and sleep.