Rachel's New Schedule: Hopefully Less Crazy-Making

[rax]

Like probably everyone reading this, I do a lot of stuff, and sometimes it's hard to find time to do it all. I'm actually pretty good at squeezing in things that are good at squeezing, and that allows me to get a lot of things done by using 15- and 30-minute chunks of time effectively. But lately I've been having problems because some things I want to do don't take well to being done in small chunks. In particular: Grad apps, conference proposals, thesis. For those things, it takes me time to ramp up to actually being productive, to remember where I was the last time I worked on it, and where I was going; I leave notes for myself and have infrastructure that helps, but I can only mitigate the work required to switch contexts, not eliminate it. For grad school apps, I took my free time and converted it into work time, and that made me successful at getting work done, but it also kinda made me miserable. (eredien  pointed out that I left the house for fun twice in December. I think it might have been three times, but still.) So this wasn't sustainable.

Luckily, with help from faerieboots  and my shrink, I came up with a much better plan. I don't work on Fridays anymore; Fridays are now Academic Day, and mostly Thesis Day, although today I am doing all of my conference applications. I'm also going to do a bunch of exercise, because not biking to work has seriously turned me slothful, and while I don't think I want to start biking every day during the winter, I do want to do something. This works because my day job is something I can do in 15- to 30-minute chunks, and so I can do a little work before I go to the office Monday through Thursday, stay a bit later than normal, do some extra over or after dinner, and then not have to worry about work at all for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This gives me plenty of time to spend long chunks of time on serious work that isn't my job, and also long chunks of time to be social or engage in other recharging activities. [0] This is awesome! I've already sent out a couple of conference proposals and spent an hour exercising. I could be wrong, but so far this seems like the best thing ever. Yay!

[0] And by "other recharging activities" I mean "I've been replaying Final Fantasy 1 for the NES don't judge me."

Comments

[twitch124.livejournal.com]

Yay for less crazy-making!

[doma.livejournal.com]

I still want to watch you attempt to play the re-remake of FF1.

[davidglasser.livejournal.com]

What exercise are you doing?

[rax.livejournal.com]

Mostly walking on a treadmill. When I get back into my full routine, it will be jumping jacks, crunches, pushups, some freeweights, and treadmill, but treadmill is what I can make myself do right now, and so it is what I am doing. :)

Not judging

[krdbuni.livejournal.com]

I usually have to play about four games of single-player computerized RtfG before I can start writing. =u.u=; Though I'm starting to hit that magic point at which writing becomes a recharging activity again....

Re: Not judging

[rax.livejournal.com]

Wait, there's single-player computerized RftG now?? ...Wait, no, don't tell me where it is. Nevermind.

I haven't had the urge to replay FF1 in years, but grad school apps made me crave a tedious process that I knew how to succeed at, and it's very much been working for me. :)

Re: Not judging

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

... that makes sense! I will admit that the urge to replay FF1 was totally mystifying me.

Now FF4, that's another matter.

Re: Not judging

[listener.livejournal.com]

One of the folks I work with makes the same argument about RPGs. They fill the need for consistent and obvious feedback that you're succeeding.

[kelkyag]

Yay, improved sanity and time to play!

[badoingdoing.livejournal.com]

I am *so* glad you worked out a plan to help with the overwork.

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

So much better an idea! Yay, less-stressed you! Woot!

[iainuki.livejournal.com]

I'm glad, and I hope your new schedule works out for you--I mea, I could sense the stress-vibes even over the Internet and that's never a good sign.

[lhexa.livejournal.com]

And by "other recharging activities" I mean "I've been replaying Final Fantasy 1 for the NES don't judge me."

If you think that's bad, when I was sick last week, I spent my time playing Angband... and won.