A Stud(io?)blr Of One's Own

Today was a case study in not overbooking myself.

I had a list of like 13 or 14 things that needed doing and I figured if I took 10 minutes to get each of them done that have them all finished before lunch. But I guess I needed more sleep than I thought I did—which, ya know, story of my life— and that list that I thought would only take me two and a half hours ended up taking me most of the afternoon and evening.

Heck, dudes, today went really well. Even with the impromptu nap I woke up from maybe an hour ago, I got just about everything done.

So this is a little bit more about my system: I’ve got a Google Calendar where I keep track of all the events and appointments I have going, but as you can see, it is quite full. Sometimes terrifyingly so.

So I started making a list of tasks to keep track of that I could have a hard copy of, where I didn’t necessarily have to look at my phone and see all of that. Eventually I evolved into the thing on the right, which is split into Goals (stuff I’m trying to do multiple times throughout the week), Weekly (stuff that happens once every week that I wanted to make sure I took care of), and Tasks (what it sounds like I’m the tin. When I first got my new little folder doohickey, I had this list in the plastic sleeve on the cover, but I discovered that that made it hard to add things to the list in anything other than TERRIFYING RED MARKER, and also that looking at the everything I had to do over the course of the week, and seeing the things that I *didn’t* do, was kind of overwhelming.

So we have arrived at the current solution. A one-day printable I found that has a nice big agenda broken into half hour chunks in on the left side and a task list that is broken into four categories on the left. When I fill it out in the evening, I can consult the master list of tasks, and easily block in where I want things to go since I’m trying to work on tasks for just ten minutes a day, because, again, overwhelm.

Hey guys!

I’m starting a class in... oh, a week and a half? And I’ve been messing around with my planner system, trying to find what works best and isn’t just so overwhelming to look at. I’m getting up a lot earlier now, so I’m kinda tired and still have some stuff to finish up, but I wanted to toss this up here for you guys. I’ll try to explain my thinking and my system a bit tomorrow, but for now, I’ll just say this:

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Random thought, but I really want to learn touch typing for numbers. I’m really good at typing blind for letters and such, but I don’t have the muscle memory for the number strip or the number pad.

Anyway, yes, hi, it’s me. This last month has been super crazy. LOADS of doctor appointments and therapy appointments and homework and midterms and general exhaustion. The next round of assignments is due this week, and it’s going to take a concerted effort to get through them all in time. I know it’s going to be a bit tricky, because one of the things I found out since last we talked is that I actually have rheumatoid arthritis (apparently my immune system thinks my joint tissue is The Enemy), several joints that like to hyperextend, and a section of my spine in my mid-back that has your garden variety degenerative arthritis. Which. I’m twenty four, y’all. That ain’t normal. But hey, what else is new?

Basically all this means is, I’m in a state of semi-constant discomfort or pain. I’m trying to figure out how to manage my energy and figure out when to work up to my desk versus laying on my bed versus taking a break versus standing up. It’s all quite involved, and there are so many moving pieces and little tasks and upkeep things that it’s easy to get lost in the chaos of it all, like, how am I supposed to keep this up for the rest of my life? How am I supposed to keep it up for the next MONTH?

Friday, October 4, 2019

Aight, so I’m not convinced that morning posts will work. Then again, I’m not sure I want to switch back to evening posts. It’s all very ambiguous. I think I’ll have to try and stick with it solidly for a week to come up with a verdict either way.

I am. quite tired, as usual. I made it to bed on time yesterday, set up my CPAP and everything, was up around 8:30ish, and I am just very sleepy, my dudes. This feels unfair to me.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

It has been a hot second since I last posted. For whatever reason, there’s a bigger mental block about posting late now that I’m doing the morning posts. When I missed a post in the evenings, I could either stay up late and post it then, since there are no real demands on my time past 10pm except the opposing siren calls of my phone and my pillow, or I could post it first thing in the morning. When I miss it here, it’s like “do I put aside all the things I need to be doing to put together this post? The day’s half over, is it worth planning it out?” My suspicion is that the answer to both of those questions is yes, because I think I do better when I’ve planned.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Pro tip: Don’t sleep on your glasses. Especially if you are super-duper heckin blind without them.

Today’s going to be fun, I can tell already.

Sunday–Tuesday, September 15–17, 2019

I got a cold over the weekend, so I spent most of Sunday and Monday in a DayQuil-induced coma. (I know that stuff is technically non-/less-drowsy, but have you met me? I take any and all opportunities to fall unconscious. It’s my super power.)

The first major deadline for my online class is this Friday, so I’ve got to take some extra time the next couple of days to take care of the discussion board posts. I’m still waiting to hear back as to whether or not they’ll let me use voice recordings in my assignments, which is…frustrating. Like, the syllabus says to expect a response within 24 hours. It has been like twelve of those.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

It’s taking some getting used to to use today’s date in the mornings, when I haven’t really done anything yet. We’ll see how this goes.

Thursday–Friday, September 12–13, 2019

So, I wanna try something new. Instead of doing a post at the end of the day, talking about how the day went, I want to try doing it at the beginning of the day and talk about how I would like the day to go. Obviously I can also talk about how yesterday went, but 1) this lets me have a little more time to myself during the evenings, and 2) it starts the day out with a more solid picture of what I want the day to look like.

One More Day of Productivity, Day 10–11

Monday, September 9, 2019

So, do any of you know how to tell if there is a ghost stabbing you just under your right shoulder blade with a fork? Because based on all available evidence, there is a ghost stabbing me just under my right shoulder blade with a fork. There is something rotten in Denmark, my dudes.

Sunday, September 8, 2019

You know, the nice thing about my Oxygen Not Included video game is that you can just let it run in the background, assuming you’ve got everything well prioritized and there aren’t any calamities waiting to crush your color into so much space sludge. The downside is that I have had this game open for at least two and a half hours now.

Today was a bit better in terms of pain and fatigue, though my head has been feeling super weird. Which I do not appreciate. But I’m not sure what to do about that, so I suppose we just deal with it. I’ve got a good plan for this week, and judging by how much I was able to get done on Saturday—I was using a 20/10 pomodoro timer, if anyone was wondering. Nothing too spectacular—I should be able to work through the stuff I have scheduled pretty quickly. Which I do appreciate.