Week 3
Note to self: things don't always go to plan. Husband was called in to do emergency work which I'm 100% supportive for him to do, but it also means I now have to find an extra 4-5 hours next week to finish what I had planned to achieve today.
So how to plan for the unforeseen? With studies the best failsafe is to allow a bit of buffer to the timelines you plan. I do this by adding 20% extra to the time I allow for any uni task, whether it's reading, writing, or prepping for a prac. If you have recently returned to studies after a break due to family/work/other reasons, you might have noticed that reading any academic text takes quite long, even longer when it's a new topic area full of complex industry terminology.
It's all pretty basic really. Just list your priorities for the coming week, and when scheduling when to do what multiply the time you initially thought to use for the task by 1.2 to add the 20%. In very simplistic maths terms convert the time to minutes first, then back to hours and minutes after the multiplication.
If you do not end up needing the extra time then great, you have just given yourself an extra break or more time with friends and family; if you feel that you still didn't get everything done, then allow even more for a similar task the next time. Moving forward the idea is to learn better time management - look for patterns and obvious gaps or "early marks" to identify what needs adjusting.
Spring 2017 Week 3 blog entry is here, and whaddaya know looks like I was battling with exactly the same issues this time last semester.
What am I doing this week?
Building on the feeling that I can do this. Again. That is all.
