hi! im wondering if you want to speak to how you manage/balance ra work and your own research/class work? i have so much trouble with it - i tend to focus on one or the other, always to the detriment of the one not prioritized. hoping you have some insight/tips! (feel free to answer publicly if you want!)
I sat on this for awhile because I wanted to give a good answer. I always feel like I give off the illusion of being organized without actually being organized, but maybe I just… actually am somewhat organized but have imposter syndrome *gasp*
Anyway! One of the things I’ve been trying to do is schedule myself to do some of both on the same day. If I tell myself I’ll do my research on Monday and my RA work on Tuesday, what would end up happening is at the end of Monday I would go, “Damn, I haven’t done enough work, I need to do this tomorrow and I’ll push RA work to Wednesday.” If I tell myself I’ll do my work in the morning and RA work in the afternoon, I usually manage to do both, even if it’s just an hour of one and more of the other.Â
It might also help to start with the one you feel less urgency about/has a later due date. It sounds counterproductive (and might be for you! not everything works the same for everyone!) but I find that doing an hour of something else before the things I really need to do helps me focus on getting it out of the way so I can meet my deadline for the other thing.Â
I will also say that my RA work is very specific at the moment - I’m reading books by and/or about a 19th C writer, or a newspaper that we think she would have written in anonymously. I think it might be easier when there’s a specific task rather than more vague “do some research on x.”
