I just wrote out basically the entirety of this post, and then refreshed the page by instinct and lost everything. Lesson learned: save your posts as drafts consistently. Here we go again!
Iāve noticed a few more of you around here since my last post, and whether youāre current/prospective/not Smithies, Iād love to hear from yāall! My ask box is always open, same with my PMs. Like many of us, Iāll take almost any form of human interaction during these dystopian times.
Anyway, classes! Today is the Monday of my second week of classes, and I realized I hadnāt made a post about my first week of classes! Important context before I get there, though, is that so far throughout this pandemic, I havenāt really been able to just sit down and focus on my classes; there was always something else more urgent, whether it be Trump trying to deport all international students (a scare that happened twice over the summer!), me coming out to my parents, or dealing with some pretty terrible personal stuff towards the end of 2020.
Iām not saying this as anĀ āoh my life is SO hardā but as a way to show the reasons for which I was feeling like I was slipping on my academics. And so, I knew that going into my fourth Smith semester (that feels unreal to type, woah), I wanted/needed to change something, for my own mental stability.
For me, this ended up being a commitment to attending as many classes as possible (progress update: Iāve only slept through two morning classes! working on it), leaving my camera on for more than 95% of the time, as well as participating in all the ways I can: answering questions as often as possible, being active in Slack, Piazza, etc.
Something Iāve found REALLY helpful in the process has been something that Iāve personally known about for ages: the pomodoro technique (work cycles of 25 minutes followed by 5 minute breaks, and no more than 4 sessions consecutively). I havenāt really used this method previously because I had the skewed belief that my Romanian high school education cultivated in me: you just need to hammer away at a task, not getting up from your desk, until itās done. Pair that with my previously untreated ADHD, and it suddenly makes sense why I was struggling (other than the whole, yāknow, pandemic thing or whatever).
The most pressing deadline I have at the moment is a video project for Smithās My Global StoryĀ event. It was technically due yesterday, but I was thankfully able to get an extension because I wasnāt quite done with it. I might upload it either here or on YouTube afterwards, but thatās a problem for future me to figure out.
Lastly, one thing I was considering recently is starting the 100 days of productivity challenge; I wouldnāt be aiming to do it every single day for the next 100 days, but to have it finished by the end of the calendar year. Maybe COVID will be done by then, huh?
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