…of EJ Dupervil or How I Continue Being Awesome
I was going to write about something awesome I did this summer. But I thought that would be boring considering we have all done awesome things. It’s the reason we are all here. We have done something awesome and to continue on that trajectory we come to MIIS to give us the skills needed to continue in that path. So I will share some insight on how I stay focused on working towards being awesome.
I manage my time or more accurately, I customize my time to who I am as a person (it will make sense soon). I have attended a number of time management workshops but no one can really tell you how to manage your time but you. You know your strengths and your weaknesses. You know if you like to party every day. You know if you have a six day vacation planned out in the middle of the semester. You also know if you are a procrastinator. You know if you have a bad habit of stopping to talk to people for an hour knowing you have mountains of readings to do.
How to remedy this? You need an intervention. Like another problem or addiction you have, the first step towards progress is admitting that you have a problem. Be honest with yourself and take it from there. Accept that there is work that is needed to be done in the long run but for the time being, manage your time around your flaws to maximize your productivity as much as possible.
In the end of the day you are the product of what you do with your time; therefore make it a priority to make the most of it. Managing your time is not only important for the work requirement for your professors but for separate professional projects or endeavors you are working on. To keep track of everything I have to do I have a planner that I write everything down on and when I have checked everything on my planner I then pull out my “When I Think I Have Nothing To Do” list which really helps me stay busy and execute task.
You should always have something to do and if you don’t you aren’t doing something right. Get involved on campus, join a club. It gives people the opportunity to see you outside the student role and more in a professional light. So just like you are watching people, people are also watching you. Give them something to talk about.
However, being this busy all the time can sometime leave little room to stop and enjoy the pleasures of life and being graduate student. Usually I find myself running all day, ‘errday because I have so much to do and when I am doing something I enjoy I feel guilty because I can be getting some work done. Due to this I have formulated my 3-1 rule. Every day I do three things that I really don’t want to do but have to do and because I live under this strange notion that one random day I will die, I do one thing that makes me happy every day. This can be calling someone back home to say hello, or executing two “The Simpson’s” style prank calls to shaking your dreads in the mirror to a Michael Bublé song (hahaha I love my life).
All-in-all work hard but don’t neglect to slow down sometimes to enjoy the life around you and always have a positive outlook, always.