plan

I did some personal scheduling and organizing today. Since I have the time to complete tasks I must schedule my time accordingly to be most productive. I must discover what reading material and guitar content to practice to complete section A. I have realized things go much smoother with clean cut planning. This makes me want to plan everything from lunches to washroom breaks :D

so much for weekly planning… :D

some of my plans have changed, some have actually been completed, so here goes the new list:

- ask about schedule of final exams

- apply for internships (locate some more, write applications)

- apply for portuguese language course, book flight and organise accommodation in Lisbon (and find nice hiking route in Portugal)

- apply for editor workshop

- revise the horrid haunting term paper

- research and decide on topic for literature term paper

- photocopy and order material, investigate other relevant data and draw up table of contents for publishing term paper

- a chapter of literary theory per week

- two subchapters of Portuguese vocabulary per day (revision on Sundays)

- creative writing whenever I feel like it :)

Getting ill really knocked back my young habits. It was only today that I printed out the weekly planners that I want to use.

- work through chapter 1, parts 3&4 of creative writing book

order literary theory overview book

thoroughly tidy up my room

- reread text on idiomaticity and revise the horrid haunting term paper

prepare presentation on MwSt

Korean vocabulary revision

...that I will now help myself to tackle this goal. :)

things that need planning:

- ask about schedule of final exams

- apply for internships (locate some more, write applications)

- tidy up my mess

- make time for the horrid haunting term paper

- make time for preparing the 4 presentations I have to give this semester (that they’re short doesn’t mean I can be careless)

- make time for studying literary theory

- make time for exercising

- regularly learn some Korean

- self-discipline myself into writing routinely (I know I want to)

- plan the hiking trip from Munich to Venice (Alpenpass, equipment, detailed route, motivate people to accompany me)

- look at language courses in Portugal and try to fit one into my schedule

- apply for editor workshop

- apply for writing course scholarship

-> make weekly schedules on Saturdays

It’s kind of depressing to look at this list… but also kind of exciting. If I do all of it, I’ll have reason to be proud of my otherwise lazy self :)

I think it is undeniable that planning depends on writing things down, and that’s not too difficult. The part that I’m really finding tricky is to actually read what I had written down in my plan.

I am toying with the idea of submitting my life to lists and schedules, just to see how far it possible to plan things in advance.

All good habits tend to die young. The cause is always the same: a good start, but then some interruption of the routine, and the good habit never recovers.

After last week’s stress, this is a good time to look at my planning again:

1. I’m happy to say that I’m still printing out my weekly planners.
2. Daily planning has not happened yet this week. This is partly due to the ‘single task’ effect, where I have only one task to focus on, and therefore think I don’t need planning.
3. My preparation for travel is nearly complete, there is only a visa to collect.
4. Planning for after Pittcon is still very, very vague.
5. I notice that I find it very hard to plan because I find it hard to concentrate.

Plans should be shared with those who are involved with those plans.

One of the reasons why I have not been a great planner is for the apparent reason that some things can not be planned for. This might be true for some things, but it is not true for all.

For example, I could not plan for the problem that I had with the calibration file: I took the program into an unusual situation, and it failed.

But that does not mean I cannot plan to repair the program. I know I can estimate pretty well how long it would take to fix the program, and I can plan when I will be on track again.