Organization, Step 4: Adjustment(s)
It has now been a week of following my schedule, and it’s a bit unsustainable at the moment. My daily schedule generally begins with me waking up at 7:30 AM and reading the Wall Street Journal. This is important for me because I’m trying to make an effort to educate myself on financial news and new affairs in the market. However, my school schedule is making this extremely difficult. After classes, which typically ends around 4, I have club responsibilities with either club soccer or the equity research club. By the time I finish with that, it’s about 7 or 8. Then, I go eat dinner, shower, and it’s already 9:00. From 9–12 I try and study as effectively as possible, and then I generally go to sleep at about 1. Sleeping from 1–7 may sound like it’s attainable for most people, but for me, it’s not. First of all, I’m not a morning person at all. Secondly, for me to wake up early, I generally need a full night’s sleep (8 hours) or I’m going to be tired for the rest of the day.
This calls for an adjustment to my schedule. In most cases, I would prefer not to adjust my schedule, but I believe it’s completely necessary in the beginning. I overestimated what I was capable of, and in order for this schedule thing to work, I have to be open to change. So my changes are as follows:
1. Erase the 7:30 reading time. It is too early and makes me tired for the rest of the day.
2. Move reading time to my 3 hour break between Spanish and accounting. This will give me enough time to still read my 2–3 stories without taking away from my sleeping time. Also, it will be better for me to fill up this time with something productive. Before, I just used it as a miscellaneous time slot, dedicating it to whatever I saw fit. Now, I have something concrete to do at this time.
One more adjustment that I plan on making is going to less club soccer practices. Don’t get me wrong, I love soccer and I love being able to play it everyday after school. But if I look at it from a mature point of view, it’s not really helping me advance. If I’m going to organize my time to help me advance myself in my field like I’ve been trying, I’m going to have consider limiting the amount of time I dedicate to club soccer.
It is important for me to be selfish with my time in situations like these. Being selfish often comes with a negative connotation, but in situation like these, I think it’s positive. One article that agrees with me is Ricardo Azziz’s scholarly article on microbiomics. In it he says:
“Be a little selfish, particularly with your time: you must dedicate sufficient time to your research and scientific development in order to be successful. If you do not and want to be a jack of all trades and everywhere at all times, it will be less likely that you will succeed. To create good science you need to have focused time — time that you will not be able to make available to others.”
In the article, Azziz is mainly addressing research and development, which is pretty similar to what I’m going through at the moment. I intend to be more selfish with my time to help my development.
Citation:
Azziz, Ricardo. (July 2013.) Polycystic ovary syndrome, microbiomics and why you should be a little selfish with your time. Expert Review of Endocrinology & Metabolism. Retrieved from: http://go.galegroup.com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=sunybuff_main&id=GALE|A338164277&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon&authCount=1
