My blog’s subtitle, for now, is “Let’s watch a trainwreck!” You might call me a pessimist. I prefer “realist without a planner”.
I prefer “realist without a
planner” because I have been semi-floundering for three years and three weeks
at Uni and I’m not doing anything different so far to change my habits. A lot
of people carry paper calendars; I don’t. I “keep track” of assignments in my
head. Then I worry that I missed something and chuck seven notebooks, six
binders, and four course packets into my bag at the end of the day. I’ll
probably have back problems by age 20. In the same vein, a lot of people use
their free periods for work and then go to bed early at night. I use my free
periods to draw useless pixel art and then stay up until 11 doing calc homework.
I have the audacity the next morning to wonder why on earth I am tired.
So far, I’ve been managing
pretty well with my lack of organization. I’ve gotten enough sleep to sustain
myself and concentrate. I haven’t yet lost any important items (I ALMOST lost
my phone but it was in my locker all along, phew). But there are challenges
already looming on the horizon. There’s a Leff history test on Friday and I
haven’t reviewed my notes yet. Today there’s a swim meet. Last night, I had to
do all the homework that I didn’t do the night before. But you know what, I
have the period before History free. I’ll just study then! It’ll work out!
Is what I tell myself. I don’t
really believe it.
In the past, I’ve
procrastinated like crazy without noticing my own behavior. I would waste free
periods and then be really really surprised when I had a test and five
assignments due on one day and hadn’t studied. But this year (Junior year) is
different in some ways, precisely because it’s known to be so hard. So when I
didn’t buy a planner at the Illini Union Bookstore I knew what I was getting
myself into. I knew (and know) that if I procrastinate like I did last year
it’s going to be impossible to survive with my sanity and grades intact.
I want to change my habits. I
want to get more sleep and save my GPA from sudden death. But forming good
habits is an almost impossible thing for me to do with this little free time. I
feel like I’m on a sled sliding down the ice toward a tree, and I know what’s
going to happen, but I’m going too fast to change my trajectory. I can only
hope that this knowledge of my fate will compel me to suddenly change it.
I don't know about a cheap planner, but I swear by my semi-pricey Day-Timer (TM) planner, which is actually a monthly planner with two-pages per day for my list and schedule. I was incredibly disorganized as a high school student, and my senior year, my dad got me a subscription to this planner. My life improved a lot. I'm still innately disorganized, but I've managed to impose a certain level of organization on my life from the outside. I just have to follow a simple mantra: Make your to-do list, and then *look at* your to-do list at least two or three times a day. I do as much as I'm able on a given day (leaving time to relax and do non-productive things as well), then if something doesn't get done, I move it a future to-do list, whether tomorrow's or beyond.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think you need a two-page per day planner to lower your stress and increase your ability to get stuff done on time. A cheap (or even free) planner is probably a fine place to start. And now is a good time to get in that habit. You can still draw useless pixel art. (In fact, if you want, you can even put it on your to-do list. It's always nice to have something easy to check off.)
Pomona...how did I never notice that you are the funniest person I've ever met? This blog post is like another layer of your personality. I'm crying. Cause onions, layer, etc. I can't comprehend this post. It's so naturally good. What is this. It's like actual stand up comedy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, they give free planners with purchases at the illini book store, so like...you must have been really dedicated to this disorganization thing.
Yeah I got out of the bookstore SPEEDILY after getting my stuff. I was like NOPE NOT GOING TO BE ORGANIZED THIS YEAR and now I'm dead so... whoops?
DeleteI feel like this is how all the juniors feel right now...I also have a lot of things that I have to arrange and good habits that I have to get into but I have absolutely no free time to do it. I'm terrible at multi-tasking and when I do something I either do it with all my energy or I don't do it at all so I've realized I haven't been doing a lot of things that I planned to do after the school year started. I can definitely relate to your feeling of knowing that you have to do something but not doing it fully understanding that there will be consequences to this decision later on.
ReplyDeleteYeah and then it hit me last week that I should be researching colleges. But that on top of the WebAssigns seems like too much so I'll just hope that Dr. Camacho really does drop the lowest grade of the quarter. I still haven't read his syllabus, even though he drops quite strong hints that we should...
DeleteI can relate. Really hilarious and well written post. Hey, but I guess everyone improves slowly over time. I've finally replaced my backpack with an actual folder. I can't help you on the planner part however. Writing was down to earth and honest, I think most juniors feel the same way right now.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say that what you described is a train-wreck. That's basically how I got through junior year, and my grades didn't suffer much (though you could argue my sanity did). This was an interesting blog post, and I'm interested in the font you used. It adds a nice touch.
ReplyDeleteYikes - just realized I kept it in Courier! That wasn't intended, especially since I think the next post has a different font. Mismatched fonts as a blog theme, perhaps? Promising!
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