A Month Wasted

I finished my last final December 17th. Which meant technically that I was free. And I had have big, big plans to really be productive for this semester off.

-I want to clean/organize/pack everything, donate things, or preferably sell them for a profit.
-go through my school stuff, organize, and consolidate it.
-prepare for an interview by reading news, journals in my field, reviewing lecture materials, and planning what I want to say and how to downplay things I don’t.
-I want to observe an AuD.
-And of course do those pesky little things that always get moved to the bottom of the to-do list, like cook meals, play with my cats, and keep in touch with people better.

And obviously do my taxes, complete the FAFSA, pack, move, secure school funding, and read and outline my 1st semester textbooks before school begins.

Unfortunately, I can’t say I’ve maximized this time out of school so far. I went right to house-sitting after classes got out, into Christmas, into New Years, and now I’ve been working extra to afford my interview trip. Also, because of work and tiredness, and I guess just general disorganization from the work/tiredness things have not been happening like I want. BUT it’s not too late to change things! I just need a plan and I need to break things into small, manageable steps.

First, I’m going to log what I’m currently doing with my time to see where I’m losing it. The days just seem to fly past without my knowledge and without much productivity.

Finding energy will be a big step in DOING things. So even if I have to caffeinate, I think it’ll be worth it.

Then, I need to do small tasks toward the big tasks.

Also, I need to be happy about what I HAVE done:

-cleaned the pet-closet, reorganized my bookmarks, cleaned the coat closet, wrote Christmas thank you cards, followed through with weekly grocery shopping, organized under the bathroom sink, read my “Get into Grad School” book, started reading “The Alchemist” during my breaks at work, consolidated 6 school binders into 3 (I really need 3″-4″ binders), got through my 2014 albums to write the blog, got my scrapbook up to date, and bought my bus/hotel stuff for the potential interview.  So that’s something–but not enough considering I’m out of school and work part-time.

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Procrastinatee

As in:  I feel procrastinatee about several things right now, but maybe it’s tiredness?

-I agreed to transcribe language samples again this semester, yet have only done half of one.  And I keep moving the notification ahead on my calendar to-do list.  I agreed because my favorite professor asked me to.  Also, because I won’t be a student in the winter so I can’t do in then as I had intended.  But it’s harder then I remember, and things keep coming up.

-I would love to get my grad school application off my plate.  To have it finished, get it off the to-do list, and perhaps secure the best funding (is that a thing?) but I keep pushing that forward because it needs to be RIGHT.  I have to finish editing the essays and everything before I can get to this and they are not quite where I want them.  Plus, I don’t know for certain if early applications receive any extra deals or funding over the ones turned in on deadline (1-15-15).

-I need to edit and finish my personal statement.  I haven’t finished this up because it was suggested that I re-organize it entirely.  So it feels to me like instead of wrapping it up and just combing it for errors–I’m back in the middle of the writing process.  I want it done as best as possible, but now this stage requires more concentration then my studies and work schedule seemingly allow.

-I’m also procrastinatee about my scholarly paper.  But because I got good editing marks, that I need to read through and employ and I never seem to have a long chunk of time to do the whole thing.  I don’t want to get in the middle somewhere and have to remember which items I’ve corrected and which I still need to do.

Basically, it comes down to the fact that neuroanatomy takes a lot of my unscheduled time.  I have to make study materials for it-and study them.  And phonetics, even though I’ve used it a lot, has a billion tests (6 already) that I have to do practice for.  So it seems when I’m not actually scheduled to be somewhere, or doing the class stuff, I’m either sleeping, or too tired to focus enough.

Or Cool is a distraction.  Her moods are always up and down, meds always coming or going, or I just want to take advantage of the good days.  So that takes some concentration and attention away.  It’s a frustrating thing, but I think I’ll be caught in this loop until something gives–school semester (will hopefully be the thing).  I don’t want to jeopardize my grades trying to get this (mostly writing) stuff done.  When the semester is done I’ll really push to finish the writing and submit the application.

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