No Time For Time Out
I feel a little bit like my head is in a vice this week – actually, for the next few weeks. I'd forgotten this part about academia and the dumptruck of stuff that tends to appear, regardless of every good organizational intention, in the mid-term. Exams, assignments, presentations – these need to be prepared, administered, graded. In this particular semester, due to a scheduling bungle, I have an entire class of "exceptions" to manage with regard to their mid-terms, and the usual number of students who forgot to self-identify as "exceptions" and thus need to be each treated as individual "exceptions", one-by-one, ad hoc, as they show up saying "oops". This is the most time-consuming and patience-testing part.
And I have a new client to tend to … and custody of my dog which imposes an unimpeachable rigour. Her needs must be obeyed. And I'm looking after a neighbour's cat. Thank goodness for post-it notes.
No time for gym, which doesn't help at all. I can hear some of you say "oh, make time for it". I've not ever mastered the "making time" concept. I've over-committed socially and that actually helps from a mental health perspective but not from a time management perspective.
The nuts and bolts of my life … I can manage them. It will be a stretch but it will all get done.
What is missing is the white space that one needs in every layout … the empty space to process, think and – for me – write about it all. When this goes missing, I know I get out of some kind of internal balance. I started to feel this a week or so ago … I think it is about to get worse … and I hope I can find a way to come up for air by the end of this month.
19. October 2008 at 12:58 pm :
Oh, I hear you. This 'making time' concept always makes me laugh. I can't manufacture what I really need, which is more hours in the day.