~~ or 'Living in Denial'

There are people in this world who are organized. They always leave for work on time, never forget to buy cat food, and always say "Happy Birthday!" because they remembered that it is in fact your birthday. These are people with perpetually clean underwear, small electronic gizmos that store their appointment times, and extra bundt cake pans to loan out to neighbors. They have clean cars, clean houses, clean shoes, and clean refrigerators. And they always look well-rested.

I am not one of these people.

With this blog I am hoping to explore some ways of improving time management for normal, disorganized individuals (like me!), and especially for harried college students. With all the technology, research, psychology and social support around us, this shouldn't be impossible.

...Right?

But then again...there is another side to time management; the delectible art of wasting time. And I would be completely remiss if I didn't explore that just a little bit, wouldn't I?






Friday, October 22, 2010

Momentum (and its Evil Twin: Break)

Ah, momentum. Easily one of my greatest allies. Or foes, if I let it be.

Case in point: Last week was Fall Break. Was it just me, or was the 'go! go! go!' suddenly turning into 'aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.....breeeeaaaak...' a difficult transition while still trying to stay productive? I mean, did anyone else basically do absolutely nothing until about Wednesday?

I started out with the best intentions: I had about a 6 page list of things I had been trying to get to - but too busy for - from the last month or so (consisting of items like laundry (yikes), dishes (double yikes) and finally getting a haircut (hippie yikes)), but could I even get out of bed the Saturday starting Fall Break? Ok, well, I did get out to raid the fridge and pop in another DVD. (I think I went through half my DVDs and half my fridge that first day.) I had ZERO motivation to move.

Same with Sunday. No matter how much I stared at that giant list of things I really did want to accomplish, pretty much nothing in the world could get me off of the couch. (Well, at least I moved out of bed.)

By about Tuesday I was thinking, 'This is ridiculous! I want to have clean clothes and a non-toxic kitchen. Why can't I get moving?!'


My answer? Momentum. (Tricky little bugger.) I've noticed over the last few years that one of my biggest challenges is starting something. Anything. Whether it's a homework assignment, getting to classes on time, or even just getting up to shower (especially on days when I technically don't have any pressing events I have to get ready for).

But get me going on things? I go and go and go and do and do and do until I stop. And stay stopped. It seems to be all or nothing for me. (Probably not the healthiest of approaches to productivity.) Either I'm riding on momentum, or stuck in the 'break of momentum.'

And Fall Break? I reeeeally stopped. Boom. Finished. Caput. Game over, man. Getting going again, even if it was just to get up and say, "Okay. Really. I have no clean dishes left. It is time to wash one at least," was tantamount to moving mountains.

Of course, maybe exhaustion and decompression had parts in keeping me immobile last week, too. My previous momentum felt very similar to plunging-off-a-cliff-can't-stop-now, and yes, stopping kinda felt like smacking the ravine floor at 300 miles per hour.

Anyone else feel like Wile E. Coyote in those RoadRunner cartoons?
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1 comment:

  1. quirkySJSOctober 25, 2010 at 6:42 PM

    Same here! I sometimes feel like I get distracted and it gets very difficult, if not impossible to start on projects. But if it's something very interesting, I stick to it. Unfortunately, it's usually the case when I receive an "interest burst" in a very narrow topic and I'll run to Wikipedia and do some reading on it. It's nearly impossible to break free from these "bursts of interest".

    I do think momentum works (and fails) in different ways for some people.

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