03 August 2006
Optimist, pessimist AND realist
My Time Management Challenge was devised during my two week vacation and so it was conceived in a totally relaxed state of mind.
Fortunately, I am a generally optimistic person (tho if you get me in a bad patch I will insist I am an utter pessimist) and so far, this time management experience has been mainly good.
The first thing I did was to take cleaning and the commute off the list. The former was a random add-on and the latter is a given, thus unnecessary.
I have managed to attend all classes and all work days despite temptations otherwise. It's difficult to justify a sick day when you work 3 days/week and school...well for once I want to be there so why miss it?
The school work started off un peu shaky but since my paper was due on Tuesday, I managed to keep up with all my readings and write the paper. Good work.
The seven hours/week of writing is what I need to work on. Reading The Greats of American Literature has ramped up my perfectionism and insecurity but realistically I know that the great authors put years of work into their novels and that I need to too. Y'know, if I'm going to be Great.
Time to break out the old manuscript.
***
Two Great Books:
1.
On Monday night, we were thrashed by this crazy thunderstorm that went on for hours. Buzzed from vanilla coke (coke + a shot a vanilla vodka), I couldn't sleep. I went to the living room and picked up "Hello, I'm Special (How Individuality became the new conformity)l" by Hal Niedzviecki. It's an interesting read, esp. the bits concerning how we feel we deserve our time in the spotlight. It made me question my goal to be a writer and I'm going to focus on writing because I enjoy it, rather than because writing as a means for achieving a sort of immortality (leaving something concrete behind). Kinda seems more fulfilling that way.
2.
In honor of my new budget, I hit the library yesterday in search of a Michael Collins novel (no dice) and came out with "A Long Way Down", by Nick Hornby. As I sat by the BBQ last night (too hot to cook indoors), I barely noticed the torrential downpour as I got sucked into the story of four people who meet accidentally at the top of a building on New Years Eve, each planning to commit suicide.
Fortunately, I am a generally optimistic person (tho if you get me in a bad patch I will insist I am an utter pessimist) and so far, this time management experience has been mainly good.
The first thing I did was to take cleaning and the commute off the list. The former was a random add-on and the latter is a given, thus unnecessary.
I have managed to attend all classes and all work days despite temptations otherwise. It's difficult to justify a sick day when you work 3 days/week and school...well for once I want to be there so why miss it?
The school work started off un peu shaky but since my paper was due on Tuesday, I managed to keep up with all my readings and write the paper. Good work.
The seven hours/week of writing is what I need to work on. Reading The Greats of American Literature has ramped up my perfectionism and insecurity but realistically I know that the great authors put years of work into their novels and that I need to too. Y'know, if I'm going to be Great.
Time to break out the old manuscript.
***
Two Great Books:
1.
On Monday night, we were thrashed by this crazy thunderstorm that went on for hours. Buzzed from vanilla coke (coke + a shot a vanilla vodka), I couldn't sleep. I went to the living room and picked up "Hello, I'm Special (How Individuality became the new conformity)l" by Hal Niedzviecki. It's an interesting read, esp. the bits concerning how we feel we deserve our time in the spotlight. It made me question my goal to be a writer and I'm going to focus on writing because I enjoy it, rather than because writing as a means for achieving a sort of immortality (leaving something concrete behind). Kinda seems more fulfilling that way.
2.
In honor of my new budget, I hit the library yesterday in search of a Michael Collins novel (no dice) and came out with "A Long Way Down", by Nick Hornby. As I sat by the BBQ last night (too hot to cook indoors), I barely noticed the torrential downpour as I got sucked into the story of four people who meet accidentally at the top of a building on New Years Eve, each planning to commit suicide.
