Falling and falling faster

It has been about a month since I had a consistent amount of sleep. I've been averaging 4-6 hours of sleep a night. I'm beginning to wonder if I should just pull a Brooke and retrain my body to accept six hours of sleep. I'd be only wasting 1/4 of my life sleeping instead of 1/3!

Dangerous Liaisons opens on Friday. The opening got pushed back from Thursday, which gives me more time to futz with details.

My corset is due next Monday. O.O I managed to get it stitched together yesterday. It only took 8 hours!


Rick is coming to see me on Friday! That will be the end of the 8th week away from him. I'm so excited! It's for our 5 year anniversary. O.o Seriously. That's a little scary to think about. I'm planning some fun surprises for him that I think he'll enjoy, like a treasure hunt and a massage! I thought about going paintballing with him but Grant talked me out of it. Phew!

I seriously feel like I might die from exhaustion. I can't seem to keep up with the show, the corset, homework and sleep. It's awful. However, I will be done in 4 weeks. I'll be back in Wyoming where I tend to sleep 8 hours a night and it's very restorative.

It also doesn't help that I've reduced my food consumption to one meal a day. It happened gradually and I sometimes eat two meals, but normally just one. I just don't get hungry very often. I'm too busy.

My new motto: "Am I done yet?!?"

It's getting that time of term...

The turning point of the turn where everything starts to make me think of Rick and I get super lonely.

It is also the point of midterms and shows. The one acts opened on Tuesday and will close tonight. The musical opens on Wednesday and will close next Saturday. Then weekend after is tech for Dangerous Liaisons.

Lately I have been averaging about 4 hours a night of sleep and one meal a day, usually at dinner time.

I'm pretty sure I have lost weight again, which is definitely in the wrong direction.

I can't wait to be done with school.

Meticulousness and Routines

I find that I have a better grasp on my productivity when I am meticulous about my routines throughout the day. This might include getting ready in the morning, cleaning up after myself and eating regularly, as well as doing my homework and other duties.

Keys to maintaining a good routine:

1. A place for everything and everything in its place.
1. Dishes, clothes, papers and beauty products are just some of the things I need to keep an eye on in this category.
2. Good hygiene, quick but efficient.
1. Being productive does not include plucking your eyebrows for 15 minutes every day. 
2. However, it should include a shower and promptly dressing.
3. Consistent meal times, work times and sleep times.
1. A good routine is neither sloppy nor too rigorous. If you spend a balanced amount of time between these three areas, there should be a good deal of time to play, sleep and work in your schedule.
4. Quick, gentle exercise.
1. This should be gentle enough to do every day and not daunting at all. I prefer yoga and Pilates. The idea behind this point is that maintaining your body not only boosts your self-esteem, but also your productivity levels. Who wants to sit on their rump all day after working to getting toned? Not me.
2. Some other ideas might include a quickly paced walk, bike, jog or swim, or light weight lifting for the sake of toning.
5. Good communication. 
1. I threw this one in because if you are struggling with some project or habit, talking to someone about it--either to identify when the struggle exists, or to get outside encouragement--is always helpful. 
2. Personally, I like to brag to Rico about everything I've accomplished in a day because it makes my life seem more fulfilling. Too often I find myself saying that nothing ever happens to me. That outlook is hardly a good one when I am looking for a fulfilling life.

Being meticulous will help to whittle down the time one might spend showering, dinking about during work times or cleaning times. Meticulous dressers are also very sharp. ; )

Winter 2011 Week 3

I feel a countdown coming on! Oh my!

I have 60 days until the end of term, March 18th.

My that doesn't seem like a lot! Just two months.

My To-Do List:

• Build my corset
• Write the history paper for the corset
• Write the process paper for the corset
• Build a power point for the corset
• All due in roughly 42 days
• Gather props for Liaisons
• Due February 19th
• Memorize Songs and Monologues for Gawain
• Due January 20th
• To be performed February 7th
• Write 12 play papers 
• Due March 18th
• Finish the CS class
• Finish the math class
• Finish the properties morgues
• Due March 18th

Oh goodness! So much to do!

Hating your future self

I feel like procrastination is a big problem in the student world.

I am a third year student. I will be a senior starting next term. I have been on the Dean's List for all but two terms (stupid Philosophy), I am super organized and need to be in order to continue my profession. I'm in the Honor's Program and a specialized degree plan, and still I feel like college is kicking my butt, despite my apparent "adeptness" to education.

Why is that?

I am took a class last term called "Trans-formative Experiences" which evaluates the role of experiences in education. It's pretty interesting. One of the things we talked about was how procrastination is part of an adrenaline rush that students use to keep the "education game" interesting.

Some students feel like leaving things to the last minute is the most direct, time-efficient way to get assignments done with. They feel like the pressure is on and they end up producing fantastic papers that if they took real time to write, they would not have gotten such a good grade on. I do see where that is irritating: if you have a lot of time to do an assignment and start early, you could keep revising draft after draft, stressing over the project and tweaking it until it was "just perfect". Then where would you  be? Apparently, many think they would be at a B paper instead of an A paper, which many receive even if they have plugged away at the paper only the night before it was due.

What about you? Where do you stand on procrastination? Do you feel like it is a problem and that you are always racing against the clock to finish something?

Personally, I feel like I relate to something mentioned in that class. I feel like I hate my future self a lot of the time. I leave off projects in favor of sleep, or sometimes I will even invent cleaning and housework that just has to be done before I can start work on that project.

The Weekend Plan

I am home at my apartment this weekend.

The Plan:

• Work on a big Roman Architecture Notebook that is due Monday. 
• Study for Theatre History Midterm.
• Study for Art History Midterm.
• (Did I mention I am taking 3 history classes?)
• Make at least 2 meals for this week.
• Take care of the chores on my chore board, which is only something like the upstairs bathroom and the hard surfaced floors. Haha. 

The trick is that I still want to have a restful weekend.

How I am helping this plan take effect:

• I am trying to gather as much research as I can from home by accessing online databases and requesting books from the library so I just have to pick them up.
• I have all of the supplies I need for the project to take off.
• For studying, I have a pretty basic plan just to make notecards and use those.
• I have spent a bit of extra time cleaning so that I don't get too stressed with the mess that surrounds me. That mess is currently non-existent!

My Reward for fulfilling my plan:

A stress-free week maybe? Maybe I will make something delicious for a treat. XD

New Years Blitz!

Happy New Years everyone!

I was thinking about my goals for the new year. I really don't have new ones from last year. I feel like I have improved and I should continue to improve.

These goals include:
Self:

• Remembering to keep myself healthy by feeding myself and exercising regularly. I also have a hard time remembering to do simple stuff like floss. 
• Solution: I made myself a chart to print out and every time I do what is on the chart I get a sticker! It's a little juvenile, but I love stickers, so this works! I tried a different version of this last year and it worked until about June. It got confusing because it was not on one comprehensive chart.

Time Management:

• My goal is to not get overwhelmed with homework like I was last term. I read about a trick for readings, which is to group all of your readings for a class together into one block of time a week. 
• For example:
• I scheduled Mondays from 9am-11:30am to be my Theatre History reading time 
•  Wednesdays from 9am-11:30am to be my Flashcard update time
• Fridays 9am-11:30am is when I will be working on my thesis. 
• Keep in mind that this sounds like a lot, and it is, since I am overloaded on credits, but I am keeping my afternoons free so far, so that's a nice trade off. 
• I use Google Calendar to keep track of my obligations, classes and homework schedule. 
• I should make a chart for each time I stick to this schedule too! 
• I love charts, can you tell? ...And stickers.

School:

• Staying on top of homework is basically my only goal so far for school. Which should subsequently lead to all As. :)

Home:

• My home goals mostly consist of adhering to the food challenge 
• Keeping our apartment cleaned up.  
• My significant other, Rico, is whipping my messy habits into shape with his uber clean habits and they are rubbing off pretty effectively. Though the place did get pretty hectic around finals last term. 

What about you? What are your New Years Goals?

Juggling

Life right now just seems to be a juggling competition.

I have been trying to pare down my commitments to only the things that I absolutely need. This means that I am not working right now. Which means that although I have help from loans, I still need to budget out things. I have run into some car trouble as well, so already unexpected expenses have come up.

Between homework and rehearsals, time restraints are rather large.

In fact, I just realized I am going in an hour early to finish a homework assignment before class. So I have to go to bed. :(