thank you for reading.

With less than two weeks before I embark on my summer journey halfway around the world to Sri Lanka , I’ve been giving this blog some serious thought.  I’ve asked all the logistic questions that come to the mind of Type A individuals – like how will I post when I will only have intermittent internet access?  And, how will I charge my laptop without a plug adapter?  If I am going to be honest, though, it’s not the logistics of blogging abroad that seem most troubling to me.  My reason for seriously considering taking a blogging hiatus runs much deeper.

When I started doing yoga, I learned that one of the keys to relaxation and meditation is thinking about one’s breathing.  When you focus on your inhales and exhales, you focus less on the external – less on what is going on around you – and more on your body and how you feel.  Since I am always thinking about how I can apply life lessons to scheduling, I tweaked this idea of refocusing just a bit.  When I am having trouble paying attention, I think about thinking.  When I’m having a bad day, I think about feeling better.  When I’m feeling stressed about getting things done, I think about scheduling.  I bring everything inward, narrowing in on something that relates to what I should be focused on, and block out the unnecessary distractions.  Thinking about scheduling – it’s my anti-procrastination tool.

And, thinking about scheduling (which with three jobs and a full class-load is pretty much all the time) has helped me write this blog.  When I’m stressed, I think about a topic related to scheduling, i.e. how am I going to manage to get all of this stuff done?  I use that topic and those thoughts to formulate a post, and voilà – a blog is born.  This blog, I guess I’ll admit, has been somewhat of a coping mechanism for me.

Thinking about scheduling – it’s what I do.  It’s who I am.  But, what if I didn’t have to schedule?  What if I didn’t have three jobs and a full class load?  What if my friends, who are always hounding me to hang out, were halfway around the world?  Better yet, what if I was?  Would I have to think about scheduling?  Would I have to use this coping mechanism to deal with stress?  And if not, then on what topics would I post?

When I tell people I am going to spend the summer in Sri Lanka, they usually respond by saying they think the experience will be amazing.  “You’ll find yourself over there,” they always say.  My hope is precisely the opposite.  As I embark on my journey I hope not to find myself, but rather to lose myself.  I hope to build a different me – start anew like a phoenix. The only way I know how to do that is to take away all the crutches on which I lean, to separate myself from everything I know, and to deprive myself of all the things to which I might cling.  So the bottom-line would be, then, no television, no pillow, no thinking about scheduling, no blogging.  It’s a crazy idea, I know.  I’m still not even sure it’s a good one.  What I do know is this summer will change me, and that’s all I want.

This blog will stand, nonetheless, as a testament to my crazy work-filled college years.  I may even come back to it when I return to the states – who knows?  For now, though, I hope the two years worth of posts I have accrued will be enough to help you in your own balancing act.

Click here for your double-two minutes of procrastination.

an inspired space

In a recent team meeting at Echoing Green, a non-profit that promotes social entrepreneurship, my boss asked my colleagues and me to think about a social ill that we would like to see remedied, solved, or overcome.  He told us to envision a world without this problem, to describe what that world might look like, and to share this with the team.  I spoke about mass incarceration.  One of my colleagues spoke about inequality in education, another about the oppression of women.  After we had shared what the world might look like without these problems, my boss explained that seeing these ideal worlds brought about is what inspires us to work with Echoing Green.

The purpose of this exercise was simple and profound.  It is so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of a job (or a life, I would argue) and to forget what it is we are striving for.  At Echoing Green the everyday tasks my team and I do can overshadow and draw our minds away from our passion and why it is we were drawn to the organization in the first place.  Thinking about what drives us and about what we are working towards can bring us back to that emboldened and committed state-of-mind.  It can keep us inspired, and it is that inspiration that keeps us productive.

Sure, it’s hard to stay in this state of inspiration, passion, empowerment.  Day-to-day minutia has a way of weighing on it, but there are always ways to keep yourself engaged and thoughtful.  One such way I have found helpful is defining an inspired workspace.  When you’re surrounded by things that inspire you, your workspace becomes a safe place for open-mindedness and free-thinking.  It is then that the monotony of everyday tasks can be overcome.

My desk at Echoing Green.

At my desk at Echoing Green I am surrounded by my favorite books (like Prudence Carter’s Keein’ It Real), pictures of my favorite places (like the South Bronx), and notes/quotations from people I admire.  When my mind wanders for a minute as I read emails or when I need a quick two-minute break from staring at an excel spreadsheet, my eyes focus in on these things.  I am brought back to a state of awareness, awareness of what I am working for and towards.  So after our team exercise I added a new knickknack to my desk – a small poster about incarceration in the United States given to me by a close friend.  Now when I need to refocus and get inspired, I just look up and read, “Incarceration Nation.”

This week think about your workspace, whether it is a workspace in an office or just your desk at home.  How can you make this space yours?  How can you make it a space that screams inspiration, that gives off passion, that empowers you and keeps you focused?  This kind of project is not only one that will make you more productive, but it is a lot of fun, too.

Click here for your two minutes of procrastination.

strategic planning

Most of us have goals.  We have an idea of what we would like our futures to look like.  It’s human nature, at least I believe it is, to visualize where it is we hope to end up.  What is not so innate, however, is our ability to get to those destinations.  Sometimes the paths to our goals are clear.  Most of the time, however, there is nothing obvious about the process.  And if you’re like me, hoping to achieve things few others have attempted, the path can be even harder to envision.

I’ve posted here before a few times about backwards scheduling – the process of setting a deadline and planning how to finish a project by working backwards from it.  This is the technique that has worked best for me when it comes to class papers and projects at work.  It’s also a great technique for planning how to go about attacking a goal.  Start with the end and work backwards.

I was recently able to take part in a strategic planning brainstorm session at the non-profit where I work part-time, Echoing Green.  I presume this kind of session is common to anyone running a non-profit, or for-profit for that matter.  It goes like this:  First, define the vision – the future one would like to see.  Then, define the mission – what one does in general terms that brings about this future.  From here get more specific by explaining a theory of change.  This is basically a more specific version of one’s mission and how this mission brings him or her to the vision.  There can be several more specific iterations of the theory of change.  The idea is to move from a grand idea to progressively smaller and more narrow actions until you defines the things you do on a day-to-day basis that bring about the vision.

Sure, this sort of strategic planning is designed for businesses, but why limit it to such?  Why not use this very effective method to get to achieve the vision you have of your own future.  Where do you see yourself in five years?  How do you plan on getting there?  What will you do to facilitate this?  Now, keep going.  Keep asking yourself more specific questions until you can answer: what do you do today to start this process?

This week take some time out of your busy schedule to really think about how you are moving toward your goals.  Think about the steps it will take to get there.  Think about the roadblocks in the way and how to overcome them.  And think about the things you do day-to-day and how they factor into the bigger picture.  Be strategic now, and you will get to where you want to go later.

Click here for your – okay it’s about 5 – minutes of procrastination.

if i had more time…

I spent part of my weekend last week at my bakery on Staten Island serving up bread and pastries and cookies as I do two to three times a month.  As I struggled to chat with one of my friends there – a baker I have known for nearly 5 years now – I thought to myself, “I really need to brush up on my Spanish.”  This is a thought I have probably one a week.  And, it’s always followed by another thought… “If I had more time, I’d speak it fluently by now.”

When you’re busy this second thought is a common occurrence.  Variations of it plague my mind whenever I am presented with something I’d love to do, but for which I just don’t have any time.  They go a little something like this: “If I had more time…

• “… I’d make pretty scrapbooks.”
• “… I’d get caught up on How I Met Your Mother.” 
• “… I’d spend some quality time with my boyfriend.” 
• “… I wouldn’t be so tired all the time.” 
• “… I’d walk instead of taking the train.”

Yes, we all have things we’d like to do if we had more time, but what do you do when this list gets ridiculously long?  What do you do when at least once a day you start a thought off with, “If I had more time…”?

My answer here is I don’t know.  What I do know is what doesn’t work - or perhaps what doesn’t work well.  I’ve tried writing these things down – that only created documentation of all the things for which I do not have time.  Then, I tried dedicating one hour a day to working on one of these items.  When that became too stressful (and impossible with my schedule), I worked on fitting in one hour a week.  And when that was still too stressful, I gave up.  At the moment I get along by following this kind of thought with, “When I graduate, and I’m not so busy I’ll make time.”  I know it’s just wishful thinking.

This week I really want to hear from all of you.  What do you do when you want to do something, but can’t find the time?  Is this a problem you face?  Is it one you’re working on?  Is it one you’ve solved?  Please, share your own thoughts and experiences below.  And, click here for your two minutes of procrastination.

it’s not about scheduling

When I signed on to my WordPress account tonight, I was initially shocked to see a sudden surge in the number of people who viewed my blog since January 1st.  Then, the thought occurred to me that I shouldn’t attribute those readers to my skills as a blogger.  They are more likely a function of New Years resolutions to get organized.

If you are expecting a post on how to get organized for 2012, I’m sorry but I will have to disappoint.  Perhaps, my post from January 1st, 2011 might help you (check it out by clicking here).  Or, you could click here to see all my posts on new scheduling techniques.  Nope, this post will not address how to keep a day planner (but check that out by clicking here) or how to organize a messy cork board (but here’s a post that will).  This one is going to go in a bit of a different direction.

Due in large part to some soul-searching and critical evaluation I have been doing of late, my posts (I know) have been less about scheduling techniques and more about stress management.  Sure these are not the same thing, but they are certainly related.  The more balls you have to juggle, the more anxiety you will have about dropping one.  Keeping with this new theme, my resolution this year is to better deal with my stress.  I want to maintain all my responsibilities (and my crazy schedule), while learning to enjoy life instead of constantly feeling anxious about it.

Aer go, this post is the first in my quest to stress less.  How do we manage all our responsibilities, while still finding time to do the things that make us happy.  And, how do we deal with the anxiety of making sure everything gets done on time?  These are the questions I am asking myself now, and I plan to share my journey through posts here. 

Think about it.  Wouldn’t it be a terrible thing to turn around twenty years from now with regrets, thinking we were too busy to enjoy what is supposed to be the greatest time of our lives?  A schedule is just our way of organizing the things we have to do so that we have time for the things we want to do.  Those things we want to do are the ones that really matter.  In the end, life isn’t about scheduling.  It should be about enjoying.

So, why not embark with me on a journey to happiness through better time management, stress management, and life management skills?  I’m sure we will visit new scheduling techniques along the way.  I promise we will visit ways to deal with anxiety.  And, I hope we will find a way to enjoy our busy lives.

 Click here for your two minutes of procrastination.

overworked = oversleeping

My six days in California were amazing.  Sure, I was working most of it, but I made some time for site-seeing also.  Trying to make the most of my time there, however, meant getting very little down time and sleep.  For seven days (the six days of my trip and one day prior when I was preparing to depart), my schedule was packed, and it was nothing but go go go. 

On Sunday I worked for most of the day, spent the remainder of it packing and hitting all of the cliché San Francisco tourist spots, and then hopped on the red-eye at 10:30 PM.  Needless to say, I passed out immediately, and before I knew it the five and a half hour flight was ending.  I foolishly thought, as we got off the plane, that those five hours would be enough to sustain me for the rest of the day.  I planned on catching up on sleep over the Thanksgiving break, because I did not have time to do so right away with school work, work work, and a tone of laundry to catch up on.  But then, I got back to my apartment and saw my bed.  It looked so inviting and my feet hurt so badly from being on them for seven days straight.  I thought, “Well, I do have forty-five minutes to spare…”  So at 8 AM I crawled into bed without unpacking a single thing and still in my clothes from the night before.  And at 2:45 PM I woke, having slept a whole six hours longer than I intended.  I had slept through two alarms, the time I allotted myself to do laundry, four hours of work I had committed myself to, and about an hour or so of time to catch up on school work.

I have never overslept before.  I make sure to set two alarms just to ensure that I will not.  What I took away from my California trip, however, is that I rush too much.  I often go from one thing to the next without being present and without taking anything in.  I can be too focused on getting things done that I sometimes disregard what’s best for myself and my health.  So while I was disappointed that I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to yesterday, I ultimately shrugged it off, rescheduled my tasks, and thought, “Wow, I really needed that sleep.”

The take away this week is that being busy is okay.  Working hard is okay.  Being dedicated is okay.  But one’s health and well-being should always be a priority.  You cannot do the work you need to do to the best of your ability if you are sleep deprived, worn out, or in the wrong state-of-mind.  This week spend your two minutes of procrastination doing something relaxing, and remember to always put your health before getting things done.

the real to do list

Every morning I get up, check my day planner, look over my to do list, and get ready for another busy day.  Then, every night I look over that same planner and to do list to make sure I did everything that needed to be done, that I didn’t forget anything, and that I made progress.  And even though I usually do, every night I go to bed thinking about what has to be done tomorrow.

There’s nothing wrong with being busy, at least not in my mind.  But as I have posted before, being busy also sets you up for developing blinders (click here to read that post).  When you run from one thing to another, you forget about the big picture and where your life is going.  Sure, things get done, but the destination toward which you are working becomes unclear.  You may wake up one day and realize your goals have changed.

I’ve also posted before about having a fun list, something that ensures that you don’t focus solely on work or school.  Fun lists, or want-to-do lists, can also help you remember all the cool things you have had to push-off because of other responsibilities.  When you have an open afternoon or weekend, they are a great resource for ideas.

But, tonight I am not posting about any old fun list.  Tonight’s post is about the ultimate fun list – a bucket list.  A bucket list is a list of all the things a person wants to do before he or she dies (or kicks the bucket, so to speak). The purpose of this sort of list is to prevent the same blinders busy people are most prone to from developing.  Who wants to realize on their death-bed that there were a million things he or she wishes he or she could have done, but will never get to do?

For the longest time the first item on my bucket list was to dip my toes into the Pacific Ocean, and today I am posting my blog from San Francisco.  Had I not critically thought about all the things I want to do before I die, I might never have had this experience.  So, this week take some time out of your busy day to think about starting your own bucket list.  You don’t have to come up with one in a single afternoon, but begin the process of creating one.  Ensure that you leave nothing on the table in this life.  Click here for your two minutes of procrastination... and don’t try any of the stuff in this video yourself!

riding the waves

Every week is different.  While this statement is probably true any way you slice it, it is particularly true in the realm of scheduling.  It’s just the nature of life that important deadlines and events cluster together.  One week you will be so busy that your work cuts into your sleep time, and other weeks you’ll be so bored you resort to trolling Facebook to fill your free time.  That’s just the way it is.

I blogged last week about how this week was going to be particularly busy for me, and it is.  I have so many deadlines to meet and projects to tackle, my planner cannot accommodate all of them.  I literally had to stick post-its into it to be able to fit all of my tasks (ridiculous, I know).  With all of those deadlines comes stress and sleep-deprivation, as well.  Free time is non-existent and crunch time is an understatement.  But, I am smiling through it.

Yes, I am a believer that thinking positively leads to better outcomes, but that is not why I am smiling.  My optimism comes from the fact that after this week, my schedule is practically empty for nearly a month.  I have only one deadline from next week through December!  I’ll have all the time in the world (okay, maybe not all the time) to study, read (leisurely, that excites me so much!), work on the applications I have been putting off, hang with friends I haven’t seen in months, and sleep.  It’s going to be so wonderful.

Busyness and busy schedules are like body surfing in the ocean.  Sometimes there is a cluster of really rough waves, but they are typically followed by a lull where you can rest.  That lull is a great time to relax and regroup, but you should (and in saying this, I remind myself that I, too, should) use this time to recuperate and prepare for the next rush of waves – I mean deadlines and projects.

This week push through your midterms and mid-semester papers/assignments with optimism, because the busyness will not last forever.  Plan a mental health day for after your busy week, take the time to meditate or reflect, and make yourself a nice to do list so that you can have a productive lull. 

Click here for your two minutes of procrastination.  And, click here for more information on your rights when it comes to the stop and frisk policy.

bigger picture

I cannot even begin to count how many times in the past year I have looked around – in the midst of a chaotically busy day – and thought to myself, “What am I doing here?”  One of the worst things that could happent to busy people, busy students in particular, is to get caught up in what we are doing and forget to consider the big picture.  So focused on studying for finals, so intent on going to work and on finishing projects, we skate through with blinders on.  The real danger in this crucial part of our lives, when our eyes are being opened to so many new and different things, occurs when we are too busy to reevaluate our goals and the paths we plan to take to achieve them.  Too many students turn around after four years and think, “Why did I get my degree in this?  Do I really want a career in this field?”  I am one of these students.

With just a year left before I will be getting my BA in forensic psychology from John Jay I am nearly 100% certain I do not want to be a psychologist.  The trouble is I am just one class away from completing the course requirements for my major.  My answer to this problem has been to diversify my studies by picking up two minors (history and philosophy), and to spend this next year searching for what career path I would like to pursue.  It is a really amazing feeling, when you feel free to explore and see what is out there.  I have to say I am enjoying the search entirely.

Why the blog post, then?  Well honestly, I feel I have fallen victim to the myth that you have to know what you want to do for the rest of your life before you even start college.  All of my friends were picking majors, going into specialized programs, deciding what and where they would be in twenty years.  So, I made a plan too.  And, I liked my plan.  I still do, but the truth is I have a million interests that I would like explore before I settle on any one thing.

This realization – that I have options and that I should consider them seriously – came to me over the winter break, and I have written before about it here.  I feel that such an epiphany could have and should have come sooner, however.  I truly believe it would have, had I not been so busy in my first three years at John Jay.  I ran from class to school to volunteering to meetings to class to homework and friends.  I never had time to think about what I wanted to do once I graduated, so I simply did not think about it at all.  Now I am too invested in a major I have little interest in to change it.

When I started writing this blog, I did not consider myself an expert in scheduling.  I thought that much of what I wrote here would be about mistakes I have made from which others could hopefully learn.  This is certainly one of those cases.  My advice to all students is to make time every month, every week even, to seriously and whole-heartedly question everything you know and think you want.  Get experience in the field in which you think you would like to have a career before you commit to it fully.  Be open to other possibilities and never turn down opportunities because they don’t seem to be related to what you think you want.  If there is one thing I would change about my time at John Jay, it would be the mindset that I had for the first three years.  I was very close-minded.  I was too narrowly focused.  I never considered opportunities that would expand my knowledge, because they did not fit into what I thought I wanted to do.  I deeply regret that.

This summer reevaluate your goals.  Think long and hard about what you want to do in the future, then label your goals as tentative.  Things always change with time.  The MaryBeth from five years ago would be confused by the me now, but that’s the fun of growing up and maturing.  Do not let your busy schedule prevent you from seeing the bigger picture.  Always take time to critically look at where it is you are moving, lest you end up somewhere you do not want to be.  Click here for your two minutes of procrastination.

re-cognition

Since taking an anthropology class last semester in which I learned about the development of language and the societal effects of linguistic, I have  become fascinated with etymology – that is the study of the meaning of words.  What is the process by which we ascribe meaning to a word?  What are the processes by which we come to understand the meanings of words?  Linguistics is made even more interesting when one considers the development of semantics, of slang, and of connotation.  In short I have recently found myself pondering how words come to mean what they do and what this process can tell us about human nature.

The word cognition refers to the scientific the processes of the mind, and specifically how humans perceive, remember, learn, and think about information.  The prefix re- is a Latin for “again” and implies repetition.  It follows, then I think, that the term recognition would mean to perceive again our world or to reevaluate our situation.  The term, of course, does not mean this, but refers rather a state of being recognized, identified, or realized.  I’m sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for this discrepancy in our language, but to me the explanation is not as important as what this difference in meaning implies.

As human beings, we simply do not like to reevaluate, to re-perceive, to rethink our positions and our points of view.  It is just our nature to want to ascribe to one belief or opinion and reject the existence of other options.  It comforts us not to have to imagine the other side of an argument, because in thinking only of our opinion we can deny the legitimacy of the other side.

I imagine by now you are wondering what in the world all of this has to do with scheduling.  I have been realizing lately that much of the outcome of the work I do has a lot to do with my motivation and my attitude toward it.  If you are committed and excited about something, the results are usually positive or at the very least not negative.  When you approach a task with loathing and detachment, however, you handicap your ability to be productive and effective from the get go.  Similarly, I have found, when you approach something with a good attitude (one might say a positive perception or a good cognitive state) your peers and elders are very likely to take notice (one might say recognize) your effort and your results.

My internship this summer is at a really amazing organization called the Bronx Defenders, an organization that provides legal aid to those who cannot afford an attorney in the Bronx (and one, as you may have realized, I repeatedly blog about).  As a student at John Jay, I am passionate about criminal justice.  As an employee of Echoing Green, I am engaged in the fight for social change and reform.  The Bronx Defenders, I feel, combines my two loves in an eloquent way.  My perception of the work I am doing, thus, is a very positive one; my outlook is optimistic.  What I have found is that people take notice of this.  Just today, a co-worker commented on how I always show up early and work late.  He said he noticed this, not simply because he saw me in the office at these times, but because he recognized the passion with which I work even before and after I am officially on the clock. 

So, perhaps, cognition (your perception and outlook on a given task) does have something to do with the recognition you receive.  This week it might be worth your time to reevaluate your outlook, how you see the tasks ahead of you, and the attitude with which you approach them.  If you are not feeling passionate about your major, maybe you should change it.  If you are not feeling engaged at work, maybe you should look for a new job.  The only way you are going to stay on track and get ahead when you have a million responsibilities is if you are invested in those responsibilities.  My point this week in a nutshell is this: if you are not passionate about what you are doing, maybe it is time to look activities.  Click here for your two minutes of procrastination.