Keeping Your Priorities in Order
Happy Monday! After a fun-filled Saturday spent with friends and family, Sunday was my day for catching up/getting ahead of the work that’s due this week. While I love my relaxation days and doing the things I want to do, as an adult and a PhD student, I must budget my time wisely. These days, I don’t have anyone (except my parents and husband and sometimes my advisor) keeping me in line and on task. I have to rely on myself to turn things in on time and even get ahead! It can certainly be overwhelming, but I have my ways on getting it done:
Lists. So many lists. I make lists on lists on lists. Some days, I make them on my phone and others on Post-Its. I write down one task and then break it down into smaller tasks. I make stickies on my laptop with long-term goals and short-term goals (OTs: IYKYK). It gives me an immense feeling of pride when I get to cross items off my list. It’s that feeling that keeps me going some days!
Calendars. This kind of falls in line with lists. I have multiple calendars: a Google calendar that’s shared with my calendar; a Teams calendar that I share with my collegiate colleagues (including my parents!); a paper calendar in the kitchen; a personal phone calendar; and two white board calendars, one monthly and one weekly. Plus, a plain white board for general reminders on top of that! Perhaps one calendar would feel less scattered, but it would also be overwhelming to my eyes! I like calendars — like lists, they help me feel organized, and when I’m organized, I feel relaxed.
Schedules. This one is kind of new to me. When I was working on my BS and MS, I was used to having in-person classes all day, four days a week. My life was very structured. Working on my PhD is different: post-COVID, a good number of classes are still online, so there’s that. I’m doing a lot of self-directed studying through independent studies, research assistantship, and co-teaching, as well. To stay on top of these responsibilities, I set up a schedule where I do my online studies on a certain day, at a certain time. It helps keep me from leaving everything until the last minute!
Fun. Yes, being an adult and being a mom and being a student means a lot of responsibility. It also means it’s extremely easy to put your physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being low on the list of priorities. That’s not a smart or safe idea — doing that can just lead to burn out. I love exercise, so I do Orangetheory classes four to six times a week. Every six to eight weeks, I get my hair, nails, eyelashes, and eyebrows done. Add in coffee runs, trips to Target, long drives listening to podcasts along with the occasional facial and massage. Oh, and date nights with my husband, dinners with extended family and visits with friends. That still doesn’t include the everyday things I sometimes take for granted: walks around the block with Baer and trips to the dog park with Mimi. There are many forms of selfcare, and everyone has unique needs. You need to make sure that you make time for yourself!
In my life, there are a lot of irons in the fire (is that a saying?), and I’m the only one in charge of making sure none of them burn. While it can feel overwhelming a significant amount of the time, I’ve learned the methods that best allow me to keep up with all areas of my (very multi-faceted) life. I’m curious: do you follow any of these organization ideas? Let me know what works best for you!