Just blowin' time at work...
It might be that those of you who lived in the academic spheres for so long have no problem weeding out information sources and finding the time to finish your assignments. But there are those of us- artisans, non academics… people who generally despise school- who have some problems when faced with the reality of School work vs. Everything else.
What I have come to learn over my years of studies, mixed with real life job and studio work, is that the key to remaining happy- and sane- is by balancing the work load fairly- giving the self and the school fair time to both invest in development, and time away for rest. Overworking at any aspect will weigh on your conscious, and just make the task at hand harder to bear.
Mind you, I`m not a flimsy student. I’ve been an honour student since the days of yore, and my natural competitiveness, Jewish guilt, and perfectionist teeth bearing smart ass attitude don’t allow for failure. That would hurt me on a fundamental level. :)
So have piece of mind when I say, relax. Taking some of this advice won’t fail you, corrupt you, or make you an immediate drop-out-on-life.
I used to be the type that would get a 2 week head start on an assignment, and re-edit, re-fix, and re-do the entire bloody thing over and over with the fear that if I didn’t do it 2 weeks ahead of time, I was doomed to run into some kind of obstacle that would prevent me from actually getting done. Also, getting it done 2 weeks early meant being able to do fun things sooner.
Reality, however, was that the extra work and effort- while not gone unnoticed- was excessive, and there was ALWAYS reason, another project, or other obligations that had to be done early as well- leaving me just jumping form one assignment to another endlessly without actually having `down time``. Instead of doing a project early, investing a good time into research, presentation and the like- I would spend three or four times ad much time, re-reading, re-editing, reworking concept merely because I had TOO much time. Sometimes, the best thing for any project is the deadline that just says `Stop. You don’t have time to do more.``.
So I learned how to partial-procrastinate.
Partial procrastination is just a better time-management way for me to get things done. I WILL start early- insanely early- but rather than invest endless time and effort non-stop into the project, I will do some work sporadically. And while I map out what gets done when- I specifically leave a fair amount of work- the touch ups, citations and the like- for the night before. That way, I can work on my project for as long as it needs to to get done right, but I don’t leave extra time for me to decide I want to re-do it, or to change the fundamental context of the literature. It’s managing myself to realize that just because I haven’t gone overboard, doesn’t mean I didn’t do it right. And leaving myself some free time to pursue other non-academic things- like Aikido, wood carving, crafts, cultural studies and the like- I don’t exhaust myself into a state of train-wreck-fireball-explosion-of-inferno.
It also helps to prioritize. I love my breadth courses (electives), but reality is; they are there to fill a credit load at a university course. Investing 40+ weekly hours in that material when my film is rusting away on the way side isn’t a good idea. I’m here to get a BAAA, but fundamentally, I`m here to train- or get the certificate to prove I can and do have the knowledge in- the animation business. Weather or not my paper on `Colonialism and spirituality in Native literature gets a B+ or an A is going to make very little difference in the big picture- my portfolio is doing the talking for me.
And it boils down to just that. Priorities. And realizing that it matters very little in the long run if I had the overdone paper when I’m a nervous wreck.
Why am I writing this now?
Because I have a paper due this Tuesday, and I have finished the actually content minus the citations and MLA formatted page. I`m going to be leaving that for Monday night. I’m just blowing time at work so that I can get home and do an illustration I am hoping to hand in by midnight. And I’m very sure that my paper grade would be the same weather or not I finished it now, of the day after tomorrow.
What I have come to learn over my years of studies, mixed with real life job and studio work, is that the key to remaining happy- and sane- is by balancing the work load fairly- giving the self and the school fair time to both invest in development, and time away for rest. Overworking at any aspect will weigh on your conscious, and just make the task at hand harder to bear.
Mind you, I`m not a flimsy student. I’ve been an honour student since the days of yore, and my natural competitiveness, Jewish guilt, and perfectionist teeth bearing smart ass attitude don’t allow for failure. That would hurt me on a fundamental level. :)
So have piece of mind when I say, relax. Taking some of this advice won’t fail you, corrupt you, or make you an immediate drop-out-on-life.
I used to be the type that would get a 2 week head start on an assignment, and re-edit, re-fix, and re-do the entire bloody thing over and over with the fear that if I didn’t do it 2 weeks ahead of time, I was doomed to run into some kind of obstacle that would prevent me from actually getting done. Also, getting it done 2 weeks early meant being able to do fun things sooner.
Reality, however, was that the extra work and effort- while not gone unnoticed- was excessive, and there was ALWAYS reason, another project, or other obligations that had to be done early as well- leaving me just jumping form one assignment to another endlessly without actually having `down time``. Instead of doing a project early, investing a good time into research, presentation and the like- I would spend three or four times ad much time, re-reading, re-editing, reworking concept merely because I had TOO much time. Sometimes, the best thing for any project is the deadline that just says `Stop. You don’t have time to do more.``.
So I learned how to partial-procrastinate.
Partial procrastination is just a better time-management way for me to get things done. I WILL start early- insanely early- but rather than invest endless time and effort non-stop into the project, I will do some work sporadically. And while I map out what gets done when- I specifically leave a fair amount of work- the touch ups, citations and the like- for the night before. That way, I can work on my project for as long as it needs to to get done right, but I don’t leave extra time for me to decide I want to re-do it, or to change the fundamental context of the literature. It’s managing myself to realize that just because I haven’t gone overboard, doesn’t mean I didn’t do it right. And leaving myself some free time to pursue other non-academic things- like Aikido, wood carving, crafts, cultural studies and the like- I don’t exhaust myself into a state of train-wreck-fireball-explosion-of-inferno.
It also helps to prioritize. I love my breadth courses (electives), but reality is; they are there to fill a credit load at a university course. Investing 40+ weekly hours in that material when my film is rusting away on the way side isn’t a good idea. I’m here to get a BAAA, but fundamentally, I`m here to train- or get the certificate to prove I can and do have the knowledge in- the animation business. Weather or not my paper on `Colonialism and spirituality in Native literature gets a B+ or an A is going to make very little difference in the big picture- my portfolio is doing the talking for me.
And it boils down to just that. Priorities. And realizing that it matters very little in the long run if I had the overdone paper when I’m a nervous wreck.
Why am I writing this now?
Because I have a paper due this Tuesday, and I have finished the actually content minus the citations and MLA formatted page. I`m going to be leaving that for Monday night. I’m just blowing time at work so that I can get home and do an illustration I am hoping to hand in by midnight. And I’m very sure that my paper grade would be the same weather or not I finished it now, of the day after tomorrow.