Work/Life Balance

[chatnoire]

I work 40+ hours a week, I’m taking 6 credits (one is a seminar, one is a studio) - I already get up at 5:30 in the morning, and I cut off all my hair so it takes less time to get ready. I leave the house at 7. That means I have 45 minutes to spend on work in the morning. I get home at 9 on M, T, W, and by that time, I’m too exhausted to sit

Comments

reading short cuts

[lolacat]

I'm constantly working on achieving this balance. Working and being in grad school is hard.

Instead of doing all of the reading, you need to develop some short cuts. Read the intro and conclusions of articles and books, and maybe a single chapter in the middle. Look up book reviews of books, and get a good basic "theory for dummies" type thing (I know it seems like cheating, but you don't need to read Adorno to understand Adorno... in fact, you might get more out of it if you know beforehand what he's actually SAYING). I'm sure some will disagree with me, but this is how I get through my classes. Most of our grades in seminars are based on papers, right? I do what I need to understand the reading, but I know that what matter is applying readings to my writing. I'd rather save my energy for that.

Re: reading short cuts

[ecila_etc]

I agree that "strategic reading" is useful. Knowing about people such as Adorno is sometimes more useful than reading the primary texts - you need to understand the context these great works were written in, as well as the context to why they've become so celebrated. Plus they often get changed - Foucaultian isn't quite Foucault... and it means different things in different areas of the social sciences.

But I also agree with the points below about maybe needing to cut back. My first year doing my PhD I took on so much stuff (two jobs outside campus, plus teaching, plus taking courses at two colleges, plus starting research...) I ended up getting ill and not taking time off to recover,. Two years on I'm still dealing with health issues from that, despite getting funding and so able to go fulltime with my PhD.

Don't kill yourself for grad school. It's no worth it. Talk to your supervisor about it, and see if they can support you decreasing your work load. They might also have tips on how to deal with it in the short term.

Re: reading short cuts

[mochi_tsuki]

This method works a bit better if you also read a book review or two and skim the first and last paragraph of each chapter. That way you can talk about what topics the book covers and how the argument is put together as well as having some insight into how it fits into the literature. I had a professor who called it "mining the text"; he argued that a qualified academic should be able to know as much as they needed to about any scholarly text in an hour - I still can't do it that quickly, but it does cut down on studying time significantly.

[rabswom]

I hate to say this, but have you considered that perhaps you've just taken on more than you can handle?

I take twice the number of credits that I'm supposed to take in my program and I'm still not living like that.

[chatnoire]

Ha, yeah...I'd considered that....briefly. But then I decided that I just need to do this, and figure out a way to make it work. There's no going back, so tips would be awesome. ;)

BTW - I have adored your icon from afar for months and months now.

[rabswom]

Thank you -- the icon was made for me by a friend of mine. I requested an "Islamic cat" and this was the result. :)

I know that you're not getting the kind of responses that you hoped for in here. People are telling you to cut down rather than giving strategies for getting more work done. But I just don't see how you're not doing all that you can do. Do you have to take both classes?

[chatnoire]

Yes, I have to take both. It isn't as bad as it sounds...on a normal basis I can manage - this has been an insanely busy month though, and I'm coming up to a lull where I can implement strategies to cope with it the next time I get busy...

[kellyfaboo]

I hear ya! Basically the household is put on hold. If I have clean clothes, I figure I'm a winner. Also, I find that expecting myself to work on coursework after getting home from work doesn't really work. Though, I can occasionally be so pumped up from my after-work classes that I can bust out some serious writing.

Lunch hour reading isn't as profitable as I would hope, so I've been using my lunch hours to unwind a bit because the more you push, the more you can fall behind.

And my friends know that they a) need to take the initiative to keep in touch and b) if they invite me to things I need to plan ahead.

However, you might have to look at your life and ask yourself, is there something here I can afford to loose, before you loose your mind.

[pghbekka]

This is exactly where I'm at. Full time work, and two courses is the most I can do. We manage to stay one pair of underwear ahead of total disaster, and have yet to lose the sink or bathroom to mold. However, the vaccuum is a sort of relic at the end of the hall...

[ufo8mykat]

This is the first post in this community with which I have really identified. I work until I am sick, keep working, and don't stop until I have a breakdown.

The best advice I ever got was, "Do B+ work and see how it turns out."

If you can't ace everything, rebalance so that you can do B work, but still get it all done. There's a sting of mediocrity, but don't fall prey to it; you'll be better off overall.

[bunnyhug]

If you are going to push yourself that hard, what's the point of doing it all to get Bs?

[ufo8mykat]

You don't have to be the best, just your best. You don't have to be the best at everything to get something out of your hard work. And sometimes, when you allow yourself a little give and take, you can surprise yourself with how much better you are doing. Often, you will end up with As anyway.

[delenda_est]

I would agree with this, because I think a lot of grad students are big overachievers. I used to feel tons and tons of pressure to read everything very thoroughly, because if it's assigned, I have to do it, right? Cutting yourself some slack and letting yourself skim some stuff or cut corners is really the only way to maintain sanity.

[princessdiablo]

Wait, hang on. You are in two grad programs and working full time?

I'm, um, not surprised you can't keep up. And - without knowing anything about anything here - skeptical about the quality you'd be able to produce, or the quality of the programs you are in if such is even possible.

Either way, I tip my hat to you. That's really impressive.

[chatnoire]

Well, to be fair, they run on different schedules, one's a fall/spring program, one is summer only (and while I am enrolled in both, it's the reading for the second one that worries me)

I'm also coming off a super busy month, and hoping that I can get organized (no plans this weekend! Yay!) - so I'm hoping to put in a bit of organization before things get chaotic again....

And I have to work full time - only because my job pays for the tuition.