Lessons Learned

[nyuanshin]

1. Empirically, I always start a semester well and then deteriorate, so in future semesters the rational strategy is to front-load the work however much I can. A good experiment here would be to just spend the first month getting as far ahead in the material as I'm able.

2. It's of the utmost importance that I spend the first several hours of the

Comments

[smandal]

All excellent tactics. I would add, drop things from the list that aren't working towards your goals on the semester timescale or longer; circumstances change. That's the best way to get those things done! (Presumably, recreational activities won't need to be on the list.)

General comment:

Overall, these practices contribute to "owning" one's future for some set period. Then, assignments, studying, etc. are not burdens, but steps to completion of stated goals. It shifts the mental frame from that of a trial to one of executing a plan of one's own design, which is far more satisfying.

[nyuanshin]

*nods* Exactly.

One way to restate (4) is "buy low, sell high" -- the albatross reduces the hedonic quality of my hours the longer it hangs around, so to maximize value the right time to sell them is sooner rather than later, all else equal. It's a matter of taking my life back into my own hands in a very real sense.

[queueball]

I think I first learned #5 from a Star Trek chief engineer - whether Geordi or Scotty, and whether in a novel or on TV, I don't know. I know it as the Engineer's Rule: always tell the CO it'll take three times as long as it should. I don't always come in under three, and when I don't, I've learned it's a good sign that I shouldn't be engaged in an enterprise that requires frequent performance of that task, which makes it it useful beyond the very worthwhile avoidance of overbooking.