Finding Time

I have a small white dry-erase board I keep at my desk. On Thursdays, I write every assignment coming due from my classes for the next week. This is especially important for the weekend, which, for me, goes from Friday through Monday, as that is when I have the most work to do.

When I wrote out my assignments for this "weekend," I thought, "I will never finish these by Monday." But, because I take this seriously, I knuckled down and started reading/grading assignments. Thursday, I spent most of the night trying to catch up with things students sent me that they should have sent earlier. Friday, I graded a set of freshman essays. Saturday, I read a set of Eng. 226 drafts, then graded a set of reading journals. This morning, Sunday, I posted scores for a quiz, read two sets of blogs and posted those grades, and handled assorted other assignments. I have a set of assignments for a freshman class, portfolios, and a quiz left to grade. I'll tackle the freshmen assignments in a few minutes; I'll save the portfolios and Eng. 215 quiz for tomorrow, which should leave me some time to mow the grass, and take care of household tasks.

As I complete my tasks, I give myself a break. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie; sometimes, I'll go outside and sit for a while and watch the birds. Today, I went out and set up my new composting box--I put in a bottom for it, then shovelled in the compost from the heap in my yard. That wasn't the most relaxing break, but I accomplished something, at least.

Every time I tell myself, "I don't have time," I need to look at my white board and remember how I handle tasks. I have as much time as I make, as long as I plan well.

Springing Forward...

Written on March 7, 2009

I hate daylight savings time.  Let me just get that out of the way.

I do like more daylight in the evenings, but I hate the whole changing the clocks twice a year, especially in my car.  If cars didn't have digital clocks, maybe I'd feel differently about it, but when the time changes, I have to get out the manual and figure out how to set the clock.  I don't like having the wrong time staring at me while I'm driving, so I become obsessive about fixing it.  I'm wishing the car clock had a stem, like a wristwatch does, so I could do this more easily.

The other thing I don't like about DST is that my cats aren't on it.  They'll keep waking me up on their own internal schedule.  Doesn't matter if the clock reads 5:30am; if they want me up, they're going to find a way to get me up.

I'll bet we don't really know what time it is anymore because we've sprung forward and fallen back so much.  Einstein is right; time is relative.  Too bad I can't live on my internal clock; I'd be in perpetual nap time.

*****

I finally finished the assignments hanging over my head (Saturday) and went outside to clear the herb garden.  I love my herb garden.  Fresh herbs make foods more flavorful, and I like not having to pay for them since they are so expensive (even the dried herbs are expensive these days).  Now to get the vegetable garden dug up and planted, which I will do next weekend. 

Teaching summer school online is the only way to go!  With only one class, I can spend more time on my gardens.  Inevitably, of course, I have to work on my fall classes, but not having to drive into the "big" city saves me so much time.

*****

Now to get the front garden cleared out and plant some flowers.  Today is also bread-baking day.  I'm out of bread, and I hate paying the ridiculous prices for that airy stuff that passes for it.  I have a great recipe for French bread that makes four loaves.  It freezes well and goes with anything I cook.

I might be done with schoolwork for the day, but it seems that I've made myself quite a to-do list here.  Better get started!

Always call the busy person...

I'm constantly amazed that, though I don't think I can find one more minute to do one more thing, I can and do "find time" to squeeze one more task into my already task-filled day.

Last night, I read/graded a set of essays, and was finished fairly early. I also read some assignments from my one "small" class (7 people) and thought, "Oh, I have time to work on my paper/someone else's thesis project/knitting/reading." But, then I did the wrong thing. I checked my email and discovered a frantic message from a friend asking me to edit/read her essay that is due Monday.

So, two hours later, I still had time to work on a few other projects, but I didn't get to them as early as I thought I would. I stayed up until nearly 3am this morning, squeezing in a few of the things I wanted to do--work on the one remaining sock of a pair, read some Jane Austen, work on my new online class I want to teach in the fall. I lost track of time, yes. And I woke up, initially, this morning at 7am and forced myself to go back to sleep. I got up around 9:30am and immediately began working. I need to stop this!

In the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, one of the characters, Violet, says that time is the one thing we can't invent more of. She is so right. So I guess what I'm trying to do is fill up the time as much as possible with everything I need/want to do. You know, "make the most of time."

Today, I've already graded Wikis, conducted an online chat, and mopped both the kitchen and the bathroom (long overdue!). Now, I'm going to take a bit of time to work on one of my projects--writing a paper--and then I'll grade a set of essays. I'm drowning in paper, so I need to clean out the stacks and add to the burn/recycle pile. I burn the junk mail, and recycle the rest. But, then again, I may not get to that, which is fine with me. I need to stop working every single minute of the day--smell the roses, you know?

Tomorrow... well, I'll deal with that when I get to it!