Sunday, January 16, 2011
Toward a New Sense of Balance
Happy 2011, ladies and gents!
Each January, like many people, I compile a list of resolutions for the coming year. I'm not sure how many I have actually been successful in keeping beyond mid-March. Either my goals are too ambitious (e.g. "I will go running every day."), there do not seem to be enough hours in the day (e.g. "I will learn a new language.") or my willpower needs to be strengthened before I have any hope of achieving them (e.g. "I will only surf the web X hours a day.") And so my resolutions, confronted with the harsh realities of school and work, which are, after all, the same thing when you are a graduate student, fell by the wayside. I remained, as most of us do, a creature of fixed habits.
All of which begs the question of whether these lists really have any value, especially since, what is shaping up to be the most compelling New Year's resolution in recent memory emerged through complete happenstance. Through a pair of independently scheduled events, last Sunday, I found myself continuously occupied with non-dissertation related activities for the entirety of what would have been a typical, work-filled day. Whether teleconferencing with high school friends or hanging out with grad school folks, I was able to let go of my work for a little while and just have fun. hile I had the chance to do that recently while visiting my folks back home, I realized at that point that perhaps this did not have to be a one time thing.
Which is why I have decided to try an experiment. For the month of January, I will be taking one day a week off from dissertation writing. Or researching. Or e-mailing. Or anything else related to graduate school work. My old mantra that "The work comes first." still holds true, but the work will still be there in the morning and in the meanwhile, this will give my tightly wound little brain a chance to decompress and hopefully permit me the opportunity to follow up on other resolutions. Already today I have cleaned my apartment and gone running, obtained ingredients for a nice healthy meal, and called my parents. And right now, I'm in the midst of fulfilling another perennial goal: blogging more!
This is not time to just sit around. This is time to actively have fun and de-stress. Even if my work my suffer in the short run, in the long run I think I'll be happier for it.
Happy 2011, ladies and gents!
Each January, like many people, I compile a list of resolutions for the coming year. I'm not sure how many I have actually been successful in keeping beyond mid-March. Either my goals are too ambitious (e.g. "I will go running every day."), there do not seem to be enough hours in the day (e.g. "I will learn a new language.") or my willpower needs to be strengthened before I have any hope of achieving them (e.g. "I will only surf the web X hours a day.") And so my resolutions, confronted with the harsh realities of school and work, which are, after all, the same thing when you are a graduate student, fell by the wayside. I remained, as most of us do, a creature of fixed habits.
All of which begs the question of whether these lists really have any value, especially since, what is shaping up to be the most compelling New Year's resolution in recent memory emerged through complete happenstance. Through a pair of independently scheduled events, last Sunday, I found myself continuously occupied with non-dissertation related activities for the entirety of what would have been a typical, work-filled day. Whether teleconferencing with high school friends or hanging out with grad school folks, I was able to let go of my work for a little while and just have fun. hile I had the chance to do that recently while visiting my folks back home, I realized at that point that perhaps this did not have to be a one time thing.
Which is why I have decided to try an experiment. For the month of January, I will be taking one day a week off from dissertation writing. Or researching. Or e-mailing. Or anything else related to graduate school work. My old mantra that "The work comes first." still holds true, but the work will still be there in the morning and in the meanwhile, this will give my tightly wound little brain a chance to decompress and hopefully permit me the opportunity to follow up on other resolutions. Already today I have cleaned my apartment and gone running, obtained ingredients for a nice healthy meal, and called my parents. And right now, I'm in the midst of fulfilling another perennial goal: blogging more!
This is not time to just sit around. This is time to actively have fun and de-stress. Even if my work my suffer in the short run, in the long run I think I'll be happier for it.
Comments:
That...is actually a really great resolution! Although I think some of us non-graduate school folks refer to the concept as "weekends"
Ah yes, weekends...Aren't those the days when there are no pesky classes or departmental talks to distract you from your research?
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