it was a nice breakfast/brunch we had the other day, tho' i think i was a little insistent in my talk of timelines and scheduling and work habits. that said, i thought (or 'thot') i'd put my money where my mouth is & post about my attempt at planning a weekly schedule. having just been accepted to present at Congress at the Canadian Communications Association (CCA) conference in June in Vancouver, i figure this is better done now than later.
so first, i thought about what a reasonable work week would be. 10 hours per weekday plus another 10 over the weekend is a 60 hour work week, but with reading and writing constituting a big chunk of that, it isn't an overwhelming schedule, I believe.
Then I thought about what that would be (w/ a running total at the end of each point):
+ 10 hours a TA-ship (that's the easy one, and it gives me bonus time in the summer, or if I choose not to do a TA-ship one semester: 50 hours remaining)
+ 2 hrs/day writing = 14 hrs. (i thought whether this would be lumped into weekends or free days, or rigidly scheduled into the activities of each day. i don't yet have an answer for that, but the 14 hour weekly max. gives some flexibility: 36 hours remaining)
+ 2 hrs./day reading = 14 hrs. (this includes researching, annotating, and note-taking, which might also be considered writing, tho' i'd like to develop a habit of doing research directly into the computer, so i don't have to filter through post-it notes at a later date. i've had success doing this with précis-writing, tho' it's not yet instinctive enough a practice. "writing" proper i'd like to devote to synthesis and analysis and more creative activities: 22 hours remaining)
+ 3 hrs./weekly supervisory meetings (maybe ambitious, but i would like to be working closely with my supervisor[s], either supporting their work through my collaboration, or discussing my own progress with them. i'd like to institute this early and make it an ongoing activity... i guess the challenge is getting my supervisor to buy in: 19 hours remaining)
+ 6-9 hrs./weekly in-class, coursework (this may include course audits, unaccredited coursework. ideally i'll be taking two in a semester, tho' three courses may be a necessity at times. in any case, i'll say 9 hours to give myself some space to do readings without cutting too deeply into my own research: 10 hours remaining)
+ 7 hrs./weekly peer meetings (the formal side of socializing, this would include TA development activities, participation in grad student association meetings, peer presentations of work-in-progress, local symposiums/panels/etc., gallery openings, and so on. i've averaged an hour per day on this, tho' it'll likely cluster: 3 hours remaining)
So the grand total is 57 hours, meaning I have 3 to spare! Of course I'm not factoring in transportation in this equation, and 3 hours hardly counts for that. But as a set of upper limits, hopefully that makes sense.
the question now is whether i "enforce" my restrictions, and how do i do it? (apologies in advance for sounding so anal in this section, but i'm just trying to work a problem through.) for example: say there's a number of interesting peer activities going on in a week that would take me above my alloted 7 hours: do i say no to them? do i cut into my reading or writing or some other time to attend? do i "bank" hours from week to week, or does each week start as a blank slate? how do i determine when things need to change—do i redo this weekly plan every few months or so?
many questions. i only hope by addressing them like i have here that i'm working toward a viable solution rather than a compulsive disorder (the use of the term "self-discipline" in the title makes me feel really squirmy...)
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3 comments:
There's something fun about asserting yourself, defining what you consider work, feeling independent and 'on top' of your life. Tho there may be an anal side to all this, I think setting a schedule is the only way to ensure production in a city with jazz every night and not much in terms of a connection between work and the seasons (or some other 'natural' schedule).
I do worry about everything that has to happen outside of those 10 hour days: laundry, cooking, family time, Family Guy, etc.
I wonder if having different seasonal schedules would make any sense. For example, if you're in a writing phase, then I think you'd need more than 2 hours a day for that. Similarly readings for 3 courses might be heavier than 2 hours a day, I'm not sure.
I suppose as long as you're spending your time in ways that make sense to you, and as long as you feel some control over your schedule, that's important.
I like this post. I'm also thinking along the lines of Jefe, and maybe pushing it further. I like the idea of having "seasonal" or mid-term goals to drive towards, which can help shape the weekly routine. For instance if your seasonal goal is to have read a certain body of literature within 3 months, then that helps to further define and focus the hours a week of reading so that you know that ultimately, you are on track to something.
I like the idea of "banking" since that fits in well with the mid-term goals. For instance, sometimes there are more events in a week. Conferences take several days. Writing for conferences takes several days, but maybe if you bank over a period, you'll feel okay about peer events if you haven't done any for a while.
Anyways, I like a lot of these ideas. I sometimes do have trouble putting informal events into my calendar, so this is a good way to remember that it's important (as one example).
i wonder if there's a way to get a sense of what others are doing--how others "perform" under similar conditions/constraints--and use that as benchmarks to determine our own practice. ways of determining whether we need to push ourselves a little more (e.g. to become faster readers, more efficient note-takers, more skilled lecturers, more effective discussants, more finely-honed writers, etc.)
maybe that means, in addition to what's laid out here in temporal blocks, describing activities in greater detail--even if they're generic. for example, i've heard that we should be reading *at least* a book a week (i've heard reading/scanning as much as a book *every day*), and a journal issue in the same time frame (day/week). while it seems nearly inconceivable now, i don't know that it's unrealistic. the question is: how does it become possible; or, more precisely, what do we need to do to make it happen?
in my opinion the answer--and this really is too long for a comment--is not so much for each of us to struggle through (tho' that may be the norm), but for us to collaboratively find answers for, whether through existing networks, or future ones.
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