Each semester has its own set of challenges and this one's were:
- proper routine
Yup, only one. But a lot of factors go into that one.
My routine should balance food/nutrition, sleep, exercise, and of course studying.
I kept a pretty decent routine in the beginning of the semester, did pretty well on my midterms because of it. However, that routine was unsustainable, and so after midterms were over I was completely burnt out and depressed. For the rest of the semester, I was not only trying (not very successfully) to keep up with school but also trying to catch up in terms of well being. Not surprisingly, the later was prioritized, and my grades took a hit.
This semester, I plan on updating a few things to do better:
- keeping track of my classes
- This past semester I used Google Drive to organize my class' documents, a tasks app for my class' tasks and a notebook for the class' notes. For this semester, I've downloaded Trello, to centralize it all in one place. Trello will keep the documents, tasks and summarized notes all in one place. This should maximize focus.
- Additionally, I've decided to extend my degree and thus will be taking one less class per semester. This should make things a lot easier to handle.
- keeping track of my body
- My trips to the gym last semester were spotty, it was one of the first things I dropped once midterm season started rolling around. This semester I want to keep it around throughout. It won't be long, but my classes are more spread out now so I'll be able to go during the day. Plan is, chest Monday, arms/shoulders Wednesday, legs Friday and optional runs any day. We'll see if this holds.
- Body includes intake, and this semester I need to keep improving on my nutrition. I've got vitamin D tablets and multivitamin tablets as well. I'm going to keep up the rice/quinoa/curry meal for dinners, that was really good last semester. I'm upgrading my lunch sandwiches though, plan is to buy a ham, cook it and slice it for meat. Add cheese, and veggies. A whole ham should keep me good for the entire semester. This is an upgrade over $10 pre-sliced stuff every two weeks in both the health dept. and the cost dept.
- The most important of course is sleep. Last semester I think I messed myself by not getting enough sleep in the beginning of the semester and then wasting my time in the second half of the semester. For example, in the first half of the semester I would sleep late and wake up early and in the second half of the semester I would sleep on time and wake up early. But by waking up early I waste two hours or so of proper studying because I don't study before classes start, it's too early and I'm not in the studying groove yet. So this semester, the plan is to study and sleep later, but wake up later too. If I sleep by 12:30 and wake up at 7 I get a great 6.5 hours and study a whole hour extra.
Semester starts tomorrow. Let's do this.
Innovating Life
~ASKalburgi