Winter break was a very unmotivated time. Many days went by without the slightest bit of productivity. I did, however, come up with a schedule: do and only do school work from 10AM to 6PM. I have a pretty heavy school load and this schedule is a normal 8 hour work day, so it seemed like a good fit. It doesn’t start too early, but it’s still early enough to keep me on a decent sleep schedule. It doesn’t end too late, so there still time to hang out with friends and do other activities. I wanted to be pretty strict on this schedule such that my brain only thinks about school during this period, and my brain never thinks about school outside this period. However, of course, I would still eat during this time, but there was no video games, hanging out with friends, or even working on personal projects. I didn’t want this schedule, though, to be absolutely strict to the point where it is impossible to go on a day long hike for example. I can have break days for these kind of special occasions. But, these days should be the minority!
I am half way through week 2 of the quarter and been following this schedule to the best of my ability. Here are the results so far: I love it! It has been really tough, and I have had some cheat days already, but so far it’s been really nice. I have somehow gained more time for school and more time for my self. I somehow have gained more time! And, I have been getting pretty decent sleep as well (probably better than before even). Of course, there has been the benefit of being a better student—turning in homework early, getting ahead on the reading, etc.—but one of the biggest benefits comes after 6PM; my brain is school free. Everything is so much more fulfilling when there isn’t the lingering voice in my head, you really should be doing homework.
Obviously, I haven’t been doing it that long (it’s only been roughly 10 days), but I really hope I stay on it. To this end, I am going to make a progress chart. Everyday, I am going to “clock in” how well I felt I conformed to the schedule. For example, today has actually been pretty bad (I am writing this at 4PM and this isn’t school work). But, yesterday was a lot better. The idea is to build a calendar with either different colors, emojis, or numbers signifying how well I fit into the schedule. Once completed, you should be able to see on the journal page. The goal is to try to allow me to use Notion to input the data, and the website will update with Notion’s API. We’ll see how that idea goes.