Finding a Routine

Today I was able to do something I haven't been able to for a very long time. I woke up on my own and I made myself coffee in my own kitchen. It doesn't sound like that spectacular of an accomplishment, but it feel good to pick up a routine that I haven't participated in in months.

I usually wake up after five or six hours of sleep, and if it's a good morning, I wake up with just enough time to brush my teeth and bike to school for half an hour. If I get to school early enough I can grab a coffee from the library or a Starbucks, but it always turns into a race of How Much Coffee Can I Drink With Minimal Damage To My Mouth Before Class Starts. The difference between my preferred morning experience and my usual one is that one is like a half hour stretching excersice on a sunny morning, while the other is like eating five pancakes and running a mile.

Along with my routinely unroutine mornings, I've been feeling a sensation of constantly being scattered between work, school, and the tiny social life I have. I've been fairly unorganized, jumping from whichever school project or work assignment that I feel will make me the most happy. This has been great for work, as I work somewhere where I am happy to spend my time. My usual daily routine is

1. 8AM Go to class
2. 9AM Go to work
3. 12PM Go to class
4. 2PM Go back to work until whenvever I feel like leaving (5PM or 6PM)
5. Go home and work on a side project or read about something cool on the internet.

While I've been putting in a good amount of hours at work, the only time I spend on schoolwork outside of lecture is when I deadline is coming up and I have to find time to get that work done (usually late at night one or two days before the assignment is due). This can, understandably, be pretty stressful. This approach makes weekly homework assignments a headache, and studying for an exam a nightmare. I've been priding myself on the fact that I don't miss class, but this started to slip last week as well. I believe it's time to figure out a solution to this problem before it becomes finals week and I'm completely unprepared.

Back to the coffee thing. I believe that by allowing myself half an hour or so every morning, I can plan out a list of accomplishments I would like to make by the end of the day. I could also reflect for a little bit on the previous day and see which things went well and which things didn't go as expected. This could be a proactive way to break apart homework assignments chunk by chunk in order to not make them so intimidating. I can probably also make more reliable goals for work, instead of just sitting there jumping between three or so things I could be working on. The biggest accomplishment this could have would be not letting me just use work as an excuse for productivity when I have weeks of homework ahead of me that I need to chipping away at.

Wrapping this up, I'm going to try taking enough time to make myself coffee in the morning and plan out what needs to be done in the day ahead of me. With any luck, I'll regain some control over doing the things that need to be done, and the things that I want or don't want to do.