Finding Time

I've been experiencing time crunchage lately. Just hired to teach a new course, it's been pretty intense as I try to conceptualize the course (i.e., create a syllabus I can live with) and plan the first couple of weeks of lectures. And my desire to work on many other projects continues. So: how can I manage my time so as to attend to all my work, accomplish projects I'm personally invested in, and stay calm and happy?

Recognizing that it is one of the big questions, here's some of what I'm doing.

First, I'm working to take time to breathe, pray and be away from work. Deep breaths, reflection on the meaning of life, calling on Divine assistance, and gaining physical distance from work help me get perspective on it.

Another aspect of defining the boundaries of work involves putting time constraints on it. Work can bleed into my entire life, and I don't want that. I want it to be contained, so that I still have things that are not pure work. I found when I was in grad school, I never completely put my projects down, even if I wasn't actively working on them. It's time now to learn the difference between work time and life time. Or even, paid work time and voluntary fun projects time. I am working towards doing job-work from 9-5, and after that, putting down my computer.

A third aspect is organizing myself. I have my folders for different aspects of teaching set up pretty well now. I have my to-do list, my calendar, my supplies at hand. I am ready to tackle what needs tackling.

Which I am now about to do. More on this to follow ...