My life has settled down now and there are no foreseeable deadlines in the next few months. This quiet period has been good time for me to concentrate on setting up a robust, efficient schedule.
I think I've been doing a good job during the week. There's a good balance between doing research and studying for classes ("real work"), attending classes, seminars, and meetings ("meta work"), going to the gym ("health") and watching TV shows and playing hockey ("fun").
I find that I have problems on the weekend because it is a huge chunk of unstructured time. There are no constraints on my time, no group meeting at 1 pm, no hockey practice at 9 pm, etc. Last weekend, I tried to sit in my room and work, but that just failed. I can't concentrate that long. But I really need that un-interrupted time to do work! What to do?
I'm going to try two things. First, I'm going to go to the gym on the weekends. Physical exercise gives me a mood and energy boost. Second, I'm going to plan on taking 1/2-1 day off every weekend. I'm not sure yet what I'll do with that time, but the point is to have something to look forward to at the end of the week.
After I decide on a framework for my weekly schedule, I will do some fine-tuning. In some future blog post, I'll write about logging how I use my time and making sure I work N hours per week.
Dude, I can't believe you write about this stuff in your blog. You make me laugh :) (probably mostly because I think the same way sometimes!)
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