Long Term Time Management

I really do promise that I try my best to post every Sunday and Wednesday, but as we all know, it's been more like every Sunday and Thursday (In this case I didn't get around to posting on Wednesday or even Thursday at that).

It's not that I can't write in Wednesday's, it's that I'm too tired.

I was actually on the phone with my boyfriend Wednesday night, I had my headphones and mic set up so that I didn't have to hold the phone up and my laptop was in front of me, taunting me to write my usual Wednesday blog post, but I kept falling asleep.

I felt awful for my boyfriend; I believe it was mainly a one sided conversation because I kept falling asleep every five minutes and I would be out for 10 minutes at the time.

I apologized a few times, but I definitely felt like I should've apologized a lot more because I did feel just awful about it.

This will bring me into my topic of today (like I've written about a few times before but will be slightly different this time), time management.

I've written about time and the importance of managing it before, but those were for short term reasons.

You see, I picked up an extra shift at the pool to make more money.

When I thought about the consequences this would have on me, I only thought about a few weeks into the future, maybe two weeks.

I didn't think about how it would affect me on a six week period.

I didn't think to manage my time in the long run and this has already caused me to be overtired, cram a little bit with schoolwork and to generally not have 100% control over things.

This taught me the importance of managing time within a long term as I will definitely be doing things differently for my next work term.

When you have an abrupt change in your schedule and you know it's going to be for a long period of time, plan ahead that far, look into your schedule that far into the future so that you know you aren't overworking yourself.


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A Perfect Balance And Pumpkin Races

My last post I mentioned how I'm going to not put too much on my plate, I'm not going to take any more extra shifts unless I was sure I could do it without missing something that's important to me such as something with friends that was planned in advance, homework or shifts/special events at the museum that I volunteer at.

Today I had my shift at the pool in the morning, but two weeks ago, I said that I could work a shift the same evening because I thought my schedule would be clear.

Turns out that I mixed up the dates and it interfered with plans that I made with my friends.

Knowing that I had plans with friends that afternoon, but also realizing that I took the shift, I told my co-worker of the original shift and we worked something out! I said that if we couldn't find someone else to take the shift, then I would cover it because it was my mistake and she was completely fine with that!

I ended up being able to find a sub for her the day before, so everything worked out perfectly.

Not too far from where I live, every Thanksgiving weekend, there's an event called the Pumpkin Races.

The Pumpkin Races are where people grow pumpkins that are over 1000 pounds and they paddle across a lake in the pumpkin that they grew.

It's a huge event that many people go to. A lot of it is a fundraiser for many things but there are also stands all over, for example one was a chili cooking contest, another to raise money for a school trip, another to raise money for a school playground and more, but then there were also concession stands and bouncy castles.

It's quite the event.

Either way, this is the first time my friends and I have gone to the event and we had a great time. 

Two of my friends joined me and one of the fundraisers there was a dunk tank. For five dollars, I could get six balls to throw, so I paid five dollars and we each threw two balls.

My first throw was a little off, but I nailed the second one! I hit it right on the target and dunked the girl! I felt bad because she must've been freezing, but she probably went and got changed after that.

I was really proud of myself, that was my first time doing something like that, so it was pretty exciting for me.

After that, we watched the races, drove home where one of my friends came to my house (the other had to go back home for Thanksgiving dinner) and we watched a movie.

I didn't have to go to the Pumpkin Races, I could've told my friends and they both would've understood seeing as they both have teaching jobs in skating, but I changed my schedule.

I rebalanced my plate so that it wasn't overflowing with work. 

I would've been at the pool all day, I would've worked so much that I would've been exhausted and cold for the majority of the day, but because I found another sub, I wasn't overwhelmed with my day, there was a perfect balance between work, friends and family.

You'll always have the chance to try and rebalance your schedule so that one thing doesn't outweigh the other. Sometimes you won't always have the chance to do this, but I'll always recommend that you try to because it will make you feel better throughout the day.


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Having Too Much On Your Plate

Yes, it is Thursday and not my usual Wednesday post, but here's my reason as to why my bi-weekly post is late:

I was tired.

I haven't had the greatest sleep pattern since school as started, I've been going to bed very late with headaches, waking up early with headaches and it's not the greatest cycle for me.

I spend the majority of my day with headaches and I shouldn't be.

With all of this going on, I also work all day Saturday and then Sunday morning.

By the time Sunday afternoon comes around, I'm tired and I don't want to do all that much.

My plate is already full. My weeks have been pretty eventful.

Yesterday, I was in class when I received an email notification.

I'm in a Facebook group for work, and every time someone posts, I get an email notification.

It was a co-worker of mine looking for a teaching substitute to cover his 4:15-8:15 shift.

Four hours is a long time to be working as a teacher. It's a long time in the pool and you're bound to get cold within the first hour and a half.

I didn't know whether or not I wanted cover his shift, but after talking with my mom, I decided to take the shift because I could get more experience, get as many favours as possible, and I do need to earn money.

I ended up really enjoying the shift. I did get very cold about halfway through, but I made it to the end.

My last class was suppose to end at 8:15, but it went over until 8:20-8:25. There's absolutely no problem with that, it's just that I was so tired.

I got home at maybe 9:15, had supper, lied on my bed with full intention of writing a post, but I kept drifting off to sleep.

When I took that extra shift, I thought that I was doing it for me, I thought that I was doing it to earn money to put towards a trip, but I realized that I was wrong.

I also took that shift because I didn't want my coworker to worry. I didn't ask why, but I didn't want him to worry the whole day over if he would get a substitute for the shift or not.

It's not my responsibility. We are a facility with 30+ employees, I'm not the only one who would've been able to take the shift, I was the first to offer.

I shouldn't feel stressed or anxious about my evening if I'm taking someone else's shift. I'm doing it because I can, but sometimes I do it because I think I have to.

It is not my responsibility to make sure that someone else's shift is cover when I'm not working. Of course I can take the shift if I don't have any homework and I'm feeling okay, but there are supervisors that could have also covered his shift.

I should feel stressed over someone else's shift, that's not what I signed up for.

I'm going to plan my day and make sure that I have everything under control before I take on any extra shifts.


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My Life, My Time

Seeing as it's summer, my parents want to see me outside, hanging out with friends and generally being out and about, but that's not necessarily what I want or what can happen at the moment.

Admittedly, I haven't gone out of my way to make plans with friends because I feel as though they're all busy and I don't want to bother them by texting them.

I've also been spending a lot of time at home with the dog, but today my mom reminded me that it is okay if I leave the house for a few hours because my grandmother also goes out and leaves the dog on her own.

After she told me that, I just so happened to be told that I could go out and meet my dad for lunch.

This seems like a perfectly nice offer that any teen stuck at home would've taken because it's a free lunch at a restaurant, how wouldn't want that?

It just wasn't what I wanted today.

I love my parents and with everything that they do for me, I don't mind spending time with them. When my mom told me that I could go, I feel as though she was certain that I was going to say yes.

Honestly, I was a little hesitant but I still went.

I was hesitant because I wasn't hungry for lunch and I was a little tired.

Seeing as though I was on the fence about going, I decided to go anyway.

In the end, I did end up enjoying the lunch and I ate most of what I ordered.

I couldn't help to think that this could be part of the problem.

A little while back, I wrote my post Bad Habits and how you shouldn't be ashamed of them and if you want to overcome one, it will take time.

Another one of my bad habits is to put everyone else's feelings before my own.

When my cousin came up for vacation from New York, she had tickets for us to go to Jazz Fest, but I also happened to have a softball game that night. My dad had to go drop something off at the field, and when he was there, he called me to let me know that my team was down one player and would most likely have to forfeit if I didn't play.

I was torn, not by what I wanted to do, but what I thought everyone else wanted me to do.

I see my cousin for about the time period of one to two weeks per year, I rarely miss any softball practices or games, I would be missing part of an event that my cousin and I were looking forward to for months, my team would lose a game because of me, my cousin payed for these tickets herself, my softball team would be single handedly let down by me.

I had so many thoughts going through my head that I couldn't even think of what I wanted for myself.

My mom told me that I would be upset one way or another, and seeing the time and situation I was in, I decided to go to the concert with my cousin. That didn't stop me from feeling terrible for the first few hours.

With lunch today, I decided to go myself, but I thought that if I didn't go, I'd be disappointing both of my parents.

When I got home, I started to think about things like that more.

In the end, it's my life.

I shouldn't have to spend time doing something or going somewhere that I don't want to go.

If I end up regretting, then all the blame is on me. 

If I'm on the fence about something, I always try and give it a chance because if I don't like it, I can stop whatever I'm doing or leave wherever I was heading to.

If I want to do something or go somewhere, great, I'm all in, but I don't want to spend time from my life doing stuff that I don't enjoy.

I wouldn't be blogging this today if I didn't like writing.

Although I'm still young and I can't have a complete say as to what I do all the time, I'm going to start managing my time better because I'm tired of doing stuff that I don't actually want to do. 

It's my life, I can spend it's time however I want to and I shouldn't feel guilty about it. 

Even if I can't start that now, that's one of my biggest goals for the future.


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Time

Time is something that we can never seem to have the perfect amount of. We either tend to have too little of it or too much of it.

I can name a handful of different occasions when I didn't have enough time to finish things, and I can also name another handful of different occasions when I thought I was dying of boredom because I had too much time.

Time is something that humans have created in a way.

We have decided how long a second is, how long a minute is, how long an hour is, how long a day is and so on and so forth.

They decided that a year would be 365 days because that's how long it takes for the earth to do a full rotation around the sun, but they could've easily decided that a year is two or three full rotations around the sun.

If someone asked us how long a day is, we have the automatic answer of 24 hours.

If you think about different measurements in that way, then we have really given a definition to everything. We've created meters, temperature, etc.

However, something we haven't decided, for example are the seasons.

Yes, we gave them names, but we didn't give them their qualities. We didn't created snow, or rain, or the sun or how the leaves change.

We just happen to have given those seasons their names and rough estimate dates as to when they start and end.

Time is viewed as something precious, yet in reality, there's no scientific proof that time really does exist. It's believed to be more of an illusion.

It's viewed as a very complex topic in physics and there's no doubt among physicists that it exists, but they seem to be divided on what causes its existence.

We know that the sun rises and then the moon takes its turn, and we also know that the seasons change.

When the seasons change, we view that as times going by in months, but then again, months are also a measure of time that humans have created.

The seasons change in a continuous loop, just like how the sun and moon follow a continuous loop.

In the end, time is a weird thing that I don't think anyone has master yet.

I guess the question is are you using our idea of time wisely whether it's minutes, hours, days, months or years?


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Sometimes We Have To Slow Down

Man, it's March 1st already. It's insane to think that it's the first day of March, yet it's the first day of March.

When I turned on my phone for the day and saw the date, I think that's when it really sunk in as to what the date is. I knew March was coming up today, I knew it was going to be a new month, but I guess that it didn't really sink in until this morning.

That's what inspired me to write this post.

This year, for me at least, already feels as if it's flying by. We've already gone through two whole months of 2015. Normally, I feel as if days drag on, yet so far this year,  they're flying by.

Although the year is passing by quickly, I've constantly been feeling as if I'm drowning in choices, in a pit of despair for school, and in wonder. 

I mentioned before that thinking about the future is our way of escaping the present, yet I still can't manage to stop thinking about it.

Today was a little bit of a wake up call for me, seeing that the first two months seem to have flown by and I can't say that I've really done something that I'm extremely proud of yet. I feel as if I have wasted two months, constantly worrying about what could be.

This is a reminder for me, and anyone else who needs it, that we really do have to slow down at times.

If you're having a family dinner, enjoy it, don't worry about homework, it can wait. 

If you're talking to someone on the phone that you haven't seen or heard from in ages, don't feel bad for asking them so many questions.

If you and you're friends do something stupid, that's okay, you did it together.

As a teenager, I don't tend to do this, but I will start to slow down and enjoy the smaller things I have in my life because in the end, I know that those will count the most.

As an expression I hear a lot around in my school, "Slow down, speed racer."

Life isn't a race, so why do we all treat it like one?

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