Is There Ever Enough Time?

Back in college, when I was involved with a million extracurricular activities, going to school full-time and working part time, I used to schedule out my time in an Excel document so that I could fit it all in. It was always the ideal situation of how I could spend my time and even if I didn't follow it 100%, following it 80% was a heck of a lot better than not having a schedule at all. It allowed me to use my time wisely and well, being the type-A personality that I am, was a fitting way to figure things out. It also allowed me to not have to worry about what I would do on any given day since that was already pretty much planned out. It worked really well for me back then.

I didn't think I'd need those scheduling skills again, but alas, the time has come again and I have made myself a weekly schedule. Why? Simple: too many things to do in our limited time called a week. And the things I have to do are not things I can keep putting off.

Besides work, which occupies my day from approximately 9am to 6pm (or later on some days), I have to prepare my food for the day (GM for breakfast, our lunches and snacks throughout the day) and go to the gym. In an ideal world, I would go to the gym 5 days a week and that is how I have it planned in my schedule too. But we all know that life happens and maybe some weeks (or most) I won't make it 5 days. I have learned not to be hard on myself for missing a gym sesh and instead, my goal is 5, but really anything is better than nothing.

I also have to do some Rosetta Stone every or most days. My work gave us Rosetta Stone Language classes and we have deadlines to complete each level. This means I have to be consistent in actually doing it even if the first level is really basic compared to my Spanish. Oh well, it serves as good practice.

The other obligation on my plate is working on my NSEP scholarship requirements. I was lucky enough to get the NSEP scholarship for my study abroad, but part of receiving the scholarship means that I have to work for the Federal government for 12 months in return. So searching for and applying to Federal jobs is also part of my weekly activities. I have to admit, I haven't been very good at doing this since graduation. It was hard to do when I was planning the wedding so now the heat is on to find something since my deadline is coming up. I think it would be cool to find a job where I could use my Spanish skills and knowledge of L. American cultures. Really that is the whole idea of the scholarship, however as I search for these positions, I find it is much harder to qualify for a Federal position that I once believed.

Of course, I also included things in my weekly schedule like time with Christian and skyping with my parents. The weekend is mostly left open, but I did have to include some of these not-so-fun activities on my Sat and Sun mornings just based on the fact that I have more time on the weekend to get them done.

So am I totally crazy and too detail-oriented? Maybe. But if making a weekly schedule means I can get it all done and not stress about it, then it is totally worth it to me.

I guess I should get back to my schedule. I didn't include a blog post for Monday nights :)