Updated student work day

I talked recently about my student work day and posted an example. However I have revised it and wanted to provide an update.

Revising the schedule is an important aspect of productivity; if you don’t regularly revisit what is working and what isn’t your system will start to fall apart. Also, situations change and this can prompt schedule changes. Both of those conspired here to make me change things up.

First, things change and in AZ that is often the weather. In September it was regularly 100+ degrees at 3pm, making riding my bike to class unrealistic and going for bike rides at 6:30am a good idea. That is no longer the case; the highs at around 3 are down to between the 80s and low 90s. (This may sound high to those of you who live in cold climates, but after 6 summers of 110+ days you start to find that the 80s are genuinely comfortable, even chilly if you are standing still.) Thus I want to move my work-out on class days to be the ride to and from campus. Good for me, good for the environment, and a lot less expensive to park.

Second, I can’t seem to get myself up early on a consistent basis. The fact is that I’m just not good at it; I’m not a morning person. And if I don’t HAVE to get up early I don’t want to.

So, given those to considerations, here is my new schedule:

Things that have changed:

I’m now getting up at 7:30 with the goal of being at my day job by 9 – this requires slightly more commuting time (although not a lot) but since I’m not getting up as early it’s not so bad….
I’ve put my exercise schedule into its own calendar so that those items are color coded. That makes them stand out more and remind me that they aren’t optional. Maybe I should make them safety orange or some other obnoxious color….
All other commute times and such were altered to let this new schedule work. The nights I have classes I also work past 9pm on school work. This is mostly reviewing notes and organizing my to do’s for the next week’s class. Not taxing, but I find if I do it right afterwords the world is better.
I’ve included working Saturday and Sunday evenings after dinner, although these are optional. If, for example, I go shopping during the day on Saturday I’ll need that time.

That probably looks like a lot of exercise, but as a 2*mumble**mumble* pound woman who had lost 75lbs and has now gained about 35 of it back, I really need to be consistent and very active. Most of it isn’t high intensity unless I decide to do something like hill repeats during one of my road bike rides.

This one should stick until the end of the semester. Then I’ll revisit for winter break.