Back when I lifeguarded, the joke amongst us used to be that if you described our job without actually saying what it is that we did, we'd sound a whole lot like hookers.
Feel free to think that's crass, but so many more things are funny after extended sun exposure and dehydration.
Either way, in college, I was in this creative writing poetry class, and designed a trixy poem doing just that: poetically describing the lifeguarding lifestyle, all without actually saying the word "lifeguard" until the very final line. Personally, I thought it was hilarious and so did my classmates. My professor so did not understand it. Mood. Killer.
I've got "Working Girl" on the mind because I am currently in the early stages of interviews to become part of the adult working community. However, my life as of now is so totally unstructured so as to make a 9-5 job sound absolutely terrible.
I've never been quite resigned to the idea of that sort of stifling routine. It was one of the main reasons the block schedule of University suited me so much better than the regularity of High School. There's room to breathe and flex.
My daddy did have an excellent strategy for University life, though, and it was this: treat every day like a work day. 9-5 focus, then after, you can play.
Time management leaning toward the study side has always been my strength, but by following his system, I am actually forced to put down the pencil/mop/keyboard/book and do something that refreshes me for the rest of the evening, even if that is a 15 hour nap. A set end time prevents burnout.
Since living here, I've had almost no form to my schedule at all, which means I've had no pressure to really do anything, which means I either read for 9 hours straight or do absolutely nothing for 9 days straight. Very few of my days here have I felt proud of the way that I've divvied up my hours. There are just way too many of them for me to handle sometimes.
Now it has come time to buckle down, though, and get me prepped and ready for the real world. That, and I really, really need to start writing my final papers.
Therefore, I have a new system, which is actually an old system.
"Work" starts at 9.
The phone stays off, Facebook and Pinterest don't get pulled up at all, and I have a full list of every sort of thing that could be considered "work" that I can feel free to engage in from 9-1:30.
1:30-2:30 is lunch break, then back to business until 5.
It's day two of my system, and I've written an additional 3 articles about garage doors, made substantial headway into one of my resources for my thesis, cleaned and mopped the kitchen, made five beds, organized three shelves, and gone to class/smallgroup/skypedate.
I've got flexibility in that I can choose what I spend my time doing but defined enough structure and pressure that I am actually inclined to do it. My mind feels clear and energized, and I finish every day feeling satisfied that I've been a good steward of the time allotted me.
Go team.
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