Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Spring Break 2011

My Spring Break is next week - yippee!

I don't have any particular plans, and so there's a danger the week will go by in a kind of haze of boredom and too many "Without a Trace" reruns and vague intentions of doing some kind of academic work.

I don't know all of what I'll have due when I get back. Guesses:

Logic: We're getting 6 homeworks total and have finished 3. I'm guessing no homework over the break.

Analysis: We usually have an assignment every week, so I think this one will be no different. We should have a midterm at some point, so that could be the week after break instead. I am a bit behind on my notes/studying for this course anyway.

Stats: I imagine we'll have a normal homework assignment like every week.

Topology: I have an assignment due the Friday after break.

So I've written up a schedule (complete with checkboxes next to every item) for how I want to spend by Spring Break. It reads as follows:

Saturday
  • Groceries
  • Launder towels
  • Clean master bathroom
  • Dishes

Sunday
  • Have fun

Monday
  • 2 hours analysis
  • 2 hours topology
  • Dishes

Tuesday
  • Podiatrist appointment
  • 2 hours analysis
  • 2 hours statistics

Wednesday
  • 2 hours analysis
  • 1 hour statistics
  • 1 hour topology
  • Dishes

Thursday
  • 2 hours analysis
  • 2 hours topology

Friday
  • 2 hours analysis
  • 1 hour statistics
  • 1 hour topology
  • Dishes

Saturday
  • Finish statistics assignment
  • 2 hours analysis
  • Groceries

Sunday
  • Have fun
  • Dishes
I'm hoping this schedule will overall maximize my fun and relaxation over the week, since I'll know what I want to accomplish each day, and trying to get it done will allow me to really enjoy the rest of the time. By my calculations, after sleeping, eating, grooming, and everything on this list, I'll have about 70 hours left over for pure fun and doing whatever the hell I want. (Of course, "whatever I want" may well include additional academic work, and that's fine.)

2 comments:

Sally said...

Good idea! 4 hours of math per day (most days) definitely seems like enough to get a noticeable amount of work done while leaving lots of time for fun stuff, which time will feel all the more precious and which stuff will feel all the more fun because you've been doing work, too.

It's always hard to know whether it's better to set things up as "Do X" or "Work on X for Y hours" but in this case, I think setting goals for time rather than accomplishment makes sense.

Tam said...

I generally organize myself around tasks rather than time, but I don't have any specific tasks for Analysis (yet) and my intention is to do some exercises from various sections of the book. There's no end to how many I could do, and there's no absolute minimum that I have to do, so the time thing makes sense.