Time Management - Quarter 1 and Quarter 2
I applied for the Pilot because I loved linguistics. I always was interested in languages. It began with having a knack for foreign languages, and from there I found I had other interests besides that. I loved the etymologies of words, and learning how languages are related and how language is structured and produced and processed in the brain. Of course, there is no high school course for linguistics, so after hearing about Pilot from a few friends of mine, I decided to try to join. I worried about this a little bit because I was always a very strong traditionally academic student, and I was uncertain whether I would have the drive or motivation to run my project and my learning on my own. I was very unsure what to do when I was first writing my learning plan. I was having trouble with figuring out what I was going to do, because I didn’t know what I was going to learn during the year. However, I eventually found out that nothing had to be set in stone and that it was okay if I said I would be showing my work only by writing for the time I was writing it. This eased some of my apprehension about being able to learn independently because I felt like I didn’t need to be a certain way immediately. This feeling defined the majority of my experience in Quarter One. Because I felt more relaxed with the state I was in at any given time, I put more energy than I ever had into improving myself and my work habits. I started to give myself time to sit back and think about the way I work and the reasons I procrastinate or practice other unproductive things. At the end of the first quarter, as I was trying to figure out how to get my narrative and portfolio done on time, I realized that the main reason I had for being unable to manage time sis that I couldn’t visualize it properly. I needed to physically see all the things I had to do in the time I had. I did this by setting up a google calendar. This sort of worked. It did certainly help me work more than I did before, but often these plans would go off track eventually. I rarely ever got as much done in the day as I intended to. During second quarter, I started exploring reasons why the planning alone wasn’t working. And most of my study of this aspect focused on how I felt at certain times of the day and how I felt after doing a certain amount of work. Our current season in Vermont has made me realize that I hate working in the dark. I work best when it is light out. In the mornings, particularly. I’ve never really thought of myself as a morning person, mainly because I’ve had to wake up at 6:00 in the morning to catch the bus for the past six years. But something later, like 7 or 8:00 is when I get very productive. Even at sunset I start to wind down and I don’t have as much motivation. I’ve resolved now to do as much work as I can when it is light out. Another thing I’ve been starting to take into account during second quarter is how I feel after working for a certain amount of time. Often I would hold things off for a while because I would think something like “Oh, I have all this time on the weekend, I’ll do it then.” What I never took into account is how I’ll actually feel after working for a couple of hours. No matter how diligent I try to be, I know I’m never going to use all the time I have on any given day. I have to take breaks at some point. I’ve tried to do this by working for short bursts and taking breaks in between, however the breaks are often longer than I expect them to be. I tend to not get as much done as I plan to still and I often still have work to do by the end of the day. So, basically, most of these tactics have not gone as planned. For now, I’m going to keep trying to do them and maybe try new ones if I come up with them.
I’ve also tried to stop thinking of the end of my work for the day as being the point where I’ve completed what I technically need to by the next day, but rather as the point where I am satisfied with what I’ve done. Often, because I have not spread out my work well enough, even if I work for , say, three hours, I still don’t feel satisfied with what I’ve done. However, adopting that mindset has helped me get more done than I previously had. It’s for that reason that I did do three straight hours of work.
Time is very difficult to grasp and use to your advantage. The present is often more fleeting than it seems, and it often comes as a surprise when the future becomes the present, no matter how well one tries to prepare. However, time can be figured out. It can be analyzed and visualized, and it can be related to your state. You can begin to predict how you will feel about doing something at a certain point, and you start to notice patterns about your changes in motivation throughout days and weeks. Using time well does not merely require being able to look ahead into the future. It also requires an understanding of yourself. You have to know how you feel at certain times of the day and how much work you can do in order to plan for all of these different factors and be able to produce something. I’ve always been good at analyzing things and taking things apart, but I never thought of doing this with my work habits until I joined Pilot. It gave me the urgency and the patience with myself I needed to figure out these problems that I’ve been having throughout my entire high school career.
I’ve also tried to stop thinking of the end of my work for the day as being the point where I’ve completed what I technically need to by the next day, but rather as the point where I am satisfied with what I’ve done. Often, because I have not spread out my work well enough, even if I work for , say, three hours, I still don’t feel satisfied with what I’ve done. However, adopting that mindset has helped me get more done than I previously had. It’s for that reason that I did do three straight hours of work.
Time is very difficult to grasp and use to your advantage. The present is often more fleeting than it seems, and it often comes as a surprise when the future becomes the present, no matter how well one tries to prepare. However, time can be figured out. It can be analyzed and visualized, and it can be related to your state. You can begin to predict how you will feel about doing something at a certain point, and you start to notice patterns about your changes in motivation throughout days and weeks. Using time well does not merely require being able to look ahead into the future. It also requires an understanding of yourself. You have to know how you feel at certain times of the day and how much work you can do in order to plan for all of these different factors and be able to produce something. I’ve always been good at analyzing things and taking things apart, but I never thought of doing this with my work habits until I joined Pilot. It gave me the urgency and the patience with myself I needed to figure out these problems that I’ve been having throughout my entire high school career.
Quarter 3
Thinking about managing time was very hard for this quarter because I was very busy all the time. Things for me to do came up very quickly. I had to play Lear, I had music festivals, I had to go on a trip, and all of this happened one after the other. Because of this, everything always felt urgent and I didn’t have to think too much about spreading work out and things like that, because I had very little time in the first place to do Pilot, and most of the time I would have to prioritize other things over it. If I did have a bit of free time, I would also usually be exhausted from other stuff and less likely to work. Being overwhelmed with other things also made me forget some strategies I used in the past to manage time better. And these would have been useful during certain times, like during Winter break. I’ve realized that I will feel a desire to work when I have energy. But often I will opt to do something else for leisure instead. I need to capitalize on that motivation more and set my mind to doing something when I feel like I want to.
I also got a lot better at meeting with content advisors. However, I could still do better at communicating with them. I mentioned before how my Social Studies and English parts of my study had become more separated. So there were certain things I would only talk about with Ben and others I would only talk about with Chris. But I need to communicate about everything that I’m doing with everyone, so they know when I need to prioritize certain things over others, and where my work covers both of the credits I’m earning.
My second semester in Pilot seems to be mirroring my first, where I began by exploring aimlessly during the first half and became more focused on something in the second half. I have an idea of a product I’m going to make, and what themes and resources I will be continuing to explore in the fourth quarter. I’m not entirely sure on everything I’m going to do, but I’m optimistic that I will figure something out.