Snowflake Challenge Day 13

[dragonyphoenix]

In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

1. I want to have at least one original fic published. I'm looking at Daily Science Fiction as a good place to start.
2. Livable wage! I need a livable wage. I have a Computer Science degree and an will be taking Python 2 next semester so that's looking possible.
3. I'd like to take a week off to relax and dive deeply into my stories. Ideally I'd take a vacation elsewhere but with my credit card debt I'd probably stay at home.
4. Volunteer to help abandoned pets. I'm not sure about doing this one though because between work and school I became fairly well exhausted last semester. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.

Comments

[brithistorian]

These all sound like great goals!

Re #4: It's good that you're being sure not to bite off more than you can chew. I've got a technique that I use in situations like this, if you want to hear about it. (I'm making an effort to stop giving unsolicited advice.)

[dragonyphoenix]

Ooh, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

[brithistorian]

OK, here it is. It's going to sound ridiculously simple once I say it, but it really does work: Mark out a 7 x 24 grid on a piece of paper. Label one side with days of the week and the other with hours of a day. Color in the hours you spend asleep (the actual hours you spend asleep, not what you aspire to). Color in the hours spent at work. Color in the hours spent commuting. Color in the time spent preparing and eating meals. Color in any other regularly scheduled obligations. Whatever hours remain uncolored at the end of this process are the hours you have available to do anything else you want to do, including this new obligation.

If you can find the hours for the new obligation (be sure to include travel time and prep time, if any) and can live with only having the hours that remain after that to do everything else you have to do, then you can add the new obligation. If you can make time for the new obligation by cancelling or rescheduling an existing obligation, and you're willing and able to do so, you can add the new obligation.[*] Otherwise, the time just is not there either because of conflicts or because of an absolute lack of time and you should not add this new obligation.

Like I said, it seems ridiculously simple, but actually seeing a graphical representation of how much time you have available and which particular hours you have available totally helps put into perspective whether you have time to add something else or not.

[*] Please note: When considering what can be cancelled or rescheduled, getting less sleep is generally not an option - you're probably already getting less sleep than you should.