{"id":3066,"date":"2016-01-11T13:19:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T12:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=3066"},"modified":"2016-05-30T11:08:53","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T09:08:53","slug":"fuck-it-dude-lets-prioritize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=3066","title":{"rendered":"Fuck It, Dude, Let’s Prioritize"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"let<\/a>I am sitting at my desk at work, trying to organize my day. Usually a fan of the good old to-do list, today’s task is not a pleasant one. Things are piling up. I am staring at a stack of papers, watching my emails actively multiply from administration and desperate students. I am feeling stress.<\/p>\n

It’s that awful period in between teaching and testing, which means that I am still teaching a few courses while creating tests for other courses. My rhythm and schedule have been thrown off and there’s a whole lot to do.<\/p>\n

I make a distressingly large to-do list and while I do this, I mentally kick myself for yesterday.<\/p>\n

Yesterday was Sunday (as you probably well know). It was a day that I had free from the minute I awoke to the minute I feel asleep with a Bill Bryson book tented over my face. I didn’t have to meet anyone, nor did I have to teach or leave my house for any reason.<\/p>\n

And yet, I had a list of things to do. I had to write my blog for today, plan two lessons for today, grade three tests, create a test, mark two papers, and edit a chapter of a book. This was only on the professional to-do list. My domestic to-do list was to clean my bathrooms and kitchen and do laundry. I had to work out too.<\/p>\n

In the end, I chose to plan one lesson, write the blog, do the cleaning, and work out.<\/p>\n

And I’m still stressed today.<\/p>\n

One reason for that is that I forgot to email myself the blog post, so I have had to start another one from scratch. But despite taking care of some of the things on my to-do list on the free Sunday, I still have a lot to do. And I am kicking myself and, just to add insult to injury, I am kicking myself for kicking myself.<\/p>\n

Surely we all deserve a free day. I had to work Saturday, so Sunday was my only free day this week. So why do I feel so guilty about (mostly) enjoying it? More than feeling guilty now, I felt guilty then. Ostensibly relaxing on my couch, I would glare at my watch and sigh deeply. It’s almost 2 p.m., oh how this day is flying by<\/em>. Subtext: I need to stop enjoying my Sunday and get to work.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In this aspect I have always envied the Czechs. Many of the Czechs I know enjoy their Sundays to the fullest, sometimes coming home from a trip at midnight. The weekend is not over until the weekend is actually over. It’s a great philosophy that seems to benefit them.<\/p>\n

But not me.<\/p>\n

And maybe not you.<\/p>\n

Maybe a tweak is needed.<\/p>\n

Today, as I stress about the various tasks and duties multiplying on my desk and inbox, I say these words:<\/p>\n

‘Fuck it.’<\/p>\n

OK, even though it would be a great story, I don’t get up, kick my boss in the shins, and leave. I don’t lose my cool and throw my computer against the wall. What I do is remind myself of something that I (and maybe you) often lose sight of: not everything is dire, the world will go on if I don’t finish something immediately, and I can only do so much at one time.<\/p>\n

I look back at my to-do list and search for my three MITs (most important tasks). When I have chosen them, I rewrite them on a new paper and get to work focusing on those three tasks. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.<\/p>\n

And they can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am sitting at my desk at work, trying to organize my day. Usually a fan of the good old to-do list, today’s task is not a pleasant one. Things are piling up. I am staring at a stack of papers, watching my emails actively multiply from administration and desperate students. I am feeling stress. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-Ns","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3068,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3066\/revisions\/3068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}