I'm back to the trenches

I promised to write an article about my difficulty trying to balance my private and social life with my academics. As a student, this is really common. I had a chat with @Venvie yesterday and she helped me see things more clearly. I didn't publish any articles yesterday because I wanted to take my time to make proper plans before I can pursue them, and I think I just did.

The secret to every great endeavor lies with good planning, and of course the brain and patience to execute them. I will be sharing a few tips.

The holidays are over and now the semester has to continue. 2022 is going to mark the year I go for my Internship and also enter my final year in college. I shouldn't feel pressured but I am. So I decided to take a step back to analyze my goals for the year and make a plan to achieve these goals.

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The title "Back to the trenches" is a metaphorical expression to mean my return back to school. I could hear the mosquitoes singing with join as I walked into the room, they must have been overjoyed by my presence. The fan had stopped working just before the holidays, nothing had changed about it because the electrician was also absent. I couldn't even sleep last night because of the heat. Indeed, I was back to the "trenches".

Now that I've settled down, we can get right to it.

Step 1 - Outline the goals you want to achieve

I had to place them in the order of their priority but you can do yours the way that suits you best. Since my priority right now is my academics, it was at the top of the list, my social life is still in ruins though but I'm sure I can still manage so it dropped to the bottom of the list.

Step 2- I created a TimeTable

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I had to create a reading plan that would enable me to attend lectures among other functions and still be able to catch up with things taught in class.

It was easy setting this up, and I tried not to be too biased in creating less time for studies and more time to chill. Achieving a perfect balance is impossible when it comes to planning but at least there is a base to work with

Step 3 - Following through with the plan

The easy part is laying out plans, the difficult part is actually following through with them. I've made a lot of plans that I ended up leaving behind and just winging it and even though things got complicated, I was able to figure it out along the way.

This time I plan to make use of a "Reward-Punishment" system to motivate myself. It took me a while to come up with the most effective way to execute this system but I think I finally found it.

The "Reward-Punishment" system.

This system has been used to train the mind to function in a particular way, it works exceptionally with pets and they are not even as intelligent as we are so why not apply it to ourselves.

The system is quite easy, when you successfully complete each task, you get a reward, and when you don't, you get punished.

I chose my favorite meal (Spaghetti and Turkey) as my reward for completing each task successfully for the week. Failure to do that would mean I don't get to taste this wonderful delicacy and I will have to cover up the tasks I left out the following week or the punishment continues.

Conclusion

Now that the plan has been set into motion, the next agenda is to monitor the progress. The good thing about setting out plans is that sense of purpose and direction. Exactly what I need to reduce the pressure and give my body room to balance and function optionally. In the end, I know everything will be alright

Lead Image Source: Unsplash free images