Productivity

Finding Balance: A Life Skill

Balance: the focus of jugglers, gymnasts, Tibetan Buddhist monks, Navajo healers. The mandalas of the monks are intricately created symmetrical sand paintings hand-built, grain by grain, over several days as an act of devotion. Navajo healers devoted to the restoration of health for an ill person similarly create an elaborate symmetrical sand painting, grain by grain. And at the end of each ritual the two traditions share another similarity. What looks to many of us like priceless art is dis-integrated, the individual sand returned to the sea and to the desert respectively. To live well requires the ongoing practice of balance by each of us individuals in the great community of life.

And likely each of you as a student finds balance hard to come by sometimes, perhaps especially as the semester winds up toward its normal frenetic finish. Yet balance is important; the psychologist Alex Lickerman, writing in the journal Psychology Today, notes his own struggles to balance his life in the light of:

family responsibilities (including his relationships with his cats),
professional responsibilities and development,
personal self-care,
leisure
basic tasks such as laundry, shopping, house-cleaning, and so on.

Yet Dr. Lickerman suggests we do need to develop balance so we don’t “fall over,” physically or psychologically.

The following suggestions drawn from my own experience and from the insight of others may be helpful:

Learn to focus and pay attention to the task at hand. Dr. Lickerman recommends “disconnecting” (turning off phones, email, and other possible distractors) for some time each day.
Schedule ahead of time and as much as possible discipline yourself to stick to that schedule. Scheduling helps us not to forget or omit important items, and it is useful for prioritizing—identifying and then completing the important.
Grant yourself some latitude. Neither you nor I will be completely perfect in this life. Be OK with excellence and improvement.
Develop a method or a ritual for reset. Many diverse cultures have some designated way in which error is recognized and then corrected. Develop your own procedure. Restoration is an important part of the balanced life.

Finally, bear in mind a few observations about balance:

It is a process and never a static state to be achieved.
It is easier achieved with another person involved. Ideally you each balance the other.
Failure and success are both part of the balance of life.

It’s the Real World-We Need to Cooperate and Collaborate

All the time I have been in academia I have heard people talk about “real life out there.” College is not the “real world.” Yet in college, at university, there are turf wars, political maneuvering, rotten apples and the good ones, the used and the users (and most of the rest of us who do some of both). There are the “skill” positions on the team and the “grunts.” There are personal disappointments and proud achievements. There are relationships that deepen and engage us and those that go south. What is not real about life here?

Cooperation and Collaboration

So it is that we are here together, as in real life, social animals required to cooperate and collaborate in this project we have going here at UAMS. Ours is a group project like the multiple award winners in the scientific categories of the Nobel Prizes. Since 2010 these prizes have usually included at least 2 and often 3 concurrent winners. Ours is not like the solitary awards to the literary set, one person each year in that same span since 2010. So, in this corner of the world, we are required to work together. It’s helpful to remember that group work might be done in one of at least two ways. We might cooperate. We might collaborate.

To cooperate is to work independently toward a common goal. A medical care team with its therapists (occupational, respiratory, physical, and so on), its nurses, doctors, chaplains, patient care attendants, case managers, pharmacists, patients and caregivers and more is a good example of cooperation. In the ideal situation each exhibits her or his special expertise toward the wellbeing of the patient.

To collaborate is deeper. To collaborate is to work together toward a common goal. Well, now that I think about it, a medical team is often working together and not just independently. There are rounds and shared planning and consultation. These are marks of more than simultaneous cooperation.

I encourage you to work on both of these skill sets while a student here at UAMS. This is a kind of simulation lab much like the real world. Here, you can learn by doing, reflecting on your doing, and improve the next go-around. Work on cooperating—help each other out with your own independent contributions toward the wellbeing of each and of all. Work on collaboration—practice working together, consulting, shared planning toward the wellbeing of each and of all.

Planning for Finals

It’s hard to believe, but finals are just a few short weeks away, which means you are probably buried in papers, projects, presentations, and unit tests. Don’t let this sneak up on you! Planning for your finals doesn’t have to be difficult. With just a few steps you can go into finals focused, prepared, and ready for the challenge. Make a plan now so you are primed when the time arrives.

Focused on Finals

Being focused means that you know what you plan to accomplish. One good way to approach this is to make two sets of goals: what you need to accomplish, and what you want to accomplish.

Need to Accomplish. Think of these goals as your minimums. Look at your class performance over the semester. What scores do you need to make to achieve satisfactory performance in each of your classes? Distinguish the classes that will require more effort from those where you already have high scores.

Want to Accomplish. These goals are what will please you. In answering this, make sure you keep these goals realistic. Don’t set impossible goals for all your finals. Set these goals class by class to help keep them achievable.

Balance the two sets of goals and determine a goal for each class. This will help you focus your time management and study strategies to achieve your goals.

Prepared for Finals

Preparing involves more than just going over notes. It’s strategic. It starts right away with time management. Clear your calendar as much as possible and set a study schedule. Then find out whether your tests are comprehensive. If they are comprehensive, then you will want to begin reviewing past material right away. What do you know and what do you need to study? You can’t prepare for a comprehensive final by reading a semester’s worth of notes two days before the final.

Find a way to create notes that allow you to test yourself, especially in content where you are weaker. The more you practice retrieving information, the better your test performance will be, whether you are trying to remember information or applying your knowledge. Self-testing will reassure you that you know what you think you know.

Ready for Finals

Being ready means you have set goals for, and learned as much as you can about, each test. You’ve stuck to a study schedule, and carried out a study plan. It doesn’t mean you won’t be anxious. Ready means that you have done what you need to do, to the best of your ability, for the goals you set.

Take control and plan for your finals now. Don’t wait until the last minute. Getting started now will help reduce your anxiety and make you better prepared when the time arrives.

Working Around a Holiday Cluster

I love vacation time. I love having time off to rest, putter around, or just have fun. I always make sure I have wrapped up my projects so I can relax and not think about work. I like holidays too. They are a gift of free time, spread out throughout the school year, that I can spend however I like. My problem is that I have trouble staying focused and productive during a holiday cluster.

What is a Holiday Cluster?

A holiday cluster is a bunch of holidays grouped together over a short period of time. I always have to plan very carefully in order to be productive during holiday clusters. I feel like I’m always stopping and starting. Does anyone else have that problem?

It starts with Veterans Day in November. Then we get the Thanksgiving holiday. Then we’re back for a couple of weeks, and it’s off for Winter Break. We get back right after the New Year, but then we take another day for Martin Luther King, Jr., then work a couple more weeks and we’re off for President’s Day. Do you see what I mean? The holidays are all clustered together. It can be hard to find your rhythm with all the starts and stops. It can really mess with your motivation.

My Holiday Cluster Woes

When I was an undergrad, I had terrible time management skills. I tended to work in fits and starts, and I rarely planned past the next day. I was always surprised by due dates and exams. They were always scheduled well in advance, with plenty of notice, but I’d be caught off guard every time. Holidays surprised me too. I mean, I knew we got the holiday, but I never seemed to know exactly when it was. I never prepared for the time off. There seemed to be a lot of due dates around the holiday cluster too. I could have prepared for them, but I didn’t, so either my coursework or my holiday suffered. It was usually my coursework.

I did much better as a graduate student. I was older (much) and I was better at managing my time. And now, I know that I have to keep this stuff on my calendar and get everything done before I enjoy the holiday weekend. I know the return week will be challenging, because, for some reason, 4-day weeks seem longer than 5-day weeks. I still find it a challenge.

How do you work around the holiday cluster? Have you found a way to keep your motivation and productivity up? After all, if we are given the gift of free time, we should be allowed to enjoy at least some of it. Don’t you think?