In part because it was such a busy week for me, and because I am not always great at planning ahead, this week’s column will be a semi-coherent mishmash of thoughts on “balancing” a busy schedule and staying sane through the stress and sleep deprivation.
I hope to return with some more math-heavy concepts in the coming weeks, but right now I am in a hotel room about to begin another research travel event. This event, titled “Autumn School,” is a new variant of research get-togethers different to ones I have written about before—conferences and workshops—so I am excited to see what new experiences it will bring. In any event, though, the schedule will be busy, and it took some time to travel to the venue. The trip is well worth it, as I am writing this with a great view of the Baltic Sea in Germany, but it comes with trade-offs, as I am also writing this severely jet-lagged.
On top of that, I spent the week preparing for the Autumn School, along with grading the first exams for MA 221, working through another set of recitations for that course, and trying—not all that successfully—to get some more research done. My sleep schedule has been all over the place as a result, with an odd mix of late and early nights and late or early mornings depending on my energy levels.
I also had a variety of extracurricular activities this past week, including meetings and rehearsals with some of the clubs I’m still involved in on campus, planned social events with friends, and even an unplanned night out on Wednesday, featuring some karaoke! Like the travel and work experiences, these social interactions were all well worth it— more on that later—but not made for a schedule whose jampacked nature I would struggle to maintain for even a month, let alone the entire semester.
But I have found that the way to accept a busy and at times stressful set of days is to enjoy the moments of excitement and fun, while looking ahead to the moments of rest and recovery that will at some point arrive. On the first point, exciting experiences can come even from the busiest things, like witnessing one student in recitation explain to another the solution to a problem, coming up with a new way of explaining my research for the poster session at this week’s Autumn School, or getting my poster printed just in time thanks to the help of the Fielding Lab.
And of course, fun also comes from those social experiences. I could’ve canceled or said no to more of them knowing how busy my week was, but I preferred the chance to see so many of my friends, try some nice carrot cake, spend some time in the bowling alley, and sing some karaoke. These are the kind of moments I really missed over the summer when I was away from Stevens, and having this time with such great people helped restore my focus for the work and travel preparation I had throughout the week.
So to conclude, I would say that “balancing” one’s schedule can sometimes (often?) be a fruitless endeavor, but accepting it helps me to get work done when I can. Accepting it also helps me to be kind to myself when I need a break with friends, or some reprieve via sleep. It helps me to stay calmer in stressful moments and combat the catastrophizing thoughts I tend to have, especially around preparing for travel and making progress on research. I’m not sure if this will work for everyone, but I hope as the semester gets busier, you can cultivate or continue practicing a mindset that allows for excitement, joy, and calm in a jam-packed schedule.
