School Year Resolutions: Part 2

This is part 2 of a 2-part series. Click here for Part 1.

Resolutions related to my health, both physical and mental.

7. I will eat better.

When you set goals, you’re supposed to make them specific. This one is about as vague as they come, so I have some specific aspects to highlight.

I’m going to try to pack a lunch a few times a week to take to school. This will cut back both on meal plan costs, and on the amount of junk food entering my body. PB&J is my best friend. I’m going to keep fruit and nuts on hand for snacks at all times. If I run out, I will go to the store and buy more. I will learn to cook, so I don’t rely on processed food for every meal.

Finally, my big breakthrough in food: I will find some way to make some vegetable taste good. (Actually I already like corn and potatoes, so I’ll start there.) In learning to cook, I am determined to find some way of cooking at least one form of vegetable so that I will actually eat it. I’m 21 years old, it’s time to stop eating like a first-grader. I’m going to try different spices and herbs, and see what works.

8. I will exercise every day.

Last year, I rode my bike to class every day. (Most days, anyway.) This year, because of my class at the community college, I will be driving to my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have decided that those days, I will do something in the morning (see number 4) to get my heart beating. I can go for a bike ride, I can run, or I can even just go for a walk. Of these, the only activity that I enjoy is walking, but I’m considering trying my hand at running to see if I can get in the habit.

9. I will write something every day.

I’m going to make more of an effort to keep this blog up. I’m not promising to post every day, because I just don’t see myself with the ability to crank out a full post that often, but I am going to write something, even if that just means scribbling down my thoughts on why I’m frustrated with some assignment. I’m considering setting a word limit, so I have to write a certain amount every day. I’m going to wait until I get into my classes to see what is really possible for me.

10. I will carry a book with me.

I enjoy reading. I don’t often have time to read, but would like to have the opportunity if I’m sitting around waiting for something. (Think standing in line, or waiting for a dentist appointment.) I’m going to get a new library card, since I don’t have any clue where my card from almost ten years ago is now, and I’m going to check out books. Books are expensive. There’s no point in spending money I don’t have when I could borrow it just as easily. If I find a book worth buying, I can check out Bookman’s. The bookstore could be a reward for reaching a goal, though. I love shopping in bookstores.

If I have a reading assignment for class, I will carry a textbook with me. I will make exceptions for this if the textbook is particularly huge. (I haven’t seen any of my books yet, so I don’t know.)

I will also compile all the listening assignments for my music classes into a playlist on my iPod and listen to it regularly. This is the only reliable way I have to get the music into my head, and I’ve discovered how much I enjoy listening to my iPod everywhere I go as I’ve been walking around Berlin. I have a radio transmitter so I can listen in my car, and will bring headphones so I can listen as I walk between classes.

11. I will carry my camera with me.

Before I left for my trip to Berlin, Germany earlier this summer, I was given a wonderful camera to document my trip. In doing so, I have discovered a love for taking pictures. I’m still very clearly a beginner, and since the best way to learn is to practice, I hope to start carrying my camera with me a lot, and give myself the ability to practice whenever I see an opportunity.

This doesn’t seem like something that really applies to my health, does it. (Well the first post was about academics, and it certainly doesn’t fit there…) Actually, I think it does. Taking pictures has become something I love to do, and I expect it will be a welcome escape from my homework.

I just have to remember to not let my photography, or reading, writing, exercising, and cooking for that matter, become an excuse to procrastinate on something more urgent.

School Year Resolutions: Part 1

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this next school year. Due to a combination of not choosing a major til my second year of college, not taking as many credit hours each semester as I should have, and key courses not being available, my next two semesters are going to be the busiest ones of my life. In the fall, I will be taking 15 credit hours at the university, as well as 4 at the local community college, because I just need one more semester of Spanish to have all my Gen-Eds done. In the spring, I am expecting to be enrolled for another 15, not including the internship that I need. One of the classes each semester is notorious among music students for being the hardest in the entire major. I will be responsible for massive amounts of homework, as well as knowing long, involved classical pieces inside and out. Also, I still have a part-time job teaching. So like I said, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I’m going to prevent myself from losing my mind this year.

Better yet, I made a list.

11 resolutions for surviving my school year

Part 1 - The academic resolutions.

Coming Soon…

…my last year of undergraduate education. (Hopefully.) I always qualify that, because I know that with the way things tend to work at the University of Arizona, something could very well go wrong that requires me to take one or two more classes just when I thought I should be done. I’ve spent a lot of time agonizing over reviewing the requirements for graduation in my major, and a little bit of time getting my advisor to check and make sure I’m right, so hopefully, everything will be fine, and I will obtain my BA in Music in May 2009.

I’ll stop with the self-congratulating now.

Unfortunately, before I get to graduate, I will have to endure what should be the two hardest semesters of my life so far. (Note that I’m leaving room for grad school in there.) Since my typical method of organization could be accurately described as non-existent a month into the semester, I’ve been brainstorming ideas for how I’m going to survive this school year.

Over the next few days, I will post these plans as a two-part series. The first part is going to be related to the academic aspect - keeping my life organized - and the second part is going to deal with my health, both physical and mental.

I’m also going to be blogging about my success, or lack thereof, as incentive to keep up the good work. I will post something once a week, indicating my progress with my stated goals. Public exposure is an excellent motivating factor, after all.

Vacation

If anyone would like to follow my current trip to Berlin, Germany, please click here.

I’ll be back in the USA when school starts in late August, and hope to add new content at that time. Until then, you can check my Berlin blog and Flickr account for regular posts and pictures.

Print Your Index Cards

I have been using a combination of Google Calendar and Remember the Milk to keep track of my daily schedule and tasks lately. I recently took Doug Ireton’s advice on the RTM blog on how to set up RTM as a GTD system, and all of my lists and tasks are now GTD-ready. (For more information on Getting Things Done, click here or here.) One of my favorite things about both RTM and gCal is the ability to text your tasks to the service. With gCal, you set up your phone and text GVENT with your event, and with RTM you direct message on Twitter. If it weren’t for this, I’d forget most of the things I have to do before I get anywhere near a computer. I very highly recommend checking out both of these services if you haven’t already done so. But I digress.

I’ve also been using PocketMod as a way to carry all my weekly tasks around with me in paper form. I decided, however, that I have no use for all 8 pages that PocketMod will give you, as I was only using about 2 on a regular basis, and that I really like 3×5 index cards better. (I don’t do a full-on Hipster PDA, however. As a female, I’m forced to wear clothes that don’t have pockets designed to carry ANYTHING, so I carry a purse instead. Actually I hate “purses”, so I really carry a small backpack. But again, I digress.)

I only need a few index cards, one for this week’s schedule and one for next week, and one for my Next Actions list in RTM. Rather than handwriting these each week, I decided to see if I could get them to print to 3×5 index cards. Now, to warn you, I use a MacBook, and on Macs, printing preferences are very easily customized. I’m sure it can be done on a Windows machine, with the right printer, but I’m not sure how easy it would be.

On 43Folders, I managed to find a tip for printing the week from Google Calendar to a 3×5 card, which was very helpful. After doing this, I realized I’d want a To Do list as well, and figured my Next Actions list from RTM will be perfect.

For the record, I’m doing this in Safari, and printing on an HP Photosmart C3100-series printer.

The process for printing from gCal is a little more complicated than RTM, so I’m going to do the easy one first. In RTM, select the list you want to print. Click the “Print” icon in the info pane to the right of the list. It will open up a new window (or tab, if you’re running Firefox and have that preference selected) with the list header at the top of the page, and the list with neat little check-boxes. It also lists due dates for the tasks, what list the task came from (because my NA list is a composite of all my lists) and the priority, pictured by little bullet points. Select Print from the File menu, and in the Paper Size drop-down menu, choose Index Card 3×5. Deselect the checkbox next to “Print headers and footers” so you have more space. Now change the scale to the desired size. This will change depending on how many items you have on your list, and how big you want it. I try to scale it down so it’s all on one card, but as big as it can be. Make sure you put the index card in the printer tray, and click Print. See, that wasn’t so hard.

Now for the fun.

To print from gCal, first choose Week view, then select only the calendars you want to print. Click the “Print” icon at the top of the page, right next to the view tabs. This will open Google’s version of a print window. In this window, change the font size to “Biggest” in the drop-down menu. Trust me, your eyes will thank you. (Although, honestly, it could be even bigger.) DO NOT click Print. This window does not allow you to change the size of the paper, so instead, click Save As. This will cause the browser to download your calendar as a PDF file. Open this file, and open the Print dialog. Now change the paper size to Index Card 3×5. In Preview, I had to tell it to automatically scale the image to fit the paper size. Once this radio button was selected, however, it sized and scaled the image perfectly. Again, make sure you put the index card in the printer tray, and click Print. Also not too hard, but there is an extra step or two.

If the Hipster PDA isn’t quite right for you, but you want to carry index cards rather than a planner, and you’re too busy (or lazy) to handwrite your cards, hopefully this will give you some insight on how to print them. Let the computer do the thinking for you. Or at least the writing, since this does involve some thinking on your part.