Well it's finals week and time to really put to use all the knowledge gained this semester. After a year and a half, if all goes well and I pass all of my classes, I will finally be a Sophomore. At this rate it may take me about 6 years to graduate but at least I'm moving forward. I know many people are in the same position that I am. It is difficult to get done with college in only 4 years when you have multiple obligations. People can do it though and respect all of you.
I feel with each semester I grow a little more and learn how to get through the things life throws at me a little better. There is plenty more to learn and new issues I am sure will arise but in the world today I find it is best to take life one day at a time. Taking it life as it comes and just one day at a time has been something I've been trying out for the last couple weeks. With everything going on in my work, school, and home life I have found my life has been more bearable with this approach.
This is my final advice and insight. I really think that all we can do is our best each day, allow yourself to get upset and frustrated but then get over it and move on. It's much easier said then done I know this, I'm still pretty bad at it but when I do move on and do what needs to be done I am always calmer afterward.

Today I am going to talk about the downside of multitasking. Multitasking is necessary in many things at work, school, home, and personal lives. It helps us get more things done in a specific matter of time. I multitask daily because I have to especially for my job. I'll be looking things up in the computer and answer the phone. I'll answer the persons question on the phone and begin to transfer them while I am printing off whatever it was I was looking f0r on the computer and then someone will walk in and I will smile or say hello.

Despite all of this I don't like multitasking. It takes of pressure to watch TV and do homework at the same time but my homework never gets done faster because of it. I found this on a sight called Penelope's Trunk and it gives advice about habits and the work place. This one I particularly thought was interesting.

2. Admit multitasking is bad.
For people who didn't grow up watching TV, typing out instant messages and doing homework all at the same time, multitasking is deadly. But it decreases everyone's productivity, no matter who they are. "A 20-year-old is less likely to feel overwhelmed by demands to multitask, but young people still have a loss of productivity from multitasking," says Trapani.

So try to limit it. Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users suggests practicing mindfulness as a way to break the multitasking habit.

Mindfulness is something I need to practice. Perhaps calming down the speed I do things at and giving it more attention will help ease my stress in life.

I've learned a lot from all of my classes this semester. Looking back on the first week I really thought I had put my self in a tough situation. All of my classes seemed like they would be more demanding then any of my past ones. Thinking about my classes now I couldn't have picked a better schedule, except for maybe nutrition. I had American History Tuesday nights, Comparative Politics Wednesday nights, and Media Writing on Thursday nights. All of them intertwine and are so relevant to one another that things I would learn in one class would be related to other topics for my following classes. For example in my history class I learned that Presidents in our history that end up being unpopular are not always because of things they have done. If a President before them made a bad decision but the fall out didn't hit until the next guy unfortunately the current president takes the heat. The next night in my Comparitive Politics class we would discuss our current economic state and the fact that blame can be put in many places but as far as it being President Obama's fault, that isn't necessarily true. Things became bad with President Bush but since it is worse now President Obama takes, as I said before, a lot of the heat. Thursday night in class we learn all about media and the different ways things are written and reported and what makes news. President Obama gets a lot of media attention due to the problems we are having with our country, how the unemployment rate keeps going up, our economy has yet to stabalize and now health care passing. All of things are relevant to us and everyone is touched by them in some way of their life, it's all news.
I feel as if I have a better understanding by having taken all these classes in the same semester. It wasn't planned, I just took things I needed to or wanted to and I feel I got extremely lucky. I'm smarter now because of it and appreciate my teachers and the way they helped me understand the different sides and complex aspects of my classes.

Birthday Time

My birthday was last week which is my favorite day of the year. Unfortunately it was in the middle of the week, those are the hardest to celebrate properly. I pretty much turn into a 5 year old when it's my birthday and this year I took the day off from work and was determined to have a nice relaxing day. That, of course, didn't last long, I found out that I to give a presentation in my Comparative Politics class the night of my birthday.
I once again procrastinated and ended up doing most of my presentation prep an hour before class. I did manage to finish it though and didn't pass out or get sick while giving my presentation. I never really get sick but I was glad to have it over with.
This really just goes to show how life changes over time. When you're 5 you count down your birthday for months, I still do that but it's still different. I don't really expect or care about presents anymore, it's all about how I spend my time and who I spend it with. I also don't mind doing things I have to do like going to work or doing a presentation. I would prefer not to have to do those things on special occasions such as the day of my birth but that's how life is and the world unfortunately does not revolve around me. Balance is important and when you don't have a say in things that come up it is important to roll with the punches and keep up with your obligations.

What Was I Thinking?

So I mentioned that i took up snowboarding as a hobby. Unfortunately the snowy season won't last forever. Knowing this my sister-in-law and I gathered some people and signed up for a volleyball league. I love volleyball but have never played it competitively, so we just joined a recreation league. We're not very good but that doesn't really matter to any of us. The problem I have is the timing. I figured surely starting a league in April won't be a big deal. I would only have a couple weeks left of classes so I wouldn't have no free time for long, not true. It was the worst possible timing in the world. I have a million assignments and tests on my plates on top of work. Let's add in volleyball on one of the only free nights I had to study. Yes, that sounds like a good idea.
Word to the wise, never start any kind of league when it's getting to finals time. I am super stressed, within the next two weeks I have three tests, two papers, and five assignments due on top of it all I have to move. Oh, did I mention I'm not sure where I'm moving yet? Yes, never start a league toward finals time.
Despite all of these things, this is one of the funnest things I have ever done. I really enjoy having a hobby and getting out of the house. Timing is everything though, if I can make it the next two weeks I'm sure I'll enjoy the league that much more. I think it is important to find or make time to do things you enjoy. If you do nothing but work, complain, and stress all the time then life is going to pass by too quickly and you might miss out on a lot.

H-O-B-B-Y

As you know by now I am trying to multitask all that I can. I've been trying to balance my work and school and also find time to do the menial stuff in life. Well I'm not quite satisfied with working and going to school all week and then do nothing in my free time. Given I shouldn't have free time but if I'm going to put of studying I'm going to do something productive and fun. I've decided to get a life and for the first time ever I have found a hobby!!!
Snowboarding is one of the funnest things I've ever done in my life. My boyfriend has helped equip me with all the gear and this year we starting learning. I've gone snowboarding almost every weekend for a little over a month now. Not only is it really fun and gives me something to look forward to on the weekends but it takes a ton of muscle. I've never been so sore in my life from anything as I have from snowboarding. This makes me feel good because I haven't found much time in the week lately to properly work out. I was looking into it and found on Answers.com that it has tons of health benefits and is a HUGE lower body, core workout.
It's all about multitasking for me. I have found something I really enjoy and look forward to constantly that builds muscle! On top of that the next three days after going I'm so sore that I have nothing but time to do studying and homework. That's what I call a win, win. Going to go tomorrow and am looking forward to it!

Hello again,
So I caught that nasty cold that's been going around lately. Wouldn't you know it, it was a week that I had two tests to take and a news article due. I was dosing up on the Dayquil and Nyquil but that did little to stop my symptoms, I did sleep awesome though. I recently had to go home early from work and thus felt as though it would look badly for me to call in or leave early again with this cold. I don't feel I have a lot of job security.
Monday comes along and I realize that I have to take a test for my history class that night, I had received the book in the mail the Thursday before. We only have two tests in this class and no homework. Basically, I had to do awesome or I was in big trouble. We were on chapter 22 and I hadn't read a page. I did however have about 35 pages of notes to study from.
My other test had to be taken before class on Wednesday. This is for my Comparative Politics class and I must say I haven't gotten a ton out of it thus far and had NO idea what to expect as far as what would be tested.
Figures a nasty cold would pop up on this very week. I was tired, stuffy, hurting, and sore and now to cram for two test that I wasn't prepared for. I managed to suck it up and ask my boss to go home a couple hours early one of those days and just slept before taking the plunge to my academic death. I'm using this story as a what NOT to do in education. I told you I'm a procrastinator. Although procrastination is never the way sometimes we have to cram, here is a site I found that has a good form of cramming, it's at About.com:Homework/study tips. It's an article called Cramming by Grace Flemming. She talks about chunking information that we have to study into larger, similar groups. This way you can recall more things. Such as in my history class it is difficult to remember each and every individual event that helped shape this country but by memorizing the presidents and going by presidencies it is much easier to recall things and keep them in order.
Luckily the notes I had were enough for my History class, I currently have an A and for my politics class I gladly accept the B on the strangest test I've ever taken! I count myself lucky, there's no way luck was not a factor. I accept it graciously seeing as though for the most part I have the worst luck in the world.

Smart & Fit

So for the last couple months I have decided to start working out. I wanted to be healthier, have muscle, and start habits to continue in my life. This year already has been a very productive one, filled with all kinds of new things.
I am lucky enough to work at a place that has a gym on the second level, if this were not the case it would be much more difficult for me to ever get to a gym let alone pay for one. I've officially learned a new trick! I had a quiz coming up and had not read the upcoming chapter. If I work out on a day that I have class I usually only get about half an hour in before I have to leave. I got done with work needing to read this chapter before class that night but not wanting to skip working out since I had not been able to the previous days. Then it came to me, I've seen plenty of people at the gym reading books while on elliptical, I could do it too! I quickly changed and headed upstairs with my reading materials in hand. Got in a hard workout and actually retained much of what I read (not to mention it took my mind off the time and pain of my workout.) I did well on my quiz and slept wonderfully that night.
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time during the week and despite my wanting to get a full night sleep every night it seems almost impossible. I came across an idea online that I liked and am going to start trying. When possible I've tried to make a big dinner on the weekends so I can have leftover for the week to save time and money. Here's an idea from eHow website, it's posted by member iriesister and called How to Study While Working Full Time. "Prepare for the week from the weekend - plan your meals and lay out your clothes. This will save you lots of time."
I'll have to work on getting more organized, something I'm not great at, and let you know how things go.

I am a procrastinator of the worst kind. I unfortunately put many things off until I absolutely have to worry about them, bills, school work, laundry but it's just stressful when all these things fall at the same day. This is a small extract of a week I had a while ago. I needed to rent a movie for a new class I had just started and watch it by Thursday along with answering a questionnaire.
The weekend before this questionnaire was due I had gone to the video store to rent it, of course it wasn't in. The clerk immediately asked "Is this for a class?" It was obvious then that I had little hope of finding this movie anywhere. You see, I work full time and have night classes three nights a week along with an online class I full heartily regret taking. Finding time to go to the video store, let alone watch any of this movie, was going to be difficult. Tuesday came along and I had yet to find the movie I had to get it by the following day or I was in trouble. I had learned that my other alternative movie stores had closed all around my house so I called that night to one that was open and asked if they had this movie. They didn't but it showed that the Roy store did, with my luck as usual the Roy store was already closed. I called Roy first thing and they didn't have it and I was once again asked "Is this for a class?" Ugh, trouble. A friend of infinite wisdom suggested the library. I almost laughed out loud! never had I heard of renting movies from the library. I'm not sure why not when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. I called my local library immediately and sure enough they put the movie aside for me.
When I got off work that day I had to run straight to the library and I couldn't just pick it up, I had to renew my library card since it had been around ten years since I've been there. I filled out the papers as quickly as I could, took the movie and darted to my other night class. After surviving a painful two hours of things over my head I made it to my boyfriends house, threw in some laundry, started cooking something for dinner and wondered how I was going to stay awake to do this and have another full day tomorrow.
I must once again point out something, I HATE mornings, hate them, I've spent most of my life sleeping in until noon. I love staying up late doing nothing, it makes my days feel longer and it's also when I get my second wind. I currently have to be at work at 7:30 am, something no one would have EVER imagined I would do. So given the fact I get up early and I do not do well off of less than 8 hours of sleep you can realize I was completely over this day already. I get up around 6 am and most nights don't get home until around 7:30-8:30 and bedtime is 9:30.
So I put the movie in around 9:30 and start to settle down after switching some laundry around and what happens? That's right, the volume doesn't work, everything I tried did nothing. I had to wake up my boyfriend, not fun since he works earlier than I do, to fix it. It even took him a while to figure out what was going on. Finally a little after 10 pm everything was fixed and ready to go. I started watching and filling out my paper in the dark. I was up until around 12:30 am with another full day just a few short hours away, actually fell asleep during the last part of the movie but I survived! I woke up the next morning tired as can be but made it threw my day and the sense of relief I felt leaving class that night was overwhelming. The weekend was coming and not only had I managed to get my homework done on time, I was able to fulfill my work obligations and get some much needed laundry done. What's more is that the next day was Friday, always a bonus.
The point in this excruciatingly long story is one, when in doubt ask around, I started asking people's advice of where to get this movie or if they had it by chance. If I had not just simply asked I would never had known to go to the library and then who knows what would have happened. Second, even when you're on a schedule that seems impossible for you personally, I know others have it MUCH worse than I, think of things you CAN do to multitask. Manage your time as best you can, throw that laundry in while you're watching that movie. In the end you'll feel a lot more at ease for having it all done, not to mention you'll smell better with clean clothes!

Welcome to Juggling

Greetings to all of you and welcome to my blog. My name is Michelle, and I lead a very boring life. This is a hazard of working full time, going to school and attempting to find time for life's little bumps, friends, fitness, and a relationship. I know that many in this world are in my exact shoes. In this blog I will attempt to share my experiences, perhaps gain some perspective on how to deal with all these things, and of course share this with you. Balancing life will be a challenge our entire lives, we need to learn how to multitask and take it in strides. Let the juggling begin!!