This semester, I used different tools to remind myself of all the meetings, deadlines, classes (in person and online), presentations, and more during the semester. I knew from the beginning that this semester would have been challenging so I literally wrote down everything, from thoughts that wouldn’t let me focus to assignments. I mostly used a huge printed calendar that hangs on my room’s wall. It helped me to remind myself what day I was on, but also all the important deadlines and the events planned a month ahead. Then I used Google Calendar. I am not a big fan of digital planners and notes, because my laptop computer is always messy, and when I write down something digitally doesn’t really stick in my mind. However, I found it helpful and easy to save all the Zoom meeting links (with just one click). What really helped was the reminders (like 1 hour before or 30 minutes) before the meeting so if I am deeply focused on something, I don’t lose track of the time. It was also easy to show my schedule for the week to Prof Goldfeld whenever she needed it. Another tool I used was a notebook. I couldn’t find a planner that I really liked so I used a random notebook with rings. In this notebook, I would plan my week and my days, hours per hour, so I knew already what I was working on during the day. I would look at the notebook in the morning to prepare myself for the day. Sometimes I would plan my day (hour per hour) in the morning, if I didn’t have time the day before. The pictures at the bottom are not visually pleasing, but those tools were clear enough to me to help me remember (or better to clean up my mind to focus on something else).
What helped me a lot this semester was literally counting and writing down how many hours I had left (behind classes, internship hours and extra meetings) to study for classes during the week. I counted about 6 hours of study for each class, but week after week those 6 hours per subject doubled with teamwork and new software to learn to use. I had to constantly adjust my study plan week by week, dividing the long study sections into different subjects, so I wouldn’t focus on one subject per day (which was not even possible because I took 5 classes). This also helped me with motivation. If I wasn’t in the mood for an assignment I would start with another assignment for another class. For the internship hours, some weeks I ended up working on a client logo or business card during the weekend because I had to prioritize midterms or assignments with strict deadlines. Having a remote internship helped a lot because I could work on small adjustments asked by the client or by the Professor whenever I had time during the week (even at night). Another positive note of this semester was that Prof Goldfeld was able to adjust her schedule based on mine. Even though our meetings always happened on Mondays or Thursdays, she was always available by email to give me feedback or explain something it wasn’t clear. I am so glad everything worked out great!
