Grad School Resolutions

[tourist]

3. Don't take back up smoking 2 packs a day

This. But I can't do without regular smoke breaks. Good luck.

[Riotbeard]

This. But I can't do without regular smoke breaks. Good luck.

Haha I know! I went 8 months without a cigarette and now I am a bit off the wagon but mostly socially.

[rachaelski]

I responded once to this thread, but since then I have come up with some firm goals to make my graduate school life productive and enjoyable. I should also add that I am working on my 3rd graduate degree, and that I have had quite a varied graduate school experience. I did the live in the college town, full-time graduate student thing. I also did the work full-time and attend graduate school part-time thing. I am returning to the full-time life, but also working a couple small jobs (a TA position and leading a preschool co-op). For me, having a schedule and forced normalcy is vital. Here are my resolutions:

1. Read 20 minutes of leisurely material--magazines, a novel, something new (and unrelated to my graduate degree) in non-fiction--a day.

2. Cook on Monday, Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays (the nature of my schedule makes these days the best. Also, I want to continue to photograph and blog about my cooking experiments.

3. Read 1 academic article in my field that is not directly related to my research per day.

4. Practice my foreign language (using Rosetta Stone) for 1 hour, 5 days a week.

5. Take Sundays off from school.

6. Set a time to stop working each day, and spend time with my husband.

We'll see how these goals mesh into my life once school starts. However, the cooking thing and setting a stop time each day really helped me maintain focus last year when I was working and going to school.