and the reading drags on...
Why is it that the work one has to do seems to drag on at turtle pace while the time one has to do it in goes by at lightspeed?? That's definitely how I feel about this summer. When I finished my last paper on April 30th, the comps seemed a world away and the summer seemed more than enough time to finish my main field, get started on one of my minor fields and even take some time off with my family. Well, it's now August, there are only 3 weeks left of summer and I leave for Brazil in 4 days having read, maybe, 40% of my major field. I'll bring some reading down but I don't expect to reach the first week of september with more than 50% of my major field done. Where has the time gone???? Oh well, I just keep telling myself it's not worth getting stressed out about... if I end up needing an extra month of preparation, the world is not going to end. Besides, I'll probably read much faster once the date looms closer and pressure builds. I'll make sure to regularly meet my supervisors to keep the pressure going.
Speaking of pressure, I learned a lot about my performance under pressure then. I've always know I needed a bit of it to perform but had no idea I needed such vast quantities. I'll explain. I only needed to take two seminars in the Fall semester to fulfill my course requirements. To those two courses, I rapidly added paleography (essential for my work as a medievalist), medieval Catalan and intensive Latin. One of the history courses was a year-long directed reading course with my supervisor, to which was added Diplomatic Editing in the Spring term, as well as continuting with medieval Catalan & Latin. Since the normal load at my department is of 2 courses per term I was very worried about how well I would cope. To my utter surprise I did better and was much less stressed this year than I was last year when I had half the course load! I found out that the more time I have to do things the more it gets filled by inconsequential crap like mindlessly browsing the internet & worrying about the future. I'm definitely at that state right now - wasting valuable reading time worrying about a move to Barcelona that won't happen before I write my comps.
After a bad reading week, I had a good hour of reading tonight. I used a new strategy. Instead of taking notes on my computer as I read, I decided to just read the entire chapter. While I was reading, I restrained myself to minimal notes around the margins (don't worry - I don't write on books, I use post-its). After I finished, I spent about 10 mins typing the post-it notes on my computer. That way, I was able to go through 40 pages more thoroughly than I had before in about 1 hour while generating less notes. I'll try this again tomorrow and see if I can finish this particular book in the morning.
I've given myself the deadline of November 30 to finish reading. That would give me December to review and I could write the exam at the very beg. of January. That means I only have 109 days to finish 160 books... eeek!
Speaking of pressure, I learned a lot about my performance under pressure then. I've always know I needed a bit of it to perform but had no idea I needed such vast quantities. I'll explain. I only needed to take two seminars in the Fall semester to fulfill my course requirements. To those two courses, I rapidly added paleography (essential for my work as a medievalist), medieval Catalan and intensive Latin. One of the history courses was a year-long directed reading course with my supervisor, to which was added Diplomatic Editing in the Spring term, as well as continuting with medieval Catalan & Latin. Since the normal load at my department is of 2 courses per term I was very worried about how well I would cope. To my utter surprise I did better and was much less stressed this year than I was last year when I had half the course load! I found out that the more time I have to do things the more it gets filled by inconsequential crap like mindlessly browsing the internet & worrying about the future. I'm definitely at that state right now - wasting valuable reading time worrying about a move to Barcelona that won't happen before I write my comps.
After a bad reading week, I had a good hour of reading tonight. I used a new strategy. Instead of taking notes on my computer as I read, I decided to just read the entire chapter. While I was reading, I restrained myself to minimal notes around the margins (don't worry - I don't write on books, I use post-its). After I finished, I spent about 10 mins typing the post-it notes on my computer. That way, I was able to go through 40 pages more thoroughly than I had before in about 1 hour while generating less notes. I'll try this again tomorrow and see if I can finish this particular book in the morning.
I've given myself the deadline of November 30 to finish reading. That would give me December to review and I could write the exam at the very beg. of January. That means I only have 109 days to finish 160 books... eeek!
posted by Alexandra at 10:33 PM
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