Hey blog, what’s up? I may have neglected you recently, but I have to admit that it was completely purposefully. I had decided that I wouldn’t allow myself to do a large amount of things while I was stuck in Work On Paper mode, and blogging was one of them. I thought now that it’s over with I would be in a much more celebratory mood, but I’ve been adding up the things I have to do this weekend and, well, the stress is mounting.
So for Becky, who is also having a frustrating stressful time and asked that I post this, I decided to post a few lists that I’ve had in my head while trying to Get Things Done.
Things I wasn’t allowing myself to do while this paper was unfinished:
- Update blog.
- Respond to non-urgent e-mails, comments on LJ, Facebook posts.
- Read Google Reader posts, unless I have decided it’s time for a Break.
Things, however, that I am most definitely allowing myself to do to help de-stress during the day:
- Go on long walks. (Okay, I wasn’t able to do this because of my sickness until YESTERDAY, when I took a lovely hour long walk instead of got work done. But seriously. After sitting in bed for two weeks? I need to get OUT!)
- Paint my nails during study breaks.
- Watch movies and knit late in the evening (why am I suddenly a night owl that can’t fall asleep before midnight?)
And things that were SUPPOSED to be my rewards for finishing this paper, but now I’m not sure if I can do them because I have such a headache and I feel so stressed out about all the things coming up in the next two weeks:
- Watch RENT! Which I rented from iTunes.
- Paint a picture!
- Play with my new Tarot cards!
- Party all weekend!
- Go to Prater, the amusement park and have lots of fun on the roller coasters. (This also means I need to feel completely healthy.)
- Answer e-mails and check up on sites I’ve been neglecting.
Now what do I do though? All I can feel is stress, stress, stress, and disappointment in how awful my paper is (it sucks. I really didn’t know what I was writing, but hey, it’s 5 pages). And headache. So yeah. I’m not really in the celebratory mood, but I am gonna go watch Wolverine tonight because I love Wolverine and that is definitely a way to celebrate.
So I thought I was managing my stress. Maybe not. But this still is a helpful list, don’t you think?
oogh. I know how you feel….I feel that way every time I think about improving the scores on my Calc tests. Completely stressed. So far I haven’t felt that way over papers this quarter….(no more stupid writing classes that I have to take for GenEd requirements!! Papers I WANT to write!!! WIN!!!!) but….completely stressed over other things.
5 weeks down, 5 + finals to go.
Good luck with that paper!
I’ve never met a list I didn’t find useful – I don’t see why yours would be an exception!
I always tell myself its better to have a bad paper then no paper at all. I have a hard time writing papers since I get distracted so easily. Maybe I should keep a list of things I can’t do too. :)
Awww, I’m sorry about the stress and the headache. Not sure where you live, but maybe it could be a change in the atmospheric pressure, due to weather changes? Around here, we’re into a damp spell and that means falling at. pressure and often, a headache for me.
Then again, maybe it’s mostly the coming down off of writing the paper. Please don’t feel it sucks. We all feel that way, on completing lots of projects. Please don’t. It’s done. If you want to try harder, on your next paper, so be it. But please don’t add to stress, over the one that’s done.
And maybe, you can relax, by writing a letter?????????????????????? :-))))) Yeah, I just had to get that little point in here. -grin-
Luck with de-stressing,
‘Dear you,’
http://dearyoucomma.blogspot.com/
It’s funny you added that about writing a letter – I actually did unwind last night by writing a letter, and I’m planning on doing the same tonight. :)
Thanks for visiting! I’m so excited to see how your blog turns out; there aren’t enough letter-writing blogs out there.
Did you manage to find time for some fun? Hope so. Writing papers is awful — I’m in the middle of finishing some up, starting some new ones, revising some old ones — and the only way through it is lots of sparkly distractions when it gets to be too much. Good luck!