Not Finished Yet

Those who have been reading my blog heard about my stressful week last week. Intex was really hard, and when it was over I decided to take a break from school for the rest of the week. My class had been told that we wouldn't really have anything else that we would have to do after Intex, but I still had two oral presentations to give, one of which I hadn't prepared yet, as well three fairly large projects. I still have three finals left to do next week.

Because I had already mentally clocked out at the end of last week, it has been really hard for me to get anything done this week. It was even difficult to go to work. I just felt like I wanted to forget about school and work and relax all day. While I did have time to do that half of a day, I needed to mentally clock back in at the start of the week.

I have learned that I really struggle to mentally clock back in. Some of you may not have this problem, but I imagine that it is a fairly common thing. I need to be very careful about taking time off and make sure that I am not completely clocking out, just going on break. Life is difficult, and we can't just take breaks all day, every day. We need to work and get things done.

In the future, I am going to do a few things differently. Much of the homework I had to do this week I could have done sooner, but decided not to since it wasn't due for a while. I am going to try to avoid having this happen, and do my homework when I have time, while still leaving some time to relax and have fun. I will try to have everything I can done before my huge end of semester projects so that I can actually relax after them, and will force myself to clock back in after taking some time off from homework.

Remote Meeting

My team met for a remote meeting last Wednesday. We used Google Hangouts, and there were a few difficulties. Some of the team members did not have consistent wifi, and one had to join the call a few different times. I discovered a cool feature of Google Hangouts - it focuses automatically on the video of the person who is talking.
It was nice as we were able to meet, discuss our presentation, and finalize our powerpoint in the convenience of our homes.

I Can Do Hard Things with a Good Attitude

This week for me can be summed up in one word: INTEX. If you want to know more about that, ask any Information Systems student. A brief description, though: we got a case Monday morning, and had to prepare a solution by Friday at noon. We then presented the project to a panel Saturday morning.

My IS group spent about 280 hours on this project. We averaged 14 hours a day, and turned in a 105 page report at the end. It was a ton of work, but thankfully I enjoyed doing it. In addition to realizing that I did make a good decision of what to study, I learned that I am capable of doing really hard things.

All semester I had been hearing about INTEX and dreading it. Once the project actually started, however, I was too busy to think about how hard it was and how much time I'd have to spend on it. I didn't really complain about it, and found that I was able to have a good attitude, and the project seemed easier than I'd anticipated it being.

Moving forward, I am going to try to stop being a pessimist. I will remember that I can do hard things, and that they are easier if I do them with a good attitude.