The adjustment to working and going to college full time is progressing slowly. This week I got ahead of myself finishing all required assignments a day early. As the holiday season approaches and the COVID-19 numbers climb, work can be stressful at times but I’m managing. The one take away from all this is I must take at least a day away for myself.

English composition and quantitative analysis mathematics classes aren’t difficult; they are just time consuming. I’m narrowing down my persuasive essay in English to discuss how the development of artificial intelligence benefits society and counterarguments of its determent to society. Mathematics is one of my strong subjects. But I have to remind myself to slow down. Just like in programming, if you miss something (a negative to a positive, wrong calculations, etc.) the whole problem just fails miserably. During the week, I find myself thinking about nothing else than these two subjects.

I’m sure you’ve heard with the pandemic Walmart is expanding their Black Friday specials over a period of weeks. Also as the holidays approach, we’re getting a massive amount of product delivered almost on a daily basis. In order for me to get through the night I have to remind myself, “Go in, work your eight hours and clock out.”

As one can imagine sometimes I find myself not taking care of myself. Of course I’m going to lose some hours of sleep on a daily basis with college. Other times, I can’t remember if I’ve eaten, paid bills or done other daily living activities. For me, that is a red flag, “Danger, Will Robinson, danger!”

With the remaining four weeks of college classes and holiday season it’s best, I believe, to take at least one day to reset. With Mondays and Tuesdays off, last week I allocated Monday as a “me” day. I didn’t invest any time in my college courses. I literally turned my phone off for the day. I made sure I ate, bathed and got my house in order. It was quite effective. Tuesday I was ready to dive into coursework completing a day early this week.

That’s going to be the plan unless something unexpected comes up. Technically you can’t catch up on sleep but I’m woke up refreshed. Let’s get this eight hours done, so I can relax! Bring it on!