If I could do it all over again
That light at the end of the tunnel keeps getting brighter and brighter.
On Tuesday, I finish up my final Business Writing class. Can I emphasize more how happy I am about this? Another 3 credits, and this class is probably the most work of any classes I've had this term. Project Management was a hell of a lot of reading. Ethics in Business is a hell of a lot of thinking. Business Writing is just plain a lot of work. I'm nearly caught up on my homework, and I'm so glad because I'll actually be able to enjoy some of this absolutely amazing California weather we're having. Mid-March and it's currently 83 degrees out. So cruel that I have to be inside working on school! I've tried to get caught up so I'm not staring outside watching motorcycles go by while I'm sitting inside staring at an empty Word document wondering what to fill it with. :-)
So I've started to get contemplative. In PM, we call it a "lessons learned report." What worked, what didn't, what would you do over. If I could do it over again, what would I do again? What really helped out?
First off, if I could do it again, I would have bought a small laptop. Emphasis on small, like only a 12" screen and 5 lbs or less. Emphasis on size and portability rather than features and power. Oh yeah, with a long battery life too. I have a laptop at work, but it's a 15" screen and over 6 pounds. Man it's heavy to lug around after awhile. The ability to be able to take it wherever to be able to work wherever so you can work on homework whenever inspiration strikes. Emphasis on Word and an internet browser (and wireless Internet access), and Excel works awesome for Math classes.
Some things I got later on that I would have got earlier. A laser printer. A memory card (for porting files around). A Palm Pilot (for organizing classes and homework, and making billions of to do lists, and the ability to jot down an idea whenever it strikes).
Other things I found out worked really great. I used to go on weekend trips and found the time I spent travelling invaluable for reading, working on homework etc. Being stuck in an airport for a late plane and you're practically forced to read a textbook. During crunch times, I used to even go camping (in the summer of course), out in the woods with nothing to do but read, away from the distractions of the TV and even the computer.
I probably would have scheduled things a lot differently. Spring was definitely the best time to stack up on the classes. Not a whole lot going on. Summer was by far the worst time. As I like to say, SF is a very distracting city, and it's worst in the summer. Fall is better, but it gets hell around the holidays. Finals, final projects and getting ready for the holidays and year-end, all at the same time. You have no idea how glad I am that's behing me.
Would I have done it at such a feverish pace? That's a good question. I think it was appropriate, given the number of credits I had to finish. I think I might have scheduled them a bit differently. One of the things I found really helped was to mix up the type of classes I took at once. Take one technical, one business, and one liberal arts class at once is a great mix. Not overdoing it on writing papers or code or solving matrices all in one term. That really helped out.
As for now, I'm just happy it's almost over. :-)
On Tuesday, I finish up my final Business Writing class. Can I emphasize more how happy I am about this? Another 3 credits, and this class is probably the most work of any classes I've had this term. Project Management was a hell of a lot of reading. Ethics in Business is a hell of a lot of thinking. Business Writing is just plain a lot of work. I'm nearly caught up on my homework, and I'm so glad because I'll actually be able to enjoy some of this absolutely amazing California weather we're having. Mid-March and it's currently 83 degrees out. So cruel that I have to be inside working on school! I've tried to get caught up so I'm not staring outside watching motorcycles go by while I'm sitting inside staring at an empty Word document wondering what to fill it with. :-)
So I've started to get contemplative. In PM, we call it a "lessons learned report." What worked, what didn't, what would you do over. If I could do it over again, what would I do again? What really helped out?
First off, if I could do it again, I would have bought a small laptop. Emphasis on small, like only a 12" screen and 5 lbs or less. Emphasis on size and portability rather than features and power. Oh yeah, with a long battery life too. I have a laptop at work, but it's a 15" screen and over 6 pounds. Man it's heavy to lug around after awhile. The ability to be able to take it wherever to be able to work wherever so you can work on homework whenever inspiration strikes. Emphasis on Word and an internet browser (and wireless Internet access), and Excel works awesome for Math classes.
Some things I got later on that I would have got earlier. A laser printer. A memory card (for porting files around). A Palm Pilot (for organizing classes and homework, and making billions of to do lists, and the ability to jot down an idea whenever it strikes).
Other things I found out worked really great. I used to go on weekend trips and found the time I spent travelling invaluable for reading, working on homework etc. Being stuck in an airport for a late plane and you're practically forced to read a textbook. During crunch times, I used to even go camping (in the summer of course), out in the woods with nothing to do but read, away from the distractions of the TV and even the computer.
I probably would have scheduled things a lot differently. Spring was definitely the best time to stack up on the classes. Not a whole lot going on. Summer was by far the worst time. As I like to say, SF is a very distracting city, and it's worst in the summer. Fall is better, but it gets hell around the holidays. Finals, final projects and getting ready for the holidays and year-end, all at the same time. You have no idea how glad I am that's behing me.
Would I have done it at such a feverish pace? That's a good question. I think it was appropriate, given the number of credits I had to finish. I think I might have scheduled them a bit differently. One of the things I found really helped was to mix up the type of classes I took at once. Take one technical, one business, and one liberal arts class at once is a great mix. Not overdoing it on writing papers or code or solving matrices all in one term. That really helped out.
As for now, I'm just happy it's almost over. :-)
posted by Joe Carlin at 2:33 AM
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