Finals: Work vs. Knitting

The title here really says it all…  Although I really only have one final exam this semester (and it is today!), I have other big end-of-semester deadlines (for example, a complete dissertation draft).  As always happens, I have also added to my list of holiday knitting at what is relatively at the last minute (considering that I started in May).  These two things have resulted in another battle in that time-honored struggle: work vs. knitting.  Luckily, thanks to a really awesome suggestion from a friend, I have been reading The Monday Motivator and am working on scheduling in my to-do list so that I make sure to do the things that are actually important to me (rather than the things that seem most urgent/doable at any given moment).  I’ve been creating the hourly schedules that used to indicate tragic finals stress levels, but now reflect that no one else is scheduling my time, so I might as well do it, and have met with some success.  My conclusions from the first week include:

• E-mail is a massive time suck and should be scheduled (and limited)
• Stata takes longer than you think, no matter how long you think it will take
• Thinking about what kind of crafting I want to do during a given week makes me feel productive and awesome, even if I do not follow the craft schedule (!)

All told, the scheduling is going well, and I am feeling that in the eternal fight between work and knitting, I, in fact, am winning.