Scheduling works!

I woke up this morning and the word schedule was the jam on my mind. It wasn’t until I got into grad school that the ingenuity of scheduling struck me! You know that phrase about “you don’t know what you don’t know until you know what you didn’t know.” Life made more sense when I discovered it didn’t always have to be so darn hard. Growing up, my parents drilled it in us to follow a “time-table” – the fancy language was lost on us! Our timetable was an outline of what time we got out of bed, started and ended each activity, what/when to eat, and then retired to bed. They knew their strategy was golden, but we were typical kids who just wanted to play, and it took a lot of effort to get us to follow it. I think it eventually grew on me, because several years down the line, I always had a to-do list, and I even budgeted my allowances and picked up entrepreneurship from my mom. All from having a timetable of activities. Then I got to grad school and I realized it is a whole new level. If at this point you haven’t figured out the best way to make your life so much better is to have a schedule, you my friend, are in luck today!

A little about me:

Caveat – this is not an easy life! I am a mom of three kids who need all the love and nurturing in the world. Example: my daughter woke up at 4 a.m. this past week and wanted me to sing the Alphabet Song with her – how annoyingly cool! I had to, because as a parent, you must take the opportunity to teach on demand. My two boys are at that stage where I give a daily pep talk as they go to school, and I must be abreast of all the unending activities to make their life fun! Additionally, I have a great business several thousand miles away in the land of Lagos, Nigeria which means I must make strategic decisions every now and then during the day in a different time zone, about 6 hours ahead. It doesn’t leave me much time to sleep. Then, I get to do research (I have the most amazing professor ever, Dr. Jack Elliot) and to teach a class. I also take some cool core courses (that’s what Ph.D. students do). You would think I would be overwhelmed to even consider any other opportunity. Well, that is not me... I volunteer on a policy council board with the school district, I have some ongoing mentorship programs, I do church, and I still get to attend relevant, cool side gigs. Why? Because I have grown to love scheduling. I am so passionate about enjoying every day that if I didn’t devise a way to get the best experience, it would have been catastrophic. Now, don’t get me wrong, my bedroom is a disaster – that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to forgo to get this blog going (ha-ha). And sometimes I don’t get to iron my clothes, but I’m fine with that; I just trust the universe to do its magic.

To my point, I am yet to miss a homework submission, nor an important meeting because I forgot or overslept, and it’s not because I have a great memory, but because my scheduling is a life saver. As the ancient Chinese saying goes “the faintest ink is better than the strongest memory.” In this case, our ink is the Google or Outlook calendars, daily planner or journal, your mobile device, sticky notes around you, whiteboard, app reminder, and many more tools that can be used to simplify commitments. Getting those activities into time blocks and reviewing them several times during the day is a hack you want to get good at! What hacks work for you?

 

– Woome

Olawunmi Ilesanmi is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications.