Lessons Learned

We truly never stop learning. And some things have to be learned over and over again before they finally stick. Well, this quarter has been quite interesting, to say the least. I'm constantly trying to figure out how to live my life, and well, it's still a work in progress. Here are some of the things that I've picked up related to the BLF Winter Quarter/Continuous Challenge:

Lesson #1: Balance is Key

Basically, last quarter, I spent way too much time on the Endless Wave Challenge, in that it detracted from my ability to get my school work done. It's not like I didn't have time to get school work done, I just wasn't working smart. For example, I work best in the middle of the night (1am-5am), early afternoon (1pm-4pm), and late morning (8am-10am). I would use time between classes for the challenge instead of using my prime study hours for studying.Thus, I told myself I wouldn't do that anymore.

So, this quarter, I have flipped the coin over and have actually neglected a great part of my duties to the challenge because I told myself I wouldn't use peak hours for extracurricular activities. I guess it's my passive aggressive way of saying I'm not very good at managing my time. What have I learned? I need to plan out my time better. I need to plan out the month, the week, and the day with tasks to be accomplished and hard deadlines so that I don't keep procrastinating and neglecting some areas for others. I've made progress in that I use a planner, Google calendar, a dry erase month and week calendar in my room, and use post-it notes to remind of things to do. What else is there to do?

Lesson #2: Consistency is Imperative

At the beginning of most projects or endeavors, I feel inspired and start fantasizing about the infinite possibilities that can be achieved with hard work, optimism, and strategy. However, it never fails that this enthusiasm wanes and I find myself struggling to stay interested. Not going to lie, I thought the challenge was really cool when it was first presented because I thought that we could literally do anything we wanted. However, after the initial excitement dissipated, I found myself thinking "what now?" I now realize that if I am to remain consistent throughout the duration of a project, I must set up milestones of achievement (in other words, plan better), so that I don't get tripped up by the first hurdle. I find myself thinking about the finish line without thinking about the intervening obstacles and I end up getting knocked off the horse quite easily. Not good. Still working on a solution for fixing this.

Lesson #3: Establish Expectations

During this challenge, I've found myself much more focused on school work and other extracurricular activities and failed to communicate this with the other fellows. Thus, after seeing me heavily involved last quarter, some have come to question my level of involvement. I really should have communicated that this is one of the heaviest quarters for me since I'm taking 3 major classes and 2 of the hardest classes I've ever faced. Not to say others aren't taking hard classes. But, I'm not everyone else and this load is a challenge. Basically, I need to ration out my time better to my various obligations and let people know what to expect so that we can better understand each other and work together.

Reflection. Complete. Enacting Changes. Pending...

That's all folks.