Semester has officially started, and the hectic uni life for first years has begun. I'm on the other side now - I got a job as a teaching fellow, which means I'm teaching first year students four times a week. I really enjoyed my first week last week and can't wait to get into real content and actual teaching (last time was mostly a "get to know you" session).
In the mean time, academic life is extremely busy. Papers, research, experiments, reading, administration (Oh so much administration) have taken over my life, and I'm still working on striking a balance. Tomorrow I'm planning on getting in very early (maybe 7:45 am) to get a good start so that I may be able to leave early and have a relaxing ride home, rather than the 7 pm rush-hour bus trip, which takes forever.
I'm also going to take up running, but since I've never run casually, I'll be starting of with twice a week walks - maybe 30-45 minutes. I only need to reach about 75% of my maximum heart rate to start burning that extra tire off! Once I feel comfortable with the walking (maybe after a month or so) I'll move onto short bursts of jogging here and there and gradually work my way up. I'm looking forward to concentrating on my health and fitness this year.
Grad school & Update
I officially started grad school today. I’ve been working in the same lab/place for a couple of weeks now since January but now the real work starts. The work that will contribute towards my final degree (hopefully). Already, meetings are piling up, teaching duties are beginning this week and I have lots of ideas to generate, and experiments to start planning. Sounds stressful, right? Luckily, I devoted a lot of time this year to sort out my workflows and organisation strategies. I cleaned out my desk and lab bench surface. I added an in/out tray to my desk (which has made a LOT of difference). There are also lots of forms to be initialed, people to find and importantly, people to catch up with!
I’m trying to prioritise this year, which I think is one of the major challenges during your candidature. Finding time to spend with the important people and doing things just to relax and take a break from work. This weekend I’ve planned to go to some local markets and spend some time with my significant other.
I also started watching House of Cards. It’s my main vice, TV. I love it and would probably find it very hard to give it up, so there’s always always time for TV. It helps me unwind and think about nothing which is very much needed sometimes!
Apologies for the roughness of the writing in my blog here. I’ve written a blog before but never in a formal sense, and I am doing little to no editing due to time constraints. But, just writing for about 10-20 mins a day has been really helpful and I can foresee it removing those mental blocks I get so much during the work week.
Workflows
Workflows, productivity, automation, to-do, lists: all words I love. I love thinking about efficiency and improving the way I work so that I get the maximum work amount done in the least amount of time. I’m all about working smart, not hard. Over the past year in particular I realised that working a lot does no equal more productive work. I never took breaks, didn’t take a holiday and worked constantly on my project in my limited amount of time. As a result, towards the end I was depressed, unmotivated, burnt out, mentally and physically exhausted.
I forgot to do the most important thing - look after myself. I lost sight of the bigger picture and focussed too hard. This causes a lot of strain on my brain and as a result I sort of took a step backwards. At the beginning of this year I was super prone to stress, anxiety and mental exhaustion. So I’m still working on rebuilding myself.
I feel like I’ve improved already. I now utilise valuable tools; apps, notebooks, my phone, and organise my life so that I can carve out time for myself when I feel like it. I have to realise that even if I’m missing in action, the world will move on and everything will be ok. It’s important to sit back and take a break sometimes. Do something mind-numbing, relax, and eat whatever. I really like having something like that to look forward to. It’s extremely good to just stop thinking about work for some periods of time. It does wonders and lets your mind “reboot". That might be my word of the month.
Transit
Commuting is the worst. I know there are “upsides” - a chance to relax, catch up on daily reading/news, listen to music, look at the scenery (I get to cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge everyday), but in the end, it’s just a hot, flustering vehicle packed with business men, women, kids and the elderly trying to get somewhere. Like everybody else. At 7:30am on a Tuesday morning. Yes, peak hour. It’s horrible, it’s impatient, it’s angry and most importantly, it’s slow.
I like to think one day I’ll have a great level of patience that has been engrained in me over the many slow journey’s I’ve taken. I’ve already learnt a lot of things about travel:
- Leave early. No matter what, it’s more likely to get you there on time, and you’re more likely to miss rush hour traffic. It’s a big trade-off with sleep, though.
- Listen to music / read instapaper / Facebook - distractions are key, it really makes time fly when you get into the zone.
- Don’t punish yourself/other people. Feeling angry is another way that the public transport system has won. Let it go.
Morning
One of the main reasons I want to start rising earlier is to get a morning routine going. Getting up, rushing out the door without eating/drinking/cleaning anything really bothers me because it’s just a recipe for a bad day. And I’m purposely trying to minimise the chances of that as much as possible.
Today I rose naturally at 6:30am but my selfish brain decided I could do with another ten or so minutes until my alarm (Sleep Cycle) went off. This did not work; I slipped back into a deeper sleep and woke up in a very groggy/tired state. Next time I’ll remember though; if I’m up, I’m up!
Small actions
I’m not the biggest fan of goals; I’ve found them limiting and set up for failure in the past for myself personally, so I’m limiting my “goal-setting” and focusing on doing something I love. Rather than goals, I’m just setting up some small action steps to take over the coming month. I’m hoping for a good result, whatever that may be.
They are:
- Make a healthy lunch the night before and pack it with snacks 2-3 times a week
- Sleep earlier: aiming for 10 - 10:30 on work nights
- No carbs at breakfast or lunch on weekdays
- Write a blogpost or journal everyday (I use the Day One app)
These mainly focus on my health - which is my first and most important priority. I hope after a month these will seem a bit more “normal” to me and help me adjust my lifestyle to suit a busy and hectic work schedule. Already I have adjusted some small changes in the past, such as drinking more water (I have a wonderful Therma S’well bottle which I adore) and I’ve learnt healthy eating habits from people around me. But of course with that came a lot of failure and it’s important not to let that hold you back.
Notebooks
I'll admit it. I'm obsessed with notebooks and organisation. I know it's silly to cling to so many material objects, but honestly, having notebooks around to physically record my ideas, lists and experiences, while practicing the dying art of handwriting, makes me happy. And in the end, minimalism is about reducing your possessions until you're left with simplicity and content, which is definitely something I've found in this area. Here are some of the notebooks I own, which are part of a rapidly growing collection.
But, with all material objects, comes the risk that you will come to depend on external things for happiness; a big danger zone I don’t want to step into. I want to aim to minimise this dependency and instead draw happiness from within and my experiences/relationships with others. Rather than using objects as an immediate, short-term step into feeling content, I need to push them aside and let them play a more complementary role. That is, they help me organise my life and keep it simple, but I don’t need them. I’ll be okay without them.
Letting go
The past few months have been riddled with stress and anxiety. It had an effect on both my work and personal life. At some point then I realised I had lost my sense of self; I used to be incredibly grounded and filled with self respect and self worth, but I feel like I've been off centre and slowly drifting away from the "me" I've always loved ever since.
This stems from within myself so in order to go back to that feeling I need to work from inside. Forgetting about work, my things, and all the anxiety and confusion. One of the biggest problems I have is letting go. It's something I've always needed to work on and has been rooted since my youth. Letting go, I feel, is one of the most powerful skills I can get better at. I can't count how many times it has held me back from building stronger and healthier relationships.
So from now on, I'm going to do something about it. Whenever I get that onset of confusion, stress and sadness, I'll try to just let go.
Melbourne
Welcome
Hi!
I'm a grad student that aims to achieve a more minimalistic, simplistic style of living. The definition of minimalism is different for everybody, and this blog will show my angle and interpretation of it as I encounter challenges and successes in the process of simplifying my life.
I want to lessen the material, excess, complex and unnecessary in all aspects of my life: work, study, personal relationships, spirituality and self.
I'm a grad student that aims to achieve a more minimalistic, simplistic style of living. The definition of minimalism is different for everybody, and this blog will show my angle and interpretation of it as I encounter challenges and successes in the process of simplifying my life.
I want to lessen the material, excess, complex and unnecessary in all aspects of my life: work, study, personal relationships, spirituality and self.