With working remotely for over a year and things starting to open back up, I find that I am having trouble managing my time more than before and am spreading myself thin. To try and combat this, I’ve been looking at ways to try and better organize my time for work and for myself so that I don’t burn out while still doing everything that I need and want to do. 
 
Here are some things I have found helpful so far when creating a schedule that works for me!
 

• Determine things outside of work that are important to you. For me this is getting time to talk to my family, a daily run, and now that it’s reopened, time at the gym a few days a week. The things that you like to do outside of being in grad school will be different for everyone but the important thing is making time for yourself so that you don’t burn out. 
• Figure out the time of day you work best. Lab hours, for me, were on a very restricted schedule until my campus started to reopen; because of that I tried to be efficient with my in lab time and my at home time for work. While it was confining at first, the restricted schedule did teach me a lot about my work habits. I learned that I typically work best in the lab during the morning and early afternoon, and my best work at home (if I choose to do any) in the late afternoon and early evening so I try to schedule myself when I know I am most productive.
• See how long things normally take you. Sometimes things don’t take as long as we assume they do or actually take us a lot longer to do. By looking how long things normally take you, it can make it easier to plan your schedule ahead in the future.
• Learn to prioritize your tasks.  This is similar to determining things that are important to you outside of work, but this is really for dealing with all of your to-dos. A lot of people use the Eisenhower Box for this, and separate tasks by urgent vs not urgent and then important vs not important to determine what to do first versus maybe look to hand off. I personally don’t like to formally do this because it takes me too long to separate things by category. I instead like to make general to do lists by section like things to do at work or at home and if things are a little more time sensitive I just make sure to mark that off. For me this makes tasks a little less daunting and batching them this way makes the tasks go faster.
• Have a calendar. Having a calendar where you can have all your due dates and meetings in one place can be a great resource whether it is a virtual calendar or a physical one. Above my desk is a really big calendar, with my meetings and to do’s, that I can see during zoom meetings, it helps me see if I can realistically take on more tasks or meetings quickly.
• Respect your boundaries and say no. This one is my biggest problems, but if you need to, say no. You don’t have to say yes just because someone has asked you to do something. If you have too much to do, you’re feeling overwhelmed, or you just don’t want to—whatever the reason is, it’s okay to say you can’t do something and you shouldn't have to feel guilty about it. 

 
These are definitely just a few of the things that you can do, and just what I've found works best for me. If you have any other tips or tricks that you find work for you in figuring out your time, please comment them on this post!

I, for one, am an obsessive goal planner. If you’re like me, you like to have clear, defined goals and specific expectations on how you would like to achieve them. From my perspective, having things outlined gives me one less thing to worry about because I have a general idea of what’s coming up and what to expect. I have goals for next week, goals for next year, and even five to ten years after that. And while each week might not go exactly how I planned, my expectations are usually pretty close to what I had in mind. However, in the last few months, the pandemic kind of burst that bubble for me. Each week, what will happen or what will even be possible, is up in the air, and much of my future plans have been thrown into a cloudy haze. When plans fall apart, expectations fall with them, and the goals I’ve set for myself seem further and further out of reach.

I can lie and say I’ve handled all of this ambiguity with grace and composure. Instead, I’ll tell you that last week, I had a breakdown coming home from my lab, called up my mom to talk about it, and proceeded to have another (slightly smaller) breakdown after we hung up the phone. The fact of the matter is that some of my goals for grad school and the future beyond are just not possible anymore. Or, at least not possible with the same expectations and degree of planning that I had tied them to. While I cannot control the state of the world around me and its ruinous consequences that it has had on my goals, expectations, and plans, I can control how I respond to it. It’s inherently easy to watch this happen around me and respond with despair – to feel like I’m failing or that I, myself, am a failure. However, I’ve recently been trying to reshape my thinking on how I respond to this pandemic, and instead respond with resilience. 

​Resilience, or the ability to metaphorically ‘bounce back,’ is a key skill to develop regardless of one’s current situation. To some degree, we’ve all been forced into situations where we have the opportunity to be resilient. Whether it’s a pandemic confronting the world, or a day where everything seems to be going wrong, each is a chance to respond with resilience. Some people are naturally better at it than others. We all have that one friend who just seems to be overly optimistic regardless of the situation. The good news, though, is that resiliency is something that we can practice and develop. 
 
Here are some things we can do to learn how to be resilient: 

1. Connect with family and friends. It’s okay to ask for advice or help with something. Trying to be transparent might allow them to see something that you didn’t.
2. Take care of your mental health and wellbeing. Make time for things that make you happy that don’t involve work to give yourself a chance to clear your mind. For me, I typically go running to put myself in a more positive mindset before going back to the problem at hand.
3. Look at what the purpose of something is and seeing if it is in your control or out of it. Easier said than done, but if something isn’t in your control it isn’t something you can worry about. Look at the things you CAN control and set small targets for yourself to accomplish.
4. Try not to fall down the rabbit hole with negative thoughts, instead try to reframe them in a more positive light. For example, maybe you spent a lot of time writing a report, and then when you finished, you were told it was no longer needed. Instead of thinking the time you spent on it was wasted, maybe see it as practice for report writing. (Personally, I have the most  problems with this point).

 
It's not easy to respond with resilience at first – it takes a lot of conscious effort and practice to really start to feel it. However, even just putting in the effort to approach each day with a resilient mindset has allowed me to reframe my plans, expectations, and goals in a way that has adapted to our current world. We all make a choice in how we metaphorically ‘show up’ each day, and resilience is just another tool in our toolbox (or lab) to help us forge ahead.
 
Hope this helps, and hang in there! 

I know staying positive is WAY easier said than done during these hard times. And I am sure you are getting tired of being told to. But I am here to share some things I have started doing more often that have helped me maintain some degree of sanity and boost my mood.

1. Create a playlist of music that gets you jazzed and energized. Play this music when you are getting ready in the morning. As cheesy as it is, my first song on that list is “I Just Wanna Shine” by Fitz and The Tantrums. Whatever your hype songs are, put them into a playlist and start your day off right.
2. Drink ALL the water. The biggest thing I have noticed since drinking more water is that I rarely have headaches. And anytime I start to get one, I pump the fluids and it typically goes away. Obviously, this might not help everyone’s headache, but staying hydrated has many health benefits.
3. Wear sunscreen when you go outside and moisturize your skin daily! This coupled with drinking water has helped keep my skin looking and feeling healthy. These are such simple things to help protect and nourish our bodies that I know a lot of us do not do regularly. 
4. Spend a little extra time taking care of yourself. Whether that be getting some exercise, cooking a meal at home, reading a book of your choice, or painting your fingernails. Allocate time for you. I know that is especially hard as graduate students, being that you always feel like you should be working on school things. But it is SO important to allow yourself time to reset and relax. You are human and can only achieve so much in a day. Give yourself a break.
5. Pick up a new hobby. For me that was mushroom foraging. I always wanted to try but never made time to read up about different native mushrooms and when they fruit. With luck, and lots of hiking, I was able to find some morels this last spring! A nice beginner reference I enjoyed learning from is this guy’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcbf8wnyVJl631LAmAbo7nw
6. Write weekly goals for yourself, they can be academic or personal. I bought a fun weekly task notebook from a craft store that has space for me to write five goals for each day. Writing my goals out helps me stay on track and keeps me accountable. It also helps me plan and structure my week accordingly.
7. Help me make YouTube videos! I am in the process of creating a YouTube channel full of learning content to share with the GradSWE community. I want anything and everything you guys have! Want to make a cooking video? Talk about cultural fashion? Give a makeup tutorial? Present a research talk? Teach us how to unicycle?! If you are interested in collaborating with me to create your own video or have ideas/suggestions of videos you want to see please send me an email: Courtney.keiser@huskers.unl.edu