the vapid grad

i have come to an unsettling realization. my social brain has been shriveling up into a lumpy mass of insipidness... and it's grad school's fault. (incidentally, in case you were wondering, everything is always grad school's fault.) off the top of my head, i can think of two ways that working on a PhD makes me socially useless sometimes.

1) i can only maintain a prolonged conversation if it is grad school related...

there is definitely more than a grain of truth here. i was so much more well-rounded as an undergrad. i took different kinds of classes--(history, art, literature)--; i kept up with current events and politics; and, get this, i actually read whole books! (.. *gasp*..) now, i barely have the attention span to get through complete articles anymore, let alone books. i am afraid of becoming completely uninformed, one-dimensional and vapid. who knew that studying could make you stupid?

2) grad school is monopolizing all my spare time.

in addition to taking over all the spare neurons in my brain, grad school is a sucking up my time. when the semester is going on i feel like it's hard to connect with people and often i flake out of things i want to do to do the grad school things i have to do.

though in fairness, i do have a bad habit of mismanaging time. sinking hours into facebook, twitter, youtube and lately, pinterest. ridiculous! i have decided to put my foot down. no more time wasting!

i've been learning a lot over the past year. mainly about how to lean on Christ's perfected work rather than my own performance for my sense of self-worth. i admittedly have to relearn this lesson again and again. but along with that perspective of "Christ's work over my performance",  i definitely have to change my personal habits to make this next two years work. God is most certainly able to see me through. discipline and diligence are needed as well.

and so... i am placing some new tools in my arsenal to combat poor time management skills:

• Taking tips from a time management talk by Randy Pausch (author of The Last Lecture)
• Using web-based programs: (Selfcontrol ; blocks blacklisted sites) (RescueTime; monitors web use)
• Finding accountability/study buddies. Already have a couple recruited.
• Using scripture meditation in an intentional way.
• Setting up an appointment with the Learning Assistance Services @ UMD about work strategies. i need an outside perspective to get me organized and help me set up a system for myself...

solid corrective steps, i hope. the sooner i finish grad school, the sooner i can be a normal human being with interesting things to talk about and other junk like that. =)