planning

Even the Best Future Plans Take Surprising Detours – TUB-Thump 033

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Where do you see yourself in five years?

Wait, don’t answer that. No matter how well you have your future planned, things never turn out quite that way.

For some, the outcome is mostly as expected. But you’re still been dealt a few surprises along the way.

For others, the outcome isn’t even close to what you imagined it to be.

And don’t forget those who don’t have a clue what their future holds. The mystery all but guarantees a surprising ride.

Even a steady path can see a sudden change in direction.

Take Brooke Storer-Church, for example. A decade into a restaurant career wasn’t enough to stop her trading it all in and moving back towards higher education.

Take technological advances, for another example. Who knows how you’ll live your life and what type of jobs will be needed a decade down the line?

When you do look back in five years, in a decade, or when you retire, you’ll have a story to tell. That story will be a bit more certain and easy to tell than the reality as you were living that story.

That’s why I wanted to take a few words from Brooke Storer-Church as inspiration for Episode 033 of TUB-Thump.

Wherever you see yourself in the future, get ready for an exciting ride of worthwhile twists and turns.

Here are the show notes for the 5-min episode:

  • 00:45 – Brooke Storer-Church on how varied work experience improves graduate prospects.
  • 01:00 – You look back in time and create a story that looks like you had a clear, linear path to now. That’s fine in hindsight, but the reality is a bit different.
  • 01:50 – Immense value in those bends…
  • 02:30 – No matter how much you like what you’re doing now, that could change. It could take a year, 5 years, 10 years…And if it does change, that doesn’t mean you need to worry about it. It could even be a blessing.
  • 03:50 – It’s interesting to see how people change as they develop. The process can be slow and disjointed, but can also be necessary.
  • 04:30 – We don’t know what’s around the corner in the general context of the world, so how would we know how our own life will shape up until we’ve actually lived it?
  • 05:00 – Whether you feel like everything is sussed out, or you haven’t got a clue what your next moves are, seek out the value in all the twists and turns you encounter.

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

What’s the Best Way to Write Your Essay? That Depends on You. – TUB-Thump 027

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Do you like to plan ahead before you work, or do you like to crack on with a clean canvas?

I hadn’t really considered this so much until I’d seen a presentation by Tristram Hooley with various writing tips.

A couple of Hooley’s slides look at two different types of working that resonate with me, because they have a similar outlook to one of the ways I look at learning new things.

For learning, I like to look at the bigger picture and drill down to the details from there. But some people start with some choice details and work outward to uncover that big picture.

In many ways, how you choose to write may have similarities in that learning choice too. And that’s what I talk about in Episode 027 of TUB-Thump.

I wonder if you’ve read this plan of the episode first, or if you’ve jumped straight into listening. I guess that depends on how you like to do things!

What’s your choice?

Here are the show notes for the 5-min episode:

  • 01:00 – Tristram Hooley’s presentation: Writing. How, why, when and what?
  • 01:20 – Planning writers versus generative writers.
  • 01:55 – Make a plan and then write a first draft or write a first draft and make a plan off the back of it?
  • 02:30 – One of these ways of working is likely to work better for you than the other. But it’s always worth trying the other way of working to see what you can learn about your process.
    I’ve talked about that before. Hear more on Episode 023 of TUB-Thump, How to Change Your Perspective and Why That Change is Good.

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

Identify Your Five Weekly Wins Every Week – TUB-Thump 020

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Do you feel overwhelmed with the number of tasks on your list each week?

Do you struggle to work out what the most important issue is in each area of your life?

On today’s TUB-Thump, I talk about finding five weekly go-to points so you can easily identify your big wins.

Whether it’s the academic, the social, the personal, the career, or anything else, you can target what’s important to you, each and every week.

Ready to dive in?

Here are the show notes for the 7-min episode:

  • 01:10 – One academic win. The most important focus-point for each week. Sure, there’s plenty of work to be done, but this will ground you. Sometimes that’s all you need to stop procrastinating on the thing that’s actually so crucial to your academic week.
  • 01:50 – One social woo. If you can’t fit any other fun in your schedule, make sure you have at least one event to look forward to.
  • 02:40 – One personal upgrade. Around the home, to do with a hobby, improving a personal skill…When you specify a single area to make progress in, you commit to pushing further than the minimum expected of you. Go on, do it for yourself!
  • 03:20 – One career boost. No matter how big or small, with 52 weeks in the year, that’s 52 different steps in the right direction. Reach out to someone, write a blog post, do some job research…it all helps. And it doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time in the week.
  • 04:20 – One wonderful wildcard. What is important for you? Add this one thing to the mix each week. Be creative, be methodic, be however you wish to be with this wildcard. As with the other schedule pointers, this helps to ground you in scheduling actions each week, and can also help you develop habits.
  • 05:30 – This method also assists in avoiding overwhelm. Instead of a huge list of tasks, you have your five big wins for each week.

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

How to combine routines & spontaneity in student life

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In yesterday’s TUB-Thump, I gave a bonus tip on planning and scheduling.

It was a bonus tip, because you probably already schedule some (if not all) your stuff.

All this timetabling and commitment to regular tasks is useful. But how do you let a bit of spontaneity into your experience too?

We’ve all had moments when we decide to drop everything and do something fun on a whim. It’s not rare. Last minute decisions can be weekly. Daily, even.

When you take that spontaneous risk, do you get away with it? Or does it bite you on the bum?

Maybe you’re lucky most times. But every time you take the risk, you may not be so lucky the next time.

No matter how “in the moment” you plan to be, you’ve got lectures to attend and essay deadlines to meet.

Here’s the weird thing: Those scheduled events are a good thing.

Seriously. The more focused you are on your schedule, the more spontaneous you can be.

I know that sounds strange, but there’s a logic to it. When you’re in control of your day, you’re able to manage your free time and available gaps far better. You’ll know exactly when you’re at a loose end.

So far so simple. But there’s a big ask if you want it to work well. You need to be in control of YOU.

Just because someone else suggests an impromptu outing or social session, that doesn’t mean you should always agree.

So how do you work out the times when you *can* agree to some impulsive fun?

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When you know you schedule intimately, you can rearrange it without fuss. The more you’re in control, the easier it is to make changes as you go along. When an impromptu session strikes, some are clearly possible and others aren’t. And when you’re at a definite loose end, you can choose the impromptu sessions yourself!

Every step of the way, this involves you being in control. Nobody else controls your situation. Peer pressure is a no-no.

Happily for you, peer pressure won’t feel so much like pressure anyway. When others try to overpower your initial decision, you’re swayed through uncertainty. By taking control of your timetable, you quickly know what will budge and what won’t.

If you’re determined to fit in something new when there’s no room left on your schedule, you’ll have to sacrifice something else on your list.

The good thing is, it should be clear what you can sacrifice, if anything.

Take these two situations:

  1. I was about to start working on an essay. I was starting early, so I had plenty of time to take a relaxed approach. It was a hot morning and it seemed like half the student village had decided to make the day an outdoor party. I could tell everyone was in a good mood, because friends were calling up to me and offering me free drink.
  2. I was trying to get my head around some concepts for an upcoming exam. There wasn’t much time left and I was still trying to work out best approaches and draft some test responses. Some of my mates decided to go to the SU for the evening and wanted me to come along.

Guess which of the situations I changed my plans for and which one I didn’t.

With plenty of time in the first instance, I rearranged my schedule so I could enjoy a day of debauchery fun in the sun. And as much as I wanted to go out in the second instance, there wasn’t the same wriggle room.

I had to say no in the second instance. It wasn’t important enough to sacrifice something else, and time was running out for the exam preparation.

Remember, no matter how much you’d like to sacrifice your academic work, that’s not the best plan… 😉

Do you feel in control of your schedule enough to let impromptu sessions into your life? And what’s the biggest thing you’ve ever had to say no to, even though you REALLY wanted to do it?