End of summer madness

Every year, I conveniently forget how busy and stressful the end of the summer can be. I still have a bit of summer left, but now is definitely the time to wrap up my own projects and help the summer students wrap up their projects. People are starting to come back to the office. Talk of syllabi fills the air. There is an underlying current of panic in the hallways.

This week has felt more like a week during the school year. I've brought home work almost every night (nooo!). I'm very sleep-deprived. There are a few deadlines looming at the end of the month, and so now it's crunch time---time to get those numbers in the sidebar to creep upward!

For the most part, I am happy with how this summer went. I made progress on all of my projects and kept the extra work to a minimum as much as possible. I did find time to relax. (I did go tubing!) I did not work on weekends. I don't feel perfectly relaxed and rejuvenated going into the school year, but I do feel much better than I did at this time last year.

I have a few disappointments: First, it looks like I will not finish the programming project by the end of the summer. I'm still happy with the progress I made, and I'm hoping to figure out a way to work on it during the semester/term. Second, I did not always follow my own rules about only working 30 hours a week and taking part or all of a weekday off. The thing is, it's not like I was seriously working during that time---on the contrary, more often than not I found myself wasting those hours, spinning my wheels, surfing the web, etc. Rather than acknowledging that certain hours of the day are just not productive for me and taking a break, I tried to sit at the computer and force myself to work. So in that sense, I feel like I wasted both leisure time and work time.

In working to finish my summer projects and get ready for the school year, I will try to remember to work smarter, not longer, and to cut myself some slack---after all, that's what summer is for!