Okay... in the last two months, I've been to San Antonio, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Prescott, Spokane, and beyond. Now my boss wants me to go to Seattle for a week due to my company firing too many people... so now they're short-staffed.

I'm in college, have been through a helluva lot of personal stuff in my life this year, and I've been having hell keeping it together. This has made me evaluate my previous time management schedule, and I've had to compact it even harder!

Soooo... here's a few things I've found out...

TOP TEN: INTENSE TIME MANAGEMENT HINTS

1. Sleep in (after staying up) OR get up super early... doing both is dangerous. I've literally fallen asleep during conversations and I can't seem to make it through a movie anymore. Sleep can be pushed off for a short time, but long term, it will drain the very will to stand up out of you.

It gets worse when you have your head propped up on the steering wheel as you can't seem to get up the energy to keep yourself upright as you drive.

2. Write a list of what to pack to take with you, but don't pack until the night before. This saves you a lot of opening/closing your case, and wondering if you forgot anything.

3. Learn how to make "fast food" if you can't afford to eat out. I've learned how to make tacos and speghetti in about fifteen minutes. If a vegan can do it, anybody can...

4. Clean your house! If you let it slide too long, you'll hate coming home, and it becomes stressful to know you've got your current workload in front of you, and you're living in a sh*thole... this kind of stress saps energy needed to get through your work.

5. Everything can usually be accomplished in steps. I usually get up, do my college reading in the morning, go to work, then do the assignment(s) when I come home.

6. Take AT LEAST a few minutes during the week to think about how things are going to get better. If you lose sight of that, you can tailspin into a "why the hell am I doing this to myself, there's a big wide world out there!!!" which will keep you from accomplishing your goals.

7. Don't keep piling on!

I'm dreadfully tempted to go back to martial arts lessons... but in the face of everything else... it's gonig to have to take a backseat until I get a few other things accomplished.

8. Should you work on projects before and after work... do NOT spend your lunch-hour working on more work. It makes your life start to feel hopeless. I usually read a bad novel during lunch, so at least my brain can be off thinking about zombies, dark elves and other things much more interesting than work.

9. Don't let yourself fall apart.

It's tempting to survive off of caffeine, nicotine, and fast food... but it WILL tear you down. It gets worse as you get older. You want energy, you're going to have to give your body something to work off of.

Also, don't let yourself go out looking too slovenly. It will get you into a bad mindset that will make you feel a bit more worthless. At the very least, try to smell okay.

10. Try to get a day or two away from everything every couple of weeks or so. Even if you don't do anything with it (I usually try to justify time off by working on cars, home projects, etc...) Take the day off and watch some cartoons. Humans were never meant to work 24/7... it starts messing with a person after awhile!

Lots of sex helps as well, especially with a partner. It makes you sleep.

Would it help if you don't have a partner ??? Is it still sex ???

Good write up though Dark, I gotta tell my wife some of those, I don't think she has taken lunch since the 90's, she crunches numbers for a ominous corporate deus ex machina that wants to take over the world, also known as Wells Fargo.

Excellent write up! Sums up my daily life to a T! I like the ending though, at 26 I can still come home after work and sit down to a cartoon on the cartoon network and actually put a smile on my face and relax for a bit...lol.

I hear yea. I like to sleep in, i have class at noon, and work afterwards. With a job where wearing a suit is required (jacket and all, at all times) keeping hygiene to a absolute best is also required.

With school study time either in the morning if i don't sleep in, or in the morning before work on the weekends, im pretty busy all the time.

Keeping you place tidy is a plus, i hate when i forget to do something and come home to it.

One thing about driving 500+ miles a week, it keeps you up to date (if you listen to talk radio) and helps you become a much better driver, with my driving past, it definately helped me(also helps you want to keep you car in good shape and under proper maintenance).

But all in all, having the "college=good job" attitude definately is a plus, i can say i love my job now, but i can't wait to get one thats even better.

Great write up there DS glad to see you have the time to post.

I can vouch for the pick 1 time to get up consistently bit... I'd rather not count how many times this semester I let the "oh its 11am class I can sleep in" turn into "oh crap its 11:30 and I just got up..."