In my element

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.”
-- Albert Einstein

I've seen and heard many people comment, whether on Facebook, Twitter, or in person, on how a major component of business school is calendar management.

I will absolutely agree. In fact, I will put forth that the main activity, and the key to your success at business school is your skill and perseverance at arranging and maintaining your calendar. And just to be clear, people I'm talking Outlook and/or iCal, if you think paper is going to cut it you have another think coming to you. Don't even try it, I know first years who are finding that out the hard way.

So far, I'm keeping up okay, despite shooting myself in the foot last week (more on this below). I may need to reassess when exam time comes, but so far the mad pileup of events, including class, group meetings, social nights, and activities has been thrilling. Right before sitting down to blog, I experienced a moment of incandescent happiness in the middle of cleaning up after dinner, throwing in a load of laundry, sending out a group meeting invite, and examining my fantasy football lineup, just from the sheer joy of knowing I am being productive and that not a single moment is being wasted. Today, as I was griping at bent over my schedule being totally [rhymes with] ducked, he jokingly commented back, "whatever, you love it." Which, upon reflection, is not too far from the truth - of course I would prefer that my schedule is set exactly how I want and perfect, but at the same time there's something satisfying about making progress uphill, about being forced to work for it. Business school is special in a lot of ways - for most of us, it is the last time we can look inwards. It is the last time we can focus on developing ourselves; it is the last time we can start with a clean slate; it is the last time we can take a break from the real world (a la Girl, Interrupted); it is the last beginning of the rest of our lives. Being surrounded by so many smart, diverse, and talented people who are [for the most part] going through this same experience at the same time definitely pushes you to keep up, reach up, and make the most of everything.

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late....
Which is not to say it's all been smooth sailing - I am embarrassed to say that I have been one of those annoying "one step behind the curve" nincompoops lately, especially with regards to my schedule. I skipped past the waiver period, thinking I would cruise through my first quarter classes, most of which is essentially review material, in order to load up on the clubs & leadership activities. Then, two things happened to knock my plan on its butt: 1. I transferred to the MMM Program. 2. I bought the accounting books, went to the first class, and realized it was exactly the same stuff as I studied before. Of course, I'm not complaining about either, and they're also very related. I was fortunate to get into the MMM Program so late; I took a long time because I wanted to really research the program to find out if it would be the right thing for me. After bent planted the seed in my head, I talked to a number of 1st & 2nd years, emailed some 2nd years and alum (including people who had both transferred in AND out of the program), and got to where I was very comfortable with the idea before submitting my application. Of course then the application took a while to go through, with the end result my schedule was upended the first week of class. Furthermore, the loss of 6 electives also made me rethink my course selection strategy, and there was no longer any doubt over not wasting a quarter reviewing basic accounting. By this point the waiver period had long passed, and so I spent no small amount of time talking myself into being allowed to take the waiver exam, and then all of yesterday studying for it. I've also spent significant amount of time looking for a class to replace it with, ie. arguing with the registrar over me not being able to add into Marketing (because I've missed the first class); I then went to Spreadsheet Modeling today before the MMM director nixed that class. In the end, (assuming I obtain the waiver) I'll end up adding Microeconomics, after missing the first week. So not great, but not the end of the world. I think it's ironic, because I've never been the person to try to be "the exception to the rule," and I generally disdain the type, and wonder why they just couldn't get their act together in the first place. But business school will do that to you, and then you realize you've got to at least try. I've met with mixed results; there's a certain element of luck, where I've definitely been very fortuitous in some things falling my way (such as getting into MMM), but also I think I've mellowed a good deal these last few years. I remember when I was younger, I would come apart when things did not go as I wanted. I would assign blame heavily on myself and others and lash out like a wounded animal, unable to cope with the injustice of it all. I'm sure this is trite to many people, but I've realized the best part of aging is the perspective that comes with it. Now, whatever is the best schedule I can get, I'm happy to roll with, especially since I will have a very full plate regardless.

I'll take one of everything, please...
The last 10 days, we have been absolutely bombarded with emails and flyers, with club kickoffs and leadership position applications. I am still trying to control my FOMO, and have met with limited success in restraining myself. Here's a tentative list of my commitments (with estimated time reqs) so far:

. NBI Project Leader (applied, will hear back next week) 5 hrs/wk
. GIM Leader (interviewed today, encouraged to take leadership role for SE Asia trip, still under consideration) 4 hrs/wk
. Admissions Counselor (interview tomorrow) 4 hrs/wk
. Consulting Club member (moderate involvement) 1 hr/wk
. China Business Club (limited involvement)
. Operations Management Club (limited involvement)
. Design Club (limited involvement)
. Latin American Hispanic & Iberian Management Association (limited involvement)
. Asian Management Association (limited involvement)
. Section Flag Football Team (conflicts with Admissions Counselor)
. Tennis Club
. Los Angeles Entertainment & Media Trek Leader

Believe it or not, I've already trimmed the list significantly from my initial wishlist. I definitely have the "eyes bigger than stomach" syndrome, as we say in Chinese. So here are what I think are the next steps for me.

Learn to say no: This is a big one. So far, I have mostly been accepting calendar invites as they come. But time is by far the most precious commodity around here, and I need to learn to budget mine wisely. It's funny, I think about how in undergrad I had all the time in the world and no will to study. Now, I yearn only for a few extra hours of wakefulness, so that I may cram my little brains out.

Remember to take care of myself and have fun: After tracking my time, it is blatantly obvious that the first thing that slips is things like eating balanced meals, exercising, and giving myself time to decompress. That just won't work; as a friend of mine so astutely pointed out, "Some people just have better genes." I am definitely not one of those people, who can stay up all night and be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next day. If I eat crappy and don't sleep, I will break out like a hormonal teenager, hurt like an arthritic old lady, and whine like one of those girls on reality TV. I sound so lame but I really cherish my health, especially after one of my good friends has recently been diagnosed with leukemia. I need to remember that nothing's worth sacrificing my health for, especially on days like today (when I went from 7am-1pm before eating anything). That's where this whole perspective thing I talked about earlier comes to play; it's true we're all Type-A and competitive, but in the end, I know the worst case scenario is I go barista at Starbucks and live a low-key existence, which when all is said and done, isn't so bad at all.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to work my calendar.

“Don’t count every hour in the day, make every hour in the day count.”

Mi.cro.man.age

I have several unfinished posts about the romp through paradise that was KWEST, the chaos, insanity, and madness that was CIM (really, they should rebrand it as that - Chaos, Insanity, & Madness) and the odd combination of intense pleasure and unsettling discomfort of being a student again, having my frameworks challenged and my cognitive processes pushed to their limits.

Instead, since I can't seem to get a single blog post finished before something shiny catches my attention (or more likely, I suddenly realize I'm behind on something else, yet again), I spent some time tonight thinking about time management. Today was a real milestone, the last day of CIM, and as such we have been granted a brief reprieve. We are still in the middle of a pre-term class, and there is much reading, homework, and studying to do but most of the other activities will drop off for a week before Fall term kicks off.

In the last 2 weeks, I have already experienced much of what has been documented by generations of Kelloggers before us: FOMO, piles of reading, endless social calendar, CIM-SARS (or CIM H1N1 as it was for us this year), group meetings that drag , and as a result my iCal has been bursting at the seams and I have felt frantic and harried. And that was just the first two weeks, when 79% of our activities did not matter! There has to be a better way, because that is definitely will not be sustainable when I have 4 classes + NBI + GIM leadership + consulting club + networking & recuriting + + +

I decided to budget my time, but I wanted to go a step further. Budgeting does no good unless I can compare against actuals (I've read many times that people are invariably surprised by what they actual spend their time doing) and then adjust either my expectations, my plan or my behavior. So I turned to the internet, and found a little time tracking tool that I can access from my iPhone at all times, I have put my categories in, and I plan to start measuring my time.

I have no idea how realistic this will be to keep up in the long term, but I feel I should at least give it whirl before classes start to at least see what my actual behavior is producing. Regardless of longevity, even if I can just get a week or two of data of how I spend every minute of every day will be eye-opening and motivate me to make behavioral corrections. Lastly, the budget was absolutely necessary; without solidly carving out time to exercise or maintain my network I know those would quickly fall by the wayside. If you are curious, here is my first draft of the ideal use of a 168 hour week: