Thursday, March 24, 2016

In Which I Lament/Praise My Own Planning

Another thing I excel at, since you asked, is planning. I am a planner. I like to plan things.
So, back three or two weeks ago or whenever, I decided (for reasons which are now lost in the haze of my brain) to schedule four days of un-interrupted, hellish consultations with students. Oh yes, I planned it. For myself. Of my own free will. For myself.
What this means, in practical terms, is that for each day of this week I had to read two drafts for each student. That's right, TWO. This I also planned. Which means that the days leading up to this week, and IN FACT, this week was the definition of No Fun.
Luckily I discovered the joy and ease of copy and paste commentary, because, I discovered, even though each student wrote their own draft, they all faced the same challenges. So I wrote very detailed comments, and then I pasted them for each student, customizing them for a students draft. This made my life EASIER.
So what I did I learn from this marathon, no holds barred, few breaks in the schedule, schedule?
First, NEVER DO IT AGAIN!! I say this knowing I will forget the pain and that I will, in fact, construct for myself a similar hell. What can I say? I vacillate between boundless optimism and hard-edged cynicism.
Second, for some students, it actually does work. (Dammit!)
ALSO, re:planning, I was a super-genuis this weekend and prepped food for both breakfast and lunch, therefore making the morning/day portion of my eating life a BREEZE.
The upshot, therefore, is that while sometimes my planning bites me in the ass, sometimes it is an asset.
Thereby, the theme of my planning = ass.
The end.

2 comments:

Nik said...

Wow. That is a lot of consulting. You are a consultant! Put it on your CV!

Lisa B. said...

This:

>> making the morning/day portion of my eating life a BREEZE.

This is to be admired, and emulated. Also: be not weary in well-doing! as some biblical disciple said, thus proving that none of those biblical disciples had to read two draft per student, then do the consultations to match, so they knew not whereof they spake.