Not only has graduate school changed my routine, it’s changed the way I process things. Since I school started, I’ve made a concerted effort to focus on balancing my life. My goal has been to achieve the perfect equilibrium between personal time, work and graduate school. Despite my best efforts, or maybe as a result of my best efforts, I think I’ve swung pendulum too far in the wrong direction.
In the movie “About a Boy,” High Grant’s lifeless character divides his mundane days into half-hour time slots called "units.” During an instant message conversation this week, I suddenly realized I had begun to mentally compartmentalize my time in the same way. The discussion went something like this:
Chris: Hey, what’s up?
Me: Hey man…been meaning to call, but I’ve been busy.
Chris: Cool. It’s Lauren’s going away happy hour tonight. Sorry for the late notice. Can you make it?
Me: Ugh, no. Sorry, I have a bunch of stuff to do tonight.
On the surface, this appears to be an ordinary conversation consisting of a greeting, invitation and a decline to the invitation. However, between Chris’ invitation and my response, I had quickly calculated a simple equation:
Total 30 minute time units remaining in the evening (3) – dinner units (1) –
daily homework units (2) = social availability (0)
What’s wrong with this? Probably nothing, but the structure feels a bit robotic. Is my thinking really this becoming this segmented?
After pondering this dilemma, I have concluded that living in balanced time “units” makes an interesting character in a movie but lends itself to feeling like I'm living a vacant life. I think I need to rethink my approach. Maybe I should focus on finances like the rest of my fellow bloggers.
Number fifty-six
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