EPISODE 2

Wed, Oct 04, 2023 10:35AM • 27:00

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

list, assignments, day, mindfulness, schedule, class, planner, feel, sticky notes, stationery, campus, break, write, student, due dates, sitting, working, hour, roommates, mastered

SPEAKERS

Lisa Hess, JaNya Brown, Caraline Junkin

Caraline Junkin 00:10

Hi, welcome to the second episode of the rough draft podcast and our unloose lucky season 13. I'm your co host Caraline Junkin,

JaNya Brown 00:18

I’m the other co host JaNya Brown.

Caraline Junkin 00:20

For this episode, we're gonna be talking about managing a crazy busy schedule and mindfulness.

JaNya Brown 00:25

So this episode actually came to be because we were trying to plan out when we're going to record the podcast, I sent everyone a copy of my schedule, and they acted as if I was absolutely insane.

Caraline Junkin 00:37

It's crazy, you should see it's insane.

JaNya Brown 00:41

So today, we have a guest with us today. So if you'd like to introduce yourself…

Lisa Hess 00:45

Hi, I'm Lisa Hess an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology.

Caraline Junkin 00:50

All right, so I'm gonna be asking them a few questions about how to handle the busy schedule. So JaNya, what does your typical day look like?

JaNya Brown 00:59

So honestly, I miss mostly classes and work. So I shot around 8am or 930, with classes, and I'm in classes for you the first three hours of school and then I'm in work for usually another good three hours. And then I tend to not go back to my apartment every night to about five or 6pm.

Caraline Junkin 01:15

So for both of you, how have you found what a good way is to find like a good like work life balance at all.

JaNya Brown 01:23

So I think for the most part, it's just normal, you need to take a break. Because if you don't take when, when you need when you're going into burning yourself out, and I learned that actually the hard way. So that's always a little tricky.

Lisa Hess 01:35

I would completely agree with that. I think we underestimate how important it is to take breaks. And I think we sometimes don't recognize that a break needs to mean walking away from the activity that we're doing and doing something different from what we were doing. I'm guilty of working on my laptop to do things and then taking a break by going on my phone, no electronics to electronics is not a break. I think I'm taking a break, I'm taking a brain break. But it's not as complete a break as if I went outside or read an actual book or something along those lines.

Caraline Junkin 02:09

Yes, I find that I find that I fall into that trap as well. I actually had a class where he touched on mindfulness. So I don't know if you want to give me your take on that professor Hess…

Lisa Hess 02:20

Mindfulness. I'm not an expert, but it is being fully present where you are. And not it's actually sort of the opposite of multitasking and in a way that you're being fully fully present where you are, and not letting yourself get distracted by other things that are going on or by other things that are going on inside your own mind. And the first part is a lot easier than the second part. A lot of people access mindfulness through meditation and breathing. And it's, it's hard to learn how to just sort of let the thoughts go by. I don't know Caraline, what do you think…

Caraline Junkin 02:57

Exactly what I remember interest, like, trying to be very present and paying full attention to what you're doing in the moment and not letting it slip by? Um, another question that I have is like, how do you stay really calm with your intense schedule? JaNya? And then I Is there anything you do to help you de stress at all?

JaNya Brown 03:18

Okay, so for the most part, it's mostly the routine. So as long as I'm staying consistent, everyone, that's a lot better. So it's keeping track of things by not doing it myself. So using different platforms, Google Calendar, notion, core sickles, whatever things that come up on YouTube, or Google says, Hey, we can keep track of something for you. It's most likely that I've tried it at this point. It makes it where it's not all on me to remember the small things, it also makes it where I don't have to actually keep trying to remind myself and then forgetting something and then feeling bad that I forgot it. Because it drilldowns at least somewhere in the app somewhere that it's going to give me a little notification on my phone. Or if I run a sticky note, taking notes on my door. I think that's the one interesting thing I do is sticky notes end up around my apartment to the point that my roommates have asked me this. So you know, for me, like no, no, it's just where I was when I wrote the thought and it had to go where I was standing at. and destress I think the most thing is just having times I'm just completely not doing anything to lead you for time. Well, I just take all my devices and put them down. I think all the rest things I have on me I put them down. I go to my roommates room, not even my rooms. I'm not with any of my actual tech. I'm not with any of the things that remind me that I have to do that just lay facedown on the floor for a good 10 to 15 minutes just break away from everything.

Caraline Junkin 04:37

That's a different way to de stress. I've never heard of that one. Do you have any takes on that?

Lisa Hess 04:41

I'm listening and agreeing with so much of what you're saying tonight. And I think basically kind of joking beforehand about overstimulation and the fact that you're just lying facedown on the floor away from everything else it you're basically saying okay, too much I need to back off and not have any of this Just all too much, I need to be under stimulated instead of overstimulated. And I totally agree with what you said about routine. But I think there's also trying to find the balance. I find myself trying to get into a routine and trying too hard to get into a routine. And then I get disgusted with myself because I broke the routine. And so it's making sure that the routine is working for you. And not that you're working for the routine. And then finally sticking it on listening to you talking about yep, yep, yep, sticky notes, I finally finally found a planner that I love my family laughs I asked for every Christmas and every birthday, because the inside of the planner is set up in a way that works for me. And if I get too many sticky notes, or little notes around the house to myself, I start to get stressed out because it feels like I have a million things to do. I mean, they could all be things that take 30 seconds. So I actually have to make sure I make time from time to time to gather all the sticky notes are all of the little pieces of paper and put them into my planner where there's a lovely little list space, so I don't have to assign it to a time I can just say. And then that feeling of crumpling them up and throwing them away is so wonderful

Caraline Junkin 06:06

Right, its the organization!

JaNya Brown 06:07

I say I'm still trying to find a planner to this day, I think I've tried like the happy planners, I tried just like a random Walmart one. I even bought like the expensive Korean ones. And I'm like, it just the cost of having to remember to carry it around with me actually having to write it down in one time to do with my roommate does, she has a notebook. That's not an actual planner. She just writes her list in it. And she'll just keep different bookmarks. And it's just a guess this is a collective thought book. So she just takes it everywhere with her case, my purse, she has a summer book bag, just make sure she has like one place, we're not taking those everywhere. It's not stuck to certain hours or in days, it's just that these are things she knows she has to get done. And she's put like, where the deadline for that thing is it's I don't know, but…

Caraline Junkin 06:50

I use like a planner, and I kind of color code it for each class. So I'll go through and be like orange is this class. And then I can write down my exams or an upcoming paper and all that. And I can just flip through it and see what I have to do.

Lisa Hess 07:05

Yeah, I think it's really important finding the one that works for you whether even if it is just a plain old notebook. And I'm always so impressed by my students who do color coded notes in class. I love like bullet journaling and all those color coded kinds of things. But I don't know that I could do it while I'm listening to something and actually get all the I would get mad at myself because I picked the wrong color for the thing that I was doing. Little little bit of perfectionist

JaNya Brown 07:29

I tried to get out of because I'm a stationery fanatic. So I tried like the whole doing different classes for different colors. I bought Muji pens, mid line highlighters. And then I realized how much money I was spending on stationery that's just couldn't buy myself an iPad. No, it's sad that you're spending that much money on stationery, that iPad was cheaper than still funding the stationery addiction.

Lisa Hess 07:53

I'm killed I'm so guilty of that I had this bit took this picture and sent it to my daughter as I was sitting in our sunroom working on my little notebooks. She does the diamond painting. And I said Taurus. If you've do diamond painting, I do pens I had like all of these pens all over.

Caraline Junkin 08:10

So my next question that I have for the both of you is how do you feel about time management? And would you say that you have mastered it? Oh, I

JaNya Brown 08:19

actually I think is like a weird oxymoron. I think I absolutely suck at time management. Because I honestly mean if it's not on my calendar, I don't realize it exists. So like then, did you ever like write that in or penciling on your calendar? I'm like, No, actually, like I pre planned my week a week ago, and you gave me something new and I couldn't figure it out. So I just kind of forgot that it existed. I'm sorry. But I feel like if I start off with a time management schedule, I can like somewhat adjust to it. But I'm still very much. I go in academic coaching on campus and trying to see how they can help me while I'm looking at different things to do.

Lisa Hess 08:55

I think it goes back to that balance of what's the right amount of routine? And what like the routine routine versus flexibility. And I think that plays a key role in time management as well. Would you ask the question, I thought, well, I'm in favor of time management. I'm not sure I'm good at time management, but I'm in favor of time management. But it's that that flexibility? How do you schedule things, enough that you can get everything done especially if JaNya like you, you've got a really crazy busy schedule, but also leave room for the things that you can't anticipate. And it always seems to work out that the days that you leave room for the things that you can't anticipate are not the days that those things happen. And the days you have fully packed are the days that those things come in. And it's it's a lot of it's just how you recover from that I think because I don't think we're ever going to be able to attain time. And we keep thinking that we can we think it's a doable task and I'm not sure that it is.

Caraline Junkin 09:51

You're in control and you're like no no,

JaNya Brown 09:55

no, no, sometimes I wish that I was in The Avengers so I could have the Time Stone so I can actually like really mastered time, because I can stop it. So the maybe there'll be enough hours in the day.

Caraline Junkin 10:06

I wish Have you always had a crazy schedule like this?

JaNya Brown 10:09

Um, I think so actually, I started off in high school and middle school with going to youth group for church, Girl Scouts, bowling family activities, like there's something always there. I'm an only child and a single parent household. So I'm like, well, we'll just keep you active and like perfect. Like, usually I will make sure you can do anything. She wants you to have done swimming lessons. I think I've tried almost make all the mainstream things you put a kid in taekwondo, swimming, cheerleading, or anything like you like Oh, dance, Lea checked off all the boxes of a stereotypical kid as a kid. That means I was never actually sitting like I was sitting, it was even worse. I have a book in my hand. And I'm like, What are you doing? I'm like, I'm just I'm just trying to catch up on this reading. Because you know, about an hour until I believe for something. So I got to kind of get it in now. But it was always a usually like it was a still pre scheduled thing every other day, at least.

Lisa Hess 11:07

I think that ties back into mindfulness that I think there's there's just sitting still is an acquired taste. I think we're, I think it's hard for us to do that. And I know I will be physically sitting still, but my mind is still running. And I think that's where some of the mindfulness techniques like really simple things like just breathing. In preparation for today, I was looking at some things that I'm there's a book I'm reading called The Little Book of mindfulness, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's like a little quote, or a little comment for every day. And I'm savoring it, I'm doing it like a page or two at a time. But it talked about the benefit of just before you start any task, just sitting and taking like three deep breaths and quieting yourself before you begin, because I think we've maybe lost the ability. I don't mean this to be critical. But I think our world is so busy, and our schedules are so busy, I think we've lost the ability to be still. And I think when we're sitting physically still, but our minds are still running, it's exhausting. And the need for sleep increases, but the amount of time available for it does not.

Caraline Junkin 12:13

I agree, like even if I'm trying to relax, like with a book or watch a show, like my mind is elsewhere, it is not on that activity

JaNya Brown 12:20

alone. I think that's one day and like my grandfather definitely tried to teach me as a kid. My grandfather's been retired. So I was like six. So growing up was mostly like keeping me up from school. So I was mostly with them. It's like, oh, yeah, so if I for next week, we're gonna just sit here, TV off, I'm gonna play checkers. So your mind still working with him that you can individualize. Concentrate on your full attention just on that one thing. So if like, that's the one aspect of mindfulness I had as a kid, being able to either sit there like, well do a timer while they play checkers, or you have you just sit there and read for a little bit, like, okay, you've been inside watching TV for like two hours, I'm kicking you out, you're going outside, you have to get fresh air, you have to like get away from devices, you need time to just be a kid and be in the moment. And I feel like that's like a lesson that you don't get currently in society as much sometimes because it's a lot more goal oriented. It's more business oriented. So sometimes I feel like we do really do miss out on those key. Taking a back, taking a breath, stopping smelling the roses, you know, exactly. And my final

Caraline Junkin 13:21

question for you guys is huge. And I like how do you meet due dates and not miss assignments.

JaNya Brown 13:29

So for the main thing, it's just being able to actually still keep everything written down. So let's making sure that there's an actual proof of assignment that I have. So it's having my assignments on Canvas, make sure the notifications are on. It's actually used notion. So actually, every semester starting two semesters ago, I looked at all my syllabus, and I made a full compacted list of all assignments for the semester that has checkboxes, the little dopamine highs, you get a check box. It's insane. Absolutely great. And but also, it has all of the assignments, what classes for the date with the checkbox now is anyone gonna sit down and make the time to make the actual grid myself, there are so many online free templates that you can use, that makes it significantly easier. That's just really had to sit down with all my little bits and just insert them into it. So it's made a little bit easier to actually take a break. And just look at that for a second. And Tommy make sure I'm actually organized completely before I have to try to dive into the deep semester.

Caraline Junkin 14:26

Yeah, I think it's like the To Do lists, like on the weekends. I have a whole to do list and crossing it off every time. Yeah, I

JaNya Brown 14:34

think that's what I'm doing this week, honestly cutting us have as you a critique on a scientific article. I have my President's campaign. I have what else do I have this weekend? I got a sign of a scientific report this do this on Tuesday as well. So it's all the different things Yeah, in some type of still happening like that's the whole having a work life balance. I'm trying to learn how to balance that and asleep over with my short Do some trials, I don't plan them out yet. So to get back to get back on that one

Caraline Junkin 15:06

out there, Professor as maybe for you, I don't know if you have any specific ways that you like to meet like dates for like maybe grading stuff, or if you have advice for how students can make sure they're meeting due dates and keeping organized.

Lisa Hess 15:21

I think it's finding a balance. And sometimes it's elusive, between what we have to do now and what we have to do down the road. And I think, especially from a student perspective, I remember struggling with that in college with long term assignments, how do I break a long term assignment down into small enough pieces that I can actually tackle it? And wait, I don't have time to do that. Now. Because I have this other thing that to do. Before that thing is due. I was wondering to as I was hearing you talk, if the if the canvas to do lists is your friend or your enemy?

JaNya Brown 15:52

I think it's a friend honestly. Because if not, I don't realize the assignment exists. And I want to say like key aspects, like my women's health class, I have currently, my friend who doesn't put due dates on our assignments. So I don't realize that we have assignments to do it like that now. So I actually went to the syllabus and wrote it down on notion that I actually have that if I'm exist, because it's never like, oh, I probably should do that. But it doesn't also give you the proper timeframe for an assignment because only shows it to you like the week before it's due, instead of like showing it to you based on like the difficulty of the assignment. So I wish there was like a way to adjust that. But it definitely is like if it's not on that list. Sometimes I honestly don't realize I have an assignment to do.

Lisa Hess 16:33

I've heard students say that.

Caraline Junkin 16:35

Yeah, I would say I think it's kind of like a frenemy. Yeah, that's the word, it's the good and the bad, like I can go on the app, I can see how many assignments I have. But if there isn't a due date up for it. No, I'm not going to know. And I'm not going to remember that. So

JaNya Brown 16:51

both of you get the stress of also, if you have like a lot doing when we could the list would go on forever, you're just scrolling through it, because it never ends.

Caraline Junkin 16:58

And it can be small, little assignments. But seeing a long list can be overwhelming.

Lisa Hess 17:03

You get to the end of the list. And there's that little thing that says plus for more

JaNya Brown 17:09

like no pressure is I have a question for you. Sure. As a professor, and especially since you've gone through your academic career, looking back, if there's something that you could change based on how you manage time, what would you change?

Lisa Hess 17:23

Oh, my God. I remember, actually, one of the things I did change, I remember freshman year thinking all I needed was a schedule, and I would have it all figured out. So I had it all laid out. And I had this nice neat schedule of what I was going to do when I don't think it lasted more than a week. I'm just trying to think I was pretty good about not doing overnight, like doing all nighters for papers, just because I did one of them. And it was so incredibly terrible, I would never want to repeat that. Again. I don't know if this pertains to actual my actual experience, then as much as looking back. Now I recognize what we were talking about before about finding that balance between routine and flexibility, and not beating ourselves up when we need a break. And recognizing that sometimes I do just need to sit here and I need to do my floor time, I need to just like shut the world off. And also recognizing I'm sorry, I've deviated from the question. Also recognizing that, when we're doing that we really are recharging a lot of the time, because I'll do that. And then I will waste that beautiful time beating myself up because I've got 14 Other things I should be doing running through my head. When I finally have learned within I'd say the last five years, I'm a slow learner, that if I actually give myself the day, or give myself a half an hour, or give myself the time to do it. The next day, I'm raring and ready to go because I've charged up, there's an assignment I gave in my positive psychology class called the Schultz hour. And it was named after a politician whose first name escapes me, but he would go into his office for an hour each day. And this was pre cellphone and he would tell his administrative assistant, pause for a moment enjoy the beauty of having an administrative assistant that he was not to be disturbed unless it was the President or his wife that was calling him and he literally worked for the President. So he could say that. And that was the time of day that he got his deep thinking and planning done. The kinds of stuff we're talking about that we never have time for he had to build it into his schedule. Did I think I dodged your question. I

Caraline Junkin 19:29

think it's probably about prioritizing stuff as well. Like if you don't mind a credit on a calendar, so I'm going to do it now. It's not going to happen. And that's how you're going to tell that it's not something that you really not have time for, but you're not as invested in

JaNya Brown 19:43

it. So I don't think you dodged the question, honestly, because you got to talk about how you feel like you've learned new experiences you had. That's the main thing you're trying to figure out here now especially since most of us are just either starting college or have been in college for a few years and also still trying to fit figure out life, like the whole switch from being in high school to being in college to living at home living on campus. It's a definitely a higher level of freedom that you just sometimes don't know what to do with yourself especially like, I, once again, single parent, single child in one house. I was always constantly using around because like, I'd like if I got to procrastinate, it's hard to do that. I'm like, Well, thanks, analysis, I'm at school, there's not someone to still be there and remind me of that. But also, then it's still like not fully comprehending sometimes that things take time. Anything that you just need to give those things, those focus times, because I like to pretend I'm a master multitasker, I'll have like 7 billion tabs open. I'll be working on five different times at once. I feel like Oh, cool. What did you finish today? We also finished those things. I started them all and got started. There's words on the page. But none of it will be done either like, oh, yeah, I got like a paragraph and a one and like, a page and see other how cool was the requirement for them all, they're all three pages. Oh, so if you would have just spent all your time on one of them. You might have been done one, my camp probably. But I got so much work done, you know. But the proper way

Caraline Junkin 21:15

on the perspective and

Lisa Hess 21:16

how you look at it. Yeah. And there's a benefit to move driven. But there's a drawback to move driven, the benefit to move driven is you're actually you're ready to do it. And it can put you in the extension extension of mindfulness is something called flow. And this state of just sort of effortlessly time melting away, because you're so engrossed in what you're doing, which is different in different in some ways from mindfulness. But it's a wonderful feeling. And it's one that we tend to capture by accident. But that mood driven thing kind of can be more likely to put us in flow. There's also a concept of time poverty. And that can be both because you feel like you have not enough time to get everything done. Or there is so much time that you don't know how to manage it. We're actually talking about that in my FiOS right now book by Cassie Holmes called happier hour. And I want to take credit for someone else's idea.

JaNya Brown 22:09

I think that makes a lot of sense, honestly. Because it's just like I suffer from time poverty. And I realized

Lisa Hess 22:16

that with your schedule, I'm not surprised.

JaNya Brown 22:19

I think it's I think it honed in to the fact that I think my advisor, one time it has sent me down last year, I tried to do everything on campus, but then also the not taking care of myself whatsoever. So I was like, Oh, I'm active. I'm doing all these things like the flow was there. I'm like, I'm getting this done. I'm getting this done. Everybody said, What have you done for yourself recently. And I was like, I ate two meals a day. And like, that's necessities. So taking care of yourself that's being a human being, I'm like, Well, that's an upgrade was like not actually being like a happy hour, I'm just actually focusing on myself, and actually, like really developing and caring for who I am as a person. So I think that's one of the main goals I have for this year. So I took a lot of things off my plate, which was nice. So one of my schedule is still busy. My 17 credit 17 Credit student, I'm no longer an RA, I'm no longer cancer activity board. I'm no longer on Student Senate. So it's nice to be able to have my evenings like before. Now I'm in school, like on campus from eight to five, before st eight to nine, like my roommates didn't expect to see me for 12 hours. And now it's like nice to have that time back. I feel like it's like being mindful not just to what I'm doing. But also being mindful to myself and how I'm feeling which I feel like it's been like a real benefit this year.

Lisa Hess 23:37

We talked about making lists. And I think one of the benefits of the lists is, it's a beginning point, because you have to determine to get things done, you have to actually take it off the list and make it Caraline, you mentioned priorities a priority enough that gets put into the schedule. So the list can be the starting point. And then you take things from the list and you put them into the schedule. But I think we also need to know when it's time to take something off the list. I know I've transferred lists from one week to the next. And I keep copying the same thing over again. And at what point at some point I need to look at it and say, Am I really going to do this? How many times can I recopy this thing onto a list and still believe it's going to happen? So kind of the list has to get shifted into the priorities, which are the things that get put on our do this now list. And also knowing when to drop things off the list, as you learned tonight that you've got to get you can't keep everything on the list forever.

JaNya Brown 24:25

That's sort of the main things honestly.

Caraline Junkin 24:28

That's all the questions that I have. Thank you to the both of you.

JaNya Brown 24:33

Alright, so I just wanted to introduce our episode for our special episodes coming up, actually. So for Fall Fest next weekend, if you come to the office event that's on Saturday, November 30. Yeah, you can meet our ghost of a production manager. There'll be there you got to be there square and be square and you can answer a couple questions about how you're enjoying office as well as we love to get to just get to know you a little bit and then after As we have our episode that we're going to film outside, and we're going to try to figure out how you plan to survive Friday the 13th.

Caraline Junkin 25:08

Don't forget to submit to the York review either the website or the print edition on your review.org or from one of the QR codes on the flyers that are around campus

JaNya Brown 25:18

Thanks again to WVYC again for letting us record their lovely production studio. And a special thanks

Caraline Junkin 25:23

to Professor Hess for joining us on this episode.

Lisa Hess 25:26

Thank you. I had fun. Thanks for inviting me

Caraline Junkin 25:28

forth. Thank you everyone have a good one.

Ashlynn Bellman 25:40

Hi, my name is Ashlynn Bellman. I am going to be reading an excerpt for an article I wrote about how to grow pumpkins and the positive effects it can have on your health. I published this in New York review on their website, and I'll be reading the third paragraph. It's second paragraph a well. In addition to eating pumpkins, growing pumpkins and other plants have a positive impact on health. Gardening is good for both mental and physical health because it increases physical activity exposure to the sun, and healthy eating. An article written by a horticulture expert further explains the benefits of gardening by saying sunlight lowers blood pressure as well as increasing vitamin D levels in the summer. The fruit and vegetables that are produced also have a positive impact on the diet of the gardener working in the garden restores dexterity and strength and the aerobic exercise that is involved can easily use the same number of calories that might be expended in the gym. planting a garden can be very beneficial to one's health as it promotes physical exercise time spent in nature and healthy eating habits.