I’m an over-planner. Usually this comes in handy for me- for the last two years I’ve finished my finals before finals week has even begun. I finished my thesis two weeks early. I applied to jobs not even to get the job, but just to get the experience of applying. That’s just the kind of personality I have, and it usually suits me really well. I like to be able to know that once something is done, it’s DONE, and I still have that wiggle room if something horrible happens.

To do this, I rely heavily on my planner. I have an amazing planner; usually planners use one page for three days, but mine uses one page for one day. The single page/single day is then split down the middle from 6am to 9pm hourly increments, and the other half of the page is “To Do.” This suits my needs well, and I’ve always dreamed of a planner like this. It was a splurge, but oh so worth it. The pages are color coded based on the activity, class, time it’s due.

At the front of the planner I have a “2016-2017 Bucket List.” In the bucket list, I hastily wrote “thesis,” “publish thesis,” “job,” “GRE,” “Grad (PhD program).” So it’s not really my 2016/2017 list, but more of a “Here is a list of things I would like to accomplish, in the order in which I would like to accomplish them.” For the first time, I don’t have a time for completion. For these things, I just want them to happen as they feel right. Granted, things like “job” and “thesis” are a bit more imperative to do quickly, but overall, I’m excited about the ability to kind of control when things are expected of me- because I’ll be the one expecting them.

So far, thesis is done. I submitted my thesis for publishing, and they gave me a correct and resubmit which is A+ good news and hopefully that means that they will publish my work. Now, I’m beginning the hunt for jobs, so everyone keep me in your well wishes and send me positive vibes and all that fun stuff.