Mindful Ink     Life, Living and Productivity

Well, so far it has been a mixed bag.  I woke up, cleaned up, dresed up, etc.  Feeling good (it helps that the weather outside is gorgeous, since Oklahoma only gets about 4 weeks of gorgeous weather a year you have to soak it in.

However, with my morning class cancelled and the need to sleep in (falling asleep at 5 am or so - sleep is one of those things I must personally wrestle with always) my schedule got a bit diluted.  I just got home, and will be leaving again to study somewhere in about half and hour.  Most likely for about 4-5 hrs which is unfortunate but necessary as I’ve some make up work that must be attended to from being sick last week.

Still, I feel better for having such a grasp on the day.  And, my friends, confidence is everything.

Well, we’ve gotten a bit off kilter these past two weeks. Tough weeks will happen, sick weeks will happen, bad, horrible things will happen. All you can do is go on. It’s been a rough few weeks but such is life. Putting that aside, we will endeavor to make this a great week here at Scholastici.us.

The site has had some rather extensive redesign work done. My own skills with web design are very old school, I’m afraid, and so instead of just designing the blog in a more traditional way I’m always looking for solid themes that do what I want to do. I’ve also taken down all the ads. I don’t mind the eMusic one, simply because it’s a service I use myself, but the Google Adsense ads are really presenting some shady stuff from time to time and that doens’t please me terribly. I’m not particularly interested in making money, but I want to meet my costs.

I may look into more of a sponsor system, rather than random Google ads. If anyone out there is interested in advertising at Scholastici.us, let me know (or, for that matter, knows of people I should contact who may be interested.)

I believe this new theme does the job pretty well without seeming too cluttered. I do need a new logo, however, and if you’re the artsy type and would like to take a crack at it I can offer you heaps of praise and public recognition. :)

The Experiment

I’m going to be conducting an experiment this week, so I’ll be filling you all in as I do it. Like many people, I have a slight problem with something called SAD - which stands for Seasonal Affected Disorder. What’s it mean? Well, it’s essentially a form of depression, which, like all depression isn’t terribly well understood. But it does seem to have something to do with the changing amounts of light in the winter and fall. For me it expresses itself in exhaustion and a severe lack of energy and motivation rather than “feeling sad.” I should stress that this is in not particularly serious nor do I need sympathy, I’ve had it for over a decade and I’ve largely learned to live with it. Compared with a major depressive episode, it’s quite minor. However, this season it started a bit early and a bit stronger than normal and so my “coping structures” were not quite in place yet and I’ve been reeling a bit as I try to get things under control.

Somewhere, I believe in one of Cal Newport’s books, I read about the importance of getting up and getting cleaned up and nicely dressed before going to class as it helps your general confidence and productivity. This is as opposed to rolling out of bed and tossing on some sweatpants and whatever t-shirt smells the least bad. As I’m the type that absolutely needs a shower to function I’m good there, but I generally wear shorts and t-shirt to class though shaving and I are old enemies.

Having spent a few years in the business world, I can personally attest to the fact that if you “suit up” there is a definite change in how you feel about yourself and your day. It’s really a shame that wearing a suit is so rare these days.

So this week, in order to both combat the SAD as well as improve my scholastic performance (as I am NOT a morning person, as the fact that I’m writing this at 2am can well attest), I will get up in time to shower, shave and dress nicely for class everyday. Not a suit and tie, mind you, but no t-shirt’s that declare “Kiss Me, I’m Drunk!” either. As the weather in Oklahoma is acually nice enough this week to allow for something more than a t-shirt and shorts, it’s the perfect time. I’m also going to endeavor to keep to my “study schedule” as much as possible as I’ve been rather slack in it the past few weeks. Essentially, I’m going to treat my day 8-5 or so, as a “work day” and try to get everything done within that time that involves school - leaving my evenings free to relax. We’ll see how it goes.

So, I’ll be posting details to keep me honest. Tomorrow I don’t have to get up very early since my morning class is canceled, but I’ll still do the rest.

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So, in closing…. let me know what you think of the site re-design, and if you’ve any suggestions to some variables I can add to the experiment, let me know as well!