After deploying to an undisclosed
location in Southwest Asia and about to start school, I realized that I really
needed to adjust my time management skills to accommodate a new schedule that
will allow me to do well at work, well in school and well in my personal life.
Working on up to 80+ hours a week and taking on two classes is quite the feat,
one that hopefully will not be my demise as I would owe the government a lot of
money in Tuition Assistance costs and further delay the everlasting goal of
getting my Masters.
Prior to the semester starting my
schedule looked something like this: 14 hours away from the tent to go to work,
work, do turnover, and come home. 2 hours to shower, workout, talk with the
girlfriend. 8 hours to sleep.
To get everything done in my free
time would be a near impossible task. Thankfully our one day off a week came
back as soon as the semester started (we had no days off for an entire month
prior), which allows some breathing room to get work done. However I needed to
improvise a little bit and sacrifice a few things to manage my time more
wisely. Sleep is absolutely necessary to not only have the focus for my work
but for school as well. Showering and talking with the girlfriend are necessary
for personal hygiene and human reproductive purposes. Working out on the other
hand, I realized I can make time for during my work hours.
My job entails an equal demand of
physical and mental labor. The day to day aircraft parts that I deal with are
very heavy and have to be carried back and forth for what I estimate to be a
quarter mile each way. This in itself is quite the workout. In addition, during
the trouble shooting portions of the aircraft there may be wait times on up to
10 to 20 minutes for the system to time in. During this time I try to fit in
burpees, pushups, crunches, and planks. By turning my work into a workout, I
free up about an hour each day for school.
On occasion we may also get
maintenance down days where we don’t fly any non-mission-essential aircraft. If
all the aircraft are fully mission capable, then time at work can be used
towards finishing school. The mission will always have to come first, however
if time permits, little efforts towards school can be made here and there.
By managing my time in this way, I
feel like I have increased my locus of control. If everything goes as planned
and I finish this semester with a passing grade, my internal locus of control
would say that I was in full control of my destiny and shaped my own future. However
if the mission were to ever take priority, or if something drastic happens in
the world, this would be an external locus of control that could potentially
cause me to fail (an outcome I hope to never see).
This is the plan that I developed
last week and is one that I am currently implementing into my daily routine.
The fruits of these labors are still yet to be determined, but one where I
remain quite optimistic that I can get done.
References
Whetton, D., & Cameron, K. (2011). Developing
Management Skills. New Jersey: Pearson.
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