{"id":31,"date":"2022-05-05T18:03:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T18:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/?p=31"},"modified":"2022-05-05T18:06:45","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T18:06:45","slug":"balancing-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/2022\/05\/05\/balancing-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When driving at highway speeds, it is really easy to feel an out of balance tire. The car shakes and the overall feel of the drive is rougher than normal. But it is much harder to notice an out of balance tire when driving around town. Sometimes a car may drift left or right, but that could also be the road or wind. Infact, the only way to really tell in that situation is after damage has already begun and the tread of the tire shows unusual wear patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the things I have really struggled with throughout this online postbaccalaureate program is maintaining a healthy work &lt;-&gt; school &lt;-&gt; life balance. While it may be easy to push through times of stress, lack of sleep, grabbing quick meals, ignoring social gatherings, skipping exercise, etc\u2026 those times of being out of balance has had significant emotional, mental, and physical consequences. As I reflect on the past few years I know that I have found a few tricks that have helped me (when I use them) and I would like to share them here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>UNPLUG TO UNWIND: Between work, school, cell phone, and tablet \u2013 I have my face buried in screens\/electronic 15+ hours a day. When Covid hit I started taking 1 hour decompression breaks between the end of the work day and the start of my daily school work. No electronics. No input from the world. No to do lists. No pressure. The only thing I allowed myself was sitting in the stillness and letting my body unclench, breathe, and letting my mind reset. Decompressing has made a huge impact on me physically, mentally, and emotionally.<strong> <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>FIND YOUR JUMPER CABLES: There isn\u2019t much time for hanging out with family and friends when working full time and going to school. But I have<strong> <\/strong>found that if I pick 1 or 2 people who always leave me feeling recharged, and I allow myself a few hangouts (1-2 per month) that it leaves me feeling revived, and sometimes resuscitated. Find the person who is your jumpstart and make time for them.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>EVERY DAY IS NOT CHORE DAY: In reality there are always little tasks that have to be done. For me, dishes must be done and all garbage picked up before going to bed. But for the bigger stuff, I have found that if I designate a day to catch up (laundry, vacuum, scrub bathrooms, etc) then I am able to not feel like a failure at adulting by letting those things go all the other days.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>HAVE A PLAN: For this computer science degree- there is always something else to look at, read, or code to try. The best thing I have come up with to manage it all is to have a plan, outline my tasks and then set a \u201cWant\u201d and a \u201cGood Enough\u201d expectation. This one is probably the hardest one for me to follow through on. But when I do give myself permission to have done good enough, or worked on it long enough \u2013 it has felt very freeing. I have found that having that \u201cgood enough\u201d option, rather than going for a week on 3 hrs of sleep each night just to get one more thing \/ a few more points, has actually helped me to do better in planning my projects \/programs out. Do I want an A on all things? Yes. But if I have worked my plan and done my best then a B on this one assignment is good enough.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>USE THE BEST FUEL: Its so easy to grab a quick snack or fast food or eat no food and instead chug a lot of coffee. But the mind and body both need the best foods to run smoothly. I get hung up on this all the time. Quick is easy and fast. But when I do take the time and try to have a more balanced diet vs a protein shake and bag of chips \u2013 I am able to think more clearly, have better focus, and sleep better. All of these things are critical for keeping your body in balance chemically.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As I was writing each one of these- all I kept thinking is how bad I am at them still. Haha. I know it is important to keep ourselves in balance. I know it is important to take breaks from stress, focus on life\/living instead of constantly \u201chead down, push through\u201d. But I also know all of these things are easier said than done sometimes. If I was asked to give my past self a bit of advice as I was starting this program, these are the things I would tell myself. Over the last few weeks of my OSU postbacc, Im going to continue striving to implement these things and keep my metaphorical tires balanced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When driving at highway speeds, it is really easy to feel an out of balance tire. The car shakes and the overall feel of the drive is rougher than normal. But it is much harder to notice an out of balance tire when driving around town. Sometimes a car may drift left or right, but &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/2022\/05\/05\/balancing-act\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Balancing Act&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12336,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/avoidingtheghosts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}