The Magic of Taking it Slow // Student Life

This semester, for the first time in my college career, I'm not taking the max number of credit hours I'm allowed to. I'm really enjoying this chance to slow down and figure out what I really want in life. 

Here's the Magic:

1. Time to plan.
   With my smaller course load, I've been able to dedicate real time to planning a strategy for each class I'm enrolled in and I can spend more time on the assignments.
2. Freedom to enjoy life.
   Not having to be in class all the time or studying for classes when not in them, I have more time to go to the library for leisure, take a walk with my partner, and volunteer.
3. Time to dabble.
   I've always been a dabbler, a kind of jack-of-all-trades. I love to pick up hobbies and crafts to find the ones I want to stick with. Now, for the first (non-summer) time since high school, I can pick up watercolors and fashion curating, just for the hell of it.
4. Time to intern.
   This year begins my first full school year with my internship at the Pet Education Project (PEP!) With my smaller workload, I can now really dedicate the time to sit down and work on my intern projects as well as get in the field with my fellow PEPpy People and my buns to make a difference.
5. Freedom to develop.
   Being in classes has always been restricting to me. More so in my own personal and social development than in any other way. Having more time outside of classes to discover new loves, move out of my parent's home, work, etc. is giving me the opportunity to grow in myself and develop a clear sense of what I really want. To me, college is the time to dabble and figure out what you want in life, but how can you do that if you are nailed to six classes fulfilling just one major and/or core curriculum? 

I'm so glad that I've chosen learning and growth over my formal education. I'd never dropout/not get my degree, but I feel, for myself at least, that graduating then growing is defeating the purpose of college. I could have my French or English degree by now but neither would have made me happy. I don't know what my bachelor's degree will be in, but I feel certain I will love the time I have remaining to get it.

Are/were you that "max-out" student or did you enroll in minimum hours? Would you do it differently now if you could?

NaNoWriMo: How I Intend to Keep it Going

As you know from this post, I am taking part in the NaNoWriMo challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. If you didn't realize, this is quite a challenge and to win/succeed is quite a feat. So I thought I'd share a few ideas I have on how I'm going to try to keep myself working hard enough to achieve my goal and win the challenge! 

• Write no less than 1,700 words a day. My daily goal this month is 2,000 but my bare minimum is 1,700 words. If I write 1,700 words a day for 30 days, I will reach 50,000 words on the very last day.
• Forget the formatting. I am obsessive about formatting. I love to make every chapter heading the same, every time jump match, and everything perfect. For this month, I'm not allowing myself to format a single page until I have completed the novel.
• Work every day from 2:30-3:45. I just had to drop a class from my schedule for various reasons, so the time I would have spent in class is my designated times to work every day. Weekend will be a bit difficult for me to keep this, but there is rarely anything going on at 2:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday.
• Keep a regular sleep schedule. If I can force myself to go to bed every week night by 10:30pm then I can get up in time to go to my classes and prepare for the day. Sometimes, when I stay up to late, I roll out of bed and into class then spend the rest of the day trying to prepare myself and making myself take on the day. This simply won't work for November.
• Take at least an hour each day away from writing to read. Every new book I read leaves me with new ideas about style and wording. reading enhances my writing and what could I need more to finish my novel?
• Water. I'm challenging myself to stay hydrated as best I can this (and every) month. I'm horrible about drinking water and it certainly shows in my fatigue.
• Enlist help. My life partner is absolutely wonderful at keeping me on track. He will ask every day if I've done my reading and if I've finished any goals I've set for myself. He really does keep me on track, which is good because I'll be spending about a week of this month at his house and I'm happy to know he'll be helpful rather than a distraction.
• Carry my computer everywhere. I write, as I feel most people now do, on my laptop, or really on a tiny off-brand notebook that barely runs chrome, but it works. It's small and so I intend to carry it everywhere with me this month. 5 minutes of quiet can be that much more towards my goal each day.
• No revision. I'm the worst at reading over my work and revising it before I write anything new. This month that ain't gonna fly. I'm, instead, going to write down in my NaNoWriMo notebook the changes I want to make with a page number and proceed writing as if I've made the changes.

I'm nervous but very excited to continue my work this month. I've had one productive day and am beginning another. Day 2 is on! I hope these ideas help you to keep up at whatever you're doing and if you're doing NaNoWriMo, good luck!

What are your best NaNoWriMo or anti-procrastination tips?