I won’t lie to you- classical music is an acquired taste. When I first started listening to it, I was more distracted by how much I didn’t like it than I would have been if I had just kept on singing to the Paradiso Girls. But eventually I got into “the zone” of when I actually focused in on my work, and miracles happened. My back-ache was cured, my runny nose dried up and I no longer need to wear my glasses to see long distances! OK, maybe not. But I can and will vouch for this classical baroque stuff. It really is significantly more calming than listening to all my favorite hits. I focus better, so my readings get done faster.

And because I love it so much, I’m sharing it with you for free- yes, FREE- today on YouTube. It’s a 16 song playlist, so you’ll probably  finish before it does. (That’s what she said!) Behold:

P.P.S. If you liked this post, you should see what I post to twitter each day. follow @aydaring.

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I was recently diagnosed with OCD (that is, obsessive compulsive disorder). I’m hardly ashamed, or particularly shocked in fact. A little confused perhaps, but otherwise, the diagnosis has been a serious wake up call. The only way I can describe it is that a window into my nature has been cleaned that I didn’t even realize was dirty. Looking back, it certainly explains waking up in a cold sweat and making a calendar out of post-it notes. Background information: waking up in a cold sweat over unfinished tasks happens about 3 or 4 times a day, whether I’m sleeping or not. For example, I’ll be sitting down eating a meal, and I’ll be plagued by the idea that I need to drop everything and get back to work. I’ve always thought that all high achievers push themselves the way that I do. But I have lots of high achieving friends and I realize now that none of them ever beat themselves up as much as I’ve been doing all these years.

I’ve gone this far without anybody catching anything because, well, the fruits of my compulsions are visually appealing things like post-it calendars that I can blog about, and good grades, and other grand achievements. I’m right on track with learning to control my obsessions and the resulting compulsions, but this whole “increased self awareness” thing has got me wondering about where my OCD ends and where the planning methods of the average person begins. 

I can’t leave the house without a book in my purse, or checking and re-checking my purse a million times to make sure I have a book in there, lest I finish a task and am forced to sit around with idle hands. I must always have something to do, or else my head starts to feel funny. I’d describe it as though the walls of the room are closing in on me, and my head slowly fills up with pressurized air that becomes hotter and hotter until I find something for myself to do- usually rearranging my surroundings. And you can bet I can’t sleep unless I feel like I’ve done all that I can to do all that I can each day.

I began using David Allen’s GTD method a few years ago, because of the fact that it is based upon the principle of maintaining never-ending to-do lists, organized by context of when you can do any given task. And then I learned about Cal Newport’s GTD for college students method. I’m sure you can see how much of an enabler GTD has been for me in the past few years. It never even occured to me that my constant need for always accomplishing something was out of the ordinary, until I sat down with a therapist and explain out loud how stressed out not having anything to do gets me. Hearing myself describe my daily thought process was a real wake-up call as to how out of the ordinary and incredibly unhealthy, my daily thought process actually is.

Learning to change my thought processes and behaviors  has been emotionally trying. Mostly, it’s been a lot of facing my fears. It’s also been a lot of trying to figure out where to draw lines and boundaries.  Feeling stressed about work on occasion is normal, and probably a little healthy. Making to-do lists so you can get in control of your workload is also OK. Fleshing out goals for yourself on a regular basis so that you feel proud of your life, and like you’re contributing to the world is also OK. Showering or exercising excessively for hours on end so you feel like you’ve accomplished something that day is not OK, nor is it particularly healthy.  Making lofty goals for yourself so you never have to run out of things to do is not healthy either. Planning out each second of your day and getting salaciously upset when your plans get derailed is also neither OK nor healthy. My biggest question for the past 4 weeks has consistently been: what do I actually need to plan and what do I need to learn to release to the ‘randomosityness” of life? And yes, randomosityness is a word- it perfectly describes how ridiculous and unnecessary I think it is to leave things to chance. (But I’m working to change that view!)

I have daily goals, and weekly goals, and monthly goals and yearly goals. And then of course I have my 5, 10, and 15 year plans. And then I have my life list. But the thing is, a lot of people have these kinds of goals. If you reverse engineer, these goals make a lot of sense. You begin with a vision of the kind of life you aspire to (e.g. a life list, or a mission statement) and then break your lofty aspirations down into action steps. That’s OK.

My theory is that what separates healthy goal setting from obsessive life planning is how it all makes you feel at the end. I often feel like I’m a slave to my goals and plans. I make plans to liberate myself from temporary anxiety, but then feel trapped by said plans.

I think it’s the same with those people who are the exact opposite of me- the one who “live for the moment” and “go with the flow” all the time. I used to look down on those people for never having plans. And to be honest, I still don’t really regard people with no path in life with particularly high esteem. There is a difference between trusting the universe to get you where you need to be, and just straight up being lazy. And when it comes to the day-to-day planning of how you will go about your life, I think the benchmark is how much progress you are making towards your goals. People with no vision, or who are afraid of making plans are also just as trapped within their lack of direction as I am within my over-planning. A certain amount of kicking yourself in the ass is important, because it gets your ass moving. You then draw the line in ass kicking when it begins to dis-empower you.

What I see, and admire and aspire to, and wholeheartedly recommend it planning until you feel liberated. Perhaps you feel liberated by  a 5 year plan, and anything more feels like too much. So that’s where you stop. Or even better, what I really aspire to are those people with daily to-do lists that don’t feel like they’re trapped within their plans. They set realistic goals, and they accomplish them.

But you know what else? I think that everyone has to draw these lines in their lives, whether they have OCD or not. If you’re not living your ideal life right here, right now, then you either need to do a little bit more, or a little bit less ass kicking. We all have an ongoing process within ourselves of finding the right balance between slacking and not slacking that keeps us chugging away towards what we want. And ultimately, what I am learning more and more is that it’s not crossing things off your to-do list that makes you successful, but being able to sleep at the end of the day, having enjoyed your entire waking period, and feeling secure in yourself.

I have no actionable list for you all in this post- making less of those is part of my personal action plan. (Oh the irony and contradictions!) I just wanted to get you thinking about your own thought processes.

How is the way you think about your goals, both big and small, affecting your ability to get things done? Are you pushing yourself so hard that you’re tired and overworked? Or are you dragging your feet on a treadmill set to low? Or are you chugging along at a healthy pace and need to share your secrets and tips with the rest of us?

And regardless of where you stand on the workaholic spectrum, what can you begin to do, right here, right now to improve yourself?

Example: For me, it’s realizing that I just tossed an action list into this article, and that my point of improvement is not getting too upset with myself for doing so.

Hopefully, I’ve given you something to ruminate on for a while. At first, it’s a little difficult to face those inner monsters. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years of working myself to exhaustion, it’s that work breeds more work. The more you think about how your mental habits are affecting your physical habits and actions, the more you keep thinking about it. The more you think about it, the closer you’ll get to that “Oh my gosh, I need to get up and do something about this right now!” stage of action. And trust me- you don’t need an anxiety disorder to get up and do something about your life. When you’re done ruminating, you should give me a shout on how you feel about this topic.

P.S. I’ve got twitter. You should follow me! I’m basically an endless stream of witty!

I’ve just finished packing for university and for the first time in 6 years, my things are all in boxes. I moved around a lot as a kid, but for the first time ever, I’ll be moving alone.  I’m off to the University of Waterloo to major in Honours Environment and Business. (Told ya’ I’d make it in!) I’d be lying to you if I said I was particularly sad about that- I was hardly happy with my childhood home life. But I do feel an odd nostalgia about leaving behind the town and friends and teachers that I’ve come to know and love. I’ve never lived anywhere for as long as I lived in Burlington and now that I’m about to leave I can finally see why it’s considered one of the best cities in Canada to raise a family. Granted, the suburbia-ness of it all made me want to rip my hair out at times, and I kept hoping to see a Stepford wife pop open her chest to re-oil her robotic innards…but I seem to have made it out OK and I will actually miss this place.

So, I sat down the other day and came up with a list of things I need to do before move-in day. And I’m sharing it with ya’ll because I know for a fact that I’m not the only one who is currently feeling slightly bummed about suddenly having to be a grown up when being a kid was kinda-sorta-really-awesome. This isn’t actually my personal list that currently in my purse. I added a few experiences and generalized people’s high school experiences a bit. And it’s also based on the assumption that you didn’t hate every single second of high school. You should of course edit this list as you see fit, but the spirit of things is to tie up loose ends to allow yourself a fresh start.

1. Go back to the place you had your first  real, proper kiss that made you “get” what those romance movies talk about. Chill there for a bit. Review the event, moment-by-moment, savouring the crazy mix of touch, sight, sound, taste and smell. Remember the butterflies in your stomach and the pounding of your heart and the way your mind kept flipping back and forth between “OMG!” and “Am I doing this right?” and how afterwards you felt “that-much” older, slightly sexier and oh-so ready for more. Savour the memory.
2. Go back to your elementary school. Marvel at how, no, the buildings didn’t get smaller, you just got taller. Say hi to your old teachers, and say goodbye to the swing-sets and baseball diamonds. While there, go back to the spot where your first scrapped your knee, then move on to the plot of grass where someone first stood up for you and you then became instant friends. Walk down the hallway where you first saw your grade 3 crush and how cute their smile was the first time you got up the nerve to say hi. Go back to the cafeteria and remember how you used to trade Twinkies for Jo Louis’ with your best friend. Go back to the bathroom where you ran to cry when you found out the horrible news, and then out to the field where you learned to play four square, then go back to the spot where James told Claire to tell Morgan to tell Josh to tell Casey to tell you that Adam thinks you’re really great.
3.  Go back to your old high school and tell your teachers thank you. Then go to all the lockers you had over the course of the 4 years and leave a good luck note in each of them for whomever gets them next. Go back to the classroom where you had your first high school class, and the one where you had your last. Sit in your desk in each one for a few moments and appreciate how much you learned within those walls and during the time that lapsed between them. Go out to the spot where you parked your car the first time you drove it to school, and then go over to the spot where you accidentally backed into the teacher’s car. Run around the field one more time, then go stand in the gym where the school dances where held, and where you learned how to both slow dance, and grind your hips into those of the opposite sex as your first, fully clothed foray into teen seks.
4. (If possible) go back to where you had your first serious make out session and/or dropped your v-card. Relive those moments…if they were pleasant. If not, move on.
5. Log onto Facebook and tell your childhood crushes that you had crushes on them. Then let the feelings lay there, and be glad with the knowledge that your heart is now empty and ready for The Next Great Love Interest in your life story.
6. Sit in front of the teevee and drink hot chocolate while watching re-runs of Arthur, Dragon Tales, Power Rangers, Sesame Street and all the other shows you used to watch as a kid. Marvel at how Muffy on Arthur now has a cell phone and how Sesame Street is still totally awesome and how it still sucks that Reading Rainbow is over. (But don’t take my word for it!) And finally, thank the Higher Powers that you have YouTube now, so you don’t ever have to go without Mr. Rogers and the puppet people again. Brought to you by the letter A. For Awesome!
7. Get on a bus in the morning and spend the day riding around town, appreciating the physical world that has surrounded you all these years. Notice the signpost that told you that home was right around the corner after a long night out. Notice the trail you jogged along every evening. Notice the coffee shop where you had your first date, and appreciate how it’s still privately owned and terribly delicious. Get off and walk into the book store where you’d go with your friends to pass the time till your parents came to pick you up from the mall. Salute the City Hall for making things work. Toss some bread at a pigeon in the park. Kiss the tree that shaded you while you read all those novels over all those summers.
8. Go back to where you had your first menial minimum wage job. If possible, toss some change into the tip jar of the brave soul who now does what you did.
9.  Watch the sunset one more time.
10. Wake up early and watch the sun rise one last time.

Let’s not sully the wonder of the new by getting all sad about the old. But it is still important to at least appreciate where you’ve been, even if you don’t necessarily like it. For better or for worse, it’s the past that got you to where you are today, and it’s where you are today that’ll get you to where you want to be tomorrow. And with that, I leave you with Emily Dickinson, and hope that you will take home in your heart wherever you go:

Where thou art, that is home.

Image source

No matter at what level - intramural, club, or varsity - playing sports can really take up a lot of time. Being an athlete generally takes up considerably more time than exercising or working out to stay in shape.

I have experience with all three of these levels of sports so I’d like to pass along some insights I’ve gained from the past three years. First, here is some background about my experiences. My freshman year of college I played club soccer (I played soccer from age 4 up through my senior year of high school, but I wasn’t interested in playing at the college level). A large group of us got together about 3 times a week to kick around the ball and get some games going. I probably spent an average of 3-7 hours a week playing soccer in the afternoons. Two of the afternoons were on weekdays and one was on Sundays. This lasted for basically all of my first year at school and gave me a great group of people to know right off the bat, plus it was a ton of fun. My sophomore year I went to the first couple of club soccer practices but hardly anyone showed up (the majority of the guys playing had graduated the previous May), and I figured it wasn’t worth my time to keep going if no one was going to play. I switched to the ultimate frisbee team (also considered a club sport at my school) since I had a lot of friends on it and loved that as well. We also had practices 3 times a week, ironically enough at the same time as the club soccer met, and again I was spending around 6-7 hours each week playing frisbee. I was very active on the team for the first semester but by the end of the second semester I was a little burned out on it. So the fall of my junior year I took up tae kwon do. We have a physical education requirement so I figured I would just take TKD (I had spent about 5 years when I was much younger working through many belts) and ended up also joining the club that semester for extra practice. I spent 5 hours in club and 2 hours in class each week, for another total of 7 hours. (I see a trend here!) For spring semester, though, I had decided to take a huge plunge and join the track and field team, a varsity sport. I attend a Division III school so we don’t really have tryouts or cuts for the running program, which is really nice! I absolutely loved it and am looking forward to running cross country this fall. Track and field took up considerably more time - two hour practice every day plus going to meets usually meant about 10-15 hours of practice plus at least a full day or two for each meet.

All right, now that you know all that background information you can understand a bit more where I’m coming from with these tips. They will apply to anyone interested in playing a sport at school, whether it’s from the IM level all the way to varsity.

• Get stuff done - I can’t stress this enough. If you know you want to spend two hours playing basketball on Wednesday but have homework due Thursday, make sure you get the homework done! Exercise and sports are a great stress reliever but also a great procrastinator. Don’t let your academics slide for sports. If you have a big game or meet over the weekend, make sure you get everything done for Monday so you’re not stressed out Sunday night.
• Know when to stop or take it easy - If your body hurts, give it a rest. There’s no sense in injuring yourself. If you have too much going on, step back from the athletics and figure out what you want to prioritize.
• Talk to your coach and/or captain - About anything. They are there to help you out with your athletics and, really, life in general. Listen to what they have to say, and learn from their experiences.
• Utilize the trainer - If something hurts you, go talk to the trainer! Even if you are not a varsity athlete they can at least point you in the right direction. Don’t wait to get treated for an injury.
• Remember you’re in school to learn - Even if you really love your sport, you really came to college to learn (unless you’re one of those high school athletic prodigies who goes to a DI powerhouse on a full-ride athletic scholarship). Don’t let your academics slide. They’re likely what is going to get you a job or grad school after you finish your undergrad, not athletics.

I hope you find some of these tips useful. It’s a big time commitment to play a sport in college, no matter at what level, but it’s also very rewarding physically, mentally, and socially. Have fun with it!

• Administrative Preparation:
  By administrative preparation, I’m referring mostly to paperwork: immunization records, registration records, transcripts, resume updates, etc. These are all things that my new school will require and since schoolwork isn’t occupying most of my spare time the summer is a great time to pull all these things together. For me this is mostly a matter of locating everything and making sure it is up to date and checking with my school to make sure all the required paperwork is submitted. Taking care of things like this now can prevent a lot of headaches when the semester starts and will allow you to keep your focus where it belongs – on your work.
• Financial Preparation:
  Taking a little time away from the beach, road trips, or whatever other plans you may have to make sure all of your financial aid paperwork is in order is sure to save you lots of hassle once things pick up and tuition bills are due. This is also a good time to review your finances overall and make the big decisions that will dictate your school year (will I have to work? How much do I have saved? Etc.). I’ve pulled a free copy of my credit report from each of the credit reporting agencies (start at annualcreditreport.com) and am in the process of reviewing these for inaccuracies and reporting any discrepancies. The summer is also a great time to earn money and/or valuable work experience. Work to save spending money, or even look for volunteer opportunities in an industry that you’re interested in. Either way, future employers will see this in a positive light as it shows that you have initiative and are responsible.
• Physical Preparation:
  Moonlighting as a student isn’t always the easiest thing. Sometimes after a full day of work the very last thing I want to do is sit in class for several hours and cap off the evening with a drive home and some reading… but I don’t really have much choice. My circumstances require this so I deal with it. One way to make the burden a bit easier to shoulder is to maintain my health. The stress from school and other commitments, the long hours, the mental work involved – these are all easier to handle when your body is equipped. I’m using the summer to refine a fitness routine so by the time the semester starts I’ll be in tip-top shape.
• Mental Preparation:
  Finally, I am preparing myself mentally for an enhanced workload and dramatic change in lifestyle. There are lots of ways to do this; I’m focusing mostly on organization. Most of you are probably familiar with GTD, I’m spending the summer re-reading the book and fine-tuning my organization system (things to explore in future posts). I’m also getting in some leisure reading (something I rarely have the time for when class is in session) and generally relaxing in order to rest up for what’s ahead. It’s just as important to keep your brain fit as it is to keep your body fit. This will keep you from getting burned out but allow you to stay sharp and focused once classes start up again. By honing my organization and workflow system I’m gaining not only time and efficiency, but the confidence that comes along with being prepared. Doing this now ensures that I’ll have a good system in place when the semester starts and it will only be a matter of enveloping some new responsibilities to make sure that it serves me well.

So, a quick recap: spend some time this summer relaxing, but don’t let the time slip idly by. Make sure you’re ready for the school year, focus on your goals, and do what you can to move them forward. Advance preparation will save lots of time and trouble down the road.

Lo and behold, I discovered that I use significantly less of each product when I use it from the smaller bottle!

My theory is that it is some kind of rationing technique that my brain developed; it sees that I only have a small bottle of the product so I feel compelled to use less of it than if I were pouring it out from the big bottle. It still performs just as well with less, so that isn’t an issue at all.

So if you’re looking to save a little bit of money and use less resources, try moving your things (beauty products, toiletries, even try some foodstuff!) to smaller containers. You might also trick your brain into using less! Also, the smaller containers take up significantly less room in the shower!

Sorry to make yet another post on the topic, but there seems to be quite a few people out there looking for ideas on things to do during their summer this year, so I’m just trying to share as many ideas as possible.

Good luck to everyone, whatever their plans for summer may be, whether working, travelling or something else entirely. Please feel free to share your plans for summer in the comments section below.

There are a lot of people finding the site, or coming back to the site looking for some ideas on what to do during summer. I’m not going to write another post on the topic, because it would be very similar to the one I published last year. What I will do is link to some posts from GearFire and other sites around the Blogsphere.

Things to do During Summer

This is a post of mine from last year. This is just a few ideas about the sort of things you can do, from travelling and fun, to building a strong resume.

Start to Become Exceptionally Good at Something

Not strictly speaking a post on summer, but it is an excellent post from Cal Newport talking about how to become exceptionally good at that one thing, be it writing, music or business. Summer could be the best time to get a head start!

Summer Goals

This was a post from GearFire itself written last year by Maria. This gives you some ideas for the sort of things you could do during summer, and also suggests setting some tangible goals to help you make progress.

Have a read if your looking for ideas on what to do this summer. I still have a good few weeks before I break up for summer, but if you do have a long summer holiday, do not let it go to waste! Make the most of it; the start of next academic year will be rolling round before we know it.

But there is a key weakness to all of these resources:  they are designed to point you to documents that might have the answer.   Google can do some simple calculations and conversion from the search box, but in general you end up with links to resources that MIGHT have the answer you are looking for.

An alternative to your normal searches

WolframAlpha is different; very different.   The goal of WolframAlpha is to give you the answer, whatever your question might be.  More interesting to the computer scientists is HOW it gives you the answer;  WolframAlpha computes it based upon models of different fields of knowledge that have been built into the engine.  “The vision seems to be to create a system which can do for formal knowledge (all the formally definable systems, heuristics, algorithms, rules, methods, theorems, and facts in the world) what search engines have done for informal knowledge (all the text and documents in various forms of media).”

That’s nice, but what does it mean in practice?  Well, if you are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics the engine can help you with your homework or verify your answers.  For example, I asked it “What is calcite”and was given the chemical formula and properties, structural diagram and even safety/toxicity. More interesting, it made the assumption that I was interested in the chemical calcite, but also offered, right at the top, the possibility that I wanted “a material or a mineral or a word instead”  Clicking on any of those alternatives changes the search and therefore the results.  Clicking on “a mineral” changes the display to include different properties that are more appropriate for geology than chemistry.

When it comes to mathematics and statistics, the engine will calculate complex formulas, graph equations and even, for some types of equations, show you the steps.  Social Science students can quickly find details about geography and socioeconomic statistics about the people who love there.  This data is available in many other places, but WolframAlpha puts it all into a single place and allows you to find the answer you need without searching through hundreds of unrelated facts.

What’s the catch?

There are always limitations to any tool, and WolframAlpha is no different.

• Its subject areas are limited, although growing.  Since it is computing the answers, it needs a model and those take time to build.
• Because the engine is calculating the answers, it works best for fields with definitive answers.  Philosophy, literature, religion, and historical interpretation are weak, through no fault of the designers.  If you want to know the author, publication date and any awards for “The Grapes of Wrath“, WolframAlpha can help.  If you want a plot summary, you are better off looking elsewhere.
• Formulating your question can be tricky.  The examples page is your friend; it can both help you correctly state your question and perhaps lead you to questions you had not thought of yet. Pay particular attention to the ways in which formulas are expressed without special characters.

Using WolframAlpha in an academic setting

I would advise students to be careful when using the site for homework.  If you use the engine to calculate all of your statistics problems, you won’t understand the material and will likely fail exams where you have to do your own calculations.  Faculty are aware of the tool and will likely change their courses in response.  If, on the other hand,  you use the engine to check your answers, you can verify your own understanding of the material and help yourself when you get something wrong.

Another issue with using this tool for homework problems is that there are often several ways to solve a problem, and the way used by the Wolfram engine may not be the same as the way taught in your book or by your teacher.  Worse, if you ask the question wrong of the Wolfram engine, you may not get the actual answer.

On the FAQ page, WolframAlpha recommends citing information found via their engine.  In the case of information used in papers this is good advice.  If you use WolframAlpha to calculate what a car, bought for $2500 in 1950, would cost in today’s dollars, than the engine is calculating a new value for you and it should be cited as a primary source.

In the end, WolframAlpha is worth adding to your tool kit (one of many) but not a “get out of school free” card; you still have to know how to ask the right questions and understand the answers it gives you.