I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Time isn't on my side

Okay, I've told a few people here at Confusion about my crazy schedule and what all I'm going through. I've also told the that while driving I've been going through the math in mead to try and figure out if I can write or not. Now when I get through the math (have I ever mentioned how I do math in my head to relax?) I end up with a figure I can't fully grasp, because it doesn't feel right. So I thought I would do it in the open.

Okay, so your average week has 168 hours in it. I'm getting on in years and kinda burned out my batteries by a wasteful youth, so I really do need about 8 hours a night of sleep. That burns up 56 hours a week. But as you'll see, I don't normally get 8 hours in a night. This means that I need to store hours on the weekend, so that typically leads to about 6.5 hours for 5 nights, and about 12 hours the other 2 nights which comes out the same (actually at 56.5 hours). So that leaves us with about 112 hours to get everything done.

Now, I'm working on average 42 hours, 16 hours in clinicals, and 11 hours in class and labs. Add in an approximate 12 hours commute time between home, school, work, clinicals, and everything else. Also add in about 4 (well about 3.75, but let's round up to make it easier) hours for lunch (this is Monday through Friday). So that brings us to 85 hours used up during the week (120 hours Monday through Friday minus 40 hours for sleep, so there's only 80 hours left to do that 85 hours, and now you know why I don't get 8 hours of sleep most nights). So for the week we're now at 27 hours left in the week.

Okay, so now we add in the 7 hours for dinner (I eat fast, but sometimes I need to cook, and maybe I just collapse a little before getting up to work some more). And let's add in 7 hours to get ready (shower, brush teeth, eat breakfast). Maybe another hour for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. Errands add (pick up milk, put gas in car, etc) 2 hours. Lets say 5 hours for the necessaries (peeing and pooping). I've been exercising lately, but not as much as I should, so lets say 1.5 hours a week. So what's that, 23.5 hours. Which leaves us with 3.5 hours to do all the rest (cleaning, washing clothes, snow removal if needed, catching up and being with Bette, doctors appointments, etc). And note again, most of those 3.5 hours are on the weekend, but averaged out is 0.5 hours a day.

Some of these hours are fungible. But then also note I haven't included any time for studying (recommended time is 2 to 3 hours for every hour in class which would be 12 to 15 hours per week, if we exclude lab time), reading for fun, Internet reading (like for the Linkee-poo posts), and the like.

What probably will happen is that I will attempt to work only 40 hours and no more. I'm going to try and claw back what I can. Maybe work from home while I eat dinner. I haven't worked out how much I could regain from that.

And have I mentioned about how I'll need to give more time to clinicals this summer and next year?

So now you'll know when you ask me how I'm doing and I reply that "I'm tired" that I mean it. This past week was somewhat easier because of short lab times. Next week will be a little easier because of MLK day and no labs (as my teachers get trained in a new system). I have a feeling ill be using vacation time to fill out the work weeks.

And there it is. See when I did it in my head I missed a few things. Which is why working it out on paper is better.

Now I could write on lunch time, but you'll note I'm not taking a full hour during the day. Also some of that time is actual working over lunch, or keeping lines of communication open with my group at work.

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