A Week of Productivity

Originally I was going to start off this post by commenting on how productive I've been this last week. I actually achieved something in the last week! Hurrah! So this post was going to be all optimistic and happy and positive, as I reflected on the week's events.


Originally I started this post yesterday.


I got distracted by shiny objects and I feel like I am falling back into the "Procrastination Hole of Doom." So I need to write and publish this blog post today, otherwise all my hard work (I say "hard work"...) of last week will have been for nothing. 


I didn't post anything last week because my life was incredibly busy. On Friday, I volunteered to be an Open Day tour guide at my university, and I spent my entire day basically telling people where the toilets were, and trying to blissfully ignore the fact that the person asking me where the toilets were, was literally stood next to the sign that read "Toilets". No, it was fine. The day gave me an opportunity to discover things about myself, you know, like those reality television shows where the contestants leave saying they had learned things on their journey of self discovery. My Open Day tour guide expereince had taught me so much about myself. Lessons about life that I had previously overlooked or not understood. It was a gift really. I'm sure I will treasure the experience. For example, here's what I learned:


1) Smiling is exhausting. It really is. Having a fixed smile on your face for an entire day is really tiring. Anyone who has ever waited for what seems days to have their picture taken whilst trying to maintain a reasonably natural smile will understand this.
2) Standing in the same place for six hours really makes your feet hurt. Just standing. Not even walking. At least if I had been walking around all day I would have felt like my pain would have been worth it. At least I would have used some                        
3) I really hate that horrible drizzle-like fine rain. Especially when you are stood out in it for hours. And you're trying to remain upbeat and positive.
4) I now know where Foxhill is on campus.
5) You can study Zoology at the University of Reading. (Who knew?)
6) Telling people repeatedly where the toilets are is really as boring as it sounds.
7) Even though it was a long day of basically standing in the same place for the whole day, I would be willing to do it all over again. Because I need the money. 

This week, however, has been rather more fun! I finally got the chance to meet up with some friends from university, and we spent a lovely day in London at the Natural History Museum and other tourist hot spots. Whenever I go to a museum and I see interactive exhibits, I regress into a child like state. EVERY BUTTON MUST BE PRESSED.

And then Thursday, amongst the initial panic of results day and the sigh of relief after passing, I got to spend the day with another friend. It's been a good week!

But I want my productivity to continue, and so throughout the dissertation planning and research, I've made a scrapbook of quotes that I like. (See above picture) They are either ones I have heard or read, or random thoughts that pop up during the day. My inner English geek loves the way that words can convey and communicate emotion and truth. They have the power to build or destroy. I'll probably write some cheesy blog post on this in the future, but for now that's all I'm writing on the subject.

Here's a video I found really helpful to encourage me to get off my bum and do stuff this summer, so if you're feeling like you're about to fall into the "Procrastination Hole of Doom", watch it!

The Paradoxical Problem Regarding Time and its Uses

The title makes this post sound potentially more interesting than it is. But I like the fact it sounds complicated, and I like making things more complicated than they are, so I'm just going to roll with it.

I've been finding it really hard to write a blog post recently. I was supposed to write it on Friday last week, but my great-grandad passed away, so I wasn't feeling particularly inspired. But I'm mainly going to put it down to my general laziness and complete lack of motivation. I don't know how many times I sat on my bed during the exam period, and quietly dreamed with a faint smile upon my face of the promised Utopia that just evaded my grasp, like a whisper of smoke. I spent hours searching my mind for the promises of freedom, and a safe haven free from stress and struggle. Yes, I dreamed of that legendary age that one has heard about during those moments fighting against the crushing waves of fear and past exam papers; I dreamed of... the summer holidays.

And now it's here, it kind of sucks.

Don't get me wrong, I don't miss the all-nighters sat at the dinner table drinking so much lukewarm coffee that I started to get heart palpitations, or the recurring meltdowns at home where I would question my existence, (thank you Baudrillard. Like my mind needed to be confused any more than it had already been...), as well as questioning my chosen degree. I don't miss those evenings surrounded by a sea of crumpled notes that seemed only to contain unintelligible doodles, (apart from the repetitious flowers, the games of hangman, and stick men attempting to kill themselves in a variety of different ways. These particular drawings occurred more frequently on my lecture notes regarding the aforementioned theorist Baudrillard. Again, thanks.) These notes did not seem to contain a lot of useful information, at least, useful to my degree. However, I have learnt to draw the perfect daisy. So I guess the year wasn't wasted after all.

I remember many times during the last year, particularly during exam period, when the singular question "Why?" was monotonously and repeatedly uttered. 

I worry about myself sometimes.

But, no, I do not miss those times in the slightest. Nevertheless, I do miss the order and structure of my days, and without a timetable telling me where I need to be and what I need to be doing, I feel pretty lost. The glitz and glamour of summer holidays has quickly lost its appeal with me.

I'm sure Future Me will read this at some point and want to slap Present Me around the face for moaning about having too much spare time. Fortunately, due to a lack of time travel technology, the slapping-in-the-face by a future version of me is unlikely to occur, so I'm safe. For now. Although time travel would be so  much fun... I really want a Tardis. Seriously, clever people out there, invent one! 

But all is not lost! No! Future Me will love this. Or, you know, think I'm a geek... but I've decided to make some kind of list of things to do that resembles a kind of timetable, because basically if I don't make one, then I will waste my summer. Hopefully over the next few weeks I'll be able to demonstrate evidence of productivity. Watch this space. :)

Was that the summer?

... I really hope it wasn't. Because I'm not going to be particularly thrilled if that was the only burst of hot weather we get this season.

Please God, I would really love some more sunshine; not any of that irritating heat where you feel like you are actually being cooked, but you know, the kind of weather where you just wake up knowing that the day ahead is going to be good. That kind of sunshine.

This musician/YouTuber, Alex Day, who I follow wrote this summery song called "Good Morning Sunshine." Check it out. In my mind now it's only ever summer.
Since the end of my exams I have taken to the role of "Professional Procrastinator", I have actually started reading again. For fun. I know right? I had genuinely forgotten what reading for fun was like. There's something about when you are told to read that just makes you want to do anything but read. That's true for a lot of things I think. But it is really inconvenient when you are doing a degree in English Literature, and the majority of your degree is focused on reading. Suddenly push ups and sit ups seem like the best forms of entertainment in the world. And when that fails, there's always The Big Bang Theory  and a stockpile of chocolate to ease the pain. Desperate times... But to be fair,  I am hoping to compile a list of new, inventive ways to procrastinate for the future. Ideas are most welcome.

It's been such a long time since I chose the book that I wanted to read, and I'm determined to get through a list of twenty six books this summer. Which shouldn't be hard. These books have been on my shelf for months, if not years, and they deserve to be read. Which is why I rearranged my bookshelf this week in order of genre and then alphabetised the lot. I love being a geek.

A couple of days ago, I tweeted that a person should read book that breaks a little bit of their heart, and I completely stand by that statement. The best books you can read are the ones where you are engaged with the story and characters. There's probably more mushy, literary theory I could insert here about it, but I think you get it. And literary theory drives me mad. If I have to read another essay about how I am living in fake reality I will probably lose my mind.

One book that I would thoroughly recommend is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I've read this three times so far, and each time I've basically cried my way through, and the book is equally funny and tragic, and it's the balance between the two that makes the novel so brilliant. So read it.

But if that isn't your thing, then I'm currently in the middle of The Hunger Games series, and those books are amazing too.

Truly though, read a book this summer that challenges you.