Happy 2019, everyone! (Celebration music.) 2018 was... well, it was something. But, now that's all over and we've got a whole new year to look forward to. Except, for us education-type folks, we're just starting the second half of our school year. That means, beginning next week, some of us are doing what we're doing for the umptheenth time while some of us are doing it for the very first. In this welcome-back episode, sorry, it's just me but everybody's either still out on vacation or busy prepping for next week (which I will be continuing to do after this recording is done). Either way, I wanted to share with you some of the routines, tips, tricks, heck, you might even call them rituals, that help me get ready for a brand new semester. And if you're a brand new student, heck, even enrolled in one of my courses, this could serve as a unique insight others rarely get prior to starting classes. So, let's roll with Season Four (...I'm calling each semester a season because... I can). Here we go! --- I want to give you three very specific pieces of advice and then I'm going to explain the method to my own madness. I also want to preface all the following advice with this: your health comes first and always should. Eat right, get some exercise, and aim for a full night's sleep. (Heck, if you can swing it, take a nap mid-day if that helps. Examine your life and adjust it accordingly to what _actually_ makes you better at what you do, not what so-called "experts" tell you is _optimal_.) That said, here we go. ## Protip 1: Get a desk calendar Yep, it's a low tech as that. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, a desk calendar is exactly what it sounds like: a large calendar that sits on your desk. It's for writing on. You can put things on it. It's multi-functional, truly. I cannot begin to tell you precisely how useful these things are. I'm a pretty paperless guy, all things considered. Probably more paperless than most people, if I'm honest. That said, having one of those 22x17 paper calendars at a glance at all times is amazing. Not only do you get an instant overview of your schedule but you can refer to it when reading or working at your computer without flipping things around or switching windows. I know some people that use a large wall-mounted whiteboard for a calendar and, while I can see the utility of that, my suggestion to you is to use the wall-mounted whiteboard (and I've spoken about these before; you know, the super cheap smooth white sheets of stuff they sell at Lowes or Home Depot, just cut up and nailed to the wall... works great with dry erase markers) ... anyway, use the wall-mounted whiteboard as a place to keep notes, mind-maps, statuses, et cetera. Using the whiteboard as a calendar means figuring out how to either replace the content each month (without losing said content) or rotating a couple calendars at a time (and still running into the same problem). Just go snag a desk calendar from Office Depot or Amazon -- they're like... ten bucks -- heck, the bookstore probably has one. And don't worry about the coffee or tea stains you'll inevitably get on them; they give it character. ## Protip 2: Reverse schedule your time Now that you've got your calendar on your desk (and maybe your giant whiteboard on the wall), it's time to actually schedule your work. The problem I often see with quote-unquote "due dates" is how people think about them. They tend to be considered _targets_. That is, if something has a due date of next Friday at noon, we tend to (for a number of reasons, some of which I've talked about in previous episodes) think that it needs to be completed or finished at noon. Unsurprisingly, this isn't actually the case. It's simply when the window for submission of that thing closes. Don't think of it as a target; it isn't one. Think of due dates as... the point in time at which you can no longer make changes to the item you've submitted. Like, hitting "Send" on an email: as long as you still have in draft form, you can still make changes. After you hit that button... that option is gone. While I can't speak for other instructors, necessarily, what I _truly_ love to see is the submission of assignments well before the due date and then, as the window closes, resubmissions with updated content. It tells me there's being constant and considerable thought given to the work, that the material is being digested and recombined with other information, both new and old. So, how does this relate to reverse scheduling? Simple, really: find the date the window of submission closes (ie, the due date), figure out how much time you think it'll take you to complete it (and, no, you might not know that off-hand just by looking at it... you might need to do some work on it first to get a feel for it), split that time up into manageable chunks, and move them around your schedule until it fits. Remember that this can often include not just the actual sitting-down-and-doing-the-typing-or-coding-or-whatever time but also the oh-there's-more-reading-I-need-to-do time and the this-is-what-I-do-to-mentally-warm-up-for-this-kind-of-work time. Again, know thyself and be realistic. While you might _think_ you work better under pressure and starting the eight-hour assignment just four hours prior to the submission deadline forces you to be efficient... it doesn't. You're not actually _better_ under pressure; you just procrastinated. Reverse scheduling and the self-discipline, the motivation that is necessary to do it are the keys to overcoming that. I say this as a self-admitted procrastinator. I mean, try it out for a semester, see how it goes. Worth a shot, right? ## Protip 3: Be selfish. If you're in school you're basically taking on another job... albeit one that you have to pay for rather than pays you. That means you have time constraints and responsibilities. These responsibilities can and will pull you away from other responsibilities in your life. Now is the time to talk to your loved ones and state this very plainly. Perhaps you need to bargain: "I have class on Wednesday night when Johnny has ballet. How about you take him to dance practice and I'll do X, Y, or Z, instead." Sure, seems perfectly reasonable. But here's the trick: once you make that agreement _do not think about it any more_. Simply acknowledge that this is how things are for a while and _focus on the work_. The end result of your time at school will be something that makes your life, the lives of your loved ones, and the society as a whole better... but for the time being, it's removing you from your regularly scheduled lifestyle. So, in that sense, you have permission to be selfish. The end result is worth it. ## How do I prepare? My new-semester routine typically goes like this: try to become hyper-organized, mostly fail at that, settle for being adequately organized, think I've got everything ready, share it with my students, find a dozen mistakes and typos, fix them and hope the students didn't notice, rinse and repeat. In all seriousness, at the beginning of each semester I make an effort to reflect on the previous semester (or at least the last time the classes I'm teaching have been taught) and make improvements where I can. Sometimes that's slightly massaging submission windows and content pacing, sometimes that's completely revamping the presentation of the class. Whatever you choose to do, don't reinvent the wheel every time; be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses and do what you can to tip the balance in your favor a little bit more every time. Nobody expects you to be perfect; nobody ever is. Remember that: what you tend to see is what someone _wants_ you to see; what you _don't_ see is how many failures and false-starts it took them to get there. This is a place to try wild things, to stumble, to fall, to fail, to try again. Now, before we go, I'm going to let you in on a little secret: rare is the instructor that lacks any anxiety about starting a new semester. We're human, believe it or not. Oh, sure we're thrilled and excited and chomping at the bit to dig into the content, share what we know with our students, and see just what they can do with it, but more than that, we're looking forward to getting to know you and finding out just what _we_ can learn from _you_. (Ending copy: once again, thank you for listening to this little podcast-thing of mine. If you found it entertaining or informative or useful, please do subscribe and rate it on the podcatcher of your choice, whether that's iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or however you listen. And, as usual, I'd love to hear from you. You can find me on Twitter at newprofcast. Show notes, transcripts, and more can be found on the website at thenewprofessor.com. Until next time.)