Last night I pulled a two-inch pile of paper out of my bookbag and began categorizing it. Most of it is not directly related to my classes (except the thirty pages of photocopied math textbook, since the bookstore didn’t have enough and I still haven’t gotten a copy (Amazon is slow like an anemone..)). Rather, it is related to all the not-strictly-classes stuff that I am doing this semester, including:
- Handouts and notes from the lab section I’m TA’ing
- Handouts, syllabus, etc from the class I’m ‘facilitating’ a study group for (a paying job!)
- Other paperwork for that study group
- Papers I’m reading for Jill’s lab
- Papers I’m reading for my own research
- Applications and other paperwork for UROP and SURF grants
- Papers I was reading by the UMinn people I might do an REU with
- Grad school stuff
- The aforementioned math book pages
The above have been sorted into a binder, conveniently labeled “Binder of Ridiculousness”. Because it really is.
I’m trying not to worry about the amount of stuff I’m committed to right now. It’s okay, now, but later in the semester when A) I have a lot more writing-type homework for my classes and B) frisbee season picks up and my weekends are sacrificed to tourneys, I’ll be busy. On the other hand, I’m a lot better at sitting down and doing stuff, rather than procrastinating forever, and at using my hour-long chunks of time in the middle of the day. Go me.
(Apparently I am the queen of ending sentences with prepositions today. It’s probably better that I get it out of my system before writing research proposals, right?)
UPDATE: I got my math book! I think it was actually delivered yesterday, but since we are lucky if we manage to pick up mail twice a week, it lingered. If Amazon had, say, informed me that they had shipped this item, I would’ve checked and gotten it yesterday. Sigh.