Tag: calendar blocking

Work From Home

Image by Juraj Varga from Pixabay

Due to the worldwide outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, I am one with those who believe that it is prudent for workers to be at home for safety. All may continue working, but at home. Kudos to those companies who support the “work from home” policy.

Let us continue to hope and pray that our scientists and doctors, with the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO), will be able to contain the virus contagion and develop a cure or vaccine as soon as possible.

My Own Situation

Where I work, the school implemented a “work from home” policy just a few days ago. It was forced to do so due to a directive from the city government to all schools because the country has rising cases of COVID-19. As to now, where I live, there is a province-wide community quarantine to prevent further transmission of the virus SARS-CoV-2.

My Google Classroom

Google Classroom

Since I would be working from home, I decided to use Google Classroom for my classes. It is an option encouraged by the school. All classes would be online-based. So far, so good, but with issues here and there. Issues are to be expected, of course, given that I was not trained for online teaching, and so were the students. I am still learning as to what really works. Some students like the new online-based classes, but some do not.

As expected, some students are complaining about the new setup of the school. They are voicing out their opinion on social media. They point out the difficulty of online-based classes, and also of the limited availability of the internet access.

But I told some of them that classes need to continue, and the teachers, together with the school, are doing their best to have a good transition from face-to-face class setting to online-based class setting. It is not as if we all want this to happen. We are just forced to work some things out given the disease outbreak.

I think that all of my online classes are well set. I utilize calendar blocking for class preparation. And so far, the new setup has not adversely affected my thesis reading and writing.

Image by Myriam Zilles from Pixabay

Prayer

May all those tasked in developing the cure be given wisdom.
May all the doctors, nurses, and the medical staff be given a healing hand.
May all people cooperate for safety and security.
May all those infected with the virus have a strong will to live.
May all those who are not infected keep themselves safe.

May God bless us all!
St. Edith Stein, pray for us.

My Block Scheduling

It’s better late than never!

Since last week, I have been implementing calendar blocking, so as to maximize the studying time I have each day. I was inspired to get my life in order and finish my master’s (Jordan Peterson, you rock!). I researched about time management techniques on YouTube, until I clicked on some block scheduling (or calendar blocking) videos.

Yeah, I know. I know. It’s common sense. I should have done this eons ago. But, hey, I’m not perfect and like most people, I’m the kind of person that needs push and inspiration to do certain tasks. So, again, better late than never. And it’s not like this is my first time implementing time management techniques.

The great thing about calendar blocking is the ability to block out times for certain themes. Instead of scheduling a multitude of tasks, for example, they will just be combined into a single category, then I block out a time for it.

Now, to the fun part.

What I did was to block out some portions of my time each day. As you can see from the photo, I implemented a morning block. The time starts when my alarm rings. It is when I do my morning prayer (meditation), have a breakfast, and do other menial things.

At 8:00 am, on Mondays to Saturdays, I go to my room and immerse myself for my thesis. I call it Master’s Thesis block. It is all about my thesis (reading, writing, researching, etc.). All in all, I allotted four and a half hours to five and a half hours each day (Mondays to Fridays) for my thesis. On Saturdays, I allotted only two hours for it.

I also have block times for class preparation, spiritual reading and general reading. Break times, which I named Enjoy!, are also included, of course.

I designed my block schedule to be uniform as much as possible. On Sundays, because of teaching work, my blocks are obviously different. Scheduling for it is primarily subject-based.

I hope that I will be faithful in following the schedule I set for myself. My block schedule is still a work in progress, as I try to experiment on the best block times and themes.

P.S. I also applied other time management techniques. The Pomodoro technique and the Eisenhower Matrix come to mind.

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