Today is my official first day of summer. As a teacher, my summer is a month shorter than my students’ summer, due to post-planning and pre-planning teacher work days, but I am just as happy to have a summer as my students. I intend to make the most of it.
You may have heard the saying, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.” During the school year, I am that busy person. And I do get things done. But I have noticed that when I don’t have a shoe-horn schedule (and by shoe-horn, I mean it takes some maneuvering to fit in everything), my time seems to slip away. Not that I don’t accomplish anything, mind you, but it seems that I just don’t accomplish as much.
And this summer, I am determined to remedy that by creating a schedule–and following it.
It brings to mind–because I am the literary sort and recently re-read The Great Gatsby–the schedule James Gatz (a.k.a. Jay Gatsby) penciled into the back fly-leaf of his copy of Hopalong Cassidy:
SCHEDULE
- 6.00 a.m. Rise from bed
- 6.15-6.30 a.m. Dumbbell exercise and wall-scaling
- 7.15-8.15 a.m. Study electricity, etc.
- 8.30-4.30 Work
- 4.30-5.00 p.m. Baseball and sports
- 5.00-6.00 p.m. Practice elocution, poise and how to attain it
- 7.00-9.00 p.m. Study needed inventions
GENERAL RESOLVES
- No wasting time at Shafters or [a name indecipherable]
- No more smoking or chewing
- Bath every other day
- Read one improving book or magazine per week
- Save
$5.00$3.00 per week - Be better to parents
Like the young Mr. Gatz, I do plan on my typical early-to-bed, early-to-rise schedule–to remain healthy, wealthy, and wise. (Thank you, Ben Franklin.) And I plan to work out (although I don’t start climbing the wall until a few weeks into school), to study (as I’m taking two courses at UF this summer, I can’t avoid that), and even work (a little pre-pre-planning, as it were), in addition to my usual household duties and my lofty home improvement goals. I also hope to spend more extensive time with God–reading His posts to me via the Bible and talking with Him, minus the frenetic pace.
I promise I won’t smoke or chew–except when I have food in my mouth. I will bathe, perhaps, every day; read constantly; save at least $3 a week (by shopping sales); and be better to my mother. And I also promise to rest, relax, and have some fun with my family and friends. (Unfortunately, the newest Great Gatsby movie isn’t coming out until Christmas, or I’d be scheduling that into my schedule.)
I’ve heard it said that “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
I’m planning–so that when I look back on these days free from work, I will see that I did, indeed, make the most of my summer.
All Things Work Together 