Integrating Something New Into Your Norm

Modifying Your Schedule Can Be Difficult

    Humans are creatures of habit, and having a regular schedule is often many small habits throughout the course of our day. Starting in childhood, the average person had a schedule revolving around school, extracurricular activities, family, and other factors. We know what tomorrow looks like because we've done the same things over and over before. 

    When our schedule changes, it can be so easy to forget the new addition. It can be just as easy to forget parts of your regular activities because you spend so much time thinking about the new variable. These are some challenges I've had to overcome, and am still adapting to, during The Digital Summer Clinic (DSC) of 2022.

Plan as Best You Can

    The internship began the week of June 13. Prior to the start of this week, multiple emails had been coming through about when the clinic would have regular meetings. My internship partner and I had also worked out with Intermode, our incubator company, what days and times we wanted to be in the office. 

1. Get All Information Available in Advance: Having more than enough time to sort out the details gives you room to breathe. If you need to reach out to someone in order to prepare, go for it! More often than not, employers and managers would rather see your ambition and organization skills early on.
2. Write It All Down: All of the information you gather needs to be consolidated. It can be written down in a planner, in an app on your phone, on a project management website, or anywhere else you will frequently be able to reference it.
3. Double Check With Someone: If your schedule has overlap with someone you work with or someone in your personal life, double check with them that you're not forgetting anything. 
4. Write It All Down, Again: It feels like repetition is a point in all of my posts but it's for good reason. All habits are repetitions of an action. The more you write it down, the easier the information will come to you naturally.
5. Feel The Rhythm: Allow yourself to go with the flow of this new schedule. To me, a schedule is like a soundtrack in a movie playing in the background while I go about my day. It helps to queue me in and get me ready for the next step.

    Only a couple of weeks into working with Intermode, I had the opportunity to become a field manager for DSC. While I'm absolutely ecstatic to have this position, it changed my schedule, again. My first schedule only lasted from June 13 until June 30. I've completed steps one through four but I'm still trying to get into the rhythm of this new schedule. 

Start Another Habit at the Same Time

    This is an experiment and the step I'm currently trying to enforce. The field manager position is 10-15 hours a week with the majority being remote work. I am not the best at keeping myself on a schedule within my home and typically just work when I feel the most inspired and motivated. Unfortunately, that frequently occurs in the late evening and only encourages the insomnia gods to keep me up at night.

    I struggle with holding myself to specific times, so instead I'm going to try to associate my work with an intentional action.

-The Adaptive Creative