It's been a while...

I know, I've been slacking of late.....the start of the semester is always a busy time, and this semester has been no different. I've (re)discovered a few important facts this year:

· The beginning of the semester is very busy
· If you work at 100% effort normally, then the extra 25% effort you have to give during the beginning of the semester means you are work 125% in the same number of hours
· Working too much can make you tired, sick, inefficient, cranky, irritable, and cause a great deal of stress
· stress is bad

It took a couple really bad days, but now I remember how important self-care and self-maintenance is in this profession. They don't ever teach it in graduate school, and it is never emphasized as part of your employee orientation, and it certainly isn't something that is revisited a year or two after you start the job, but it's important nonetheless. The worst part of stress is that you often don't recognize it until it's consumed you. Find something, some way, somehow, to take care of yourself. For some this means going to the gym, for others, it's yoga. Soccer, trapeze class, knitting, playing cards, reading, long walks on the beach, short drives at sunset, doesn't matter, just figure out what works for you to de-stress, and make sure that you write it down somewhere so that you can bring it out when you need it.