For me, focusing (especially on the weekends) is all about the pop punk section of playlists on Songza and knowing that my planner is up-to-date. I use a paper organizer and of course, iCal. I’m not ready to put the analog down forever, so I use both. Having two planners going at all times helps me to remember to double check everything, so that I’m never really at risk of forgetting a meeting or an appointment. I do the same thing with my to-do list. I use an app called Wunderlist (which I love, because it reminds me of wanderlust, my most delightfully named affliction) on my phone and my computer, and keep running paper lists of things in my planner, notebooks, syllabi…everywhere. I write everything down.

I know that sounds all over the place, and it kind of is. I like things to happen in very particular ways, but no one in my life would ever call me organized, and I’m probably the only one who understands my methods. I promise, though, it all works. The act of writing things is helpful for getting stuff to actually stick in my sieve-like brain. Without multiple systems at work, I’d never get anything done on time.

Having the best schedule ever for my last semester at the Mothership is helping, too. I only have classes three days a week, and the remainder of the time I’m working on McBride tasks, thesis research, or really important cat cuddling. I’m loving my courses, and I’m not yet feeling like I’m going to murder my thesis topic! I just have to keep it up for another few months. (Ack.)

What helps you focus, Mawrtyrs?

Winter break went by so quickly! Not because I was doing a million and one exciting things and internships and international tours and what have you, but because I had a rough case of the ol’ walking pneumonia for the first three weeks of our time away from classes. The end of finals week hit hard, and then my lungs just shut down. I hate doing nothing, and that’s exactly what I had to do for those weeks. I coughed a lot, and I watched far more episodes of The Simpsons than a person really should.

By the time I felt well enough to do anything, break was almost over. Lucky for me, I’d made a plan to go to Atlantic City with some of the other McBrides! I hadn’t really realized how much I needed to get out of Philadelphia. AC is super close, but by the time we got there, I felt like I was on a totally different planet. (Part of that is how weird I feel about casinos, but that’s for another time.)

We spent two days inside a giant dome, pretending that it wasn’t January and enjoying the sunshine, the warmth of the hot tubs, and a seemingly endless supply of fruity drinks. It was very hard to come home.

I’m never so far away from Bryn Mawr, though. It follows me everywhere. Example: the night my friend MJ asked me about “Moby Dick,” because she’d just started reading it and needed some context. I launched into a lecture, fueled by Strawberry Bellinis, about race and slavery and whaling and disability and the chapters on whale taxonomy that she could maybe skip if she felt herself losing faith in the novel…

Someone took video, and it exists in the internet ether. It was a proud (and silly!) moment. That’s a good combination. I’m working toward more proud, and more silly.

Welcome back Mawrters!

P.S. Oh my gosh, this was my last undergraduate winter break. This is not a thing we can process right now, but come back to me in two weeks, okay?