Day 82: Reducing Stress And Giving Myself More Time

Going to try and keep this one short.

One thing I've noticed about myself while being is that I put work first before myself. Back while I was writing my thesis, I was working 14+ hour days trying to get my experiments to run and collecting data.

It was hard. Really hard. I put the lab first before my personal health. I wasn't even able to call my family like I regularly did during those times.

Late last week, I noticed the same thing. The first thing wasn't showering and getting ready for the day.

I would hop on my work laptop and start working on deliverables for the week.

Whether I'm working in an office or from home, my mind is in the lab.

In some way, it feels like I never graduated, even though I walked the stage to get my second diploma.

But I did. I'm not at MIT anymore (as much as I've grown to miss the place). I'm not a grad student any more.

I'm not writing my thesis anymore. I submitted that a long time ago.

I have got to move on. I don't want to stay stuck in the past and keep repeating myself in blogs and vlogs about how I'm not sleeping enough or missing publishing dates for content.

I am in a new stage, a new season of life. I have got to start living in this new life chapter.

There's no reason for me to stay up late anymore - I don't have experiments to run. Emails can always wait till tomorrow.

I am not in a rush to publish technical work. I don't have to always be stressed out and overload myself subconsciously because I'm used to operating that way for so long.

I am a working professional. I have time after work and on the weekends for myself. That time I can fully dedicate myself to developing myself into the person I want to be, not struggling to deal with the flaws of who I once was.

Right now, I'm taking the next two weeks to put myself first again. I am pushing back due dates for commitments, and I am not taking on new ones beyond what I already have. I will spend my spare time with my creative pursuits first before anything else.

I want more time and less stress for myself. I want to be fully present in the moment, instead of having my mind on what I have to do tomorrow.