Work: Off to a Furious Start

Pretty much par for the course when a school year starts.  10-12 hour days have become the norm for this week, and it is expected to continue next week and for quite some time now.  The summer break was surely needed.  These work days have become very intense in the mornings.  The time flies.  Meanwhile, next holiday is National Day which is a week in October and am going to make this a staycation for sure.  None of this traveling with the masses.

 

I'm already thinking of next winter and summer break.  Although way too hectic for my liking, going back to Vancouver in July was necessary to take care of a bunch of tasks that, now, can effectively give me smooth sailing abroad for at least another 4 years.  Next time I go back I am not going to repeat the same thing.  However, with the drivers license story finally coming to a conclusion, I can put that one to rest.

 

Meanwhile I'm making sure to keep fit and keep off the weight lost from the Thailand biking trip.  I lost 10 pounds in total and people are noticing the difference.  Even when I'm exhausted after work now, I still drag myself to the gym and hit the weights and treadmills.  The benefits are quite good in that I feel more alert after the work out.  I am still in good physical shape from the bike trip and it's relatively easy to keep the momentum going.

 

Back in Wuhan I made the big mistake of working long hours at the office and then crashing on my couch at home right after work.  I stayed there all evening and night in front of the warm air conditioner, without even enough energy or motivation to venture on my scooter and grab street food.  That kept up last year in Shanghai also when I would get home from work and then veg out on the couch in front of the flatscreen watching DVDs for hours on end.

 

Now I'm trying to put a stop to that kind of laziness.  The idea is to bring my workout clothes and bag to work, then immediately hit the gym after school while there is good time.  After that I go home and do lesson planning or masters degree courses.  When it's all been done, I then veg out and watch the DVDs.

 

The time management system I've developed, thanks to my Blackberry phone, has been invaluable.  Even with a busy Shanghai schedule, it is amazing how much unproductivity there is, for example a two-hour spare block where I surf the internet at work.  Now it's completely understandable why the corporate types I'm friends with in Shanghai may work 14 hour office days, but not all is useful.  For example, let's take a guess as to how many of those hours are spent on MSN. 

 

In China it's all about face time and killing time, even though it appears productive.  Let's put a stop to this laziness and have exercise time instead.