Preload: Senior Year

First of all, I apologize for the lack of updates the past week and a half. I was getting ready to move back to Duke, spending the last few days of summer with family and friends, and the past few days moving into my room here in Durham.

This semester is quite exciting, both from a Duke perspective and a personal lifestyle perspective.

From a Duke perspective:

• Our football program is generating a lot of excitement, with new coach David Cutcliffe (who coached both Manning brothers in college).
• Of course, everyone is looking forward to a new basketball season, and believe me, I’ll be writing a lot about it in the coming months (I mean, look in the corner!).
• It’s always exciting to come back and see great friends.

From a lifestyle perspective, I’m trying to consciously make a number of interesting changes:

• Physically, I’m beginning a 6-week trial of both a workout program and a diet program. You can read about them here. The biggest adjustment is that I’m cooking 90% of all meals. My first batch (covering today, tomorrow and Wednesday) was cooked last night, and it was tougher than expected. You learn quickly by experience when cooking 12 meals for the first time. As I improve at the task, I’ll be writing about my methods. I’m fairly confident I can streamline things so as to cook 1 hour, twice a week (rather than the 3.5 last night).
• After reading nearly the entire Study Hacks blog this summer, I’m beginning to apply some principles:
  1. I’ve decreased my overall commitments, taking only 4.5 classes, rather than the 6 I’d taken each semester for the last two years.
  2. I’m focusing (as this website claims) on a very small set of ambitious goals. Currently this means my thesis, my guitar, and my workouts.
  3. I’m imposing strict working hours, 8-6 Monday through Friday and 11-5 on Sunday. This means that during those hours, I’m working either on required commitments (classes, etc.), or my goals. Period. It also means I never work on anything required outside that time. Period.

I’ll be reporting back often on these lifestyle changes, as well as specific applications and reports on my goals fairly regularly (multiple posts per week), and look forward to discussing things with you readers in the future. Off to begin senior year…

-Barry