Marking Chaos; How to fit it ALL in

Just when I thought my working life couldn’t get busier… I was offered a job and was asked to start within a week!

Starting work straight away meant I had to work while also finalising all of my tutoring and marking, and it just so happened that while I was learning the ropes of my new job, I was also marking 200+ assignments in a month. It was just very unlucky timing.

This has meant the last few weeks have been extremely hard and tiring, 16+ hour days, and minimal sleep. Oh, and I am also behind on LoveIsland UK, which is perhaps the worst of all.

Although, I would not recommend trying to fit this much in- I thought I would share some tips for if you get in a situation like me, where you have to:

• Use your time wisely- I was getting into the city early to mark at a café before work, quickly sneaking one assignment in when waiting for my housemates to get ready to go for dinner, and getting one done before the shower in the morning. Every odd assignment you mark adds up
• Know that you can’t fit it all in- I have taken a few weeks break from Barre class, because I just genuinely couldn’t fit it in. There are only so many hours in a day so you need to work out what you can give up for a few weeks.
• Be kind to yourself– Although, my plan was to get up before 6am every morning during these marking weeks (aside from weekends), there were a few days where I just really wasn’t feeling it- a little sleep in was worth more to my energy than getting two assignments marked.
• Still do something for yourself before bed- I find that if I went straight to bed and tried to sleep after working all day & night my brain would be wired and I wouldn’t be able to switch it off. So even though some nights all I want to do is sleep I make sure I do something for myself- I usually shower, do my skin care routine, and then hop into bed and watch an episode!

So…. As you can probably imagine no PhD work has been touched for about a month now…. But in 2 weeks operations gtfo is back on!