Time is a 4-letter word
By chad reichertNovember 15th, 2007
By Chad Reichert
CCS is not an easy place. It can be suffocating with large amounts of work and little or no time to do it. Each semester has a distinct life cycle that includes birth: the beginning the semester; celebration: creative inspirations; disappointment: getting hammered in a crit; milestones: the end of one project the beginning of the next; and death: pure exhaustion at the end of the semester. We (and I do include teachers) experience the same issues. I know the pulse of my class. I see their trepidation to experiment, their struggle to develop a process and their frustration when their results don’t meet expectations (theirs and mine). It is the academic cycle that controls us, beats us up and spits us out. It is also that same cycle that matriculates a CCS graphic design student able to respond to a design brief, articulate a vision, develop a smart concept and create amazing visuals. This latter part of the cycle gets lost in the fatigue-driven haze of school. As this semester begins to wind down I want to discuss the annual “OMG it’s almost break and I am freaking out because my insane teacher wants me to do so much in so little time.”
The key word here is time. Time is our enemy. It’s unforgiving and always works against us when we need it most. Time-management is a difficult concept to grasp when your day planner is 50 items deep. As I interact with students, talk about projects and critique results, time is always the complaint and/or fact. There is simply not enough time. So, I would like to briefly address two relevant and timely issues that I think students struggle with.
Technology
Your computer is plugged into the internet, you are not. In an earlier post I discussed the importance of online tools. I talked about the need for an online community to facilitate the transient culture of CCS. I stand by those words. But, as I have seen work habits develop (particularly over this past semester) I see students tethered to the internet. I see students spending so much time online that the definitions of productivity and futility begin to blur together. Focus is a problem. I depend on the internet as much as anyone. I read the news on my laptop every morning, download (legal) music every week and in the course of writing this post I have checked my email 4 times and went online 6 times. But I also make sure that when I have a pressing deadline I turn off my connections to my online apps so I can focus on the task at hand. It’s very hard to believe students who say they didn’t have time to finish their work yet when I walk by their desk, they are on AIM. Eventually students must realize they need to balance their online consumption with the demands and considerations of everyday life.
Internships
I am very disturbed by the demands that are placed on students by companies and bosses. In the past 6 months I have talked with almost a dozen students whose time is dominated by their internships. Yes they are necessary and you need money, but no you should not compromise an education that costs you $841 per credit hour or $25,230 per year so you can make sure the boss is happy because you logged 30+ hours. I have heard from several students that their bosses wanted to hire them and even offered them full-time jobs knowing they were still in school. Your education is priceless. Jobs will come and go, but if you don’t have that diploma and the full experience of college, it will hinder you career development. Please note, I am not advocating that everyone quit their internships but, I am strongly suggesting that you set limitations and don’t let your work, boss or peers pressure you into work. School should be your focus and the better your conceptual and formal skills are the better the opportunities will be for you upon graduation. I advice that you set a schedule and stick to it. Make an agreement with your employer that you will work a set amount of time and when it’s over, you walk away and shift your focus back to school. If employers do not understand or appreciate your dedication to school then you should reassess your situation. Finally, you must be realistic with the demands you place on yourself. There are not enough hours in the week, no matter how much sleep you say you don’t need, if you are interning more than 15 hours and carrying a full load of classes that include multiple studios.
I can imagine that production levels would increase and the success of projects would be better if CCS offered 24/7 access to the beautiful facility that sits wasted unoccupied day after day. Because of this, it is apparent that students rely on instant messager to acquire this type of environment. I think it is the mentality of knowing that a classmate is working as intensely as you are helps fight the pressure of staying up all night consuming cup by cup of coffee. How fun is it to sit in a room of white walls trying to bang out design in a house full of sleeping people? Not very. Time most likely would be on our side if there were not so many damn rules against wanting to be at school for actually WORKING together.
Aubrey, I agree with you, although unfortunately I’m sure there are reasons why the building can’t be open 24/7 ($ im guessing?).
Anyway, yes i am also on IM late at night because it does feel helpful to have the presence of other people working there with you. I don’t feel I (or many of my classmates also up working late) abuse the chatting. Usually i can find my peers “Away” on my buddy list. I always know this means everyone is doing their work but are all available for crit and to help one another out.
I think IM is an easy scapegoat.
“We got just one shot at life, let’s take it while we’re still not afraid. Because life is so brief and time is a thief when you’re undecided. And like a fistful of sand, it can slip right through your hands.” – Rod Stewart
iChat gives me the comfort of knowing that other people are alive at 3:30am when the world seems dead.
Also, being able to surf the web while I work may take away time doing work, but it helps me deal with the fact that I’m stuck in my room while all my university friends are at the bar. It kind of helps trick my brain into thinking I’m hanging out online when I’m really getting things done, just a little bit slower.
Takes longer, but helps me keep my sanity.
I would say that everyone would agree with the statement regarding the importance of school and the transience of jobs, however this does nothing to address the fact that people have to have money for car payments, gas, food, rent, printing, booze, drugs, whatever. I wish that I could not work and focus on school, I would probably be a better student, but its just not possible. I (and probably many others) are stuck in the rut where I have to work but I also would like to the the hell out of CCS. This is a recipe for disaster, unfortunately, thats the only recipe I know. (I suck at cooking life)
I also meant to add the fact that it is impossible to live on 15 hours a week of work
admrwe- You just won $133.33…take a week off.
Has anyone considered that sometimes, even if we have all the time in the world, our deep wells of creativity occasionally run dry?
Sure, i’ve been told that it’s my job as a designer to be inspired and be excited and literally fill the metaphorical well of creativity up, but what happens when you can only fill it 3/4, 1/2 or not even a 1/4 of the way? And what happens when you continually tap the well until it’s dry?
Right now I feel as if I’m continually tapping a resource that cannot meet my demands.
Yet, perhaps this issue is subjective and not everyone may feel the same way, but I cannot help feeling that my well is a little dry these days.
dkapa- I agee. Please don’t be offended by this but I’m just referencing what I know (religion, and I’m sure this is probably true for counselors too). Pastors/counselors have to take on so many other people’s problems, and “fill” other people up with joy, hope, happiness, that eventually their cup runs dry too. There is DEFINITELY a time when we need to stop and be “filled”…I think opportunities like the LUST workshop, School trips like NYC last spring, going to a design conference out of town are what we need (as well as having time to do *gasp* NON design things too…I never thought I’d be excited to go hang out at my parents house and just talk with them and do nothing). I also think the fall semester is tough because you don’t really get a break (like spring break) to let loose and perhaps participate in activities that we love, but don’t have time for during our school routine. So yes…after 3.5 years of constantly draining our well faster than we can fill it- we are all starting to feel it.
Time is a bitch. I feel my biggest waste of time is sleeping. But even without it the homework load never seems to go down. It seems that even with good time management there is still little or no personal time, and that makes the process much more difficult. That is why i stay online, like my classmates it seems to be a simple way to stay social during homework time.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
-Groucho Marx
Time management could quite possibly be the most vaulable lesson that we take away with us from this boot camp of a school, or at least in the top three. Sure we learn design theory and practices, and pick up a little software knowledge here and there, but learning to maintain a well-balanced schedule has been the most challenging task yet… especially this year.
meditate. find your center.
It is really hard to balance school and work, and while school comes first sometimes I feel dissatisfied with my output because I’m struggling so hard to just juggle everything. On top of that I feel like I’m seriously neglecting the people in my life… Is it even healthy to live so isolated? Maybe that is why people spend so much time online…