Friday, October 21, 2005
Women's Studies 234A Paper
If time is money and hours were equivalent to dollars than I’m on a $168 a week budget. This week I walked around with my budget as a map to aid with the smart spending of my life. This definitely wasn’t a natural process for me and it had some drawbacks. On the flip side it does prove to serve as a good tool to find a better and more realistic uses of my pay.
This week I sort of felt like a kid whose parents said, “We aren’t gonna tell you what to do with your allowance anymore. It’s up to you to make the best of your money.” Saturday’s class was like direct deposit I get from my work. I was told here’s your money and now plan how you are going to balance your wants with your needs. This daunting task proved to be very cumbersome. After all, I never planed what I was going to do in 15 minute increments every day of the week before. I look at this schedule before me and it’s so inorganic and lifeless. My plan of attack was to put in all the things I know I had to do, like work, school and commuting, first. Then I looked at the gutted out chunks of 15 minutes intervals I had left and arbitrary penciled in what I thought would be the best use of my time. This was a hard map to follow for the week and if felt contrived. I had scheduled study breaks at work which meant I could not visit with my sister during those times. I had given her a copy of my schedule for the week so when I would accidentally walk to her cube she would kindly remind me that she wasn’t penciled in for that particular break. That felt inhuman to me as I’m sure it felt inhuman for her. So this week I was unsuccessful at balancing the human element into my budget.
Although, this was a very unnatural process for me it did serve as a useful device. Having a tangible schedule gave me a mitigating tool and was sort of a second conscious that allowed me to say no. My buddy James called me and asked me to go out tonight but I realized I did not have time because I looked at my schedule and I saw that I had this paper to write and was also brutally reminded that I have a class at the crack of dawn tomorrow. The map gave me the foresight of why I should not go out tonight. Without it being right in front of my face I might have neglected to remember.
This weekly allowance plan also gave me a tangible visual aid to see what I didn’t accomplish in the week. I saw that I neglected to organize my cube and to read an article that I was interested in. These were both important “being” tasks that I wanted to do during the week and by seeing how I cheated myself out of those things I can make them bigger priorities next week.
This budget gave me a way to correlate why I wasn’t successful at executing some of my plans. For example, I scheduled to get ready for work and school the night before. This included putting out my clothes and packing my lunch before I went to bed. When I followed that plan Sunday, it set me up to play my guitar and write in my journal before I went to work. I saw the nights that I didn’t follow that plan it lead to my inability to practice my music and write in my journal before work.
It’s was interesting to see what suffers in my life when I don’t execute things in a consistently planned manner. I always seemed to follow through with the “production” part of my schedule. I made it work on time everyday, I met my work deadlines, I made it to school on time and I met my school deadlines. I always cut my budget short when it came to the very important “being” aspects of my budget like my writing or my music. It’s sort of weird how my life models the society I live in. When schools need to make budget cuts, due to poor planning, they first gut all the arts and humanity programs (“being”) while maintaining the math and science programs (“production.”)
Overall I felt that this was a helpful tool that is perhaps unnatural and cumbersome for now but with a little practice I could learn to use it better. It gives me tangible insights into how I get things accomplished and shows me where my weaknesses lay in not accomplishing things. Up until now I felt that I did an O.K. job of balancing my “being” and “production” but now I see that that is not necessarily the case. When it comes to this whole time budget thing the positives outweigh the negatives so I think I’ll try doing it from now on. After all, this is my $168 (hours) and at 24 years of age I don’t need anyone but myself telling me how to spend it.
If time is money and hours were equivalent to dollars than I’m on a $168 a week budget. This week I walked around with my budget as a map to aid with the smart spending of my life. This definitely wasn’t a natural process for me and it had some drawbacks. On the flip side it does prove to serve as a good tool to find a better and more realistic uses of my pay.
This week I sort of felt like a kid whose parents said, “We aren’t gonna tell you what to do with your allowance anymore. It’s up to you to make the best of your money.” Saturday’s class was like direct deposit I get from my work. I was told here’s your money and now plan how you are going to balance your wants with your needs. This daunting task proved to be very cumbersome. After all, I never planed what I was going to do in 15 minute increments every day of the week before. I look at this schedule before me and it’s so inorganic and lifeless. My plan of attack was to put in all the things I know I had to do, like work, school and commuting, first. Then I looked at the gutted out chunks of 15 minutes intervals I had left and arbitrary penciled in what I thought would be the best use of my time. This was a hard map to follow for the week and if felt contrived. I had scheduled study breaks at work which meant I could not visit with my sister during those times. I had given her a copy of my schedule for the week so when I would accidentally walk to her cube she would kindly remind me that she wasn’t penciled in for that particular break. That felt inhuman to me as I’m sure it felt inhuman for her. So this week I was unsuccessful at balancing the human element into my budget.
Although, this was a very unnatural process for me it did serve as a useful device. Having a tangible schedule gave me a mitigating tool and was sort of a second conscious that allowed me to say no. My buddy James called me and asked me to go out tonight but I realized I did not have time because I looked at my schedule and I saw that I had this paper to write and was also brutally reminded that I have a class at the crack of dawn tomorrow. The map gave me the foresight of why I should not go out tonight. Without it being right in front of my face I might have neglected to remember.
This weekly allowance plan also gave me a tangible visual aid to see what I didn’t accomplish in the week. I saw that I neglected to organize my cube and to read an article that I was interested in. These were both important “being” tasks that I wanted to do during the week and by seeing how I cheated myself out of those things I can make them bigger priorities next week.
This budget gave me a way to correlate why I wasn’t successful at executing some of my plans. For example, I scheduled to get ready for work and school the night before. This included putting out my clothes and packing my lunch before I went to bed. When I followed that plan Sunday, it set me up to play my guitar and write in my journal before I went to work. I saw the nights that I didn’t follow that plan it lead to my inability to practice my music and write in my journal before work.
It’s was interesting to see what suffers in my life when I don’t execute things in a consistently planned manner. I always seemed to follow through with the “production” part of my schedule. I made it work on time everyday, I met my work deadlines, I made it to school on time and I met my school deadlines. I always cut my budget short when it came to the very important “being” aspects of my budget like my writing or my music. It’s sort of weird how my life models the society I live in. When schools need to make budget cuts, due to poor planning, they first gut all the arts and humanity programs (“being”) while maintaining the math and science programs (“production.”)
Overall I felt that this was a helpful tool that is perhaps unnatural and cumbersome for now but with a little practice I could learn to use it better. It gives me tangible insights into how I get things accomplished and shows me where my weaknesses lay in not accomplishing things. Up until now I felt that I did an O.K. job of balancing my “being” and “production” but now I see that that is not necessarily the case. When it comes to this whole time budget thing the positives outweigh the negatives so I think I’ll try doing it from now on. After all, this is my $168 (hours) and at 24 years of age I don’t need anyone but myself telling me how to spend it.
# posted by Nick D @ 8:40 PM 
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I enjoy your essays. Although I didn't focus on Women's Studies, many of my male friends scoff at my obsession with feminism and feminism-inspired readings. As part of my senior project for my undergrad in Speech Comm, I did a rhetorical analysis of Andrea Dworkin's "Pornography" essay. As you probably know, she's vehemently against porn.
In any event, thanks for posting a comment on my blog! Take care, S.
In any event, thanks for posting a comment on my blog! Take care, S.
Heh...I know what u mean about learning to budget...be it time and money. I just left my husband who did all of our planning...both time and money. I am only just learning the value of a dollar and also how time is money...it's surreal and scary as hell. Thanks for stopping by. I plan on posting pisc of my sick ass house soon as i can!
It’s crazy to think that two of the coolest random cyberspace people that one could meet were introduced to me through my Women’s Studies paper. My local paper the Rocky Mountain News ran an article yester about current pop-culture’s infatuation with what the writer Erika Gonzalez called “Geek chic.” Let’s just say the article fits me to a tee. The internet is my only beckon of hope reminding me that I am not alone. Blog Spot is a beautiful thing.
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