Working Woman’s Wednesday: Sabbatical Schedule

I’ve been making the most out of this second 🚣🏻summer🌅 session away from teaching to keep cranking💻 out my doctoral🎓 📖dissertation until school starts!

With my smaller home office space during my sabbatical, I make the most of my workstation with eye candy ~ so *ASIA* adorns the side of this desk! 💺😻📷💻📇

My work load on finishing my draft📝 that details

• 📕the purpose of my study
• 📗supportive scholarly📚 publications,
• 📘research📉 📈methods,
• 📙statistics📊 and
• 📜conclusion📇

has occupied the majority of everyday these past six weeks ~ so this can compare to a full time job!

S is for: 💡Scholar✨ = 🌈Social📳 🔭Scientist🔬

Just when I didn’t think that my eye candy could get any better with Grad Cat, enter Stats Cat Sweet Annie! 📊📉📈🐱🐈

 Despite not needing to report to a classroom everyday or answer to anyone, I as my own boss during my sabbatical still maintained a schedule.

My Around-the-Clock⏰ to Become Doc Routine

• 🌇Daily😵 😲wake-up😳 📋non-negotiables: prayer (the Rosary), skin care, feed A&A
• 🍳Breakfast🍊 of 🏆Champs: fuel⛽️ up (postpone coffee☕️ to 2h after I wake up to help me sleep more easily later)
• 💪🏽Beast👊🏽 💓Mode: work out to get my brain juices & blood flowing
• 💡Scholar⚡️ 📓Mode: revise my working document for as many as 12h/day
• Shower: taking a cold one on these hot dog days of summer can energize me between my workout and study session or I’ll relax in the bath between my scholarshift and bed time to snuggle in clean sheets
• 🌈Pleasure🌟👓Reading: I haven’t read as much non-scholarly material as I used to love to before college & grad school, but I’ve found that a little bit helps to ease my mind & unwind lately ~ my current reads are relevant to my research in an unconventional way (stay tuned this Study Saturday)
• 💭Choose😴 to 💤Snooze: as a chronic insomniac, I must make a conscientious effort to hit the sack ~ while I tend to stay up late reviewing and proofing my paper, I find that I’m more effective when I work on it earlier in the day with energy!

Just like Vince Carter had discipline with the Dallas Mavericks a couple of seasons ago, I also didn’t take break days! Yes, it’s essential to have some R&R, but at this point, I’m

In the Zone 🎯

So I can’t afford a single day off …

Therefore, I take 🌴mini-vacays, even for just a few minutes or hours⌚️ for my stories

Beauty Tuesday: My AM Routine

Happy April Fools’ Day!!!

To tip off this month, as we already did spring into spring, I’ll show and tell you about how I get ready in the morning…

☼ Rise and shine ☼

First thing I do: hit snooze. (No April Foolin’ you ~ at least I’m keeping it real.)

Actually, here’s #1 once I get up: Open the curtains and blinds to let the sunshine stream in! I like the way that my fellow woman of faith and family friend, the Birthday Girl, Tita Mel says that this is our way of:

Letting GOD into our day!

I pray to start and end each and every single day. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, His bright light fills my days. Maybe some of you who are reading this aren’t religious or spiritual, but I promise you: if you believe in the Higher Power, you’ll live with a sense of purpose and more trust in any outcome. As my good friend and spiritual mentor, Bishop Mike always advises me:

Take it one day at a time with the LORD.

If I wake up early enough before work or an appointment, then I’ll fit in a workout, whether a fun run into the sun, toning up or stretching with gratitude, and shower afterwards. However, I usually prefer to take a bath the night before, so I can sleep fresh in my clean sheets!

My morning rituals typically do start the night before to save me time in getting ready, making decisions and searching for stuff. Before the week starts, I check the forecast, then set out my wardrobe according to the weather (I used to plan ahead by the month because I seldom wore the same outfit twice): outfits, handbags, shoes — hanging hooks on my closet, bedroom, and bathroom doors come in handy.

Then I do the following skin care and beauty routine with the products that I mentioned in my debut Beauty Tuesday Review:

• Cleanse my face
• Apply astringent to treat any acne
• Apply moisturizer with sunscreen on my face
• Apply sunscreen and/or lotion
• Put on my clothes
• Apply makeup (which I sometimes set out if I plan to wear special colors) — items are easily accessible from my acrylic organizer from my Procrastinating Beauty Tag
• Do my hair ~ sometimes I go to bed with my hair braided and/or pinned up to make waves, or at least set out styling tools, products and accessories
• Put on my jewelry and accessories
• Grab my water, coffee and my breakfast
• Get set to jet ~ depending on the distance from my destination, I set aside ample time to drive and arrive

What I do to begin my day may work for you, especially if you’ve also been guilty of running late like yours truly. Although I’ve always planned what to wear ahead of time, also preparing for trips to our destinations will help us maintain punctuality.

Top of the Day and Month, fellow Beauties!!!

1:11 ~ make a wish!!!