A3 3 meta

So, here are some things which have been working, and some things which have been so-so, and other which were complete busts.

What's working:
I really like this repetitive cycle of listening, reading, reading again, reading again, gathering new sentences, reading again, thinking, quizzing myself, writing, rewriting, rewriting again, reading aloud, etc. etc. rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

I think I wrote in a previous "meta" post about the need for some bottom-up cvičení, and I am positive that I outlined my thoughts about the Pády app that I finally, finally found. It is seriously a glorious app to behold. I wish it had a timer. But it has been so useful.

What's so-so:
I don't like that most of my collaborators are male. I actually find this a constant source of frustration. It should not matter, but something about it somehow does. I could hypothesize about why this frustrates me, but I guess it would be a waste of breath.

But like...because of the nature of the tools at my disposal for learning Czech (the internet, computers) I guess it is more likely for me to cross paths with men than women. It is just so irritating to me on a personal level. Where are all the women.

So I set out on a quest to find some Czech women.

I went to this site called "Conversation Exchange" and started pestering Czech women who want to learn English. We will see how that goes. Several have written back. I know from last year that it takes a while to develop a rapport with someone, and it is certainly not guaranteed to be successful, regardless of gender. I've had these kinds of exchanges completely and totally bomb with men, too. And on the other hand, some of my most satisfying, closest friendships are products of my effort to learn Czech, so there you go.

One of the women who wrote me back essentially said, "Oh good! I'm so glad to see that you are a woman! So far I've only had men respond to me!" <-- this. I get this. I really do.

Complete busts
Time organization is always a problem. And it's especially a problem when family obligations and really interesting novels (well, it's a biography...not a novel...but it reads like a novel) get in the way.

But what I've also noticed is how I deal with to-do lists has been counter-productive.

I've been enjoying the MOOCs I've been taking, and part of it is because it's so satisfying to click off a little "done!" box. Or to see my progress bar move up. I love that.

But if I break down tasks into too small of items, I find it really overwhelming and I just rebel.

Like, this is how my to-do lists generally go:
I make a list of 20 things I want to get done.
I start with something on the list that looks like it is the most fun and I do that.
Then I think of things that are not on the list that sound fun and do them.

Danny says that this is totally normal, that most peoples' brains work this way. He says what makes me really uniquely weird (in a good way) is "what sounds fun" is generally something "productive." I pretty much never find it fun to sit at a computer and play video games. I find it fascinatingly fun and in fact, I really deeply crave, sitting at a computer and co-authoring a book about Czech land records, for example. Or translating a book about Czech customs surrounding birth and death. Or recording myself reading Czech. Or answering random strangers' genealogy queries. Or researching some completely unrelated person's life in the old newspapers and genealogy websites only to find that there was an entire book written about her and then purchasing said book and getting completely wrapped up in reading so that the laundry pile starts to accumulate and I neglect my family and other responsibilities because I am too into the book.

Okay, surely that must sound fun to lots of other people; maybe not the exact same book (I am quite sure the copy of the book I am reading has never been read before and was in some dank, mildew-y library basement bargain bin or something - it smells very moldy/faintly smoky) - but reading is like, the ultimately universal hobby.

Basically, what I am trying to say is: I should organize my time like the MOOCs. Instead of having lots of small tasks, give myself only a few larger tasks with weekly deadlines.

So that's what I decided to do. My goal is that by Saturdays, I will have that week's definitions, examples, and meta post completed and posted to the blog. How I get those tasks done throughout the week will be more "free." I also added two bottom-down tasks: a quizlet test and a pády test that counts. Each are 49 or 50 questions.

Of course, lots of other things will get in the way, especially since it's the holiday season and so necessarily there will be family commitments etc. The other thing is, on Friday I will be "officially" six-weeks postpartum, meaning I should start thinking about a hugely important factor in my mental health: physical exercise. I guess that will take away some available time to pursue my Czech projects.

But in about 2 weeks, most of the MOOCs I have enrolled in will also be done, which will free up some time, too. It's just a giant game of juggling priorities - an "optimization" problem, for which there really is no final answer. It is just a continual struggle, albeit somewhat fun and definitely interesting. So yeah.

This kind of writing is therapeutic. I don't expect it to be very interesting to the one or two collaborators I have who probably will read this. But it is helpful for me to direct my learning, and for the very far on the horizon Czech as a Third Language (because let's face it, nobody learns it as a second language! Hahahahaha) Textbook Project, maybe these unorganized anecdotes will also prove to be useful. Or I can just reminisce about how crazy I was.

Also, my baby started sleeping through the night last night. I think one reason I feel almost manic giddiness about my projects and interests is because my brain is well rested. Ha.