The serene fog of the night was torn by his mad dash up the mountain. His eyes could just make out the silhouette of the tree that he raced towards. Would he be there? Surely nobody else could solve this problem. This news….well, there was no getting out of it now.
Ugwei needed to know.
“Master. Master!” Sheifu ushered out the words as he made his way up the final few steps of the staircase, leading to the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, which had just begun to bore the fruit that gave it fame across Eastern China.
Under light pink blossoming flowers of the tree, Uugwei practiced - the slow moves done a thousand times before, would be done a thousand times again by the end of the night.
“I’m having - I’m having a very unproductive day.” Sheifu panted.
Ugwei looked back down at him, “Ahh, Sheifu. There are just days. There are no productive or unproductive.”
“Master, your revision. Your revision was right - the exam has has arrived. It’s on it’s way! And I’ve done no lectures today!”
Uugwei’s face froze, before he too acknowledged it, “That is bad news…”
—
Okay stop. The main thing I wanted you to take from that is that there are no good days or bad days, just like there is no good news or bad news.
A bad day is just a series of things that have happened that we’re chosing to look at in a negative light. We cannot chose what happens in clinic, how our grades come out, or how much work we (haven’t) done. But we can chose to look forward untarnished by what lies behind us.
So onto the practical tips for a no good day.
Clear your head - that that negative attitude and throw it against the wall (that’s a Ronny Chang reference for you). Realize that there are still many hours of the day left.
Break up your task into achievable subtasks that take no more than half an hour to an hour to complete. If it’s lectures, do one an hour. If it’s anki, do 100 cards in an hour, or better yet - 50 cards in half an hour. Ford once said “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”
(Don’t spend too long on each task though - old man Abe said “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe” and he was president, so he should have really been asking himself what the hell he was doing sharpening an axe instead of leading a country.)
Use the Pomodoro technique. Set up a timer for 25 minutes of complete focus, with an accompanying 5 minutes of break. If 25 is too high a bar, set it to 15. Any amount of time that you can manage to completely keep your head in the game for.
Stop putting yourself under so much pressure. That stress is making it even harder for you to work. Some things might come easier to you if you stop being such a perfectionist. A concept you should become familiar with.
Amy: “Familiar with?” Mmm, a dangling preposition?
Captain Holt: I’m setting an example. I made an error and I’m not going to correct it. I’m just gonna let it dangle Dangle Dangle.
Amy: Thank you, Captain.
Go forth and conquer your work.
Darwin had bad days too.
“I am going to write a little Book for Murray on orchids,” he says, [the italics that follow are mine] and today I hate them worse than everything.”
“One lives only to make blunders,”
“But I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything”
I should end on a more inspirational note (or quote, rather) so: “Go forth and conquer for the world is small and you are the giant and in every step you take will make the ground shake as it rises to meet you. And start that Pomodor timer now!” - Atticus Poetry (okay maybe not that last line.)