Uhhhhh...

I'm still in shock and disbelief regarding the massive requirements on my time this semester. It's not that I'm filled with dread, it's more like I'm afraid of what's going to become of me. I really don't have enough hours in the day or night to accommodate what I have committed myself to this semester. I've decided that I'm going to have to relinquish all control over my research projects to my research associates. I simply can't run the projects myself and I can't even contribute to data collection. The only things I'm going to do are facilitate the weekly meetings and ferry the test tubes back and forth during two testing sessions (because I really don't want to have other people going into the bio lab, but I may have to give this up, too). I have three major projects and I'm going to assign one project to each associate (there's four grad students, but the fourth has limited availability and is really only along for the ride). Each grad student will be in charge of scheduling testing sessions, calling participants, managing test materials, testing participants, and coding data. I'm sure I'll still be in charge of the data analysis, but that comes later. I hope the grad students can handle being thrown into the fray of project management, although one has done her own honors project and the other has worked with me for over a year (it's still debatable whether she can take something on herself, though).

But, I think the hardest part is going to be for me to relinquish control. That's a tough one. I just might have some control issues. I just might feel this need to be in charge of everything and take care of it all myself. But, that's simply not feasible this semester. So the next best thing is handing it off to competent grad students (oh, please be competent).

Now I'm going to have to strictly schedule my time. I might even have to get up early in the morning, just to clock in and get a few hours of work done on the GRA before heading off to school. I was informed today that I got the GRA position and that I will be starting next week. Coincidentally, next week is also when the Neuropsych externship starts up. So that's 12 hours for the externship (plus 3 travel hours). Then there's 16 hours for the GRA. I work 11 hours a week in the computer lab as a consultant. I have 9 hours of classes and all three classes this semester are requiring massive amounts of reading, assignments, and huge writing projects. And I still have at least 7 hours of research to fit in my schedule. I'm concerned that I won't be able to balance work for the GRA and my readings, while managing to stay awake and alert.

Coffee, anyone?