Okie dokie,
I opened up my materials on Saturday with the full intention of getting straight into a routine of study by the start of this week, so instead of admitting failure I am going to devise a new kind of calendar where the week begins on Wednesday mornings. I think its the most logical approach to the problem, given the situation. 
It isn't like I haven't studied at all, I sadly lost my Saturday to the Chilli Festival that happened over the weekend in Brighton. I expected to go down for an hour or so but got wrapped up in all of the chilli festivites. What kind of things could possibly make a chilli festival a day long adventure, I hear you cry, well I'll tell you! Lots of things, they have chilli beers, a chilli BBQ competition, chilli chocolate churros, live music (not by the Chillis, sadly) and about a bazillion different types of chilli sauce to try out. Chilli jams, chilli cheese, chilli chocolate, chilli mustards, chilli chutneys and chilli plants. T'was a venerable chilli adventure!
So Saturday became Sunday, I spent the day getting my study area ready and read my course introduction (in trepadation). Got my comfy chair ready, a good supply of tea and toast and went out to buy pads, pens and folders. I read the introduction and firmly believed that I would continue in earnest the next day with my reading and get out ahead of the pack by today, when I got my module dates.
As you may have noticed, as I mentioned, it is now Wednesday and I am not writing gleefully about how much spec-tash-ular studying I have done. In fact, I have yet to return to my study area to continue my good works. I've not been totally lazy, I have organised my online-ness to help support me. I'd go into detail about what things I've sorted out, but you might get too bored and not read on, God forbid!
So I now finally have my module information but am still waiting for my dummy TMA and tutorial dates. In the mean time, I'm going to go to a local second hand book shop (instead of getting down to work) and see if I can find any relevant texts on the cheap. I'm also going to have go against my nature and actually design a study planner because I am worried that although I've allocated time in my head I don't think I will keep to it unless I can see it all written down. Doing that will make me realise how much time I am really going to have to dedicate to this. Mis-managing my time is my main concern, second is my inability to take notes. All through my school years I never got into the habit of it and never ever kept a good notebook in any subject. Having read the W100 introduction it seems to make pretty clear that it is a very important skill for this course. Hence the second-hand books, I want to try and plan time to ready them, do so and take notes on their contents. See, see, I have a plans!
I am planning to go out tomorrow night though ... using my shiny NUS card to get discount :D so maybe I'll need to do a planner for each week individually, in which I can also plan awesome things that I want to do with my spare time. Ah who knows, the world is my .. study area, really, I bet I'm gonna have to make lots more time for it this whole degree thing than I thought.
"Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow".
Maria Mitchell (astronomer)
