I wrote about working ahead over holidays before but the holiday break we currently find ourselves in the middle of generally splits classes in half. Sometimes it even marks the end of a course and returning for the spring semester will mark the beginnings of new courses. “You’re not going to recommend we do school work over our vacations, are you?” The answer is “Yes… and no.” At any rate… it may not be what you’re thinking.
Being in a PhD program has it’s benefits. One of the greatest benefits is that I am able to, in general, only take classes I’m extremely interested in. Now, I grant you that this is not always possible in high school or even in college. I suffered through a science course because it simply didn’t interest me. At any rate, over this vacation I’ve started reading one of the textbooks for my class next semester. I’m really enjoying it. There is something freeing about reading something and not worrying about deadlines or homework or class discussions the next day. I’m experiencing a different kind of reading.
So what does this mean for you? Well, maybe a couple of things. For starters, if you are taking a class that you like next semester, or something you’re generally interested in, go ahead and start reading the book. Search onlihttp://education.families.com/blog/vacations-and-productivityne for tutorials, videos, or other information about the topic. If the subject is photography, for instance, go out and take some photos. Learn as much as you can not because you have to but because you’re actually interested in it.
The second thing is this: read about what interests you even if you’re not taking a class. Interests can turn into careers and there’s no reason to not spend your free time learning about what you enjoy. I enjoy open source software and spend some of my free time reading about and fiddling with those ideas. No one has directly paid me for these services yet but I’m very useful around colleagues with computer problems. I’m also very quick to fix problems myself. So, whether in school or in life, spend this holiday season getting ahead.