As the workload increases, I need to remind myself to take some time to do things I enjoy…enter stage right: Bikey 🤩

This week I have felt the significant increase in workload. The holy trinity of an MBA’s life is finding the balance between work, sleep, and social life. I think I’ve calculated that you can have roughly half a day “off” work each week and mostly keep on top of things. However this day “off” then becomes an ideal opportunity to tidy the flat, do some batch cooking, work through umpteen loads of washing….you get the picture.

So the test this week was really trying to keep everything in balance, and as I write this this evening, I do feel a slight increase in anxiety: a tightness in my chest, that I seldom feel. I know there is a whole mix of things that are contributing to this, not just my workload, but that is definitely one of them.

Our first assignments are due very soon; a 15 minute group presentation is due by 1pm on Friday (with the actual presentation taking place the following Tuesday) and then our individual 3,000 word assignment is due a week on Friday. This is alongside the weekly presentation we have to do for Tech & Ops and all the pre-recorded lectures and readings for the other subjects. It makes me laugh looking back at my undergraduate days, when a subject like “how to value a company” would take a lecturer weeks to teach us, and it is now boiled down to some pre-recorded videos, lots of reading, and a one hour discussion, then it’s boom, move on, covered that! Relentless.

I’m not complaining though, I still am really enjoying it. One of my highlights this week was on Tuesday when I was given access to the Saïd Business School Instagram account and I got to do a “student takeover” for the day! It meant I got absolutely no work done, but thoroughly enjoyed showing all 45,000 followers of the SBS account around the school, and my day.

On Wednesday I had an appointment with an Immunologist about my crazy allergic reaction I keep having, and we’ve now discovered I developed a wheat allergy! Wasn’t the ideal time to find that out as that evening I was invited to a black tie dinner party at a friends house (which was excellent fun) and didn’t get home until 2:30am!

My final highlights of the week revolve around the theme of this weeks blog: making time to do stuff that I enjoy. And for me, that’s sport and exercise. I very rarely regret a workout, and most of the time it really puts me in a better mood and a more productive mood too. So on Thursday I switched my early morning run for an evening run with the University Cross Country Club and it was so enjoyable. We went slightly out of the city so actually saw fields and grass and mud. Then on Saturday I went back to the Athlete Centre with a group of MBAs for another workout there – they are really good workouts. Hardcore. And then finally on Sunday, the wonderful Bikey made a belated return! Having been at my desk all morning, and with a wonderful autumn day outside, I knew I needed to get out. An hour on the bike was just great, although for the last three miles the heavens opened and the torrential rain got me. No complaints though: much needed, very enjoyable and set me up nicely for a productive (hopefully!) week.