Who would have thought a duvet cover could inspire?

Earlier today I stripped my bed and put a load of washing on. I’m one of those people who have to make the bed straight away or I would regret it when it comes to later on when I just want to crawl under the duvet and fall asleep. I gathered clean pillow cases and a bed sheet, but when I looked for the clean duvet cover, it was nowhere to be seen. This was an impossible scenario to me; if it wasn’t in its rightful place, in the wash or out to dry, where on earth could it be? How could a duvet cover be misplaced?

Several head scratching minutes later, I noticed pile of clothes in the spare room and there, peeking through, was the missing duvet cover! That was the moment that it hit me – my approach to study has well and truly changed…dramatically!

Until today, if you asked  how I approached study, I would have told you it was exactly the same as when I was at school, university and two evening courses I have studied. I would have been lying to you - “new Caroline” has replaced “old Caroline” without me even noticing!

“Faffing” was my best friend – “Faffing” is procrastination. When it came to studying, old Caroline would do everything but study and thrived on the adrenaline of the night before a deadline. Until the assignment or exam was less than a week away, I would find every excuse not to study. It’s funny how around exam time, I needed to hoover, polish, clear out my wardrobe, do the dishes, clean the bathroom...anything but study! This is why the duvet incident is so significant to me ; the old Caroline would never have let a pile of clean clothes gather up while there was study to do, this was an opportunity to “faff” staring me right  in the face! I know the reason for this change is time pressure. So many things eat into my time, so time is precious. If I have a core text to read that I know should take 30minutes, I could “faff” before settling down to it, but this would result in it taking twice as long and missing out of 30 mins that I could spend on other things.  New Caroline has the ability to realise that H808 is part of life at the moment, but not my whole life.

"So i say thank you for the music..." – When old Caroline was revising for anything or writing an essay, I had to have noise in the background, whether it be music or the TV on in the background. I couldn’t work in silence as my mind would wonder. The last time I studied was a year ago and even then, I did always have music in the background. Now for some reason, I need silence (although it’s quite ironic as I have music playing as I write this). This again is something I’ve just realised. The reason for this change isn’t as clear compared to why I no longer “faff”.  Has it something to do with the subject – could it be because I am really interested in the topic, I want to give it every part of my attention so I can absorb it all? Did my mind previously wonder as I was interested, but not as interested? Am I able to listen to music at the moment as I’m not concentrating as such, but reflecting? Is it just age and it’s harder to concentrate? Regardless of why, the fact is new Caroline needs to study H808 in silence.

Do what I like first, do the not so nice things at the very end – Old Caroline would look at the overall task, pick out what was comfortable to do, do it, and leave all the “horrible parts” to the end to stew over and complete the night before when the adrenaline would kick in. New Caroline loves nothing more than ticking a task as complete before moving on to the next.  If I know the next activity I need to do is quite challenging, or not as interesting as I’d like, I realise the motivation for me it knowing that if I do it and tick it off, it means that’s it over and done with and I can move on to the next task. Now, if I left it (as I previously would have), it would act as a de-motivator. Again, if I reflect as to why I now work like this, I think it ties into the procrastination again and realising I don’t want to always have in the back of my mind that I have to do something that  I don’t particularly want to do –this is something I can control. New Caroline’s carrot for the H808 journey is ticking each activity off and feeling good about it.

So I’ve evolved in how I study, and it was the duvet cover that made me realise this. As I study H808, be prepared to come to a messier house if you’re calling in for coffee, and if that’s an issue for you, best that I come around to your abode until next February!