The Benefit of Working Ahead
Greetings fellow authors and passersby. You ever have your hobbies and leisure activities cause you more stress than relaxation? That’s where I’m at this week, or I would be.
This is my final week of classes for this semester, with final exams next week. All of my final projects are due on December 7th, 2021. Every. Single. One. Five of them. I have to finish revising and print my thesis, I have to prepare a panel presentation based on a grant proposal that I have to finish, write a final essay for ethics detailing my ideas of good and a good life while reading a novel to support this, present some Latin American news for World Cultures, I have to write a blog post for my editorial position, and I have to formally apply for my internship for next semester.
The two MMOs I currently play are Final Fantasy XIV Online (with free trial extending to level 60 including acclaimed expansion Heavensward) and Destiny 2. The official release date for Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker, the next expansion for the game, is on December 7th because it was pushed back two weeks. The next content update for Destiny 2 releasing a new dungeon and a bunch of new weapons to collect is also on December 7th.
See the issue?
A game like Destiny, I’m okay not pouring all of my time into it right off the bat. I have until February 22, 2022 to finish up that content before I have to jump into a full new expansion there. That’s mostly going to be repeating the same content to try to get specific versions of reintroduced weapons anyway. It’ll be a grind, but one I won’t mind.
But Final Fantasy XIV is causing some anxiety. I needed to finish the main scenario quests to be ready to hop into the new expansion immediately when early access starts. I would also like to have the Bozjan Southern Front unlocked as a way to level newly releasing classes to level 80 quickly. I have to get those things, plus my normal classwork, plus work on projects all done by Thursday morning. By the way, early access for FFXIV Endwalker is December 3-7. Yes, that means my projects are due on the last day of early access. Normally that means I’d just skip early access, right?
No, not me. Not doin’. The new class Reaper is coming out and I’m going to be leveling it for four days straight until I have class on the 7th. I’m going to do my best to rapidly catch up to my friends and play the new class. It’s a stressor I don’t usually have, as Reaper begins 10 character levels behind my other classes.
There’s a lesson here.
If there are things you want to do for fun and leisure, you can sometimes work harder and longer to make sure leisure time goes smoothly. I have completed every project that I have to submit on December 7th with the exception of the panel presentation, which I’ll be winging with no slides anyway. I completed the FFXIV main scenario last night, and will hopefully finish unlocking the Bozjan Southern Front tonight (Edit: I succeeded! Albeit at 2:30 AM).
Normally I am a last minute kind of guy. I work better on a tight deadline. In this instance, I just had to set an earlier deadline for myself than my professors did to ensure I finished everything before December 3rd. Basically, I know my mind and I know how to trick it. Instead of having a few days over the weekend to clean up any remaining projects, I worked on them in my free time over the past two weeks. I planned a bit ahead to make sure I could ignore everything and play video games for four solid days.
Is that obsession? Maybe.
