Last one in!

I must definitely have the dubious honour to be the last one to turn in the Month 1 Assignments!

I was thrilled to see Maria posting hers earlier this week as I was feeling so despondent with how slow i was being... thanks Maria, you always put a smile on my face!

Well now I've done it and hopefully can move on to Month 2 without too much baggage. I just have to finish off my profile of that wonderful courageous lady Martha, and am determined to post that today.... yeah, I'm on a roll!!!

I couldn't manage to bring my article down to the less-than 1000 words limit, it ended up being around 1,135 words - sorry Jennifer! Really struggled to synthesise stuff, and i guess thats the kind of thing my mentors can help me with.

I had a wonderful call with my mentor Taur last week and she gave me some very encouraging and positive words - one very practical piece of advice from her was to get a 6 or 12 month calendar and post my assignment due dates and then work back from those dates to establish small mini-tasks that i could achieve in finalising my assignments.

I thought this was a super idea and set myself a few mini tasks to finish up Month 1 assignments. And though a horrid stomach bug laid me low last week and messed up the dates, i still managed to go from one task to another.

Setting mini tasks and goals also made me feel like i was achieving something. When i thought of all i had to do it seemed so overwhelming, i wanted to run & hide! But looking at the next mini task on my list (transcribing the interview, doing some online research, etc) made me feel like \"ok, i can do that today\".

I'm sharing this with all of you in case you've faced some of the same scheduling challenges i have. Clearly knowing when assignments are due and setting up mini tasks/goals in getting there has really helped me.

Thanks again to Taur for helping me with this fantastic, practical help.

Hugs to you all!

Manori