One thing in my life that’s been in seemingly short supply since late July has been time.  At that time, I was preparing for my wedding while also preparing to start the CCMBA program.  The wedding went off without a hitch, but unfortunately my wife and I needed to postpone our honeymoon as I would leave for London less than two weeks later.  Since that London trip, I settled in to the idea of having class Saturday morning, assignments and team meetings at least once a week, all the while continuing to work in the collapsing banking industry.  Then it was off to Dubai, to do it all again just 10 weeks later.

Having gotten used to this new reality, a funny thing happened this last week:  I left it all behind, and my wife and I finally went on our honeymoon.  The Eastern Caribbean has the reputation of being laid-back, preferring “tomorrow” as the day when work gets done.  But for me…

I got everything done.  Fun, adventure, travel, sun…and ALL the pre-reading (except Statistics, more on that in a bit).  Not only did I read every page of the Marketing assignments, as well as the GMI cases and the subsequent papers, I read the entire Imagining India book by Nandan Nilekani.  It was just 10 days prior where I figured I wouldn’t be able to put a dent in that 465 page past-present-and-future of India; somehow I finished it quite easily.  Then I read The Unforced Error by Jeffrey Krames on the airplane home.

I’m not a voracious reader, so to read two books, on top of all of the pre-reading is quite an accomplishment.  Especially in light of also going kayaking, snorkeling, biking, rock climbing (wall), swimming, eating, drinking wine, etc.  The only thing I needed to do when I get home, besides laundry and packing for India, was to do the Statistics pre-reading.

I haven’t done the statistics pre-reading (yet).

I was understandably tired when I got home last night, but going into today, I still don’t feel motivated to start.  Now, as a professional prognosticator of probability, I’ve looked over the pre-work and know how to do it.  But I still haven’t done it yet, and that brings me to the following:

The key to success in this program is time.  If not mass quantities of time, time management at least.

One thing being on the ship allowed me was not to play on the internet, get distracted by my co-workers and friends, or anything else (I’ve spent 20 minutes at lunch writing this…again, not doing Statistics).  I was there to have fun with my wife, and occasionally work.  Without internet, TV or cell service to burn five minutes at a time, nor spending 8-10 hours per day at work, I had a LOT of time to do what I wanted!  Unfortunately, it’s my salary from work that gives me the opportunity to have all these fun adventures.  But now that I’ve seen the two extremes, away from it all and being part of everything, hopefully I can find the proper balance this semester and still find the elusive double-SP that I’m looking for.

Of course, maybe the key to this program is just to go on another cruise.

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