Breakdowns are another type of short-term planning. They may become your best friends! They work great to help you focus on a task, stay engaged during lectures or presentations and generally get through the busy times in your life. Breakdowns can have three forms; list, task or calendar. The list form is a good one for taking on large amounts of work and planning out how you want to tackle it. I find this form useful at times, such as when I have lots of homework that I need to complete or an upcoming long distance flight I need to get through. It’s also good for taking on several smaller projects at once. I like to try and use this form when I plan out my days/weeks as a way to see the big picture. Breakdown form used as a list, task or calendar. This breakdown form allows you to take on several different tasks at once, while keeping track of your due dates The task form of breakdown is great for getting lots of things done at once. I personally find this to be my favourite form because I can get a lot of work done, see it all on my board and then cross off everything as it’s finished. This form is good for when you have a lot going on, such as final exams or midterms and you need to get everything done. The calendar form is basically the breakdown version of a planner. When you’re planning out your next day/week/month/year, this is the form you can use to help you. It’s similar to the calendar you would usually use for keeping track of what time you need to be at different places and what you’re doing. I find this form useful for when I’m trying to figure out my week or even the semester/year ahead of me, just like how a calendar is useful for figuring out how much time is left in a semester/year. As you can probably see, this type of thinking does require a certain amount of discipline. You have to be able to manage all of the different points of your life and make sure you have time to finish all of your work and make sure you’re not skipping out on any important dates. This is not for the lazy-at-heart, as you’ll always have to keep your timetable updated, and you need to make sure you’re checking it at the right time and making sure you have time for all the appointments you have set for yourself. I personally find this form useful in preparing for anything that will keep me from my sleep! Breakdowns are very useful tools that are easily and quickly implemented in order to make life easier. There are many benefits to using this kind of planning. Not only does it help you keep track of your life and work out how you’re going to work through it all, but it also allows you to see what exactly you have planned for yourself. This is a great tool for when you have big things to get done or just need to keep your long-term plans under control. It gives you the opportunity to set yourself goals for the future and start working towards them, such as finishing your first book and planning the next step for yourself. Breakdowns are really just another part of the planning process that make life easier and more efficient. Keep them in mind when you start planning for the new year or semester or even something big like the rest of your life! They will keep you from feeling overwhelmed with tasks and will help you stay on top of everything that needs to be done. This week I went to the University of Washington to attend an event that UW Women students put on, called “Girls’ Night Out: The Great Debate”. The event is a debate between two speakers and it encourages women in all majors at UW to attend. I did, of course, attend and it was great to see so many women in the arts community coming together. I hope I’ll be able to attend more events like this in the future. When I was in high school I was the co-president of my high school’s debating team and I spent my four years of high school working very hard to get as much experience as I could for future competitions. I was very disappointed when my final year as a debater at UCCS (the university I attended prior to UW) was my last competition, as I had wanted to continue competing after that year. However, when I began to look into debating at UW, I realized how great the opportunities would be for myself and the other women debaters there. Debate is a very powerful and useful skill, that is able to be used in many contexts. One of the ways debate can be useful is that it teaches you how to learn and be a good listener. The entire purpose of debating is to listen to your opponents and find the flaws in what they say and then either support your own ideas or counteract their arguments, making sure you have the strongest argument that you can. Debate also teaches you how to be an effective leader as well. Debate teaches you how to deal with many people, especially in group settings, so it’s a good skill to learn for yourself and later as a leader. Debate helps you learn how to keep track of time, as a debate runs much like a parliamentary session, where everything needs to be planned out and arranged ahead of time and all the debaters have set time slots to speak in. Debate also makes you a very good speaker and speaker, as you need to be able to express your ideas clearly in a very limited amount of time. I think the one reason that I love debate so much is that it’s so focused. I used to debate in a co-op university in San Diego called the San Diego State University Debate Society, which focuses on public speaking. This is definitely not how debate at UW works, since many of the events are held at smaller schools and the debaters are often in different fields than their debate. However, debating is focused on making speeches in a very specific way. Debating can often be the most effective way for students who don’t find speaking in front of an audience enjoyable to find out their skills and to improve them. Debating allows you to practice in front of an audience and is a great way to measure your skills in public speaking. Debating is really what helped me find out I wanted to work with students and helping them find their voice in front of an audience. Now that I’m at UW, I don’t have the opportunity to debate in the fall like most UW students do. However, we still have many events to attend and competitions throughout the year. For example, we’ve recently organized a debate for the Seattle International Film Festival that allowed us to use our knowledge of debate to learn more about the film industry and to help with outreach to the public. It’s also a way to keep in contact with other teams on campus and to create the opportunity for a great networking opportunity. Overall, I think debating is very beneficial for all women. It’s a great way to learn how to be a leader in a group setting. It’s a great skill to learn and a great outlet for expressing yourself in a group setting. Debating is a great way for people to get to know each other and find out if they have common ground with each other. Debating also teaches you how to be an effective speaker and work with others. So I hope that everyone will try debating, as it will have such a positive effect on your life.