Testing a planner for a week

ZARIN REZWANA

One fine Saturday, I decided to up my productivity levels and after some thinking,  I settled on a planner. Never having used one before, I took it to be a way of making my routine more disciplined.

For starters, I was still a massive failure because of my procrastination. Nevertheless, the planner reminded me of the school diaries we once had, and even as a college student, it was still a hard job to follow up. 

Sunday had little activity, and I had a hard time filling in the stuff I had to get over with. Being enthusiastic enough, I went googling about planners, but once fancy highlighters and glitter came up, I cringed and settled on a notebook instead. However, three cheers to the start! 

Monday being the first hectic day of the week, it went quite as planned. I had to go through and set a timeline about the day's work in the morning. Funnily enough, for the first time ever, I got myself to revise for a test. Other than that, the hellspawned traffic caused setbacks in the timeline, like that's something new. 

As a student, my routine usually consisted of back to back classes, so there was a great chunk of my time outside. Also, I did not have to look at my planner to know the timings of each class, making it redundant throughout the day. 

The actual use of my planner was when I was at home, trying to remember the stuff I was supposed to do, and deadlines I was supposed to meet. After finishing the assignments and homework I had scribbled about, I would still have something pending that had to be pushed to the next. This happened all through the first two days, which made me realise that more often than not, there was a lot of procrastination to be taken account of and I could make better use of my time. The adjustments went on for Tuesday and Wednesday, so that my Thursday was awfully more efficiently spent.

I kept a small pen close to the notebook to tick things off for the day, and subconsciously like an arcade game, it felt like I had a score to maintain. This acted as another dose of motivation. 

However, one problematic thing about keeping a directory is that it is difficult to rearrange it suddenly. As I had to go over to a relative's house on a short notice in Friday, it meant that my day's plans had to be cancelled or postponed. With Saturday being a very busy day already, the pile of work to be dealt with became immense and my system crashed for some time until I sorted out the priorities. I'm also not ashamed to admit that I did think of taking a nap while I was panicking about what to do. 

Ending the planner week on Sunday, experiment concluded. I was relieved for I was not used to function under a constant timetable. Although I did a lot of work, the one thing I will be substituting is that rather than using a paper planner, I would prefer setting reminders on my phone. This would get rid of the hovering thoughts of missing something out, making it easier to remember things. 

In all honesty, as good as old school paper planners are, it is still somewhat of a pain to get over the inertia. But with a busy enough schedule, anyone can get habituated to using a planner and keep tabs on what to do – a disciplined life might not be so bad after all. 

Zarin Rezwana is a weird potato trying to be a French fry. Send ketchup or send help at riditah4@gmail.com

WUB organises farewell ceremony for Civil Engineering Department academics

World University of Bangladesh (WUB) organised a farewell ceremony for 6 academics of its Department of Civil Engineering on August 24, 2017 at WUB auditorium on their way to higher study in Zhengzhou University, China under the Chinese government scholarship. 

The ceremony was graced by VC of the University, Prof. Dr. Abdul Mannan Choudhury as the chief guest. Morsheda Choudhury, Treasurer; Prof. Dr. Musfiq  M. Choudhury, Chief Advisor, and Prof. AFM Abdur Rauf, Dean, Faculty of Science and Engineering were present as special guests. Prof. Dr. SM Shirazi, CEng, Head, Dept. of Civil Engineering chaired the session. Faculty members and students of the department were also present in the programme. The farewell was accorded to Taimur Rahman, Md. Tanvir Ahmed, Md. Saiful Islam, Rokhshana Parvin, Md. Rajedul Islam, and Sabiha Ashtara Rekha.

Department of Textile Engineering of SEU observes Community Day

The Department of Textile Engineering of Southeast University (SEU) observed "Community Day" programme on August 23, 2017 at the Seminar Hall of its campus in Tejgaon. 

Prof. Syed Fakhrul Hassan, Dean, School of Science & Engineering and Chairman, Department of Textile Engineering, SEU delivered the welcome speech at the opening ceremony. M. Kamaluddin Chowdhury, Representative Member of BOT, SEU Trust was present as special guest while Prof. Dr. M. Shamsher Ali, Professor Emeritus, SEU was present as guest of honour. 

Shykh Seraj, Director (News), Impress Telefilm and Channel I, was present as chief guest. As a community specialist, he inspired students to develop their own community for the prosperity of our country. 

Prof. Dr. ANM Meshquat Uddin, VC of SEU presided over the programme. Dr. ANM Ahmed Ullah, Associate Professor of Textile Engineering Department delivered the vote of thanks. 

Faculty members and students of the department had breakfast with underprivileged children as part of the programme. They also cleaned the surrounding areas of SEU permanent campus and celebrated the community day by fashion show and various cultural programmes.

BDC holds 14th Pre-Worlds 2017

For the 14th consecutive year, the Bangladesh Debating Council hosted the Pre-World Schools Debating Championship, the largest national English debating tournament at school level.

The tournament was hosted on the premises of RAJUK Uttara Model College and sponsored by Igloo, with the closing ceremony held at the Royal Marino Hotel in Uttara.

Sixty-eight teams from across the country participated in the battle of wits as talented school children engaged in intellectual battle on topics ranging from international politics to contextual social issues.

The 3-day debating extravaganza came to a close with Academia School (comprising of Mahatir Mahammud , Saquib Shahzad, and Aliya Fairuz) named champion in the Senior Category whereas Mangrove School (Nazmus Saadat, Naymisha Chowdhury, and S.M. Toufique) named champion in the Junior Category. The runner-up in the Senior Category was Scholastica (Nayara Noor, Yaman Karim, and Abrar Wasi) while the runner-ups for Junior Category was Maple Leaf International School (comprising of Nafisa Nawrin Labono, Ejeta Esrat, and Aritra Roy Mazumder). 

The top 30 debaters from the tournament will be invited to the prestigious national camp - a 3-month bootcamp designed to ensure rigorous training and selection ahead of the World Schools Debate Championship which is to take place in Croatia next year.