I have the biggest imposter syndrome when it comes down to listing my life. After trying and failing to consistently use Google calendar and Wunderlist, I tried one of my favorite tactics when it comes down to organizing: copy what others do! My good friend and on-top-of-it classmate Maggie has an ingenious system of sticky notes in her agenda. You can color code them in correspondence with items on your calendar, move them to the next week when you have not finished the work, and – best of all – actually cross out what you have done. I like it for all those reasons and definitely enjoy the moments when it helps me think straight. I still have to figure out how to stick with this, though. If I had shown you a picture of my last week’s to-do lists, it would have been a picture of an empty page in my notebook, so I welcome any advice on other methods.
In terms of content, I categorize the notes into class related, work related, internship related, life related, job-search and student council related work. Is that all public humanities? – I don’t think so. Some of my work and classes are: I write and think about collective memories, I intern with the humanities council and work on this #DayofPH project. Still, much of the actual labor is more private than public, as I go to classes and work behind a computer most of the time. In those moments, I find it difficult to understand my work as public humanities. But what defines public humanities labor? Is it the content of the job? The mechanics of it? Is it the to-do list or job qualification? I know that when I collaborate with smart and creative people, brainstorm projects and see them, slowly but surely, come to fruition, I feel most like a public humanist. Those are also the moments I feel most relevant. And it is exactly that work “to do” that is hard to capture on a sticky note.
Day of Public Humanities 