Quest for Health, Wealth and Wisdom (and cheap education)

The philosopher Aristotle once said, "It is wise to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth and wisdom."

I have never been fond of lying in bed till noon, but the idea of gaining an entire working month of extra time each year sounded fantastic. My usual getting-up time ranges between 6.30 and 8am, but on Steve Pavlina's life improvement blog he discusses how you can train yourself to rise at 5am, every single morning, forever. Even 30 minutes earlier adds up to a full working month per year, but that extra 90 minutes per day adds up to three full working months, 120 hours per year. That's an awful lot of useful and potentially productive time. Like Steve, I find that my motivation levels rise higher when I am up early and they remain high the whole day. Being a fan of multi-tasking and methods to squeeze more out of each day, I've decided to try out Steve's suggestions. Today I managed to get up at 6.30. As it's my day off today and I had a late night yesterday, I think this is not bad. But from tomorrow on, the 5am regime will begin.

Steve's blog is at: www.stevepavlina.com and is totally worth checking out.

Today is Qing Ming Jie, or Tomb-sweeping Fesitival. On this day, Chinese people visit and take care of their deceased relatives' graves. They also burn paper money on street crossroads. The belief is that this sends the cash to the "other side" where it can be used by dead family members." In reality, many of my students told me that they live too far from the location of the graveyards and will just be using this day as a fine chance for a long relaxing weekend. The kind Chinese govt. gives everyone an extra Monday off work. I've planned a productive day, involving intensive university research and a few applications.
The choices (so far) are as follows:
MSc in International Management at Exeter or Roborough, MSc in Process and Project Management at Warwick, MA in Modern Chinese Studies at Oxford; and a variety of similar courses at universities in the Netherlands and Germany. Studying in the Netherlands is
my most recent idea, because the tuition fees are a fraction of those in the UK. Back home, I'd have to spend at least 5000 pounds for a year's tuition. Universities can charge whatever they like for postgrad education. However in the Netherlands, I found many equivalent masters courses, in English, for around 1500 euros. Also, as they are also EU, I can easily and freely find part-time work without the need for any visa documentation. Unlike Sweden's, which has already passed, the Netherlands' uni application deadline is still far off in May or June. Sweden offers undergrad and postgrad education entirely free of charge even to foreigners and even has a huge selection of subjects taught in English. But I guess it's pretty competitive, as for anything free, and they close the application window in January of the same year. Oxford is on my list just because it would be amazing to study there, if I could ever get accepted onto any programme. I picked Modern Chinese Studies because it seems like I might have a fighting chance of acceptance. Four years experience in the field plus language skills must mean something...

I already feel very motivated and productive by writing this blog post at 7.40 am, so now I'm going to continue my disciplined new lifestyle by NOT drinking coffee for breakfast. Even the civet variety... ;-)