must stay focused.

ugh.

I’ve lost a bit of focus/steam. This is something I cannot afford to do. If I’m being honest with myself, this is perhaps a bit of the reason why I struggled mightily in my undergraduate academics. When it comes to intellectual capacity and creativity, I don’t doubt that I have what it takes to compete with the elite students of our generation. I may not be a math whiz or a rocket scientist… but I am logical, curious, organized, and hard-working. But am I focused?

I admit I struggle with focus. I’m sure we’ve all laid claims to being a victim of ADHD before. It’s almost impossible to go even a few hours without a barrage of distractions, smartphone notifications, social network shouts or check-ins, text messages, event planning, etc. This is where time management comes into play. Business school will absolutely test my limits and I know I will not be able to survive or harness the MBA experience without wise time management and prioritization. And these aren’t skills just relative to application cycles or business school; they are skills that are applicable to everyday life ’till the day we’re pushing daisies.

My summer class has picked up a bit of steam. I effectively got very little done in terms of essay progression this week. However, that may be due to the fact that I was spending a good portion of my time on a career goals and aspirations exercise that should help solidify my direction and post-MBA goals.

However, I have attended 2 business school-related networking events in the past couple weeks. One was an informal opportunity to catch up with an old friend from college who had just graduated from NYU Stern, and to meet several of his classmates and fellow Stern alumni at a bar. The other was a Yale SOM Summer Social event that went surprisingly well. Both were quite informative although I received somewhat conflicting advice from both parties in that I should avoid the optional essay regarding my low UGPA, as they stressed that I shouldn’t lay too much focus on my weaknesses. However, after consulting other experts and listening to my own intuition, I’ve concluded that recent MBA graduates (who may not have had to deal with a low UGPA hurdle of their own) are probably not experts in deciding such admission matters.

That’s all for now… I have a number of impressions and take-aways from both events but I’ll keep them to myself for now. Couple weeks closer towards the end goal!