Virtual Internships Abroad Striking a Balance

I knew back in April that balancing two internships and one online summer class would make one intense summer. My PURM research project required large chunks of time to debug parts of python code, a language I was just starting to learn. Additionally, I was the primary person responsible for coordinating the pace of a study that examined interconnectedness between artisans for Matriarca, an indigenous fashion collective based in Buenos Aires.

I told myself that I would assiduously manage my time, making detailed schedules each day, and following them to a tea. I had done that over the past two months for my classes in quarantine, and I had personally found a system that allowed me highly productively work long periods of time. I would write down a general plan of my day and simultaneously track the amount of time I have spent on each task, whether it be class or meals. And I thought I could do the same over the summer.

Well, let's say I was relieved I found where my limits were, sooner than later.
Here are my three biggest challenges this summer: Time Management. Mental Health. Experimental Design.   

Time management is essential for me professionally and personally. I found that miscellaneous tasks, such as writing emails, planning the tasks ahead of me, and strategizing task delegation took a significant amount of time. I also found the most unique challenge was whether to switch to another task or continuing working. Lastly, learning to multitask during mindless tasks, or reading a book in a focused relaxation period proved beneficial in saving time.

In the past, I had been a control freak where I felt the need to prepare for everything ahead of time, but now I have incorporated deliberate procrastination where I intentionally ignore certain tasks until right before they are due. As expected, I have failed to properly prepare for certain meetings and missed important details, but I am slowly training myself to work within a timed situation where I rely more on intuition to make decisions. I would take a quick moment to calmly think about the problem, and immediately start working without over-planning.

I also realized I had to track how many hours I was working each day in order to leave enough time for my other summer pursuits, such as learning investing, starting an outdoors blog, reading Gödel, Escher Bach, and improving my basketball game. Admittingly, I have a very ambitious personality to start many pursuits at once, many of which are spur of the moment decisions for sometimes incidental passions. Thus, I used Toggl and Trello to help me assess how efficiently I was working on all of my tasks.

Mental health was another major challenge, especially being physically disconnected from friends during the pandemic. During July, I would find myself fatigued with sometimes little motivation to work. I had moments where I broke down over a lack of sleep or when tasks took longer to complete where they would disrupt other scheduled items later in my day. I had a very imbalanced work-play schedule, and I would be working upwards of 10 hours each day on either my math class or running research tasks.

As a result, I have implemented the Wim Hof Breathing Technique in my morning routine, and during break periods between work; I have found that focusing on my breathing can bring about mindfulness and clarity in my daily tasks. Additionally, setting a strict cutoff time for work at 12 AM allowed me to control the amount of psychological work burden.

Certainly, my course and workload will continue to present external stress, as well as the time on social media platforms. But, through meditation practices and learning to control where I devote my energy, I can maintain a more productive mindset even in times of high stress.

Experimental design was the final challenge, as it was my first time encountering many challenges of building an experimental study within one and a half months. Our Matriarca study involved using an existing technique to improve interconnectedness between artisans of different ethnic backgrounds. To my surprise, I found the logistical side of coordinating meetings between my lab and Matriarca difficult, along with ensuring productivity over longer Zoom meetings.

Deciding which questions to ask and the total duration of the experiment require hours of scrutiny, as we had to translate regulatory documents into Spanish. Changing our experimental practices to accommodate Argentine cultural norms and certain speech patterns was necessary in our moderator instruction sheets. I believe the most important leadership experience I gained was in making communication as succinct as possible and writing down notes from the meetings in order to hold everyone accountable. I also spent a significant amount of time purely in gathering information, and strategically considering different options when I hear other's opinions.

As a whole, my freshman year summer has been a unique adjustment, especially adapting to the virtual internship space and studying for math. I have been challenged to improve upon my time management and mental health coping skills, as well as design and start on piloting two research studies from the start. Throughout, I have realized my limitations in devoting my energy to too many endeavors and uncompromisable personal time I need for my mental wellbeing. However, I believe ultimately, I can apply these strategies I have learned towards handling a demanding schedule when I return for the fall.