Do I really have time for this?
We are very flexible
The Gaia U design is flexible – for example, once you are on a full program, you have complete freedom to determine your projects and the bulk of your curriculum just so long as you work within the permaculture ethics of Care of the Earth, Care of People and Care of the Future.
And once you get into generating Output Packets (OP’s) you have complete freedom to decide which of the more or less monthly OP Review buses you want to catch.
That’s two super-huge flexibilities right there that most other schools cannot accommodate.
However …
However, for the free Livelihoods for a New Economy and the following 15 week Regenerative Enterprise Certificate Course you have to be there, on the case, on the day with good online access when you need it. You’ll need to schedule the time for study and, if necessary, push other things in your life to one side for the duration of the course.
Getting up extra early for study time is an option as is working weekends and evenings.
The point is that you make a realistic assessment of your capacity to participate now and, if you choose to enrol for the Certificate, over the next 15 weeks.
Use the Livelihoods for a New Economy to judge the volume of work involved and, if you can do that for the duration, welcome aboard.
If it feels like it will be too much then come back another time. There is no rush!
Work to a pattern
Developing a study pattern/rhythm is of enormous help to us all. You’ll be on top of the material, well read before any webinars, full of good insights and questions when we are all online together, active in the forums and feedback zones and a confident use of the Gaia U online ecology.
We’ll be delighted to have you on board and your contribution to the group will grow our learning community and build our collective intelligence.
Some parameters
Plan for an average of 8 hours study a week.
16 hours a week would be fantastic and give you time to get really good at applying the material we provide and navigating the Gaia U online ecology. 8 hours may see you having to work quite intensely in that time and might mean you leave out some self-foraging.
Of course you will have contingency weeks when external events force you to miss your commitments. In these weeks still aim to get 4 hours minimum in. And don’t let these thin weeks happen more than 1 week in 6.
If this is going to be tough for you then now is the time to butt out, take a rain check, retire from the fray – you can come back in the next cycle – there is no rush.
How will you decide?
On the next page you can find a link to a scheduling chart. It is in the form of a Google Doc Spreadsheet. Use your free Google account, copy the chart to your own account and then you can edit it at will. Print a copy, maybe several.
Block out your existing commitments. Use different colors for different categories of time – family time, social time, making a living time, resting time, meal times, sleeping time, excercise time and so on.
Now see where you will fit in your study time – can you make those 16 hours now and again? Can you get to 8 hours average? Can you stay connected enough? Is it a struggle to make the space? Will you be out in remote back-country too often to connect to the internet enough? Does it make sense for you to join us now or do you need to change your life pattern first?
Do the survey then do the analysis … come to a conclusion …
Scheduling Sheet
Use your free Google Drive account to open the file link below then go to File/Make a copy and copy this file into your own Drive folder. This way you can hack it and edit it in anyway you like.
The act of making a conscious schedule may be one of the most significant acts for success you can make …