Working on our opus: keep calm and carry on

Image via Pxhere

You’ll have to excuse this week’s blog. A bit like its author, it’s gone a little bit left-field over the past few days. 

This week’s blog features some electronic dance music (EDM), and specifically, a song called ‘Opus’ by Swedish DJ Eric Prydz.  

So how does a song by a Swedish progressive house music DJ relate to my studies in the MA course in Technical Communication and E-Learning at University of Limerick? 

The song ‘Opus’ is more than nine minutes long. From a single electronic synth sound, over the space of three minutes and 40 seconds the song keeps adding layer upon layer of sound, getting faster and faster, until eventually a beat drops in. The song then continues hurtling forward for another four minutes before it starts to slow down again. 

You might hate EDM, you might love it. It doesn’t really matter.  

This video of the song has clocked up more than 35 million hits on this YouTube channel alone but came to my attention this week as I pedalled, plodded, and panted my way a stationary bike spin fitness class (a loud spin class is about as close as I get to clubbing at the moment). I frantically worked to keep time with the song as it accelerates from 32 beats per minute to 126 beats per minute.  

For me, ‘Opus’ reflected my feelings as I cope with my studies over the past few days. It made me think of my time management, and dealing with multiple responsibilities, over the coming weeks and months. 

I think I’ve struggled with time management in recent weeks, juggling work, home life, and study. It has been a little bit stressful. I’m sure a similar feeling is enveloping some of my classmates on the course. 

I work in media, where I must meet daily deadlines, pushing me every day. I deal with the day’s events and I move on to the next day. But I have found dealing with the assignments required for my MA in Technical Writing and E-Learning a different sort of challenge.

The assignments are also deadline-driven, but given the extended timeframes must be managed differently. The deadlines are always present, starting as a dot in the distance, then coming closer and closer.  Like the song ‘Opus’, there’s a lot to take in. There are multiple layers. And there’s a clock ticking in the background all the time, which seems to be getting faster and faster. 

Every so often, we need to step back and reevaluate. We might need to lean on our peer groups or our lecturers. We may need to take a break or change our schedules. But we will get there.

Ultimately, the song eventually slows down, with the multiple layers being removed before slowly coming to a halt. This will happen for us on this course too. The pressure we are feeling at the moment won’t last forever, it is temporary. We’ve just got to keep moving with the music over the coming weeks.