Week(s) in advance: 21 December-3 Janurary

With school closed and the holidays among us, it's time to take a break.  While I hope to work on some small projects over the next couple weeks, my focus will be on having some time away from the lab.  Instead of giving constant updates that I am not working, I've decided to suspend regular posts on the blog for the next two weeks.  If matters arise I'll pass the comments along otherwise, see you in new year!

Week in review: 14-20 December

On Saturday night our lab group got together from a Christmas BBQ.  It was a nice way to wind down the week, month and year. After such an intense week a social gathering with my colleagues and friends was appropriate.

Yesterday I gave an early review of the week's activities and I don't really have too much to add.  I had a list of work I wanted to finish and I focused on these tasks.  I didn't allow myself to get distracted to sidetracked and by the end of the week I was able to attend to all my scheduled jobs.

Finish Line

A bit after my post last night I went home for a couple hour break and then headed back to school.  There's been a flurry of work and excitement in the lab the last couple of days as months of effort and planning have started to come together.  I've mentioned numerous times that I've been developing new hardware and software for soft matter experiments.  Things have been progressing nicely, but it was only this week that I started to use these tools for actual physics investigations.  And even with the best plans and preparation, there's still so much to learn from "doing".

This week I was determined to complete the experiments (or at least the first round of samples) for a journal article.  I am pleased to say I got to everything on my list.  Of course there's great potential I'll run follow-up tests next year, but I have data to look at and start slotting into a draft.  Additionally, these measurements are the first significant pieces of my thesis, which I will also start writing in the next month.

The end of today signals the start of a two week holiday period in which our university is closed.  I look forward to taking some time off, but I also hope to work from home.  In addition to the writing I mentioned above, I have data to analyse, plenty of code to fix up and I even brought a tray of electronics pieces home to keep me company at my satellite desk.  In the immediate future, it's time to rest, recover and plan out my next moves.

Late night

Today's late night post comes from my desk at school.  With less than 24 hours until the holiday break, I am trying to complete my work for the week.  Despite the hour, notice I've still rated the day a "3".  I am not upset I am still at work and in reality it's a choice to be here.  I could easy run these experiments after the break (and I might need to), but right now I have the advantage of momentum. For now I plan to take a few hour break and come back early in the morning.

Momentum

Today was full of energy.  I bounced around throughout the day as I ran samples in the lab and with an instrument on another floor in our building.  So far things are still moving forward, and I haven't fit any major bumps in the road this week.  Things don't always run this smoothly, especially with a looming deadline (such as the upcoming campus shut down).

I have a clear idea of what experiments to run tomorrow and there's a chance I might finish up my list of jobs I hoped to complete this week.  Even if I don't I still have Friday as a back up.

Moving right along

Today I loaded and ran experiments on one of the samples I prepared last week.  So far the data looks good, but I'll need to keep diving in tomorrow.  Additionally, I'll check the readings from my device with a commercial instrument tomorrow.  At the same time I'll start to look at the second sample I prepared and this is where I start to get nervous... not only should the measurements on my instrument match with the "gold standard" purchased machine, but both samples I prepared so also give the same results.  I am already prepared to remake one or both of these samples in the new year, but for now this is a great opportunity to shake out major bugs from my system.

Blur

Things moved fast today.  I spent a couple hours in the lab before heading off to volunteer.  I worked on a number of small tasks in the lab, mostly around preparing to load and test a sample tomorrow.  It was a pretty busy day and I didn't feel like I really took hold of a job before having to move on to the next one.

Week in advance: 14-20 December

With the upcoming holidays, school will be closed for two weeks and thus the next couple days in the lab are actually the last of the year.  Even though I will not have access to the university during the shut down, I will continue to work from home.  Amongst everything I have at least two manuscripts to write, a thesis to start, a talk for a conference (AMN-7) to prepare and still plenty of hardware and software jobs, but that's for next week.  This week I need to focus on tasks that can only be finished in the lab.  I have two samples I prepared last Friday that I would like to run on a couple instruments.  Additionally, any bits and pieces I want to bring home over the break I need to organise.  I know come Friday at noon we'll start to be herded off campus and tomorrow afternoon I have my regular volunteer shift.  That doesn't give me too much time so I'll need to get right into work and make the most of my days.

Week in review: 7-13 December

In addition to giving the tradition wrap-up from the week past, today I also have the pleasure of describing my afternoon in the lab.  With school closing for the year at the end of next week, I have a slight urgency to complete some experiments.  Particularly that data I need for the paper I hope to write over the break.  Yeah, the one from November... actually this is an excellent opportunity to share one of my two realisations from the day.  I was thinking today of the time it's taken me to work through my punch list of items for publication.  While I have been simultaneously attended to other tasks, it's been almost 2 months now.  In that time I've made tremendous progress and I am very pleased with my results, but it's taken me two months.  Back when I started it was my supervisor who pushed me to focus my energy.  Left to my own devices, I might have left this work far too long.  The fact everything takes longer than you expect is a theme of the past few months, but it looks like my supervisor was already clued in; maybe there is wisdom in experience, but don't tell him I said that.  The second thought I had today was how much I am enjoying "using" my hardware.  By that I mean the instruments, software, bells and whistles and little bits that allow me to run these experiments.  Months ago I commented that I liked the challenge of designing and building these things, but the collection of data is too mundane.  What a ridiculous sentiment.  Now if I had turn-key devices that flawlessly collected, analysed and interpreted data at the push of the button, maybe I'd have a real beef.  The truth is that there's still an enormous amount of troubleshooting in getting a prototype system to work in a real world setting, not to mention combining the machines with other experimental techniques and sample preparation.  In the past I think I may have been a bit scared or intimidated by this type of work because I lacked experience.  I am still a newbie, but now I am building confidence tackling these challenges.  I am hoping I'll have a similar revelation regarding writing.  Right now it's easy to write the task off as boring, but the real issue might be insecurity.  As I am learning, I need to charge into my preparing my thesis and publications with enthusiasm and an open mind.  Maybe in the end it won't be my favourite job in the world, but I am sure there will be puzzles, challenges and new learning opportunities involved.

Order(s)

Today I was able to place a number of material orders.  With the holidays and upcoming break I have no expectation that I will receive these parts any time soon, but the goal is to return to the lab in January with momentum.  Essentially these are the bits and pieces for my final round of hardware which will be built in the first couple months of next year.

No back to my current hardware, I spent time setting up to run experiments tomorrow.  Also, I prepared two samples to use during tests next week.

Quiet

Today got off to a slow start as I arrived in the lab late.  Overall the day was pretty quiet.  I worked on some emails along with a couple odds and ends, before diving into some literature to understand the chemistry of some samples I want to make tomorrow.

Changing gears

As I've mentioned the past couple days, I am now switching gears at work and moving on to some new jobs.  Specifically today I tackled a design to modify one of our collaborators NMR systems so that we can try out some new experiments.  Not only did I have to draw up the parts in our CAD software, but I also had to write up an explanation of the plans to circulate amongst our collaborators and the manufacturer of the original hardware, who are kindly supporting our efforts.  This was a neat change of pace as it was essential to communicate my ideas for discussion before moving forward.  In science we frequently share ideas, but, ignoring conversations at our home institution, most of these interactions happen after the fact.  As opposed to my current situation where I am looking to solicit feedback before moving forward.  Interestingly there is a difference in how to present information in these two cases and I think my current exercise is fantastic practice prior to heading into the job market after my PhD.

Moving on

Today I brought closure to my latest project in the lab.  I had a lengthy chat with my supervisor regarding my work over the past week and the recent results.  We're both happy with the data and talked about moving forward.  As I mentioned yesterday, there's a couple remaining experiments I'd like to run before the break.  Additionally, I am ramping on preparations for a trip overseas; with my job being to design the necessary equipment, source the material and get the prints to the machine shop.  Now the last step, engaging with the workshop, will not take place until work resumes after the holidays (it's a matter of time).  While that makes for a tight schedule next year, it will give me a chance to review the plans over the break.

Half day, full fun

As always my Monday was a short day. 

To the keen reader you might ask what happened to the plan of taking Monday off or at least working from home?  (I mentioned these ideas last Monday)  Well I was just too excited to stay home today, plus as reasonable as it seems to not go into work for only about five hours it's tough to imagine waiting until Tuesday to start the week. 

Anyway, based on the programming from the past week I was able to set-up some actual experiments and the results are beautiful.  At this point, remember, I am only looking to generate proof of concept data sets to demonstrate a new methodology.  At the beginning of last week I was ready to move on to other work, but I wasn't content to leave work unfinished.  I am pleased that I now have solid results and I can look to tackle the remaining experiments needed for my current draft.  I'll probably spend one more day on this type of experiment before moving on.  That will give me a week and a half before school closes for the break and the goal is to collect all data for my draft so that I can focus on writing over the holidays.

Week in advance: 7-13 December

Today I had a quick few hours in the lab and I was able to make great progress with my programming.  My work over the last week made it much easier for me to troubleshoot my system.  As a result I've addressed two serious issues that prevented me from conducting experiments.  Now this has taken seven days to accomplish which I was not planning a week ago.  Interestingly, today I came across a philosophy that fits my situation appropriately.  On forum today I noticed one contributor's signature block quoted Hofstadter's Law:

It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law. — Douglas Hofstadter

Needless to say I was grinning like a fool as I read the quote.  Having the past year of my life embody the sentiment.  While it's nice to know my experiences are not unique to myself, in the coming weeks I do need to make sure my time and milestones are tracking appropriately.

Week in review: 30 November-6 December

I am pleased with my progress this week, although by the latter part of the week my work took a small side track.  Looking back at what I accomplished and the value of this week's projects, in the context of my thesis project, I believe the time was wisely invested.  Just like so many aspects of postgraduate study, details plan a crucial role.  Either the details of literature/background material, methodology/experimental design, analysis or communication.  Unfortunately there's no way to predict for all nuances that one will encounter and that's why everything seems to take 3 times longer than expected.  While my progress this week (and every week) is slow, it is steady and moving in the right direction.  At this point the clock is ticking, but I have plenty of time to carry out thoughtful and thorough research.

Something new

One of the coolest parts of studying is working with and around other students.  By no means am I an expert on my subject area, but I am starting to be quite familiar with the concepts, papers, people and methods that are central to my work.  Today I spent most of the morning discussing ideas and troubleshooting another student's experimental set-up and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to explore about a different field.  While there was some overlap between this student's project and research I've done in the past I walked away having genuinely learn something new.  Also, revisiting some ideas from my past that I hadn't given much thought to over the past couple years illustrated how my understanding of general principles has changed (I hope improved) over time.

Later in the day I focused on the programming from yesterday.  I finished the day discussing with my supervisor, for an hour, a grant application that is in the early stages of development.

Catch-up

As I mentioned yesterday, I am travelling through a rabbit hole of work with the goal of debugging my experiments.  Before I can focus on my experimental set-up, I am determined to improve the methods behind the scenes.  It's a mentally challenging job because even though you're making progress, in the back of your mind you know you're not even to the "important" or "hard" work. 

That said, today was a fun day and although I still need to focus on the experiments and collecting data, I am very pleased with my progress today.  So what kind of work was it?  Programming.  Pure code.  Specifically Python code on two levels, a user interface (using the PySide Python bindings for Qt development) and a back-end to give the UI functionality.  Additionally I worked on the code that sits on my instrument, which is currently compiled using through the Arduino IDE.

It's just me

As I mentioned yesterday, I have one of my new methods functioning in a minimum working example mode.  To start the day, I played with some parameters, however, the results were garbage.  As such I dove into my code and set-up.  Sure enough I found a couple pesky bugs in the system.  Now I am at a cross roads, I could either take my one working example and move on or I can get hung up with trying to sort out the details of my system.  My work to date shows that the methodology is sound and the physics "works".  It's only the engineering (in this case software) that prevents me from widely applying the technique as this time.  My simple example is enough for the paper draft I am working on, but do I want to spend time working on the "bigger" picture.  Well not only do I want to have a little look at my code, to see if I can sort out this issues now, but I've also taken another step backwards by re-working my interface software that I need to debug the method programming.  So in typical fashion I am taking on extra work (moving backwards) when I am being encouraged to move along.  To be fair, I've given myself a limit of a couple days to indulge my interest, before I force myself to patch things up and move on for the time being.

Ramping back up

Today was a great day in the lab, although being my first day back after a short break I was moving a bit slow.  That in mind I did continue running experiments from last week and I collected a data set which could be used for publication.  Right now I am just interested in demonstrating the proof of concept for a new method so the exact parameters are not as important as illustrating the technique.  Now that I have a minimum working example, I'll play around tomorrow for my own benefit, but then I hope to move on to other experiments.

As I said, I was a little slow to get into work today, so tomorrow I hope to hit the ground running first thing.

Impromptu

On a whim I took the morning off of work.  Mondays are always short due to volunteering in the afternoon, so I decided to just take the whole day.  Actually for months now my wife and I have talked about working from home or just taking Monday mornings off, but in the past my schedule never allowed for such a luxury.  We'll have to see if the trend continues.

By the way, the day was wonderful, but due to a guilty conscience, I had to compromise with a "2" for today's rating.

Week in advance: 30 November-6 December

This week I need to start thinking about more than just the few days ahead and start looking a month or so in advance.  Coming up the university will be closed for two weeks around Christmas, which will probably mean I loose access to the lab.  Seeing as  have plenty of work to do, I need to make sure I am able to continue my work at home.  Meaning I should focus on experiments over the next couple weeks and do serious writing and analysis over the shut-down.

Also, as I mentioned yesterday, plans are starting to come together for me to visit a lab overseas.  To keep this idea alive I need to work out the details now so that there's enough time beforehand to order parts/material and fabricate any equipment.

Week in review: 23-29 November

I noticed this week an interesting detail regarding the number of posts I've made and the amount of time left on the countdown timer.  Just under 130 posts with around 250 days left... it's not precise, but it tells me that I am about a third of the way through my final year.  This made me thing about what I've accomplished in this time, which was perfect as I needed to complete a six month report on my progress.

In the past few months, my work has come a long way.  Two independent devices built and operational.  With my colleagues, I've contributed to to patent applications based on this work and present talks at a meeting in Auckland and a workshop in Germany.  Additionally, I've worked on other publications from experiments prior to my PhD.  It's been a productive time and what's more is I have momentum to carry me over into the next year.  This week I continued to collect data which will be key for my thesis and at least one journal contribution.  I am also have other work waiting to be written up for a journal.  Both of which I plan to dive into (start, no promises on completing) during the upcoming holidays.  I have also begun work on hardware to take to a lab overseas.  This work will also play a key part of my thesis.  Additionally, I have a talk at an international conference next February.

I've continued to make progress in the lab this week, but I've also spent time taking stock of what I've done the past few months.  Based on my track record so far during this "final" year, I am moving confidently towards my deadline.

Early start

After being away from the lab the past couple days, I wanted to get an early jump on my work.  I headed in a bit before my usual start time and took care of a six monthly report (that was due by the end of the month).  The rest of the day I spent most of my time preparing material, parts and design for the next iteration of hardware I am going to build.  Also, I had a quick sit down with my supervisor to look at some data I collected at the beginning of the week and I ran some analysis scripts on other measurements I made a few days ago (which will contribute to one of my manuscripts I am working on).

Another day off

I guess the title says it all...

I am headed back in to work tomorrow which means I'll be playing catch up.   It's the dark side off time off, but I'll take things one job at a tine.

Day off

Rating today (it got a 4) was probably the easy job ever.  See I took the day off to spend time with my wife who recently returned from a conference overseas.  Although the plan is to take off tomorrow as well so I guess I'll have just as easy of a time then.

Check the clock

Based on my experiences today (and many other days) I wanted to share a phenomenon common to the postgraduate experience.  That's the concept of time dilation.  Now as a physicist I could try to be clever here and tie an analogy to a particular aspect of relativity, but I'll spare you the artistic and clever prose.  The point I do want to make is how quickly a day goes by.  I was in the lab for over 12 hours today, and yet it doesn't feel like it!  Now this is where you assume I'll brag about how much I love my work, but that's not my message either.  The point is that even the smallest of jobs take heaps of time.  If I were to set my watch (which I don't wear because I work around huge magnets) based on the time it took me to get things done in the lab, I'd be shopping for Christmas 2011.

To some the deliberate and methodical pace of a PhD might be exhausting, but the reality is producing a thesis is a protracted process.  As such, on the time scale of hours or a day it's difficult if not impossible to see any progress.

Again, today's post was only to share my experience, not complain about any specifics.  For now, I am happy with the progress I am making, one step at a time.

Restraint

This morning I worked on a couple experiments in the lab.  Collecting data from one instrument while troubleshooting methods with another.  Unfortunately I had to cut my work short as I had a meeting early in the afternoon.  Also, I did volunteer this evening after I finished on campus, which made the work day feel very short.

I don't know if it's my excitement and enthusiasm from the start of the week or a a feeling I didn't do enough work or maybe a sense of urgency, but when I got home from volunteer I had to fight off a desire to go into school.  Now suppressing an instinct to work sounds ridiculous, but it was after 8pm.  With the walk up the hill to school and such, I would have arrived pretty late.  Sure I could get in a couple hours, but where would that leave me for tomorrow?  Thus I held back (this is what I worked on last week) and I hope to carry over my energy to tomorrow and have a great day in the lab.

Week in advance: 23-29 November

This week my focus is to work on the remaining experiments still needed for one of my upcoming publications.  Realistically, I know I won't finish these experiments this week, which also means I won't meet my November deadline for a completed draft.  Fair enough I suppose, things also take longer than you'd expect (or at least they do for me).

Tomorrow afternoon I have a meeting which means I won't be able to volunteer and I'll have to spend time in the morning preparing.  Also, my wife is coming back to New Zealand on Wednesday morning and I am planning to take a couple days off once she returns.  That doesn't give me much time this week, but I plan to make the most of it.

Week in review: 16-22 October

Being alone (at home) this week, I knew I would need to leverage a certain amount of moderation to make sure I didn't burn myself out the first day.  Also, this week that I found two rather difficult in the lab challenges, which captured my attention.  Together the confluence of these situations could have made for endless work and while I did have a number of long day I can happily report I survived.  And not just that, but I didn't allow myself to be entirely consumed by work and I was able to balance time in the lab and at home.

I am pleased with the progress I made this week setting up experiments and collecting data.  I enjoyed the extra time I spent at school, but I also demonstrated, for myself, that I do have self control and restraint when it comes to work.

Doors

Well there's an old saying about doors... you know when one closes another opens up.  Turns out there's some truth to this idea, especially when it comes to research.  The past couple days I've talked about the difficult in getting some of my hardware to work with an older operating system on one of our lab computers.  Yesterday I admitted that continuing my course of action was not a reasonable use of my time, however, I didn't want to just revert to a previous (sub-par) strategy.  A post-doc in our lab throughout a couple alternative ideas which I looked into today.  After a morning looking at my options, I am very please with a brand new approach which not only solves my problem it enriches my work.  Not only did a new door open, but it's a bigger, shinier, more versatile door!  I spent time today working on a proof of concept and having seen the viability in the plan I shelved that work for now to spend time on my second challenge from the week.  I am pleased to report I also have movement on this front, with my program now compiling and acquiring data as expected.  Now I need to verify the data collected is what you would expect and hopefully make a measurement for one of my articles I am hoping to finish soon.

One down

I spent another half day on one of the two challenges I mentioned yesterday.  While I wasn't able to get the result I wanted, I have come to the conclusion that (within a reasonable amount of effort) it not possible to accomplish what I want.  Specifically, I am dealing with software (a kernel) that is too out of date to take advantage of modern electronics.  While this will eventually lead to different ideas to solve my problem, for now I am falling back to a previous, albeit less optimal, approach.  At end of the day I worked on my other programming problem and while the issue is still unresolved, I am continuing to learn through the process.

Standstill

After a long day I finally had to admit defeat and retreat.  I have two challenges at work and I can't seem to make much progress on either front.  While it's certainly frustrating, I am fine with the process.  My only hope is that I am learning something, not just spamming random solutions in the hope of success.  At this point, I am buried a little too deep in the process to make a call on this, but I'll keep you up to date.

A bit too much

Today was a great day working on some programming.  My goal is to run a new type of experiment, which requires a sequence unlike anything we've used in the lab before.  In the process I am learning a great deal (and enjoying myself), but it's a time consuming process.  I have to admit that I probably stayed at work a bit longer than I should have, especially considering my goal for the week.

Moderation

This week I am working on my personal disciple, specifically on pacing my work efforts.  With volunteering on Monday afternoons, you'd think that today would be a gimme and I'd take a pass on moderating my expectations.  However, the best lessons are sometimes learned in the most unexpected places.  Allow me to explain...

I never go into detail about my volunteering as I treat this as part of my home life and I want to keep the blog focused on the student aspects of my life.  In short, I work the afternoon/evening at the local SPCA in the dog area.  As it turned out today, a number of fellow volunteers called out and I was solo for most of my shift.  This makes for a busy time, but it's not an impossible job.  Usually I work until 7pm, but as I would have been alone, I planned not to stay late.  Instead the canine staffer and I worked to close-up shop around 5pm.  In our push to quickly finish the daily chores, I realised I wouldn't have time to do all my usual jobs.  Of course we completed all the necessities, but I was limited to these bare essentials.  Despite my frustration, by the situation, I was forced to accept moderation.  Now this wasn't my personal choice, so I still need to work on this aspect of self disciple, however, I did experience a situation where I had to confront my limits and do the best I could with my available resources (namely time).  Sounds like a good lesson for a PhD student!

Week in advance: 16-22 November

In a way it's busy as normal this week...

Q: What do I want to do?
A: Get work done!

Really how different is this from other weeks?  I am still working on my data for publications and trying to herd along a dozen or so loose ideas.  The trick this week will be the fact that I am on my own.  No, not in the lab, but at home.  Now what does that matter?  Most people might not be aware, but I struggle to admit my limits.  Look at the last couple nights (Friday and Saturday), the first nights on my own in Wellington, and I was at work until nearly 11pm on both occasions.  Now a healthy dose of work is good, but the issue turns out to be the next day.  I can work until early in the morning, but then my next day is destroyed and quickly things go off the rails and quickly my best of intentions lead to my demise.  As a PhD student, it is essential to pace yourself and not burn out.

Week in review: 9-15 November

It's been an interesting week with some serious fits and starts.  Between volunteering Monday morning, taking Thursday off, hanging out at the airport on Friday afternoon and a range of other meetings I have had plenty of time away from the lab.  Working late last night and today I've tried to catch-up regarding the quantity of hours worked.  However, I've noticed that when your schedule is fragmented, it's difficult to recover the quality of work.  I wasn't prepared for these ups and downs and as such I didn't plan appropriately.

Queuing

Today was a busy day with a variety of activity.  My morning started with showing another students how to use a new software package (SOLIDWORKS).  Afterwards I attended the first session of a joint Massey University and Vic chemistry seminar as one of collaborators from Massey was giving a talk.  Next I left campus to take my wife to airport.  Later in the evening I returned to the lab and worked on some much needed programming.  Specifically tonight I was working on speeding up a data transfer between the memory card on one of my instruments to a desktop computer.  I am extremely pleased with the results and now I can exchange files at a fraction of the previous transfer speed.  I also prepared a sample to run measurements on this weekend.  Nearing my work limit for the day, I've been thinking about compiling a list of all the small tasks I've haven't had a chance to work on the past couple months.  With my wife out of town, I figure I'll spend most of my "off" time catching up on these jobs. 

And don't worry... I haven't forgotten about my writing goals.  I am working to finish my data collection and anaylsis.  Ultimately inching my way towards a complete draft.

Pass

Today I took the day off so that I could send time with my wife before she heads overseas for a conference.  I'll make up the work when she's away.

Still learning

This morning I started my day with a trip to the dentist and then headed into work.  In the lab I pushed on with learning a new programming environment, but have only started to scratch the surface.  In the afternoon I attended a meeting between the PGSA and members of the University.  Afterwards, I went back to work, running experiments and analysing data.

New syntax

Today I continued with my work in the lab, but ended up working on some new programming.  The code is actually in C, but I've never used these libraries or syntax; thus a new challenge.

One thing at a time

Today I started by re-assembling part of our NMR system after troubleshooting a constant temperature bath.  Having (or at least thinking) the problem with the cooling system was solved, I went on to my latest simulations and also prepared a sample to run experiments.  After lunch I caught up with the supervisor to give his a heads up on some of my progress and to discuss what's been on my mind the last few days.  Again I seem to have found another thesis project, hummm how much time do I have left? 

[looks to the right ->]

I finished up my day at my volunteer gig off campus.

Week in advance: 9-15 November

Last week I wanted to focus on preparing a paper for submission (with everything that entails: data collection, analysis and writing).  Actually that's my goal for the month, so this week I'll keep to the same plan.

I went into the lab yesterday and today to keep working on some new simulations that will help to understand our experimental set-up for certain experiments.  While I've found a rich subject to explore in the future, I also see this is too big of a concept to include with the current paper.  Thus this week, I'll get back to the core story of my manuscript and keep working towards a draft for circulation.

Week in review: 2-8 November

As far as actual writing is concerned, this week there was none.  At least not any writing related to journal articles.  However, I continued collecting and analysing data for publication in the near future.  Additionally, I've found some interested results from "simple" experiments and I am keen to follow through with understanding the implications of these results.  Yes there is a certain amount of "distraction" implied, but it's different from my typical sidetracks with designing or building some new device for in the lab.  As such I am flexing "muscles" and challenging myself in new ways.

Ponder

Today I spent time looking at and thinking about some of the data I collected this week.  For the most part, the tests this week were not meant to be ground breaking, but were carried out to understand the conditions of our experimental set-up.  After reviewing the same data again and again, I was struck by the consequences of the results.

Later on in the day, when I was speaking with my wife and talking about life as a PhD student, I mentioned this story.  The excitement of research is that you can be treading a path, comfortably and confidently, when you come across something seemingly minor which ultimately opens up a whole new world.

Now the analysis from my work this week didn't give me any answers, it's just a bunch of numbers, but it lead my mind to consider a situation that previously I hadn't pictured.  In this way I think science (and the process of doing science) is fascinating, that the human brain has the capacity to interpret foreign concepts once confronted with information from physically processes.  It's the combination of theoretical and experimental work, the balance of brain and brawn.

A bit more challenging

Today I continued my work from yesterday and have pretty much the same story to tell.  Only now my computer work is a touch more challenging after knocking out the "easy" problems earlier in the week.  My morning and part of the afternoon was spent setting up some analysis scripts to analyse my recently collected data.  I am very happy to have kept at the programming today as the analysis routine was extremely efficient and made it very convenient for examining my data.

Ditto

Today I carried on from yesterday... I was able to run the experiments I designed and prepared yesterday.  Additionally, I worked on a shared instrument outside of our lab and continued setting up my work computer.

Deeper understanding

This morning I continued with setting up a fresh OS install on my lab desktop.  Yesterday I mentioned there were no major glitches and so far my statement holds.  However, to get all the tricks and shortcuts I had accumulated over two and a half years into my new system it took some research online.  Luckily I already knew what I wanted to do and I had a vague idea how, but I need a few hours to work out the details.  In the end I am becoming more comfortable in a Linux environment and am pleased I have a better understanding of how to utilise my OS.  In the afternoon I worked on programming and setting up a series of experiments.  I wasn't to the point of collecting data, but that should come tomorrow.

One more tick

Today I had an important meeting for the PGSA.  In the end the great news is that I have one more tick on my master list of work.  I spent the day preparing for the meeting, which took place 2-4 pm.  This didn't leave me much time in the lab, but I did work a couple hours on updating the OS on my desktop computer.  I upgraded to the latest long term support (LTS) version (14.04) of Ubuntu (a Linux desktop environment).  I was running a previous LTS from 2012, which should have seen me through the end of my PhD, but my thinking was to shake my computer now and expose any weak points as to avoid a crisis in the coming months.  So far everything checks out.

Week in advance: 2-8 November

Continuing my thoughts from last week, I want to step up my productivity at work.  Balancing work and personal commitments takes time and I can't just assume that I can spend extra time at school.  I can admit there's only so much I can accomplish over the next few months, but I want to make sure I don't waste any valuable time in the lab.

This week I have a mixture of chores, including instrument time, running experiments in the lab, a couple PGSA meetings and everything else... Tomorrow I'll focus mainly on preparing for a meeting in the afternoon (one of my PGSA obligations), but I'll also map out my week and if possible get to work on collecting my next round of data.

My goal for the month is to have a draft to circulate to co-authors with the hope of submitting maybe before the end of the year.

Week in review: 26 October-1 November

This week I wanted to focus on writing, particularly focusing on preparing an article draft for submission.  I did work on this manuscript and I also worked on the required figures and gathering necessary data to be included in the paper.  Additionally I worked on some "side projects" and even took a day off.  Humm, sounds like I've had a well rounded week.  Fair enough, progress has been made, but I am not happy with the current pace.  Outside of work (and nearly outside the bounds of this blog) I've been trying to live a more "rounded" life, you know the eating, resting, exercising kind of stuff.  Well it turns out these things take up quite a bit of time and can really cut into a long workday.  In this case I need to up my intensity when I am at work.  Time is ticking away and I have projects I want to do.  With writing a thesis and a few journal articles, there's not much time left for anything else.  I need to make the most out of the time I do have left.

On another note, today's post marks the 100th entry so far into this blog.  An accomplishment based upon my journalling endeavours in the past.  I won't try to say anything profound or insightful, other than to say I've enjoyed the process of chronicling my work and I do think it's been a useful exercise to organise my thoughts and focus on my priorities.

Guilt

Other than the odd email and a quick trip into the lab to pick up some papers, I didn't do any work today. 

While time off is suppose to be a good thing, all it seems to do is give me guilt and stress.  I am constantly thinking about work and today was no exception, however, as I wasn't at school I was plagued with the thought I should be at my desk.  In the end I question how beneficial "time off" really is and maybe it's best to stick to a regular schedule.

A touch sidetracked

This morning, admittedly, I worked on some projects that are less of a priority.  Why, because I've been putting off working on them for more than a week and I wanted to start organising my ideas other than my scribbles on scratch paper.  To be fair, I've talked about most of these with my supervisor, at some point, and we both think they are worthwhile, the issues are time and priority.  As long as I finish a thesis and submit the papers we've discussed before my imposed deadline at the end of next July, there's no stopping me from taking on extra work.  Well there's money, but that's always an issue.

After lunch I got back with the game plan and worked on setting up experiments to collect data, which will contribute to my current paper draft.  Later on I left school to read a stack of material for one of my remaining PGSA obligations.

Traction

I started today with 3 hours of scheduled writing.  During this time I ignored email, shut myself off to distractions in the lab and as difficult as it was I resisted the temptations to wander off to more "interesting" work.  The result was a significant amount of writing, albeit not the highest quality prose, but certainly a first step in crafting a manuscript.  In the process I was able to identify missing data/work necessary to tell our story and in the afternoon I double checked my list with my supervisor.  I now have a clear idea of the essential work required before I can complete this article and I plan to start ticking items off this list tomorrow.

In addition to speaking with my supervisor, in the afternoon I spent time on formatting figures.

Staging

Today was an excellent opportunity to line out work for the next couple of months.  I spoke with my supervisor about some of the specific work I'd like to do and we had a great discussion about expectations.  The content of my thesis is coming into focus and I feel comfortable with the amount of time and work I have left.

I did work on some figures today, both for my paper and a fellow student's draft.  To make sure I continue my writing progress from last week, I've blocked off three hours tomorrow morning specifically for writing.  In the afternoon I'll work on figures, some PGSA business and my other projects that I'll maintaining in the "background."

Labour Day

As I mentioned yesterday, today was a public holiday and as such I didn't go into the lab.  Having worked both Saturday and Sunday afternoons, I was fine with running errands and enjoying some time away from school.  Although, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about designs (mechanical, electronics and programming) for my next projects; I am still focused on writing, when I am at my desk, but elsewhere my mind has other plans.

Week in advance: 26 October-1 November

As I've mentioned numerous times last week my goal right now is to knock out a paper draft.  I will still be working on other projects, to keep "progress" moving forward, but I would very much like to get this paper submitted.  I hesitate to set any deadline or target date, just as right now I don't feel I have a strong grasp on how much work will be required.  There's writing the manuscripts, but there's also a couple final experiments to finish to really sell the story.

In reality, I think a goal this week is to get a grasp on the task and figure out what will be required to complete the first draft.

Tomorrow is Labour Day in New Zealand, so I won't head into work in the morning, but I still have volunteer work in the afternoon.

Week in review: 19-25 October

This week I wanted to spend some time planning out my work for the next few months.  In the end this never happened as I started to write a paper draft.  The message from my supervisor and others in the science community is clear, "publish."  As much as I'd like to put all my time into jobs in the lab, writing is a big part of a PhD and I can't put it off any longer.  Also, the soon I finish writing, the sooner I can be back to doing the other stuff I want to do.

That said, I am (and will) take small bits and pieces of my days to do my own things in the lab.  Also, I am not finished all the experiments I need to complete my thesis, so I need time to keep progress moving along.  Finally, I'll have a few odds and ends tasks for my current draft.  All of which will help relieve me from constant writing.  I guess the struggle will be to balance my time and simultaneously make progress on all fronts.

Hidden Work

Today was more of the same: writing, figures and programming.  With regards to the first two, this is where I spent most of my time today.  I am continuing with a stream of written diarrhoea in the hope of building some critical mass for my paper.  To paraphrase my supervisor, "just get words down so the page doesn't look so empty."  While I know I'll have a lot of editing and formatting in the future, for now, the more I write the less intimidating the task becomes.  I am also working on the figures as these are the core of any paper.  I've heard from numerous supervisors (with regards to writing a paper), "start with the figures."  In both writing and plotting I am continuing to learn new Latex or Python skills (these are the tools I use for the previously mentioned jobs), which helps to keep me interested in the tasks at hand.

This evening my wife needed to work late so I was able to stay a couple extra hours.  Having already spent the day on what I "should" be doing, I decided to work on things I "want" to be doing.  To be fair I do "want" to finish my paper, but I am talking about indulging in some new electronics and programming ideas.  What can I say, I wanted some Friday night fun!

Pen to paper

This morning I spent an hour or so working on a couple figures for a paper.  At some point, I realised that what I really needed to be working on was the text of my manuscript.  Earlier in the week I had laid out an outline of the manuscript so I started writing the methods sections.  These are notoriously "easy" to write and a great way to quickly build momentum for the writing of the draft.  While ultimately I know I'll need to shave down the text in the methods section, for now it's a way to reach a critical mass and hopefully make the process less intimidating. In the afternoon, I once again left school to spend time reading.

Little bits

This morning I spent some time working with another student in the lab.  Later on I started formatting my figures for a paper.  In the afternoon I left campus to read a few articles.  Overall I've been feeling very tired, but I've been able to squeak out some work.

It's time

The time has come.  It can't be put off any longer.  It must be done.

It's time to start writing papers.  As a researcher and PhD student, the job entails coming up with a novel idea, designing elegant methodology, executing experimentation and preforming thoughtful analysis.  Unfortunately, the job does not stop there, because once you've poured yourself into your work, you then have to offer up your results to your peers.  I don't know if I've made the point in the past couple months, but I love my work.  I get a kick out of experimental design, learning by doing and collecting data in the lab.  However, if I have any desire to continue in science, I have to publish.  To be fair, there's pressure to publish not only to tick a box, but because in the process you explain to a wider audience not just how and what you did, but more importantly why.  A scientific paper is a neat (or should be) package that frames the motivation for a small contribution (that's the experiment) within one or more broad fields and typically concludes with a discussion of the implications of the reported results. With that in mind, there's nothing about a journal article that's unreasonable to ask of the graduate student.  And I would suggest that for a capable student there's nothing too difficult about formatting and drafting a manuscript.  Well in theory at least.  With the countdown clock ticking away, the reality is I already have two papers and a thesis that need to be finished by July.  Add to that the other projects (and subsequent output) that I'd like to additionally work on and it's clear I need to start knocking items off the "master" to do list.

So there it is, the planning of the week has arrived at the simple conclusion, it's time to write.  I will have some data analysis and auxiliary experiments to run as I close in on my final draft, but for now the focus will be writing.

Work in progress

Lots of thinking today, as I said there would be...

This morning and this evening I've been thinking about my thesis, my direction and work plan for the next few months.  No final decisions yet; to be continued...

Week in advance: 19-25 October

Here we go... back on the air and ready for work.  My apologies for the disruption over the past week.  With travelling I slacked on my blog duties, but now it's time to move forward.

"Moving forward" an interesting sentiment, as this is the thought that's captured my attention the past couple of days.  Preparing for last week's workshop gave me a goal.  There were certain tasks I wanted to accomplish, with a defined due date.  In turn I took this work and presented the results; ultimately receiving feedback from my peers.  Now what do I do next?  What next, moving forward?

From speaking with folks at the workshop and hearing talks from others, I have a number of ideas for future work, experiments, etc.  However, there's pressure (rightly so) to publish the work I have to date.  In the past I've always continued to refine my work, never settling.  Maybe I could get away with this as an undergraduate, but it won't fly as a professional or career scientist.  In fact, last week I was speaking with a couple professors from around Europe; we were having a great discussion and at some point, I mentioned how much time I have left and how many ideas I still had for future work.  This is when the conversation took a sombre tone, as one of them turned to me and flatly asked, "How many papers have you published this year?"  The point was quickly taken, that ideas, while important, do not ensure success.  In fact what good are ideas and experiments if you don't communicate your work with others.  This is a lesson my supervisor (and supervisors in the past) has tried to teach me.  However, before I am able to write competently, I would like to have a better grasp on other work which means I have a lot of reading to do.

So, what to do moving forward: work,  write, read?  I know the answer is all three, but I still need a plan of attack.  This is my goal for this week.  Any entire week?  Yes.  Do I think it should take that long?  No.  However, planning is the most important part of a PhD.  Over the next couple days I will take stock of where I am, I'll review my goals and progress over the past few months, I'll speak with my supervisor and then I will be able to map out the next 2-3 months of work.  Having been away for a week and volunteering on Monday afternoon, tomorrow will most likely be a wash.  From Tuesday on I'll start to work through my plans and hopefully by the end of the week I'll be moving forward in whatever direction is the priority.

Hallo aus Deutschland

I have missed a couple posts over the past few days, due to the fact I am in Germany to attend a Rheo-NMR workshop.  Travelling to Europe from New Zealand and vice versa takes about 25 hours worth of flights and an additional few hours during layovers on route.  Additionally, at this time of the year, there is a 11 hour difference between New Zealand and Germany.

This trip was particularly exciting because although I arrived the day before the workshop, when I arrived I still need to finish my slides.  And I need to practice and fine tune my presentation of the material.  Building my slides wasn't an issue, it's just a time consuming process to get the formatting and layout just right.  While it was easy to finish the slides in time and I didn't mind working on these the day before, my big mistake was not giving myself enough time to practice my talk.  Additionally, I had 30 minutes at the conference, with a goal of speaking for ~25 minutes and leaving some time for questions.  This is a much longer talk than I am use to, and longer by a factor of 2.  What this means is that practice runs for this talk took twice as long as a "typical" conference presentation.  So even with 2 hours to practice there was only time to run through 3-4 times.  Additionally, it's exhausting to speak for 25 minutes straight, so with the night to prepare I was only able to run through the slides a handful of times.

Despite finishing the slides at the last minute and the limited time to practice, the workshop today went very well.  There were some fabulous talks from leaders in the field.  And when it came to my turn, I was pleased with my presentation.  I did not go over time, but with the amount of questions I received, I did pass the 30 minute mark.  Using questions as a gauge of how effective my talk was and how interesting the material was to the audience, I would say people were interested in my work.  I received questions, which is always a good position to be, meaning that others engaged with the talk and felt my research was relevant.  Also the questions I received indicated that folks understood the key points of my research and that I was able to communicate these ideas sufficiently during my presentation.

Tomorrow night I begin the day and half voyage back to New Zealand, but after a fantastic session today, I am more than happy I made the trip.

Week in review: 5-11 October

A brief review of the week before I board my flight to Singapore, on my way to a workshop in Germany.

Overall I am pleased with my progress this week.  I had put myself in a great position leading up to my departure today, which only made the last few days that much less stressful.  The lessons learned, however, include "over" budgeting time; if I think I can do something in half a day, block off a whole day.  And second, I need to learn when to say something is "good" enough.  I have high standards for my work and output, but I need to make sure I don't get stuck working on a minor detail for too long.

Full on

As my Kiwi colleagues would say, today was "full on."  Before work, I ran a couple errands to prepare for my upcoming trip overseas.  Then I went into the lab where I ran through my talk with my research group.  At that point my presentation was still at the 70% stage, so I had to arm wave through a couple of blank slides.  I have a 30 minute session next week and my first run ever (at this morning's group meeting) took me ~32 minutes.  I've taken out a slide and will tighten my narration with the goal of trimming down to 25 spoken minutes, with the extra time available for questions.

After my practise talk I had to run to the PGSA office for a retreat/monthly Executive Board meeting. 

... whoa whoa whoa, I thought you finished with the PGSA?

Well I am no longer President or a member of the leadership group, however, I am still committed to help the Association, as time allows.  Additionally, I'll be working with the new board, over the next month or so, to prepare for next year.

This afternoon and into the evening I made sure I had all the material to finish my slides as I travel.  I'll fine tune the presentation in airports and hotels, but I am confident I've prepared all the animations, collected all the data and snapped all the necessary photos.

Also today I am starting a new rating system to track the daily ups and downs of PhD life.  You'll see this as a number in the labels.  Moving forward, each day I'll tag my progress as an integer 1-4 (including the end points); with a 1 being a "bad" day and 4 being a "great" day.

Late night

Today I am blogging from work as I've been trying to finish my presentation for a practice run tomorrow.  I am about 70% done, but I think I am in a position to get feedback from others.  I won't be able to give a "proper" talk in the morning, but I can work through my slides to see if the flow and content is on track.

When to say enough

Frustration is certainly a part of the game when it comes to research.  Today I was trying to get some data for my talk next week and despite our best efforts, things didn't work out.  Really there's no issue here and during any other week I'd just go back into the lab tomorrow and try again.  However, in a couple days I am headed off to a workshop on the other side of the planet.  Before I leave I definitely need to finish my talk, practise and take care of other business.  This means I am now fighting the clock.

... side note, new micro-blog, "60hours2flight," capturing the riveting moments of finishing a presentation before leaving for Germany ... nahh

I've been in a great place the past couple weeks.  I have made tremendous progress and I had set myself up nicely for the upcoming meeting.  My issue now is to realise that the work and data I have is good enough and that I just need to finish my slides.  I can't work up until the last minute.  I've been there, last year before leaving to speak at a conference in Cambridge.  And I certainly don't want to have this problem as I prepare to submit my thesis.

Great fun

I had a lot of fun at work today.  Even with my upcoming deadlines I am still enjoying my jobs in the lab.  I spent the entire day uninterrupted and I was able to continue on collecting data for my talk.

I didn't spend any time formatting my slides, but I am planning to focus on these all day Thursday.

End of term

Today was a Monday, which as always means a busy day.  This morning I was able to get a run in on an instrument in the lab, but otherwise I wasn't able to accomplish much else.  At noon the PGSA held it's AGM which means I am official out of a job; as of the meeting, I am no longer President.  Over the next couple weeks I will be helping out the new Executive Board, but my responsibilities in the Association are coming to an end.  In the afternoon I was off campus volunteering.

I've been organising in my head my plan of attack for tomorrow and I have notes made out to get the most from my workday.  My goal is to have a practise talk on Friday which will require a solid effort over the next couple of days.

Week in advance: 5-11 October

I am feeling the pressure!  There's nothing like an upcoming conference talk to get the blood flowing.  I have one week of work left and I am looking to make the most of it.  The only challenge is that my Monday and Friday are pretty much no good.  Tomorrow I have an AGM for the PGSA followed by an afternoon of volunteering.  And on Friday I am leading a retreat for the new PGSA Executive Board and giving a practice talk to my lab group.

The good news is that the rest of my week is rather straight forward... finish my presentation!  I have enough data for my talk, but as a secondary task this week, I'll try to get a bit more work done in tandem to preparing my slides.  This might even be the best position I've been in before a talk.  I already have an outline of my talk and place holders for each slides, I just need to fill in the figures and add a splash of text.

Week in review: 28 September-4 October

This week was a mix of emotions.  On the one hand, I continued to make progress in the lab, I tied up a number of PGSA "loose ends" and I nearly completed my weekly to do list.  However, stresses from finances, visa renewals and upcoming travel have negated my positivity.  I've been going to work this week, charging ahead, but I felt like I was in a funk.  I've talked before about the ups and downs of PhD studies and I am not too concerned about the past few days as I figure it was just a "low" week.  Despite my mood, I was able to keep on task as I had a thought out to do list.  And looking back, this list was possibly doubly effective... not only did it keep me focused on work, but ticking jobs off the list helped (in a small way) to improve my attitude.

300 days to go

Work today was rather uneventful.  A typical day in the lab and at my desk.  I set-up an experiment that I'll run tomorrow and I spent a few hours in the afternoon preparing my talk for the workshop later this month.  However, when loaded my blog this evening to write my post, I noticed that there are 300 days until thesis submission.  This particularly worries me, not so much because of the work leading up to turning in my thesis, but because of the drama associated with the final year of PhD study (at least at my university).  In a nutshell the final year is plagued with visa renewals, financial uncertainty and tedious paperwork.  All of which are burdens not faced when you're in the middle of your studies.  Even without looking at the countdown clock this evening, I have already been distracted and bothered this week by these final years stresses, which are a very real part of studying at my school.

Standard day

This morning I took my time to get into work.  I think I am getting sick, but all I can do is refuse to acknowledge the body's signals.  When I arrived on campus today, I meet with the PGSA Executive Assistant for about an hour and then headed onto my office.  I was able to work on some analysis of the data I collected yesterday and I took some time to prepare another small grant application.  At the end of the day, I stayed a bit late as I had a 2 hour conversation about an upcoming research project with another student in our lab.

A long day

Today was a particularly long day; an early start with a late night.  Most of the day was spent in the lab running experiments and looking at data.  I am happy with the amount of work I accomplished and I am even finding some fun in troubleshooting data from our custom instruments.

While my lab work is going well, I am becoming a bit nervous for my upcoming workshop.  Additionally, with the recent developments in the lab, my supervisor is pushing for a publication in the next month.  I am completely and utterly terrified of the thought of preparing a manuscript.  Also, I fear I'll have trouble finding the motivation to work on the paper and that I'll stray to other work.

On a side note, this evening I attend a Student Representation Celebration at school where a number of outstanding students were recognised for their contributions to the University.  It was wonderful to be there with others from the PGSA to share in the excitement.

Stay on target

With today being my first day in the lab this week I had a number of "administrative" tasks to do.  I was able to knock a couple items of my list, however, I did struggle to stay on topic.

By now I've learned that my favourite types of work are planning, design and construction projects.  With my latest instrument working and ready for measurements, I am less interested in my work at hand and more keen to find a new challenge.  I never have problems coming up with new ideas myself, which leads to internal battles, but now my colleagues are starting a new project and it's taking a tremendous amount of self control to keep my nose out of their business.

Quiet day

Today was pretty much a null workday.  This morning I stayed home to run errands and in the afternoon I went to volunteer.  With a bit of a guilty consciences, after dinner this evening I wrote an abstract for my presentation at next month's workshop and responded to some PGSA emails.

Week in advance: 28 September-4 October

There are some interesting parallels between now and the beginning of the week a fortnight ago.  Namely, 1) I am coming off of an exciting and productive week and 2) looking ahead my schedule is mostly open.  Now two weeks ago I had a rather tough time staying focused on work and making any progress, but I plan not to let this happen again.

I've made a fresh to do list for the coming week.  Looking forward there are some exciting days ahead.  This will be my last week as PGSA President and in anticipation of leaving office I have some remaining business.  Additionally, I have two weeks until I leave for my workshop in Germany.  Based upon my work last week, I know I have exciting results to share, but now I'd like to push my research and yield as much new data as possible.

Week in review: 21-27 September

This week was certainly one of my better weeks.  As I discussed yesterday, a lot of work came together in the past couple of days, giving me a sense of accomplishment on a grand scale.  While I am pleased with my productivity and output this week, I don't think I can attribute my success to any particular strategy over the past few days.  That said, I did have a to do list and I was able to tick off each job.  I stayed focused on my work at hand, but I think this was primarily due to building excitement and not because of my to do list.  Even though it wasn't as necessary this week to organise my tasks, it was important to keep up the routine, to develop good habits.

3MT Final and lab work

In many ways, today was a culmination of weeks of preparation and planning. 

On one hand, this afternoon the PGSA hosted the final round of our 3MT competition.  We heard from nine fantastic students who all did a wonderful job presenting.  In the end, we gave out almost $5,000 of cash prizes and the first place winner will represent Victoria University at the Trans-Tasmin Final, in Perth, Australia, later this year.  This year's competition was the biggest in recent history and was a dramatic turn around in participant numbers compared to 2013.  Additionally, we raised the profile of the event and today the local newspaper published an article about the competition and one of the finalists.

On a completely different topic, this evening I finished analysing the data I collected yesterday and I am extremely pleased with the results.  My findings demonstrate the feasibility and function of an instrument I have been developing for the past year and a half.  Nearly 18 months of planning and preparing supported 60 minutes of data collection.  Now that I know what is possible, it's time to apply the technique to interesting samples and to push the limits of the set-up.

The days go so fast

Today I submitted a small grant application to help fund next month's workshop trip.  Late in the afternoon I attended some practice talks from our department's current Honours students.  And in between I chugged away in the lab.  I am still very pleased with my progress. I've knocked off all jobs from this week's  to do list and I still have another day to go!

Still cruising

Today was another great day and in many ways felt like an extension of yesterday.  This morning I worked on the formatting of the plots for the Journal of Glaciology paper that was accepted yesterday.  These changes are all finished and we're ready to send the final manuscript and figures to the editor.

Just before lunchtime I had a meeting with other members of the PGSA where we discussed our Associations current newsletter scheme.

In the afternoon I focused on my research and I was able to make nice progress.  I've moved into some exciting new territory with regards to the measurements we make in the lab.  Ideally I would be able to collect enough data over the next week or two so that I can write-up these results for a journal submission.  Also, I will present this recent work at the workshop I am attending in October.

Another "up" day

Today I was able to spend most of my time in the lab working.  I feel very good about the progress made today and I am looking forward to continuing tomorrow.  A couple month's worth of effort is starting to come together and hopefully tomorrow I'll make an exciting new measurement in the lab (more details to come in the future!).

Also this afternoon I received an email that a paper I submitted with my supervisors from MSU was accepted to the Journal of Glaciology.  This is particularly cool as this will be my first "first author" publication.  Once the paper is published, I'll pass on the references.

To close out the day, I attended an inaugural lecture of my wife's supervisor.  It was an excellent talk and a great opportunity for me to understand the broader implications of my wife's work.

A thoughtful visit

As it was Monday, I only had half a day at school.  The morning I did spend on campus was primarily spent visiting with an academic from Switzerland.  This was a great opportunity to meet with an experienced researcher from one of the fields relevant to my work.  However, I realised during the meeting that while I have an idea of what I am doing, I know so little about the bigger picture.  In my case, my research is strongly interdisciplinary, which means there is lot of background literature.  I struggle to know how much of an "expert" I need to be in the various fields that compose my research and after days like today, I feel like a fool when it's obvious how little I do know.

Week in advance: 21-27 September

Last week has left a sour taste in my mouth.  I explaind yesterday why I thought I wasn't as productive as I could have been, but I also mentioned that there's an ebb and flow to studying for your PhD.  Moving forward, I could write off last week as a coincidence of bad luck, foul moods and exhaustion.  Or I can take responsibility for my mistakes and the role they played in my performance last week.


As I've mentioned, my planning last week was weak.  I struggled to know what to do and that made it difficult to focus on my work at hand.  I will admit, it can be difficult to know what needs to be done a week in advance.  And it's even more difficult to grasp the time frame of individual tasks.  As a student, I am still learning to manage my time and I count myself fortunate for this opportunity to refine such a useful skill.

Practically, this week I plan to do a better job of writing.  By that I mean I will get down on paper (or on the computer) the next leading steps of my work.  As I knock a couple items off my to do list, I'll add to the bottom the next logical steps.

By extension, these will include scheduling time in my calendar.  Last week, when I struggled to keep on task, I had the fewest number of meetings in months.  Last weekend I looked greedily at the endless hours I could work uninterrupted in the lab, but in the end I couldn't take advantage.  I see now, I am better when I am busy and can work with a sense of urgency.  "Sense of urgency" is a term I remember from my days as an apprentice electrician.  Working on big job sites in California, productivity was key (and so was safety).  Of course running around a construction site would have been dangerous and frowned upon, so instead my foreman elegantly instructed our crew to work with a sense of urgency.  It's a concept I've also enjoyed as urgency doesn't imply carelessness or chaos, but it does impress a form of intensity.  I don't need to make work to fill my diary, I only need to apportion my time.  This combined with a thorough and constant evaluation of my progress and work plan should help me beat the cyclic ups and downs of a PhD.

That's the hypothesis at least, now it's time to run the experiment.

Week in review: 14-20 September

It's tough to sum up and describe the last few days.  In the course of my PhD studies, I've come to notice the ebb and flow of progress. Some weeks, things just seem to come together and in others nothing works out.  Observing these trends from a far, you'd realise this is just natural law dictating randomness in our lives.  However, when you can't seem to gain traction and you feel you're without focus, the psychological effects can be intense.

Overall I'd have to say I am lucky I accomplished as much as I did this week.  And in reality, it wasn't as unproductive as I might make it sound.  But for all the "success" I may have had over the past couple days, I can't attribute these results to any sort of plan.

My problem started at the beginning of the week when I neglected to look at the coming days and map out my work.  I had a half hearted to do list which, compared to my planning the week before, was pathetic.  Add to this my apparent lack of interest in some of my tasks which caused me to drift between projects.  I struggled at work from one task to another until I found something that was fun or until I found something with an impending deadline.  This made my week at school oscillate between crisis control and cruise mode.  And this has left me exhausted and disappointed in my efforts.

Last Sunday I mentioned that I wanted to do a better job looking after my health in the coming weeks, but again, I launched in without any plan.  Without any forethought I was doomed to be unsuccessful, but unfortunately my frustration is further compounded by the feeling of failure.  A step in, what feels like, the "right direction" quickly turns into two steps back.

A salvaged week

Today I was able to tie up a number of the threads I've been working on this week.  As I mentioned yesterday, I've been lacking focus over the past couple of days, but fortunately I was able to make something of my week. 

I finished off a number of PGSA jobs that have been hanging over my head.  Additionally a new set of PCBs came in today and I was able to populate these boards this afternoon.  This puts me in a comfortable position to continue my work next week.

Lost focus

I need to admit that today I've notice my work has lost some focus.  Especially compared to my productivity last week, I am finding it difficult to stay on a single task.

I didn't come into this week with a clear list of work to do; and it's not just a lack of a proper to do list, but lack of planning and consideration given coming deadlines, etc.  As a result I find myself scrambling more than past weeks.  This also makes me less certain about jobs at hand and I seem to drift.  Luckily tomorrow is the end of the week and I can try to regroup over the weekend.

Lull?

I spent all day at school.  I didn't have any meetings.  I didn't work on PGSA business.

Yet despite focusing all my efforts on my research, I don't feel as if I got as much work done as I would expect.  Please don't get me wrong, I made progress and I know how my time was spent, but given the luxury of an entire "free" workday I thought I'd feel more satisfied.

Today I continued with my programming, building up to doing some actually "physics."  Late in the day, a professor, and collaborator, from another university stopped by and we had a bit of a chat about ongoing work and plans for the future.  Otherwise it was a nice quiet day.

Back into work

After being away from the lab yesterday, this morning I eased back into work.  Today was mainly spent writing programs to run experiments on our NMR spectrometers.  Slowly, but surely, I am moving towards integrating our custom instruments with our NMR systems.

This afternoon I had a single PGSA meeting.  This was part of a regular monthly meeting between myself and staff members from the University.  As my term as President officially ends next month, today was the last of these meetings and served as a hand over of sorts to another student who plans to continue on with the PGSA.

Easy as

Well it's certainly easy to write about my work progress when I don't do any work.  And that was exactly the situation I had today.  With volunteering in the afternoon, I decided to stay home this morning and work on some personal chores (with the occasional work email).

Week in advance: 14-20 September

This week I plan to continue with my strategy from last week by making a master to do list.  However, I plan to focus my energy not only on work, but also on my health.  Now I've always felt this blog was a semi-professional endeavour.  While realistically my posts are for my own benefit, I've always been open to sharing my experiences with other students.  That said, I've purposefully kept my relationship with readers formal and this week will be no exception.  By tracking my efforts to be healthier, I won't be counting calories, recording my gym feats, logging my sleep cycles or sharing dinner recipes.  While the details are not important here, I can't stress enough how vital it is while studying to keep not only your mind healthy, but also your body healthy.

Looking back at my posts last week you'll notice I mentioned a few times I was pretty tired.  It's one thing to push your brain, but your body needs to be able to keep up.  Conditioning of the body for the stresses of long days in the lab is important, plus it staves off illness which causes loss of work on sick days.

While I'll briefly mention the strategies I explore this week, I will also report first hand on their effectiveness or possible negative side effects.

Week in review: 7-13 September

This week I wanted to put on some pressure at work to see more results.  My driving force this week came from the desire to check tasks off a master to do list.  In the past I've worked with to do lists and the like, but usually not at the level of this week's list.  Meaning the tasks were large and typically took many days to complete.  Overall, I'd say the week was a success.  I kept to my list and in the end I completed eight items, I have another two started and one remained untouched.  I notice this week when I finished a job, I would immediately look at what was undone.  Additionally, the desire to check off an item made me stay on track and see a task through before I strayed to another job.  This is definitely a strategy I'll be using in future weeks, but I do need to be careful to keep the list both small (I can't be too unrealistic) and I need to focus on big tasks.

The tally

Today I knocked out two more task from my list.  One of the items was the 3MT Faculty rounds, which the PGSA ran on Monday, Tuesday and today (Friday).  A great number of hours went into putting on this competition, but overall I think we should be very please with our efforts.  The second job today was to finishing reviewing the manuscript from yesterday.  I got through the paper and sent my comments back to the main author.  Now I still have three unfinished tasks.  One I've been working on and it's currently chaired until next week as I am waiting on someone else to do their part.  I started one of the other remaining tasks this afternoon and I actually made surprising progress for starting the job at Friday at 4pm.  This weekend I plan to put in some hours and maybe even knock this item off the list.

Short day

Today I wanted to tackle another item on my list, which was editing a manuscript from a fellow author (FYI - this was actually the second paper I reviewed this week, each of which are tasks on my master list).  I went into work a couple hours later than usual this morning as I've been pretty tired lately.  I actually didn't sleep in, but I just took my time getting to school.  All day I focused on a single paper and this took it out of me.  At times I wanted to move on to something else that was a little more dynamic, but knowing I needed to mark this job off my list I didn't stray.  Ultimately I had to call it quits with still another 5-6 pages to go.  I actually printed off a copy so I could finish my work at home, but I forgot the pages on my desk.

Check!

Today I was able to tick five items off my to do list.  Additionally, I have another four in progress.  I am a bit concerned that the end of the week is approaching and I still have two tasks untouched.  Especially as these remaining jobs are research tasks in the lab (i.e. very important).

Overall it was an exhausting day and when the evening came around I was ready to head home.  I notice that working from my list and trying to get all tasks done by the end of the week, I stay very focused at school.  Maybe this intensity at work is making me extra tired or maybe it's not my method, but just a busy week.

Progress made, but nothing completed

Today was the second day of the 3 Minute Thesis Competition faculty rounds.  Over the past two days we've run seven out nine heats with the final two on Friday.  After a full on Monday I was a bit tired this morning.  Luckily yesterday's experiences helped to make today's sessions go a touch smoother.

After the 3MT I continued to work on PGSA business at my desk.  At the very end of the afternoon I squeaked in an hours or so work on my research, particularly some items on my to do list.  I've got a nice handle on five out of my 11 tasks.  With Wednesday and Thursday free to focus on lab work I hope to keep moving forward and even get the chance to cross off part of my list.

Task master

Today was my first of five (maybe six) days this week to finish my list of 11 tasks.  I knew it would be tough start as I am off campus on Monday afternoons and the PGSA held the first faculty rounds for this years 3 Minute Thesis competition.  The 3MT took up a number of hours, but I was able to get a touch of work started this morning.  I've started four out of the 11 tasks.  Hopefully tomorrow I can start crossing some off the list.

Week in advance: 7-13 August

Yesterday I pointed out my difficulty in focusing without a looming deadline.  Therefore this week I've decided to clearly spell out my objective for the week.  Well what' new?  Sounds like a system I've been using for a while now.  Fair enough, but I've written out a collection of tasks that I expect to finish over the next five days; the difference is that in the past I've used my lists to tell me what to do next, not necessarily to tell me when I needed to complete a task (in this case by Saturday night!).  Will it work?  I don't know, but it's a fresh approach and worth a try.

I wrote my list, to spare you the boring details, I'll keep it to myself, but know there are 11 tasks. The items are specific so that it's easy to know when I can check a job off the list.

Week in review: 31 August-6 September

This week I certain got work done; including a talk at a meeting in Auckland, working with students in our lab, plenty of PGSA business and finally my own research.  I never skimped on hours and I even squeeze in an extra six hours today.  However, I don't feel as if I reproduced the productivity as last week.  There's definitely something to working "under the gun."  My big question is how can I push myself the same way external pressures get me to perform? I have a big talk in Germany next month and if that's not enough the countdown to thesis submission is ticking along.  I must find a strategy to focus my work and continuously yield results.

Easy Friday

Today was definitely a mild day.  I had a PGSA Executive Board meeting around noon which lead into other PGSA business in the early afternoon.  I sandwiched this work with some PCB layout in the lab.

I ended the day with a lecture from a visiting scientist, Professor Y. T. Lee, the recent past President of the International Council for Science and a Nobel Laureate.  He gave a thought provoking talk on the sustainable transformation of human society.

Tomorrow my wife is collecting data for one of her projects so I plan to head into school for a couple hours of work.

The race

I don't know if folks have noticed, but when I talk about the work I do in the lab, I tend to be rather vague.  I do this primarily because this blog is not meant to be a chronicle of scientific progress, but rather a glimpse at life as a PhD student.  That said, I also hold back details as research scientists tend to play their cards close to their chests.

Let me preface the rest of today's post with the full disclaimer that nothing I do is Earth shattering or bound to make me a rich man.  Optimistically, I hope to get a couple publications out of my current work, but that's a pretty generic goal of any researcher.  So why be protective?  Well imagine spending months or years of your time and grant money on a project only to have someone publish similar results as you're writing your paper.  The number of groups in my area of study is pretty small, add in the required expertise and equipment to reproduce our work and you'd find only a handful of labs around the world would even be capable of reproducing our work.  However, when there's a significant amount of money and time invested in your work, you tend to err on the side of caution.  Hence I stay tight lipped about the details.

So why explain this?  At least, why explain this tonight of all days?  Well last night I picked up an email from my supervisor.  In short he pointed out that another group speaking at the workshop in Germany may be working towards similar goals as we are and that perhaps we should focus on getting a publication out.  The email was brief, as my supervisor is currently in the process of flying from NZ to Europe and the message was sent briefly at some airport en route.  Additionally, I read the email sometime between 12 and 1am and was maybe too tired to be doing work.  Well, this got me concerned, as I mentioned earlier, I have quite a bit invested in my work and to hear someone else might be about to publish the same work is pretty intense.

Jumping to the end of today, I've emailed my supervisor a number of times as I try to understand our situation and plan our next steps.  I received one response to the effect of "don't worry."  We have concluded that the situation isn't as dire as it may have first appeared and regardless all we can do is to continue to focus on producing quality work.  Fair enough, sounds like a plan to me.

So today was a bit of a roller coaster ride.  And even last night (at ~1am) I was thinking of heading into the lab to keep work moving forward.  Luckily there's no need for (extreme) late nights and we will hope to have a couple publications submitted to journals in the next few months, but this process got me thinking...  while I was ready to speed ahead so as to not be "scooped" by this other research group, if we published "first" wouldn't that be doing to them what I was so afraid of?  What if there are PhD students on this project half a world away hoping I don't submit a manuscript before them?  I know this is the way academia works, but at this point, I struggle to accept this reality.  For now, I'll chalk up the lessons learned from today and move forward.

Sidetracked

Today I spent my entire morning on PGSA emails.  This was not planned, but it was necessary.  To try and make up hours, I skipped lunch, which wasn't really too bad as our group met at 1 o'clock for some coffee and cake.  With one student leaving NZ and another student having just completed his thesis we felt there was plenty of excuses to get together and have some dessert.  After the sweets and caffeine I went to work in the lab, troubleshooting some printed circuit boards.  I ended up finding the bug in my circuit just as it was time to head home.

Now what?

I went into school today knowing I had a heap of work to do in advance of this week's PGSA Executive Board meeting.  Amidst numerous emails I prepared and circulated an agenda, a President's report and three short memos.  Not too bad for a morning's work.  In the afternoon I worked with one of our Honours students and got some electrical components ordered.  By late afternoon I returned to my desk only to realise I didn't know what to do.  Now that's not to say I didn't have anything to do, I just didn't know what to move onto next.  Luckily it was at this time my wife asked if I was ready to head home.

Theme Meeting

I spent today in Auckland attending a theme meeting of the MacDiarmid Institute.  All the research presented had to do with either biological engineering, soft matter physics, nanotechnology or some combination of these areas.

I was fortunate to give a talk and overall I was pleased with my presentation.  As you could tell from my posts last week, I started to work on my slides rather late.  In fact it took me a full day's work on Saturday to complete my slides.  Having finished my presentation so late I have very little time to practice what I wanted to say during my talk.  I ran through the slides a couple times last night; then again this morning and during the lunch break, but I would have preferred more time to let my talking points stew.  It's very much like writing a paper; a first draft might get a point across and in some instances may be all the effort required for a given task, but a second draft is typically clearer and gets points across effectively.  Extending this idea numerous drafts and feedback from others yields a better product.

While I am happy with the results today thinking about presentations has perked me up for my talk next month in Germany and I am keen to make sure I am thoroughly prepared.

Week in advance: 31 August-6 September

Looking ahead to the coming week, I don't have any specific plans.  Thinking back to last week, my idea was simple... do as much work as possible.  Sounds good on paper, but where's the driving force?  To be honest, I don't know, but looking back at last week I am pretty pleased with the progress I made.  Perhaps knowing I had to give a talk in Auckland this week helped spur me along to get as much lab work done as possible.  It could have been a building sense of urgency with time ticking down to thesis submission.  Maybe things just came together for me last week.  I really don't know.  That's why I'd like to try and reproduce my productivity this week.

Monday I'll be at a meeting in Auckland, but I'll  be back into the lab from Tuesday.  I have a bit of PGSA work to do this week as we have an Executive Board meeting on Friday and our 3MT competition begins next week.  I have just over a month until I present at a workshop in Germany.  I would very much like to have new work to present and a finely polished presentation before I leave Wellington.  I've have time, direction and goals; let's see how I can pull them together over the next five days.

Week in review: 24-30 August

It's strange the calm I've experienced this week.  With my work in the lab ramping up, a presentation in Auckland next week, numerous upcoming PGSA events and a thesis deadline that inches closer each day, this past week I've found myself cruising along comfortably.

Surprisingly, I've easily woken up and arrived at work as early, if not earlier, than my experiment from a couple weeks ago when I tried to add a couple hours to the start of my day.

Despite knowing how much work I have to do, everyday this week I left work at a reasonable hour, without having to be persuaded or pulled away from my desk.

This all seems bizarre as I have plenty of reasons to panic and should probably be manically working every hour of the day... but I am not.

Even with last minute changes to my schedule, like judging science fair on Thursday, I've kept my course.

All I can conclude is that pressure keeps me on track.  On reflection now, the concept does not seem that ridiculous, but I am curious to understand this seemingly delicate balance between productivity and stress.

Satisfied exhaustion

Today I focused on preparing my slides for next Monday's MacDiarmid Institute meeting.  In the afternoon our research group got together to run through everyone's presentations.  As I've been having too much fun this week with experiments and business outside the lab, my talk was not complete.  I ran through my presentation (for the first time) with a number of images missing, but overall I received some great advice from my supervisor and fellow students.  Unfortunately this means tomorrow (my Saturday) will be spent fixing up (and finishing) the document.

Hot seat!

Today was a flurry of action and I think I only logged a total of 60 minutes or so in the lab.  As soon as I arrived at work I helped to judge science fair projects at the Wellington Regional competition.  As I was only available in the morning, I spoke with year 7 students and I was very impressed with the quality of all the entries I saw.  I excused myself from the science fair just before noon to head off and prepare for a PGSA BBQ.  We had beautiful weather today, a perfect setting for a BBQ lunch.  Once the last sausage was served and the final veggie burger was eaten we had fed well over 100 postgraduate students.  After cleaning up I met with a few members of the PGSA to discuss plans for our upcoming 3MT competition, before returning to my office.  I only had a couple minutes at my desk because this afternoon our school hosted a "Dangling Bonds" session which offered non-chemists and non-physicists (from within and outside of the University) the opportunity to learn about the specialities and capabilities of the labs at Victoria, in the hopes of sparking collaborations.

Overall it was a thrilling day with numerous opportunities to meet new people.  Although I was kept from my work, in a way it was nice to have all these events on one day instead of each event carving up time throughout my week.

Plugging along

Today was another great day in the lab.  I am getting to spend heaps of time on my work; slowly, but surely making progress.  Although I haven't started my slides for next week's presentation.

This afternoon I met with another member of the PGSA Executive Board to discuss plans for transitioning to a new leadership after our AGM in October.

Much improved

After yesterday's doldrums, I headed into school ready to attack my work.  I got off to a slow start spending the first half of my morning writing an editorial for this month's PGSA newsletter.  Before lunch I also had a quick sit down with my supervisor regarding our talks for the workshop in Germany and spent some time working on my latest homebuilt instrument (I know I speak in vague terms, but yes this is the same device I've been working on for the past couple months).  I made great, but slow, progress in commissioning my new machine; making some tweaks to code and electrical connections along the way.  Later in the afternoon I helped staff a PGSA table at a PhD orientation session. After the successes of today, my attitude and outlook has much improved from yesterday.

Helpless feeling

I know I am constantly mentioning how difficult Mondays are due to my commitments around Wellington and today was no exception.  Today was typical in the sense I ran to one meeting and afterwards had an hour or so before I had to leave campus. I did get my user interface to a usable point (hopefully tomorrow I put it into practice), I took some measurements on an instrument outside our lab and I managed to order some materials.

Despite the busy schedule and my attempt at making some progress, overall I felt (and still feel) overwhelmed by the amount of work I currently have queued.  What makes it worse is because there's little, if any, time on Monday to get things done it feels as if I am at a standstill.  It's one thing to worry about your workload, but it's far worse to worry about your workload and watch a whole day pass when you make no progress.

Week in advance: 24-30 August

A week from tomorrow, 1 September, I will be in Auckland for a MacDiarmid Institute theme meeting (for those of you interested, our research group is part of the "Bionano/Nanobio and Soft Matter" theme) where I'll be giving a talk on my work to date.  Also, it looks like in October I will be headed to a one day workshop in Germany where again I'll give a talk on our group's recent progress.

In preparation of these engagements, my goal this week is to do as much work as possible.  Hummm, that sounds like what you say every week Tim!?  I guess that's true, but the point is this week no gimmicks.  This week truely needs to be all about productivity.

Pour on the fact that the PGSA is hosting a BBQ this week and gearing up for out annual 3MT competition (which is looking to be the biggest ever!).  Also I am helping (briefly) with a new PhD student orientation and will have my day to day email/meeting obligations. Between a group meeting tomorrow morning and volunteering in the afternoon, my Monday is pretty much a wash for lab work.  And on Friday I am scheduled to give a talk to the group, which will partially be a practise for my Auckland talk.

This is a great opportunity to try and put the lessons learned in previous weeks to work.  An experiment where the stakes are high.  Excellent!