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.