Packed... again

Well here we go, again... I am all packed and ready for a big trip.  There was an obvious sense of déjà vu tonight as I carried home my hard shell case full of various pieces of lab equipment.  Filling the case took the better part of an afternoon and this evening.  The rest of the day I focused on cleaning up my desk and workbench (which I always find is a terrific exercise before going away).  Prior to bubble wrapping and interlocking parts into my luggage, I laid out all my electronics, wires, screws, etc. to try and make sure I have everything necessary.  Unfortunately, I am sure something has been left out or forgotten, but I am confident I can make due with my material at hand and a dose of improvisation.

One more day

Today I started setting equipment aside for packing, cleaning up my workbench, soldering final components and 3d printing spare parts.  As the week comes to a close so does my prep work for Montana.  As you would expect there's always work I couldn't get to, but today and tomorrow I need to focus on making sure I am organised to work away from the lab.  My writing, programming and even testing can be done on the road, provided I have the correct materials.  I'll finish up tomorrow and will be ready to hit the road by the time I check-in next!

Mistakes

Today I continued testing my latest batch of circuit boards and although early tests looked good, I eventually found some errors.  My hardware (including the electronics) is designed to be modular (i.e. use this and that for one experiment, but swap out thing 1 for thing 2 and run a completely different test).  The core functionality of my circuits works as expected and has the benefit of a handful of revisions.  For more complicated experiments, additional PCBs are needed and the latest versions of these boards have error; thus I'll have to revert back to a previous version.  You might ask why I bothered to make new boards if the old ones were "good enough" and the answer is simple, I've made changes to the power supplies to reduce the noise I measure during experiments.  Also the newer boards are more compact, making them easier to set-up and adding a bit of wow factor, but I'l admit these are secondary concerns.

I'll make notes of the necessary revisions and bank these in case I have an opportunity to reprint the boards in the future, but with only a few months left until I submit my thesis, it's unlikely I'll have new boards made before I submit in September.

Despite things not working out exactly to plan, I left work with a clear sense of what to do tomorrow and Friday as I finish my preparations and pack up for Saturday's flight.  Even though I am taking some of my "old" circuit boards, I at least know what to take!  Which helps when the flight leaves in less than 70 hours.

Tests!

I started today off slowly and a bit behind schedule as I am continuing to recover from some kind of cold.  However, despite a late start, I was still able to get in a full day of work.  And that work centered around testing and fine tuning my latest batch of electronics.  I am a bit too tired to go into great detail, but I'll just say everything is on track and looking good.

Choices

Today I spent the morning and a good part of the afternoon trying to develop a web interface to communicate with my home built hardware.  This was a neat new challenge where I started to teach myself a couple new programming languages (HTML and JavaScript).  I actually started on this problem yesterday afternoon and was already having some limited success using WebSocket to bridge my web page to the TCP socket connected into the main processor of my device.  Ultimately I learned that my apparent success was a farce and that I was back at square one.  However, before diving further into the problem, I had a think about the cost/benefit of the task at hand.  While this would be a nice feature to have and a cool proof of concept to demonstrate future strategies for instrument control, I concluded that there are more important ways to spend my time.  After a quick coffee break I returned to my desk to discover that my latest PCB had arrived and I spent the rest of the day populating the board.  As it was late by the time I finished soldering all the components, I decided to wait until tomorrow to fire up and test the circuits.

Week in advance: 7-13 May

This week I plan to keep working on my various pieces of software; fine tuning bugs in advance of my work overseas.  Once my new PCB comes in I'll need to populate the board debug any issues.  Finally, if there's time, I'd like to put everything together and run a few measurements in the lab.  This last test could be pushed out to the coming weeks (when I am away working with collaborators), but let's see how the week goes.  I am trying to fight off a cold of some sorts (or recover from being sick), so I'll have to be careful not to push myself too hard.

Week in review: 31 May-6 June

Today was another work day... as I am trying to keep on top of my to do list.  I've certainly made progress this week and I think I am about where I would expect to be, meaning my planning went much better this week.  I am still excited by my work, but I am getting a little nervous about my upcoming trip.  I am in good shape, with my parts back from the mechanical workshop, but I am still waiting on a PCB which should have been delivered this past Thursday/Friday.  I need the board to solder the components and test the final product before leaving next week and I am hopeful this can still happen.  Of course a work around or alternative could be found, but this PCB is the last piece of electronics I'll build for my PhD research and in a way it's a bit symbolic of the culmination of my work.  Regardless, I'll deal with the cards I am handed so stay tuned next week.

Tired, sick?

It was a great day and my work is progressing, but I worry I might be getting sick.  Not much else to say at the moment.  Time for rest and hopefully I'll be able to carry on tomorrow.

Code

Today was a solid day of programming as I worked to up date my user interface software.  I am making solid progress and hope to finish up in the next day or so.  I also received my latest batch of parts back from the machine shop.  Not much else to say.  Still making progress, still moving forward.

Positive energy

I am feeling a certain buzz from today as I continue to make progress at school.  First up, I've finished updating a crucial section of the hardware documentation, next I wrapped up helping another student prepare for his upcoming defense, I've moved on to a new programming task and overall I feel very positive about my current situation.

Things are coming together nicely for my trip overseas and I can see how I'll be able to wrap up my lab work over the next month.  Exciting times!

How many days?

Back to work this morning... to start my day I took care of the backlog of emails, paperwork and arrangements for my conference trip in August.  Later in the day I spent time preparing bits and pieces for my trip later this month (making cables, 3d printing parts, etc).  I also spent a touch of time adding to my documentation files.  I ended the day helping another student who is finishing their work in advance of his PhD exam next week.

Looking at the calendar, I have just over 10 days before I head off overseas again.  Things are looking good, but the days are flying.  I think it'll be a long weekend in the lab, but we'll see how things work out.

Day away

With school closed due to a public holiday, I took the day off.  Back to work tomorrow...

Week in advance: 31 May-6 June

Continuing on from yesterday's "cliff-hanger" of a post where I purposed two options, I've decided on a third choice.  I will continue with my writing/documentation of my hardware and software, but I'll also continue to use and test my instruments and programming.  In two weeks when I head overseas again not only do I want others to know how to use these devices (i.e. have a proper user's manual), but I also want the hardware to work.  The next two weeks and my time in Montana will most likely be the end of experimental work portion of my PhD.  This notion works well with my expectation to submit my thesis at the end of September.  However, I need to shake out any new or remaining bugs so that my time abroad can go smoothly.

In the coming week I will simultaneous tackle small pieces of the help documents while setting up and running tests with the actual hardware.

Week in review: 24-30 May

This week has not gone as expected.  This week I exposed a mountain of work that I, previously, had greatly underestimated.  Last Sunday I stated my goal was to move on from my current programming tasks by today, but even with an extra afternoon today, I am still far from completing this task.  It's my own fault to find myself in my current situation and main for one reason, poor planning.  Making things up as you go along is bad news, especially when you're months from submitting you PhD thesis.  The problem came when I desired to update my documentation for the communication protocol I use for controlling my custom built hardware.  This isn't a bad idea as I frequently refer to my previous notes and I had recently made some significant changes.  Also, next month I'll be headed overseas to a lab where I plan to hand off copies of my instruments to other researchers.  For their benefit, decent documentation is welcome.  After cleaning up this portion of my user manual, I got a wild idea to update all my documentation.  This is a good idea, because it's been nearly a year since I wrote the original documents and much has changed, however, this is a bad idea, because it's been nearly a year since I wrote the original documents and much has changed.  At this point, I have the option to continue with my task, which will make it easier for other to reproduce my work and take advantage of the hardware I've developed.  Or I can fall back to preparing/writing my thesis.

Focus

I admit it... today I had trouble keeping myself focused.  Throughout the day I chipped away at a mountain of writing, but numerous times my attention was drawn elsewhere.  The biggest distraction of the day occurred in the afternoon when I helped another student design and print a new part for their project.  What can I say, somethings just seem so much more interesting that creating user guides and help documentation.  Bahhh.

A beast of its own

Today I spent more time preparing my hardware's "user's guide" which is starting to turn into its own mini thesis.  Earlier this week, my thought was only to update the documentation that I use (the codes for communicating with the instruments), but I am now focusing on documenting the entire system. Part of my inspiration comes from the fact next month I'll be lending out some of my equipment to another lab.  This means that as I sit down and focus on finishing my studies, other researchers and students will be able to continue using the hardware to generate data.  To me this is a welcome thing as I have always wanted my recent work to not just fuel my thesis, but to also become a legitimate tool that outlives my studies and can continue to be used in the years to come. Besides, a great deal of what I use in this manual can be slotted into my actual thesis (a bit of a win win).

Impromptu day at home

Today I stayed home to take care of personal jobs.  No work related news to report.

Writing of a sort

Having accomplished nearly everything on my "wishlist" for updating the firmware programming on my homebuilt instruments, I've started to update the documentation and help files.  Although these pages are not fit for slotting straight into my thesis, I believe the output will be of value when it comes to sitting down and finishing my dissertation.  Additionally, I will be handing off some of my devices on my trip overseas next month and it's important to not only have working hardware, but support for future users.

A broken record

Even I am getting tired of hearing the same story each and every day, but the fact is today I continued developing my software.  In the lab, hidden away in my little closet, glued to my computer, writing a line at a time.  I am still thoroughly enjoying my work and I am pleased to report I am still moving forward, making great progress.

Week in advance: 24-30 May

This week I will continue working to prepare for my new trip overseas; at this stage the work in mainly with software and programming.  While there is plenty to do and numerous projects that could side track me for days, my goal is to move on from these jobs by the end of the week.  I have plenty of data stacked up for in depth analysis and I have a thesis that needs to be written.

Week in review: 17-23 May

This week my preparation for next month's trip has gone quite well.  I have a number of work streams underway and each one is tracking well; prints are in to the machine shop, I have a order in for electronics components and a PCB design to verify once I have the parts in my hand and finally I've started to tackle my mountain of programming chores.  Compared to this point prior to my past trip overseas I have a firmer grasp on the prerequisite workload.

A stride

Today I continued my work, finishing a number of a programming jobs and printing two new parts (after a few prototypes throughout the week).  Triumphantly, I'll be bold enough to declare I've found a stride at school, but of course this comes at the end of the week.  And here's the challenge I've been faced with numerous times over the course of my PhD... continue my work into the weekend, potentially burning myself out for the coming week -or- take a weekend to rest and start fresh on Monday.  Neither is a good decision; I can say this with plenty of experience of both scenarios.  Frankly I don't know which choice is the 'right' one, but I will admit this is not an uncommon decision for a postgraduate student.  At the end of the day, it's best to look at the coming weeks/months to see if there's an urgency to your work or if it's best to pace yourself for the days ahead.  One of the most difficult tasks over the past three years has been to reign myself in, limiting the length of my workday or work week, but I've come to realise that while there's a certain short term gain to long work hours, these can wear one down in the long run; a most unwelcome occurrence during a PhD.

Another job

Today I laboured through another task on my programming to do list.  This job in particular has been on my radar for months.  Thus I felt mentally this would be a good start to knocking out this moutnain of work.  I don't know if I can take away any momentum from today as it was difficult to stay focused on the work at hand.  It's interesting because I typically enjoy writing and troubleshooting code, but for reasons unknown I stuggled to stay on task.

It's a start

Today I've started to attack my (long) list of programming jobs.  At a high level, I have code which runs on all my instruments, then I have a complete graphical user interface to control my hardware and finally there are analysis scripts to process experimental data (plus there's code for the NMR instrument and for those experiments, but I am not concerning myself with these programmes at this time).  What this means practically is that if I wish to make a change in part of the chain, I need to account for this edit in my other programmes.  For instance, you can't change the user interface to give new options, if the firmware on the instrument can't do anything this that information.  And it's no point in telling the hardware to record additional data, if the analysis scripts don't treat this information.  Now for big "problems" it's easy to solve these issues one at a time in each piece of programming, but when I have a punchlist of approximately two dozen small changes it becomes difficult to track.  Anyway, that's the work I have cut out for me over the next few days.  Trying to improve my product without breaking the system.

Another check

Today I was able to sort out my electronics projects; wrapping up revisions and ordering new parts.  Also during the day I started printing parts using our 3-d printer.  I didn't get a chance to work on anything else, as these jobs are highly technical and are quite time consuming.

One down

Today I believed a prioritised set of blue prints to the mechanical workshop.  Although there are only four weeks to fabricate my parts, it sounds as if my requests were reasonable enough to expect all the work to be complete in the allotted timeframe.  However, in case there are any hiccups (which can happen) I've rank the parts to make sure the most mission critical jobs are completed first.

With my plans submitted to the machine shop, I moved onto my printed circuit boards.  I am in the process of revision and I hope to finish my updated versions tomorrow.  I'll need to create a bill of material for the new boards, but once this is completed I'll be able to move on to other work (namely programming) until the PCBs come back from manufacture.

Week in advance: 17-23 May

Looking forward to this week there's a bit of déjà vu because my goal this week is to get prints to the machine shop and send circuit board designs to the printer.  Hummm, sounds familiar, well that's because I am preparing for a trip overseas once again.  Based on the plans for next month's work, I need to modify some of my existing hardware, hence the prints to the mechanical workshop.  Also, from using (and stress testing) my gear over four weeks of intense use, I've found some bugs/issues with the current electronics/software.  I have plenty of programming to do, but I need to set other work in motion first; once fabrication has started on my parts and I am waiting for the finished products, I can focus on fixing my code.

Week in review: 10-16 May

It's been a full on week.  Having both just returned from a month working overseas and learning that in 4 weeks I'll be heading off again.

At this point in my studies, I should have my work flow/methods pretty dialed in, so I am almost embarrassed to say I spent time getting organised this week.  Yet that's exactly what I did; I spent time setting up a new laptop and cleaning up my files on my work desktop.  I've also compiled a list on my whiteboard with a punchlist that stems from hands on experiences working with my hardware in another lab.  Add to this the "wishlist" of preparations for my next round of work in Montana and it looks like I've got a full few weeks ahead of me.  The good news is I've already started to dive into my jobs and not only am I getting some done, I am culling the list of things that simply can't happen in a month.

New opportunity

Over the past couple months new collaborations have started (the result of a student visiting our lab in March and my trip overseas in April).  As a result, I sit on the edge of new research questions with the tools to explore these ideas.  What this means in the near future is that I'll be heading back to Montana in June.  This will most likely mean that my submission date for my thesis will be pushed back as I will not be focusing on writing over the next two months, but will instead be continuing developing new hardware and research methods.  In the even more immediate future, I have four weeks to work on new hardware, electronics and software.  My first plan of attack is to finalise my mechanical designs and figure out what can be produced in the available time.  This is a touch tricky, because I am relying on my collaborators to drive the science questions while my job will be to design the equipment and experiments to tackle these problems.  Thus before I can finish any blueprints, our group needs to prioritise our goals.  And this is where we sit today.  After a Skype chat late last night, emails throughout the day and a long phone conversation this afternoon, it's still unclear how we want to proceed.  As it's the weekend now, it's a perfect opportunity to take a moment (for all involved) to review our strategy, but come Monday morning it will be time to finalise our ideas.  Four weeks is very little time when it comes to fabrication (either machine work or electronics) so it's essential we begin the process as soon as possible.

Back to work

After a couple days back at work, today I finally felt like I was back on track.  This morning I finished a draft of an abstract for a conference and circulated this to my fellow authors.  In the afternoon I spent some time in the workshop, brainstorming a design ideas with the machinists.  The rest of the day I tinkered with some electronics and worked to organise my next steps in the lab.

Re-group

Today was mostly spent re-integrating into the lab in Wellington.  I made the rounds and caught up with various staff members, worked on unpacking my equipment and sorting out my computer.  In particular, I have a new laptop and I plan to use this device as my primary computer moving forward.  My desktop is starting to age and on my recent trip overseas, I found it was difficult to move to a completely different computer for travel.  The plan is to use my current laptop in the lab and on the go, keeping the system up to date regardless of the working environment.

Back at work

After my flights back to NZ and a long weekend off, I returned this afternoon to the lab.  For the most part my time was spent catching up with folks and getting my bearings after 5 weeks away, but I did manage to spend a couple hours soldering up a new PCB which I had ordered just before leaving Wellington.  I figured tackling my to do list with a relatively easy job was a great way to just start my return.  Tomorrow I hope to keep up my pace.

Out the door

My experiments are done, lab equipment packed and I leave for the airport in 2 hours.  I am very pleased to have finished my last measurements yesterday morning.  This gave me an afternoon and evening to get organised and pack.  I was also able to sit down with a couple of my colleagues from Montana to continue training them on the hardware I am leaving in Bozeman.  I appreciate having a low pressure afternoon and evening to clean up in the lab and pack up.  Rather than working until the very last minute and rushing out the door, I was able to account for all my gear.  Now I just need to travel back to Wellington and dive into my analysis.

Sigh of relief

Yesterday (Monday) I spent some time processing and reviewing my data.  I was particularly concerned that working up to the very end of my time in Montana Iran the risk of collecting data that turned out to be no good, but I wouldn't know this until I had returned to New Zealand and started my analysis.

Knowing I would have to spent a lot more time with the data in the future, I wrote a couple scripts to give me a general idea of the quality of measurements.  After reviewing this information with a professor here we identified a couple runs to measure again, but overall the data looks very promising.  Not only is the quality high enough to believe the techniques were working correctly, but we are even seeing differences between samples which match with our initial hypotheses.  That said, I have a lot of work ahead of me in performing a thorough analysis, but for now I am content with our results and I feel positive leaving Montana to return to Wellington.

Week in advance: 3-9 May

Today I was able to finish my measurements, but now I need to crunch data as quickly as possible to see if there are any experiments I need to re-do.  I leave Montana on Wednesday afternoon so I worry about how much time I'll need for my analysis and what time will be left if I still have data to collect.

Week in review: 26 April-2 May

This week has been extremely busy, but I feel I've made so great progress.  I am only to my last batch of samples, which I've been running today.  I still want to look over the processed data before I start packing my bags, but so far things seem to look good.

False starts

Today I was ready to start knocking out measurements, but after a couple hiccups I wasn't able to make as much progress as I hoped. A few silly errors are costly as I am dealing with a sensitive sample. While the sample doesn't get ruined, I do need to remove it and let it sit (nearly overnight) before I can try another test. I was able to complete one run so I have nine remaining. I am not under too much pressure as I still have a number of days, but I don't want to push my luck. Finishing these tests is my number one priority.

Home stretch

As my departure date approaches, I can't help but feel that I am into the home stretch.  Not necessarily because of my scheduled flights, but because I am checking jobs off of my to do list.  Today I gave a talk for the group here; my presentation was sufficient, but I would have preferred to spend more time practising.  I realise this was a good exercise for me as I typically get wrapped up with each and every chore; potentially spending more time on a project than I can afford.  While I try to hold all my work to a high standard, I also need to learn how to manage my times across simultaneous tasks.

Earlier this week I had drafted an abstract to submit tomorrow, but now the deadline has been extended until the middle of May.  As the abstract is based upon my current work, I've decided to put the draft aside until I finish in Montana.

This morning I spent time analysing my data and being happy with what I've seen so far I am ready to move onto my second (and final) sample series.

Getting tired

Today I was able to get a new piece of code working on the instruments at MSU.  While I don't need this programme for my data collection on this trip, it was a neat challenge and the folks here greatly appreciate having this running.  During the afternoon I spent a couple hours preparing a talk that I'll give to the group tomorrow; I tried to be efficient as possible, recycling material from other presentations.  I'll run through the slides a couple time tomorrow, but for the most part this is a very informal process.  This evening I dove into the analysis of the data I collected earlier this week; I was able to set-up some scripts to guide the process, but there's a lot of manual work still to do.  After a number of long days and short nights, I can't face going through these measurements tonight.

Suspicious calm

I have just over one week before I head back to NZ and surprisingly I am ok with this fact.  My work is moving along and I believe I've collected the first half of my data.  I still need to check the quantitative results, but so far things look good.  When working on programming another piece of code, I noticed an error in the scripts I used to set-up all measurements to date.  It's a minor issue and I'll be able to correct for this in my post-processing/data analysis. Although things are looking good, I still want to maintain my long hours in the lab in case something goes wrong.

Late nights

Today was another long day in the lab, but I will not complain because I am working long hours running experiments.  Once you find a groove, it's best to keep moving along and that's exactly my mentality the past few days.

Week in advance: 26 April-2 May

This week I want to continue the trend of refining my methods through running experiments.  I am moving out of the "ideal" programming phase, where I now have to get my techniques to work in real life.  Of course this is rarely trivial and despite your best effort you find bugs and glitches in our code.  Currently I am calibrating my techniques using a system material (water), but by the end of the week I hope to have moved on to measuring the response of a complex sample.  I am pleased with how things have been moving along the past couple weeks, but with the end of my trip in sight it's important that I stay on track.

Week in review: 19-25 April

I am to the point, where I can start running suites of experiments, which was my goal for the week.  The instruments are set-up and I have a few layers of code to help automate/streamline the data collection process.  The results generally are looking reasonable, but there are a couple issues that need to be looked; with the biggest concern the post-processing routine.  I mentioned earlier in the week that I have a lot of experiments to run which makes me nervous about time, but once we dial in the current process, I'll be able to knock out half of my run pretty quickly (2-3 days).  Ultimately that would leave me almost a week for the rest of my work which isn't too bad, but it doesn't allow for many curve-balls.

Some experiments

Today I continued working on code to help set-up and automate my experiments.  When it comes to collecting my "real" data in Montana, I have 10 physical set-ups which need to be measured with at least two different fluids and at a dozen or so different shear rates (and each sample holder/fluid/shear rate combination will require a couple different types of measurements).  All together that means I have lots of experiments to run.  The good news is that a single experiment might only take 5-10 minutes.  The bad news is that by hand it can take 5 minutes to set-up a single experiment.  Automation scripts help to speed up data collection, allow me to measure overnight (or other times I am not in the lab) and reduce human error.  That's why I am taking a few days to create some robust time saving code, but alas there's still work to do on this front.  To make sure I don't forget about the "science" behind my trip, I did set-up a few dozen experiments to run overnight which will help me dial in what parameters I can use and what types of measurements will be feasible for my work.

Moving forward

It's been another long day in the lab, but things are moving forward.  Based on some feedback from the instrument manufacturers, I've been able to clean up my programming and now the code works as expected.  Today I wrote an automation program to make experiment set-up an easy process.  Once I had these two pieces of code working, I modified them so we have an additional two variants.  For those keeping track that's 6 new programs (3 pulse programs each with its own automation program).  I ran a single test for each and the results quantitatively matched expected results.

For the past couple hours I've been trying to get a fourth program working, but unfortunately this one is more complex and utilises functions not found in any of the working programs.  I'll self this last piece of code for tonight and come back tomorrow morning.

Sick day

Just a quick update from Tuesday, I did stay home to rest (and prevent spreading my illness).  I had optimistic hopes of doing computer work from home, but instead I sleep most of the day.  This morning (Wednesday) I am back at work and will give another update this evening.

Losing steam

In the spirit of enthusiasm and optimism, I've labelled today a "2" (referring to how well I feel the day went).  I seem to be reaching a wall, both mentally and physically.  One reason I am posting this evening (and the reason I am home before it's dark) is because I am starting to feel sick.  Now I was careful this past weekend (when visiting family) to get a decent amount of sleep and last night (when I returned to Bozeman) I fought off the instinct to go into work.  However, despite my conservative attempts, I still worry I am coming down with something.

My work in the lab is slowly progressing.  Today we tried a fresh approach to our problems from last week, but arrived at the same dead-end.  We have a couple emails out to the equipment manufacturer, hoping for some insight, but with those folks in Germany responses are delayed.  We have a couple workarounds in mind, but we're waiting for a response before we move in any direction.  All the while I lose measurement time.  Also, it doesn't help that today makes 100 days until my thesis submission.  Right now I am so focused on the work at hand (which isn't working) that I am not feeling confident in my thesis.

For now I hope a long night's sleep and a fresh attitude in the morning will help see things move along.

Week in advance: 19-25 April

Tomorrow I'll be back in the lab after a long weekend away. When I left last week things were looking up, but I had yet to run any experiments. Over the coming days I still have work to do tweaking my software, but regardless I need to start collecting data.

Progress

It's been a few days since my last update and for that I apologies.  The past week has been quite busy and I've worked everyday to the tune of 12-14 hours.  The reason I've been spending long days in the lab is to get certain experiments running on the equipment at MSU.  This doesn't have to do with the instruments I've designed, built and programmed, but instead the hardware I came to Montana to use.  While the theory of operation is similar to the equipment in New Zealand, there were enough differences between the two systems to make for a challenging task.  Despite being a bit tired, I've really enjoyed this time as it's been an excellent opportunity to further my knowledge and experience.  It's kind of like learning to swim by being thrown into the deep-end of a pool... it's a bit terrifying and stressful, but if you survive you've grown in new ways.

Up until this afternoon nothing was working or making sense.  After a long session on the machine with one of the local professors, we were able to locate our issue (which looks to be a bug in the instrument software) and figure out a reasonable work around.  This evening I was able to fix up our code and make the measurement I need to make this trip a success.

Now after an intense week in Bozeman (and a few busy weeks before) I am headed to visit my family over a long weekend.  When I return to Bozeman I'll have just over two weeks to continue my work, but with a working pulse sequence I feel more confident that fruitful data will come from this visit.

Distracted

My apologies folks.  I have made it to the USA (two nights ago) and I was fortunate to have all my gear arrive in one piece.  Yesterday I assembled one of the instruments and had to make a couple adjustments on the fly.  The good news is that with a few tweaks the assembly works (or seems to work) as expected and today we were able to mount the device in the NMR system I came to use.  Today I've been working on some programming to get our experiments running.  We are very close to being able to make our first measurements, but there's some issue with the programming.  This could be due to porting the software from another instrument, but I've emailed from some technical support.

Week in advance: 5-11 April

Tomorrow I head off for Montana.  All my gear is packed up and ready for my flights.  Obviously the first task of the week will be to get myself and equipment safely to Bozeman, but after that there are a heap of unknowns.  I'll need to get a number of mechanical parts assembled and working, additionally my electronics will have to be set-up and my code will need to run on brand new (to me) systems.  Where will I find my first hitch or bug, I can't say, but I plan to hit the ground running.  I only have four weeks away and I need to make the most of my trip abroad.  Once my kit is running, there will be a number of experiments on offer which will only strengthen my thesis.  I big push now in the lab will only make it easier to compile my PhD work.

Week in review: 29 March-4 April

My goal this week was to prepare for my trip without exhausting myself (and ideally not work this weekend).  I am pleased to say all my equipment is packed and I am ready for my flight, although it did take me the better part of today to finish my preparations.  I have quite a bit of gear to take with me, so much that I couldn't carry everything down from the lab this evening.  Tomorrow I'll stop my school and grab the last of my kit, but everything is staged and ready to go.   I did take my time heading into work this morning and other than a quick stop in the lab, I'll have all of tomorrow to myself.  I am pleased not to be working until the absolute last minutes; a trend I've been trying to outgrow for years.

Bummer

My goal today was to completely wrap up in the lab prior to leaving next Monday.  Unfortunately, despite being at school for a full day, I still have a few hours of work left; meaning I'll need to head off to work tomorrow.  I was able to assemble a number of circuit boards which I am packing for my trip and I also spent time checking to make sure they operate as expected.  My workspace is a bit messy right now as I am going over all my equipment in advance of the final pack.

The storm?

This morning continued with the same calm as yesterday.  Early in the day I showed one of our visiting Masters students how to set-up the temperature control on the NMR system, I cleaned up my desk/office space, I got some paperwork signed and sorted for a programme I am working on, and I returned my stack of library books.  After lunch, while I was helping a fellow PhD student design a part to be 3D printed, I received my latest round of circuit boards.  I knew that I wouldn't get to soldering the PCBs today, but I wanted to make sure I had all the parts and tools I needed.  This is where things started to get a bit wild.  There was some confusion in our school about a borrowed crimp tool that I needed to make some cable assemblies which launched into an hour plus of searching.  Not only did I need the tool for my wires, it was suggested that I was the last person to borrow the crimper.  Now I take tools and other people's property very seriously (not to mention this particular pair costs almost $800) and I was certain I had returned the set earlier in the year.  Eventually the issue was sorted out and I'll have the equipment I need tomorrow morning, but there was some extra drama from the fact today is the last workday before I leave (tomorrow is a public holiday).  Moving on with the day it was nearly five o'clock and I hadn't heard from the workshop about my parts.  Not wanting to bother the boys while I was certain they were trying to finish off the job, I waited around for any news.  I was getting rather nervous, but right after six, a huge box was delivered with a massive collection of gear.  I was concerned, but in the end our staff came through.  All this excitement was certainly a dramatic end to the week, but I will be very pleased if this is the "storm" before my trip.  Tomorrow I still have to populate my boards and pack up my new kit, but everything is staged in the lab and I've taken care of all jobs that needed input from others; while I can't take the holiday off, I should have everything I need to finalise the logistics for my departure.

Calm

Although I am headed off overseas in 5 days, today was surprisingly calm.  I worked on a new circuit board which I'll have printed after I leave (and maybe forwarded to me while I am away).  In the middle of my work there was a power outage on campus and unfortunately the schematic I was working on at the time was corrupted.  It was a nuisance to lose a couple hours worth of effort, but I was able to quickly reproduce my work.  In the afternoon, I continued to prepare for my trip; carefully laying out equipment to pack and double checking the parts to make sure there are no errors or missing pieces.  I am still waiting for my new PCBs, but I am confident those will find their way to the lab tomorrow.  Also, I expect a pile of parts from the mechanical workshop, which will also need to be prepared for my trip.

Packing up

Today I spent most of the day staging equipment for next week's trip.  I have a good handle on what parts I want to take, but I am still waiting on a project to come back from the mechanical workshop and tomorrow I expect my new PCBs and components to be delivered.  Together this means there's still a lot left to gather and pack.

A new idea

Inspired by my recent work I had an idea yesterday of an experiment I wanted to run at school.  Essentially I thought of a new way to make measurements with the instruments I have built during my studies.  After some trial runs today I have some interesting, but not conclusive results.  My inspiration did come from the work with our visiting student, so my tests today were part of my plan for the week, however, I didn't spend much time preparing for my trip.  With the short week and less than 7 days until my flight, I'll make sure to balance my time better tomorrow.

Week in advance: 29 March-4 April

This week I plan to continue preparations for my trip next week.  My goal is to not work next weekend, meaning I need to wrap up all work in the lab in a couple days.  Friday is a public holiday, but depending on my progress I might need to head into school.  Hopefully in the next couple days I'll have a few new PCBs coming in and components for the boards; as such I'll need to spend some time soldering and testing the hardware.  I also have some plans to continue running experiments with a visiting PhD student.

Despite approaching a hard deadline and having plenty of work to do, I would like to carefully manage my days so that I don't stay too late.  My worry is that after a number of busy weeks, if I continue to push myself too much, I'll head off on my trip exhausted.  I want to arrive rested and enthusiastic to knock out as much work as possible in the four weeks away.

Week in review: 22-28 March

This week I've focused on preparing for my trip overseas.   With the addition of the visiting students in the lab it's been an extremely busy week.  I am pleased to have made nice progress with collaborations in Wellington and I feel like I am in a good position to head off on my trip.  The only concern  have is that I am quite tired and I worry that starting my trip next month exhausted will hurt my productivity.  I think next week it will be important to keep up with work, finish my preparations, but also do so efficiently so I am not working consecutive long days in the lab.

Odd jobs

With a couple meetings and errands, today was also a bit of a blur.  I did stay true to my week's ambition, to prepare for my upcoming trip, by starting to collect and organise what equipment I need to take.  When I had a chance to sit at my desk, I worked on a couple programmes which run on various electronics that I've built and will take with me next month.  Also, and this was a bit of fun, I ran our lab's new 3D printer to make a couple replacement parts, with a couple custom modifications. I've been good not to be distracted by the printer, but these jobs had a purpose and it wasn't a make work (or make fun) exercise.

A bit of a daze

Today was a busy day with my work and attention divided amongst numerous jobs.  In the morning my supervisor and I had a Skype chat with one of the researchers I'll be visiting in April.  During our talk we went over what my experimental goals are and we discussed what our lab could contribute to the work in progress at the lab overseas.  Later in the day, I soldered up a couple projects/boards that I'll take with me on my trip next month (although these are not the PCBs I just finished/ordered).  And throughout the day I also ran experiments for/with our visiting student, particularly rheometry measurements on some of our custom equipment.

Excitement building

Not only was today a rush, but I am also starting to feel the excitement build for my trip overseas.  This morning (and into the afternoon), I was able to finalise my PCB designs, have these sent out to the printer and order all parts I don't have on hand.  Finishing these jobs is a huge weight off my shoulders and the fact I was able to complete the work over a couple (long) days shows how much I can accomplish when needed.  I like to think I work hard, but after a few years of routine it seems easy to slip into habits.  Now there is nothing necessarily wrong with having habits, but in this case I am thinking about what I have come to accept as a "full day's work".  Again, I don't worry about what I can get done in a typical day, but I do feel that at times I might quit for the day when I could push on just a touch more.  Here's where the debate could start about limits and pacing yourself, but in short durations I think a few longs days back to back can be incredible; not only do you accomplish a heap of work, but you also feel a buzz from a job well done (like the satisfaction from being physically exhausted after a hike or workout).  It seems I only push myself past the "norm" when I am backed up against a deadline, like a conference or trip overseas.  Moving into my last four months, I m curious to see if I can instill sporadic burst of work without suffering from a lag afterwards.

Epic

Today was a long day, but I was able to finish laying out my circuits.  I'll need to take a final look to double check the designs, but I should be able to send off the parts to the printer tomorrow afternoon.

Circuits

Today I spent my time working on a new iteration of printed circuit boards.  Ideally I would like to take these with me on my trip next month, but that means I need to send the design off to the printer within a couple days (turn around is about 5 working days).  It is not essential that I have these for the trip, but it would be great to work with and stress test the latest version of the boards.

Week in advance: 22-28 March

This week my plan is to prepare for my upcoming trip overseas.  There is plenty of work to do, but my goal is to completely take the weekend off before I fly out.  This gives me just shy of two weeks to continue my current work, prepare for my project abroad and tie up loose ends before I leave town for a month.

Week in review: 15-21 March

Typically on Saturday I decompress from the week, which gives me time to reflect on the days past.  However, today I carried on in the lab and spent another full day at school.  While my plan this week was to prioritise my work (which makes it seem as if there's some kind of choice involved), it turned out I was swamped with urgent work (which made it very clear where to spend my time).  This week obviously didn't turn out quite as I expected, but I am pleased with what I got done, how much I was able to get done and the fact that as I move into the final months of my PhD I am able to ramp up my intensity.  Ideally I would hope my extra effort now would mean an easier time around submission, however, my gut tells me I'll be swamped during my final weeks.  Only time will tell, but there are very few negatives to doing as much as possible in the present.

Another week done (kind of)

Today I continued working with one of our visiting students.  In particular, we were looking at coding our experiment to run on the instruments in the lab.  Additionally, I attended a really interesting seminar by a researcher who focuses on emulsions.  Later in the afternoon, our group had a meeting where the visiting PhD student also gave a neat talk.

So far this week, my days have been pretty full.  And with my growing stack of jobs, it's clear I need to head into the lab this weekend.

Still

Another epic week continues.  Today was again a long day, but progress is being made.  For the most part, my day was spent setting up experiments and troubleshooting my methods.  There was a good amount of head scratching, but in the end I am better for my efforts.

Another full day

Today was another particular long and busy day at school.  I am currently working with a visiting PhD student, supervising a visiting Master's student, trying to prepare for a month long trip overseas, and do my work (experiments, design projects, reading, writing, etc.).  Clearly I am not lacking for jobs.  I don't mind being busy as it forces me to stay on track and keep moving forward, but we'll have to see how long I can maintain this pace.  It's one thing to manage a wide portfolio (and not a bad thing when they are all contributing to your thesis), but I need to make sure my overall output doesn't suffer because my attention is being pulled in too many directions at once.

Guest

Today was very different from the norm in that a student, visiting from another university, started work in the lab.  The day was full of your typical orientation (tour, keys, desk, etc.), however very quickly we got down to business and started setting up an experiment and collecting data.  It was a particularly full day, but it was awesome to make such significant progress.  Now just to clear up any confusion, as on the weekend I said I would be prioritising my work, the data we hope to collect will be included in my thesis (in some form) as a demonstration of the new methods/hardware that are the core of my PhD.  Thus, although this seems like a major distraction, it will hopefully be a very productive couple of weeks.

Also today, I worked on a couple electronics projects, which works out well because yesterday, mid-experiment, one of the circuit components on a card (that I did not make) went out.  This leaves me scrambling to put a work system back together, but luckily I was already thinking of manufacturing my own board; the fault is just helping to motivate and expedite my work.

Blur

Today went very fast as I jumped from job to job.  In the morning I headed down to the machine shop to talk about our latest projects.  Next I spent some time with our school's electronics technician to discuss noise in some of my measurements.  Then I started an experiment which ran throughout the day.  After lunch I attended a networking workshop on another campus.  I actually was having a conversation with my supervisor just before the training, which went long so I had to hustle to make my session (but I did arrive on time).  When I returned to the lab I started a new design project for a revision to my series of printed circuit boards.  This work was cut short when I headed off to meet a new visitor in our lab for dinner.

Week in advance: 15-21 March

For the most part, this week's strategy is the same as last, thesis, experiments and reading; with ten hour days where possible.  However, there will be a couple differences.  First up, I have another workshop tomorrow afternoon.  The session is held on another campus, so not only will I lose an  hour during the class, but another hour or so for travel.  Also, I'll have a visitor from overseas in town the next couple weeks who is here (at least partially) to utilise some of the new hardware in our lab.  I'll help out our guest, but this work could be included in the thesis so it's a win-win.  Finally, as I mentioned yesterday, I am going to prioritise my jobs and keep a closer eye on the horizon so that I can put my time where it's needed most.  With July approaching, it's clear I won't be able to do everything I would like during my thesis; this is alright as my thesis is nicely shaping up, but there are things that can go on the chopping block and some that can not.  I need to make sure that I spend my time on the tasks necessary for a timely completion and keep myself from getting sidetracked.

Week in review: 8-14 March

Overall I think this past week went extremely well.  I made progress on a number of fronts and pushed myself without burning out.  In hind sight, I suppose my major criticism would be prioritisation.  This week I did get through a lot of reading, I added to my thesis and I ran some experiments, but I still took jobs as they came.  I think it will be important to be flexible when trying to finish my thesis, but I need to make sure that my time spent is spent on my thesis.  One thing that I've hear numerous times from workshops and colleagues, is that it's ok to say no.  I find this pretty difficult, because I enjoy working as part of and contributing to a team (and a team can be defined pretty broadly); and for the most part, the things folks ask for help with is really fun.  I suppose at times, it can be beneficial to take a break from your work and put your mind on completely different tasks, but you can find yourself walking a thin line.  To navigate this space I think it's important to know what jobs have priority.  And I think setting goals helps to set priorities.  A check list or to do list is one thing, these lists are usually filled was small manageable chunks.  Personally, I make my to do lists very specific action items which are different in my mind from goals.  As a practical example, a goal could be to finish a thesis chapter, draft a paper or run a suite of experiments.  These goals could take you all week and depending on other goals you may have to revisit them numerous times before completing them.  Perhaps these are just middle distance tasks.  However, regardless of what you call them, you should have a clear sense of which take priority so that when a job is finished or you need to take a break from a task, you know where your attention should be focused.  Then instead of looking for more work you continue making progress towards the deadlines already ahead of you.

Work?

I spent this morning helping out a colleague with some computer hardware/software issues and before I knew it, it was time for lunch.  The afternoon went just as quickly and was capped off with a 70 minute workshop on interview skills.  I did manage to get some work done; in the morning I set-up another experiment to run in the background during the day and today I received parts from the workshop for one of the assemblies I need to take overseas next month.  I was particularly excited to put together my latest piece of hardware and how well the latest design performs.  It's actually really neat to think back at how my ideas (hardware designs) have evolved over the past few years and a thrill to see these concepts come together as a real thing.

Mostly reading

I spent most of today reading, although I did set an experiment running in the morning.  Once started the test took all day and just before I left I analysed the data. Also, between my reading, I attended a CV workshop in the afternoon. Looking beyond August, and beyond submission, I don't know where I'll head, what job awaits or whether I'll stay in academia or move to industry; regardless it is worth the time now to sharpen my job hunting skills.

Today I ended up leaving at a "regular" time after staying a few hours later every other day this week.  Trying to squeeze in a couple extra work hours was part of my plan for the week and so far I am very happy with the results.  Although nearing the end of the week the schedule is getting a bid tiring.

50 50

Today I split my day (nearly) down the middle, first focusing on experiments in the lab and later reading (with note taking).  It was another long day, but I am pleased to see both progress with my work and my grasp of wider literature.

Different things

Today was a bit of a departure from my current work routine because I wasn't focused on reading or writing my thesis.  In the morning I made a few follow up comments for the draft I reviewed yesterday.  Then I went down to the mechanical workshop to check in with the staff regarding my latest hardware project (the good news is that the parts are looking really great, but unfortunately, there's still a lot to do). In the afternoon I focused on post processing measurements made with one of my instruments to account for drift.  This is a job I've been meaning to get to for a few weeks, so it's nice to have the task checked off my list.  Later this week I'll "stress test" my correction routine with a few more benchtop measurements.

There's certainly an art to juggling writing and lab work.  Both kinds of work require a considerable about of attention and they are not jobs that you can simply jump into, it takes time to get focused on the task at hand.  I am realising that it might be too much to ask to incorporate both kinds of work into a single day and perhaps the better approach is to alternate your focus day to day.

Mix and match

Today was a collection of various small jobs.  I started my day by reviewing a draft manuscript from a fellow student.  I sent my comments back before attending a PGSA (Postgraduate Students' Association) meeting (as a participant, nothing more).  After lunch I helped my wife organise her thesis documents and computer so that she can take advantage of compiling her thesis with Latex.  Next I finished a reflection assignment which was a requirement for an award I am working towards at school.  Finally I spent (a little) time reading my textbooks and even started a section in the conclusion chapter of my thesis.

Week in advance: 8-14 March

So... despite the negativity of last night's "week in review", it's time to move forward and look to the week ahead.  In doing so, I think the best thing to do is to keep going with what works: reading, writing and lab tasks.  These are jobs that must be done and spending anytime (during the day) worrying about my pace is wasted energy.  This week I'll keep up my habits that have suited me well in the recent past, however, just to give myself a slight boost, I plan to extend my days by at least two hours.  My plan is to front load the next month with work in the hopes of making the last month or so that much "easier".  In the end, only time will tell how things pan out, stay tuned (or as my kiwi colleagues say, "watch this space").

Week in review: 1-7 March

This week has gone well, but it has also gone fast.  Looking back I don't have any major criticisms, but I do have one major worry.  I mentioned earlier this week that work seems to progress like a small drip; with time, these small outputs can amount to something significant (like a polished thesis).  That's the plan at least.  And while I don't currently feel overwhelmed by my upcoming deadline, the deadline is approaching.*  During the entire tenure of my PhD studies pacing myself has been a significant challenge, or maybe it hasn't.  The problem is there are few if any signposts to measure your progress and the issue seems to compound itself in the last few months.  All this to say, I don't know how to approach next week or the week after, etc.  Do I continue with my schedule, pace and work plan?  Do I double my efforts, running the risk of burning out?  Can I afford to be side tracked for a week to write a paper, look for a job or take care of my personal to do list?  I suppose these are questions to answer tomorrow as I look ahead to the week, but for now they are the thoughts that weigh on my mind from the past 7 days.

*145 days and counting.

Writing and such

Today I continued to draft my thesis, a paragraph at a time.  While most of the week I've been reading and making notes in my draft, this morning I was actually turning my outline and comments into proper text.  In the afternoon I spent sometime working with my electronics and the analog filters I started with at the beginning of the week.  Unfortunately, I still have work to do as my filter circuits didn't help with my measurements.  Through the day I helped to organise a thesis printing and binding for another student who is out of the country.  It was neat to think that in a few months time I might be arranging for my own thesis to be printed.

Grinding on

Today I continued reading and working on my thesis.  I know, it's pretty boring to read about, but at least it means I am getting closing to finishing my dissertation.  I am going through the grind now to make sure it's not a crisis later.

New material

Early this morning I picked up a paper of interest from a colleague.  The work in the article was relevant to my efforts so I spent a good number of hours reading, thinking and discussing the contents.  In the afternoon I went back to reading my textbooks, but struggled to keep my mind on task.  It's scare how a small perturbation in your schedule can impact an entire day.  Luckily, at this point, I have time to be flexible and explore new ideas as they come up and I don't have to block out input form external sources.

More pages

I spent all of today reading, working problems and note taking on my thesis draft.  There's nothing else to report, because that was all I did.  I will comment that I am working my way through the relevant theory for my thesis and it is taking quite a bit of time.  I knew it would and I was ready to spend weeks working through some textbooks and papers.  I do feel confident that over the next month I can finish up this chapter of work (it's also a chapter of my thesis) and be ready for both visitors at the end of the month and my trip overseas next month.

The proverbial drop

Today was a very full day, with a number of jobs.  In the morning, I completed a travel grant application to be submitted for Faculty funding.  Afterwards, I moved on to lab tasks, specifically working on filtering analogue signals and thinking about a control program to prevent drift in measured data.  I didn't get to too much hands on work here, but I laid out what jobs I need to complete over the next week.  After lunch I moved back to my thesis preparation.  Even after less than a week focusing on my reading, I am feeling very positive about my progress and current state.

All in all it was a great day, but with a limited number of hours, of which I sub-divided to tackle a number of different tasks (as described above), I moved very quickly from one job to another.

On the way home this evening, I was talking to my wife and I explain that although I feel positive about the day, it seems like a small drop compared to the job laid out in front of me.  This made me picture the slow growth of stalagmites and stalactites (specifically speleothems) from the amalgamation of individual drops of solution and in my mind I saw the similarity between these beautiful features and an elegantly written thesis.  I suppose the main issue with this comparison is that stalagmites and stalactites form on a geologic time scale, where as a PhD at my university has to be completed in 4 years.

Week in advance: 1-7 March

This week I plan to build upon last week's success and continue to read and build my thesis, however, I am also planning to run experiments in the lab.  Now this seems like a big step backwards (or at least some kind of step backwards).  I just found my groove and here I want to change things up.  Here's the deal, while I still have plenty of work to do crafting my dissertation, I still need to finish up in the lab.  In a couple weeks there are visitors coming to use our equipment and there are still bugs that I should work out.  Also, next month I am headed overseas to work in another lab and I need to make sure I am not only set-up my experiments on the other side of the globe, but also troubleshoot all aspects as necessary.  For the most part, this shouldn't be an issue, but it would be silly for me not to fine tune my methods in a familiar setting.

So, this week I plan to balance my time between my thesis (the writing part) and working in the lab.  The challenge here is how much I enjoy the lab and how easy it is to get sucked into the hands on part of my job.  My hope is the momentum I've built over the past couple weeks will help draw me back to my desk so I can still move forward with my draft.

Week in review: 22-28 February

This week saw me move my desk space into an isolated, unoccupied optics lab.  I had decided to relocate so that I could focus, uninterrupted, on reading, thinking and writing.  And I am pleased to report, it's working.  I am extremely happy with the progress I've made in reviewing textbooks and straightening out my understanding of background concepts.  As an experimentalist, even one who develops new techniques, I've found it extremely easy to get tunnel vision on aspects of my work.  After three years I have significant results to show, it's meaningful and contributes to my fields of study, however, I struggle to narrate (at a technical level) the link between my research and first principles.  For me I want to be proud of my thesis not only because of the lab work, but also because it's a starting point for future students.  Now I don't expect my thesis (specifically the introductory chapters) to repeat, repackage or regurgitate all the information found in numerous textbooks, but I do want there to be a continuous string from basic concepts to why I did what I did.  Maybe this sounds like what all theses do (or at least should); I guess I am just declaring my intentions, which explains why I am spending most of my time with my nose in books.

I am pleased to have started writing my thesis (there's still over 150 days to go), I am motivated to be reviewing concepts and working through examples/exercises, and I am happy with my progress this week.

Just as a side note, and maybe to explain in another way how focused I am on my reading... The lab I occupy is also the new home to our lab's 3d printer.  Yup, we picked one up earlier this week and get this, I haven't printed any parts.  Now anyone who knows me has got to see what a sign this is that I am committed to my thesis preparation.

Another day in the cave

Again I spent most of today isolated in my side room reading and working on my thesis.  Primarily I was reviewing material in textbooks and working through problems, but as I went I made notes in my thesis draft and wrote small snippets.

I did shun my anti social behavior long enough for a group meeting around midday, but afterwards I was back at my desk.

More of the same

I spent this morning in our school's cleanroom facility, learning how to use a new type of analytical instrument.  Then in the afternoon I focused on reading and adding notes to my thesis draft.

Mental workout

Today I was able to spend my entire day alone in my hideaway, reading and writing.  A change of location has helped remove distractions and I am very pleased with my progress.  I need a few weeks worth of days like today, but now that I've found a winning strategy, it's up to me to supply the effort.

Moving day

The seemingly "big" news of the day is that I've uprooted by desk and moved away to a isolated room adjacent our lab.  After three years at my desk in the middle of the lab, I've sequestered myself in a side lab (our optics room) to focus on my reading and writing.  At my old desk I was right next to the door, printer and telephone which provided far too many distractions.  Now I understand a new location does do my work for me, but I am hopefully the isolation will allow my to work for periods uninterrupted.  At the very least, it forced me to organise my papers and books.

This morning I spent time with one of our visiting students, training him to run an instrument that he'll use for his project (which I am helping to supervise).  Also I picked up a parcel that contained the last of the raw material for my latest project at the workshop.  I past along the parts to the shop and had a chat about their progress.  Things are looking good and I am optimistic I'll have most if not all of my hardware when I leave Wellington.  In the afternoon, I attended a workshop related to an award programme I am completing in tandem with my degree.

False start

Even after resting over the weekend, I stayed home this morning to shake off my cold.  It would have been a short day as I volunteered Monday afternoons.  I did attend my volunteer shift as this was my last one; I've stepped back from my commitment as I am headed overseas for a long period and want to focus the next few months on my thesis.

Week in advance: 22-28 February

After a particularly tough week and some recovery this weekend, I am ready to bounce back at work.  Actually the blog has been quite helpful to voice my concerns and forced me to reconcile these issues.  Having identified (some of) my worries I can troubleshoot the problems and adjust accordingly.  And hopefully I'll be a better student/research as a result.

I've come to realise that it's not my work I lack confidence in, it's actually my background knowledge I worry is insufficient.  To date there have been no issues, but sitting at the confluence of 3 or more large fields, writing a thesis with clear and thoughtful introductory chapters is rather stressful.  Lately I've been trying to write bits of my thesis, thinking the problem was the daunting task of compiling three and a half years of research in a single written document.  However, I think that only brought my real worry to the forefront.  This week I plan to spend significant time reading and writing (even if only notes) as I go along.  I look forward to not only presenting my work (which I am proud of), but also a thoughtful review of the concepts that form the foundation of my work.  Knowing is one thing, but teaching is significantly harder.

Tomorrow I volunteer in the afternoon, but this will be my last shift for now.  As I plan to focus solely on my school work over the next 5 months.  Tuesday and Wednesday I have training to do with a visiting student, but again this is an opportunity to teach which will help sharpen my understanding of my work.

Week in review: 15-21 February

It's been quite a week and not for any "good" reasons.  I've had a particularly difficult time over the past few days to stay on top of my work, remain motivated and keep myself physically and mentally health.  Now as always I don't mention this for any amount of sympathy, but to let the odd student who may stumble across my posts that these feelings are quite normal for a PhD student (or at least I've convinced myself they are).

At first glance, a PhD is much like a job.  There's an office, desk and computer; there's a supervisor and colleagues; a tearoom (lunch room to those from North America).  But a key difference between a PhD and a typical work experience is that you (as the student) are motivating your work.  That seems slightly mad, like letting a 6 year old choose their diet and clothes (and we can all imagine how that would turn out).  In pursuit of a doctoral degree we soak up knowledge (mostly self taught), synthesis this information and carry out our own research.  After studying and working for 3 years straight you know you should be building towards a great finish, a culmination of your efforts, a masterpiece worthy of praise, but then you remember that you came up with all your "bright" ideas and suddenly you wonder if your contributions have any value.  This is the crisis that stuck me this week and let me say it's a force powerful enough to take the wind from your sails.  How exactly am I suppose to continue in the lab if I question the very foundation of my work?

Sadly I feel there is nothing on offer that can remove these feelings.  It's the burden of a student.  However, I've found that with proper supervisor, regardless if you know it or not, you have been gently kept on a safe path.  Also, while it's important not to become to proud or self absorbed with your past, a look back over the past couple years can be very enlightening... was your abstract accepted for a talk at a conference, did you have a paper accepted by a journal, do others seek you out for collaboration, and the list goes on.  Whatever you've accomplished over the tenure of your studies, these suggest your work is meaningful and not in vane.

Practically thoughts of doubt can not only shatter your confidence, but they disrupt your entire workflow.  "How can I concentrate on reading this article when my work is garbage?"  "Why am I having the workshop build another piece of hardware, when my plans are rubbish?"  And the list goes on.  Unfortunately, I have to admit that this week I was shattered by a lack of confidence.  In hind sight, what little progress I did make was due to planning beforehand.  As I've mentioned in numerous previous posts, make lists.  Prioritise your work.  Know what you're doing so that when everything falls apart you just have to follow your own instructions.

Unfortunately progress was minimal this week, but I've learned a lot about myself and the struggles of a PhD.  In a way I am happy to have these problems now and learn from them so that when it really comes to crunch time (as my deadline approaches), I'll be that much more prepared.

Things are brewing

Today there were a number of exciting conversations, particularly about upcoming projects.  First off, our lab just welcomed two visiting students from the Netherlands who are here for a 3 month internship.  One of the students will be working with me on an aspect of my PhD research.  This morning my supervisor sat down with the student to run through the project goals and motivations.  We've outlined a really cool experience and it seems like the student is looking forward to the work.

Later in the day, just after lunch, my supervisor and I had a Skype session with a professor in Christchurch (University of Canterbury).  One of his students (actually from his old position at Cambridge) will visit our lab next month to run experiments.  We had a discussion about what equipment they'd like to use and what we need to do to prepare.  In the end, we decided that I would send a couple prints for the machine shop at UC.  This is neat for two reasons; first typically my prints stay in house where I can talk through the design with our workshop, so this will be an new experience.  Second, these folks are looking to visit our lab because of the hardware we have available (which was created as part of my thesis).  It's awesome that others see the value in our work and want to collaborate.  At the end of the day I modeled the new parts and worked up prints that I sent on.

Also today I kept up with my reading and even found a couple new books in the library.  I've started in on one of these new resources and it looks like a great read.

Sick day

Today I wasn't feeling well and didn't make it out of the house.  With some rest at home today, I hope to get back to work tomorrow.

Pastoral care

So today's post title comes directly from my supervisor.  No he's not becoming a contributor to the blog, but this was his description of a talk we had this afternoon.  I am 6 months away from submitting my thesis and I have moments where I seriously question the value of my work.  I won't call this interaction with my supervisor a "pep talk," because that's not what I was looking for, it was more of a "logic and reality talk".  It's his opinion that all (most?) students have similar feelings and that these feelings arise in particular when the thesis is in an early stage.  Following one of my prime reasons for writing this blog (i.e. helping other students), I want to make very clear that it's normal (and typical) to question your work.  Now I suppose there's always a chance that these feelings are warranted and in these cases it's important to take inventory of research, in particular why you did what you have done and what do you take from your work.  With proper supervision, I would be very surprised if 6 months before submitting your thesis, you realise there was no rational reason for your work or that after a few years you have absolutely no results to discuss (remember even a null result is a result!).  Speaking with my supervisor didn't make my apprehension go away entirely, but it was extremely help to talk about my concerns.

Before having the aforementioned crisis of confidence, I was able to write uninterrupted for two hours and drafted a couple sections for my thesis.  For the rest of the day I worked in the lab setting up for future experiments and took a couple trips to the mechanical workshop to troubleshoot some issues with the hardware that will go overseas with me in April.

Bits

Today I worked on small jobs, including updating my thesis references (this was my writing task for the day), searching literature, reading, and trying to get a parcel through customs.  While all these tasks needed to be done, my schedule was a little erratic.  I didn't block off specific hours for either writing or reading and as a result I drifted between jobs.

A place to start

During my morning at work I focused on outlining my thesis.  Not only does this exercise help my thesis take form, but gets me thinking about all the background literature I need to pull together and all the experiments I have run or need to run.

Week in advance: 15-21 February

... and a few words from last week's conference.

Before jumping into my plans for this week, I had just a couple thoughts from my conference last week in sunny Nelson (although I spent most of the week in conference rooms).  First off I gave a talk and while I have a number of personal rules for how to prepare a conference presentation I have decided not to go into detail.  The strategy I use to layout slides and time my speaking may not work for others and rather than claim to have perfected the art of conference speaking, I'll leave it to the reader to form an approach that works for them.  However, I will say that practicing your talk is an absolute must.  There is no leeway here, it is essential that you rehearse your presentation well in advance.  And remember this takes time... a 15 minute time slot (about a 12 minute talk leaving room for questions) will take over an hour just for 4-5 dry runs.  Be prepared to commit serious blocks of time to practicing.  Personally I memorise my entire presentation.  I am of the mind that a presenter needs to know what their next slide says, before they click to it; it's easy to waste a minute plus if you have to "review" the contents of each slide as it goes up, not to mention how disjointed your talk becomes.  Practice.  It's not an option.

Another quick thought from the conference, and this is really just to throw it out there, I typically walk away from a day's worth of talks with my head spinning.  While I enjoy hearing about other research, most talks go over my head.  As a PhD student you are an extremely early career researcher and you focus much of your energy into one or two topics.  With that background, you can expect to keep up with every talk at a conference (at least I don't think so).  Try to take as much from the sessions as possible, but don't feel as if you are the only one not following the speaker's talk.

Now moving on to this week...

I plan to keep up my two hour a day writing strategy, this seems to have worked in weeks past.  Additionally, this week I plan to sequester myself in the library (or similar isolated zone) to spent some serious time reading.  Ideally the reading, processing and writing will become a closed loop where one leads into the next.  Finally each day I'll spend time in the lab working on experiments, coding and design (ultimately just keeping projects moving forward); the key here will be prioritising my work so that this time does eat into my reading/writing sessions.

Week in advance: 8-14 February

This week I am in Nelson to attend the AMN-7 conference.  I will be giving a talk at the end of the week and in the meantime there are a number of folks I wish to catch-up with and numerous talks to take in.  Being on the road and away from school (and my "regular" routine) I do not plan to make regular posts.  I will return at the end of the week with comments from my experience.

Week in review: 1-7 February

With a public holiday and half day on Monday, this past week went by rather quickly.  I was able to submit my prints to the machine shop and sort out materials/follow questions.  The rest of my time was dedicated to analysing data, writing software for said analysis and placing the results in slides for a conference next week.

I was able to start a dedicated writing time and I followed through each morning.  It only took two days before my supervisor was apologising for interrupting me during this time.  My other hope this week was to review a paper a day in preparation of adding references to my thesis, however, I didn't follow through with this plan.

Even though I have a few jobs queued up in the lab, I spent most (all) of my time this week at the computer somewhere between a Python script, my thesis, a grant proposal and a slide presentation.  I would assume this will become more of the trend as I move full swing into my thesis preparation.  However, there still are experiments to run in the lab and I'll need to carefully plan my time and prioritise to make sure I am working on the most crucial job.

Pass

Today was a public holiday and with the university closed, I decided to take the day off.  No work, papers or writing, just some time away.

Stuff

Today  continued on with my programming library for data analysis.  It's a fantastic exercise as I've never before built such a complex module.  For processing experiments I've typically written self contained scripts that evolve with my methods.  In this case I'll have a single collection of code snippets to keep up to date (or add to) which will work over the next 6 months much more efficient.  At the end of the day, I spent a little bit of time with my thesis, adding to the outline/structure just to get my head in the right place and to start thinking about what work goes where.  It's a get exercise to take inventory of what has happened to date and what still needs to be done over the next few months.

Much less drama

Today was significant less dramatic than yesterday.  In particular it was mainly just working at my desk, continuing to put together my presentation for next week's conference.  My slides are close to being finished and I quickly ran my supervisor through the structure.  Now I just need to analyse some data sets I would like to include.  

In looking at my various scripts and programmes for processing data and visualising results, I realised it was time to create a single master library.  I know other students that I've worked with have made similar efforts, but as I have new types of experiments, nothing preexisting fits my needs.  Also, I like to know exactly how (nuts and bolts) I am treating my data so I don't mind investing time into developing my own set of functions (although most already exist individually in my array of different programmes).

A challenge

Today was a tough day, maybe even the most stressful in recent days.  The positive is that by the end of the day, I was back at the point where I started the day.  No progress and I lost 8 hours, but at least I didn't go backwards.  In short, my take away message is when things start to go to pot, keep a calm head and keep moving forwards.  One of my personal favorite sayings at home is "there's no problem that can't be solve."  Given my penchant for puzzles and troubleshooting, I guess this shouldn't come as a surprise, but it's a key strategy when studying.  When things go wrong or when others say something can't be done, do not give up (don't blindly try to keep moving forward either); take a moment and then dive into the issue head-first.

Not bad

Today was my first day trying out my new strategy of uninterrupted writing.  And for the most part it will very well.  I made sure to close all of my email tabs in my browser and I wore headphones to help "excuse" myself from the lab atmosphere.  For the most my biggest challenge will be training my colleagues to leave me alone.  Also, I need to figure out how to move the telephone away from my desk so I am not the default answering service.  Today I worked on slides for next conference and, working from existing material, I was able to knock out a good portion of the talk.  I have a couple figure/plots to make tomorrow, but otherwise I'll be done.  Outside of my writing time, I delivered my stack of prints to the machine shop, so this work is now underway.  At least the material will be ordered and the work will be added to the queue, but at least this has moved off of my desk in a timely fashion.  After lunch I had a final look with my supervisor at the final draft of a grant application before I headed off to volunteer.  Not too shabby for essentially a half day at school.

Week in advance: 1-7 February

Following up from my comments yesterday, my plan for this week is to work from a to do list AND set time aside each day for necessary work.  With regards to the former, I need to prepare a presentation for a conference I am speaking at next week.  Additionally, I have some work I'd like to do in the lab with one of my instruments (circuit work and programming work).  In addition to these jobs, I plan to set aside a minimum of 2 hours each day to write.  Now seeing as this is my first week and there are plenty of "writing" options (presentation slides, manuscripts, thesis) I won't prescribe the time to any specific project, but I will set a block of my day specifically to write uninterrupted.  Also, I would like to start a habit of reviewing journal articles.  I have a stack of literature from the past three years and no I need to get all these references into my thesis.  To do so, I'll be setting one hour aside each day just for reading and note taking.  Now there's a good chance I'll come across bodies of work that need more than an hour of my attention and in these cases, I'll flag the article and add a further sit down to my to do list.

Pioneering these new habits this week will be a bit tricky as Monday is a half day and Friday is a public holiday.  Regardless, I've laid out my goals and I'll do my best to see them through.  Progress reports to come (as always).

Week in review: 25-31 January

I can't complain with my progress this week.  I did everything I laid out at the start of the week and have momentum to carry me over into a new month.  However, taking this chance to be a bit critical, I need to point out that my work has become extremely fragmented and incremental.  While I think it's important to take small bites one at a time out a big project like a PhD thesis, falling into a checklist habit isn't health.  I say this because working one job at a time hides the bigger picture.  Sure I can be happy to finish a couple items on my to do list, but if I am not pacing myself according to the full project I am going to run into trouble.  Also individual jobs come and go and it's difficult to use them to set mid term goals.  For example, writing an entire thesis or even a journal article is a big job, but I can make progress towards completion by saying I'll write for two hours each day.  While I never check off a "complete" task, I am moving towards a milestone.  This week I just wanted to finish a few jobs stuck on my desk and in doing so I focused mainly on these items and made no contribution to my mountain of writing assignments.  I can't expect to finish everything and THEN write; as if writing is just another entry on a punch list.

Also this week how I finished my work was unstructured.  In the mind set of knocking out a couple jobs, I wasn't forced to plan out my week or days.  Time is precious and before I start working late or going into the lab on the weekend, I need to make sure I properly use my regular workday.

Moving on

Today I was able to finish all my drawings that I've been working on the past couple weeks.  It's wonderful to have this job done and now it's time to move on to other tasks.  After finishing the prints around midday I spent some time with our lab technician because it was his last day and some of his responsibilities (specifically keeping our group's web content update) have fallen to me.  At the tail end of the day I spent time setting up my thesis files and directories as my first step towards starting finishing my dissertation.

Flurry of activity

Today was full of lots of small jobs.  And unfortunately I took them as they came and did my best to keep my head above water.  I did get a lot of work done, but the method is not sustainable (especially after the talk yesterday about time management).

Over the course of the day I ran another long time drift experiment.  In addition, I shipped out some glass tubing to a shop in town that will cut and grind these to length and continued cleaning up my stack of blue prints.  In the afternoon I spent a couple hours on a grant proposal both alone and in discussion with my supervisor.

More of the same

Today I continued with my work from yesterday.  Specifically I looked at the data collected during my recent long time drift experiment where I was looking at the stability of an instrument.  The results are very interesting and have spurred me on to other meaningful and necessary tasks.  At the end of the day I attended another postgraduate seminar, this one was on time and task management.  The talk was well put together, thought provoking and I even came away with a couple practical tip I'll look into on the weekend.

Various things

Today I started experiments to look at the long time stability of certain measurements.  It's easy to set-up the instrument and start collecting data, but then it's a long acquisition.  In the mean time I looked in detail at my results from last week.  Figuring what information is present and what I need to follow up on.  I spent a short amount of time in SolidWorks updating parts and prints.  Also I made contact with a shop outside of the school that I'll use for some glass work.  At the end of the day I attended another postgraduate seminar in our school (last week's "How to Find a Post-Doc Position" was in the same series).  This talk was given by my supervisor and discussed the typesetting tool LaTeX which I have been using for the past three years, but I still wanted to attend to pick-up on some of the less technical aspects (history, pros, cons, etc.).

Good start

Today was a great start to the week.  I started the morning by discussing my data from last week with my supervisor.  I was able to bring him up to speed and share my plans for future work.  Being on the same page we had a nice discussion and we're on the same page for moving forward.  Afterwards I took down my experiment from last week, cleaned the cell and loaded a new sample as part of preparations for tomorrow.  This was all I finished in the morning and in the afternoon I was off campus to volunteer.

Week in advace: 25-31 January

This week I need to look at the data from my recent experiments.  From a quick look last Saturday I have some a couple things I'd like to look into with my techniques.  I was trying a new type of measurement and there might be some improvements I can make to the process.  From my perspective my thesis is all about developing new methods and ironing out any wrinkles is certainly part of the process. Also this week I will finish my prints and finish sourcing material for my latest parts.

Week in review: 18-24 January

After a late night in the lab yesterday, I went back in this afternoon to run another experiment.  In the end I was able to run a successful experiment.  This was one of my goals for the week and I am pleased to tick this off the list.  The second job this week was to finish a suite of blueprints.  I still need to go back through the prints to clean up tolerances but most of the parts are now laid out.  I probably need another day to a day and a half to finish this job, but for the most part this is all desk work.  The design has been refined with a number of sets of eyes on it, including our machine shop, so I am happy to move forward once we have the material.

When things are working

When things are working... don't leave the lab!

That's the advice I've heard a number of times over the past couple years and today I am taking the message to heart.  So far it's been a big day and I say "so far" because it's not over yet.

This morning I made some awesome progress revising some parts and I think I've sorted a big issue that's been looming for the past few days.  I haven't finished my prints, but I was able to get a jump start on a handful.  Not exactly what I wanted, but there's no point in having a blueprint if the part would not work!

In the afternoon I moved on to testing my latest sample.  It takes some time to run a suite of experiments as there are a number of temperature steps followed by equilibration.  I am on to my second go, as there were a few bugs the first time around.  What data I did get from the preliminary series looks pretty good.  There's definitely something of interest going on and hopefully today or next week I'll capture a reasonable data set.

Another day

Today I worked on some hardware designs.  Primarily I wanted to focus on blueprints, but I spent a good portion of the day revamping details of individual parts.  The issue here is that I am in New Zealand designing and planning to build hardware that will fit an instrument located on the other side of the planet (in Montana).  Additionally, the original manufacturer of the equipment (in Germany) is helping answer technical questions as needed.  It's a really cool experience to be part of a truly international collaboration, but it's sort of like the team building exercise where you tell your blindfolded friend how to build a Lego set.  All communication needs to be clear and succinct and every conversation takes a day and half to go back and forth.

For a break, this afternoon I attended a workshop, put on by a former student of our school, about finding a postdoc position.  The session was great, but it seems like there's no one size fits all solution to finding work after your PhD.  In fact, based on the number of variables, it really seems like the strategy will vary greatly between you and even your closest colleagues.  After much thought and discussion with friends, I wonder how similar finding a postdoc (or any job) after your programme is to finding a place to live.  My thought here is that shelter is a necessity and that given the pressure to find housing (or employment) you'll make do out of the options available.  Much of the feedback I've heard from former students is to start searching early.  Fair enough, but how do I know/commit/find something now that won't happen for another 6-12 months?  Would you commit to a rental house 12 months in advance?  Maybe if it's your dream, but otherwise I'd keep my options open.  Perhaps my feeling is that all this "how to find a postdoc" advice should actually be labelled "how to find the perfect postdoc".  I am still pondering these thoughts and plan to perform my own experiment over the next year, so please feel free to chime in with any comments.

Finally, this evening I was talking with my wife (a fellow PhD student) about the ups and downs of doctoral life.  Both of us are looking to submit our thesis in about 6 months and both of us are concerned with our productivity as of late.  Now each day I go to work and each day I do a days worth of work, but this doesn't seem like enough.  With 6 months left to go in my studies, I should be crunching data and writing 24 hours a day!  My thought here (and I've mentioned this before) is that I am still recovering from the mandatory two weeks off last month.  And no, I am not on vacation mode, but it has taken this long for external pressure to build back up and motivate results.  Now that seems horrible, as if the only way I get any work done is when I am told to do something, but it's something deeper than that.  It's tough to explain, but it seems as though we oscillate between periods of heavy and then low... hummm productivity isn't the right word, because it's not about the output rather the input.  We seem to build up to a frenzy and work really hard, and then crash.  Like some sort of academic sugar crash.  I notice that the fine tuning needed here is how far we let our self go, a psychological equivalent to a deadband.  I think the oscillatory behaviour is natural, but it might be possible to tune the system so that the difference between the highs and lows isn't so extreme, moderation is key.  Before the break I was all go because I knew I wanted certain work finished before the holidays, this effectively pushed me into a period of high performance which subsequently lead to my current slump.  Coming back to the acquisition of vacation mode, the vacation actually played very little into the scenario, other that the fact it prompted the big push in the lab.

House of cards

Despite my enthusiasm yesterday, today's experiments didn't go to plan.  As a proof of concept for a new instrument I am trying to reproduce data that already exists in literature.  To that end I've made a sample to match previous work, however, when working with the material it doesn't behave exactly as expected.  While the purpose of the experiments is to show a method where multiple streams of data can be collected simultaneously I still need the sample to respond according to values reported in other work.

After playing with the experimental set-up in the lab, I am thinking the issue may be in the sample, specifically the sample preparation.  Moving forward I prepared a new batch this afternoon, but will need a couple days to mix the components.  I am optimistic about trying a new sample because even if things still are amiss, I'll be more confident in one portion of the experiment.  Also, since I can't make measurements tomorrow, I'll have all day to focus on cleaning up my part drawings which are my other big task for the week.