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.
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