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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 advance: 18-24 January

This week my goals are the same as last.  Namely continue experiments in the lab and push out prints to the machine shop.  All this needs to be done in four days as tomorrow (Monday) is a holiday in Wellington (besides I'll be volunteering in the afternoon anyway).

My design work is wrapping up and the major work remaining is to take the solids design and make individual blueprints for each part.  The workshop has already given me feedback over the past week and they know the work is coming.  Once the job is in their hands it will be a race to get the material and finish production before I head overseas at the beginning of April.

Last Thursday I made up a new sample which needed to be mixed over the weekend.  The plan is to run experiments in the magnet next week and depending on how things turn out, that could be the last data set for a significant chapter of my thesis.  This would also let me finish up a paper I've been sitting on where part of the hold up was finalising the data collection.

There are plenty of other jobs I could add to the list or look at this week, but I want to completely clear these two tasks off my desk.  I'll re-evaluate my priorities afterwards, but the important thing this week is to wrap-up these two items.

Week in advance: 11-17 January

This week I am moving onto the big fish... that is I am ready to jump back into the heavy parts of my thesis.  First this week I'd like to knock out the design for the parts/devices I am planning to take overseas in a couple months.  Getting the prints of these parts to the machine shop is crucial in order to having the assembled gear for my trip.  Second I would like to prepare a new sample to retry a failed experiment from before the break.  With this a good sample and successful measurements I'll have a great piece of data for publication and for my talk at a conference next month.  I have a number of other smaller jobs that I'll pepper in as reasonable, but my focus will be shifting to larger blocks of work.

Week in advance: 4-10 January

Welcome back and here we go...  another year begins and the journey to thesis submission continues.  Over the past two weeks I've had an extremely restful holiday and despite the good intentions I did no work.  Now I struggle with this mentally, but what's done is done.  I think there's some good in taking time away from my research so that now I can head back to school recharged and be ready to move forward.

Starting back on Monday morning is usually a challenge as there's a backlog of tasks and to dos.  I worry tomorrow will be an abnormally difficult day, as the university been closed for so long.  Additionally, out lab will have 7 high school students visiting Monday and Tuesday to experience a research environment.  Everyone in the lab (students and supervisor) are planning to give our near full attention to these young scientists and while I look forward to sharing my love for the laboratory this will only compound an already busy schedule.

With the first two days of the week dedicated to our guests, I hope that by Wednesday I sort out my to do list.  I have plenty of manuscripts to draft/review, a talk to prepare for a conference next month, hardware to design and experiments to run.  I am looking forward to all of these jobs, but I can't help but think about my time left.  Organisation will be key over the next seven months and I look forward to sorting this out and jumping onto the priority jobs this week.