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.