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.