So far, this has been a pretty good weekend. On both Friday and Saturday, we slept in a little and had slow, relaxing starts to the the day. Then we went to EGM's office to work in the afternoons. Although we didn't work for more than 5-6 hours each day, I was really focused and actually got some stuff done. I always have this fantasy of a Good Weekend where I do both work and fun things. I imagine working really hard in the morning or afternoon, and then doing something fun in the evening and I feel great because I made the most of my day. But that almost never happens. Either I while away the day doing stupid shit while thinking I should do some work or chores or something, or I waste my time with fake work, or I get started too late so that I get in some good hours but finish at like, 9 pm and then just go home. This weekend, however, I actually made a Good Weekend happen.
On Friday I finished the first draft of the chapter I've been working on and sent it to my advisors and to Awesome Technician for review (probably only AT might read it before August). All I had left were to wrap up the discussion, abstract, and conclusions sections , which I thought would take no more than a couple of hours (they were all mostly written but not quite complete). Of course it took more like five. Still, I worked really hard and got it to a point where I felt comfortable asking for comments. What I want at this point (and what I asked for) is general comments about the organization, structure, and logic. Does it make sense? Did I miss anything big? I want feedback at that level before I spend a bunch of time polishing things that might just get deleted. But that seems to be really hard for people to do. Any advice for getting broad scale constructive criticism on early drafts?
On Saturday I started the data analysis for the next chapter! Progress! It feels great to move forward, but also scary because I intend to do some statistical analyses that are totally new to me. I need to be really careful to not stall due to fear, and to keep working even if I feel uncomfortable and not confident. My timeline and work plan don't have any room for any procrastination!
I said I did fun things too. Friday we watched some fireworks with a big group of friends and Saturday we went to a dinner party (with games!). Today I am taking the day mostly off to do some housework and to prepare for a trip -- I'm going to a short conference next week. If I finish my To Do list (which includes buying a book about said statistical techniques), then I'll go back to the data analysis. But if I don't get to it, I'm not going to feel guilty.
3 comments:
Great work! Congrats on finishing the chapter and having a good weekend.
Wow! Sounds like a great weekend!
(And I love the phrase "fake work.")
My only advice for getting the comments you want on early drafts is to insert comments into the text, either as comments or as bold blue text (or something). In these comments write things like "I wasn't sure if this section should go before the next section, what do you think?" Or things like, should I talk about Femme et al. work here or save it for the discussion. I feel like if you say I want you to comment on the organization only in the e-mail they will forget by the time they open the document.
Good luck, and I'm happy to hear you had a great week-end.
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