March NYR review

I’m overdue for a New Year’s Resolution update post. I’m sure these are boring, but they really do provide some accountability for me, so here goes.

• I’m doing fine on the money and cooking resolutions.
• Lab work is slowly but steadily progressing. I met a small milestone for Chapter 2 work this week. Chapter 3 work is not going as fast, but not entirely stalled.
• The paper is not going well. Well, it’s not going badly but this is April already and it’s still not done. I have no one to blame but myself. No excuses. I just haven’t done it. Progress has been creeping along, but I need to get my A into G and do it. Actually, that’s not really fair. I did do a fair bit of work on it in March. However, I can feel myself fake working during my writing time and that’s bad. Also, I put everything else first and that’s also bad.
• I still have the same old problem of being really effective in the lab and not so much at my desk. One of the resolutions I have let slide was to make tomorrow’s to-do list at the end of each day. I think I should try that again. Also, I think the goals should be more specific. Currently, I’ll say I’m going to “write” for 2 hours or whatever, but I think I need to say “I’ll work on paragraph X” or “I’ll find the appropriate references for these 3 arguments”. There’s currently some good advice about goal making and list writing at the Aphasic Grads Writing Group.

Sorry I complain about the same crap over and over, but it’s what I struggle with.

NYR February Review

Another month has breezed by; it's time to check in on my New Years' Resolutions.

Project Efficiency has gone downhill. I haven't been writing daily goals, which is the centerpiece of the program. I have also been checking my bloggy email and maybe sometimes peeking at bloglines during work. On the other hand, there hasn't been a lot of fake working. I think I can be proud of that. I'm optimistic about March after reading Silvia's book and getting Slimtimer. So my goals for March are to get in the habit of actually using Slimtimer regularly while establishing a writing routine.

Money went pretty well in February. In addition to the normal big-for-my-income sum that gets automatically transferred to my ING savings each month, I had a little bit leftover on the 29th to add to the kitty. Having two international trips planned really motivates me to save. In other news, Psycgirl and I are thinking about starting a multi-author blog (similar to the Active Academic ) to discuss all manner of money issues that academics have. Anyone interested in that?

We cooked most of our dinners, but there was more pizza than there should have been. Oh well, it was yummy.

Work has been medium. I made some more progress on Chapter 1 paper and discussed what I have so far with both advisers. There's still a lot to do though. There was a little progress for Chapter 2 as well, as I had to complete the final laboratory analyses on one chunk of samples and partially work up the data for a conference abstract. My goal for March is to finish a complete, decent draft of the Chapter 1 paper.

Overall, February was medium. I'm hopeful that the longer days of spring will revitalize me. But, who am I kidding? It won't be spring around here for another two months. I guess I may as well be working!

NYR Update

I should have written this post yesterday, but whatever. Here's my progress on my New Years' Resolutions, to keep me honest. My theme is "Gettin' It Done" but I had a bunch of specific goals too.

Project Efficiency:

There have been only a few instances of fake working. The fact that I can remember them suggests that I have cut down on this behavior.

I have been pretty good about setting goals for each day. Even if I don't write them down, I've still been better at breaking down tasks so I can figure out something useful to do right now, which helps with the procrastination.

I've had mixed success with avoiding procrastination. Some things have gotten done faster than usual, but other things still get put off. For example, yesterday I did nothing on my snow day and felt all guilty about it. If I had stopped procrastinating and just decided to either work or take the day off, I could have gotten something done or had fun. As it was I did neither. On the other hand, I've been good about knowing when I can't focus/sit in my chair anymore and then finding some small lab task to do so I get something done when I know I would otherwise goof off.

I have dramatically reduced blogging and other personal internet use at work. I did slack on this the last few days, but I resolve to get back on track now.

Money: Doing really well on this one!

I opened an IRA

Put a little leftover 2007 money in my ING savings, along with extra January money. More importantly, I set my automatic tranfer to the amount that I had been paying on my credit card last year. We haven't been going out too much, so hopefully this extra money thing will continue.

Health:

I have been cooking more than three times each week and one meal usually has chicken.

Work:

The Project Effeciency stuff

I have made lots of progress on Paper 1, but fear it's going to start dragging since I've done most of the easy parts. I hope that regular meetings with at least one advisor and confessing my progress here will keeep me on track.

I made little bits of progress on Chapter 2 labwork during breaks from working on Paper 1.

That's it for this month. I still have much work to do on my main issue of keeping work at work and home at home. That probably warrants its own post soon.

*The Blogger spellchecking seems to have crapped out on me. Anyone else have this problem? Sometimes I write posts in Word and paste them in blogger, but not always, so I like the spell check.

RBOC: blah

• I was planning to write a post with real content tonight, but my THREE HOUR commute this afternoon kind of sucked the will out of me. And some of you wondered why I hate snow.
• We're supposed to be getting the biggest storm of the season right now. If it's still snowing in the morning, I'm staying home. I already called my carpool buddy to warn him. On one hand, this is a bummer because I prepared some lab work that I'd really like to do. On the other, a snow day snuggled in my pj's, working on my paper sounds pretty good.
• My traffic-induced grouch was partially mitigated by the return of Lost. Ecogeoman and I get super into it, as do a few of my coworkers. We will surely discuss it tomorrow (if I go in). I think the show is off to a pretty good start The writers need to come back now so the season gets completed.
• I ended the month with a little money left over, which I transferred to my savings account today. Good news for that resolution.

Bonus

So far, Project Efficiency, my catch-all New Year's Resolution all about not procrastinating and getting more done, is going pretty well. For example, I paid for my car license plate renewal the day the notice came, which is the sort of thing I'd usually put off and then scramble to do before the deadline, accompianed by much anxiety. More notably, I haven't been blogging at work at all. Although twice I quickly checked my blog related email to look up specific information. And, I admit that when I worked last Saturday, I did read some blogs over lunch, but I figure it's okay if I'm there on a weekend.

Anyway, an unexpected side effect of less procrastination is a tidier home. We're not super messy, but we're not neat freaks either. Since I'm no longer putting off things like sorting the mail or doing the dishes, we are maintaining a cleaner environment. How nice.

Let's talk about procrastination

I'm positive that there are lots of books out there all about procrastination, why we engage in it, and how to beat it. I haven't read them. I bet that many people in this corner of the blogosphere have read some of these books, or thought extensively on the subject, or definitively blogged about it. Since this is a record of my personal journey, I will now blog about my own recent thoughts on procrastination. But I'd love links to your insightful posts or recommendations for helpful but not boring books.

Procrastination doesn't get you ahead. It puts you in the hole. It causes oppressive anxiety. And it creates more work for you to put off.

Think about when you get an email with an attached form you have to fill out. It’s probably tedious and has a distant deadline, so you ignore it for later. But then the deadline approaches and then passes and you get several reminder emails to return the completed form. So you do it, but now you’ve had to think about the stupid thing all those extra times, search for the buried email, and feel guilty. In a sense, you’ve had to do the work more than once. Or think about when you blow something off and then have to do it again because it’s ruined, or it takes extra paperwork to get an extension, or there’s a late fee. Why do we do this to ourselves? Usually, the thing I do instead is not worth the heartache of dealing with the consequences of procrastination. So much guilt and anxiety for what? A Seinfeld rerun? The headlines on MSN?

This recent realization of how much I suffer at the devious hand of procrastination is why one of my NYRs was to reduce it and is what I will try to keep in my thoughts so as to avoid it. It feels so good to get things done when they need to be done and then not think about them again. And to know that no one can bitch at you for not doing your bit.

I recently read in a magazine something like “you never say ‘gee, I wish I hadn’t done that’ after you exercise.” I think the same is true for doing things on your list. You never regret being productive. Productive, here, means not only getting work done, but doing the fun activities that we want to do. I noticed that an awful lot of bloggers wrote how they don’t want to waste time mindlessly surfing the Internet or watching tv this year. Me too.

New Year's Resolutions

I love New Year’s resolutions. Last year I made three, one that I kept (paid off my debt), one that I kept for part of the year (Pilates video workout every day), and one that failed miserably (submit a manuscript). I think NYRs can even affect my mood. I blogged about feeling the blahs in December, which I attributed to winter blues. However, I think it might actually have been end-of-the-year blues. In December, I always reflect on all the things I didn’t accomplish and all the goals I left unmet. January brings a fresh start.

Like many others, I will announce a theme for 2008: Gettin’ It Done (I wonder if Profgrrrl knows how influential she is?). 2008 needs to be about finishing some work so I can a. not go crazy from frustration and b. graduate someday. I like the theme idea, but I think the best resolutions involve very specific goals which can be assessed and, more importantly, are manageable size. It's fine to say you're going to lose weight, but it's also important to say how you will go about losing the weight. So, here are mine:

• Project Efficiency. The idea here is that I will be really focused and work really hard when I’m at work and then not feel guilty for not working when I get home. Any extra work beyond five 8-hour days will be bonus. It has several parts:
  1. No doing work that isn’t really work. Like searching for a semi-necessary image for a presentation 3 hours. I know when I’m giving myself excuses.
  2. At the end of each day, setting goals for the next day. These should be reasonable, not lofty, because I don’t want to feel like crap every day when I don’t finish my to-do list. I want to feel good because my daily accomplishments are transparent.
  3. Reduced procrastination. I've finally realized what grief procratination causes me and I resolve to keep that in mind whenver I want to put something off.
  4. And the hardest part: NO BLOGGING AT WORK. No checking bloglines, or my counter, or my blog email, none of it.


• Money
  1. Build my savings to 3 months’ expenses. This will be very challenging because of the two overseas trips we have planned. If I can at least not be in debt due to those, I guess I’ll be satisfied
  2. Start an IRA. I have no goals for the amount, I just want to have something started for retirement. There’s still lots of time for it to build, so anything I save now is great.
  
• Heath
  1. Cook full meals for dinner at least three times per week. This will contribute to the savings goals (synergy!). Ecogeoman will be onboard with this one too, since he wants to get very serious about Weight Watchers this year. He has be doing it for a few months, but not really taking it all to heart. He wants to lose weight for the tux he’ll have to wear in July’s wedding. See, it’s not only women who have this kind of goal!
  2. Start eating chicken again. I’ve been mostly vegetarian since 2002 but I’m finding it increasingly annoying. We often have dinner at friends’ houses and it’s really hard to ask people to make something special for me or to bring my own food, which feels rude. Beef and pork are completely unappealing, but chicken is alright and I think it will help me with part 1. I stopped eating meat in the first place because I felt it was ecologically unsustainable and that the meat production system was filthy. I’m (mostly) okay with free range, organic meat and it is becoming more widely available. I think chicken on the order of once per week would be good. Ecogeoman would certainly appreciate it.
  3. I’d love to make an exercise resolution, but I know I won’t keep it because it doesn’t feel like a hard and fast priority right now. I don’t want to make goals that I don’t think I can keep because I don’t want to set myself up to fail.
  
• Work
  1. Project Efficiency
  2. Submit 2 papers for publication
  i. The one I resolved to submit last year but didn’t
  ii. Another one
  3. Finish lab work for Chapter 2
  4. Finish lab work for Chapter 3
  5. Have lab work for Chapter 4 solidly started, or have decided to ditch Chapter 4. I’d like to resolve to finish lab work for Chapter 4 too, but I’m not sure it’s possible.

I will report my progress here every month for the rest of the year. I’m serious about these resolutions!