It's really windy outside, and I'm holed up in our apartment getting things organized. My goal for today/tonight is to figure out my thesis topic before 2009 arrives.
I'm also getting a bit sick (I think), so I'm probably going to walk down to the grocery store and get some OJ and some stuff to make some soup.
I'll post about my progress later.
Update, 6:10 p.m. I was all bleary-eyed and feeling ill today, so this may have to wait until tomorrow to get figured out. I'm off to Kabob Bazaar to ring in the new year with salmon kabobs, special rice (w/ dill and fava beans!), and hot tea.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
An introduction
Hi there.
I've been away from writing for a long time. I used to journal on the Web from the late 90s to the early 00s, when I stopped writing on a regular basis. Back then, I wrote fairly melodramatic entries about random events in my life.
I want to use this space as a personal log of my efforts to complete my graduate thesis, and to get myself together in general. I've coasted along for a while as a fairly substandard student, and it's put up or shut up time now.
I've spent the past few days figuring out a viable system for getting work done. My big problem is sort of Groundhog Day-esque: I can't seem to string together more than a few days of working on a single project, and every day I wake up I start anew—unfettered by the previous day's work. This is both liberating and really really annoying/unproductive. I can do good work, but my focus is basically limited to one day. This is untenable for the thesis, as I need to put in a significant amount of work each day rather than a ton of work right before it's due.
I've come to the conclusion that I need to do two things: (1) have a reliable system for dumping thoughts into some kind of database that I can access later and (2) schedule the living daylights out of my day (and adhere to that schedule!).
So the first thing I'm trying to do is to use a task manager on my laptop (Things by Cultured Code) to keep track of all the stuff I need to do. (I'm very good at making lists, but not so good at religiously checking said lists every time I complete a task. Must work on this.)
I've also been using a wiki to jot down notes on my research. I've been reasonably good at this, but I need to review said notes and do the mental work to stitch all the pieces together more often. I'm hoping to do some of that thinking here, too.
...
I (literally) ran into a wall as a kid, knocking myself out. There's still an indentation on the wall of my parents' living room just to the left of the couch. Sometimes I wonder if I'm still struggling to wake up from that event.
(See, melodrama isn't dead for me.)
I've been away from writing for a long time. I used to journal on the Web from the late 90s to the early 00s, when I stopped writing on a regular basis. Back then, I wrote fairly melodramatic entries about random events in my life.
I want to use this space as a personal log of my efforts to complete my graduate thesis, and to get myself together in general. I've coasted along for a while as a fairly substandard student, and it's put up or shut up time now.
I've spent the past few days figuring out a viable system for getting work done. My big problem is sort of Groundhog Day-esque: I can't seem to string together more than a few days of working on a single project, and every day I wake up I start anew—unfettered by the previous day's work. This is both liberating and really really annoying/unproductive. I can do good work, but my focus is basically limited to one day. This is untenable for the thesis, as I need to put in a significant amount of work each day rather than a ton of work right before it's due.
I've come to the conclusion that I need to do two things: (1) have a reliable system for dumping thoughts into some kind of database that I can access later and (2) schedule the living daylights out of my day (and adhere to that schedule!).
So the first thing I'm trying to do is to use a task manager on my laptop (Things by Cultured Code) to keep track of all the stuff I need to do. (I'm very good at making lists, but not so good at religiously checking said lists every time I complete a task. Must work on this.)
I've also been using a wiki to jot down notes on my research. I've been reasonably good at this, but I need to review said notes and do the mental work to stitch all the pieces together more often. I'm hoping to do some of that thinking here, too.
...
I (literally) ran into a wall as a kid, knocking myself out. There's still an indentation on the wall of my parents' living room just to the left of the couch. Sometimes I wonder if I'm still struggling to wake up from that event.
(See, melodrama isn't dead for me.)
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