Friday, February 16, 2007

Back To Work: Deadlines, Deadlines!!

If it's already afternoon and I've been busy all morning since before the sun came up, does that mean I am pushing myself too hard?

It's mostly been desk work... My Man With Gills don't get on my case! I only started one load of laundry. It's not like I'm out in the backyard mud ripping up weeds and popping out my stiches.

What have I been up to? I lose track.
But I made important, real, quantifiable dissertation progress:
1) Wrote acknowledgments page.
That was fun and rewarding. I can wait for the Very Important Primates to read it after it goes to print. My first impulse of course is to let the most important VIP read it, but he'll have to wait too.
2) Downloaded more data.
I really don't need it, but it is nice to be able to add and it really doesn't take that long. I must remember to do that AFTER I analyze study one data and write the results section. That's what I will be doing while Sleyed weaves and does housework this weekend. I get a free pass on housework for another week ;-)

And on another front, I told my co-author our paper got rejected. It's the second rejection. Oh well. I know where to send it next.

Scanned in miscellaneous stuff, including design plans for SIL to make her own accordion books, two stories, and... the best, an advert for a COMPLETE SOLAR SYSTEM. Only $3000.

Ate oatmeal for breakfast and spinach/basil stuffed jumbo shells for lunch. Drank chai.

Moved seedlings to a sunnier window.

Washed some towels... and a couple of curtains.

Checked in with old friends, and some new ones.

Redesigned the Endometriosis Association brochure in my head.

Printed out an article I want to review for this blog and ended up replacing two ink cartridges before it was done. Made mental note to actually take the 4 empties to be recycled for money off the next ones.

Rested.

Decided on new goals and rewards for meeting next set of deadlines:

Wed, 21 Feb
finish results section 1 (get to watch Lost that night, pedicure)
Wed, 28 Feb
finish results section 2 & send draft to advisor (get to watch Lost, Pottery Barn shelves)
Wed, 9 March
discussion section finished & sent to advisor (haircut & color?)

Mon, 19 March
revise/rewrite, send new draft to committee (Creektown Cafe Dinner WITH WINE)

Attend sister's labor party. You better not go into labor early!!!

Mon, 16 April
final defense (get a PhD?)

2 comments:

Chase said...

Lists are good. Publishing them for literally the world to see is a somewhat compelling additional reason to get them DONE. Perhaps I will take your lead and post my list on my blog as well...

I am very excited for your sis's baby...do we know yet if its a BOY or girl?

XoXo

Field Notes said...

Yes, posting your deadlines for all to see is great incentive for meeting them. You don't want everyone to know you can't do it. I've seen academics put up their deadlines in a list on the side of their blogs like where you'd see the list of blogs they link to. Each time they get something done, they put a line through it. I'm not positive how to set that sort of thing up, but I think it would be a constant visual reminder!

I'm excited for her baby to arrive too. She's carrying high, and everyone thinks that means it's a boy. I have this theory that since she's in good condition, tall, meaty, and is in a financially secure place in her life, she is more likely to be carrying a boy.... Male embryos are more finicky so it takes a stronger, healthier woman to carry one to term, as the evol bio theory goes. But if her huzzy's little swimmer had an X name tag, well, she's having a girl no matter what!

I'd like to see her have a boy because her with a boy will be the most fun to watch. But I think she'd do better with a girl :-)


Oooh, gotta go, Katy has one of my socks in her mouth.... and it's one I like to keep owning w/o holes!!!