What do you do?

Today is one of those days when I started the day with so much energy hoping to mark things off from my list of things to do for the day. Yet, I felt myself dragging as the day goes on. I don't know when things started to go wrong. Is it when I remembered that I still didn't receive the "favor" that I ask from my previous groupmate and it has been three weeks already? Or is it when my calculations going nowhere? The entire day, I feel the numbness circulating my entire being. I really find this irritating. What do you do for days like this?

I am interested to know how people manage multiple projects simultaneously. How do you organize your time for data gathering, learning new skills/techniques, reading journal articles, etc, etc?

I guess I still have learn to find my "balance".

I'm BACK!

I am back and hopefully with more vigor.

The last time I posted in this blog was right after my defense and that was a little over two months ago. What have I been doing since then? Well, a week after my defense, I moved to Postdoc City and started my postdoc position right away. It had been crazy finishing up, packing, unpacking, adjusting to the new city, and adjusting to the new research advisor and group. Last week, my doctoral institution had just conferred my degree. It is now official, hooray! I feel it wierd that it just felt gold (but not really in an ecstatic way). I was thinking that maybe after all the hard work that I have put in, then the satisfaction should be greater or something :D

In my next posts I would like to tackle the challenges of being a postdoc. I am big on balancing different aspects of life so maybe I will also write about the different areas of my life.

Right now, I would just like to say that it felt good to post again.

Yay! Defense is done.

of course, it didn't come easy; some bruises here and there.

I feel so relieved that thing thing is finally out of my way. Right now, all I want to do is rest and maybe party the rest of the weekend....

Go me!

help!

This will be really quick. It has been really crazy this past few days; I am averaging only about 4 hours sleep, a far cry from my usual 8-9 hours of sleep! This is definitely a huge cramming time for me. I have just distributed a copy of my dissertation (incorporated all of my major advisor's corrections) to each of the committee members. My defense is scheduled in a week! There are definitely times I am tempted to postpone. I have my slides prepared already. I need to work on my talk and study the materials. Any advice on how to prepare and stay sane until D-day?

aahhhhhh

this dissertation is really getting under my skin. i'm as cranky as ever! all i want to do now is cry....

hating the writing right now

I am really starting to hate this dissertation writing. Take note of my choice of word, hate. Yes, I am having that strong emotion right now. For those people who know me, this is sort of surprising because I don't usually use this word, I try as much as possible to eliminate this in my vocabulary. Aahhh....

I worked very hard this week, much more than my normal. Yesterday, I worked at 1-8:30 pm then resume from 10 till 3 in the morning but the writing is still very much far from being done. This is the most number of hours that I have worked in the recent months. Everytime I feel that I finished something, there are at least ten more other things that I have yet to do.

I have to calm myself down, this is exactly what I need. I will designate tonight as a downtime, no disseration-related activities. Hopefully, tomorrow I will feel more relaxed and rested.

writing dilemma

I desperately need to write the subsection DF. This is really the heart of my delaying and procrastinating attitude in the last few weeks. The task is just so daunting for me. There are so many things I need to decide.

* How do I organize it?
* Will I follow my advisor’s convention or other people’s convention? I’m in such dilemma, the thing is I am more comfortable using the other people’s convention and this is what I did in my research but my advisor will surely have difficulty with this (not that he is not capable, just not his style). There are also several other subtle differences that I need to decide on which one to present in my dissertation. The presentation should be cohesive!
* Too much information. What should be in the appendix and what should be in the section?
* Do I need to be as detailed as I can be?
* Any models I can follow?

Just write, write, write! It doesn’t have to be the final piece right away. Present everything whatever I think needs to be discussed and then decide later which will go to the main text, appendix, etc

Even though I really find this particular writing task very overwhelming, I will not quit!