Fall, coffee and tights

Hello everyone! Sorry for having fallen of the earth. I am going through some changes in my life here and somehow the urge and time to blog just disappeared. But I am back! I have decided that I want to have more frequent shorter posts. They are easier to make and easier to read, so I guess it is a win-win (assuming somebody is actually reading my ‘blabbings’.

So, what has been on my mind?

First of all: I have a new job! Somehow, over the course of a week the head of the department I have my desk at (I work there but I am not employed there) told me he was going to suggest my name to another professor looking for a post-doc if I wanted him to do so. Of course I did! After receiving some additional information I found out that the job was actually pretty cool: doing research on an awesome topic AND being kind of an important factor in the whole thing (making decisions etc haha) ! So, I went for a getting-acquainted-talk kind of interview and after 30 min was told that I had the job. The only thing is that I am starting this week already and I still have my PhD to finish as well. This means that I am seriously a busy bee now. To keep my cool a bit (and stay awake during the whole process) I got this:

This would be a Nespresso-cup. You know, the George Clooney kind (dear Google, how many hits will this get me? haha). I was literally getting sick of the disgusting liquid that is supposed to be coffee from our coffee machine that I finally took the time to go downtown to the special Nespresso store (sure, it is totally logical and it makes sense to not sell these things in the supermarket) to get some cups for the Nespresso machine that someone put there. I guess it is a smart idea to just bring your coffee machine to work since some of us practically live there. It’s of better use there. So I am one happy and awake camper now!

Next thing on my mind:

Yes, my friends, Fall has arrived! I am starting to like fall. Since I started working out more, I am not so freaking cold anymore anytime the temperature drops below 15C. Now I really enjoy the colors, the crisp air (goodbye hay fever, see you next season!) and dark cozy evenings curled up on the couch with a blanket. But there are still things I don’t like of course. Rain, first-day-your-car-is-frozen-in-the-morning, anyone? And I notice that my body really reacts to whole seasonal changes. Tiresome. But we went for a walk in the woods the other day and it was lovely!

And a last thing:

Yes, I finally gave in and bought myself some running tights. I like them a lot! They are warm (even a little bit too warm for a sunny 8C) and they are tight so nothing is moving when you are running.

Okay, gonna go now and enjoy a cup of tea and a book before I am off to bed.

Chronicles of a PhD candidate: part IV

The week stared off in a horrible way. Monday I was forced to take the day off. There were some problems in the family I don’t want to talk about (done that enough in the last couple of days) which forced us to take care of some stuff. But the whole situation added up with the tiredness of last week plus sleep deprivation from my girls night out left me feeling like a ghost for the first half of the week. At first I was feeling guilty but later I decided that it was no use. What’s happened, has happened. So, I just tried to catch a little sleep and just take it from there. Luckily I worked from home Tuesday and Wednesday so that helped me to take it easy and recuperate.

Thursday it was off to the U. again. I spend most of the remaining two days alone, all my room mates seem to have vanished. But that was ok. I decided to divide my todo-list up into a whole lot of mini-tasks. I really felt sort of defeated the whole week and even though the mini-task list was 4 pages long, it gave me the courage to get started and keep going because I would be able to cross something off the list real soon.

The weather was gorgeous, so I spend several of my breaks outside, enjoying the sun. It is actually part of new game, but more about that later.

I ended up doing more than expected this week, including starting with most of the acquisition for my new, and last, study. Yay! Acquisition meant sending many e-mails that all said: Dear mr/mrs X. I am doing a study and would you please please please participate? It would be great because I really just need someone, anyone, I don’t care think you are very awesome and have a lot of useful stuff to say about the subject. Pretty please again? Daisy.

So, it wasn’t such an interesting week. I’ll try to make it sound better next week, haha.

Chronicles of a PhD candidate: part III

Another week passed. Wow, did that go fast! Unfortunately I didn’t have such a good week as last week, but that was ok. I could afford to take it a little easier even though I would have liked to get some more stuff done.

I felt sleep deprived and demotivated all week. So, on Friday I bought myself this:

That’s right, a Havenly Hazel! It is a capuccino with some kind of syrup in it, topped with lots of whipped cream and sprinkled with hazelnut pieces. De-li-ci-ous. It’s like giving myself a little present and always makes me feel better. It’s good to be nice to yourself every once in a while. And the fact that it has caffeine AND lots of sugar helps too. Good thing I don’t do calorie counting because this thing would probably get me worried haha.

The week ended like it should: going out dancing with a friend. We went to a 70’s, 80’s, 90’s party and danced our asses off! Had a blast.

Chronicles of a PhD candidate: part II

29 weeks to go:

Meet Paul and Paul. This cute gayish couple is my new mascotte. The boyfriend shot them for me at the fair. Ok, he shot something else and then I could pick a prize. They had name tags which looked like not all the bears would have the same name. So I was like, hey this one is called Paul! And the other one is called, let’s see….Paul!

Anyway, they now sit in front of my screen all day, encouraging me to keep going. It helped because I had a greatly productive week! I had a meeting with my Prof and he acted less scary than usual. I even managed to interrogate him a little about his private life. It was cool to find out that he is exactly like other guys and turns into a bright-eyed little boy when you bring up their favorite subject. The rest of the week was uneventful and ended in me finishing several projects and sending some of them in for feedback. I had been working on them forever and thought I was never going to finish, but I did!

For next week I don’t have any urgent, must-be-completed-yesterday projects! Woohoo! Now I can finally try to catch up on some other stuff.

Chronicles of a PhD candidate: part I

Just about 30 weeks to go until The Book is supposed to be ready. I write a post-it each week and stick it on my desk to remind me that the end is near. :P

The week started of bad because the coffee creamer was still nonexistent on our floor. I was forced to get my own coffee (I am the only one using creamer) on the floor below us. That floor is really creepy with all the grey colours (ours is yellow) and you never see anyone there. I could go to the floor above us, but they were out of creamer as well.

Later that week I had a phone call from my prof who, as always, talks in riddles. It is always a challenge to find out what he is expecting of me. Usually he’s very surprised that I did X (which I was supposed to have finished weeks ago) and assumes that I have done Y (something that hasn’t even made it to my to-do list yet). But I managed to make him think I am right on schedule and really know what I am doing. We are meeting next week, so I have until then to come up with some proof.

Other good things this week: I had Thursday off because of a holiday. Friday was couch potato day work from home day, because the university was closed that day as well.

New Feature: the Chronicles of a PhD candidate

Hi guys! The other day I was utterly bored with my work; I experienced a complete lack of motivation to do anything and my mind was flooded with thoughts, insights and whatever else, both related and unrelated to work. I get this more and more often, but also the deadline for my thesis is getting closer and closer. I just don’t find much joy in the project anymore. Or at least not enough to keep me motivated every day. It’s not like I hate my job, I’m just stressed out by it.

Since I have about 30 weeks to go until my ultimate deadline, I figured that I have to find a way to make this tolerable, preferably fun. I like to play and daydream and it is hard for me to do something I don’t find interesting. Luckily, I am able to find something interesting in most things, otherwise I wouldn’t even have made it through highschool (geography, anyone?)

So, I started thinking: How can I make this interesting, challenging in a good way, and fun? The topic on itself is interesting and I like doing research. I know my priorities and have a huge todo-list that I need to tackle in an efficient way. But…I wander off, playing and daydreaming all the time. I tried focusing using timers and rewards, but they don’t last for me. The only way I can do this, is turn it into a game.

Next step was to figure out what kind of game. I am not very competitive most of the time, therefore winning and rewards don’t work very well. The game should be fun on itself too. I like games that involve words, puzzles and organization/efficiency (for example solitaire).
So how can I use this to trick myself into thinking my work is a game? The good part about my work is that it is related to things I like:
- writing (=also word game)
- puzzles (= analysis of data)
- organization (= keep an overview of the results, but also the organizational aspects of conducting a study).

The difference with leisure games is that they look better and are usually funny. I’m sorry Prof X, but I don’t find a lot of funny things in my data (although, Prof X probably does not think there should be, but whatever). Here’s what I am going to do:

- Use more colour (typing papers, making notes, etc). I already use colour in my analysis, but I can expand that.
- Use different fonts: it is so much more fun to type if you don’t use Times New Roman (I know, I am a nerd). When I send something in I can always change it back.
- make more use of schemes and drawings.
- treat everything as an organizational game: organize data collection; organize data so that it means something: results; organize results so that it means something: conclusion; organize conclusions so that it means something: write a paper.
- make pictures of the process. And that’s where I got the idea of starting this feature. I don’t like to talk about my work a lot, but I can’t deny that it is a big part of my life. I want to start chronicling the last 8 months of my PhD until the birth of my thesis. This gives me the chance to put things in perspective and to try find the funny side. Like in those comedies where the situation is kind of sad, but the story is told in a funny way that makes you laugh anyway. Also, blogging about it, forces me to think of fun creative things to present my work week.