My friend is finishing her first year teaching, getting married in two weeks and apparently has started neurotically (her word, not mine) organized pieces of paper for every detail of her life that needs to be taken care of before the honeymoon. People were laughing at me when I was asking her to clarify her technique, but I seriously think I need a new way of keeping track of my life!
My brother just got in for a week-long visit and it is great to see him! My niece and nephew were ridiculously excited to see him. Apparently alllll day on Father's Day they were asking why their uncle couldn't come tooooodaaayyyyyy in the winiest voices ever. He is staying with my sister, so I will head to her house most nights this week. I love that the three of us get along and like to hang out. My parents do too. :-) They drive down Thursday night and we are all going to a beer fest together. Gotta love my fam.
We have a friend staying with us next week before the other friend's wedding.
We have the cat of the friend getting married to watch for 2 1/2 weeks.
I am moving into my own apartment August 1st. This may be as simple as moving into the apartment above mine now, but that is still to be put in writing. I may need to start looking. Having my own apartment will be great, but really I think all of my friendships will be all the better if I have my own space while I finish my dissertation so I do not feel like I am making a mess or getting in a roommate's way. This would of course be different if I shared the bed with a man with whom I would live, but that is not a remote possibility, so my own apartment it is!
In the meantime, I am trying to figure out how to organize and execute (in the sense of getting something done, not killing) the next year of my life. I had been told to start looking for post-docs about a year before finishing, but the conference last week made me realize that is realllly the case! I keep saying I want to start outlining/writing the intro to my dissertation this summer. Have I started thinking about it? No. I am accomplishing stuff in lab and trying to be as organized as possible. It is going okay, but I know I could be doing more.
I need to skip the gym in the morning and get an extra hour of sleep. Thinking about all this stuff and all the little details I am not writing down like my friend is doing on her neurotically organized pieces of paper is exhausting.
7 comments:
Scripps Scripps Scripps!
Congrats on the new place. Having a place of your own will help you in the sense that you can focus in on your goals without worrying about anyone else. Good luck on the organizing :)
An electronic calendar of some sort--either outlook or google calendar... it's helpful to put a recurring event when bills come due.
Setting up an automatic check for paying rent (and other recurring bills) each month.
As for executing your next year, maybe writing a simple to do list (with how long each task will take) might help? It sounds like you have a few big projects that will need to fit together like a puzzle Would it help to map them out on a big calendar, so you can see what it will take to get it all done by spring and hopefully feel motivated?
Sounds like a solid to-do list.
I loved having my own place and I hope you will too. But I do better with company, I find (good company)... PhDness can be too quiet.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you to get the apartment above your current one. It's good to stay close to friends.
Shall I cross my eyes for even more luck?
;-)
It sounds wonderful that your brother is in town. I know I love seeing my sister. Where is your brother at normally? I'm trying to remember and not doing very well.
As for trying to start your dissertation "early" - good luck with that. I have heard of people doing it, but I know that I was too crazy busy with experiments to get anything done in advance. But definitely work on getting post doc positions set up.
KHC, I know, I know...I'll look into it. :-)
Ron, thanks! I look forward to writing my dissertation in my own apartment, actually. (Sad, huh?)
Molly, I should totally have a central calendar. I use a planner, but not for details. I think this year will be a test of my organization and motivation.
Aurora, I like having people over, so hopefully that will break up the quiet!
Spark, thanks! Cross your eyes if you want to, just don't go out in public that way. :-)
Danielle, my brother lives out in Oregon now (?!) and we haven't seen him since Christmas:( . I suppose once I have a post-doc lined up, that puts the pressure on to write the dissertation, huh?
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