I currently feel like I'm not achieving much. Partly this is because I don't have an awful lot to do. I haven't had any paid work since early December (hopefully this will change on Thursday), no thesis anymore, my art history website has been quiet over summer and I don't have any personal research that I'm very focused on.
All of this is pretty unsatisfying (and please don't say anything about enjoying my free time cos I will slap you). I have lots of ideas of things I could be getting on with, mostly to do with my post PhD research (articles, reading, postdoc applications, turning my other blog into something bigger and better) as well as bits of work for my volunteer positions, which aren't getting done very efficiently.
I'm not sure that this is particularly fascinating reading, but I felt the need to put it down semi-publicly in the hope it would prompt me to follow through.
Thoughts
- The internet is the great distracter, I need to limit my time on it a bit a lot.
- I work best in the morning, I slump a bit in the afternoon and gear up again in the early evening.
- I have residual anxiety from my final thesis push that if I'm not writing I'm not being productive - this means I'm not reading or planning anything properly, which then means I'm not writing, vicious circle.
- I need to check my email less and respond more promptly when I do.
- I need to work elsewhere than my living room/study for at least a part of each day.
- I'm often not even doing the non-work things I want to do.
So (I'm thinking as I write) my planned routine that I am going to try for the next two weeks is
Get up promptly (this is pretty easy as I wake up early but sometimes I just stay there feeling sad about having no direction in life - cue tiny violins).
- Go for a run on running days
- Breakfast and read a research related book I want to read all of (too often I only dip into stuff)
- Check and respond to mails for 30 minutes and add action emails to my to do list
- Take computer and go somewhere nearby to write for 2 hours - I will probably work on a few different writing projects during the week but whatever it is for that day I have to do 2 hours.
- Work on my website for 1-2 hours depending on demand - this doesn't just have to be posting could include side projects and actually writing some reviews, which I never get done - can do this at home or stay where I have gone to write if it includes decent internet.
- Lunch
- Afternoon - this is slump time for me mentally but I should use it to work on basic admin type stuff for my volunteer positions, read a new article, read work related news/blogs, do housework, or go out and do stuff that needs to be done - also the best time to plan meetings.
- Early evening - some days this will be gym but on others I want to either read research related stuff in a focused way (i.e. 1 hour reading) or write posts for my other blog.
- Stop by 7-8pm and properly relax - read fiction, watch movies, read non work blogs and news.
3 comments:
I know how you feel - especially the "enjoy your free time!" comment. My only thought about your routine is you have a big chunk of work in the morning. I think you should break it up with morning tea :) xxx
That's true, I was thinking I should try and go for short walks. In Daylesford I would go and check the garden for 20min, I'm often bad at having breaks, I just stop working and read blogs but it isn't a proper break from the desk.
I'm hoping that if I feel more productive I'll be better at having a break and doing other things instead of feeling like I have to catch up.
I was having a conversation along these lines with my supervisor yesterday. He'd been away on sabbatical for 6 months at the end of last year and missed out of the joy of me being repeatedly ill.
I've had a chat to him about how I'm trying to better manage my "research time" and "me time". While I have now taken a few things up (choir, swimming lessons, various cycling groups), I think I'm a little too off-balanced with "fun". At least he acknowledges that it's the right thing to do (and he commented he needs to do it too) and that it's going to take a while for me to figure out the balance.
The only thing I didn't tell him about was blogging... that would be weird! But it's hard to keep track with various blogs when you're already behind a computer all day! I try and read what I can on my iPod, but if I want to comment I'm better off at a desk! :|
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