Goal logging

Today I:

~ faced up to my fear of the telephone and made a call to a collaborator (who was not in, so I'll have to call again later this week. Practice is a good thing?)

~ drafted the methods section of the paper Advisor wanted to have submitted last summer. She did the intro, and we're working out the results section tomorrow. So, way behind schedule, but progressing nicely at the moment.

~ went to a workshop on how to use one of my new software tools. Spiffy.

~ got two new books from the library, which will join the collection of library books that have been kept hostage on my shelf for the last year. Eventually I will read them all, I swear!

Tomorrow, I will:

~ revise and insert details into the methods draft mentioned above.

~ Meet with Advisor to keep her informed of my thesis work (phone calls count!) and talk about her project.

~ Continue my foreign language lessons, so that I'm not completely lost in fieldwork country come September.

~ try again to make contact with a lab-person who is in charge of the equipment I need to use this summer.



My officemates recently got bored and (with minimal suggestions from me), hung a whiteboard up by my desk. This has been good, because I use less paper on to-do lists and because I can keep said lists where they won't get covered with other papers and books. Unfortunately, it also provides space for me to spend time doodling whales and tropical islands. Hmmm. Then again, if I consider that to be stress-relief, maybe it's productive, too.

Oh. This week, I also sent off a draft proposal to another collaborator (whom I telephoned last week. this phone-paranoia has got to go. More practice necessary).

Also: I've recently changed my habits and am no longer drinking a glass of wine with dinner each night. I find that my sleep has improved, and I'm much more likely to get work done after I come home. That didn't happen until a few days after I stopped having wine with dinner... maybe I'll confine my drinking to weekends from now on.