The Plan: month 2 (now with graphs!)

I made graphs of how often I've been doing all these goals, based on my Joe's goals data. Most of them are pretty boring, but I did realise I've been slacking off on a few of them, recently. I did the graphs going back to when I started using Joe's goals in November, so there are a couple of slack months at the start.

1. Health

I'm still going to the gym (and I just went to the yoga class again) and eating breakfast and real dinners etc. I'm starting to think I shouldn't get points anymore for things like that (the meals, at least).

I thought I was doing better at not eating when I wasn't hungry, but maybe I just haven't been bored and/or sad as much. I am a sucker for free food, too, which is unfortunate, given that my lab is on the same floor as the conference room so all the leftover free food is way too accessible.

I have not been doing well at getting up at 7.10, and therefore also not well at getting to lab before 10am (which I know is not very early, anyway). I've been sliding back to getting to lab at 11.30. It's hard to convince myself that I really need to be there earlier. I'm a lot slower at getting ready to leave the house when I don't have a fixed deadline. At home, I could get out of bed at 8.05am and still catch my bus at 8.27am, because if I didn't make it, I'd be an hour late. Now, if I'm 10 (or 20, or 30...) minutes slower getting out the door, I'm only late by that much, and it's easy to justify increments of 10 minutes. I guess that's the down side to frequent public transport. Last time I was going to the gym, I was working with someone who expected me to be there by 9am, so I was never more than 5 or 10 minutes late, too. I wasn't going to make the stars contingent on getting to lab by a certain time, because it seemed a bit like I would be setting myself up for failure, but maybe I need that pressure. Alternatively, I could decide that it really doesn't matter what time I get to lab, and focus on being more productive while I'm there, since there is certainly room for improvement there.

I've been doing okay at going to bed by midnight, but I don't think that's really early enough for me to get up at 7, or maybe I'm just lazy about getting out of bed. I could happily sleep a lot longer, though, so maybe I should try to go to bed even earlier.

2. Professional

This graph is a lot easier to read, since it's pretty sparse... I have had some good days, but also a lot of not-so-great days.
I've been doing at least half an hour of something productive per day (it doesn't always show up on the graph as work, because I counted reading a paper, or tidying my desk as being productive). My problem is now getting back to work, after I stop working to check my email. I should probably set a limit on how long that 30 minutes of work entitles me to waste time.
I feel like I've been more productive in my time wasting, since I haven't been caught up on blogs in weeks, but I'm not sure what I've been doing exactly. I'm trying to track my time this week in an attempt to figure out where it's all going.
I don't feel like I've made much progress on my specific projects. I have been using my GTD system, which I might post about at some point, but that's mainly helping me do small tasks. I think I need some larger scale way of keeping track of my projects, too.

• stage 1: finish optimising the assay conditions, repeat the big set of experiments, analyse data

I'm still "mostly done" optimising the conditions. At least I convinced my advisor to let me finish this instead of abandoning it with nothing to show for it. I'm currently doing the (hopefully) second last optimisation experiment.

• stage 2: make/find the new reagents I need, use

I have a list! Well, it's a lot more general than the actual list of things I'll end up using, but at least it's something. I guess my list is really for stage 2a, which is new. I just have to tidy it up a bit and send it to the collaborator who's going to do something with it.

• stage 3: in vivo stuff (not yet)
• New big project: figure out what I'm going to measure, and how

See that big spike of 11 papers on Sunday? They were all about this project. I still have to read more, though, and figure out what to do based on the reading.

• side project 1: help SuperPostDoc (and hopefully get my name on that paper, too)

SuperPostDoc has apparently decided not to bother with the approach we were going to take together, but I can probably still use the reagents he's making by himself. A tech in my lab took over the cloning that I was supposed to do for this. I feel bad about not doing it myself, but at least it's almost done...

• side project 2: help Swedish PostDoc figure out assay conditions for his experiments, and get him to help me figure out conditions for

This is still waiting on the cloning for the previous side project, too.

• reading: read table of contents every week and set up pubmed alerts

Every time I get the pubmed alerts I just hope none of the articles will be relevant, which is probably the opposite of what I should be thinking... I have been reading the TOC of my paper copies of Cell at least. Maybe I should arrange to have the others emailed to me. I did subscribe to the RSS feeds, but they're too easy to ignore.

• write in my lab book when I do experiments

I have to catch up on this...

3. Social
I still haven't emailed the procrastination group leader back. At this point, do you think I still can? I also need to email the therapist to say what CBT book I like. They all look the same to me, though, and not as good as the self-esteem one I already have, in terms of having specific exercises, rather than case studies.

I think I've now gone long enough (12 days) without the Celexa, that I'm not going to start again. No more scary psychiatrist!

I emailed everyone I owed emails to, I think. I just have to keep replying now...

I still haven't been hiding in my room and I went to SuperGradStudent's birthday party.

This month, I already have plans to have dinner with some people in my program and to go to a couple of concerts and someone else's birthday party and skiing with some other C'landians, so I think this is going okay.

4. Family
I'm still not entirely sure what my goals here are. I talk to my mum about once a week on the phone, or at least, she talks to me. I've emailed my dad a few times lately, but I don't really have much to say... I'm scared of contacting my older brother, in case he starts trying to make me talk about the Landmark crap again. I should talk to my little brother more, though.

5. Being Selfish
I guess I could donate platelets again.

I remembered that I really liked tutoring the equivalent of high school maths at uni, so I've looked into places to volunteer as a tutor here. I think I have to wait until the next school year starts, though. Or maybe not. I should contact someone and find out, at least.

6. Other
I knit the hat for my dad, but I haven't made any progress on the DNA scarf since the initial workshop. I've also only played the piano once, I think. Maybe I need some more specific goals for this...

I also haven't been blogging, or reading everyone's blogs. I'd like to blog more. I hope that will be easier once I get my new laptop.

I'm not sure where this fits in, but I have kept my room tidy for a few days now, which is nice.

The candidates for the next thing to do every day in order to get a gold star are:

1. get to lab by 10am
2. do x hours of work/something productive
3. tidy my room/desk
4. do something from the "other" category

Votes? I have to decide tomorrow.