2009 take 2

This year has not been great in terms of health and productivity. I have been doing some work, but my experiments haven't been cooperating and I've spent too much time using aimless websurfing as a way of self-medicating for the anxiety I feel when I think about my project. And while I've been trying to eat vegetables, I've been eating way too much junk food and I haven't even been exercising. My knee has been sore for a couple of months now, but I need to try to do something active, anyway. I have seen a doctor about it and I'm doing exercises to help it.

So, since tomorrow is the 1st of July and the start of the second half of the year, I'm going to start afresh. And to make sure I take it seriously, I'm going to donate $10 for every day I don't stick to The Plan for the next 30 days. I would pledge to donate to a cause I hate, but I think the money will be enough disincentive.

The plan is:

1. exercise
2. eat 5 servings of fruit and vegetables
3. leave home by 9.30am
4. no internet without doing an hour's work first and then only for 10 minutes at a time
5. go to bed by midnight

I'm actually going to try something slightly different, but the above list will be my minimum requirements (with some adjustment when I'm travelling).

I went to an alternative careers workshop a couple of weeks ago and got discouraged because the person went on about how grad students have all these transferrable skills like time management and motivation. I really don't have those skills. So, I'm going to try treating lab like a job I don't especially care about, but have to do, in order to gain some of those skills. To that end, I'll try to spend exactly 8 hours a day at lab, without using any internet other than for work purposes. I'll let you know how that goes...