yet another fresh start

Last time I posted a Plan post was at the end of June. I made it two weeks of being productive before I had a bad day and slid back to endlessly refreshing google reader, eating crap, not exercising and staying up to 2am. My mother was visiting until last week, so now that I'm back to only having to worry about myself, it would be a good time to get my life in order.

My advisor seems to have discovered accountability in the last couple of weeks, which is unfortunate for my meeting tomorrow, but should be a good thing, if it lasts. I've been trying to think of better ideas for motivating myself, too. A friend recently had some success with real gold star stickers, and silver ones for days she almost made it, but not quite. Maybe I'll try the stars again both virtually and in real life.

So, 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
6. blog about how well I did each day

I want to go back to using the star icons at the top of my blog to keep track, but I need to learn to keep starting afresh every day instead of giving up entirely every time I have a bad day. I need a reward system that isn't all or nothing so I'm just going to use the stars to count how many total days I meet my goals, not how many days in a row.

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...

Lenten Plan

I am still not doing so well with The Plan, but I have been doing more work and going to bed earlier, at least. I'm not at all religious, but lent seemed like a nice time for yet another fresh start. Of course, then I didn't quite meet my goals today and I think not having posted them publically made it easier to let them slide. I don't want to give up and wait for the next neat starting point and lent is already pretty arbitrary for me. So, here we go again.

Everyday until April 12th, I am going to:

• exercise
• eat 5 servings of fruit and vegetables and only one treat
• leave home by 9.30am
• work for at least an hour before doing anything online
• use the internet for no more than 15 minutes at a time, separated by at least an hour of work
• make a list of what to do the next day
• go to bed by midnight

If I do all that, I'm going to get the mp3 player that was going to be my reward way back in October. I might even make it an iPod.

I keep waiting for concentrating on work to seem easier or more imperative, but it's never going to unless I just do it.

The Plan 2009 #1

I have been slacking on restarting this for too long. I know that if I publicly recommit to it, I'll have to stick to it (which is partly why I haven't before now...) and I'm finally sick of my laziness enough to do that.

First, a summary of 2008. Which was okay, but not great. I did 822 hours of work last year, which is 200 more than the year before and accounted for 48% of my time at lab. It's an improvement, but not enough of one. I exercised 227 times in 2008, which is fewer than in 2007. I started slacking a bit. I want to get that back to being something non-negotiable, no matter how much my day sucks.

The Plan has become much more narrowly focussed than it was meant to be at the beginning. Work is definitely the area I still need help with most, but the others have mostly fallen by the wayside. The health-related goals stayed because they were mostly easier to implement and stick to but the social, family and being unselfish ones I just ignored. I think some of those goals failed because of my anxiety/lack of self-esteem, so I need to work on that first. So, I'm adding a new goal to do some of the CBT exercises from one of my workbooks every day. I'm still thinking about whether to go back to the CBT therapist, but I'll post about that later.

Starting tomorrow (today I'm going to make a plan for the next couple of weeks, or rather update the one I've been ignoring), if I don't do the following for the next 30 days, I have to give the awesome mittens I'm knitting to a homeless person. If I do, I'm getting a bag to carry my knitting in to replace the Borders plastic bag I've been using.

1. go to bed by midnight
2. exercise
3. leave home by 9.30am
4. waste no more than 10 minutes on internet at a time, separated by an hour of work, up to an hour a day
5. eat 5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day
6. complete a CBT exercise

The latest Plan

I have been slacking badly since I last got to 30 stars. I have more (of more interest) to blog about this, but it's getting late and I need to publically recommit to The Plan so I don't waste any more time. I'm trying something more extreme this time.

I will:

• exercise
• eat 5 servings of fruit/vegetables a day
• go to bed by midnight
• leave for lab by 9.30am
• immediately start by planning for 15, writing for 15 and reading for 30 minutes*
• spend less than one hour at lab a day online, in 10 minute increments, separated by at least an hour of work

If I do all that for the 31 days left before I go home, I'm buying a new mp3 player. I guess I'll have to buy it earlier and then give it to a homeless person if I don't make it.

Now I'd better go to bed so I can wake up on time and start.

*unless any time-dependent work-related thing has to come first

The Plan: yet another fresh start

I haven't posted a Plan post in a while, because I've been slacking. Well, I've still been mostly doing the important things, like exercising and working more than I used to and eating vegetables. I haven't been doing everything every day, though, and as time went on I was getting more and more slack. Last week, after several above-average weeks, I only worked 26% of the time... Clearly, I need some discipline back. I think the 30-days-in-a-row plan was better than the 90% goal, which very quickly became out of reach. I'm out of sync with calendar months already, so I can just restart if I miss a day.

I posted about an especially productive week when I worked 71% of the time, so I know I can do a lot better than I did last week. I only got that high, though, because I had a terribly unproductive day and hadn't given up on the whole star thing, so I wanted to make up for it. The Official Star Arbitrator agreed that I could get two stars the next day by not using internet before 3pm, I think, and I tried to work as much as possible before then. I ended up using only 15 minutes of internet all day and was surprised at how easy it was (well, maybe not easy, but it was possible) , so I continued doing that.

It worked pretty well until I ran out of stuff I'd already planned to do. My worst problem comes when I have to think about my project and decide what experiments to do. I can only think about that at a very superficial level before I get too anxious and have to distract myself to stop myself from freaking out completely. Last week, I spent a lot of time distracting myself.

I'm not sure what to do about that, except force myself to think. So, back to The Plan. I even found an incentive this time so that I won't just give up when it gets hard again. This is where the rainbow-coloured yarn I mentioned yesterday comes in. I couldn't justify spending $30 on a pair of socks, but as a reward for working, it would be worth it. I was going to make it that if I got 30 stars in a row, I could buy the yarn, but I didn't want to get to the end and find someone else had already bought it. Plus, losing something is supposed to be a stronger disincentive than forgoing a gain, so I bought the yarn and will have to give it away if I don't get 30 stars.

So, what I need to do each day is:

• exercise
• eat 5 servings of fruit and vegetables
• leave home by 9.30am
• not use my computer for anything non-work related until I've done half an hour of work and have a list of things to do that day
• no blogs until I've done another hour of work
• only selected blogs until I've done another hour of work after that
• work at least 50% of the time
• go to bed by midnight

I just added the rule about working 50%, which seems like it could be hard, but I'd really like to do a lot more than that, and I know I can. Maybe I should have bonus rewards or something for getting that percentage higher, but it was hard enough to find one incentive.

The Plan: June 2008

1. Lab



May didn't end as well as it began. I was doing so well until a week and a half ago when I accidentally spent too long online twice in one week. The first time, I made up for it by barely going online and working all the next day, but the day after I wasted so much time that I didn't get home until after midnight, so the star was so completely shot that I just gave up.

Still, May was a lot better than March and April (and was possibly better than January before I messed up), so I just need to come up with an alternate plan for not giving up entirely if I mess up a day. This is my current suck that needs patching. I was thinking about things I don't give up on after messing up the current month's goal, like exercising now and budgeting (which hasn't even needed to be part of The Plan to (mostly) stick to). I think the difference is having a longer term goal to aim for (I'm secretly hoping to exercise more days this year than last, although I have a feeling I'm not on track for that). So, there are 213 days left this year. I'm going to aim for 190 stars in that time, which is just under 90%. I'll adjust the number if I'm travelling or something.

The other thing I need to do is get some kind of notification telling me when I'm about to go over my allowed internet for the day, since I only went over by accident at first (and then kept going once the day was ruined). I said I was going to use the interruptron last time, but I never remembered to set it up in the morning. I discovered that leechblock has all kinds of fancy customisable settings, though, so maybe I will use that instead.

I'm also going to try to set up a morning routine for once I get to lab. I need to plan my day and start working before I even get my laptop out of my bag. That makes it so much easier to have a productive day.

2. Health

This went pretty well, despite giving up on working. I was still trying to eat vegetables (except that I didn't make it to the supermarket last week and didn't have enough vegetables to last the week), although I did start eating more crap. I think I got used to that, unfortunately, so it's been hard reminding myself not to snack this evening. Going to bed earlier was definitely a good idea, although it's hard to stop chatting with my favourite person, sometimes.

3. Social

I need to reply to emails, but I think I'm adding too many goals already this month, so this will have to wait for yet another attempt next time. I want to ask a couple of people about doing fun things soon, though.

I think blogging counts as being sociable, too, so I'm going to aim for 2 posts a week. I know I said I was adding too many goals, but this isn't a daily one, so I think it's okay.

4. Being Unselfish

This hasn't been in The Plan for a while, but I keep walking past the blood donation centre and feeling bad, so I'd really like to at least do that this month.

The Plan returns!

I was feeling lame again about posting nothing but Plan stuff a while ago and I thought maybe I could keep up with my goals without having to publicly commit to doing 30 days in a row, but that didn't work so well (see fig. 1). It didn't help my blog either, since I just haven't been posting at all. So, The Plan is back. I already started (see fig. 1 again) and feel much better already. May is already looking better, even though one of the two days used for that average was shortened by me going home sick after less than 4 hours (almost 3 of those were actual work!).



1. Health

I didn't go to the gym yesterday, because I was feeling too crappy, but I'm not restarting the 30 days for that; I'll just add one to the end. The gym has really become a habit, even without the stars. Eating 5 servings of fruit and veges a day is almost like that, too, except that I tended to save my healthy dinners for another day when it could count for a star, and I ate more crap on top of the fruits and veges once I'd already ruined the day.

One thing that makes a huge difference in determining the rest of my day is how well it starts, which is itself determined by how late I go to bed. This month, I'm adding going to bed by midnight to the star requirements.

2. Lab

I am back to making lists of things to do each day. I also installed the interruptron, which will hopefully encourage me to get off the computer after a short break, instead of letting inertia keep me refreshing long after I've read everything worthwhile.

3. Social

I actually invited a bunch of people to a barbecue my housemates are having next week. I'm hoping I won't dread it so much if I know people who will be there, and I won't be able to just avoid it if I've invited people. The therapist last time gave me homework to make myself leave my room every time I felt like avoiding people (unless it would be too stressful) and I haven't even noticed wanting to hide this month (I did stay in my room most of the weekend, but that was more about wanting to stay in bed and I feel much better, so I think that was a good thing).

I still need to work on replying to emails etc. I replied to a bunch of people who wrote on my facebook wall for my birthday, but then I lost momentum... (I'm sorry if I missed you! Thanks for your kind wishes.)

The Plan: month two 2008

I am loving the latest version of The Plan. I have been doing so well! That said, I'm finally getting around to writing this post now, after getting to 30 stars on Thursday, because the lack of a current star challenge was a significant factor in me regressing today. I was having trouble deciding on a new challenge for this month and I hadn't gotten around to writing this post, so although I was trying to continue what I'd been doing, I knew it wasn't actually counting towards a 30-star sequence. I'm not sure why that matters, since I've never actually given myself an official reward for getting to 30, but somehow it does. Once I slipped up, it was too easy to think the day was shot anyway, so I may as well make the most of it and eat as much crap as I want (and then a bit more). So, I need to start again, since it really was working wonderfully.

Lab


I did so much work! I was even averaging 6 hours a day of actual work for a couple of weeks! That's getting closer to a real work day. I finally did the first pilot version of the experiment that was sitting in this section for the whole of last year, even!

I have been making a list of things to do each day, which helps a lot. I think a bit part of why I was doing so little work was that I wasn't planning enough experiments. I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed lately, since I have multiple things running at once, but I think it's a good thing. I need to remember to make the lists very specific, though, so I don't have to sit down and figure out what to do, because once I sit down and start looking at blogs, it's very hard to get up again.

Social
I feel like I've been doing better at this, too, but it's less quantifiable. I've been using my laptop in a communal room a lot more and I've done several social things with people. I have still been bad about keeping in touch with family and friends, though, so I'm going to make that this month's goal: to email/contact a friend or family member every day.

Health
This was going so well, too (until today, but I won't dwell on that). I started the month with xmas cake, cookies, 2 packages of peppermint bark, marzipan and ice cream and by the end of January, I still had significant quantities of everything except the cake left! I ate something junk food-y every day, but allowing only one thing made it a lot easier to be conscious of what I was eating and not just mindlessly snack on whatever was there. It was easier to turn down things like free cookies at lab when I knew they weren't especially good ones and I didn't want to waste my one thing for the day on them.

I also ate 5 servings of fruit and vegetables every day. That wasn't so hard, either. I did just find a website that calculates how many servings you need based on age, weight and activity levels, though, and according to that, I should be eating 4 servings of fruit and 5 of vegetables every day. I don't think I'd be able to eat anything but fruit and vegetables that way, though, so I'm sticking to 5.

I've been cooking big meals on the weekend so I can eat a proper dinner as soon as I get home, so I don't get tempted to snack while I procrastinate on cooking. This weekend is the first I haven't had a chance to cook, so I'm hoping I can hold out long enough tomorrow night to eat real food. I do have more than a week's worth of meals in the freezer for emergencies, but I'm so reluctant to waste them, that I'm not sure I'll ever justify eating them.

Lunches have been slightly harder to deal with. I like sandwiches, but it's hard to fit a whole serving of vegetables on one. I really don't want to have to cook for lunch, as well as dinner, but I may have to sometimes. It's been kind of weird to have to think about lunch on the weekends, too. I used to just eat a late breakfast and then snack on random things whenever I got hungry (or bored). I've been feeling like I'm using up weekday lunches by eating them on the weekend, but I need to get used to planning 7 lunches a week, not 5.

I didn't give blood still. I should do that.

Overall, January was a good month. I said I was aiming for 1000 points on Joe's Goals to award myself a gold medal and I got 1305! I'm going to aim for 1400 next time. And now I should go to bed, since that's still something I need to work on.

The Plan: month one 2008

Health
I exercised 291 days last year! That's 291 more than the year before. I don't have that much room to improve this year, but I'd like to get closer to 365.
I've been wondering if I should push myself to work harder while exercising, because I have been doing pretty much the same thing all year. I think I might sign up for a session or two with a personal trainer because I still haven't felt confident enough to use the weights and I've been thinking about it most of the year.

The main thing I still need to work on is eating better. The holidays was not a good time to start a food-based goal. Now, though, I will definitely stick to my 5 fruits and vegetables a day, plus an extra one, if I eat 2 snacks, instead of 1 (but no more!).

I'd also like to get more sleep. I feel a lot better and everything is easier if I don't stay up too late. I'm going to try to go to sleep by midnight, or possibly 11pm, on weeknights.

Lab
I did 1244 blocks of 30 minutes work/reading last year. I'm not going to convert that into hours per week, because then I will feel pathetic. I'm sure it's a big improvement over the year before, at least. It does seem pretty ridiculous to only be doing 3.5 hours of work a day, even if it is an improvement, so I'd like to get up to a proper work day soon. I think I might take a different approach. I'm going to leave the house by 9.30am every day, and leave lab at 6.30pm (unless I'm busy working) and within that time I get no more than 3 hours of internet. That leaves ~5 hours for actual work. I can probably waste a fair bit of that on lunch and/or chatting with SuperGradStudent (who turns out to be kind of a slacker, too) so this might not be very different from what I've been doing. I can work on reducing the amount of internet later.

As for what I need to work on, I pretty much ignored my stated goals all year. Focussing on how much time I spent working meant I did things to fill in that time, rather than working towards completing my projects. That has to change. I have three main areas I need to work on, so the new rule is I have to do something every day to move all three of them forward, even if it's just planning or reading. Hopefully, thinking about the actual goal every day will help me make progress. I bought a new little notebook, in which I will make a list at the end of every day of what the next actions are for the following day.

It's kind of hard to list specific goals while being cryptic, so I'll just list the three main areas:

• gene X in vitro
• gene X in vivo
• gene set

I will definitely have something publishable on gene X this year and I'd like to publish the gene set, too. I have to remember that every day.

Social
I didn't make so much progress here. I tried the group therapy program, but I don't think it made a real difference. I did do some things with friends, but I'd like to do more. I need to spend less time in my room. I think I said in the enormous meme that I don't feel like I'm hiding so much anymore, but I'm still sitting in my room a lot, mainly because it's easy, and cosy, to just grab my laptop while I'm in bed. I'm going to try to at least take my laptop into a communal room, so that I talk to my housemates more.

I'm going to try again to organise dinner with people in my program. Now that I don't have group therapy on Wednesdays, I can go to the knitting group. I'm going to set up calendar reminders to email people at home more often, too.

Family
This dropped off The Plan last year because I didn't know what to do. I've hardly talked to my dad or my brothers in the last few months, though, and I'd like to do something about that. I'll set up reminders to email them more, too.

Unselfish
Another category that disappeared. I still like the idea of doing something to help people, but I'm still feeling wary of trying to do too much and like I should be concentrating on my work, since I'm still not doing enough of that. One of the tutoring places I looked at asked for a reference from your employer and I was worried that if I asked my advisor, he'd think I should be doing more work in lab before thinking of anything else. I guess I'll try to do more work then think about it again. In the meantime, I'll set up reminders to give blood more regularly.

I added entries in my Joe's goals page for more general things like practising piano and keeping my room tidy. I have done better about being tidy when I'm trying not to break a chain of days when I got ticks for it, but then once I miss a day it's easy not to restart. I think I need a reward for getting so many points, but I never did come up with anything to use as a reward. Maybe I'll try the personal olympics thing again, though. I'll aim for 800 points for bronze, 900 for silver and 1000 for gold.

I like the idea several people have posted about of having a theme for the year, but I think I need much more structure and specificity than that to get anything done.

new rule

I've discovered that I can relatively easily eat 8 servings of fruit/vegetables in a day. Today I had nine. You can guess how successful I've been at eating less crap...

So, new rule: no more than 2 fruit/vegetable servings can be used to offset the junk.

The Plan: month 9

I'm taking a break from The Plan while I'm out of town, but I'll be back tomorrow and I want to be prepared to get back into the swing of things right away.

Even though I've struggled a bit along the way, I'm looking forward to being able to do a summary of the whole year at the end of the month, so I can see how much progress I've made.

1. Health



There was a big jump in how often I went to bed before midnight. Unfortunately, most of those nights were concentrated at the start of the month. I did feel a lot better when I got more sleep, so I'm going to try to do that more. It makes it a lot easier to get going on work when I start earlier, too. Supposedly, I ate real dinners most of the time, but I think my standards are a bit too low. I'm still snacking far too much, so I think this needs to be the focus of this month's Plan. I was thinking of making it a rule that I have to eat 5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day, but now I'm wondering if I'll just eat that on top of all the junk. I wanted it to be a positive goal, rather than saying no snacks, but maybe I'll follow a friend's suggestion and make it that I have to eat 4 servings plus another one for every snack I eat.

I kept my room tidy for half the month, but then once I let it lapse into squalor, it's easy to just let it stay that way. I cleaned it up before I left so that I wouldn't come back to a horrible mess, so now I'll try to keep it that way for the month.


2. Lab



There were a few nights when I wasn't sure I was going to get enough work done by 10pm, but I made it, even if just barely. I'm going to continue that. I still feel very slack for only doing 3.5 hours of work a day, but it will do for now. Since there are only 27 days left of December, and I want to start afresh in the new year, I'm going to award a bonus star if I do another 3.5 hours in a day and try to get to 30 that way.

* stage 1: finish optimising the assay conditions, repeat the big set of experiments, analyse
Done! Kind of... One round, at least. Now I have to figure out whether this is enough, or if I need to do another one.

* stage 2: make/find the new reagents I need, use them
It would help if I actually looked at this list during the month...

* stage 3: in vivo stuff.
I should have started last month, but it looked like someone else using a different method would get the same result, so I didn't bother. Theirs didn't work, though, so now I really have to do it.

3. Social

I only have 2 weeks left of group therapy and I'm not sure it's made much difference. I think I've taken advantage of the group setting to avoid attention being focussed on me, which is kind of a pity, although I would've hated attention, too. I guess I need to find some other way of working on that...

The book club is still going for now and it might continue even after one member leaves, via conference call, but that sounds scary.

This part doesn't seem to have an actual plan. How about, I will talk to a housemate every day, even if it's just to say hi.

The Plan: month 8 (I think)

I know you don't care about The Plan (and it's not like I've built up any readerly goodwill by posting other things you might be interested in, I'm sorry. One more person can still comment on the last post and I'll send you a present, though!). I just played 3 games of 5-minute Scrabble instead of doing any work, though (at least I won), so I need some help to get back on track. I've even lost track of what month I'm on... I did finally get a whole month's worth of stars after losing momentum last month. It was a struggle, though. I was away on Sunday and should've started the new set of stars yesterday, but I gave up before I even started and checked email and blogs before doing any work. It's too late for today as well, but maybe setting out my goals will help me make something of the day, anyway.

1. Health


That doesn't look as bad as I was expecting. I did keep my room tidy for most of the month. I think I need to work on getting more sleep and eating better, despite how often the graph says I ate real meals. I know I keep saying this... Maybe I should make the stars conditional on something like that. I'm scared to, though, because I don't really think I can do it.

2. Lab


I forgot about the personal olympics thing, but I did enough to get a silver medal, anyway! I didn't realise I was doing so well (everything except writing in my lab book went up; even getting to lab by 10am) because it felt like such a struggle. What was really killing me was reading for an hour, but that was only because I kept putting it off until late at night. I think I'm going to keep the same plan (2.5 hours of work, 1 hour of reading) but make it a condition that I have to finish by 10pm. I need to focus on the specific things I keep forgetting about until I write these posts, too...

* stage 1: finish optimising the assay conditions, repeat the big set of experiments, analyse
I'm back working on figuring out assay conditions, but I have some data to analyse once I'm finished with this post that might help.

* stage 2: make/find the new reagents I need, use them
I need to pick the most important ones to make now. (I didn't do anything on that last month, but I still need to)

* stage 3: in vivo stuff.
I can actually try this now! Or almost, anyway. I should start this month, anyway. (likewise, I didn't need to change that from last time...)

3. Social
The book club I've been going to has been fun. The social anxiety group therapy is ongoing still (I have another post to write about that). I've done some fun things this month with people. The housemate I went to see the Wolves in the Walls with was teasing me about staying in my room all the time, though, so I guess I still need to work on that. I have been doing the crossword with my housemates, though.

I feel better about how I'm going after writing this out. I still haven't figured out any rewards for this, but maybe I should now.

The Plan kind of fell by the wayside again, which is okay, because it was due to good things with higher priority. I was doing surprisingly well with adding an hour of reading every day before that, anyway. In the end, I got close to a bronze medal, but didn't quite make it. I think I'll keep the same requirements for this month. Unfortunately, I won't be pleasantly distracted as much now, so I'll have no excuse not to do more work.

1. Health



I still need to do more weights stuff. I've probably delayed long enough that they'll have another orientation session, so maybe that will help.
I haven't cooked anything since the last Plan post, a month ago, so I need to start using some of the farm share veges.
I want to bring my lunch from home more, too, and get up earlier, but still get more sleep.

2. Lab



Considering how little I did last week, this isn't bad. If I just do my 2.5 hours of work plus an hour of reading every day, I'll be okay. I want to concentrate on doing things that actually move my project forward, though, rather than just filling in the time.

* stage 1: finish optimising the assay conditions, repeat the big set of experiments, analyse
I haven't finished repeating these experiments because I want to change them slightly and I haven't figure out exactly how yet. That needs to be a priority.

* stage 2: make/find the new reagents I need, use them
I need to pick the most important ones to make now.

* stage 3: in vivo stuff.
I can actually try this now! Or almost, anyway. I should start this month, anyway.

3. Social
I was back to hiding in my room today so I should avoid doing that again. I joined a book club, so I'm hoping that will be fun.
I also got a message from someone at the social anxiety group therapy place, so maybe something will happen with that.

I don't really have goals for the other categories. The Plan is shrinking... I don't want to waste all my free time on aimless procrastination, though, so guess that's another aim. I kept track of my time a while ago, in an attempt to figure out where it all went, but I never got around to posting about it. I might copy Styleygeek and try that again this week.

The Plan: month six

I got off to a good start this morning, but I've slowed down this evening... Maybe writing out my new plans will help.

1. Health



The "real dinner" line jumped way back up, mainly because I started counting meals eaten out, since at least I ate a meal instead of filling up on junk food. This week, I cut up a bunch of stuff for salads for lunches and cooked enough vaguely-moroccan stew-thing to last all week. The veges in the farm share are more appealing now, too (yay, corn!), so I'm hoping to use some more of them. I did more tidying than in previous months, but I'm not sure that translated to my room actually being pleasantly uncluttered. So, not a good month, really.
I said I was going to start using the weights at the gym. I don't think I can claim success on that one, since I've only done that once. It took me all month to work up the courage to even venture into the weights area, but now that I've realised there's a slightly less scary circuit, I'll hopefully use it more often. I just noticed there's some kind of strength class on Friday mornings so I'm going to try to go to that, too. I was thinking I might need a personal trainer to overcome my fear of the weights room and, while that didn't turn out to be true, I'm still considering it. I can go around using the machines, but I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing. Of course, I'm also scared of having a trainer see how pathetic I am...
I got up early this morning and, while it was very tempting to go back to bed after my alarm went off (it's on the other side of the room, in an attempt to force me to wake up), it was very nice to have a bunch of ticks on my joe's goals page before 10am.

2. Professional



Last month's super-high point for time worked was an aberration, but this month wasn't so bad, especially considering it wasn't a whole month. I'm trying something ambitious this month: adding another whole hour a day of reading (since my "papers to read" bookmark folder (which I just resorted to after firefox started running slow, with the 50 million papers open in tabs) just keeps growing). And I'm aiming for a total of 20 hours of work a week, which is another 2.5 hours spread out over the week. That still seems pathetic, especially after reading all the discussion about whether or not academic work can be confined to a 9-5 job, but it'll be a big jump from 12.5. In aid of this goal, I'm going to try to limit non-work internet use to 2 hours before either 6pm, or I've done 3.5 hours of work, whichever comes later.

* stage 1: finish optimising the assay conditions, repeat the big set of experiments, analyse
I figured out a way of analysing my data that I think makes sense, although it doesn't give me graphs quite this pretty... I'm waiting for new reagents so I can test whether it will work again. I'm back to being aimless in terms of knowing what to do next. I thought I could just go ahead with the rest of the big set of experiments, but now my advisor is asking if I want to do various other things instead. Argh. This is why I need to read more, though.

* stage 2: make/find the new reagents I need, use them
I need to read more for this, too. And then actually do something with my list that's been sitting around for months.

* stage 3: in vivo stuff.
I did set up an experiment with this stuff last week, but then I killed my cells... I just set it up again today. Remind me not to add antibiotics this time.

3. Social
I've been doing better at emailing people, although still not as much as at the start of the year. I have been more sociable, I think, but I've also kind of been hiding from my housemates a bit. I missed out on a couple of fun things they were doing because I just haven't been around, or joined in their conversation properly. I'll try to work on that.
I'm not sure what else to do...

5. Being Selfish
I gave blood! It was so quick and easy compared to trying to donate platelets.
I'm not sure what else to do. I'm still contemplating the idea of tutoring, but maybe I really am too selfish and/or scared.

6. Other
Maybe I should drop this category, too... Or come up with a goal. Oh, I should really get back to taking photos for project 365, I guess. And post my backlog...

I've been reading about various productivity and goal-setting systems at Reinhard Engels' Everyday Systems. I'd come across his shovelglove exercise routine before, but what caught my eye this time was the Personal Olympics. I'm setting the minimum blocks of work to satisfy my star goals (176) as a bronze medal. 198 is worth silver and 220 is gold. 176 is above even last months high score, but I think I can do it, besides any medal should be a stretch, I think.
I'm also thinking of trying his No-S diet (no sugar, snacks or sweets, except on days starting with S), because the no-sugar thing did work well for a while; it was only after I gave up on it that I started eating far too much rubbish. Getting to eat sweet things on weekends and special days might be enough to make it sustainable.

Okay, I only have to read for 53 more minutes to get my star for today, so I'm going back to it.

return of The Plan

I was feeling quite awake and alert this morning, but unfortunately that didn't last long after arriving at the lab. Still, I was determined to get a star again. Also unfortunately, that determination didn't translate into actual work and I procrastinated until now, but I did make it eventually!

This month's star requirements are:

• go to the gym
• list 3 things to get done during the day
• do half an hour of work before checking email
• another hour before reading my favourite blogs
• another hour before reading other blogs
• reply to one email from a friend

I'm going to set some more specific non-star goals, too, since I always seem to forget about the rest of The Plan. I'm going to start using the weights at the gym. I got the first load of veges from the farm share today, so I'm going to start cooking dinner properly using them. I'll also take my lunch to work more. I'm going to give blood again, too.

I wasn't awake enough to go to the gym this morning, but I went tonight. I was looking forward to going back to the nice, non-hilly, multitaskable-with-reading elliptical machine instead of having to run outside, but I should have remembered that if I wait until the last hour the gym is open I'll have to run on a treadmill, without headphones, and have to watch the Asian tv channel because it's the only thing with subtitles. At least it's been relatively entertaining both times. Last time it was an Indian soap opera with lots of tangled love affairs and today it was about gisaeng (similar to geishas - I was confused for a while by them not having Japanese names; I didn't realise there were equivalents in other countries and I clearly would fail these tests), one of whom was pregnant with a royal family member's child, which made the others very jealous.

In unrelated news, I really want this shirt:



Except, I also really don't like wearing black...

The Plan: month 5

I'm having a break from The Plan, kind of, while I'm home, although I did pinky swear to maintain my commitment to personal fitness, so I'm running most days (I did skip a couple while travelling further, and because I figured cleaning the squalor in my brother's house so he could have his 21st there counted as a workout). I’m feeling very unfit, despite all the gym going, because I got another cold and cough and couldn’t go far without getting out of breath for a while. The hills are killing me, too. I’m used to nice flat ground.
I have been trying to see all the people I've been slack about keeping in touch with, but several are away, unfortunately. One has actually swapped cities with me. I’m feeling bad about not keeping in touch very well. I think once I get back I should add writing an email each day to the star requirements.
I haven’t really been doing the positive thoughts, either, which would be good. I’m noticing how my mum could do with trying that, though.
Here's the late update for last month.

1. Health



I’ve been going to the gym (or running outside when the gym was closed/I didn’t have time). Luckybuzz was kind enough to take me to her gym and show me around the weights machines so I could start using them, but I was too scared to try the ones at the gym I go to by myself. I’ll have to work on that once I get back.
I’m still not doing so well at eating proper meals, although I’m working somewhere with slightly better lunch options and I think I wasn’t counting dinners when I ate out, even though I originally created that goal to encourage myself to stop eating cookies and junk food for dinner, so I guess that should count. I did start doing better at bringing my own lunch, though. And I’ve been getting up earlier, although that might not be such a good thing when I’m still going to bed late…

2. Professional



I actually made preliminary graphs for this before the 30 days were up, because I had a feeling I had done more work than ever this month and I wanted to see the encouraging positive slope. Mainly that’s been due to finally getting to do the first of the big set of experiments, so I had a lot of set labwork that absolutely needed to be done, rather than trying to figure out what I should be doing with my data. I’ll be back to more amorphous work for a bit, but hopefully I’ll have enough data to work with that I’ll be able to keep the upward trend.
When I told the therapist that I’d been doing much better for a while now, she asked about how work was going. I said it was better than it was but I still wasn’t doing enough, she asked why that was and if I actually liked my program/project. I’ve spent a long time just working on optimising technical details, which isn’t very exciting. I’m hoping that I’ll be more interested and motivated once I have some real results to do something more interesting with, but that is still worrying. I’m back to wondering if I should be more excited about my work in general.
stage 1: finish optimising the assay conditions, repeat the big set of experiments, analyse data
I did the first batch of the big set of experiments! I’m not sure exactly what to do with all my data and it’s a bit hard without having internet or anyone to talk to about it, but I’ve been playing with it a bit.

• stage 2: make/find the new reagents I need, use them
  I still need to discuss this with my advisor
• stage 3: in vivo stuff
  This stuff is almost ready, no thanks to me. I’ll get to do some fun stuff with it once I get back, I think.
  

3. Social
I sent an email to the people in my program who I wanted to see again and none of them replied so now I feel all rejected… I don’t feel like trying again, which is a pity, since I like them.
I didn’t invite anyone to the barbecue my house had, but I did go and talk to people, at least.
I’m waiting to hear back from the social anxiety people about group therapy. I’m trying not to think about it so I won’t freak out.
I’ve got a few people to catch up with while I’m home. I’ve already seen 2 people, but some of them I haven’t been very good about keeping in contact with so I’m kind of scared of calling them.

5. Being Selfish
I haven’t done a thing for this.

6. Other
I didn’t really do much for this either.
From last month: "I think I've been forgetting that The Plan is not only about the stars... I should keep track of the other components better."
I forgot about that, too…

The Plan: month four (nothing new this time)

1. Health

The gym is fine, but other things are still not going so well. I ate chips/fries for dinner today, but at least they were sweet potato ones and therefore had some vitamins along with the salt and fat... I haven't been too good about getting up early, although I have done it a few times. I haven't done anything about starting weights training either.

2. Professional

I did more work than I realised this month. Before I made the graph I would've guessed I'd done about the same as last month. The work-before-blogs strategy worked better than I thought.

I think my slackerliness at lab has made me less likely to cook proper meals for dinner, since I'm coming home too late. The therapist last time asked if I was feeling like I was back to my old self, or better or still not as good yet. I wasn't sure, because I think some things are better now and some still aren't. What I would really like to get back to, is my work habits from my second rotation, where I got to lab by 9am, worked most of the day, with only short email/craigslist breaks (that was when I was moving out of the dorm and needed furniture) and went home at 6pm. I'm still too far from that to have it as an immediate goal, but I know it's possible.
Actually, maybe I should set that as a goal, as far off as it seems. I did go from no exercise at all back up to what I was doing then, so maybe I could do this too. I'm not sure...
Dividing my required work time up into stages has been working pretty well, but I'm still focussing on 2.5 hours of work a day, rather than on getting things done. What worked during that rotation was that I had a detailed list of things that needed doing and someone regularly (like constantly) checking up on me to make sure I was doing them. I could probably recreate some of that, but I have been slack about even making lists because it's anxiety-producing to even know all the things I should be doing.

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

I optimised all the stuff I thought I needed to and then the part of the assay I thought was fine turned out to be noisy, too. I'm hoping that won't need too much more work, because I'd like to have the big set of experiments done before I go home. Today's analysis showed that the noise wasn't as bad as I thought, or at least was due to easily fixed things, so I can go ahead and start the pre-big experiments experiment!

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

I finished the list but have forgotten to show my advisor to get his opinion, still...

• stage 3: in vivo stuff

Apparently this is back on and I should have done stuff for it already.

3. Social

After I had dinner with classmates last month (or was it 2 months ago?), we decided we should get together every couple of weeks, but it hasn't happened again. I should send an email about that. I also need to reply to many other emails...

I have the 4 hour social anxiety group screening appointment next week. I'm scared... I just got a big envelope in the mail today with a pile of questionnaires to fill out beforehand. I thought maybe that would be part of the 4 hours, but what are they going to do that will take all that time?

4. Family

Maybe I should get rid of this section if I can't even come up with a goal for it.

5. Being Selfish

I'm still selfish. I should give blood. I'm thinking more about volunteering for the Samaritans now. Do you think that would help my anxiety about talking to people at all (that isn't so unselfish of me...), or would I just be useless at it?

6. Other

I have been taking the photography class, although I skipped the portraits entirely. This week is the last one.

I knitted socks for my mum for mothers' day, but I haven't done any of my DNA scarf in a while. I should start going to the knitting group again. I completely forgot about going today, though.

I need to tidy my room more often again.

I think I've been forgetting that The Plan is not only about the stars... I should keep track of the other components better.

For the stars this month, though, I think I'm going to add picking 3 things to do each day and making sure I get them done, in an attempt to focus more on what I'm trying to accomplish in lab, rather than just on putting in time. I'm also going to do some of the Overcoming Social Anxiety exercises each day.

The Plan: month three (now with metagoals!)

The Pathfinder, which I read recently, talked about setting metagoals first as a way to stay motivated. It's easier to ignore small goals if you forget why you actually set the goal in the first place, or if the small goal isn't actually helping you reach the metagoal. That seems to make sense, so I've tried to figure out what my metagoals are for each category this month. Maybe that will help me focus on what's actually important.

1. Health

The gym is still going fine. I signed up for an Extreme Boot Camp class this month, too. I've only been to one class so far and I spent the next few days hobbling around like a geriatric invalid... It actually didn't seem that bad at the time, but apparently I was using muscles I'd never really used before.

Eating real meals has gone downhill post-No-sugar-thing, unfortunately, so I think I will have to work on that. That period also coincided with my thesis committee meeting, though, so I'm hoping at least part of my crappy eating was due to that. I'm still not doing well at resisting free food; I ate nothing but that on Friday.

I'm still a bit unsure about whether the no-sugar thing was a good idea. I felt good at the time and I was eating better, even if I felt like I was still eating plenty of savoury junk food. The problem is that I seem to have gotten worse at eating in moderation compared to before I cut out sugar entirely. I said I was thinking of making it more permanent, but I think I would need a closer end point to avoid being discouraged by the idea of forever. I also thought about making it no sugar except for special occasions, but what would count as a special occasion? I kind of feel like I should work on just eating normally, though, without requiring any strict rules. I'll see how that goes, now that my committee meeting is over. If I continue the way I have been, though, I'll be back on (or is it off?) the no-sugar wagon.

I did start getting up early again this week, and it made me feel good to have done my first half hour of work before I would previously have even left home. I'm going to try doing that a bit more often, I think. Assuming I can get to sleep at a reasonable hour.

My metagoal for health would be to be able to do anything I want, without worrying about whether I'm too unfit or something, and also to prevent any health problems in the long term. I was kind of bored yesterday and took that real age test. I think I'd taken it before when I was depressed and came out to be older than my chronological age, but this time I was a couple of years younger. The test's most relevant recommendations were to eat more vegetables, take a multivitamin and do some strength training, not just aerobic. I can do the vegetable and vitamin things fairly easily, but I'm not sure about the strength training. I'm kind of scared of the weights room at the gym, because I don't know how to use any of the equipment or what I should be doing or anything. I was thinking at one point of signing up for a session with a personal trainer so they could tell me what to do. Should I do that? Or should I be able to figure it out for myself somehow?

2. Professional

After my committee meeting this week, I'm feeling like my metagoal here should just be "to graduate". Ideally, I would like to answer some interesting question (or at least make a significant contribution towards answering one), but should I save that goal for once I have the PhD?

I was hoping my star-goal this month, of doing 2 hours of work every day would have made me more productive, but sadly that hasn't been the case. I've done more work this month than last, but still less than in January, when I was newly motivated by The Plan. It's been far more of a struggle, too. I've spent far too many late evenings attempting to stay awake and/or motivated long enough to do the work I'd put off all day. I can do the half hour before I check email fairly easily, because it's shorter and I get a real reward at the end. Once I've done that, though, I kind of feel like it's okay to spend the next 3 hours reading blogs because I've got plenty of time to fit 2 hours of work in later. I thought of making it that half an hour of work only earns me half an hour of email/blog reading, and repeating that throughout the day. Anyone have any other suggestions?
I'm feeling really quite pathetic that I can't even do 2 measly hours of work.

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

I'm still on the same "second last" set of optimisation experiments from last month... I suck.

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

I still haven't cleaned up the list from last month...

• stage 3: in vivo stuff

A little progress was made on this (mostly not by me), but my committee doesn't like this bit, so I might not even end up doing it.

• New big project: figure out what I'm going to measure, and how

All that reading I did last month was probably for nothing, since this is probably far too big a project to start now, unless I want to be in grad school forever. Side projects may also not be happening. I need to figure out what I'm doing in general.

I have also done no reading and not written in my lab book. I didn't realise how pathetic this month was until now... I really need to do something about this. I have another post to write about it, too, so I'll save my discussion for there.

I was fairly uninspired and pessimistic about my chances for becoming, or at least feeling, more productive, but the Official Star Arbitrator just helped me come up with a plan. The plan is:

• half an hour of work
• check email
• an hour of work
• read my very favourite blogs
• an hour of work
• read other blogs

It would be nice if I did some more work after that (I'm hoping getting that much work done earlier will make it more likely), but that will do. Thanks, Official Star Arbitrator! :)

3. Social

The other thing the Real Age test told me to work on was having more close friends. I guess that's the metagoal for this category, but I'm not entirely sure how to do that. I'm closer to having the kind of friends I can do fun things with, at least.

I still haven't emailed the procrastination group leader back. I can't see myself emailing her again, now, even if you were right about her being used to people procrastinating like that.

I'm not taking any happy pills and feeling fine about that. I had a kind of awkward interaction with the therapist where she asked if I had an appointment to see the psychiatrist again and when I said no, she thought that was odd and looked up his notes in the computer to see if he had said I should come back. Luckily, he hadn't, but I should probably tell her I stopped taking the drugs. I feel no different to when I was taking them, so I think I'm okay.

Although, I emailed the psychiatrist before the last appointment to say I was feeling much happier and did I really need to increase the dose and he said that my lack of motivation could be a sign of undermedication, so I should take more. I might be less motivated than I was in January, so should I try taking the medication again? I wish I had a control me, so I could tell if it was really making a difference.

I got all caught up on email last month, but I haven't replied since then...

I did have a bunch of fun social things this month, though, which was good. Dinner with my classmates was fun. They are interesting and funny people so I enjoyed mostly listening to them talk, but then I felt bad when they noticed I was so quiet and worried that they were being too overbearing. I just have nothing to say, though...

4. Family

I need to email my brothers and my Dad. One of my brothers just started a blog because he's travelling, so I'm feeling bad for not even commenting on it.

I still don't know what my goals here are. Should I be aiming for being something like close friends with my family or something different?

5. Being Selfish

I'm not sure whether the metagoal here is to think about people other than myself for a bit, or to make myself feel like a better person by doing something nice...

I tried, and failed, to donate platelets, so I don't think that counts. I should donate whole blood sometime. I should also look into the tutoring thing properly.

6. Other

I guess the metagoal here is to do something more worthwhile (but still fun) than aimless websurfing with my non-work time. Maybe I should be working on more sociable pursuits, instead of more things to do alone, though. I was thinking of taking a hiking class, as a more sociable activity than photography or practising piano, but it conflicts with a lab-related class, unfortunately. I should start going to the knitting group meetings again, I think.

I haven't really done much of anything hobby related. I'm taking this photography class, but I should put more effort into the photos this week (also the photos for project 365; mine have been lame, lately).

I didn't end up keeping my room tidy for the whole month, but it has been tidy a lot more often, which is nice.

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.