Game Plan

Here's my game plan for the next 10 days, during which I have to write 5 papers of various lengths. Can I do it? I'll have to! May 2 - Read all baseball newspaper articles - Take careful notes on these articles - Read at least 3 essays for I paper 2 - Take careful notes on essays May 3 - Organize and start writing baseball paper - Finish last 4 essays for I paper 2 May 4 - Write I paper 2 (5-7 pages) - Turn in I paper 2 - Go to library for next sources, I paper 3 - Continue writing baseball paper - Department party May 5 - Work secondary sources into baseball paper - Read sources on I paper 3 - Take notes on these sources May 6 - Finish baseball paper - proof and polish (15-25 pages) - Finish source notes and organize I paper 3 (if time) May 7 - Baseball paper DUE 10 am - Write I paper 3 (9-12 pages) - Turn in I paper 3 May 8 - Gut 8 sources for mid-class paper - Read blog source for I paper 1 - Pick parts of books and make notes - Start writing I paper 1 if possible May 9 - Finish writing I paper 1 (5-7 pages) - Turn in I paper 1 - Gut 8 sources for mid-class paper May 10 - Organize and start mid-class paper May 11 - Finish mid-class paper (15 pages min) - Mid-class paper DUE 5 pm

From A to Z

So I have a new person to help remind me to "get to work!" So that's one good thing (among the many things that are making my life feel like crap at the moment).

A few things about today that might help steer me into "let's go!" mode for the end of the semester: 1. I spoke to Dr. I about one of the papers for the end of the semester. It helped me figure out exactly what my focus should be, and makes me more motivated to sit down and work on it. Woot! 2. I now have an adviser. Not "officially" as that requires paperwork, but insofar as we had the conversation consisting of "Are you my adviser now?", "Yes, I'd like that", then I have an adviser. Woot, woot! 3. Talked to said adviser and think I finally have a topic/focus for my dissertation. Not that I'll be working on it at all this semester, but it just gives me a lot of motivation for getting through the first things to get there. Woot, woot, woot! 4. One of my classmates needs to borrow my book for Tuesday's class. He gave me a deadline of Saturday to get it to him. Thank you for the early deadline! Woot x 4!

Also, Dr. Adviser said that if I got thrown into jail over the summer and I couldn't get hold of my local cousin, I could call him and he'd come bail me out. :) I thought that was pretty cool of him.

Now, I feel like I'm ready to buckle down, that I have a place to start for this weekend, and I can plan better what needs to be done. Which is super!

Okay, really?

This is crazy. I might be crazy. What is wrong with me? Thing to do for the day: read for Dr. I's class. That's it. That's my one goal for the day (and to get my taxes done, but let's not go there). Geez!

It's Only Tuesday!

PA and I have been keeping our lists going on Google docs for the past few days. Sunday and Monday I did fairly well. Today I kinda dropped the ball. Which makes me sad, but it's done, and, as PA said to me just a little bit ago, there's still time to make it up, as it's only Tuesday. It's not that I did nothing, but I didn't get much done academically. But tomorrow I'm going to come out with fists flying. I'm determined. I know I say that all the time, but I'm in earnest at this point. I did well a couple of days, and I'm not going to let one day not doing quite as well drag me down! It's only Tuesday, after all!

Accountability Partner Meeting!

So I got an accountability partner - yay! We had a meeting today to figure out the contours of our accountability practices. We're going to use an online Google doc (on which we've already put our master lists) to keep our goals in front of us and each other. We put together mini lists for today (I did MOST of mine, but not all of it), and we were supposed to make a plan for what we were going to get done in each of the next three days. AP (that's your acronym/name, accountability partner!) pointed out that making a list for the entire week was probably not the way to go, and I agreed; it's biting off more than we can chew at this point. So I made a rough outline of what I want to get done in the next few days. It's probably way too much, but I want to see what I do when I raise the expectation bar a little. I may have to lower it again, but this is also a good exercise for me and AP to get used to what our limits are.

We share one project in common, since we have one class together, but of course our preparation for the project (a research paper) looks very different, as he knows his secondary literature, and I don't. We do hope to meet once or twice a week, if we can swing it, because we found just talking about our respective projects helped us to get a better grasp on what exactly we're dealing with and what needs to get done. I think it was a very productive meeting! More in the near future on the adventures in taming the BEAST!

10 Days to Get My Shit Together

So I had an idea for trying to beat spring break procrastination. First of all (sadly), I'm not going home. I don't work at home. I visit and hang out, which is what going to the parents' house is about, in my opinion. So I'm staying here.

Secondly, and this is my idea, I have a piece of blank 8x10 notebook paper for each day until classes start back. On that paper I will list each thing I accomplished that day. If I don't accomplish anything, the paper will remain blank. They're all taped to my closet door, so I have to stare at them when I wake up and when I go to bed. I hope it will give me motivation to get things done, so I won't have to look at blank sheets of shame when I go to bed. (If it works, I may adopt this as a regular thing.)

And so, off to fill today's sheet of paper!!

Procrastination is the Matrix.

...and the Matrix has you.