All this talk about productivity ... some of it may be right

There's loads of stuff people say, write, link and tweet and blog about productivity.
I've come to realise most of them don't mean sh***. It's a statistical rule, don't look at me.

However, every now and then, something passes your sight, as mine did just now (while not being productive), something worth sharing. Either that or it's just a statistical error, if you catch my drift.

8 Things Productive People Do During the Workday <link here>

Highlights for me are numbers 4 and 7:

1. Create a smaller to-do list.
2. Take breaks. You know that ache that fills your brain when you’ve been powering through tasks for several hours? This is due to your brain using up glucose. Too many people mistake this for a good feeling, rather than a signal to take a break. Go take a walk, grab something to eat, workout, or meditate – give your brain some resting time. Achieve more productivity during your workday by making a point to regularly clear your head. You’ll come back recharged and ready to achieve greater efficiency.

This, I find particularly useful. Though I fail to see how watching/reading news is just another form of other contents giving you direction instead of your own self. So scratch that one out.

4. Start your day by focusing on yourself.
If you begin your morning by checking your email, it allows others to dictate what you accomplish. Set yourself in the right direction by ignoring your emails and taking the morning to focus on yourself, eat a good breakfast, meditate, or read the news.

5. Take on harder tasks earlier in the day. Knock out your most challenging work when your brain is most fresh. Save your busy work – if you have any – for when your afternoon slump rolls in.

6. Pick up the phone. (And call people instead of mailing them, if possible.)
If you receive an email where many people are CC'd, do everyone a favor by BCCing them on your reply. If your email chain goes beyond two replies, it’s time to pick up the phone. Increase your productivity by scheduling a call.

7. Create a system. If you know certain things are ruining your daily productivity, create a system for managing them. Do you check your emails throughout the day? Plan a morning, afternoon, and evening time slot for managing your email. Otherwise, you’ll get distracted from accomplishing more important goals throughout the day.

8. Don’t confuse productivity with laziness.

Planning the thesis work. Getting somewhere.

Spot on.

From: PhD comics: Planning.

If Windows Word was a cute little baby lamb ... I'd KICK IT.

I am only writing my thesis chapters [nevermind layout] and yet a familiar feeling is creeping back in: I think I will want to MURDER Word at some point.

If Word was a cute little baby lamb, I'd probably kick it. Yes, it's that bad.

I am posting this well in advance, so that when I arrive to that I-want-to-murder-a-computer-program sensation, I'll look back at this and laugh.

Mailing professors

Spot on.

Source: PhD comicshttp://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd072508s.gif

Breathe, Eat and Dream

I think there's quite a danger I'll get so absorbed by my thesis I'll eat it, breathe it, dream IT for the next couple of months!
My thesis and Ultimate, that is.

What! It's an interesting and comprehesive topic!
And Ultimate -- well, it's Ultimate. Doh.

For more, go see:

• Developing an intelligent Ultimate Frisbee Player. Emery Lin, 2003. MIT. http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/29679/53842287.pdf?sequence=1Frisbee Flight
  
• Simulation and Throw Biomechanics. SARAH ANN HUMMEL, 1997. UC Davis. http://biosport.ucdavis.edu/research-projects/frisbee-flight-simulation-and-throw-biomechanics/HummelThesis.pdf

Writing essays - tip#1

I just thought of a good way to go about writing your essay:

1. start with posing your questions. Define clear goal, as precise as possible, as to what you will research and write about (and what not).


2. After you've read half of the shit load of literature you're going to read in too short a time, re-visit your essay plan and try not to re-formulate the questions, but rather add to them. Try to get speciffic questions down on paper. What would you as a reader like to know about the topic? In what order? Yes, OK, I get that, but what about this? (Alternatively, OK, I get this, but what about that?)


3. Read more articles, but be mindful of the living force as well, i.e., write down ALL the references.
   A good idea would be to keep a separate document (or just use your paper/article with your scratches and notes on it) and add the parts of the text you find interesting, highlight (by chance, colour code by and for the different topic/part of your essay) and add your comments.


4. Revisit your questions, add some if necessary. (At the end you'll probably have to cut your essay by a third anyway, so don't worry.)


5. Write, with answering the specific questions in your essay draft. The beauty of it is that you don't necessarily need to do it in order, since the questions are already in order.

Eat, drink plenty and have some healthy exercise inbetween. Have fun, and listen to the midiclorians (er ... your inner ironic/comic, too-tired self). Put some music on.

Happy hunting.

P.S.: Read your essay before you hand it in. (And after you've read it, went to sleep and read it again the next day.)

Bears and Rabbits: Why mentors are important

As I discovered just today, in discussion with the best study advisor in the world, mentors are truly important in life.
  You can learn from them, they can guide you ... as long as you are compatible and have developped a mutual liking.

This brings me back to the beggining of my study, to a story about the Rabbit who did a MSc (PhD) thesis.
The Rabbit is writing a Thesis on "The Wolf is a jackass". All the animals in the forest are totally scared and advise the Rabbit to quit that particular thesis title and get a new one. But the Rabbit insists and is stubborn.
  The Fox, upon hearing it from the Rabbit, runs to the Wolf and tells him. Wolf, all enraged at the repulsive thesis title, rushes to the Rabbit and shouts at him, what does he think he is and that he'll eat him straight away (to show he's not a jackass).
  Out from the bushes behind the Rabbit steps a huge bear. And the wolf all of the sudden, has no quarrel with the Rabbit anymore.
  Moral of the story is: It doesn't matter what the Thesis Title/Topic is, what matters is who is your supervisor.
:)