Thirdly review 2008, Part 3

Yet again, I've been putting off my Thirdly review. This review will cover mid-May through end of August.

Summer is usually when I go on vacation, but I didn't do much this year. I was tired of how hectic pace of the spring and just wanted to stay home. However, I did go to Washington DC to visit my second cousin and her family. I thought it was just going to be my cousin, her husband, and the kids, but then her mom and her sister's family (including an infant and newborn) showed up. So the trip wasn't really relaxing since there were so many people around. With so many kids, the parents seemed incredibly stressed and that rubbed off on me.

I played hockey in the co-ed summer league for the fourth year-in-a-row. I don't really have much to say about it, but our team did advance to the championship game, which was nice. I also dabbled in learning Chinese during July. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep it up due to time constraints. I hope I can pick it up again sometime.

I tried to improve my work ethic by setting up routines and rituals. I started a five-day-a-week gym habit on June 17th. I think my initial lifting routines contained too many exercises, which made my workouts both inefficient and overly time-consuming. Gradually over time, I figured out which exercises to keep and which to throw out. I really liked doing the habit five days a week (on weekdays) because I couldn't skip any days. In late August, I studied Rippetoe & Kilgore's Starting Strength book and that helped me understand how to train properly. I finally knew how to do the major lifts with proper technique and that gave me the confidence to go up in weight. I doubled my squat and deadlift numbers in a month. Overall, the gym experiment was very successful. It made me feel better physically and mentally and conferred discipline. If I wake up and go to the gym before 9 am, it's probably going to be a good day.

I've also been trying to establish good habits for my bedtime and rise time. Ideally, I'd like to wakeup at 5:30 am and go to bed at 9:30 pm. I had a nice week in August where I actually accomplished my wakeup time. I haven't been able to do consistently ever since. I have found a good way to encourage me to go to bed by 9:30 pm. It works as follows. I try to finish up everything (email, logging, news) by 9 pm. I watch a 20-minute episode of Scrubs and hop into bed. This works pretty well.

I notice that I have problems with unplanned disruptions. During early August, I got hooked to following the Olympics. In late August, I received the Starting Strength book in the mail and started studying it. I thought I could learn it in one day but it took over four days. That meant my work being stalled for a week. Two weeks ago, I had to work out some issues with a friend of mine. Once I get disrupted, I takes me a long time to get back on track. I hope that when I finish establishing good sleeping and working habits, I won't have so many problems.

Thirdly Review 2008, Part 2

I've been remiss in doing my quarterly review. I had it on my schedule to write up my review a month ago, but then I felt a little down (I had to send in my laptop for repair), so I put off writing it.

Also, I realized that quarterly isn't accurate since I only plan to review after each semester and the summer. So the title has been appropriately changed to "thirdly." Onto the review.

The contents of this review are only going to address January through May, even though I'm writing in June. My work output really hasn't improved since my last report. First, I went through a craze where I spent vast amounts of time analyzing Sondheim musicals. I think it was useful to use musical plays as a means of self-reflection, but it did take up a lot of time. Then after that ended, I had a whole bunch of visits from various people (including my dad coming to see me for a whole week) plus I flew cross-country to see my sister and I had a weekend-long hockey tournament in Vermont. Somewhere around April, the Stanley Cup Playoffs started and I would find myself watching a 3 hour game every 2-3 days, going to bed at midnight or later (because my favorite team lives in the Pacific time zone), and then trying to get up early and failing. Ugh. Normally, all of this stuff wouldn't be a problem, but if I'm already having trouble getting started on my work, disruptions are major sabotage.

Non-work wise, I just had the usual activities: reading my RSS feeds, checking online forums, watching Battlestar Galactica, and playing hockey. I think the amount of time I read RSS feeds is reasonable (average of 1.5 hours a day). I could definitely cut back, but I'm not sure I want to. I check Facebook once a day but that doesn't take long (about 10 minutes a day). I feel like Facebook has gotten to the point where you have to check it daily like email. I don't spend as much time on forums (hockey, musicals) as much as I used to. I learned what I need to know for the most part, so it's not necessary to spend as much time. Hockey, next to RSS feed reading, takes up the most time. Of all my activities, this is the only one that involves real contact with people, so I am definitely keeping this one. I just concluded my second season with the women's team and I really feel like part of the team now. I genuinely enjoy the company of my teammates. It's wonderful.

This third, I'm planning on staying in town for the most part except for a few day trips. That will cut down on distractions and help me focus on work. I'm trying to put less pressure on myself and keep up a sunny disposition (listen to South Pacific!). I think it's helping me a lot. To keep me on track, I'm slavishly trying to follow a schedule where I get up at 5:30 am every morning and go to the gym 5 days a week. It's really hard, but I think it will be worth it. The trick is to focus on just a few things at a time. I just find it so hard to let go of all ridiculous ambitions.

Now that I'm socializing more with my hockey teammates, I would like to extend that to fellow graduate students. I have a habit of turning down invitations. Being alone isn't so bad, but it is definitely not a good thing in the long term. I have to work on making eye contact and stopping to say hello to people more. I need to get back to my friendly West Coast self! My hockey teammate recently pointed out to me that I see relationships as a black-and-white thing, which unfortunately is not true. I want to work on getting more comfortable with "gray."

That's pretty much a wrap. The key is to want to get better and to believe that things will get better.

Thirdly review 2008, Part 1

I feel like I'm ready to do my first quarterly review. Actually, it's not really quarterly but thirdly. It seems more convenient to break the year into fall, spring, and summer since I'm on an academic schedule. Fall semester ended and spring semester started this week, so it's time.

Since this is my first quarterly review, it will be exploratory. First, I will review my progress from last fall (September - December). This was the first semester in a long time where I was serious about my work. I wanted to be challenged, so I took two classes (atomic physics and mesoscopic physics) while doing research. Unfortunately, I wasn't mentally prepared for such a huge workload. Atomic physics took up a lot of time, I ended up dropping mesoscopic physics, and hardly doing any research. I should have realized that two classes would be too much. I've hardly done any research in the past two years, so continuing the trend was very bad. By the end of the semester, I was frustrated and somedays, even on the verge of tears (I guess I don't take failure very well). On the positive side, going to class helped me develop some discipline and there were times that I actually felt excited about science again. I also tried making time cards and it was pretty effective at keeping me from procrastinating. I'll have to start doing them again. Another idea that worked well for me was blocking administrative tasks. If I know that there is a day where I can do non-academic work, I'm less likely to procrastinate.

Now I'll talk about my non-work life. Just like in the previous year, I didn't have much social contact except for a few work-related parties. I was really interested in hockey and did a lot of research about hockey equipment. I'm pretty happy now that I found a stick and gloves that I like. I'm still working on skates, though. Unfortunately, changing equipment has thrown off my game a bit (particularly the skates), but I can live with that. I've been eating better and getting more fruit in my diet. I noticed that I gained some weight at the end of the semester due to lack of exercise (besides hockey) and eating too much at the dining hall. I still read blogs and news feeds, but I think I did a good job of cutting it down. Most days I only need an hour to cover the feeds which I think is about right. At the end of the semester, I discovered Sondheim (a life-changing cultural event for me) and it made me realize how much I miss art (broadly defined as literature, music, fine art, etc). In the last few years, I've focused a lot on very practical things like lifehacking.

Some changes that I propose:

• Spending less time reading about hockey. It's a great diversion, but I just don't have time to read the hockey forums and follow all the details of the San Jose Sharks. I don't think I get much out of it either.
  
• Going to the gym at 6 am. Last fall, I wanted to go in the afternoon so that I could start work earlier. In reality, I would feel tired and talk myself out of going to the gym or have to attend some talk/meeting. So I just ended up never going.
  
• Eating smaller portions at the dining hall. This one shouldn't be too hard; I just have to pay attention. Also, if I lift weights, I'll put on more muscle and burn more calories. So the combination of eating right and going to the gym should keep my weight stable.
  
• I'd like to experience more of the New York theater scene. I might never live close enough to Manhattan to see live shows, so I should make good use of the opportunity. However, I have to be careful and not let my interests run out of control. I propose planning one trip to New York a month (I could go a little more often, but then I'd be bankrupt).
  
• I need to come up with an academic gameplan. I should be attending more seminars, but which ones? Should I take the advanced mesoscopic physics class?
  
• I need to get more people invested in my academic progress besides my advisor. How do I do that?
  

The last two items were questions, so I need to work on them. Stay tuned for a later post.