June
The name of the game is sustainability. Sometimes sustainability can be achieved in non-intuitive ways. For example, in a previous post I described how I was going to warm-up at the beginning of idea sessions by doing a 5x5 idea list (based on things I should be thinking about everyday anyways) before my "real" idea list of the day. While this sounds like way more work, it actually results in finishing my idea habit in LESS time and thus is MORE sustainable. Since I've implemented it, I've never had trouble finishing my idea habit within 30 minutes (including associated reading). And that's because it just gets my brain working on actual ideas rather than worrying "is this going to be a good idea list?"
I work out almost every day without needing to give it a second thought. It's just part of life. I have no problem dropping everything at any given time of day, changing, and running to the gym. This is exactly what I imagined doing with my June goals. The entire point of doing a 30-day trial where I focus intensely on a handful of goals is to overcome the activation energy barrier, and then I can keep doing it without using up mental willpower. In particular, generating ideas and reading the scientific literature on a daily basis proved to have just as much utility as I had originally imagined. Thus, I have a conscious motivation to keep doing them. I just needed to get started. Furthermore, I've simply become used to doing them, and quite possibly I've become emotionally attached to them (in a good way). Once this happens, not only is it easy to continue doing them without all this deliberate tracking, but I subconsciously feel like something is wrong if I haven't completed them yet on a given day. Thus, it is sustainable.
I will continue idea generation and reading, but I won't be tracking them daily.
I'm much happier with my goal of waking up at 6am than the graph would suggest. I've been tracking my goals in a binary fashion- yes I woke up at 6am, or no I didn't. But simply focusing on waking up earlier has helped me stop wasting time at night and just get to bed, and I have more willpower to get my butt out of bed. Hence, my average waking time has shifted from 9:30am to 7:30am, and that has been great for productivity. I used to think I'm not a morning person, using that as an excuse not to wake up early. Boy was I wrong.
July
Conversely, while my "Lab Plan" goal looks like a success on the graph, there was way too much stuff for me to juggle in lab to really plan anything long-term (to remind you, I'm already pretty happy with my ability to plan within a day). While I worked on my Lab Plan most days, it never made any real impact because it was too unfocused.
Fortunately, my research project has gotten to the point where I just need to hammer out and repeat a series of known experiments. The essential story and elements of a publication are all present, and we've decided to scale back some of the more interesting but technically difficult experiments, and save those for a second publication. Hence, July (and August) is going to primarily about getting all these experiments done, and I'm going to focus my Lab Plan on just that. 3 MIEs (most important experiments) per day planned out for the entire month, and stick to it.
This month there's not going to be much time to develop new habits and work on other goals outside of lab. If I take on too much, it will no longer be sustainable. However, I feel like I should solidify one skill into a daily habit: writing. My goal is to write 30 minutes per day, and much of this will be my paper, though some of it will be my blog. There's no reason to have 100% of my experiments done before I start writing a manuscript. Some days I will write more, for example on days that I'm publishing this blog, or simply whenever I have the time and the ideas.
However, I would go crazy if I did nothing new. On this point, to hell with sustainability. (By the way, this isn't really a habit but an attitude: I generally try something new everyday). This may seem random, but I'm going to learn the Python programming language and find ways to use it in my work. I have some experience with Java but as far as I can tell Python is easier and more intuitive. I'll probably start with some csv files and use it to convert experimental data from one format to another, something that I've been doing manually by copying and pasting. If anyone has any ideas on how I can use Python in my work, please let me know.
To summarize, I have 3 primary goals for July.
1) Lab plan. Plan out experiments long-term rather than just daily. Primarily just experiments related to a publication (hopefully!)
2) Write 30 minutes per day
3) Learn Python. Each day, work on it until feel like I've learned or done something interesting. Time limit 30 minutes per day unless I'm applying it to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment