Daily Journal: Finish Thesis/Choose Profession/Become Independent

[Jaycee]

Hi there,

I want to finish my thesis, choose a profession and become independent from my parents.

The problem: I am lazy, unmotivated, get up at noon, unorganized and dependent on others. Well, time to change that.

My life's purpose (for now): Become independent and self-sustaining to be able to grow further.

Important Goals

1. I am going to finish my thesis and thus, college in 3 months.
2. I will create a plan for employment/business in 3 months. And take steps to get a job/start a business.
3. I'll develop a set of habits which support me.
4. I'll learn about time management and getting organized.
5. I'll log and refine my process here in the forum for public accountability

Important Habits to get started with

1. I will become an early riser. To do that, I'll set up an evening routine to prepare next day and get tired, and a morning routine to get up and running quickly.
2. I'll set a fixed number of hours to work on my thesis to get a feel for how I use my time, how I waste it and how I can get better at time management. I'll adapt the amount of time as I go.
3. I'll set aside time for recreational purposes to defeat procastination.
4. I'll set aside time for learning about getting organized and time management and for keeping a journal to refine my process.

Preparation
I will spend my time today to get some things set up. Plan for tomorrow is as follows:

• Get up at 7.30 am. Brush teeth, shave. Get a cup of coffee and a light breakfast. Then get going.
• Work two hours (not more!) on my thesis: Read one article for my thesis. Write down the most important points. Write at least 200 words for my thesis from that article. Should me teach that my time is valuable.
• Two hours (not more!) recreational time: Surf the web, and play online games only for up to equal the time I work on my thesis.
• Two Hours for research:Spend some time on research things like time-management, scientific writing/reasoning, getting organized etc.
• Spend additional time with thinking, uncluttering, cleaning, cooking etc.
• Log my time usage and what I did to my journal and post it here. I need to get a feel of how I use my time. Review past entries to learn from it.
• Get to bed at 0.30pm. Before, prepare goals for the next day, clothing. Shower and brush teeth. Read half an hour to get tired.

I think that I'll adapt that plan as I go. If I feel that two hours work on my Thesis is not enough, and I need more time, I'll set aside more time for that. That's the point, actually. To be aware were my time goes, and to take measures to put it into better (goal-oriented) use.

Support is appreciated. See you tomorrow.

[Jaycee]

Day 1 - Getting started.

Ok. Here is how the first day went.

Got up at twenty minutes late. Spent another 1 1/2 hours reading Tim Ferriss Four Hour Work Week instead of working.

Then got into working, and spent 3 hours until noon to read a text, paraphrase it and come up with 450 words of text. Seems my goal was a bit low.

That got my thinking on what numbers defined my work. 60 pages. 500 words a page. 30.000 words. And I did a whole page the first day. Of course it would have to be factored in an argumentation line, but 500 words a day, and I'd be done in 2 months.

Then I had lunch (at 1 pm), and watched an Episode of Star Trek: Voyager.

After that, I spent time with logging what I did and when into an excel spreadsheet. I continued to do so until now.

After that, I figured it would be good to learn about reading techniques, since that was where I was most unsure and where I spent the major block of two hours.

Found the SQR-3 Technique, and liked it, because I intentionally used about 50% of it. Time to bring it to shape. Tested it on an article by Steve on Time Management. Now I think it would have been better to directly apply it to the next article. That block of time was a good 2 hours.

Then I spent 40 minutes cleaning my room. Was a bit of a mess. After that, a short Skype session with a friend. Bit of socializing. And after that, a lengthy discussion with my mother about and appointment next week. 1 1/2 hours.

Summary

• 3 hours of work on my thesis. Could have been more.
• 3 hours learning reading techiques, time management, and logging my use of time. Was ok.
• 5 1/2 hours recreational / social time. Too much!

What have I done for my goals?
1. Thesis: 450/30000 words. It's a start.
2. Career/Business: Well I read Tim Ferriss, but not deep enough to get an understanding. Will schedule time for it, so I'm not procastinating with it again.
3. Early rising habit did not work too well. Well, I'll try again tomorrow. One bad start is no reason to readjust (yet).
4. Learned about time management, got an estimate of what I'm capable of now, and where to improve. Good.
5. Logged my time, am posting here. Feels empowering, and motivating.

What have I learned?

• I'll try to double the amount of words tomorrow, should be possible without too much hassle. I should be more efficient through the use of the new reading technique, and I can put more hours into it. Ultimately, I should try to increase the amount of work done per hour, so I'll try to do 1000 words in 3 hours. With that, I should be able to finish the first chapter within a week.
• I'll continue logging.
• I'll apply anything useful I learn directly to my thesis, not to other articles, even if they are indirectly relevant.
• Since I need to program a web app for my thesis, I'll start to look into Javascript. I'm quite ok with html/css/photoshop/mysql, but javascript and ajax is my weak spot. 3 hours of research for that!

Now, I'll relax. And maybe read The Four Hour Work Week. Maybe.

[Burke]

woot! It's a start. Keep going!

[celestialife]

Hey it looks like you're off to a great start. The Four Hour Work Week is a great book and was really inspirational for me. Keep it up!

[Jaycee]

Thanks for backup. It's motivating.

Day 2 - Some Fallback

I managed to get up at 7.30 today, had breakfast and started working an hour later.

I chose two texts which linked thematically with what I read yesterday. I thought it would be a good Idea to expand upon what I already had, to create a broader base.

I started reading, and subsequently, writing, and I got things really forward. Then I made I mistake. I simply kept going, trying to go to my goal of 1000 words without pause.

Needless to say, I could only keep this act up for about 3:30 hours before all energy and motivation had left me. It's one thing to read about taking regular breaks for improving one's performance and concentration. It's totally different to see those life and in action. But it feels empowering that such advice is really helpful.

I should have taken breaks. The funny thing is, I did not realize I did not take sufficient breaks until I looked at my time log for today, and compared it with yesterdays log. Yay for time logs!

After that, I procastinated and couldn't really get started again. Well, I got 650 more words, and created a basic draft for an outline. That's not exactly all I wanted, but it is something.

In addition I learned a very important lesson about my capabilities. And I'll go to bed early today. And sleep well. Very well.

Summary

• 3 1/2 hours thesis work
• Not done anything on javascript. Too exausted.

What have I done for my goals?

1. Thesis: 1100/30000 words. More than yesterday
2. Thesis: Created a basic outline. I need it to present to my professor in 10 days, and it helps me concentrating my writing efforts.
3. Early rising worked for the first time. Woot!
4. Logged my time, learned something from it already, posted here.

What have I learned?

• The amount of time I can work fully concentrated is around an hour.
• After that, I need a break to recharge my batteries. Or I'll lose concentration and get exausted.
• I should break down my tasks sufficiently so they all can be done in around an hour.

Well, that will certainly applied tomorrow. And I don't think I'll make that particular mistake again.

[Burke]

Wow, Jaycee, you're doing really well!

I think I'm going to borrow your goal-oriented journalling format for my personal blog/journal. I really like the "What Have I Done For My Goals" and "What Have I Learned" segments - it really puts a point on everything. Too often I find myself going to bed thinking "Argh, I could've done more today", when in fact I exhausted my capabilities and am frustrated by my own limits.

btw, I too recently learned the importance of work breaks. Just a few weeks ago I was trying to do five to eight hours of work at a stretch, and getting immensely frustrated when it didn't work. Now I know I need to get up every hour or so and walk around, at the very least, or have a snack (as I've found hunger also contributes HUGELY to concentration problems), or just do something fun for a little bit - read, draw, noodle around on Facebook.

I'm still working on the necessary discipline to go "Oops! Hour's up! Back to work!"

But it's so nice to know you're not the only one making these discoveries. Rah for progress and learning.. and growth!

[Matt Willard]

Hey, what can I say? Great minds think alike. Good luck.

[Jaycee]

Originally Posted by Burke

I think I'm going to borrow your goal-oriented journalling format for my personal blog/journal. I really like the "What Have I Done For My Goals" and "What Have I Learned" segments - it really puts a point on everything.

Glad that what I wrote already helped someone. And yes, the point of adding these segments was to be able to look at what I've done from a top down perspektive and see were I can improve. It's also incredibly motivating.

Originally Posted by Burke

I'm still working on the necessary discipline to go "Oops! Hour's up! Back to work!

Yup. That sometimes gets me, too. I'll try to figure something out about it. Should be enough material around here.

Originally Posted by Matt Willard

Hey, what can I say? Great minds think alike. Good luck.

You may be right. Thanks.

Anyway,

Day 3 - Slowly getting it.

Got up 20 minutes late. I really need to get a grip on that, I smell a boost of self-esteem, feeling good and productivity around that corner. Will prepare better for tomorrow.

Over the course of the day, I got some reading and writing done. One important article, which left me with many good ideas and 680 words written. After that, I installed and learned about LaTeX. I've been planning to migrate from openoffice over to LaTeX, since the bibliography and structuring tools are clearly superior. And together with Textmate, I'll be able to do writing, structuring and todo list keeping in one Document - switching between 5-6 windows for the same task is extremely clumsy.

Tomorrow, I will migrate the text and do some freestyle-writing and editing of my outline without any literature, just to consolidate what I have and to get any Ideas I have in my head on paper and sort them.

Summary:

• 4 hours of Thesis work
• 2 hours of LaTeX configuring

What have I done for my goals?

1. Thesis: 1780/30000 words. Steady improvement.
2. Thesis: LaTeX installed. Ready to migrate!
3. Got up early, but with difficulties. I should really invest some thinking into how I can solidify a good routine.
4. Timelogging worked.

What have I learned?

• I should think of my free time not simply as procastination but as to do something fun. Will make a list of what I think fun and do that instead. Might take some time until my mind shifts that way.

Onwards!

[Jaycee]

Day 4 - Procastination kicks in

Today was bad. Got up two hours late, and procastinated most of the days, watching Videos, idle surfing, the like.

Then I put myself together and migrated my articles into orderly bibtex format. After 30 minutes, I discontinued.

At first, I was angry with myself, then I tried to investigate into why it didn't work out today. It is likely that I subconciously put of starting because I failed in the past while working with LaTeX. Kind of stupid, now that I think of it. Second, I did not clearly formulate what I'd be doing. It was kind of wishy-washy. Then, I had cold feet, because I don't currently own really warm socks, and it's gotten a lot colder now. And my food supply was running kind of low.

So, insted of beating myself up for today, I went to fix tomorrow: I bought food, and warm socks

And now I'm sipping warm tea, and thinking about what exactly I'll accomplish tomorrow and how I'll do it and how good it'll feel to continue and what kind of fun, other things I'll allow to do myself to relax.

What have I learned

• I am human, I have a body, and that body has needs. If I neglect it, I'll not come very far.
• If I procastinate I'll do so out of fear, or because something is unclear. If I feel that I'm procastinating, I should think about what I could be fearing or what it is that is unclear.

[Jaycee]

Day 5 - Back on track

Today was better. The went not optimal, but I got some important things done.

Got up at 7:50 pm. Spend 1 hour on drinking coffee, surfing the web, and eating breakfast.

Then I went through my paper inbox, paid some invoices and got some pressing things with the tax office sorted out. Felt really great, turned out I had been afraid that their response would be negative. But it felt to great, apparently, because then, procastination kicked back in for nearly 3 hours.

Then I kicked myself up, and ported my text snippets into LaTeX. Took me 1 1/2 hours, afterwards was lunch time. Then i refined and updated my outline, and read two texts for an additional 1 1/2 hours of work.

After that, I went through my messy desktop, and cleaned it up as laid out here. I figured I could work faster on my thesis if I hadn't to stare at two screens full of unsorted files.

All in all, I'm content with what I got done today, but part of my wonders if I can't get more than six productive hours out of a day.

Summary

• 3 hours thesis work
• 2 hours File Organizing
• 1 hour invoice paying, calling tax office

What have I done for my goals?

• Thesis: Reorganized, Updated Outline, Read two articles
• Logged my time, updated journal.

What have I learned

• Looking at my time log, it seems I get 6 productive hours a day. I'll have to look into how I a) Can get more done in those six hours and b) Can get more productive time out of each day.

[Jaycee]

Day 6 - Fighting Fear

Somehow, I wound up getting up at 11.30am. And, based on that, that nagging fear kicked in. "Ok, you managed to do ok for a few days.", it says, "Now it's time to fall back into old patterns."

Only I'll not listen.

Depite getting up nearly 5 hours late, I managed to fit 3 hours of thesis work into my day. I read some articles, refined my outline and got some important questions answered - but I didn't get any text written.

Tomorrow, it will be the 7th day of my endeavour, and I'll set aside some hours to review what I did, were I went the wrong way, and how to fix it.

Summary

• Three hours thesis
• Got up 5 hours late
• Posted, logged time only sporadically

What have done for my goals?

• Read some articles, refined outline

What have I learned?

• I need to get goal setting and time management sorted out.

[Jaycee]

Day 7 - Back again

I'm back - after the worst case of paralysis analysis I've ever seen. I tried to analyze my time logs, and my goal setting, and got wound up in a series of "what if" scenarios that left my confused and unable to do anything productive.

I'll never go there again.

In the evening, I did one good thing. I created a document called "why" - and within it listed the reasons and feelings I'll experience when I'm finished. Looking at it empowers me.

This morning, I continued work on my Thesis. I wrote with a clear goal in mind - to deliver some pages of my Thesis to my best friend for initial feedback and a second set of eyes, a second opinion.

I worked for roughly 4 hours, in one hour steps, with breaks, and it paid off. I wrote seven pages of comprehensible argumentation. 1500 words. It's by no means perfect. And it doesn't have to be. I'm quite happy, and I'll continue to work from that base onwards.

What have I done for my goals?

• Thesis: 3200/30000 words
• Finished the first draft of a chapter. Comprehensible, and structured.

What have I learned?

• Plans are for one thing: The trashcan. Reality changes so damn fast that your plans are probably obsolete in an hour
• Accurate goals help you focus on what to accomplish and make you incredibly productive.

[Jaycee]

Day 8 & Day 9

Yesterday I did slow down a bit, writing a mere 600 words - describing the program I intend to develop in December.

Today, I got my Hands on the Book Programming Firefox - and read the first three chapters.

Summary

• Both days about 2 hours of Thesis work
• Fell behind a bit with logging - will try to come back into it tomorrow

Goals

• Thesis: 3700/5000 words
• Thesis: Got started with the programming Aspect

Since I'll be away the whole of friday to present my outline to my prof, I'll have to finalize the current version of it tomorrow.

[Jaycee]

Day 11 & 12

I spend the whole of last friday with getting to my school location, presenting my outline to my prof, getting feedback, and driving the whole way back. Feedback was useful - He liked my approach and hinted at some corrections I should make. So far so good.

I took the weekend free, and it felt good.

But it went downway from there. I couldn't get back into my work habit. So I lost Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and got no meaningful things done.

Of course I was feeling quite down. I then thought about it, and came to the conclusion that my approach in dealing with time is a wrong. As Steve says, time cannot be spend, it passes on its own. But the time spending modell seems to be deeply engraved in my head, and when I see my family members, and my fellow co-students, I realize it's everywhere. Bah.

Then, on Wednesday, I stumbled upon a paper I had downloaded but never read due to it's funny title. It was The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo. I read it, and thought I'd give it a try.

Without being really prepared, I got 6 hours of work done. Double the workload I could do before. I can't put my finger to what exactly it is, that works better. For now I think it's the concious application of time and breaks, something I've never learned, since I've been responsible for my time spending since I was 10 or so.

The basic question is: Can I repeat 6 hours of meaningful work done by tomorrow? While having free time at my disposal when I finish working by 17:30 p.m.? It would be great. :-)

Summary

• Read, understood and reprogrammed 3 Chapters of the Application Programming Book for my Thesis (3 1/2 hours)
• Still have time for reading, playing guitar and socializing. Yes!

Goals and Learning

• Learned about applying logging, interruption management and time management with the Pomodoro Technique. Will do a 30-day-trial on that.
• Got up at 7.30
• Logged Time usage and postet in Journal Thread.

[Burke]

Hey Jaycee!

I'm so glad to see you're still posting these updates. It looks like you're learning and making a lot of progress!

One thing you said that really struck me:

In the evening, I did one good thing. I created a document called "why" - and within it listed the reasons and feelings I'll experience when I'm finished. Looking at it empowers me.

This is SUCH a good idea. I'm going to do that right now.

I think you're doing very well - much better than I am, anyways. I'm also going to read the Pomodoro Technique link you provided. Perhaps this will help me with my time management, as well.

Keep up the good work, Jaycee! You're doing great!