People Plan, and Life Laughs

Today I have the pleasure of inviting Adam Feinman to discuss his academic schedule. Adam received a B.S. in Computational and Systems Biology from UCLA in 2008 with a minor in Mathematics. He is currently jointly pursuing a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering. He is characterizing and optimizing the use of surface electromyography (sEMG) to control devices. These projects are intended to have broad applications in various clinical uses, such as creating prosthetics or analyzing sensorimotor impairments. Aside from blogging, he writes and plays piano in the free moments between classes, teaching, research, and family. His personal blog can be found at machineneuromeld.wordpress.com.

The title of my post is the politically-correct version of an old Yiddish saying: "Der mentsh trakht un Got lakht", "man plans and God laughs". We should probably remember to laugh too, because life's too serious as it is!

Whenever you read posts about how people manage to be productive, they usually turn out to be written by people who are extremely disciplined, whether by nature or by training. For example, I once read this article. I know that people other people like him (such as my wife!) who can schedule down to the minute and execute it, but I have a great deal of trouble relating to their advice. Discipline, sticking to schedules, and estimating how long tasks take have never been my strong suit. While I have generally found the practice of scheduling my activities (be they professional or personal) a very useful practice, at least for now I'm not capable of running as tight a ship as he does, and I don't think being so disciplined is a requirement for success in life. Success comes from playing to your personal strengths and finding ways to compensate for your weaknesses. My strength is being flexible without being entirely structure-less, but for me, too much structure leads to important things falling by the wayside.

I think everyone, myself included, can inculcate more discipline into their life, and benefit thereby. If it doesn't come naturally to you, how do you ensure you are doing your utmost to accomplish?

"Schedule" has a baby sister, and her name is "List". The thing that keeps me going is having my List that I update every week. I hesitate to call it a "to-do list" partially because of how much that term makes people cringe, but also because it doesn't only contain tasks. On my List is everything I need to accomplish, and everything I desire. There is no need to simplify on "the List"; if anything, I use it to get every detail I care about down on paper. And with the advent of The Cloud, I've found it useful to copy-and-paste the current version of my list and only update the copy. Being able to trace the progression of tasks allows you backtrack and see when things were accomplished, if necessary. And any time you're feeling blue, you can look back to the beginning and see how many things you have accomplished and the turns your life has taken. Thanks, by the way, to Laura Shum (@lauracshum) for that nugget of wisdom!

I tend to organize my List like an outline. For example, I will usually have a number of headers for work-related things-to-do. So each experiment will get a header, and sub-tasks will have one indents, details will have two indents, etc. Here's a recent example:



This is an old List, and even though it was a month and a half ago, bears little resemblance to the things I'm up to right now. Looking at it and seeing how much things have changed in a scant six weeks inspires me to keep pushing.

At the bottom, you can see there's a header for "personal items". For obvious reasons, I didn't include that part of my List in this post; it's personal! But I can tell you that some of the things include: build exercise into my week; practice piano; set times to socialize. These are all things that, when I schedule them and do them only at the scheduled times, life is better all around.

There is no way to have a realistic discussion of scheduling without touching on the issues of work-life balance. Most people in the world, even if they love their work, desire and pursue a life more complex than work-eat-sleep. There will be elements of life that cannot fit into a rigid schedule, the most obvious of these is family. No matter what makes you feel loved, whether it's getting attention or having tasks-to-do taken off your plate, it takes time, and can't always fit a schedule. And kids! New babies demand attention entirely impulsively, so you might have to be prepared to throw rigid scheduling out the window. Even when they get older, they are still emotionally dependent on you, so you can't always wave a schedule in their faces. But if you provide your life (and their lives) with zero structure, you're essentially being productive when you feel like it, and that's not a recipe for success.

There are always some things that you can plan on doing on a weekly basis. I tend to find that with my List and a weekly template in hand, you can do a lot to identify reasonable work hours, fit in the things you want to do, and plan time to relax. Here's an example:



The things on my template for the semester in green are non-negotiable except for emergencies. Red are work tasks; they need to happen but are the easiest to move around. Blue are personal, and I'll be more willing to shift around the red than the blue usually. As you can see, there are LOTS of holes in the schedule. Those holes have to be filled in on a weekly basis. It allows me to account for what's going on in life, what tasks need priority, and who needs my attention. It allows be to factor in the need to rest the mind and the need to socialize without losing track of productivity.

At the end of the day, you have to be clear with yourself from the outset that schedules are merely a game plan, and life will play jokes on your plans. And when life plays jokes on you, just say "Oh, silly you!" and start rearranging your puzzle pieces. Life, productivity, family, planning, it's all one big game, really. Even the best batters only hit the ball 30% of the time. All we can really do is our best, and that has to be enough.

Time neither stretches nor shrinks

Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Natalia Sali, who shares with us her academic schedule. Natalia is a second year part time PhD student at Royal Holloway University of London, College of Social Work. Her research is on parental mental health of parents from Black and Minority Ethnic community. She studied in Centro Escolar University (Philippines), University of the Philippines, and University of Westminster. She has a degree in Social Work, MA in Social Work, and Diploma in Health and Social Care Management. She works full time as manager of Contact a Family in Southwark, and has been working in the voluntary sector for more than 20 years. Natalia also volunteers with the Southwark branch of the London Vegan Society.

How often do we hear people saying they have a thousand things to do, and have very little time? As PhD students, we sometimes feel this way. When one is working, has a family, and has other interests – having to read dozens of books and articles, to write long essays, conduct field work, transcribe, attend seminars and conferences, and meet our supervisors – seem to be overwhelming.

My personal view though is that time is constant. There will always be 24 hours a day, and it will never be a surprise to know we only have 24 hours a day. I am however only in my second year and I know that my experience is different from the rest who are already in the middle of their research. Nevertheless, there might be some principles here that one can take.

Catch that early sunshine. It helps to be an early riser. I wake up at 6am to eat breakfast, catch up with emails, read academic blogs and tweets, and prepare for work. During autumn and winter, I squeeze in 45 minutes of jogging (from 7am to 7.45). During summer, I run after work. Being physically fit boosts the energy, and waking up early means we can accomplish a lot.

Don’t neglect your ‘bread and butter’. The 9 to 5 job, five days a week use up almost half of my week. But work pays the bill, and the tuition fees! When I enter the office, I am on work mode.

Work mode to pre-study mode. It is important to set a boundary between work and study, and to train one’s self to do so. The moment I log out and turn my work computer off, I switch to non-work things. During summer and spring, I go for a jog from 5.30pm; followed by cooking dinner at 6.30 pm; dinner at 7.00pm; and do volunteer work where I write and respond to emails.

Study mode. At 8.00pm, I read books and take notes. I do an hour then take a break for 15 minutes; continue for an hour, writing down my thoughts on what I read, until I need another short break. I study for three hours. It is important to find that time of the day where we are most productive.

Easy mode. If I don’t have an essay to write, or have just finished one - I read leisurely. It is different though when I have an essay to write, in that I don’t read other books but only the ones related to my topic.

Sleep mode. At 12am, I lie down and read tweets or read/send messages to friends. I sleep at 12.30 am.

Weekend miscellany. Contrary to what others might think about PhD students, we do have social life. I visit friends, or go out with them. It’s also my time to go for a swim at our local leisure centre. I have time to shop for fresh veggies and fruits at the local market, and experiment on new vegan recipes. I do volunteer work – e.g. write articles for newsletters, or respond to emails.

On Sundays, I’d read some more, search university libraries online for good books, list them down so I can drop by the library the next time I pass by it. I also find online articles related to my research topic and save them in my laptop.

I know the time requirement in conducting a research. I did two try out interviews. For one interview – including setting it up, travel, the interview itself, and transcribing - took seven to eight hours.

Learn ABCDEF:

1. Avoid time wasters. Social network sites are useful for non-academics but not for us. We learn more from reading online resources, academic blogs and tweets.

2. Book-on-the go. Always bring a book as you travel by public transport. Thirty minutes of reading helps a lot.

3. Cut travel time. On your way to meetings (work-related or not), and you are passing by your favourite library – you can always return or borrow books. This saves you time to specifically make the travel to the library. It will help if you have listed down the books you want to borrow. There might also be some shopping to do, so why not drop by your favourite supermarket on your way home?

4. Don’t procrastinate. Even if you are feeling lazy, don’t fall for it. Merely starting a paragraph or two, or a framework for your essay is a quick win. That first sentence is crucial, but once you have started it, ideas will flow. Finishing the work on schedule means you have enough time to proofread it, or find more information you might need to improve it.

5. Every little thing helps. When we are busy writing, someone has to do the dishes, or the laundry, empty the rubbish bins, and sort out the recycling; or simply listen to us when we get stuck on something. They might not be able to offer solution but they can always reassure us and encourage us to stay focused. We have friends with writing skills whom we can always ask for help. Our supervisors are always ready to help, so when we are stuck, give them a ring!

6. File it away! – Don’t underestimate the time you save by maintaining a good filing system- for both hard and electronic materials. I write details of the books I read on index cards so that I can always go back to them later (also for correct referencing).

And as Benjamin Franklin said, “You may delay, but time will not”. We need not delay. The more we learn to manage our schedule, the easier for us to finish that PhD.

Good wishes fellow students!

Color Coding is Your Friend

Today we have a second post on academic schedules, this time by Karra Shimabukuro. Karra is a PhD student in British and Irish Literary Studies at the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on how folkloric characters are represented in literature and popular culture- specifically the devil.

She regularly writes reviews for The Journal of Popular Culture and The Journal of Folklore Research Review and is a regular presenter at the Popular Culture National Conference. Her most recent work deals with the liminal space of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the paratext of its board game in Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media, and Freddy Krueger folkloric roots as a bogeyman in Studies in Popular Culture.


I am a second year PhD student in English at the University of New Mexico. I am finishing my course work this semester, and taking my comprehensive exams in February. I have a TAship and teach two classes as part of that. My research focuses on the folkloric character of the devil in medieval and early modern literature as well as popular culture.

I was asked to meet with new TAs last week, to come speak and share with them some of my organizational tips. I came armed with show and tell items- my printed out schedule and my paper planner.



I shared with them the following tips that work for me:

• Schedule everything- from personal time to personal projects. Grad school is busy and if you don’t schedule it, it probably won’t happen.
• Color code items so you can tell at a glance which class you’re looking at (either classes you’re taking or classes you’re teaching).
• It does not matter HOW you organize your life, it only matters that you DO.

I am a visual person, so I my desk area reflects this. I have my color coded weekly schedule above my desk so I have it for constant reference. My folders and papers for each class are color coded the same as on the schedule. The weekly schedule also has clear blocks as to when I leave home to commute to campus, and office hours. I have a written on copy in my campus office that also has all the office hours of my professors on it so I know when they are available. You’ll notice that my weekly schedule also has when grocery shopping gets done. And laundry. And house cleaning. These things are all important to surviving grad school or academic life.

Since I’m in the middle of writing my dissertation, I have an entire day blocked out for working on it. I don’t do any other work that day. I am either chained to my desk writing, or I have that day blocked off to meet with committee members about it. This ensures I have the time for this work, but is also a safeguard. I may sit at my desk all Friday morning and just stare at the screen, lost. I may knock out my goal of five pages per day. Either way I have the time set aside. If I just sit and stare and am not productive, I feel guilty, which is a great motivator.



I’m a huge tech geek and a use a lot of technology in my classroom. But for my own personal organization I have to have something that I can physically manipulate, so I have a paper planner that I live and die by that sits on my desk. It doesn’t leave my desk it’s so valuable. I also color code this- the same as my classes, plus colors for personal and to do. EVERYTHING goes on this- due dates for classes, conference dates, and back-tracking work I have to do in order to make deadlines. If an event falls when I’m away from this calendar, like a meeting with a student or professor, I put it in Google calendar so I get an email reminder to make sure so I don’t miss an appointment.



When I work from home, I get up at 6am because I have a dog. I set the coffee maker, and we go for our walk first thing. I feed her and then sit down with my coffee at the computer. No matter what day of the week this ensures I get at least a couple of hours of work finished before my day officially starts. Usually this includes responding to students, managing email, and checking in on social media. On days when I don’t have to go to campus until later in the day, I spend all day at my computer working. It may be short projects like this article, or a book review, but I try to check at least one thing off my to do list every day. This not only helps me feel like I accomplished something, but also frees up other days for longer projects that require more time.

This schedule may seem nuts and overplanned, but it means that on days I have class, once I get home I’m finished. I don’t have to work and can instead walk my dog, read a non-academic book or just relax. On weekends, since I do get up so early, it means I can stop work at 3p, ensuring I have personal time as well. This balance allows me to manage my workload and do it without feeling stressed. Because everything is scheduled I know everything will get done. Knowing that lowers my stress and enables me to relax and have outside interests.

The Passionate PhD: let excitement and purpose drive your academic schedule

Today, I'm starting a new series of guest posts on academic schedules. Our first guest writer is Deborah. Deborah is an Australian PhD candidate and educator. Research interests include professional learning, teacher growth, professional identity, school change and storytelling. You can find her tweeting as @debsnet and blogging at http://theeduflaneuse.wordpress.com/.

“We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep.” ~ Earl Nightingale

As usual, I park my car and race into the university library for a quick book switch (return old batch; grab new batch). I pass students who embody the cliché of studentdom which I remember from my undergraduate years: they chat to each other, they read books beneath trees, they nestle by a library window with their work. And I think to myself, ‘O, to be a proper university student, one not racing in and out of libraries and supervisors’ offices!’

And yet, I reflect that perhaps it is because my PhD is one of many things to which I am committed that my thesis is progressing as it is.

Almost two years since enrolling in my PhD, I look back and wonder about my research journey. Today, at this very moment, my thesis sits at 77,186 words and includes close to 300 references (surely I am not the only one for whom numbers feel like a comforting measure of progress!). How, I marvel, have I come that far as a parent of two pre-school-age children and someone working 0.8 of a job? While there is much left to do, what is the academic schedule that has allowed me to continue to chip away at the mammoth task of researching and writing a PhD thesis?

First of all, ‘schedule’ is probably a word with too many connotations of order and routine. Mine is not quite as undisciplined as ‘whenever I find the time’, but it does feel like it consists of regular (this is the key!) stolen moments in which my thesis and I hide away together and immerse ourselves in each other.

As someone with a job and children, I have available time after my children have gone to bed in the evening, but I have found that this time of day isn’t conducive to the precision of thought or the kind of mental heavy lifting demanded by my thesis. I can, however, get administrivia and small tasks, which require a lower level of cognition and focus, out of the way in the evenings.

My favourite places to work are noisy cafés. These provide the caffeine for a sharper faster mind, the feeling of a ‘me time’ break from the mundanities of everyday life and a background buzz which helps to give me both a sense of urgency and a feeling that I am somewhere else, in a particular physical and mental place which is separate from my home or office. I also find that in cafés I tend to cap my time at two coffees and two hours; this gives me enough caffeine and enough of a block of intense working time to be productive, after which my productivity and the quality of my thinking starts to slow and deteriorate. And usually after which I need to return to family or work commitments.

In between my short regular bursts of work, my brain has the time to cogitate, percolate and process what I have done and where I am at. Often my best thinking happens in these in-between time, on walks without music, or lying in bed, when my brain seems to be quiet enough to bring problems to the surface and offer solutions. I often find myself rushing to write down the epiphanic ideas that bubble up in these solitary moments. This kind of between-reading, between-analysing, between-writing processing has meant that I am glad that I have been writing my thesis since I began my research, despite warning by some, including Pat Thomson in this blog post. Of course writing from day one means that my first writing needs serious revision, as my writing is evolving, and so is my thinking. I need these little shifts in approach or solving of problems in order to move to the next iteration.

There have been peaks and troughs in my work and personal lives, meaning that at different times my thesis has taken a front or back seat. Regardless of these ups and downs, the things that have helped to drive my momentum have been:

1. I love my thesis.
Well, I believe in my thesis. I am passionate about my area and about my data. I don’t think I could or would have been able to keep at the work if not for my deeply held value for and interest in what I am doing.

2. My thesis is for me.
My thesis is only one thing, of many things, in my life, but it is a thing I have chosen. I am doing it for myself. It feels like a special thing, almost a luxury; an opportunity to spend time challenging myself and pursuing my passions. When I find time to get down into my thesis, it is with excitement. It gives me a break from work, a break from parenting small children. It is intellectual ‘me time’, so instead of being a chore, it feels like a gift, an oasis I get to dip into regularly. My regular-but-not-all-the-time schedule keeps my PhD work feeling fresh and like something I want to continue pursuing.

3. Positive ongoing supervisory relationships.
My relationship with my supervisors has been conducive to progress. They have been able to challenge me sufficiently to incite growth in my thinking and writing, without crushing me too much at any given time (just enough to shift my thinking). While at times we have used Google Docs, Word Tracking and Skype, our regular face to face meetings are the most useful; they allow for important conversation around my PhD work. Again, regularity of meetings has helped me to drive momentum. Nothing motivates me better than a deadline!

4. Perspective.
I found Matt Might’s illustrated guide to the PhD to be grounding. It allowed me to take the view that, while a PhD needs to make an original contribution, this need only be a tiny (but significant) blip on the world’s knowledge landscape. This seemed to let me off the hook of trying to do too much, or chasing down every single interesting theme that emerges.
My main thought on a successful schedule for PhD candidates is around finding what works for you, your research and your life. And doing research in which you are engaged. Engagement and enjoyment allow you to be a little bit obsessive, more than a little excited and sometimes even joyful.

The balance between planning and room for spontaneity

More Q&A today!

I recently got the following interesting question:

Question: does/did it feel depressing to plan your life?

Much advice suggests planning as the panacea against the ills of procrastination and a sure promise of a high quality of life, but... isn't there something sad about allocating time in a planner for 'non-business' activities -- 'from 7-8pm on Wednesdays I read novel X'? Do you find a life that's regimented like this depressing or not at all? More broadly, self-help literature focuses on how to get yourself to a particular ideal, but is that ideal appealing? Would you agree that that ideal is at odds with the joy of life? Or, are freedom and spontaneity values for the weak among us? Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

My original quick answer was the following:

That's an excellent question - and something I've been musing about for some time.

Sometimes, I reach the point where I feel like I *have to* go to the gym, and *have to* journal and all that. Most of the times, however, I like having a plan for my evening, because otherwise I'll just end up browsing the internet and then feeling as if my time just slipped through my fingers.

However, from time to time, I try to stop and think: "What would feel really good now? What do I crave?". I'm a linear thinker and a planner, but I need to connect more often to my body and feminine energy and think of what would feel just right in this very moment.

As I've been doing in my previous Q&A posts, let me break down this question in different chunks:

1. planning as the panacea against the ills of procrastination and a sure promise of a high quality of life

Planning helps to achieve goals - that's for sure. You can't be working on a big life project if you don't manage to carve out a bit of time for it every now and then. Similarly, I think it is more valuable to have a plan for your evening than to come home and fret away the evening in front of the TV (which I consider doing nothing), or surfing the internet.

2. Do you find a life that's regimented like this depressing or not at all?

As long as it doesn't feel like pressure, it should be fine... And that's the tricky part. As I wrote in my original answer, sometimes I feel like I "have" to blog in the evening, and "have" to study the lectures in the MOOCs that I'm following - while all I really want to do is take a book and crawl into my bed and sleep early. I tend to freak out a little bit as well when I get short-notice invites - because then it doesn't fit my planning and I have to change things around.
Along the same lines, I sometimes get a little disheartened when I compare my plan of everything I'd like to do in the evening or weekend, and what I really get accomplished. Then I feel as if I have failed - while I probably am just setting too high standards for myself.

3. More broadly, self-help literature focuses on how to get yourself to a particular ideal, but is that ideal appealing?

That is an excellent question - I float between wanting to make sure I eat clean, wake up very early, drink my green juice, work out, meditate and do all the "right" things, and just wanting to go to a party, eat all the cheese, drink a cup too much, go to bed super late and sleep deep into the next day...
I try to focus on the question: "What feels good for myself right now?", but it is difficult. It's hard to listen to your inner guidance and do the right thing for yourself when the whole world seems to be having ideas on how you should be behaving.

4. Would you agree that that ideal is at odds with the joy of life?

It really depends.... I get a lot of joy out of being able to solve difficult problems, study material online, play music and all these activities that get "planned" for my evenings. Similarly, I enjoy achieving a big goal in life.
But at the same time, sometimes I feel like I'm living a rather Spartan life, pushing myself at all moments of the day and trying to excel in every possible field.

5. Or, are freedom and spontaneity values for the weak among us?

Not at all - I think there is a lot of beauty and wisdom in spontaneity. As I mentioned earlier, the ability to listen to your personal needs, and identifying what would feel right at this moment in time, is an important skill. More than anything, I think many of us need to learn to slow down and listen to ourselves and our personal needs. So, if freedom and spontaneity come from your center, from your personal needs, then it is absolutely OK. When you are trying to conform to someone else's needs or society's pressure, then I think you are moving away from your self.

These are just my random thoughts on this topic - but I think this is an excellent topic for further discussion. So please, share your thoughts and musings in the comments!

Tips for Productive Planning and Using Lists

It's Q&A time! I recently got this question from a reader, and would like to expand on it in a full post.

The question is the following, as a comment to the post on my PhD schedule:

To me, it sounds like you have it all figured out so well... that it almost depressing to read for someone who is not able to meet her own plannings ;-) (and yes, I do make lists for evenings etc. too, but I can't always put them into reality)...
Even my supervisors now think that I will not mee the goal (only have three months left to finish my PhD)...

So any hints for more productivity and sticking with lists?

Or how to deal with it when you have another view on the planning than your supervisors?

My quick reply was the following:

Though question - and I'll expand on it in a post (need to think a little deeper about that!).

But - one of the things that helps, is to cut out all the "crap". Try to really stick to what matters in terms of replying your research question.

And experiment with different productivity tricks to see what works for you. We all have different learning styles, so it takes some trying out to see what works for yourself (although I understand you're pretty pressed for time!)

(Oh, and BTW, I HAD things figured out when I was a PhD student. Now that I'm a fresh assistant professor, I'm again trying to get it all together)

Since I promised to think a little deeper about this question, I decided to look at the different elements in this question.

1. It sounds like you have it all figured out so well

Honestly, I don't have it all figured out. Yes, during my PhD I had a working schedule, but now that I've just started as an assistant professor, I feel like I'm starting all over again, with new challenges.
We never have it all figured out. We never know it all. Life is about searching and experimenting, and that is the whole journey.
You might like to remember Kavafis' poem here:

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

2. Not being able to meet your own planning

I wrote about what to do when your planning fails previously.
As with everything, finding a planning that works for you, is an iterative process. You make a planning, find out that you are thinking you can do more in a day than what actually gets done, so next time you plan less work to be done in a day.
What helps, is to closely monitor how you spend your time. I use ManicTime for tracking my time, so that I can learn how much time things really take.
And then, when all is said and done, and your planning just won't work: take a deep breathe, don't get mad at yourself, and just start all over again. You'll get there eventually!

3. Even my supervisors now think that I will not meet the goal

Prove them wrong ;-)! Get ruthlessly efficient at cutting out what does not matter over the next 3 months, and steam ahead with full determination. Whatever parts of your research that are interesting look deeper into, but are not directly related to your research question: but that in the freezer and focus on your research question. Monitor yourself constantly. Try to pump up your motivation by rewarding yourself with a treat in the evening if you manage to meet your written word count for the day, or the part of calculations you needed to do.

4. What to do when you have another view on the planning than your supervisors?

Your PhD is your journey towards becoming an independent researcher. Since you're almost at the end, I assume you've reached quite some levels of independence by now.
When it comes to knowing your work rhythm, you are the expert. Nobody besides you knows when you do your best work (at night, or early mornings, for example). Nobody besides you knows how much rest you need to be able to stay focused on your work. Nobody besides you can make your planning.
You have a clear view of your goal, so arrange your planning in the way it works best for you - and defend your working schedule to your supervisors. They'll like to know what your plans are, and when they can expect your chapters and results.

5. Any hints for more productivity and sticking with lists
- Don't put too much in your planning: Something that I myself am guilty of. I tend to plan every single minute of my days, but there's always something that happens, so that things get postponed. Seeing at the end of the day that you could not do all you wanted to do is distressing. So, try to plan only 75%-80% of your time, and leave the rest as "buffer" to deal with whatever trouble comes your way.
- Try the Pomodoro technique. I wrote about it here and here, and it still works well for me to get through tedious tasks.
- Switch off all distractions. If need be, use Leechblock or something similar to keep you away from websites that distract you. Put your phone on silent. Use noise-cancelling headphones. Close your office door. Given the time pressure that you are facing, this is not the right time to chit chat away your afternoons.
- Keep separate lists. I use ToDoist.com and track different lists: admin, errands, waiting for, writing papers, tasks work, goals 2014 - to name a few of the different lists that I use.
- Prioritize: Know your 3 MITs of the day, your 3 Most Important Tasks. These would be 3 actions that keep your dissertation moving forward. Do these first thing in the morning, so that you know that you are on a roll.
-Take good care of yourself. Eat well, sleep enough, exercise - you might think that you now don't have time for that, but, more than anything, you don't have time to get sick and/or sluggish. Keep your energy levels high by taking good care of yourself.

I hope these tips will help you, and if you have further questions, or want to talk more about your situation, feel free to reach out to me! You can do it!

Passing the Peak Moment of the Semester

I recently wrote about how I am struggling with my schedule during my first semester of teaching. All those journal papers that I was going to churn out quickly from my dissertation - don't ask me about them!

But the tides are turning. The peak moment of the semester seems to be beyond me, and things start to look a little more manageable now. I needed a lot of time to prepare my lecture notes. Generally, I need 4 hours of preparation time for an hour of lecture. For the Reinforced Concrete design classes, I can sometimes make it in 1,5 hours to 2 hours, but for Pavements, a course that is slightly outside of my field of expertise, I need more time to look for extra material. I just don't have that many books and stories readily available for that class.

I'm still trying to get all my paperwork under control. I still need to get my local driver's license. I am still familiarizing myself with the procedure of the new university. I still need to find out from which stores to find certain things (becoming rather urgent: finding who can import the eye contacts that I wear - I have a large correction so these contacts are typically not readily available).

Moving countries always induces culture shock as well. I'm still going through that whole process, and there are days that I longingly look for a light-blue KLM plane in the sky and secretly wish they could take me "home". And other days I enjoy the pleasant climate, smile at the abundance of produce in my home-delivered box of organic fruit and veggies, realize how fortunate I am to be hired at the same institution as my husband, and think that I landed in the perfect spot at the perfect time.

Now that my proposal for the first stage of the laboratory is in the hands of the People With The Money and my class notes are prepared, I finally can get back to what I enjoy doing most - my own research.

Grading takes time, but I'm approaching it more and more in efficient ways. I start to get a feeling of control over the situation.

It took a good number of months, but I'm finally getting back into a good exercise routine. I lost a lot of strength, and 10 minutes on the treadmill feels like running to the end of the world, but at least I am doing something. And yes, exercising give me more energy, exercising helps me sleep more soundly at night, and generally makes me feel better. So it was long overdue that I signed up for the gym.

Admin stuff still takes a tremendous amount of time. I get way more email than when I was a PhD student, and it takes me about an hour every day to weed through it all, reply, and archive the messages that require these actions. Since I'm still relatively new, I still have to make quite a number of trips to the Human Resources office to get documents sorted out. I'm really looking forward to the day that all this admin stuff will be behind me - but I'm afraid that's just part of the deal.

One of the challenges that I am facing as well, is that I get interrupted a lot. While I encourage students to come to my office for whichever doubts or trouble they have, it is not very productive when I switch between cracking a research problem and attending to students. I might over time need to retreat to my home office for a couple of hours a day to do my deep work. One solution has been to go to the office early, at 7am, to use the silent hours for difficult work.

Since I've tried to set a limit to the hours I work on a daily basis, and since I've tried not to work past 6pm (with moderate success), I've noticed some improvements in my self-care routines. I'm not finding a way to fit it all into my days yet, but I've been spending some enjoyable evenings crafting with my sister-in-law, studying a Food Science MOOC, playing Zelda, and cooking experimental dishes. I've also had a few mornings in which I actually woke up before my alarm started ringing.

To conclude, I can say that this has been (and still is!) an awfully busy semester. But I started to get a few projects under control, take more time for myself (it's not like I need to get tenure by the age of 35 or that my life depends on it...) and to take a more relaxed approach to work and life.

When Procrastination makes your Motivation sink

More Q&A time! (Yes, I'm currently trying to work through a backlog of questions that deserve a longer answer).
The question we are dealing with today is about procrastination, and was posted as a comment on 7 ways to motivate yourself.

The original question was the following:

I dont find it very motivational..everyday I make new strategy but do not why its never implemented ....what should i do now...I know that I have to follow it very strictly...but I wll defer work every time...and the end of the day I am very angry at me...please help me somebody!!

And my quick answer read as follows:

Take a break, get rid of the stress, high expectations and pressure on yourself in the first place.

Then, make a planning that looks too easy - and try to stick to it. If you manage to do so, treat yourself to doing whatever you feel like in the evening (great dinner, movie, bath, you name it).

Let's look at the elements of the original question, and break these down into parts that we can discuss.

1. everyday I make new strategy

Don't try a new day planning or strategy every single day. Instead, try to set up a template for your day planning, and gradually implement it.
For example, try to implement a healthy morning routine, then set aside an hour for reading, then 2 hours for data analysis, then half an hour to clear your inbox to zero, then the afternoon for writing and the evening for whichever activity you like. This is just an example, listen very carefully to yourself and try to figure out which part of the day you have the right energy for each of these tasks.
You won't get it "right" from the start. Just be gently on yourself, acknowledge that you are experimenting with your schedule, and see where the flow takes you.

2. My planning never gets implemented

Here's where you need to get your monkey brain under control and reason with yourself. Checking facebook might give you pleasure at this very moment, but at the same time you are depriving yourself of the ability to go home early and do something you really enjoy.
Try to first observe your own behavior: What type of procrastination are you susceptible to? What triggers this kind of procrastination? How often do you feel the urge to leave your work and do something else?
Now that you know what is really going, try to watch the urge, and just hang in that feeling of unpleasantness, and then watch the urge go away. This mindfulness technique is one of the most powerful methods to get a hold of your impulses.

3. I know that I have to follow it very strictly

NO!!!! You're not trying to whip yourself to death, you're not trying to work yourself to exhaustion. What you need is a continuous movement forward. If you are constantly putting stress and pressure on yourself, you will dislike your work day. Try to find pleasure in your work. Remind yourself of why you were drawn to PhD studies in the first place. Remember that being able to do research is an intellectual privilege that not many people are granted. Most people have to obey a boss and do back-breaking mind-numbing work. If you have the opportunity to do research, pursue your intellectual whims and enjoy academic independence, you should realize that you are actually very lucky. So remember that science is fun, and find that lightness back in your work.

4. At the end of the day I am very angry at me

It's awfully frustrating to realize at the end of the day that your day was pretty much wasted time. I know the feeling very well, and I think many of us can relate to it in some way. You might have spent the entire day trying to get your computer back running. You have a crash in the late afternoon and lose a couple of day's worth of writing in your article/dissertation. You might have fretted the day away doing minor tasks such as e-mailing, doing some admin work, and *bam* time is up.
Know that this happens to everybody from time to time. If you have a procrastination problem, it might happen often to you. But consider yourself as "in rehab", trying to kick a bad habit. Don't get mad at yourself. If you fail today, tomorrow is a blank slate again. Tomorrow you start again with 24 hours to fill at your disposal. It might help to journal. When I go through bouts of having poor concentration and not getting my work moving forward, I journal about it. I grade myself for a couple of days. One day will be a 4/10 in terms of productivity, and then I analyze in my journal what precisely went wrong. The next day might be a 7/10, and then I celebrate my success and see why I was feeling motivated. It could be because I worked out in the morning. It could be because I ate something that did not make me lethargic. It could be some good news that made feel like a million bucks.

I hope these thoughts help, and if you have more questions, feel free to reach out to me!

My PhD schedule

I recently got the following question, on which I'd like to expand here.

Could you share your PhD schedule?

Throughout my PhD, I consistently started my day around 8am, which was often the starting time of my experiments, and which is the time at which my daily supervisor would also arrive to university. Since I was mostly working together with a technician in the lab (who starts at 7:45 am) and my daily supervisor, I would make sure to be in my office around 8am. I've been experimenting with morning routines quite some during my PhD, so at some point I was arriving a little earlier and having breakfast in my office, while at another point I'd be working through my emails during breakfast at home. But on average, I always started around 8am. Now that I am working as an assistant professor, I am starting between 7am and 8am. The early bird catches the worm.

Throughout the day, I'd typically take a coffee break in the morning. Sometimes we'd have a birthday, and then we would all eat cake together (one more reason to go and do research in the Netherlands, I tell you). Most of the days I'd have a 15 minute coffee break in the morning with some of my colleagues to have a snack, a cup of tea and catch up with eachother.

Then, at noon, I'd go for lunch with my colleagues. I'd usually go to the cafeteria around 11:45 already to be earlier than everyone else who'd be using the microwaves, and thus not need to stand in line to warm up my food. Our lunchbreaks were about 30 minutes. Sometimes I'd go into the lab after lunch and check out new developments on my setup with my technician colleague.

Most days, I'd leave my office some time between 5pm and 6pm, and make sure I'd have an activity scheduled for the evening so that I really had to leave my office. If I didn't have an activity scheduled, I'd often be tempted to stay until 10pm - which is simply too much for me.

On Mondays, I used to go to the gym around 6:00pm or 6:30pm for a class, then go home, prepare my food for the next day, shower, and write CD reviews or for my blog.
On Tuesdays, I used to do my groceries and batch-cook food for the rest of the week. I'd often watch online lectures in the mean time, or listen to podcasts to learn something new.
On Wednesdays, I used to go to choir practice, or -once I got fired from the choir from missing too many rehearsals because of my busy conference schedule- I'd go to the gym and then make time to read or study an online course.
On Thursdays, I would practice yoga at home, and make time for relaxation, such as reading a book in my bath tub.
On Fridays, I would spend 2 hours to either clean the kitchen or bathroom, and then clean my room as well.
On Saturdays, I would take care of all my pending errands, take time to study online courses, blog and read or watch a movie.
On Sundays, I would start my day in the gym, often followed by time in the sauna, and then work all through the afternoon, often until 9pm.

In the final year of my PhD, I tried to sleep earlier than the previous years, and would often be in bed by 9:30pm or 10pm, to make sure I get all the rest I need.

That's what my schedule looked like during my PhD years. I'm currently very much trying to get a schedule that works for me now that I am an assistant professor, but so far, I haven't found my best schedule yet. It always takes time for me to find a schedule that works...

What does your schedule look like? Do you have fixed working hours?

Workloads in academia

I recently had a short discussion on workloads in academia, after seeing in my ManicTime charts that I had worked 100 hours a few weeks earlier - which pretty much translates to working every waking hour. You can find the Storify of these tweets at the bottom of these posts.

In this discussion, I mentioned that I can keep up this rhythm for just a few weeks, otherwise I will come down with some sickness. In the end, I did get sick 3 weeks later (not sure if you can get a stomach bug from exhaustion, but I know that working and not exercising and sleeping enough sure undermines my immunity system).

To avoid this burn-then-crash scenario, I have now posted a list with my basic self-care rules on my desk. I'm going to try to not do any work after 6pm (except for blogging and studying for fun and reading) - note that I usually start working some time between 7am and 8am, and that I teach over the lunchbreak hours (leaving me without time for a real lunchbreak), so that still leaves me with a good number of hours to work in a day (as of now, I'm very OK with working 60 hours a week).

My other newly imposed self-care rules include at lest 20 minutes of movement per day, daily meditations, and a 9pm curfew for myself, so that I can sleep by 10pm.

Let's see how this goes...

What to do when your planning fails

Planning your progress and learning how to manage your time are two essential skills for a successful PhD. As we've discussed a number of times here about systems to track time and manage time, I'd like to focus on a different topic for today:

What should you do when your planning fails?

First and foremost: Don't give up on planning! Don't fall in the trap of saying that planning is just simply not for you.
We all need a planning - the degree of detail of planning might differ from person to person, but the question of what we should be doing and when to get stuff done, is essential to all of us.

Until you have found a planning method that works, I encourage you to do the following: test out different methods, try out different tools, and reflect on what works for you and what doesn't.
 This method might sound like throwing spaghetti to the wall and seeing what sticks, but if you evaluate how you do with planning honestly, and try to figure out why a certain method is not working, then you'll reach convergence and a working system much more quickly.

Here's a quick recap of a Twitter discussion I had on this topic:

For your convenience, here is the link to the Monthly Progress Monitor, and the programmer method of scheduling time.

Planning for Success - an update on my time management system

As I'm constantly experimenting with what works for me, and how I can optimize my workflow, it should be of no surprise that my time management system tends to gradually evolve over time.

The last time that I discussed my time management system on PhD Talk is more than a year ago. Since then, I've changed some of my tools.

Even though I haven't changed my overall top-down approach for planning what needs to be done, I've made some changes in the tools that I use: I tried to reduce the number of tools that I draw upon, to improve the fluidity in my planning.

I was reminded of critically analyzing my time management system recently, after reading The Sunday Meeting on Inside Higher Ed. I still do my planning usually on a Friday, before heading home for the weekend.

My current approach looks like this:

1. Tools for planning

I split up my planning from the general overview, down to the daily task lists:

- The general overview
With paper deadlines and conferences always planned several months in advance, and teaching duties coming up, I need a good overall view of what needs to be done in which month.
I am keeping the general overview in Google Calender, and I've added additional calendars with my personal planning, the academic calendar of USFQ, the Dutch holidays and more. More and more, I am gravitating towards Google Calendar for planning.

- To Do lists
I've given up filling out the Word documents with my monthly and weekly to do lists - something that I have used during my entire PhD. Instead, I've started to incorporate Google Task lists. These integrate better with my planning in Google Calendar. I still review my planning every Friday evening, to make my daily appointments. That precise moment also serves as a moment to reflect on my progress and to ask myself why or why not I met my goals for this week; a method inspired by the monthly progress monitor.

- Daily appointments
Rather old-fashioned, but I keep my day-to-day appointments in a paper-and-pen type of planner. (It's bound in red leather with a pattern of roses on it, if that explains why I can't switch to a digital version). I write down my most important task(s) for the day, and have all my appointments written down and planned. Also, I write down my To Do list for the evening at the very bottom of the day page. I've expanded on how I structure my To Dos in a different post.

2. Tools for tracking

I'm not using RescueTime anymore, and since leaving my office and office computer in Delft, I've also not been adding what I did to ManicTime anymore. I do plan to start using ManicTime again - but I'd need to sync it over different machines.
LeechBlock and Cold Turkey come in handy when I need to ban myself from the distractions of the internet, but most of the time I prefer a different approach: whenever I feel the urge to give up my task and go browse around, I smile, acknowledge the urge, let it pass, and continue working.

3. Tools for reminding

This part of my approach did not have a solid foundation earlier, but by applying the Task lists in Google Calendar, and having both my planning and deadlines in a visual display together, I've overcome this hurdle in my planning.

How does your time management system work? Has it changed much over the past year? And what did you learn from changing your planning habits?

PhD Talk, post PhD

Dear lovely readers,

Some of you have wondered what my plans are for PhD Talk now that I have graduated and am not a PhD student anymore, so I thought a small glimpse into the future is in place.

My most honest answer to this question is: I'll keep working on this blog for as long as I enjoy doing so.
At the moment, I'm still very much enjoying writing here, and sharing my thoughts, adventures and lessons-learned with all of you.

In the Fall semester, I'll be moving to Ecuador to start as an Assistant Professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. As a result of that, there are a few new topics that most likely will appear here, such as:

• Life as an early career researcher
• Teaching (I'll start with 3 courses of my own)
• Expat life in Ecuador
• Moving abroad

By the same token, I still have a number of topics on my sleeve related to the PhD process that I will frequently share with you all.

I keep on aiming at three posts per week, as long as that remains feasible.
If possible, I'd like to incorporate more guest posts from aspiring, current and former PhD candidates. If you're interested, don't hesitate and get in touch with me!

Also, I -not so- secretly aspire writing an e-book that assembles all that I learned while writing my dissertation: stay tuned!

Over the past years, I've seen (too) many fellow PhD students getting stuck in the swamps. In my research group, I pretty much graduated before all the folks that started their programs earlier than me (and I don't want to sound snobbish about that, just matter-of-factish). I finished and defended 2,5 months before the end of my funding, while the norm at my institution seemed to be extensions, and sometimes even unemployment checks.
For full-time PhD students, I think it is perfectly possible to finish on time, within the originally devised time schedule. Unfortunately, a lot happens along the way, many things don't go as they should, and I would love to improve the system - one PhD student at a time. So tell me, how can I help you?

Let me know what support you are looking for, what you would like to learn about and what you'd like to see on this blog. I'd be more than happy to give you a little boost when needed.

6 Essential Elements in Writing To Dos

In a not-so-recent Lifehacker post, I read the rather surprising stats about To Dos (logged in a particular type of software):

41% of to-do items were never completed.
50% of completed to-do items are done within a day.
18% of completed to-do items are done within an hour.
10% of completed to-do items are done within a minute.
15% of dones started as to-do items.

This post had me thinking about how I structure my own to do lists. In fact, I simply write in my planner what needs to be done on a given day. My office and research to dos are on the top of the page, with the appointments I might have marked at their time slot, and at the bottom I scribble down my to dos for the evening.

Given the fact that so few to do items ever get finished, and some others get finished almost right away, it is necessary to spend some time reflecting on when an item becomes a to do task, and how to treat these.

Over time, I've put a lot of effort into optimizing my own time management system, and writing to dos, as well as planning tasks is an essential element of organizing your time.

Here are 6 essential elements that you need to keep in mind when writing a to do.

1. Focus on the essential

Identify your Most Important Task of the day, and put that on top of your list. It might be tempting to go and do a lot of small things (reply some mails, file some papers, pick up a delivery, ...) but the most important task is what you really need to do.

2. Assess your time

Before starting to put 5 tasks on your to do list for the day, assess the time you have, and the time you think you need to finish them. If you don't really know how much time certain tasks take you, start tracking your time.

3. Distractions

If there is one thing for sure, you will get distracted. Allow for some buffer time in your schedule. If you work 8 hours, you can't fill these 8 hours with net work on your tasks. When adding to do items to your list, make a quick assessment of how much time of your day is lost by distractions.

4. Be early

If a task needs to be done, start working on it early. Don't put items a day before their deadline on your to do list, but plan them over a longer period of time. Take your own deadlines seriously, and work accordingly.

5. Think long term

Identify the tasks that really move your work forwards, and spend enough time on these. Don't let the tasks that are not urgent but important slip behind in your schedule, but place them high on your to do list.

6. Alternate tasks

If you can't focus on the same task for the entire day, add different types of work on your to do list. For example: combine writing a section on a journal paper with sorting out data in a spreadsheet and reading a paper. Not only will you get some more variation in your tasks, but you will also set shorter, defined times to work on these tasks. Short time slots are beneficial from your overall productivity.

How do you handle your to do list? Do you get your tasks done or do you find it hard to deal with distractions?

Priorities versus Dead Work

When you feel like you are overloaded with work, it is important to reconsider your to do list, and see what you *really* need to do in order to move forward.

Of all the tasks on your to do list, how much are aiming at putting out fires? How much are deep work, the kinda stuff that really moves your work forward?

Reconsider your to do list as function of the Urgent-Important matrix (see figure above, taken from this source).

There is always some admin work that needs to be done, and always mails that need to be answered. But replying emails will have no effect on my career in the long run. It's the publications that matter...

I've categorized my different tasks previously according to the urgent-important matrix. Since my task package has changed as I changed from being a PhD student to a starting professor, I wanted to revise my list of priorities again. This semester I've barely been able to keep my head above the water (teaching 3 new courses and getting settled into a new country was rather exhausting). For the next semester, I want to have my priorities more organized.

Category 1: Important and urgent
- Paper deadlines (if any)
- Registration deadlines (if any)
- getting the lab ready for next semester
- teaching my classes

Category 2: Important and not urgent
- writing my journal papers
- the core of my research
- keeping up with the literature (doing poorly in this category)
- future planning of the laboratory
- sports and enough sleep

Category 3: Not important and urgent
- grading
- meetings
- some pending admin work
- phone calls, e-mail
- someone showing up in my office

Category 4: Not important and not urgent
- lunch breaks
- web browsing
- blogging

If I assess my list of tasks on this basis, I seem to be spending about 3 hours a day in Category 1, 3 hours in Category 2 (on a good day, and not counting exercise or sleep), 2 hours in Category 3 and 1 hour in Category 4.

Are you using the important-urgent matrix in analyzing your tasks? How much time do you spend on the respective categories?

How to tackle a large task

Writing a doctoral dissertation is a large task, but not the only large task to face during the PhD. A few examples include:
- writing an article,
- preparing a research report,
- the literature review itself,
- developing a method,
- ...

One way to get started is to take a blank page of paper, stare at it, and then get started hoping you'll end up with your required result. This used to be my approach, but I've gradually moved to a more structured approach. Here's a description of my typical workflow.

1. Break it down

Every large task consists of a series of smaller and more tangible tasks.
In a first brainstorm session, I always sketch the roadmap which I plan to follow for completion of the task ahead. Sometimes I make a mindmap, sometimes I sketch the smaller tasks. Once I have an idea of what needs to be done, I write a list of the steps I plan to go through from start to end.

2. Estimate the time needed

It's easier to estimate how much time a smaller task needs than to estimate to time needed for the entire task. This helps to plan the time needed for completion and to add these required blocks of time to your planning.

For example, it's easy to estimate that you need:
- 2 hours to read a paper,
- 15 minutes to archive it and add it to your references managing system, and
- 45 minutes to type out the important information into the literature review.
If you have a certain amount of papers which need to be read for a background study, you can guess how long it takes to process the papers. Continuing with this example, you could estimate that after processing the papers, you need 1 day to proofread and mark up your notes with important information and 2 days to rewrite the document.

3. Sharpen your pencil

I like having all the necessary tools and documents within my reach before I get started. Having to go after a missing document can really disturb my train of thought, so I like to have all my armor ready and shining before I enter the battlefield.

4. Keep track of your questions and assumptions

I recently started using a few extra sheets/documents while working on a larger task. In one document, I jot down all questions I need to ask my supervisor for verification. In another document, I list all the assumptions I have made. This makes it easier to talk through a large task with others (for example, my advisor).

5. Document the process

I keep all my draft document with their date in the title and I keep notes and to do lists in binders. It's like keeping a research journal or a lab book, but then for a different task. The longer I'm in doctoral school, the more it appears to me of the utmost importance to document all the steps I make.

This method might seem more time consuming than simply getting started and work towards the end, but I've noticed that a little extra effort at the start brings me faster and more reliably to the finish.

My analysis report or How to analyze large amounts of test data

The past two weeks and today, I've been continuously working on my analysis report. Today, just before lunch, my first draft (which still needs introduction and conclusions) was rolling out of the printer. I thought it was not so bad how I put together a 23k words document and a large number of graphs and tables in only 11 days' time (including the time to make the analysis calculations).

I wasn't in my best shape in terms of concentration (my housing situation has cause me a lot of tension lately, although the final solution is very near), so I've been randomly clicking around the interwebs too much. However, I still think my workflow with regard to making this document was neatly organized.

Only a few months ago, I spent about the same amount of days on an analysis document of less than half the size of this one, and I spent all those days working until 8pm (instead of 5 - 6pm as I'm trying to do now).

So here's how I organized this project:

1. Review what is already done.

I already had two previous versions of the analysis report of my experimental work, so I could recycle at least some material. I ended up mainly recycling the style of my graphs, and reanalyzing my data since my new test results were screaming to be included in every possible subchapter. I also knew my advisor had suggested changing the amount of data points I'm squeezing into the plots. I waited until this version to make this change.

2. Check the expectations.

Before starting (or better, before realizing another deadline in our project was coming up), I had an appointment with my daily supervisor who told me very clear which questions our funder wants to be answered. I really appreciated that I knew exactly in advance what the expectations for this report are, so I can work towards this in as much as I can.

3. Know what needs to be done.

So I knew what the expectations were. I printed out a previous version of the report and started to reread it. In every section I jotted down what had to be altered, recalculated or added. I also changed the order of the sections, and ended up with a document filled with pencil-scribbling to guide me what had to be done, section by section. I started off with putting the sections in my word document into the right order, and then I could get started altering, improving and adding material to the sections.

4. Give the reader some framework.

Previously, I just referred to the reports with the test data. I now added a short chapter with a sketch of the test setup and some basic information about the specimens. I think that was a good idea.

5. Study the parameters as resulting from the tests.

And so I've spent 11 days playing around with data in Excel and having rows and rows and columns and columns of data flying around before my eyes. My first action was to filter my data into nice plots and tables per parameter which we had been testing.

6. Compare to calculation methods in general.

My second action then was to compare the experimental values to the calculated values. Turn out, I had to recalculate most of my calculated values as I had only made rough predictions before the tests, and I did not implement the properties as we had measured them on the test data. Luckily, I have a nice set of MathCad sheets that do the job for me. Also, once I had a spreadsheet set up to analyze my data through one method, using the next method was only a matter of copy and paste.

7. Compare how the studied parameters are reflected by these methods.

Since the comparison with the Dutch code as calculation method gave me quite disappointing results, I decided to go and check per parameter the comparison of test value to calculated value to see where exactly the weak spots of the methods are. Doing that, I did some nice observations, which motivated me to play around some more with all my data.

8. Give recommendations.

It doesn't really help the fund to produce graphs and tables and let them look for the answers to their questions in all the material I've produced. So today, I printed out the document, started reading from the beginning, and jotted down the most important recommendations - per calculation method and in general.

9. Review your material.

Does it make sense? When reviewing my material today, I found that one of my tables raised my eyebrows. I went back to check it, doublechecked my calculations, and then I discovered that I had been reading results from the wrong column.

How do you analyze large amounts of test data? Any advice for me? I'm just hoping to give my funder a report which gives them as clear as possible the answers to their questions, but also gives them enough background to these answers.