Life!! Ack!!

Well, life has taken over.  The past week has been really stressful for me - mostly because I've been feeling overwhelmed.  As a result, I've been making use of the tried and tested method of a to-do list to keep track of things and reduce my stress level.  I find that when I write the list of things down it means that I can focus on doing something without worrying that I'll remember to do the other things.

That being said, I am slowly starting to feel back in control of my life because I have:

Prepared and given the 4 lectures I needed to

Prepared and printed the poster for the poster day next Friday

Taken care of some admin things for grants

Called the Syrian Embassy

Gotten a handle on a timetable for my research trip

Met with my supervisors

I still need to:

Plan and book research trip

Including: apply for visas, book flights, ensure grant payment

Work in office

Poster day (Fri)

Practical teaching (2 Fridays)

Work on thesis (any spare moment)

Go to Stonehenge (Fri/Sat)

Go hiking (next Sat/Sun)

Sleep - presumably

All this to say, life is busy and I'm running around quite a bit

Writing again

Well, I don't know what it is, but I've actually gotten some writing done the past two days.  I had a meeting with my supervisor yesterday, which means that I can now edit the section he had been reading.  Which also means that I am steadfastly ignoring that particular section and am full steam ahead writing a terrible first draft about space syntax and phenomenology.  It's unfocussed, scattered, and totally crappy. 

It's getting longer though, and for a first draft that's all that matters.  

I also have the motivational factor of working on a shiny new computer, and well, you have to take advantage of wanting to work on a shiny new computer while it lasts!  Because soon, the shiny new computer will become just the computer, and it won't be neato at all.

Ah well. 

Back to work.

Transition

I am currently in the downtime between submitting a draft chapter to my supervisors and meeting with them to discuss their opinions. This time, the gap between submission and meeting is going to be almost two weeks, and I'm finding it hard to get moving on something new. And there are many things to be doing. I could be working on getting my theory chapter written, I could be combing the literature for all the published sources of the next site I'll be focussing on as a case study, I could be preparing the 4 lectures I'll be giving over the next two weeks, or I could be preparing my poster that has to be given at a mandatory university poster day for research students.

Instead, I'm floating around reading articles aimlessly, generating new ideas for things I could do to my poor abused sites, and generally feeling overwhelmed by all the things I *could* be doing. Of course, once I've met with my supervisors, that list of things to do will increase as they give me edits to do and advice on the next things to focus on.

Bah

Alright, time for a plan. This weekend I will prep the lectures. Today and next week I will start organizing my theory chapter and get writing. Everything else can wait for a while.

PhD Update

Well, had a meeting with one of my supervisors today.  He's been really busy, so I haven't seen much of him, so the first bit of the meeting was just chatting about life and how we've been.  I then told him about the case study I've been working on now and some of the problems I've encountered.  

We then went on to discuss some of the methodological problems that I've been having that he can directly help with.  I'm not sure how soon it will be resolved, but I feel like I"m getting closer.

The biggest thing that we discussed was how to handle the next background section I need to write.  I need to write about the methodological and theoretical context of my work, which means tackling the entire corpus of theory concerning the social nature of architecture and the archaeology of architecture.  He had some good suggestions on how to structure my work, which gives me the direction I need to get started.  Hopefully it won't take me too long!

Working from home

I am at home waiting for a repairman to come this morning and am once again caught up in the eternal quandry of how to work at home.  I brought home work I can very easily do here - writing up some of the research I did late last week, and I am determined.  There are just so many more distractions here at home.

It's not like the office is any better.  There, there's always someone dropping by to say hi and to pass on the latest gossip.  I love that, love seeing my friends, hearing the latest goings-on and chitchatting.  

How can you really get stuck into work though?  

Then again, I work well when I'm flitting back and forth, but I always feel more accomplished if I've put in a solid couple of hours in of reading and writing.  Unfortunately, the only place that has recently allowed me to work steadily has been the coffee shop down the road, which gets expensive in tea.  Maybe I'll drop by later, but I sure hope I can get settled into working somewhere else.

How do you guys get settled into a working headspace?  What do you do to get yourself in the mood?  Do you force it if you're not feeling it?