My new productivity plan

I’ve been really slacking off lately.  It’s been a combination of my attitude and laziness and the attitudes of other people in my lab.  So I have concocted a plan to get me back on the straight and narrow.

Step 1:

Start lab work BEFORE sitting down at computer.

My usual routine has been to come into lab and spend at least an hour or so sitting at my computer, drinking my tea and generally letting my brain warm up.  I am not at all a morning person, so I convince myself I need some time to get going.  That’s out.

Step 2:

Make a to do list for every day.

I’ve gotten pretty slack about this lately, and I need to do better.

Step 3:

Actually do things on said to do list.  Really.

Step 4:

Set goals.  Short term and long term. 

Step 5:

Make a plan for how to achieve goals with concrete milestones.

Step 6:

Take over the world!!!

Seriously, I think I need to be much more specific and concrete with the things I need to do.  I think deadlines, even if artificial, are key to me convincing myself to actually do something.

Over the weekend, I was thinking about Step 1, and I decided I needed to come up with a way to reward myself.  I was struggling to come up with an idea, but just now it hit me.  If I manage to start my lab work before sitting down at my desk every day for a week, I get a trip to Lush!!!  Maybe after a month of success I get a new pair of shoes.  I haven’t decided that yet.  So I’m trying really, really hard to have a good attitude about this, despite blowing up everything I have touched this morning.  

My first Scientiae!

The theme for the April edition of Scientiae is fools and foolishness in honor of April Fool's Day.

I’ve been contemplating this post where I talk about a couple of questions that keep plaguing me and causing me to doubt myself:

If there are this few women that are successful academic scientists and mothers, why should I think that I can do this?

What makes me different than all the other women that have tried and failed before me?

Over the last week, I’ve decided that it’s complete and utter foolishness to compare myself to other people this way.  I can learn from those who have failed just as much as I can learn from those who have succeeded.  And just because I don’t know anyone who has exactly embodied the future I imagine for myself, doesn’t mean that I can’t succeed in just the way I want (or some other equally satisfying, as yet unimagined way). 

I would be a fool to pigeonhole myself into other people’s successes (or failures).

My life is mine to do with as I wish.  I’d be foolish not to be alllll over that!

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