I have, in general, been maintaining radio silence for the past two weeks. Twitter wants to know where my original posts are, facebook has been almost entirely neglected, and my pen-pal Lauren probably thinks I dropped off the face of the earth. Why? The first two weeks of school!
As we approached the first week of school, I knew life was going to become more challenging. I knew sitting through lectures, studying, homework, meetings, desperately trying to catch up on emails after three hours of lecture (I never imagined how many emails I would get as a PhD student), and many other tasks were going to rule my life. I knew this was going to happen, but what I didn’t know was an exciting, yet daunting research project was coming my way, and was going to completely throw off my balance.
My committee members and I are in the process of applying for a research and education grant focusing on cover crop mixtures. In mid-August we found out our pre-proposal was accepted with the full proposal due October 15th. Really exciting news! This is also my first grant and I have learned so much in the process of writing. What hasn’t been so exciting has been a poor attempt on my part of balancing class work, grant writing, and setting up a “surprise” research project all at the same time.
The week before school my committee and I came up with a great research idea that will help inform our larger study starting in 2016. The “problem” for me, however, was not being organized well enough to get all of my tasks done. I am extremely excited about this project, we currently have a research field (picture on the right) and will hopefully get our crops in the ground next week. But, while I was working on this new study and trying to keep up with homework, I let my grant writing go. I found myself overwhelmed to the point where I hit a roadblock. I think chunks of my life was lost to the Twilight Zone. My solution to this problem? I forced myself to read and write for almost two days straight. It was stressful, I’m still behind, but things are looking up.
What have I learned about myself these last two stressful weeks? I do have the ability to successfully multi-task, I just need to practice a bit more. At any given moment I might be working on soil physics homework, downloading the next ten papers I need to read about cover crop nitrogen, and talking on the phone to the cover crop seed distributor about common seeding rates farmers use. What I need to work on is overall time management and prioritizing jobs. I’ve been told, if you are getting A+s you aren’t working on your research enough. I’m sure that is true, but I’m going to try my hardest to get my research done and get A+s. If that isn’t possible, research will come first. The most important lesson so far from all of this, no matter how hectic and stressful things get, this PhD was the right choice and I am happy I finally made the decision to focus on myself and work towards my own career goals.
As we approached the first week of school, I knew life was going to become more challenging. I knew sitting through lectures, studying, homework, meetings, desperately trying to catch up on emails after three hours of lecture (I never imagined how many emails I would get as a PhD student), and many other tasks were going to rule my life. I knew this was going to happen, but what I didn’t know was an exciting, yet daunting research project was coming my way, and was going to completely throw off my balance.
My committee members and I are in the process of applying for a research and education grant focusing on cover crop mixtures. In mid-August we found out our pre-proposal was accepted with the full proposal due October 15th. Really exciting news! This is also my first grant and I have learned so much in the process of writing. What hasn’t been so exciting has been a poor attempt on my part of balancing class work, grant writing, and setting up a “surprise” research project all at the same time.
The week before school my committee and I came up with a great research idea that will help inform our larger study starting in 2016. The “problem” for me, however, was not being organized well enough to get all of my tasks done. I am extremely excited about this project, we currently have a research field (picture on the right) and will hopefully get our crops in the ground next week. But, while I was working on this new study and trying to keep up with homework, I let my grant writing go. I found myself overwhelmed to the point where I hit a roadblock. I think chunks of my life was lost to the Twilight Zone. My solution to this problem? I forced myself to read and write for almost two days straight. It was stressful, I’m still behind, but things are looking up.
What have I learned about myself these last two stressful weeks? I do have the ability to successfully multi-task, I just need to practice a bit more. At any given moment I might be working on soil physics homework, downloading the next ten papers I need to read about cover crop nitrogen, and talking on the phone to the cover crop seed distributor about common seeding rates farmers use. What I need to work on is overall time management and prioritizing jobs. I’ve been told, if you are getting A+s you aren’t working on your research enough. I’m sure that is true, but I’m going to try my hardest to get my research done and get A+s. If that isn’t possible, research will come first. The most important lesson so far from all of this, no matter how hectic and stressful things get, this PhD was the right choice and I am happy I finally made the decision to focus on myself and work towards my own career goals.