Can’t have a rainbow without rain

What I mean by this is that I’ve found out that the pain of waking up early has rewards, and in particular one reward: increased productivity.

Every day this week I’ve woken up before 7am, usually between 630-7. This means that I haven’t had internet time every morning but all mornings I at least had time to check my e-mail.

My routine has been wake up, throw on robe and surf the web until 7am. Then I make coffee/breakfast and put on some actual¹ clothes. After eating I try to organize what I plan to do for the day. All of this means that I’m at top productivity by 8am and I have been working nonstop² until around noon.

This week I’ve been working on a chapter of my dissertation that I don’t plan to publish. Its likely only of local interest and specifically the interest of my funding agency. It may, however, find it’s way to a low-tier journal if I’m happy with the quality of the chapter or find something of greater interest than what I see now. The work I did of this nature for my master’s thesis made it’s way to a local journal which I’m certain is not peer-reviewed but I’ve been meaning to double check this. The journal does not come up in web of science searches and the manuscript was accepted without comments or changes. I was rejected from two other journals before we went to the local journal. The main thrust of the rejections said that my study was nothing new or exciting, just new data in a different area. I now think that I could have made a better argument in the manuscript that it is of broader interest, so maybe the Ph.D. me can actually publish this chapter but it’s not a goal I have to graduate. I was upset at the time of rejection because I’d read articles that are interesting but are really only presenting site specific data. Guess I should submit to the journals I read those articles in.

My productivity greatly decreases after lunch. I’ve been having lunch then exercising or vice versa. I ran outside yesterday!! My internet time has been increased and is now 1230-230. Ironically, I think I goof off less now that my internet time is longer. I guess I’ve just had a lot of work and personal chores to get done during this time this week. For example; I applied for financial aid, submitted a manuscript, e-mailed another manuscript to coauthors, did reference searches, dealt with tax issues and deal with the warrantee of our mattress³. Today, however, I plan to watch last nights episode of Lost and probably do another reference search. Tomorrow I’ll print the references I need.

But you know what? My productivity after lunch has been equal to my general productivity over the past few months, so I’m o.k. that its not as good as the morning time because the morning time is kicking ass. I also don’t feel very guilty for getting only a little done in the afternoons because, again, the morning kicked ass. I think this is all a mental game. I think that I am productive in the morning because, a) I get to check my e-mail and goof off (wake up) a little and so am not thinking about goofing off in the morning when I should be working, b) I have this inherent feeling that I’m just being lazy when I sleep in, so when I wake up late morning I have this bad feeling about myself before the day even begins and c) my husband wakes up early so it’s nice to see him in the morning and feel like we are on the same schedule.

1. Actual doesn’t always mean clothing I would leave the house in. What I wear depends on my mood and my exercise plan for the day. If I’m going to exercise before lunch why bother putting on real clothes to just change into exercise clothes later. I’ve read that your clothing can affect your attitude so I try not to be in “lazy” clothes if I’m feeling lazy.

2. Nonstop includes refreshing my coffee cup, getting water, relieving myself and sometimes making a mid morning snack.

3. This is an insane issue that I should blog on once it has been resolved.

Up and at em’

My husband said something this morning while I was still asleep along the lines of “its as cold as it’s ever been,” meaning our outdoor thermostat was somewhere around -1degF. I mumbled something about what time was it. It was 630am. Wow I thought I have 30 minuets of internet* time and I really need to go to Web of Science and look up those refs to finish this manuscript. SO I got out of bed. I put my robe on, grabbed some water and was online by 637. In addition to getting all my references and checking my e-mail I opened all the new entries from Google reader so I could read them later when my internet was off line and the coffee was made. Husband even turned on the hot water pitcher so I could make coffee. He likes it when I wake up early and honestly it’s nice to see him in the mornings. Also, it’s only 11am and I’ve both finished my manuscript*** and answered the questions for the position** I’m applying to. And my second load of laundry is in the drier. Damn, and I also juiced carrots and made banana bread. Working from home can rock.

**I’ve noticed this week that my dream job, in dream place is open. It’s at a federal institution where I worked while an undergrad and for a year after my bachelors. But it seems I’m one year behind their requirements.

Question 1 makes sure you have your Ph.D. or equivalent work experience. The problem is that the deadline to apply is Friday and I’m pretty sure one is suppose to meet the requirements before applying, as it states this somewhere. But I checked that I had phd as my CV states when I’ll get it.

Question 2
In addition to meeting the Basic Education Requirement, you must have professional experience. Select the one response below which best describes your experience.
1. I have 1 year of professional experience in the field of -ology equivalent to the -11 level. Examples of such experience may include planning and executing complex -ologic studies that usually involved intensive investigations into recognized phenomena; applying conventional methods & techniques (going beyond clear precedents); and adapting methods to the problems at hand and interpreting findings in terms of their scientific significance.
2. I do not meet the requirement as described above.

Basically I feel that this (answer 1) was all I did for my graduate work, yet that was covered by question 1. I’m pretty sure, again I don’t quite qualify. I’m still applying (actually I've applied).

The position says that they have one position open but may open up other positions. So I’m crossing my fingers that they see how awesome I am and decide to hire me at a level lower, the 11 instead of the 12.

**Manuscript 1
As I mentioned above, I finished a manuscript this morning, although every time I read it I rewrite portions and think of new figures, but I swear I’m only going to read it one more time before sending it to my adviser (actually it's sent).

Initially this was going to be a short communication/letter about this awesome spike we see in the data but coauthor said to just include all the other data, as it’s an uniquely large data set, and make one large paper. I thought sure this will make life simpler but now that it’s all together I feel like this awesome spike is lost in the data. So I’m debating the letter again and will see what co author and adviser think.

I’m also thinking of submitting this paper to a new sub-journal of a major impact journal but I don’t think the writing is concise enough. Hopefully adviser will help with this. First I just want him to see the paper because we haven’t discussed a lot of this data yet.

This manuscript also has four tables and four figures. One of the figures has six plots, wow! As I said I keep thinking of new figures and new tables. I think two of the tables would do fine as supplementary tables but all of the figures are unique. I tried to just include two of the plots on the six plot figure but then I just said these other plots are similar to these two plots but different. That didn’t seem good enough so I just decided to dump everything in and then see what co authors think. This is a major dilemma for all my manuscripts and talks. I have too many FIGURES and it’s not that I’m repeating data in a different way it is actual data that supports the study. It’s so difficult to decide what is most important. . . .. I guess that is why there are co authors and reviewers.

* In addition to getting up early I worked more last night after dinner. I’ve still been having slight troubles falling asleep but I think it’s because there is so much on my mind.

I installed the MeeTimer on my laptop and am interested to see how that works for me while in dissertation town where the internet is endless (read excitement). Then I think when I get back to Midwest I’m going to request my husband change and increase my internet time. It’s getting a little frustrating that when I want to do actual work online I can’t, although I told my friend that I just write a list of things when I think of them and she commented how it was cool that my time online was structured-good point. Also I tend to even run out of things to do during my hour’o’internet. Also, the timing is not very evenly spread out. No internet from 7am to 1:15pm-6 hours 15 mins, then my next break is 2:30 to 615pm- a little less than four hours. The time was initially set since I would meet with my adviser online during that time in the afternoon. I’ll set up a time with adviser for this semester when I see him next week. He’ll likely want a similar time so I’m thinking that I’d just increase the middle time period to start at noon. Then I can browse while I eat lunch.

It would look like this:
Midnight-7am INTERNET
7am-Noon NONE (5 hour break)
Noon-2:30 INTERNET
2:30-6:15 NONE (less than 4 hour break)
6:15-8:00 INTERNET

I think this is a pretty good schedule.

This was a pretty diverse blog entry but I felt there was much to discuss. Hope I didn’t ramble too much.

I'm Awake

I woke up this morning at 640am. I have about 15 mins now of internet. I think I will be able to stay awake after my morning coffee. We'll see . . .

On another up beat note I've been running pretty regularly. Yesterday I ran in 40 deg. weather. My goal is to run if it's above freezing and then go to the gym if it's below 40 deg. We have a nice outdoor thermometer that will help me make these decisions.

I feel like it's going to be a great day. Enjoy your day as well.

Confession

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but I have an internet addiction. Since the move from East coast to Midwest I've been a little depressed (actually I think this started in the east) and felt that my projects were slowing down and although there was much to get done that wasn't a lot "to do". So I spent a lot of time watching online TV, checking my e-mail and pretty much anything else that I could do online to avoid figuring out what work I should be doing.

I broke down sometime in November and made this confession to my husband. It involved a lot of involuntary crying, something I don't do very often, and I think this startled/scared my husband.
Being the problem solver that he is he has limited my internet access. The modem is in his office and I'm on wifi so he has allotted the times between 1:15-2:30pm, 6:16-8pm and something like midnight to 7am. I can't seem to wake up early enough to take advantage of the morning one.

Honestly at first I went through with drawls, and sometimes I still do but my productivity has soared, but I have a different point in posting this. I am really enjoying having a blog and reading blogs. I feel like I'm becoming "friends" with some fellow bloggers, but since I have only a limited time on the internet and need to check e-mails, looks up manuscripts and other random things I write on my to-do-internet list for the day I have been falling behind in my blog reading and my blog writing. This makes me feel like I am not being a good friend, and I miss the connection I get from reading blogs and making comments.
So, I guess to get to the point, I wanted to let everyone know why I'm sort of mia and let you all know I still enjoy the blogsphere and I miss you all.
Hopefully I can start waking up when my husband does at 6am and make the morning session my blog time . . . . . but that is really early . . .