Rain, Rain, Rain…

I am on day 3 of my 4 day weekend. And it’s not been nearly productive as I would have hoped. Oh well, such is life. It’s pouring cats and dogs (as it will be for the next five days…straight) and I’ve locked myself in my apartment to write a paper that desperately needs to be written. I thought I had a topic for this thing, only to find out it’s already been done. So I’m basically back to square one. Ugh.

Anyone know anything about response distortion on personality measures in the personnel selection context? (Fun, right?) 

On a more positive note, I went out with a group of my friends last night to celebrate a birthday. We went to this really nice sushi place near my apartment and had a great time. Lots of delicious food, and great company! 

So about this paper….maybe I’ll work on my thesis first. Oy vey. 

Crap.

Once again, being an overachiever bites me in the butt. A few weeks ago, my thesis proposal deadline was “the first few weeks of next quarter.” (Read: Late March.) I’ve been oh-so-productive with my writing lately, that my advisor decided to bump up the deadline to the last day of finals week.

Great. I’ll get right on that between the other 20-25 pages I need to write, four exams I need to study for, and everything else.

(And here’s where I slap myself for having the nerve to complain about this. Turning in a draft of my proposal by the end of this quarter is way ahead of where I’d ever thought I’d be, and puts me actually ahead of my original schedule. So it’s kind of great. If When I pull it off.)

I feel like an adult.

Definitely just spent 20 minutes on the phone with my Internet company convincing them to give me back the promotional price on my bill.

Was that 20 minutes I could have spent doing schoolwork? Yes.

Saving $20 a month? (For the next 6 months.) Priceless. 

Things to Do:

Things standing between me and the end of this quarter:

-Write a 10-15 page lit review
-Write a 10 page “gap proposal”
-A quant midterm
-A quant final
-An OHP final
-An I Psych final
-An internship application
-Reading until my eyes bleed 

Other things standing between me and my sanity:

-Filling out a fellowship application
-Getting a 50(ish) page thesis proposal draft done

It’s going to be a long few weeks.  

This is How I Spend My Weekends

In the lab. At my desk. Reading articles, writing discussion questions, and hopefully working on my thesis. 

I will allow myself to emerge from this windowless room when I’ve gotten a sizeable amount of work done! 

Deactivate

I deactivated my facebook account today.

We’ll see how long this lasts. I’d like to focus on my schoolwork and avoid the drama that I haven’t been able to escape from lately. And I’m hoping this helps. 

I’m buried under a stack of research articles, papers to write, and my ever growing thesis proposal. Let’s just say I’m pretty damn busy these days. 

Single Girl Shopping

After a marathon study session with the ladies in my OHP class and a nice long catch up with one of my best friends from home, I decided to venture out into the rain to do some window shopping and grab a few groceries.

An hour later and I ended up with a $15 (and very cute!) skirt from Gap and more groceries than I needed. After wandering around the grocery store while only half paying attention to my shopping list, I (of course) pick the empty line with an amazingly attractive cashier…and proceed to unload my haul. Which includes, among other things, an industrial size box of Cheerios, Reeses Peanut Butter Cup ice cream AND a small pack of Reeses, and a bottle of red wine. Clearly my single girl Valentine’s Day weekend survival kit. Amazingly, the cashier still chatted with me…and even more amazingly, I was able to keep it up, instead of pulling my usual one-word answer, “I’m-too-shy-and-clearly-awkward” shtick. 

Glad I’m not the only one! Wish I could get motivated again. Good luck on your midterm tomorrow!!!

Thank you! I found that banishing myself at a coffee shop away from my laptop was the best solution to that procrastinating problem! Good luck on your test as well! 

Week Five

This will be short and sweet. 

It’s nearing the end of week five, which means I’m halfway through the quarter, and just about halfway through the first year of grad school.

And can I make a confession?

I’m burnt out.

I’m hoping I can pick the energy back up with some of the breakthroughs I’ve made this week, but we’ll see. 

I am so, so grateful that I have such an amazing cohort, and to know that I’m not the only one who’s been struggling with all of this. 

Sorry, everyone. Hopefully I’ll be more upbeat in the next post!