I just don't know what to work on. It's all in a big tangle in my head.
The Goldschmidt conference in Germany is coming up in a month's time. I have to have at least 12 minutes of at least decent science ready by then to present. I can't even put some blurb on a poster and make myself disappear, no, I'm giving a talk. So, it better be good. And here I am, sitting at my desk for nearly 4 hours straight, and all I accomplished was to open a couple of Excel files. I seriously need more structure in this endeavour of mine. Or motivation. Or both.
The funny thing is, I think that what I do is really interesting. As far as I can analyze things myself, my lack of progress is mainly caused by two factors: 1) It feels like my project is so gargantuan that I will never be able to finish it in the allotted time, and not being able to finish it, what's the point in even starting... and 2) I hate working alone. I am alone at my desk all day, my thesis adviser is never here (and even if he were, it wouldn't change a whole lot since we hardly ever talk about science anyway... at least not on a peer level) and I don't get a chance to interact with other scientists in my field on a regular basis.
The good news: I had a meeting with my stats adviser this morning and it was excellent. He gave me lots of good research-related advice and was really interested in hearing and discussing my future plans. Very encouraging.
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most gigantic tasks are really just a bunch of little tasks...
redefining projects that way is helpful in a number of ways...
You CAN do this, girl. Ég hef fulla trú á þér.
And if you can't stand being alone in your office, you should maybe consider getting a goldfish...
demit.. bloggið þitt villekki kommentið mitt!! Ég vildi bara segja að ég held að þú sért ekki ein með að finnast doktorsverkefnið þitt vera yfirþyrmandi, það er MJÖÖÖG normal (nema við séum báðar abnormal). Hins vegar er ég ýkt glöð yfir því að þú fáir að tala á þessari ráðstefnu og þú átt eftir að massa þetta. Þú ert svo góð í að halda fyrirlestra....
Thanks for your comments and encouragement(-s)! It's good to know of you all out there :) I try to think of my project as a series of small tasks... and fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you see it) many of these tasks are parallel rather than serial so if I get stuck on one I can always work on another for a while. If I really think about what I've accomplished and what I've learned, I can see that I've come a very long way. But there are about a million loose ends around that badly need to be tied up. And even if I'm going to be a nervous wreck before the conference (Erna, the only people I'm really good at giving talks to are tourists, all other talks give me a stage-fright of astronomical proportions) I know that I'd be in a complete vacuum if I didn't have that as a beacon to work towards. So, I'm not giving up any time soon (I abandoned that option a while ago now, in fact) and you're all invited to the party when I finish!!
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