I have this annoying master's thesis I need to get done. I thought it would only take a few more months when I moved here last February, but it turned out there had been a miscommunication between my adviser and me and I needed to do redo some of it. Then there was the two month stretch waiting for our internet to be set up (apparently, this is standard in Germany) and I need to connect to a license server to run one of my compilers. I've more or less fallen out of touch with my adviser. If I email him with a question he'll email me back, but he doesn't ever check up on me. I went back to the US in September to touch base, but shortly after that some trouble at work started that gave me a ton of anxiety and stress (debating about whether I should post about this... I'm sure it's a common work problem but I don't want to gossip). I've been writing it slowly and steadily, but I until I finish it I'm not technically employed, just a "visiting scholar" and really poor. But it's not going to get it's self done.
Basically, it's chronic.
I heard about the Don't Break the Chain/Seinfeld Method for getting things done on lifehacker.com. They have a few articles about it, the story behind it, how to make it work and a review of a web app to help you along with it.
Basically, the Don't Break the Chain Method is you pick something you want to accomplish, and try to do it everyday. Everyday you complete your task, you get to mark off one day, or complete one link in the chain. If you're feeling advanced, decide how much you want to work on it (study half an hour, write a page, run 2 miles) or if you're a novice, just try to work on it a little everyday.
You keep track of your progress on a big wall calender, or somewhere else you'll see it. I think the idea is that once you get momentum it'll turn into a habit, and you'll feel guilty and not doing it. Looking back on a month it will seem embarrassing that you did something 30 out of 31 days. What happened that one day? was it worth it? it was just one day, surely you could have done it for just a few minutes!
Plus, if you just tell yourself you'll work on that project for just 15 minutes you're more likely to start than thinking you need to work on it for four hours. The 15 minutes could easily turn into more, or you could leave the project open and come back to it while watching TV or waiting for dinner to cook.
Once begun is half done, and all that.
It reminds me a little of the charts you have as a kid for things like "cleaning your room" or "not fighting" where you get a sticker everyday you behave and at the end you get a treat.
Except my treat will be never having to work on my thesis again, going on my full pay level (make over 2x what I make now) and finally getting my husband and myself on health insurance! (oh, you thought everyone who worked in Germany got health insurance? so did I, until the University told me, after my husband quit his job and we moved there.)
I've installed a little widget thing on the right sidebar to help keep me honest. I'm giving myself Fridays off, because Fridays are magical, but otherwise I want to work on it everyday, if even for a few moments. It's difficult to work on something after not looking at it for a week or two, especially when it's physical science.
One problem I face in particular is that we have to write it in a typesetting language called Latex (Pros: produces a nice pdf when compiled, no weird image and outline autoformatting like in Microsoft Word, same on macs and PCs. Cons: need the compiler to edit, documents doesn't carry images in it, learn tagging style) and I don't have a printer at home. I find it's much easier to edit on paper than on screen, so I have to move my document between work and home a lot, and sometimes it falls between the cracks. Sometimes, just remembering to email myself the file determines if I'll be productive or not, and I hope this will give me the extra push to remember.
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