It’s time to wake up and smell the reality

I think I’ve really been going about this uni break the wrong way (notice I didnt call it a holiday). While I’ve been thinking that I can take at least a week off for some R&R, it seems to have stretched quite a bit. There are now 2 weeks till sem 2 starts and face it, I’ve not done very much at all in terms of research. I’ve got to face reality now and give myself that swift kick in the backside that everyone knows I deserve.

So far, it would seem as though I had never had any time management skills to begin with – although Adrian would say otherwise. Just so I dont disappoint him and my benefactors, I need to start organising my time as best I can from now on because goodness knows that there isnt very much of it left. No more time for self pity and wasting time. It’s time I start another task list for the next week and I’ll be recording it here and hopefully striking off the tasks as I do them because we all know I like striking tasks off lists.

Here goes:

• finish off the last overdue knowledge nugget
• look up youtube videos on how to use Jing (the free screen casting software)
• figure out how many screen casts I’ll need to do and based on what actions with knowledge trails
• write out a script for each of the tasks I’d like to screen cast
• Decide where to post up the screen casts and post them up as I finish each one.
• Start writing the draft for chapter 1 with what I already know using the material I’ve gotten from Parks Victoria and Adrian.
• Set up a meeting time with Adrian and sort out what to discuss.

Ok so now I can actually see what needs to be done for this week, I can actually get started. No more whinging and wasting time. It’s time to get started. I’ve spoken to other honours mates that have already gotten as far as writing their drafts for chapter 3 and here I am watching World Cup and sleeping till 4 in the afternoon. *sigh*

Honours map

This might be long overdue but here’s my honours map (We were told to draw what we thought our project looked like)

This wasnt my first attempt. It might actually be my third because I made a mess of my first one and I didnt have the second on me when I came to class for the discussion of the maps. I drew up another one so that I wouldn’t be left behind (so far I dont sound very organised, do I ? LoL)

In my picture, what I meant to relay was the fact that I knew that my project was supposed to consist of a website and I knew all the parts that it was supposed to include. The alarm clock suggested that everything had to timed properly so as not to get left behind. The arrow coming from the website framework leading to the right hand side of the page shows that any information that I derived from the analysis of the website would be used in the research and write up of the project.I drew a little blob of uncertainty that held a lot of doubt at the bottom of the page because this was what I was feeling at the time. I felt like this blob of uncertainty would continuously grow – I think I had all this doubt because I needed to relearn skills that I put on a shelf about 8 years ago (coding). And now, to dust those skills off and relearn everything again in such a short timeframe made me doubt my ability to do so.

During the class where we were discussing the Honours maps, Adrian played the psychologist, explaining what he thought our Honours maps were about. This is what he said about my picture in a nutshell. This map was supposed to be all pictures and very little text <- Adrian caught me out on that part saying that I’ve just been really caught up on having everything text based, the purpose of this exercise was to have most things in graphic form because pictures say more than actual words do. Pictures uses different cognitive functions. These were tools in thinking of research as practice. For example you could say that you’re not worried about anything but having a drawing of a whirlwind or a speech bubble with jagged edges suggests otherwise.

He noticed that my map consisted of a lot of straight lines and the only thing that didnt have straight lines was the blob of uncertainty. He found this interesting. (This picture that is at the top of the page now has arrows going out from the blob to all parts of the map. When he analysed my map, it didnt have those arrows. I drew them in only after the analysis.) He said that this blob held a separate life living alongside the actual project and that as I go along with the project it would only grow bigger. I had to think of ways to connect the blob to the rest of the project so they could be friends and the size of the blob of uncertainty would be able to be managed.

So now reflecting on this and the fact that I’ve already gotten started on some of the work for the project, it would seem that by acknowledging my uncertainties in relation to the project (and asking for help where it is necessary), I can manage the uncertainty and progress with the little tasks that are necessary to get the website up and running instead of sitting in the corner, constantly worrying.

Essay writing practice bargraph

Behold, the ugliest bargraph in the world. Then again, no one said it had to be beautiful.

Anyways, we had to draw up this bar graph during class on Thursday in response to how much we enjoyed each part of the essay writing process. There were 27 different parts that we came up with and judging by the bar graph, the part I enjoyed the most was when I had to hand in the finished product and the part that I disliked the most was when I had to start the actual writing of the essay.

I think I dislike this the most because I never know how or where to begin the essay. Normally at this point I would’ve already done enough research to get a discussion going. It’s just always the first step that’s the most difficult for me.

Having this graph plotted out really put into perspective where I have to focus and spend more time on the next time I have to write an essay. According to Adrian, anything that I love doing will come easily so I dont have to spend so much time on it because even if I spend a shorter amount of time doing it, it would still have the same result. So I guess, I’ll just have to focus more on planning and the actual writing process.

If you thought this bar graph was ugly, stay tuned for the even uglier honours map coming up in the next post. =)