May 16, 2019 in Productivity Diary

Turned in my last essay this morning! I’m so happy. Well I was late and the essay wasn’t so good, but I hope she would be lenient to me– I had been a good, active student all semester. In graduate school, it’s not about the grade you get on each individual paper. It’s about the editing work you’ll be doing afterward to get your paper to publishable quality.

Still, getting a good grade still feels nicer. And your teacher would like you more and be less awkward in talking to you, etc. I think so.

Well, I don’t plan to take a break, but it’ll be such a nice change from having to work on one thing all the time, to starting new exciting projects. Projects are always fun in the beginning of course. Like, right now, I cannot wait to start reading for comprehensive exam.

SUMMER PLANS:
• Reading for comprehensive exam
• Apply for law school—write all the personal statements
• Work 40 hours per week if I can manage real hard
o Ask if I can work 40 hours in the library? Nah, I’ll volunteer for extra time, and if I can’t then I’ll just work over 20.
• Prepping for teaching two classes
o Write out lecture plan for each day.
o Make YouTube videos where I sample lecture.
o Watch philosophy courses on YouTube and Coursera to both review the basics and emulate their teaching method.
• Working on my dissertation—setting a goal like 200 words per day or something
• Strengthening Latin/ French, minimally
• Write and submit as much as possible (try to write new articles on the topic of my dissertation)—conferences (either big name, or with a proceedings, or very local), journal articles, book reviews.
• Work on the Wendy Belcher book and other writing courses to improve my writing.

If anything, I’ll hold off on thinking about the dissertation. It won’t contribute to my current CV at all. The four most important tasks are:

• Reading for comprehensive exam– can I read 20 pages per day?
• Apply for law school—write all the personal statements
• Teaching preparation– I should spend at least two hours per day for this purpose. I should always be putting something concrete down, everyday.
• Main writing projects— things that I actually have to write.
• Side writing projects— I have to write as much as possible, especially write complete papers. I would love to take an online class on writing or something too, but I wonder if that pays off or is writing just really about actually writing as much as possible.
• Also, help my sister with research for graduate school.

Main writing projects include:
• Philosophy of Nature essay
• A paper about technology

I guess that’s really it. But I’ll be working on things for different CFP’s.

At one point I should probably clean my filthy room as well. I need to fix this thing of mine– not cleaning when I’m up to the neck with work.

I want to exercise and lose weight too.

I should really narrow down a few most important goals. I’m thinking too much.
• Philosophy of Nature essay– 500 words per day until I hit 5000 then edit.
• A paper about technology– 500 words per day until I hit 3000 then edit.
• Law school personal statement– 100 words per day
• Teaching prep– I should aim for 1000 words per day of lecture notes/ handouts/ anything
• Comprehensive exam– 15 pages per day. This I should be able to do.

Last updated May 16, 2019