Phases of a Project
I have a Sunday deadline, which, due to understandable circumstances I have chosen to interpret as a "late-Sunday-evening" deadline. See, I am working on an article for the magazine and I was all gung ho about it. I am writing about internets stuff that I deeply care about and I think that even my editor was a bit surprised by my initial enthusiasm. But then, you know...life got in the way. There were coffees to be had, and shopping to be done, and sleep to be caught up with.
Just as I am trying to figure out how to save myself from an imminent panic attack, I remember something that my friend Brooke had posted a while back:
Phases of a Project
1. Enthusiasm
2. Disillusionment
3. Panic
4. Search for the guilty
5. Punishment of the innocent
6. Praise and honor for the non-participants
So I shrug it off and tell myself that nothing out of the ordinary has happened. I probably WILL seriously panic in a couple of hours but then, inevitably,I will find something to blame for my delay. You know...my noisy neighbors...or their dog. I mean, come ON!
Just as I am trying to figure out how to save myself from an imminent panic attack, I remember something that my friend Brooke had posted a while back:
Phases of a Project
1. Enthusiasm
2. Disillusionment
3. Panic
4. Search for the guilty
5. Punishment of the innocent
6. Praise and honor for the non-participants
So I shrug it off and tell myself that nothing out of the ordinary has happened. I probably WILL seriously panic in a couple of hours but then, inevitably,I will find something to blame for my delay. You know...my noisy neighbors...or their dog. I mean, come ON!
6 Comments:
This is a great list, but it is obviously missing one step: blog about it.
Oh, you were a grad student. You can handle it, probably better than other procrastinators without that experience. :)
I'll never forget one day earlier this year. It was just before APSA, and I had a meeting with Dr. Bahry. She was frazzled because she had to leave for APSA but then had some foreign conference immediately after it for which she hadn't even finished the paper yet. Whoops. So now, every time I'm feeling panicked about how much time I've wasted, I think, "See? You can still procrastinate and be successful."
Probably not the lesson I should have taken from that, but oh well.
K: Seriously! Blogging adds more value to the project's value!
Jenn: Knowing that Dr. Donna-Perfection-Barry allows herself to slack off every once in a while is probably the best de-stressant I could have taken right now.
Glad to know "Phases of a Project" brought a sense of normalacy to your panic, Petya. :) It was a nice reminder that I need to chill, too.
I just spent an entire weekend (9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday...well, perhaps later than that even, by the time this night is over) doing Russian homework for the entire upcoming week (to prevent my grade from being docked by my absence while at a conference), a Russian presentation for tomorrow, a Russian extra credit essay (to further remedy absences), a Russian journal assignment, and an annotation for one of my anthro classes.
Now I have the pleasure of completely revising a prediss grant application after getting very critical feedback from a professor (due tomorrow morning, to be uploaded Tuesday), and I still have to revise a panel intro for the AAA Annual Meeting in San Jose, which I leave for on Tuesday morning. Ack!
One way or another it will get done. It has to. There's no choice in the matter.
God, if I stick with my program through this academic year without being lured by the prospect of getting the hell out of academia to do anything but what I do now for the sake of less stress, my determination to succeed will be affirmed. Until then, I remain on increasingly shaky ground...What's wrong with me?!! I love my discipline. Why can't it love me back?
Geez. I need to sleep.
And you're right kgrady, blogging about it is a crucial step. As well as commenting about it on others' blog.
-Brooke
I also LOVE how posting comments to other people's blog-entries makes one feel like they are wasting LESS time. ;)
It's so true! :P
Brooke
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