Friday, April 27, 2007
Distractions
Not had much of a productive week at all unfortunately. I have had stuff planned and wanted to get stuff done. But when it came down to it I faffed about taking too long to make samples, got put off because one small thing I needed wasn't working and I didn't know how to deal with it. Finally perked up a bit more this afternoon (although after a morning which was a total washout - mostly due to my slowness and disorganisation) and am more motivated to getting a piece of kit working and used for my experiments. I have been putting off dealing with this bit of kit for 3 months already so I can't get too smug with myself.
I have no idea what I do with myself in the mornings but I've noticed I can easily spend 2.5 hours between waking up and sitting at my desk at work. Considering it only takes 30 mins to walk in or get the bus I seriously don't know what I do which takes up all the time. And then I can easily spend another hour not really getting much done once I finally reach work. It's a bit of a vicious cycle though as when I am late getting started properly at work, I stay later. Feels like life is totally slipping away with me and I don't know how to stop it and reel it back in and get going in a better way.
I have no idea what I do with myself in the mornings but I've noticed I can easily spend 2.5 hours between waking up and sitting at my desk at work. Considering it only takes 30 mins to walk in or get the bus I seriously don't know what I do which takes up all the time. And then I can easily spend another hour not really getting much done once I finally reach work. It's a bit of a vicious cycle though as when I am late getting started properly at work, I stay later. Feels like life is totally slipping away with me and I don't know how to stop it and reel it back in and get going in a better way.
Labels: lab work, mornings, procrastination
Thursday, April 19, 2007
No Stamina
I can't wait for this week to be over. It's been pretty good and I've been getting on OK at the new lab stuff. I've been getting in pretty early (for me at least) and been pretty productive and good at sorting out stuff. But now it's Thursday I can feel a distinct lack of motivation creeping up at me and feeling really tired. Yesterday was a really long day as I stayed on campus for training which was brilliant, and I was especially pleased to realise how much I still remembered and was able to do proficiently.
It's also pretty quiet in the office at the moment and I've not had that much social/relaxation time. It's mostly been work, thinking, reading and stuff. I know I expect too much of myself and beat myself up for not achieving as much as I thought I could do which just ends up in a vicious cycle of me getting depressed and doing even less work and feeling worse etc etc. Still I gave a lab talk yesterday which went pretty well. I was OK at explaining my data and what I thought some of it meant. And after my boss was pretty good and positive and gave me some constructive comments about how I can be better next time I give a talk. He also thinks my progress has been pretty satisfactory and is encouraging and motivating me to really get on with things and fill in my data now I've settled in and have a pretty good understanding of how the experiments and stuff go.
It's also pretty quiet in the office at the moment and I've not had that much social/relaxation time. It's mostly been work, thinking, reading and stuff. I know I expect too much of myself and beat myself up for not achieving as much as I thought I could do which just ends up in a vicious cycle of me getting depressed and doing even less work and feeling worse etc etc. Still I gave a lab talk yesterday which went pretty well. I was OK at explaining my data and what I thought some of it meant. And after my boss was pretty good and positive and gave me some constructive comments about how I can be better next time I give a talk. He also thinks my progress has been pretty satisfactory and is encouraging and motivating me to really get on with things and fill in my data now I've settled in and have a pretty good understanding of how the experiments and stuff go.
Labels: tired
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Aims for the next month!
If I put them here maybe I won't forget or lose them and actually achieve them! Fingers crossed
- Finish sample prep and purifications
- Characterise sample prep (gel, TEM, optical microscope, AFM, electro - eek that's more than I thought!)
- Overcome glovebox fears
Labels: montly aims, motivation
Dirty Hoe
I got colonies. I'm glad I did 3 plates though as it seems like I managed to contaminate 2 of them. But still 1 clean plate with some colonies seems like an OK start. Especially as I had to do them old school and it's been ages since I did any of this stuff. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have loads of bacteria ready for the purifications.
Labels: biochemistry, contamination, lab work
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
I am like the project student from hell
Slowly started off making up a few solutions in the lab this morning. Off to autoclave stuff straight after lunch and see if I can get some bacteria to grow tonight. I feel like such a pain in the lab though. All the stuff I'm doing is really simple and I've done it all before but a long time ago in a different lab. At the moment I'm asking the stupidest questions like where the tape is, what is the best size flask to use, what incubators to use, how to make up stuff for small amounts and it's all very slow. Hopefully my confidence will improve during the week and I will get better and quicker at it and it will all work. But at the moment I'm still feeling very annoying and nervy in the lab.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Trepidation
Tomorrow, all being well and COSHHed up I should be doing some simple biochemistry for the first time in many many years. Fingers crossed it will all work well and I will have a truckload of sample for lots of exciting experiments I need to get done before the conference in a couple of months.
Was suprisingly nice to be back at work, there is a new person in the office who seems fairly normal and it was nice to see my boss and feel fairly organised and productive. Fingers crossed this will carry through the whole week.
Was suprisingly nice to be back at work, there is a new person in the office who seems fairly normal and it was nice to see my boss and feel fairly organised and productive. Fingers crossed this will carry through the whole week.
Labels: biochemistry, new guy
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Procrastinitis
I think the short week is getting to me a bit this week. I had a bad bad case of procrastination (and the fuzzy hangover didn't help things much either) today. Yesterday I was pretty well motivated and doing OK with gluing data in my lab book and sorting stuff. Today has just been totally rubbish. Still I'm really, really looking forward to getting started after Easter and getting a heap of sample to polish off this data. I think tomorrow I need to do something in more of a lab direction (maybe figure out stuff with the box and stuff related to that) and also sort out conference registration and abstracts and getting paid.
Labels: procrastination
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