Today has been an exercise in harnessing small bursts of productivity, and trying to fill the space between doing work with other equally productive elements. It was moderately successful.

This morning I woke up and checked email for 15 minutes, opened all my documents, and made a mental a list of priorities. Then I took a shower, letting that list of priorities bounce around and rearrange itself in my head, so by the time I’d finished I was ready to begin writing.

I added short topical sentences to several different parts of my literature review, with notes on what sources to consult to expand on those, and I changed some tenses in my process chapter to match the rest of the paper. Then I made eggs for breakfast and ate them while watching an emmymadeinjapan video.

And then I worked on the lit review for two hours or so with a few breaks. After it was done I felt my productivity waning. (These days my reaction to a small accomplishment tends to be “Yay, that’s done, good job me, I’m so productive! Do I really need to do more?” Yes. The answer is yes, I need to do more.)

So I did the breakfast dishes. It’s another type of productivity, anyway. And I started this blog post.

And then I dove into the thesis math section of my day. It turns out to be a convoluted sort of equation, trying to figure out how many objects had been deaccessioned before I got there, how many I had completed, and how many I posted legal notices for. I didn’t keep track of the numbers a year ago, but now they’re important. I’m glad I get to include those data and accomplishments in this project. But it’s time-consuming to reconstruct it. I worked on that for most of the afternoon, finally realizing I just didn’t have access to some of the numbers from here, and instead writing in equations that will allow me to finish it quickly once I do. That’s Monday’s job.

The late afternoon and a good part of the evening was spent typing a long list of all the tasks I’ve completed for the project, and trying to string it together in a way that flows nicely without too much extra wordage. It’s my least favorite chapter and will probably need a great deal of revising, but it is a first draft, and my concentration was pretty much gone. My low productivity levels led to watching a lot of youtube videos in between writing a few paragraphs. Back to my over-indulgence of rewards for small accomplishments!

At nine I left the computer and cleaned up the kitchen. And then we went to Applebee’s. Half-priced appetizers for the win.

I still have to tackle the footnotes and draft chapters 4 & 5, followed by organizing my school folders and setting some deadlines. There are three weeks left in the quarter, and one of them is finals week. It can be done.