2007 didn’t go quite as I would have liked.
- I fell off the exercise and diet wagon, leading to
- I gained back about half of the weight I had lost in 2006
- I didn’t do as well as I wanted in my multilevel modeling class, which is an issue since that is the technique I will be using for my dissertation
- My job situation took a turn for the worst
- I got nowhere near as much reading done this summer as I needed to get done
I’m sure there was more.
All wasn’t bad, and it worked itself out in many ways, but for now I need to focus forward, on 2008. Making resolutions seems overwhelming since I have so much to do between now and July when I stop working and focus on my dissertation, but here are some goals:
- Exercise 4 or 5 days per week, either at home or at the gym. More Bike time would be good.
- Improve my eating, although I don’t think I can go back to the strict calorie counting I was doing until July. (I eat to deal with stress, and my schedule for the next few months will be highly stressful. I can try to improve over that timeframe but I don’t want to set myself up for failure by committing to the strict counting I’ve done in the past.)
- Live frugally; like a grad student; that means no shopping trips, no big gifts, etc. We need to pay off those credit cards and get a chunk of money in the bank before I stop working, and that means living frugally.
- Comps completed by August 2008
- ABD by the end of 2008 so that, if we can’t find money to pay me for a post doc here I can at least go into spring job interviews with a straight face and say I’ll be done before starting a job in fall 2009.
- Get something published under just my own name.
- Keep up with work for all 3 classes; the graded one, the ungraded one on funding on which my future somewhat depends, and the ungraded one that I will be teaching as an adjunct starting next summer.
- Find more adjunct slots for next summer/fall so that I can take my time on everything else
What that all means is that I have to FOCUS. Watch less TV, goof off less (not that I do much of that now), get up earlier (ugg) and struggle through the next 6 months.
I can do this. I WILL do this. And it will be worth it.
