This morning I woke at 4:45 am, which is 15 more minutes of sleep than yesterday. I'll take every extra minute afforded me, especially since my sleep is still on a North Carolina schedule.
One thing that is slowly sinking into my brain is that the earlier I know what type of "final" project I want to do, the better off I will be. I'm meeting with Dr. G (the dean) later this week to bat around some of my ideas.
During the professor's lectures this week, she has given us tips and ideas about the final project/dissertation. She suggested a process called story boarding, where you post a roll of white butcher paper on the wall and divide it into categories. Then as you come up with ideas, things that need follow through, etc., you write those on sticky notes (which you know I'll color code) and post them in the different categories. If it turns out something needs to change position, you just move the sticky and your thoughts stay organized. She also recommends a book called "Writing Your Dissertation in 15 minutes per day."
Somehow, I suspect it will take a lot of 15 minutes to finish that, though.
Another pearl I've picked up.....the aim is to get the project done. The project is not one's life work. That may be a later choice. The goal is to finish the project, get the grade and degree and get out. If it needs to be transformed into some grandiose study or book or series of articles later, that's possible. In the meantime the lesson is: "Getterdone."
Something I forgot to mention yesterday. Dr. G handed out the Health Policy course schedule. She's worked in a Saturday morning "off." We don't actually start till class till noon on Saturday. The trade-off is that the schedule on Sunday is: 8 am to Noon, 1pm -5pm, and 7-9pm.
The good news is that the we will have 4 weeks after this session to do the paper for this class rather than the 2 weeks I had anticipated.
To post or not to post.......
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