Britt's Blog

“This combination of chemical plus molecular cyanide is stupid. We’re going in the wrong direction. You’re the only one who knows how to use this garbage, and you’re never here. And finally, I think I’m getting brain-fried.”

– Mitch to Chris
Real Genius

I use Neil Fiore’s unschedule from The Now Habit to track how much time I spend focused on work, and it turns out this week I have spent 37 hours working on my thesis. Not checking my email, not browsing important, work-related webpages, not discussing important topics with colleagues, not photocopying papers, not realphabetizing my files, just focused work on my thesis. (If 37 hours doesn’t sound like an unreasonable amount of work to you, try using the unschedule and see how many hours of actual work you do in a normal week. It’s an interesting exercise…)

Dr. Fiore recommends that one spend no more than 20 hours a week on one project.

I can now state from experience that Dr. Fiore has good reasons for saying this.

My brain is fried.

Correction: This morning, when I finally finished the write-up of the last actual science section of my thesis, my brain was fried. And I went off to a well-deserved viewing of Clerks II with J.

Then I went back to the lab this evening to spiff up some graphs and print out a copy for my advisor. Now my brain is … I dunno … refried.

But, hey, a blog’s gotta start somewhere, and an altered state of consciousness is probably as good as any! So, here it is! Many thanks to Jason for getting me the awesome URL and setting up WordPress! And welcome to all visitors!