It has definitely been a transition week. I am not at all pleased with my progress because I don’t have the level of intensity that I had before my vacation. Also, I am feeling a bit anxious about my week of quantitative methods which begins in two weeks. It is not that I haven’t been doing work, but it has been scant from a time perspective, and more focused on maintaining a level of momentum rather than achieving any defined outcomes. This feeling was reinforced in my review of my milestones for October. I am way off track!! To add to the equation, I began the day with a lovely breakfast with a close friend which was much longer than anticipated. Then, my plan to head straight to the library afterwards was thwarted by some logistical issues so I was not only very late starting to work but I am currently sitting at the Second Cup typing this post.
OK, enough whining!! I have spent the past 2 hours organizing the many articles that I have printed but have not yet read, and also pulled together an agenda for my meeting with my mentor on Tuesday. In addition to providing an update on my progress since our last meeting in the summer, I plan to ask him some specific quantitative questions, share my current thinking on my research and preliminary views on my pilot study. He typically has a very calming effect on me so I am looking forward seeing him. Also he is great at redirecting my plans so that they are more effective and efficient, so stayed tuned for the take-aways.
Today I also realized that I continue to procrastinate on updating my research spreadsheet. This is a spreadsheet that I have created to summarize the papers that I have read. Fields include, overview, methodology, key findings, quotes, implications etc. It is this level of detail that is valuable and will help me remember and leverage what I have read. That said, I hate populating the spreadsheet because it is very time consuming and I would rather just read. I have taken Monday as a vacation day and plan to focus on the spreadsheet. I then have to get back into the habit of not allowing myself to create the backlog, by reading and then updating the spreadsheet immediately.
Am going to grab some coffee and cake now, and finish up Statistics Without Tears and a chapter of Multivariate Data Analysis, which is slow going but making some sense to me. Still feeling overwhelmed by the concepts and forgetting much of what I am learning. That said, I am also increasingly thinking that this methodology is well suited to my research question and my in some ways my personality. I like the structure, rules and objectivity of these methods although I believe strongly that understanding is most powerful when combined with qualitative approaches because life, and business, is complex and nuanced. Not sure how to end this post, and cake is calling so I am going to just stop writing!