I thoroughly enjoyed my meeting with my mentor this week. He completed his doctorate in 2011 and is a perfect balance of information and inspiration! We discussed my progress to date and the road ahead –particularly the VIVA and publication. In some ways this may seem a little premature, but I find that the future comes very quickly so it is helpful to make incremental inroads into your longer-term goals. I think what I enjoy most about him is his candour and optimism. I am really glad that he has offered to be mentor me and I look forward to paying this forward when I finish my doctorate.
I have had a terrific day at the library. Despite my woeful EXCEL skills I managed to create a very solid spreadsheet. I have compiled key YOY financial data and completed some rudimentary analysis. I feel very proud of myself. Interestingly, I was able to leverage the EXCEL for Dummies book after-all. I also set up a two hour tutorial for next which I am looking forward to.
I have work travel this week so I am going to continue to try and tackle administrative academic tasks during the week. This is the most realistic approach because of my limited time. Again, I will try and do a few hours of reading and am committed to getting in my tennis and workouts in as well. Overall, I am not devoting as much time as I would like to my research but I feel like I am becoming increasingly productive with the time that I have.