It is 653pm on Day 4 of my vacation and it is definitely time for a break!! I have worked hard for 4 days straight and am keeping my commitment to take the next three days off to relax and have some fun. I plan to enjoy a leisurely breakfast and art galleries tomorrow. My brother is in town this weekend so there will be lots of fun and frolic with him and my sister which I am looking forward to.
Overall, I am quite pleased with my progress this week, despite not achieving many of the milestones that I had established –I am getting used to this. I dedicated a great deal of time writing and rewriting the abstract which has served as a really useful anchor as I started to add content to my dissertation. I also spent a great deal of time creating many of the graphs that will be included in my data analysis section in addition to building more statistical capability through my text book and on-line tutorials.
Increasingly I am realizing that as I learn and understand more, there is more to learn and understand. The other big take-away from this week is that I am likely further ahead than I think with my dissertation, I just have pieces in many places –power point decks, whitepapers, summary notes etc. My focus over the next few weeks is to integrate everything into the dissertation and then seek initial feedback from my supervisors. I will also devote some time to determine my approach for my final colloquium for 2013. Time definitely flies!