Plugging Along

Posted on June 1, 2013 by alexk

I am in week three of increasing my weekday productivity and I am a VERY pleased with my progress.  Creating a clear list of tasks that are varied in scope and nature gives me the latitude to choose a task that is doable, but ensures that I make some level of progress against my research each night.  I typical take Friday nights of as my key task is to prepare what I need for the library.

June is going to be especially frenetic so I just created a detailed plan for the month.  I am travelling for work for the next two weeks and also have several family events that involve travel which I am looking forward to.  Before I know if I will be preparing for Colloquium #3!!

Discovering Statistics Using IBM Statistics by Andy Field’s is a good reminder of fundamentals and also provides useful and interesting “back stories” on statistics.  I am now on chapter 3 and learning lots with minimal angst –wow!!

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Gearing Up –Again!!

Posted on May 25, 2013 by alexk

One of the significant take-aways from both the Oslo and Rotman colloquium was how much additional analysis and writing, needs to take place in order for me to have a solid draft dissertation by year end.  I realize that I somehow need to squeeze out more productivity during the work week.  For the past two weeks, I have created a list of tasks and posted it on flip chart paper in my home office.  Each night I try and complete at least one task, and so far it is working.  Some nights I manage to work for only 15 minutes and others for 1.5 hours, but I am getting more done.  The list allows me to not think, just do!!

This new “weekly task list approach” is interesting because each time I think that I am operating at maximum productivity I manage to find a way to move into another “gear”.  I am confident that I can maintain this as long as I stick to my commitment to take every fourth weekend off.  I thoroughly enjoyed my “time off” last weekend!

Work continues to be exceedingly busy, and I am also playing a good deal of tennis now that the weather is warmer.  The month of June is going to be especially full of family and social activities so I am going to have to be extra diligent with time management.

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Two Colloquium Down Two More To Go….

Posted on May 12, 2013 by alexk

It has been an especially full week with work travel and on-boarding a new manager.  I was simultaneously finalizing preparation for today’s Rotman colloquium which went relatively well.  The biggest challenge was reducing my presentation to fit the twenty minute time slot.  In retrospect I should have included a few more of the slides about the measures, but at this point I am still not sure what I would have removed.  I received some very useful recommendations that will allow me to complete some further analysis this week.   I am feeling a sense of accomplishment because I am now at the halfway point with my colloquia for 2013, the next one is in July and the final colloquium is in September.

The week ahead will be full and good.  I have started to play outdoor tennis which is terrific, and I have two matches scheduled.  I plan to try and complete some analysis in the evenings and take the upcoming long weekend completely “off”,  no work and no research.   Also, the new statistics book that I ordered on Amazon should arrive by mid-week, I ordered it recently at the recommendation of a professor from Norway.  I am sure that I will be able to immediately put it to good use.

As a side note it was really interesting to see how much the DBA cohort at Rotman has grown since I started the program in 2009.  I met some new researchers who are exploring very interesting topics and, as usual, it was especially interesting to listen to the other presentations as well.

A large glass of wine is calling me now!

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Colloquium Recovery and Preparation

Posted on May 5, 2013 by alexk

This is an uber quick update.  The Norwegian colloquium was excellent, both the learning and relationship building were terrific.  Humility was a key success factor as I received a great deal of constructive feedback!

Today I spent a good 10 hours today preparing for next week’s colloquium here in Toronto.  I feel optimistic about the road ahead, it is long but things are coming together slowly but surely.

I am heading out now for drinks and dinner with my partner.  22degrees today –woohoo!

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6:47PM

Posted on April 13, 2013 by alexk

It is 647PM.  It has been another 10 hour day at the library, but I am thrilled that I was able to accomplish everything on my “to do” list.  I had separate meetings with both of my supervisors this week as well as a conversation with a statistics “guru” from Rotman.  All of these meetings were very productive.  The conversations also simultaneously highlighted my progress and the many miles that I have yet to travel with my research.

Fortunately short term milestones are in very good shape, my deck for the upcoming colloquium has been finalized.  I will undertake one more review before submitting on Thursday.  Also, I was able to add 7 journal articles to my research summary spreadsheet.

Next week, work is going to be very intense as I have two off-sites and several deliverables,  I also need to devote time during the latter part of the week fine-tuning my travel details.  Interestingly, this time next week I will be heading to the airport to travel to the colloquium –very exciting!

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Heading Home!

Posted on April 7, 2013 by alexk

It has been full court press at the library since 10am and it is now 8pm!  I am pleased to have completed a decent draft presentation for my upcoming colloquium.  Over the next few days, I have two separate calls set up with my supervisors to review this presentation.  I am looking forward to hearing their commentary.  I know for certain that I have a great deal of work to complete next weekend as well, but I feel that I have done most of the “heavy lifting” which is comforting.

There is a large glass of wine with my name on it at home!!

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Finalizing The WhitePaper

Posted on March 23, 2013 by alexk

It has been a week of committed effort but meagre outcomes!!  I managed to squeeze in a bit of reading during the week which was great.  Today, I have spent several hours reviewing a copy-edited version of my White Paper.  It has been renamed as a “research brief”.   This took far longer than anticipated, particularly because there were several issues with the references.  I am not sure what happened because most of them were accurate in Endnotes but somehow they became jumbled in the copy edited version.  I also had to pay particular attention to some of the tables which had been inaccurately altered by the copy editor and therefore required additional revisions.

Earlier this week, I received detailed, written feedback on my final assignment which was very positive.   I am really pleased about the assessment results and it was a great reminder of my progress so far which has been considerable.  Sometimes I lose sight of this because I am so focused on the “road ahead”.

Tomorrow I will be in the sunshine.  I am really looking forward to it.  Plan to fully enjoy my time away from research and work because it will be very busy when I return.

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The Juggler!

Posted on March 16, 2013 by alexk

I am struck by how many streams are in my research “pipeline”:  Awaiting Copy-Edited Version of  WhitePaper, Creating Presentation for April Colloquium, Conducting Phase II Data Analysis, Awaiting Evaluation of Final Assignment, Regularly Reviewing Recent Publications.  I could continue, but the key theme here is juggling.  At any given time there are many components of research, albeit at different stages, that need to be managed simultaneously.  As I reflect on this, I recognize that the “stream” that continues to lag , is regular review of new literature.  I am not sure how, but I need to carve out a bit more time for this.  For the upcoming week I have a few papers to read either on the subway or in the evenings.

Overall, the week has been productive and I am pleased with the outcomes.  A 90 minute meeting with a statistics expert resulted in clarity on some methodology issues that were bedevilling me.   Today’s efforts have been on refining my presentation for the April colloquium.  I am going to tackle some analysis for the next 30 minutes and then head home.

Work continues to be exceedingly busy so I am generally quite fatigued.  I am definitely counting down to vacation in the sun in one week!!!

Posted in Colloquia, Data Analysis, Dissertation Planning, Quantitative Methods, Surviving the DBA, Time Management, Tips and Tools, White Paper | Leave a comment

Limited Energy, But Progress Nonetheless

Posted on March 9, 2013 by alexk

It was another exceedingly busy week at work!!  This pace will continue until mid-April when I hope to on-board a new manager.  This will reduce my number of direct reports significantly and allow me to focus on building a integrated strategy for the three teams under my new portfolio.

I am generally exhausted when I get home from work, so I am unable to complete any meaningful research in the evenings.  Instead, I have been focused on completing administrative tasks, such as contacting other researchers, finalizing travel details, and updating Endnotes.  Even though these are small tasks, I think they are important to complete because it allows me to maintain a semblance of momentum.

Today, I arrived early at the library and have had a productive stint.  My focus has been on regression analysis and preparing for a meeting with a statistics SME next week.  I also started to create my deck for the April colloquium.

Enough said.  It is a beautiful spring day.  I am going to update my project plan and head out to enjoy some sunshine.

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Back To The Literature

Posted on March 2, 2013 by alexk

This is going to be a short post.  My biggest learning for this week is the importance of returning to the literature, relentlessly.  This is essential because as research progresses understanding of the data and overall topic deepens and this creates an expanded ability to understand, and evaluate, literature that has been previously explored.  Also, methodology or findings that seemed unimportant previously may now be of utmost importance.   I am also struck by the range of rules that exist in theory but may have different interpretations depending on the field of study.  Again, this highlights the importance of understanding the literature in your field of study.

A good example of this is the concept of unit of analysis, which I understood to be either individual or group level, but not both.  After rereading several papers this morning, I am learning that the very nature of my topic is multi-level.  Of course, I knew this practically but was struggling with how to address this reality statistically.  This may mean that I am not as constrained by my 22 cases of financial results as I thought.  I am looking forward to exploring further.

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