What do to do when you can't seem to do anything...
WHINY RANT BELOW--YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
I haven't posted much in a while I guess, so I will try and do a quick mega update.
Um..so last summer I was awarded my Masters--Yay. Doesn't really get me much as its pretty hard to find work with a masters in experimental psych but I did it.
This last academic year I have spent doing pretty much nothing...I wasn't Ta'ing because I got a fellowship that got me out of it. I spent the last year basically writing a book chapter (and yes, it was pretty much the ENTIRE YEAR) and planning a new study. I've discovered that I'm pretty good at having ideas but fairly bad at taking those ideas and making actual STUDIES out of them..which would be ok except I seem to be even worse at following through....
Which is why I am going into the summer of my 4th year with exactly 1 publication and its a government report not a real pub. This would worry me less if I had things in process but at the current moment, I have my MA which should eventually become a brief report, and 1 book chapter which is still being reviewed by the editors of which I am second author. Other than that I have nothing, and am working on nothing publishable. I am working on what may well become my dissertation topic but that will not be anything for quite some time.... sigh
I also have been working part time since October 15 hours a week at the local Dependency court. Some days I really like my job, and others (like the last few weeks) I am just overwhelmed. I wonder what I was thinking trying to do a major job and do graduate school. This occurred to me when I started looking at my schedule of things to be done by tuesday and have 3 pages so far...and its not even 9 am....
I keep telling myself that this job is work that might help me get a job when/if I graduate, but then I argue with myself over the fact that if I don't have at least 3 good publications coming out of graduate school that I probably won't be able to get an academic job..and then the other issue is that I would really like to teach but I have absolutely no training in that area and my school doesn't really train us for that. Now I have a secret plan to try for a fellowship next year which pairs people up with CSU proffs and you teach a class together..but that would add yet another thing on my plate and as far as I can tell my adviser seems to have decided that if I'm doing stuff then she wont involve me in actual projects that are being done by groups (the major thing I'm hoping for as it would provide a chance for possible publications as 3 author or so with less responsibility--just what I'm looking for).
This is a problem. I have no idea what to do, or how to get better at what I want.
I haven't posted much in a while I guess, so I will try and do a quick mega update.
Um..so last summer I was awarded my Masters--Yay. Doesn't really get me much as its pretty hard to find work with a masters in experimental psych but I did it.
This last academic year I have spent doing pretty much nothing...I wasn't Ta'ing because I got a fellowship that got me out of it. I spent the last year basically writing a book chapter (and yes, it was pretty much the ENTIRE YEAR) and planning a new study. I've discovered that I'm pretty good at having ideas but fairly bad at taking those ideas and making actual STUDIES out of them..which would be ok except I seem to be even worse at following through....
Which is why I am going into the summer of my 4th year with exactly 1 publication and its a government report not a real pub. This would worry me less if I had things in process but at the current moment, I have my MA which should eventually become a brief report, and 1 book chapter which is still being reviewed by the editors of which I am second author. Other than that I have nothing, and am working on nothing publishable. I am working on what may well become my dissertation topic but that will not be anything for quite some time.... sigh
I also have been working part time since October 15 hours a week at the local Dependency court. Some days I really like my job, and others (like the last few weeks) I am just overwhelmed. I wonder what I was thinking trying to do a major job and do graduate school. This occurred to me when I started looking at my schedule of things to be done by tuesday and have 3 pages so far...and its not even 9 am....
I keep telling myself that this job is work that might help me get a job when/if I graduate, but then I argue with myself over the fact that if I don't have at least 3 good publications coming out of graduate school that I probably won't be able to get an academic job..and then the other issue is that I would really like to teach but I have absolutely no training in that area and my school doesn't really train us for that. Now I have a secret plan to try for a fellowship next year which pairs people up with CSU proffs and you teach a class together..but that would add yet another thing on my plate and as far as I can tell my adviser seems to have decided that if I'm doing stuff then she wont involve me in actual projects that are being done by groups (the major thing I'm hoping for as it would provide a chance for possible publications as 3 author or so with less responsibility--just what I'm looking for).
This is a problem. I have no idea what to do, or how to get better at what I want.