Follow up on the week's plan of work I posted a week and a half ago...

Lets see... as of a week and a half later:

* Revive the emergence Java program I wrote at the end of last term - YES
* Add the results of my Music Spin survey into my LISP program and get some music out of it? (probably that won't happen this week...) - NOPE - GOT STUCK
* Do a little reading into cognitive linguistics-type content - particularly to skim through the rest of the Fauconnier and Turner book and to learn about Image schemas - ISH - WENT BACK TO BASICS A BIT ON THIS
* Clear 5 papers from my to-read pile (prob just reading abstracts and updating my Bibtex notes for future) - HAHA NO! JUST 2 PAPERS
* Have a quick read through the chapter of the book my supervisor is writing, see what I think - HAVE STARTED THIS BUT NOT DONE MUCH
* Read Chris's paper (Chris is who I share an office with) - probably too late now to give him feedback on what he's written before the deadline but still would be good to read it - NOPE SORRY CHRIS
* Read 2 articles from the Synth Secrets series - READ ONE LAST WEEK, JUST FINISHED READING ONE NOW
* A bit of Cope reading? - NOPE

Also, non-DPhil related:

* Talk with Chris about the seminars we want to set up - YES - THIS COULD BE QUITE EXCITING... WORKING ON THIS IDEA NOW
* approach more people about setting up communication across departments (that reminds me, should reply to Stefan's email!) - NOT REALLY - ALTHOUGH WE AS A RESEARCH GROUP ARE NOW LISTED ON THE DEPARTMENTAL WEBSITE. HAVE HAD SOME GOOD CORRESPONDENCE WITH STEFAN KOELSCH AND STAV (ONE OF STEFAN'S PHD STUDENTS IN PSYCHOLOGY) BUT NOT YET APPROACHED ANYONE ELSE
* CDEC marking - DONE (PHEW)
* work for rc - DONE LAST WEEKS BUT NOT THIS WEEKS
* Go through and get deadlines for the funding opportunities I've identified (or send off for application forms if necessary) - DAMN REALLY SHOULD DO THIS SOON. RIGHT. GONNA DO IT TOMORROW AFTER I FINISH THE MARKING I'VE GOT TO DO FOR THE LOGIC COURSE

random wanderings in research

I'm not sure I still agree with the point I made in the last post, about how following up random leads is probably just a waste of time.

If research always followed a directed, carefully planned route without any deviations (or wild goose chases) then it could almost be automated - and then what would the point be in having researchers in the first place?

For example, with Owen Holland's talk yesterday, the vast majority of actual implementation seems to have been done by his phd students and research assistants (that was the impression I got from how he presents it, anyway) But without his original ideas and visions, the whole project wouldn't ever have happened.

Perhaps my problem really is that I never seem to follow a directed, carefully planned route in my work, and that I'm struggling to knuckle down to the real implementation work once I've finished devising what I'm going to do (but don't have anyone employed to do that work for me!)

So I'll make sure I make time for the random deviations... but make it the minority of time rather than the majority it seems to take at present.

learning from last term

So last term was a little bit crazy. I took on too much teaching, marking, gigs, rehearsals, and assorted 'other stuff', at a time when family commitments became quite pressing as well. So my DPhil work really suffered.

However... I still managed to write one journal paper (being sent off for review as I speak/write) and submit two abstracts for the ESCOM conference on music cognition in Finland, which I really hope to go to (some amazing keynote speakers and I am quite interested in Jyvaskala university as well, which is hosting the conference).

So the plan for this term is:

1. To actually have a plan for the term...

2. To be more efficient, sorting things out or plan them as they arrive, so I'm on top of things (particularly emails that I put off replying to - if they're small things I should just do them rather than procrastinating)

3. To organise my academic (and personal) life so that I know where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing, at any one time. (this one is going quite well so far.)

4. To be a bit more ruthless about what I accept and take on - if I can't do it, or if it's not worth the effort, I won't do it... no point in trying to please everyone if my own stuff suffers.

Lets see how this goes... will be interesting to come back to this post in a few months time and see how I'm doing.