When I first started graduate school, an older student told me about the importance of maintaining a feeling of incremental progress. Even if you are doing seemingly useless work. This may be the best advice I ever received.
During grad school, I have found this "feeling of progress" at a macro level mostly in the non-academic parts of my life: in co-founding and seeing the growth of Graduate Women at MIT, in becoming a better, yogi, in developing deeper friendships, and in various channels of personal development. Doing engineering on other people's research ideas during internship was also helpful. Though it probably would have been nice to have more incremental results and feedback on my Ph.D. project (the first paper of which took three years to be published), this other progress gave me comfort that I had not been wasting my life.
Feeling progress is also powerful on a micro, day-to-day level. The structured procrastination approach is a fantastic way of maintaining a feeling of progress. (This essay quotes this other humorous essay by Robert Benchley here.) The main idea is to allow yourself to do less urgent but also necessary tasks while procrastinating the task at hand: for instance, playing ping-pong with undergraduates (as part of attending to Resident Fellow duties) rather than finishing an essay. Allowing yourself to do, and even prioritize, those tasks can make you more productive.
This all justifies my philosophy on work/life balance* (which is remarkably similar to my philosophy on eating): work when I want on what I want to work on**. A lot of projects/tasks, personal and professional, fall into this category of "work." Although I assign higher importance given to professional tasks and tasks with imminent deadlines, it is important to have non-urgent, non-professional items. I have also begun assigning higher importance to tasks that easily yield high levels of progress-feeling: for instance, refactoring code and running errands. Doing something because I want to do it, rather than because I feel like I need to, requires far less energy and discipline and also has a higher work-to-progress-feeling ratio. (If something gets close enough to a deadline, however, I often suddenly desire very much to do it...) This philosophy probably presupposes that I have a deep inner drive to work. (Similar to my deep inner drive to eat.)
Progress is not so much a state of achievement but a state of mind. I have to come to value and seek the feeling of progress as much as I do actual progress. Not sure yet how much it is improving my output level, but it is certainly making me feel happier and more productive.
* We all know that the point of my blog is to validate my life choices.
** From a restricted set of permitted items.
During grad school, I have found this "feeling of progress" at a macro level mostly in the non-academic parts of my life: in co-founding and seeing the growth of Graduate Women at MIT, in becoming a better, yogi, in developing deeper friendships, and in various channels of personal development. Doing engineering on other people's research ideas during internship was also helpful. Though it probably would have been nice to have more incremental results and feedback on my Ph.D. project (the first paper of which took three years to be published), this other progress gave me comfort that I had not been wasting my life.
Feeling progress is also powerful on a micro, day-to-day level. The structured procrastination approach is a fantastic way of maintaining a feeling of progress. (This essay quotes this other humorous essay by Robert Benchley here.) The main idea is to allow yourself to do less urgent but also necessary tasks while procrastinating the task at hand: for instance, playing ping-pong with undergraduates (as part of attending to Resident Fellow duties) rather than finishing an essay. Allowing yourself to do, and even prioritize, those tasks can make you more productive.
This all justifies my philosophy on work/life balance* (which is remarkably similar to my philosophy on eating): work when I want on what I want to work on**. A lot of projects/tasks, personal and professional, fall into this category of "work." Although I assign higher importance given to professional tasks and tasks with imminent deadlines, it is important to have non-urgent, non-professional items. I have also begun assigning higher importance to tasks that easily yield high levels of progress-feeling: for instance, refactoring code and running errands. Doing something because I want to do it, rather than because I feel like I need to, requires far less energy and discipline and also has a higher work-to-progress-feeling ratio. (If something gets close enough to a deadline, however, I often suddenly desire very much to do it...) This philosophy probably presupposes that I have a deep inner drive to work. (Similar to my deep inner drive to eat.)
Progress is not so much a state of achievement but a state of mind. I have to come to value and seek the feeling of progress as much as I do actual progress. Not sure yet how much it is improving my output level, but it is certainly making me feel happier and more productive.
* We all know that the point of my blog is to validate my life choices.
** From a restricted set of permitted items.
6 comments:
Indeed, if you don't think you learned and achieved something, then your real progress doesn't have such value then a goal which you didn't achieve but your mind seems cleared and you realize that you can learn something.
graet and informative way to find the best resume it will definelty works
If you have a goal or a mission so you should have proper planning to achieve your goals and also neglect Useless Work. it will help you in your learning.
the code or number on a customs number logo design is Seemingly a Useless Thing but it's not. Those Are Actually Very Useful whenever you miss out the logo you can easily find out by using its code or number.
the code or number on a customs number logo design is Seemingly a Useless Thing but it's not.best football books for coaches
blackwork tattoo great and informative way to find the best resume it will definitely works
Post a Comment