Friday

Realise I've been doing this for a month and chapter 6 still isn't finished... I see that after a small surge of interest, nobody read my blog yesterday. As I'm really only writing it for myself to remind myself of how I've been spending my working time, this doesn't matter but I feel slightly disappointed.  I'll get over it. As I will also get over my visit to the dentist which involved major excavation and reconstruction and has left my face completely numb. Strange that it became number after I got home. Feel as if I'm dribbling and as if my nose is running.

Found this in my Google Reader alerts: http://www.phd2published.com/2011/11/18/matt-might-writing-productivity-tips-for-academics/

Conscious that I'm easily distracted while at the PC. I think this is very common -
see http://xkcd.com/862/ and http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/02/18/distraction-affliction-correction-extensio/  (who knew xkcd had a blog? Another thing to read...)
Wonder if I should invest in StayFocusd now that I use Chrome a lot. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji

Tried CiteULike to see how it works. Might be worth transferring all those papers in the files on my desktop which are labelled "interesting papers" for every year... I'd need to stop and read them as I went along so it could be very time-consuming. Rather like my plan to search for electronic copies of all the papers in my filing cabinets which were only available in hard copy back in the 1990s: I did get some way into that and cleared some space but I seem to have filled it up again...

So I've now spent an hour thinking about how to be more productive. Not sure that that was a good use of my time but the numbness is still interfering with my concentration.

Sorted out tokens for the coffee machine for next Tuesday's Scholarly Connections meeting - this may be my major achievement today. We're not allowed lunch under new austerity rules (I have no problem with that, the sandwiches are not very nice and a lot get left and thus wasted) but I did think tea and coffee could be possible - apparently not, because it's only a one hour meeting. Reflecting on the meetings I've attended lately, quite a few now seem to be held because they have to within the committee structure and processes of the Faculty and the university, but have very little value that I can see. Information can be communicated in so many more efficient ways and the meetings are not properly run. They are not decision-making bodies,they don't do a very good job of monitoring and most people attending don't understand what their role is. It would be a very interesting project to pull the whole system apart and construct something that was fit for purpose.