good intentions

What is that saying 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'? No sooner did I make my good intentions known when they were challenged. I had to go to work yesterday to attend a very important and interesting meeting that brought together the schooling, FET and UoT sectors to talk about the provisioning of ICT education. But my plan, what about my plan to conclude the editing of my analysis and research methodology chapters on THURSDAY? So I'm already behind as I step into my new work scheme...how utterly frustrating.

But it's not all bad - I also made the decision to leave or temporarily abandon my social media profile. I de-activated my Facebook account in a bid to focus, focus, focus on my writing. Now I can't randomly click, click, click on Facebook, not so much to genuinely find out what my 'friends' on the other side of the world or the city are doing, but in response to some nervous tick that you know you don't want to do, but do anyway. Yes I miss knowing whether someone, somewhere is enjoying the sunshine or the miserable weather but it is also an energy sapping activity when it takes you away from doing the 'real' and 'meaningful' stuff you should really be doing.

I also realised, yet again, how invaluable Dropbox is to the PhD student. For some unexplained reason I messed up the Word 'Styles' configuration for my thesis yesterday. Suddenly I no longer had a 2nd level of headings. Anybody who knows what I've just described will probably be breaking out in a cold sweat at this point. Dropbox came to my rescue - I could find an earlier version of the document where the formatting was still maintained and 'go back' to that version. I had to do some minor cut 'n paste work but the integrity of the Style configuration was maintained. Massive sjoe!

So as the weekend rolls on and the blue skies and sun make their appearance I know what I'll be doing and where I'll be doing it. Oh happy days.