Hurrah for extended Christmas

It was a present! 30th birthday present AND Christmas present from Louse. Pretty amethyst and silver pendant for my birthday, and various Christmas goodies including CDs, bathing deliciousness, a cool looking book, and my favourite I think, the Women's Equality Cookbook. Yay for Louse! :)

Have actually managed to complete two tasks from the list - 4 and 3. Hope it helps.

Off for procrastination tip no 2 now: Play tennis (and have friends who drag you from your desk at the last minute to do it)

Procrastination tip no. 1

I'll begin with my very favourite:

1. Make a list of the things you need to do, using the time you could have spent doing some of them.

For example, here's my list for today:

1. Clear the enormous pile of crap from my desk so that I feel like an organised, on-top-of-things, academic, in short, the sort of person who might one day finish her PhD.

2. Write an abstract for a conference called 'Memory in a Memory-Less Age'. (Pros of abstract being accepted: 1. good for CV, 2. it's in Cambridge, so I might get to see some people I like who live there. Cons of abstract being accepted: 1. will have to actually write and present said paper, 2. it's in Cambridge, so I might get to see some people I don't like who live there)

3. Write to the editor of the book I have a chapter in, in an attempt to persuade her that she doesn't really want me to make as many changes to the chapter as she thinks she does. (Potentially tricky: keep near bottom of list to avoid doing until it is really too late and I have to make all the changes against both a) my better judgment, and b) my time allowance for this)

4. Pick up parcel from the Post Office. (Move to top of list, as completely unrelated to PhD, and also could be a belated Christmas present of goodness)

5. Connect, and figure out how to use new printer. (Pros: will clear much of desk, thus accomplishing some of task 1, and will be able to print pretty pictures on CDs and DVDs, thus enabling close to maximum procrastination ability, Cons: all a bit technical and therefore possibly as unappealing as doing real work)

There could be more, but option 4 is calling to me right now...

I'm clearly a genius

Or this really is idiot-proof. It's better for my self-esteem to believe there are monkeys who could NOT do what I've just done.

Seeing how it works

Obviously this is all designed to be easy peasy, but I've given myself time to figure it out for a reason. Now, just have to work out why the little comic strip is at the bottom of the page instead of at the top. (If I'm not totally stupid, by the time anyone reads this, it will be at the top. If I am, it will either be at the bottom because I gave up trying, or gone because I threw it out in a fit of pique.)

Forward thinking

I'm setting this up so that when I got to New Zealand and Australia at the end of February, I'll have somewhere to post a little tour diary and some pictures (note I'm giving myself two months to make sure I know how to do those things by then). I would use LiveJournal, but it seems a bit old hat these days... or maybe a bit emo, and having hit 30, I think it's best I run from such things.

I wonder how many blogs are started through New Year's resolutions... and see how I'm getting in a day early :)