Wednesday, April 25, 2007
GTD Implementation: A Quick Review/Beat Procratination
Getting involved in teaching my large spring class distracted me from GTD implementation, despite the fact that on my insistance, our second dumpster is sitting in front of the house, over half empty, screaming for attention. All eyes around here rest on me. I am the hold up. I should be bouncing up in the morning, eager to clear out files, clear out my papers, clear out my clothes, clear out every back corner hiding place around my house, of which there are many. Instead I am in bed, its close to 10AM, reviewing my day and the people I'll be seeing shortly. I've already essentially wasted the morning. I need another system to get myself going. The dumpster is here for five more days. Maybe its time to start another Pavlina run on a new habit. None of my resolutions have stuck too well. I'm still in bed at this hour of the morning instead of up at 6AM and right into exercise. I'm waiting until the last possible moment to get up and get ready for people. I'm complaining to myself about my shoulder hurting, arthritic aching. Is this a function of age, or a down mood that is hovering over me? I think its time to take action, this is no doubt the remedy. Maybe I need to make more public resolutions about what I'm doing and not doing. I have let the center of my life, the control system, slide away from me, time to recenter and take over again. Into action. Yesterday I worked on a new online course I'm developing, on "Current Issues and Debates in Psychopathology" and I have still another online course that needs to be developed. Today I will complete a series of actions (only to be determined after I overcome the inertia and get up and into the day).
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Effects of the Environment, Social Isolation, & the Development of Cancer
From Christopher Ryan, the Evolutionary Psychology Listserv 4/22/07
Simple but incredibly complex
This appeared on the evolutionary listserv this morning, and it struck me as something so simple, so obvious, and probably, so right. It certainly supports my changing my diet, I've tried to eliminate grains before, but failed. Perhaps my failure is because I don't known all the alternative complex carbohydrates to add into a diet eliminating grains, or perhaps adding new complex carbs is too time consuming. Right before reading this, I had been talking to someone on the phone about "urban sprawl" and the environmentally damaging effects of massive numbers of people moving into the suburbs. And right before that phone call, I had been reading a student's dissertation proposal, in which she cites Putman, Bowling Alone. For every ten minutes spent in a car driving to and from work, people experience an increase in the sense of isolation and a decrease in time spent in community activities, with friends or family, all things that contribute to our overall sense of well-being, our "limbic regulation" so to speak. Limbic regulation, that is the positive regulation of our emotion system, can not be achieved by individuals alone. It requires contact between individuals, "regulating" connection with others. We are, throughout our lives, interdependent primates who can't successfully live in isolation.
What connects alone-ness, limbic regulation, diet and cancer?
So what does this have to do with diet and the possibility that consumption of grain products may contribute to our high cancer rates? The connection for me is the way these disparate news items, whether they are true or not, speak to our life-style. We live in our cars, flying over highways, grabbing grain-based snacks on the run, isolated, depressed, dysregulated simply by our degree of isolation. I speak as a psychologist of course, and what I hear everyday from patients along with what I might get from reading--in journals, books and on the Internet-- as well as from research in our lab. My current conclusion is that we are, as a nation of individuals and families, very isolated, and suffering from a sense of loneliness on all fronts. I suspect that this state of isolation affects our brain chemistry in such as way as to set up craving for grains, and whatever shorter term effects they might have on our brain chemistry.
It may come down to serotonin
It may come down to serotonin, although I suspect its more complicated than a single neurotransmitter problem. Over 20 years ago, Raleigh and McGuire conducted experiments demonstrating that when a monkey fails to obtain expected social support, serotonin levels drop dramatically.
Serotonin rises, so I read in another less scientific source I suspect, when one consumes grain products or other complex carbohydrates. People are often warned not to eat a carbohydrate-heavy meal at lunch time, lest they become too sleepy in the afternoon, negatively affecting productivity at work. Eating grains often seems to temporarily reduce anxiety, and to elicit a feeling of relaxation or sleepiness, badly needed by people living without the limbic regulation that can only be provided by another living person. So it may be that serotonin is a major player in our craving grains, and our craving may relate back to failure at systems of social support. Our loneliness then may be a big contributor to the cancer rates in industrialized nations. Loneliness lowers serotonin, putting into motion craving for grains, and consumption of grains, in order to relieve the chemical discomfort resulting from alone-ness, may be associated with the development of cancer.
There are no private solutions
I have always believed "there are no private solutions" to our many social problems; by this I mean, we can't make needed changes by ourselves, they have to be made by everyone in our social group, in our extended social group, in our cities and nations. Without buy in by major corporations and then, by governments, it is simply too difficult to make significant life changes as isolated individuals. We eat what is easily available, and the food product that is always there for snacks, or dinner if we want to call it, is grain products. We suffer from the lack of limbic regulation, because we have to spend long hours at work, and then almost equally long hours transporting ourselves to and from work. Our brain chemistry goes awry and we demand grain products to calm down the nervous system. The corporations manufacturing our food see the demand for grains, and with profit motivation, they produce what we demand, and then they make sure we keep demanding it by way of enticing advertisements that work. The ads grab us, get us emotionally involved in the story being told and ultimately shape what we will demand in the future. Its a vicious cycle when viewed from this perspective.
Are there really no "private solutions?"
I have been questioning my position on "there are no private solutions" dramatically, coming to believe there may be nothing but private solutions and the collective power of private solutions altogether might change our demands, which in turn might change what is produced for consumption. Is the problem really economic and social, we're alone too much because of the organization of work, calling for long hours in the car getting back and forth to work, and long hours at computers in isolated work stations? If we changed the amount we are alone, will we see a rise in serotonin as individuals, followed by a decrease in craving for grains, and ultimately a drop in the cancer rate?
A challenge to myself, following Pavlina's model, the 30 day experiment
Following Steve Pavlina's method of the 30 day experiment, http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success/ I'm going to try it out on grains. Pavlina's well-read, well-sited blog suggests that one can make desired changes in our habits and our lives if we make the change consciously and consistently for 30 days. Starting today I will go without grain products for 30 days and see what happens. If I bomb out I will try to write about what happened, what triggered a slip into grains If anyone is interested in following this experiment, check back here and perhaps try it with me, just drop a note here and we can commiserate if something happens that might represent our serotonin is dropping too low.
Stanislaw Tanchou "....gave the first formula for predicting cancer risk. It was based on grain consumption and was found to accurately calculate cancer rates in major European cities. The more grain consumed, the greater the rate of cancer." Tanchou's paper was delivered to the Paris Medical Society in 1843. He also postulated that cancer would likewise never be found in hunter-gatherer populations. This began a search among the populations of hunter-gatherers known to missionary doctors and explorers. This search continued until WWII when the last wild humans were "civilized" in the Arctic and Australia. No cases of cancer were ever found within these populations, although after they adopted the diet of civilization, it became common."
Simple but incredibly complex
This appeared on the evolutionary listserv this morning, and it struck me as something so simple, so obvious, and probably, so right. It certainly supports my changing my diet, I've tried to eliminate grains before, but failed. Perhaps my failure is because I don't known all the alternative complex carbohydrates to add into a diet eliminating grains, or perhaps adding new complex carbs is too time consuming. Right before reading this, I had been talking to someone on the phone about "urban sprawl" and the environmentally damaging effects of massive numbers of people moving into the suburbs. And right before that phone call, I had been reading a student's dissertation proposal, in which she cites Putman, Bowling Alone. For every ten minutes spent in a car driving to and from work, people experience an increase in the sense of isolation and a decrease in time spent in community activities, with friends or family, all things that contribute to our overall sense of well-being, our "limbic regulation" so to speak. Limbic regulation, that is the positive regulation of our emotion system, can not be achieved by individuals alone. It requires contact between individuals, "regulating" connection with others. We are, throughout our lives, interdependent primates who can't successfully live in isolation.
What connects alone-ness, limbic regulation, diet and cancer?
So what does this have to do with diet and the possibility that consumption of grain products may contribute to our high cancer rates? The connection for me is the way these disparate news items, whether they are true or not, speak to our life-style. We live in our cars, flying over highways, grabbing grain-based snacks on the run, isolated, depressed, dysregulated simply by our degree of isolation. I speak as a psychologist of course, and what I hear everyday from patients along with what I might get from reading--in journals, books and on the Internet-- as well as from research in our lab. My current conclusion is that we are, as a nation of individuals and families, very isolated, and suffering from a sense of loneliness on all fronts. I suspect that this state of isolation affects our brain chemistry in such as way as to set up craving for grains, and whatever shorter term effects they might have on our brain chemistry.
It may come down to serotonin
It may come down to serotonin, although I suspect its more complicated than a single neurotransmitter problem. Over 20 years ago, Raleigh and McGuire conducted experiments demonstrating that when a monkey fails to obtain expected social support, serotonin levels drop dramatically.
Serotonin rises, so I read in another less scientific source I suspect, when one consumes grain products or other complex carbohydrates. People are often warned not to eat a carbohydrate-heavy meal at lunch time, lest they become too sleepy in the afternoon, negatively affecting productivity at work. Eating grains often seems to temporarily reduce anxiety, and to elicit a feeling of relaxation or sleepiness, badly needed by people living without the limbic regulation that can only be provided by another living person. So it may be that serotonin is a major player in our craving grains, and our craving may relate back to failure at systems of social support. Our loneliness then may be a big contributor to the cancer rates in industrialized nations. Loneliness lowers serotonin, putting into motion craving for grains, and consumption of grains, in order to relieve the chemical discomfort resulting from alone-ness, may be associated with the development of cancer.
There are no private solutions
I have always believed "there are no private solutions" to our many social problems; by this I mean, we can't make needed changes by ourselves, they have to be made by everyone in our social group, in our extended social group, in our cities and nations. Without buy in by major corporations and then, by governments, it is simply too difficult to make significant life changes as isolated individuals. We eat what is easily available, and the food product that is always there for snacks, or dinner if we want to call it, is grain products. We suffer from the lack of limbic regulation, because we have to spend long hours at work, and then almost equally long hours transporting ourselves to and from work. Our brain chemistry goes awry and we demand grain products to calm down the nervous system. The corporations manufacturing our food see the demand for grains, and with profit motivation, they produce what we demand, and then they make sure we keep demanding it by way of enticing advertisements that work. The ads grab us, get us emotionally involved in the story being told and ultimately shape what we will demand in the future. Its a vicious cycle when viewed from this perspective.
Are there really no "private solutions?"
I have been questioning my position on "there are no private solutions" dramatically, coming to believe there may be nothing but private solutions and the collective power of private solutions altogether might change our demands, which in turn might change what is produced for consumption. Is the problem really economic and social, we're alone too much because of the organization of work, calling for long hours in the car getting back and forth to work, and long hours at computers in isolated work stations? If we changed the amount we are alone, will we see a rise in serotonin as individuals, followed by a decrease in craving for grains, and ultimately a drop in the cancer rate?
A challenge to myself, following Pavlina's model, the 30 day experiment
Following Steve Pavlina's method of the 30 day experiment, http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success/ I'm going to try it out on grains. Pavlina's well-read, well-sited blog suggests that one can make desired changes in our habits and our lives if we make the change consciously and consistently for 30 days. Starting today I will go without grain products for 30 days and see what happens. If I bomb out I will try to write about what happened, what triggered a slip into grains If anyone is interested in following this experiment, check back here and perhaps try it with me, just drop a note here and we can commiserate if something happens that might represent our serotonin is dropping too low.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
GTD On Hold: Preparing for a large class
Distracted by Work
The GTD implementation has had a set back as I settled into a focus on preparing for my 55-60 student class in Cognition, Emotion and Personality. Our whole first year class has to take this course, and for many students this is their introduction to psychological science. In prior years I tried to make the course absolutely painless, with a minimum of requirements. I decided this year to change the tone of the course from "Its easy" to "Its challenging," and see what happens. I had observed over the years that students tended to be less serious in the class, pay less attention to the speakers. Every week except for this first week, there is a visiting professor who comes and introduces the students to the constructs in his or her field, then describes his or her own research, and finally discusses clinical implications to his or her work. One would think it should be easy to teach this class, that is from my perspective, because I only have to lecture in the first class. However how the students receive each visiting professor has been an ongoing problem. I think by turning the overall tone of the course to "this is a challenge" might help in encouraging students to pay better attention to all the speakers. The most obvious thing I'm doing differently is I have announced on the syllabus that there may be several "pop quizzes" during the trimester. Translated into "You have to do the reading and pay attention to the speakers; we (myself and the TAs) will find out if you are not keeping up with the reading."
The minute papers method
Another new thing I am bringing to the class is what are usually described as "minute papers," to be collected weekly at the end of each class. What is a minute paper? A minute paper is a very short statement collected from each student at the end of each class. Students are asked to write on a 4 X 6 card, a response to two questions: 1) What was the main point you learned from this class? and 2) What is the biggest question you have remaining, at the end of this class? The students will be told to sign their cards, and turn them in when they are signing out and leaving. (I have students signing in and signing out, as that is how attendance is ordinarly noted in the courses we are mandated to take, Post-licensure, called "Mandatory Continuing Eduction for Psychologists (MCEP). My students may as well learn about this now, before they finish up the three years in residence, required for the doctoral degree in psychology.
Upping the Ante
Introducing a higher level of difficulty in this class is an experiment. I think that the prior atmosphere, in which I tried to convey that there was no way, short of failing to attend classes, that one could do "poorly," ended up making the class feel too sloppy, or too disorganized, an entity without hard edges around it. Students would wander in and wander out, come late, leave early. Because there was no real consequence to signing in late, or to missing content in the lectures, those who thought they would not like, or understand psychological science, did as little as possible, and failed to take the experience seriously. This was a loss to them. The visiting professors in the course are not only well-known for their work as scientists; they are also well-known for their skill in teaching. They take on the task presented by the course, treating it as a challenge. The challenge is to make their area of specialty attractive to students who are clinically focused and who are for the most part, afraid of science. Many of the students suffer from what Claude Steele named "stereotype threat."
Stereotype Threat
In stereotype threat, students who had in the past, wanted to be or tried to be ambitious in a given area, were discriminated against both subtly and overtly, because of their group membership, i.e. their sex, race, ethnicity, class background. In an ingenious series of empirical studies, Steele found that he could set up a situation in which students perform more or less poorly in a given academic area when reminded by some cue, of their membership of that group (sex, race, ethnicity, class, etc.).
In one of Steele and Aronson's early studies they presented a group of students at a high status university with a test. In the first condition they told the students it was a "test of intellectual ability" and in the second condition they told the students that it was a "test of problem solving ability." Results demonstrated the African American students responded to the first condition by doing poorly on the exam, with scores significantly lower than what would be predicted on the basis of their college entrance exam scores. In contrast, those students who were presented with the alternative condition, that is the students who were told it was a test of problem solving skill, did significantly better with socres that were in line with what would be expected based on their college entrance exam scores. The students were responding to the stereotype of African Americans, doing poorly when they thought the test was an IQ test, and doing significantly better when told that the test was measuring problem solving skill.
Stereotype threat and women in science and mathematics
These experiments were repeated with women's performance in math as the central topic. Women are expected to do poorly in mathematics. This is still so accepted by our culture, that Summer, then president of Harvard University, in a talk to a group of female academics, suggested that women were not cut out for science. Imagine what would have happened if he had said he same thing about a particular race or ethnicity. In fact he would not have dared to say something like that about another group, but the opinion of women is still so low culturally, that he had no problem coming out with his sexist and discriminatory statement. In the women and math experiments, there were two conditions. In the first the women were informed that men usually surpassed women in this particular test, and in the second condition the women were told that women ordinarily did as well as men in this test. As might be expected (on the basis of Steele and Aronson's first study), women who were told men suprassed women did not do well on test. However when women were told that women did as well as men on the test, their scores were significantly higher than women tested with the first condition.
Challenge not remediation
Graduate students in clinical psychology are predominantly female and thus are vulnerable to discrimination in areas of math and science. It should be no surprise therefore, to have students of clinical psychology fearful about any class or seminar associated with math and science. They often begin the class with the expectation of failure. In prior years, I presented this large lecture series with that in mind, therefore making it as easy and undemanding as possible. The net effect was to reduce the challenge, but in doing so, I inhibited effort, ambition, aspirations and in the end, I inadvertantly, inhibited performance. Steele's recommendation in situations of stereotype threat, is to increase challenge instead of "remediaion." That is, make a course or seminar more challenging than is the norm, and have the expectation that students will rise to the occassion and get the message that they can do it. I think in my earlier editions of this course in psychological science I was taking the "remediation" approach, which in and of itself, conveyed the message "You can't do it." Thus my effort to make the situation anxiety-free, in the end conveyed a kind of discouragement for the students. Now I am experimenting with raising the challege (challenge instead of remediation) and perhaps this will be inspiring to the students, as it carries the implication that they can do it, they can face the challenge and be successful.
I expect some students will test me immediately, complaining about the lengthy readings, complaining about the final paper, and then more quietly, complaining about the "pop quizzes" mentioned on the syllabus. I have to keep calm, rather cool, poised, and holding my ground steady. I have to convey absolute conviction that they can do the course and do exceptionally well, with effort. I have to be ready to reward those who go the extra mile, grapple seriously with the material, and get into the spirit of the science based lecture series.
I am going to track the progress of this class here on my blog. Please comment here, or privately, I want to hear everyone's opinion on this experiment.
The GTD implementation has had a set back as I settled into a focus on preparing for my 55-60 student class in Cognition, Emotion and Personality. Our whole first year class has to take this course, and for many students this is their introduction to psychological science. In prior years I tried to make the course absolutely painless, with a minimum of requirements. I decided this year to change the tone of the course from "Its easy" to "Its challenging," and see what happens. I had observed over the years that students tended to be less serious in the class, pay less attention to the speakers. Every week except for this first week, there is a visiting professor who comes and introduces the students to the constructs in his or her field, then describes his or her own research, and finally discusses clinical implications to his or her work. One would think it should be easy to teach this class, that is from my perspective, because I only have to lecture in the first class. However how the students receive each visiting professor has been an ongoing problem. I think by turning the overall tone of the course to "this is a challenge" might help in encouraging students to pay better attention to all the speakers. The most obvious thing I'm doing differently is I have announced on the syllabus that there may be several "pop quizzes" during the trimester. Translated into "You have to do the reading and pay attention to the speakers; we (myself and the TAs) will find out if you are not keeping up with the reading."
The minute papers method
Another new thing I am bringing to the class is what are usually described as "minute papers," to be collected weekly at the end of each class. What is a minute paper? A minute paper is a very short statement collected from each student at the end of each class. Students are asked to write on a 4 X 6 card, a response to two questions: 1) What was the main point you learned from this class? and 2) What is the biggest question you have remaining, at the end of this class? The students will be told to sign their cards, and turn them in when they are signing out and leaving. (I have students signing in and signing out, as that is how attendance is ordinarly noted in the courses we are mandated to take, Post-licensure, called "Mandatory Continuing Eduction for Psychologists (MCEP). My students may as well learn about this now, before they finish up the three years in residence, required for the doctoral degree in psychology.
Upping the Ante
Introducing a higher level of difficulty in this class is an experiment. I think that the prior atmosphere, in which I tried to convey that there was no way, short of failing to attend classes, that one could do "poorly," ended up making the class feel too sloppy, or too disorganized, an entity without hard edges around it. Students would wander in and wander out, come late, leave early. Because there was no real consequence to signing in late, or to missing content in the lectures, those who thought they would not like, or understand psychological science, did as little as possible, and failed to take the experience seriously. This was a loss to them. The visiting professors in the course are not only well-known for their work as scientists; they are also well-known for their skill in teaching. They take on the task presented by the course, treating it as a challenge. The challenge is to make their area of specialty attractive to students who are clinically focused and who are for the most part, afraid of science. Many of the students suffer from what Claude Steele named "stereotype threat."
Stereotype Threat
In stereotype threat, students who had in the past, wanted to be or tried to be ambitious in a given area, were discriminated against both subtly and overtly, because of their group membership, i.e. their sex, race, ethnicity, class background. In an ingenious series of empirical studies, Steele found that he could set up a situation in which students perform more or less poorly in a given academic area when reminded by some cue, of their membership of that group (sex, race, ethnicity, class, etc.).
In one of Steele and Aronson's early studies they presented a group of students at a high status university with a test. In the first condition they told the students it was a "test of intellectual ability" and in the second condition they told the students that it was a "test of problem solving ability." Results demonstrated the African American students responded to the first condition by doing poorly on the exam, with scores significantly lower than what would be predicted on the basis of their college entrance exam scores. In contrast, those students who were presented with the alternative condition, that is the students who were told it was a test of problem solving skill, did significantly better with socres that were in line with what would be expected based on their college entrance exam scores. The students were responding to the stereotype of African Americans, doing poorly when they thought the test was an IQ test, and doing significantly better when told that the test was measuring problem solving skill.
Stereotype threat and women in science and mathematics
These experiments were repeated with women's performance in math as the central topic. Women are expected to do poorly in mathematics. This is still so accepted by our culture, that Summer, then president of Harvard University, in a talk to a group of female academics, suggested that women were not cut out for science. Imagine what would have happened if he had said he same thing about a particular race or ethnicity. In fact he would not have dared to say something like that about another group, but the opinion of women is still so low culturally, that he had no problem coming out with his sexist and discriminatory statement. In the women and math experiments, there were two conditions. In the first the women were informed that men usually surpassed women in this particular test, and in the second condition the women were told that women ordinarily did as well as men in this test. As might be expected (on the basis of Steele and Aronson's first study), women who were told men suprassed women did not do well on test. However when women were told that women did as well as men on the test, their scores were significantly higher than women tested with the first condition.
Challenge not remediation
Graduate students in clinical psychology are predominantly female and thus are vulnerable to discrimination in areas of math and science. It should be no surprise therefore, to have students of clinical psychology fearful about any class or seminar associated with math and science. They often begin the class with the expectation of failure. In prior years, I presented this large lecture series with that in mind, therefore making it as easy and undemanding as possible. The net effect was to reduce the challenge, but in doing so, I inhibited effort, ambition, aspirations and in the end, I inadvertantly, inhibited performance. Steele's recommendation in situations of stereotype threat, is to increase challenge instead of "remediaion." That is, make a course or seminar more challenging than is the norm, and have the expectation that students will rise to the occassion and get the message that they can do it. I think in my earlier editions of this course in psychological science I was taking the "remediation" approach, which in and of itself, conveyed the message "You can't do it." Thus my effort to make the situation anxiety-free, in the end conveyed a kind of discouragement for the students. Now I am experimenting with raising the challege (challenge instead of remediation) and perhaps this will be inspiring to the students, as it carries the implication that they can do it, they can face the challenge and be successful.
I expect some students will test me immediately, complaining about the lengthy readings, complaining about the final paper, and then more quietly, complaining about the "pop quizzes" mentioned on the syllabus. I have to keep calm, rather cool, poised, and holding my ground steady. I have to convey absolute conviction that they can do the course and do exceptionally well, with effort. I have to be ready to reward those who go the extra mile, grapple seriously with the material, and get into the spirit of the science based lecture series.
I am going to track the progress of this class here on my blog. Please comment here, or privately, I want to hear everyone's opinion on this experiment.
Monday, April 9, 2007
GTD Day 44: Getting Things Done and War on Procrastination
GTD Report
I am happy to report that we spent many hours at the Container Store. We are redoing our closet as I've mentioned, and this a very big deal. The 'inbox" from the closet has been covering the living room, dining room, and entrance hall way. One couldn't say we were inefficient in our use of space; having seen it all outside of the closet, we can't understand how we ever managed to get it into the closet. Of course this great traditional use of space meant I could never find anything. One goal here, on top of having a "mind like water" is to be able to locate anything in 1 to 2 minutes, max.
I am only now realizing how much the clutter was effecting me. After the shopping trip, I spent the afternoon reading books about how to give a top notch presentation on PowerPoint, bypassing the old bullets method. I also analyzed data that had just come in, and discovered we have "significant results." I am using a statistical word when I say "significant." To put it simply, it means one wouldn't be likely to find these results in a crap shoot. Ultimately it means the study is publishable and this makes me happy. Its a real drag to spend months working on a study only to have it turn out to have no significant results. I have to say that rarely happens to me, I have a great capacity to know ahead of time what is going to work, and I generally avoid studies that my sixth sense tells me "Don't waste your time." Nevertheless every time a study turns out to have significant results I get excited and almost jump up and down with pleasure.
Loose ends, filing, and the mail
But I have been procrastinating on several big jobs. For example, I need to carry through on all that filing and finish the job by putting the labeled files in file cabinets. I need to deal with the mail. I have yet to do a really thorough review every Sunday, gathering all the "loose ends" of the week. By now the loose ends are a full month of loose ends, all dropped into a growing inbox that is a real inbox, instead of the living room floor. Until I do a thorough review, I don't think I can say I'm doing GTD. Half measures will get me no where. Earlier in the week I re-read Steve Pavlina and Merlin Mann of 43 Folders discussing procrastination, then procrastinated another six days.
Finally last night while lying in bed, working on my upcoming presentation, I decided to follow the 2 minute rule. Out came the Brother's labeler and right there, it must have been 1AM and everyone was fast asleep, I labeled and filed some loose papers. It took five minutes all together. This morning I marched down to my living room, went right to the mail table, grabbed a pile and began sorting and mainly tossing. When I attended the Allen seminar, Allen asked the audience if we had any chronic problems that needed some effort put to them, and I raised my hand and confessed what I do with the mail. Nothing. It can sit there piling up for months, and I don't look at it, I don't see it. I said I seemed to be afraid to open my mail. After this big confession I continued to do absolutely nothing about it, until this morning. I think the fear around the mail is that I will have to make a decision and I don't think I can do it, decide what to keep and what to toss. Its simple and yet I have never done it routinely. I hope I am going to make a real change, implemented for the first time this morning
Backtracking.. four days earlier
I have to give myself credit, cut myself some slack here. This week a dumpster came and was filled up within 24 hours. It will probably take us two more dumpsters before we have any semblance of order in the house. But we are one dumpster closer. Carpets were put in this week, on our stairs and and in one hallway. The closet was built with Elfa materials and some of the chaos that happened when everything came out of the closet has returned to normal as clothes went back into the space designed for them. The carpets on the stairs make me feel like I'm living in a "grown up" house and I don't know how I stood that painted soft wood for all of these years. GTD is creeping up on me and maybe I'll do a real Sunday review this week.
I am not happy with my lecture
I am trying out a new way to develop a lecture for my large class that begins next Thursday. I'm using a book "Beyond Bullet Points" written by Atkinson, on the recommendation of Matt Cornell in his blog some time recently. Its an interesting experiment, but still feels very awkward to me. The idea is to imitate the way Hollywood writers construct a screen play or TV show script. I'm going to be lecturing on something I've lectured on many times in the past, so trying this method might be foolish, but I love experiments. So far I don't like what I've written; it seems jumbled and instead of achieving greater clarity, I feel I'm heading into the opposite, confusion. Today I have a few more appointments, and then I am focusing on this project intensely. If I don't have something more coherent to show by Sunday, I'm going back to my old method.
Moving into transition
A few more weeks and I think I will cross over the line to real GTD heaven, and a mind like water will replace a mind like mud.I think I am approaching the period of serious transition, as I feel more confident that I am not forgetting important things and that I have a good chunk of my life moving in the right direction. I am beginning to plan, a serious weakness in the past. What I don't get done in a day moves onto the list for the next day. My lists are fairly up to date, despite having to move to another system for the umpteenth time --but more about that later. I am optimistic about the growing sense of order at home and in my home office. Making the decision to throw everything out was long overdue; that moment of decisiveness marked the move to a real transition in my life. Its the oddest thing but I feel like I am taking over my own life, and I can't figure out why it took me so long to do this. I ask myself "Does implementing GTD have this effect on everyone?"
I am happy to report that we spent many hours at the Container Store. We are redoing our closet as I've mentioned, and this a very big deal. The 'inbox" from the closet has been covering the living room, dining room, and entrance hall way. One couldn't say we were inefficient in our use of space; having seen it all outside of the closet, we can't understand how we ever managed to get it into the closet. Of course this great traditional use of space meant I could never find anything. One goal here, on top of having a "mind like water" is to be able to locate anything in 1 to 2 minutes, max.
I am only now realizing how much the clutter was effecting me. After the shopping trip, I spent the afternoon reading books about how to give a top notch presentation on PowerPoint, bypassing the old bullets method. I also analyzed data that had just come in, and discovered we have "significant results." I am using a statistical word when I say "significant." To put it simply, it means one wouldn't be likely to find these results in a crap shoot. Ultimately it means the study is publishable and this makes me happy. Its a real drag to spend months working on a study only to have it turn out to have no significant results. I have to say that rarely happens to me, I have a great capacity to know ahead of time what is going to work, and I generally avoid studies that my sixth sense tells me "Don't waste your time." Nevertheless every time a study turns out to have significant results I get excited and almost jump up and down with pleasure.
Loose ends, filing, and the mail
But I have been procrastinating on several big jobs. For example, I need to carry through on all that filing and finish the job by putting the labeled files in file cabinets. I need to deal with the mail. I have yet to do a really thorough review every Sunday, gathering all the "loose ends" of the week. By now the loose ends are a full month of loose ends, all dropped into a growing inbox that is a real inbox, instead of the living room floor. Until I do a thorough review, I don't think I can say I'm doing GTD. Half measures will get me no where. Earlier in the week I re-read Steve Pavlina and Merlin Mann of 43 Folders discussing procrastination, then procrastinated another six days.
Finally last night while lying in bed, working on my upcoming presentation, I decided to follow the 2 minute rule. Out came the Brother's labeler and right there, it must have been 1AM and everyone was fast asleep, I labeled and filed some loose papers. It took five minutes all together. This morning I marched down to my living room, went right to the mail table, grabbed a pile and began sorting and mainly tossing. When I attended the Allen seminar, Allen asked the audience if we had any chronic problems that needed some effort put to them, and I raised my hand and confessed what I do with the mail. Nothing. It can sit there piling up for months, and I don't look at it, I don't see it. I said I seemed to be afraid to open my mail. After this big confession I continued to do absolutely nothing about it, until this morning. I think the fear around the mail is that I will have to make a decision and I don't think I can do it, decide what to keep and what to toss. Its simple and yet I have never done it routinely. I hope I am going to make a real change, implemented for the first time this morning
Backtracking.. four days earlier
I have to give myself credit, cut myself some slack here. This week a dumpster came and was filled up within 24 hours. It will probably take us two more dumpsters before we have any semblance of order in the house. But we are one dumpster closer. Carpets were put in this week, on our stairs and and in one hallway. The closet was built with Elfa materials and some of the chaos that happened when everything came out of the closet has returned to normal as clothes went back into the space designed for them. The carpets on the stairs make me feel like I'm living in a "grown up" house and I don't know how I stood that painted soft wood for all of these years. GTD is creeping up on me and maybe I'll do a real Sunday review this week.
I am not happy with my lecture
I am trying out a new way to develop a lecture for my large class that begins next Thursday. I'm using a book "Beyond Bullet Points" written by Atkinson, on the recommendation of Matt Cornell in his blog some time recently. Its an interesting experiment, but still feels very awkward to me. The idea is to imitate the way Hollywood writers construct a screen play or TV show script. I'm going to be lecturing on something I've lectured on many times in the past, so trying this method might be foolish, but I love experiments. So far I don't like what I've written; it seems jumbled and instead of achieving greater clarity, I feel I'm heading into the opposite, confusion. Today I have a few more appointments, and then I am focusing on this project intensely. If I don't have something more coherent to show by Sunday, I'm going back to my old method.
Moving into transition
A few more weeks and I think I will cross over the line to real GTD heaven, and a mind like water will replace a mind like mud.I think I am approaching the period of serious transition, as I feel more confident that I am not forgetting important things and that I have a good chunk of my life moving in the right direction. I am beginning to plan, a serious weakness in the past. What I don't get done in a day moves onto the list for the next day. My lists are fairly up to date, despite having to move to another system for the umpteenth time --but more about that later. I am optimistic about the growing sense of order at home and in my home office. Making the decision to throw everything out was long overdue; that moment of decisiveness marked the move to a real transition in my life. Its the oddest thing but I feel like I am taking over my own life, and I can't figure out why it took me so long to do this. I ask myself "Does implementing GTD have this effect on everyone?"
Sunday, April 8, 2007
GTD Implementation: Day 39
Just one small decision yields a giant step forward
Here it is day 39 after beginning my GTD full implementation. Its Easter Sunday, late afternoon, and I'm still reading and writing in bed. I think I've figured out a big problem that has been hanging me up for weeks now. As I wrote well over a week ago, figuring out my filing system and where files were supposed to go, in which of the 38 (or is it 48?) file drawers I either already had in place --or which I had delivered to the house in preparation for this undertaking-- helped and permitted a week or so of progress on various fronts. However I found myself slowing down again, and frankly stuck, paralyzed in the middle of the implementation. After the last three or four days of walking around the house, finding more and more banker boxes hidden in every corner, every "back room" and every closet, it hit me, I "got it." I couldn't possibly go through all of the boxes to see what to keep and what to throw out, papers were coming into the house while the clock was ticking away, waiting for me to make trivial decisions about trivial pieces of paper, and more pieces of paper. I had no other possible conclusion but what was in front of me. I have to THROW IT ALL OUT. Duhh. This should have been patently obvious by week three, instead of waiting until week five and six. I had to clear out the "inbox" of my living room, and see that there were literally ROOMS more of boxes. I got sick of wasting time worrying about how to deal with all of it, its perfectly clear. I feel a huge sense of relief on this easy Easter Sunday, the dumpster is ordered and should be in front of the house by Tuesday. My grandson who is 22 and strong is lined up, and a few of his friends are invited to join him, for the job of lifting and hauling the boxes right into the dumpster. Goodbye problem. I can say with absolute certainty that I welcome a mind like water, and this will escape me until every last box is tossed, until all the clothes unworn for two years or longer are delivered to the Goodwill sure can't claim a "mind like water." The clutter in the house had finally become clutter in my mind, and it has all been a product of GTD and GTD implementation.
This last significant insight only occurred after I had decided to tackle the downstairs closet, shared by me and my husband. The vast quantity of stuff that came rolling out of that sizable walk in closet-room was mind jumbling and mind numbing. The stuff has been a weight on my mind, on my productivity, probably for years now, only I didn't even see it until I began GTD implementation. I had known that this was going to happen, without exactly knowing it; this is no doubt, why I had been into GTD for almost two years before I made the decision to really do GTD, and not just some small piece of it. I knew when I embraced GTD and showed up at an Allen seminar that my whole life, the life of my home, my office, my lab, my colleagues, co-workers, was about to go through a huge change. The proportions of that change are just sweeping over me, filling me with a mood of excitation and freedom. Its hard to explain the effect of perhaps 80 boxes of files, papers, and more papers. Suffice it to say that it has been a break upon my creativity, a haze preventing clarity and a wall erected between me and a sense of well-being.
Last night, having made the decision to throw everything out, I went to the drawing board to plan out my life for the next year. I have been convinced for months that I was incapable of planning, and I have been. My energy and inherent sense of organization has all been directed to a monumental amount of paper that didn't belong in my life any longer. I have all the files I need for the current research I'm doing, for the articles and presentations I'm currently working on, and I don't need all the rest of it now, or ever. I am so relieved. A small two minute decision, expressed in an even smaller phrase "Just throw it all out" and everything becomes do-able, comfortable, almost easy. The dumpster will be here tomorrow night, or Tuesday. The young post adolescent energy is lined up, and I think I am regaining my capacity to plan, organize and do.
Here it is day 39 after beginning my GTD full implementation. Its Easter Sunday, late afternoon, and I'm still reading and writing in bed. I think I've figured out a big problem that has been hanging me up for weeks now. As I wrote well over a week ago, figuring out my filing system and where files were supposed to go, in which of the 38 (or is it 48?) file drawers I either already had in place --or which I had delivered to the house in preparation for this undertaking-- helped and permitted a week or so of progress on various fronts. However I found myself slowing down again, and frankly stuck, paralyzed in the middle of the implementation. After the last three or four days of walking around the house, finding more and more banker boxes hidden in every corner, every "back room" and every closet, it hit me, I "got it." I couldn't possibly go through all of the boxes to see what to keep and what to throw out, papers were coming into the house while the clock was ticking away, waiting for me to make trivial decisions about trivial pieces of paper, and more pieces of paper. I had no other possible conclusion but what was in front of me. I have to THROW IT ALL OUT. Duhh. This should have been patently obvious by week three, instead of waiting until week five and six. I had to clear out the "inbox" of my living room, and see that there were literally ROOMS more of boxes. I got sick of wasting time worrying about how to deal with all of it, its perfectly clear. I feel a huge sense of relief on this easy Easter Sunday, the dumpster is ordered and should be in front of the house by Tuesday. My grandson who is 22 and strong is lined up, and a few of his friends are invited to join him, for the job of lifting and hauling the boxes right into the dumpster. Goodbye problem. I can say with absolute certainty that I welcome a mind like water, and this will escape me until every last box is tossed, until all the clothes unworn for two years or longer are delivered to the Goodwill sure can't claim a "mind like water." The clutter in the house had finally become clutter in my mind, and it has all been a product of GTD and GTD implementation.
This last significant insight only occurred after I had decided to tackle the downstairs closet, shared by me and my husband. The vast quantity of stuff that came rolling out of that sizable walk in closet-room was mind jumbling and mind numbing. The stuff has been a weight on my mind, on my productivity, probably for years now, only I didn't even see it until I began GTD implementation. I had known that this was going to happen, without exactly knowing it; this is no doubt, why I had been into GTD for almost two years before I made the decision to really do GTD, and not just some small piece of it. I knew when I embraced GTD and showed up at an Allen seminar that my whole life, the life of my home, my office, my lab, my colleagues, co-workers, was about to go through a huge change. The proportions of that change are just sweeping over me, filling me with a mood of excitation and freedom. Its hard to explain the effect of perhaps 80 boxes of files, papers, and more papers. Suffice it to say that it has been a break upon my creativity, a haze preventing clarity and a wall erected between me and a sense of well-being.
Last night, having made the decision to throw everything out, I went to the drawing board to plan out my life for the next year. I have been convinced for months that I was incapable of planning, and I have been. My energy and inherent sense of organization has all been directed to a monumental amount of paper that didn't belong in my life any longer. I have all the files I need for the current research I'm doing, for the articles and presentations I'm currently working on, and I don't need all the rest of it now, or ever. I am so relieved. A small two minute decision, expressed in an even smaller phrase "Just throw it all out" and everything becomes do-able, comfortable, almost easy. The dumpster will be here tomorrow night, or Tuesday. The young post adolescent energy is lined up, and I think I am regaining my capacity to plan, organize and do.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Checking in on GTD: One Month Later
Time to Confess...
Its time to confess exactly where I am in my major GTD overhaul. MANY things have been put in the right place, new file cabinets are set up, new files created, old files re-organized, many files are vaguely color coded (there are so many categories it gets confusing now and again, does this go under "social psychology" or "evolution?", a 4 drawer file system right next to my main "work station" (a great chair in a great office, two lap-tops fired up and always ready), a well-used labeler (yes I followed instructions and bought a good Brother's labeler), and many many decisions later..
OK I confess, not all the files are put away. I found my husband had hidden a large number of already filed items in file-boxes, in a back back room that I can't even get into, and there are still some file-boxes full of filed articles and old papers in the living room in-box. You can rest assured that the minute all is completed, I will be posting another picture, so you get the full "before" and "after" scene. But I'm not ready for that kind of documentation, and its been 31 days since I began the project. Progress not perfection is the slogan I tell myself every day.
Distracted
I got seriously distracted by the preparations required for my upcoming class of 55+ students. As part of my GTD transformation I decided that being seriously over-prepared for my class this year was the way to go. I spent weeks on the syllabus, collecting the articles assigned by me and all the visiting professors who speak to the class, all in a well-labeled (thank you D.A. and Brothers) reader, made duplicate readers, and to top it off I developed a class listserv ("Cognition 2007") to which I sent off everything yesterday (the end of the past trimester), including the syllabus and all the articles. I hope that all this material appearing in the students e-mail in-boxes will inspired them to do the reading, get a head start on the class. And I am also reading each article (most of them are new) in great detail, taking notes, so I can be the over prepared master of the ship. I will be surprised if I hear any complaints about being disorganized or unclear, although one never knows. I am now preparing the first lecture on my own research, and I think I'll then show Kindness of Strangers, a documentary made about people who came to Sri Lanka to help in the relief efforts, and in which I am one of the "talking heads." Since survivor guilt (broadly defined) is my primary area of empirical research, the documentary written and directed by a brilliant Australian filmmaker Rhian Skirving is bottom line, about altruism and international survivor guilt, and the course is "Cognition, Emotion and Personality" (survivor guilt is an emotion involving specific cognitions), it seems appropriate to present the film along with the research lecture. I hope it is well received and the students find the first class both informative and entertaining.
This then, has interfered a bit with single minded focus on my GTD implementation project. The reading alone is time consuming, but it will allow me to orient the students to each article with a degree of expertise I usually don't have but I should have always had. Its GTD in action I figure, so if the implementation (aka filing) is not going as fast as I had hoped, it is what it is.
Reading scientific articles is both fascinating and hard
I can understand my students' difficulties in tackling the literature of psychological science, however I find it do-able and exciting, particularly as I cover the "methods" sections of the articles. I am reminded of how important it is for me, as an active scientist, to read and read more, in order to get novel ideas and methods of investigating a topic, or even re-investigating old data sets I have collected. I find myself going slowly as I take notes on methods, that is exactly how a study was conducted, down to the smallest details. Scientific articles are remarkable in that they are like recipes from a good cook book (when they're good research reports). I can read, take notes, and have a template for replicating the study, or for making small changes in the plan, to accommodate what I'm aiming to study. This morning I read a report of how a group "coded" some data, and discovered the first author did some of the coding herself, and that was acceptable as long as she was blind to where exactly in the data collection the sample of behavior came from, and she didn't know what the particular samples she was coding correlated with, in another part of the study. I hope this doesn't sound technical because its a simple research protocol, and probably is replicated in many parts of life.
Survivor guilt: Life in the Office
Our current research: Life in the office when lay offs are happening
In a recent experimental Internet-based (online) study which is now moving into the final stage of data analysis, we had a story, which varied in one way, providing four different conditions. The story is about a woman, Sara, who works in a high tech firm. She is a manager in one department. The second character, Andrea, is also a manager in the same company but in a different department. Sara and Andrea both work extremely hard, have been with the company for over ten years, rarely missing work, and both are exemplary workers. In one condition Andrea is Sara's sister. In the second condition Susan is Sara's best friend. In the third condition she is Sara's acquaintance at work, who Sara is unlikely to ever see outside of the company, and in the forth condition Andrea is a rival who has traditionally behaved unethically towards Sara. Then, the technology crash happens, and lay offs are pending in all the tech firms. In the midst of this, Sara finds out she is being promoted to a higher level of management. Meanwhile Andrea is informed that she is being laid off. Sara hears from her boss of the lay offs and finds out that Susan is among those being dismissed.
Participants are ordinary people from the Internet, on CraigsList
The participants of the study (they were invited to participate on CraigsList, an online community advertisement service that is located in many US cities) are asked to pick a condition according to the month in which they were born, with the months for each spanning the year --so for example, condition one is for birthdays in January, May, September, etc. This provides a random assignment of the conditions. Participants, after having read the story for their condition, are asked "When Sara learns of Andrea's dismissal from the firm, what do you think Sara would feel, what do your think she would think, and what do you think she would do?" Participants are asked to write a narrative with as much detail as possible, answering these questions.
Is survivor guilt experienced beyond the family? What about acts of altruism?
We are trying to find out if everyone, across conditions, feels guilty about Andrea's dismissal, (survivor guilt broadly defined, since obviously Sara is surpassing Andrea), even in the rival condition. We question as to whether Sara would feel more guilt if Andrea were a sister (kin in other words), than if she were a friend, an acquaintance, or a rival. We are in part testing out the common evolutionary theory that altruism is more often extended to blood kin, than to others, with the hypothesis that in our culture, friends and perhaps even acquaintances, are the recipients of acts of altruism. We are trying to test out the evolutionary theory that altruism is a form of selfishness, when it is primarily extended to kin, as helping kin may often serve to help one's own genes.
From GTD in the classroom to problem solutions in research methods
In reading an article this morning I realized that I can be a rater of the narratives written, as long as I am blind to which group the narrative comes from (sister, best friend, acquaintance or rival). The narratives are randomized for the raters, so that there is no way to tell automatically to which group a narrative belongs. Realizing that I could be one of the raters simplified my life, I don't need to locate as many other raters familiar with the construct of survivor guilt. The raters will be asked to rate how guilty Sara feels, how much personal responsibility she seems to take for Andrea's dismissal. Surprising though it may seem, and illogical as it is, on glancing through responses I saw that many people felt that Sara would somehow feel responsible for Andrea's fate, even though she had nothing to do with it and she is not even in the same department in the firm.
Thank you, thank you universe for having me read the research articles assigned to my class so closely.
Are details from my work generalizable to other fields and work areas?
I don't know how generalizable this description of my current project is, or how it might apply to work people in other fields are doing.
GTD in the lab: A project needs immediate attention
The project has to be completed immediately, --I'm presenting this at a conference at the end of April, I have to get a move on. I have preliminary data already analyzed and that was included in the proposal to the conference, but I need to have this detailed analysis done and done right away. All by way of excusing myself for putting the hardcore GTD implementation --putting all the files away-- on the back burner.
In the background: GTD crawling into the closets
Coming attractions include the fact that I have been throwing catalogues from the Container Company all over the house, and asked my husband to measure all of our closets. He says "Well we can make do with a renovation of your part of the closet." We share a closet, a large walk-in absolute heap of "stuff" with clothes falling off open drawers, huge piles on top of unused dressers, jumbles of wrinkled clothes on the floor, piles of disorganized towels over on one side, yet more file-boxes way in the back. I look at him, my eyes narrowing, "That is not what I had in mind." He argues back: "Well I'm fine with what I have." I look at his seemingly "agreeable" countenance indicating he has no idea of what I've been talking about when requesting measurements. I counter, "Apparently you don't get it, I am not walking into a well organized closet on one side, and a completely disorganized mess on the other side, that would not encourage my new GTD lifestyle." He makes his point again, trying to exhibit neutrality, "Well I was just suggesting options." Half a closet is not a GTD option. I look fierce I hope, "Every closet in this house is being redone." OK, I made my point. He muttered about arranging for space in a public storage company for the even larger number of file boxes and old files in the basement. Finally, he's getting the picture. GTD implementation may go on for another six months, and I hope I make it by then.
Its time to confess exactly where I am in my major GTD overhaul. MANY things have been put in the right place, new file cabinets are set up, new files created, old files re-organized, many files are vaguely color coded (there are so many categories it gets confusing now and again, does this go under "social psychology" or "evolution?", a 4 drawer file system right next to my main "work station" (a great chair in a great office, two lap-tops fired up and always ready), a well-used labeler (yes I followed instructions and bought a good Brother's labeler), and many many decisions later..
OK I confess, not all the files are put away. I found my husband had hidden a large number of already filed items in file-boxes, in a back back room that I can't even get into, and there are still some file-boxes full of filed articles and old papers in the living room in-box. You can rest assured that the minute all is completed, I will be posting another picture, so you get the full "before" and "after" scene. But I'm not ready for that kind of documentation, and its been 31 days since I began the project. Progress not perfection is the slogan I tell myself every day.
Distracted
I got seriously distracted by the preparations required for my upcoming class of 55+ students. As part of my GTD transformation I decided that being seriously over-prepared for my class this year was the way to go. I spent weeks on the syllabus, collecting the articles assigned by me and all the visiting professors who speak to the class, all in a well-labeled (thank you D.A. and Brothers) reader, made duplicate readers, and to top it off I developed a class listserv ("Cognition 2007") to which I sent off everything yesterday (the end of the past trimester), including the syllabus and all the articles. I hope that all this material appearing in the students e-mail in-boxes will inspired them to do the reading, get a head start on the class. And I am also reading each article (most of them are new) in great detail, taking notes, so I can be the over prepared master of the ship. I will be surprised if I hear any complaints about being disorganized or unclear, although one never knows. I am now preparing the first lecture on my own research, and I think I'll then show Kindness of Strangers, a documentary made about people who came to Sri Lanka to help in the relief efforts, and in which I am one of the "talking heads." Since survivor guilt (broadly defined) is my primary area of empirical research, the documentary written and directed by a brilliant Australian filmmaker Rhian Skirving is bottom line, about altruism and international survivor guilt, and the course is "Cognition, Emotion and Personality" (survivor guilt is an emotion involving specific cognitions), it seems appropriate to present the film along with the research lecture. I hope it is well received and the students find the first class both informative and entertaining.
This then, has interfered a bit with single minded focus on my GTD implementation project. The reading alone is time consuming, but it will allow me to orient the students to each article with a degree of expertise I usually don't have but I should have always had. Its GTD in action I figure, so if the implementation (aka filing) is not going as fast as I had hoped, it is what it is.
Reading scientific articles is both fascinating and hard
I can understand my students' difficulties in tackling the literature of psychological science, however I find it do-able and exciting, particularly as I cover the "methods" sections of the articles. I am reminded of how important it is for me, as an active scientist, to read and read more, in order to get novel ideas and methods of investigating a topic, or even re-investigating old data sets I have collected. I find myself going slowly as I take notes on methods, that is exactly how a study was conducted, down to the smallest details. Scientific articles are remarkable in that they are like recipes from a good cook book (when they're good research reports). I can read, take notes, and have a template for replicating the study, or for making small changes in the plan, to accommodate what I'm aiming to study. This morning I read a report of how a group "coded" some data, and discovered the first author did some of the coding herself, and that was acceptable as long as she was blind to where exactly in the data collection the sample of behavior came from, and she didn't know what the particular samples she was coding correlated with, in another part of the study. I hope this doesn't sound technical because its a simple research protocol, and probably is replicated in many parts of life.
Survivor guilt: Life in the Office
Our current research: Life in the office when lay offs are happening
In a recent experimental Internet-based (online) study which is now moving into the final stage of data analysis, we had a story, which varied in one way, providing four different conditions. The story is about a woman, Sara, who works in a high tech firm. She is a manager in one department. The second character, Andrea, is also a manager in the same company but in a different department. Sara and Andrea both work extremely hard, have been with the company for over ten years, rarely missing work, and both are exemplary workers. In one condition Andrea is Sara's sister. In the second condition Susan is Sara's best friend. In the third condition she is Sara's acquaintance at work, who Sara is unlikely to ever see outside of the company, and in the forth condition Andrea is a rival who has traditionally behaved unethically towards Sara. Then, the technology crash happens, and lay offs are pending in all the tech firms. In the midst of this, Sara finds out she is being promoted to a higher level of management. Meanwhile Andrea is informed that she is being laid off. Sara hears from her boss of the lay offs and finds out that Susan is among those being dismissed.
Participants are ordinary people from the Internet, on CraigsList
The participants of the study (they were invited to participate on CraigsList, an online community advertisement service that is located in many US cities) are asked to pick a condition according to the month in which they were born, with the months for each spanning the year --so for example, condition one is for birthdays in January, May, September, etc. This provides a random assignment of the conditions. Participants, after having read the story for their condition, are asked "When Sara learns of Andrea's dismissal from the firm, what do you think Sara would feel, what do your think she would think, and what do you think she would do?" Participants are asked to write a narrative with as much detail as possible, answering these questions.
Is survivor guilt experienced beyond the family? What about acts of altruism?
We are trying to find out if everyone, across conditions, feels guilty about Andrea's dismissal, (survivor guilt broadly defined, since obviously Sara is surpassing Andrea), even in the rival condition. We question as to whether Sara would feel more guilt if Andrea were a sister (kin in other words), than if she were a friend, an acquaintance, or a rival. We are in part testing out the common evolutionary theory that altruism is more often extended to blood kin, than to others, with the hypothesis that in our culture, friends and perhaps even acquaintances, are the recipients of acts of altruism. We are trying to test out the evolutionary theory that altruism is a form of selfishness, when it is primarily extended to kin, as helping kin may often serve to help one's own genes.
From GTD in the classroom to problem solutions in research methods
In reading an article this morning I realized that I can be a rater of the narratives written, as long as I am blind to which group the narrative comes from (sister, best friend, acquaintance or rival). The narratives are randomized for the raters, so that there is no way to tell automatically to which group a narrative belongs. Realizing that I could be one of the raters simplified my life, I don't need to locate as many other raters familiar with the construct of survivor guilt. The raters will be asked to rate how guilty Sara feels, how much personal responsibility she seems to take for Andrea's dismissal. Surprising though it may seem, and illogical as it is, on glancing through responses I saw that many people felt that Sara would somehow feel responsible for Andrea's fate, even though she had nothing to do with it and she is not even in the same department in the firm.
Thank you, thank you universe for having me read the research articles assigned to my class so closely.
Are details from my work generalizable to other fields and work areas?
I don't know how generalizable this description of my current project is, or how it might apply to work people in other fields are doing.
GTD in the lab: A project needs immediate attention
The project has to be completed immediately, --I'm presenting this at a conference at the end of April, I have to get a move on. I have preliminary data already analyzed and that was included in the proposal to the conference, but I need to have this detailed analysis done and done right away. All by way of excusing myself for putting the hardcore GTD implementation --putting all the files away-- on the back burner.
In the background: GTD crawling into the closets
Coming attractions include the fact that I have been throwing catalogues from the Container Company all over the house, and asked my husband to measure all of our closets. He says "Well we can make do with a renovation of your part of the closet." We share a closet, a large walk-in absolute heap of "stuff" with clothes falling off open drawers, huge piles on top of unused dressers, jumbles of wrinkled clothes on the floor, piles of disorganized towels over on one side, yet more file-boxes way in the back. I look at him, my eyes narrowing, "That is not what I had in mind." He argues back: "Well I'm fine with what I have." I look at his seemingly "agreeable" countenance indicating he has no idea of what I've been talking about when requesting measurements. I counter, "Apparently you don't get it, I am not walking into a well organized closet on one side, and a completely disorganized mess on the other side, that would not encourage my new GTD lifestyle." He makes his point again, trying to exhibit neutrality, "Well I was just suggesting options." Half a closet is not a GTD option. I look fierce I hope, "Every closet in this house is being redone." OK, I made my point. He muttered about arranging for space in a public storage company for the even larger number of file boxes and old files in the basement. Finally, he's getting the picture. GTD implementation may go on for another six months, and I hope I make it by then.
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