Monday, December 22, 2008

Dissertating and Friends - A Painful Mix?

This post is made in reference to my earlier post: Dissertating and Friends Don't Mix?

My wife was too tired so she decided to have our friends come over rather than to drive there. To cope, I decided to try doing some reading before they arrived.

I was able to study (with earplugs on) even when the kids were listening to Adventures in Odyssey at a high volume. But once our friends came over (earlier than I expected) my ability to focus dwindled. I had to move from the living room into my study because high level of interaction was too distracting.

Also, I feel (1) guilt for not interacting with them; (2) strain in having to force myself to concentrate when my body feels so tense; (3) tired because I did not have much sleep last night due to staying up late (reading) and having to wake up early to go to church.

I will read for another 45 minutes, and then join them. In addition to this cup of coffee that is almost empty, I'll need a cup of tea to tie me over to the end of my study time. After that, I'm a goner. It'll be a very early night for me. I'm going to try dissertating during the day time next week. (To think that I just spent two weeks converting to night time dissertating.)

I just needed to write this down. It's an importance piece of my dissertating process.

p.s. Thank God for high-quality affordable earplugs. What would I do without them?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No comment on the dissertation and friends part - just a note that my kids LOVE Adventures in Odyssey too! ;-)