Three years to do a PhD, plenty of time! Not so, as it turns out. Forget 3 years of time, I have a mass of things to get done in the next 3 WEEKS and my to do list is starting to get out of control. Hopefully, once the end of May passes I will have a nice long summer in which to do some theoretical framework thinking and write my ‘state of the art’ on Portuguese foreign policy/Europeanisation which still needs doing this year.
But until I can work in the pleasant surroundings of the garden, nice cold drink, laptop, sunshine, feet up, perhaps even strawberries and ice cream (!?!), I need to banish all these tasks into the dark annals of history.
The first major demand on my time at the moment is my annual progress review. Now I’m happy with my progress and so are my supervisors. But I have to formally justify what I have done since October and what I intend to do next year. Yes, these people have the power to ‘pull the plug’ on my PhD, but I really don’t think that will happen and I should pass. But I need to upload lots of documentation to my e-Portfolio and write a report (circa 1,500 words) on my progress. I am in the process of drafting the report now, which to be honest, isn’t that long and allowing for reasonable procrastination on my part, I should have it finished by Friday. (Procrastination is proportionate to the size of the to do list! Hence why I’m escaping from it by writing my blog this afternoon!!!)
My progress review panel has been scheduled for the afternoon of May 14th. Which is long enough away. But I will be having a very busy afternoon because I have to give me Camoes seminar paper after my progress panel. Now with the demands on my time, I haven’t actually written my paper yet or got anywhere near doing the slides for the presentation. I shall promote it and send emails round and I have done a poster to stick up around the Politics Building. I just need to have the space to prepare for this thing! I hope I eventually do get this thing prepared as I am looking forward to it. I am particularly looking forward to the pint (or eight) after that day is over!
Not only that, I need to put together an application to the Instituto Camoes to be considered for a grant to help fund my fieldwork. I need to put together letters, abstracts, a CV and covering letter and have all that done in time to send by May 18th. Although, this shouldn’t mean that much work really and the cash would be gratefully received!!!!
So plenty of time between now and the middle of May to sort out those things…??? Wrong! Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are effectively written off. Although I shall be working, I won’t be working on crossing off things from my to do list! I have a conference to attend in Salford which should be good. I shall report back with news from that when I have time.
So it’s Wednesday afternoon… 4pm we have a guest speaker coming, by the time I’ve dragged myself away from the wine and crisps afterwards it will be 6.30-7ish. Back to the office and try and sort out something. Then have tomorrow, Friday and Saturday to get some serious work done before leaving on Sunday. Doable you’d think?! But my office is now full of boxes the EU has decided to send me. The postgrad roundtable at the end of May, which I am organising, will be on Europe and they have very kindly sent me lots of publications. Oh yeah, so the roundtable is another thing to organise, promote and make sure our guest speaker turns up! Oh dear.
Anything else…? Well I have promised to reply to the Portuguese foreign ministry and tell them what I want to look at in their archive, which is quite difficult because I don’t know what they have and I want stuff that is still classified under the 30-year rule. So that particular email is being severely put off. Also I have some secretaries to talk to in Lisbon but I really am not in the frame of mind to be dealing with organising things in Portuguese over the phone. Maybe put that off till the Autumn!!!
Surely that’s everything….? No, a week after the Camoes presentation is the Faculty presentation. That’ll require tweaking my Camoes paper and doing new powerpoint slides. But that’s far too far away to think about now! Put it off some!!!
So that must be everything, or at least that’s all my brain can process at the moment, I’m sure there are other things which may or may not be pressing which I have forgotten about. I’m too swamped to know! And what’s worse it that things will continue to get added to my to do list! Grrr!
There were some nice moments of relaxation and calmly getting some things done over the Easter holiday. But now, now I have returned to Newcastle, it’s head down for some intense work!
If I make it through the next 3 weeks then I should breeze the rest of my PhD. If I don’t, I’m kinda screwed!