Catherine Rawn

This morning I opted out of my to-do list to decorate my office! I went back through all my photos from the past year (an a few from earlier) and created a collage to hang on my office wall. So many memories surfaced as I perused files from TA Development Day 2009 and 2010, our Psyc 217 poster session and in-class demos, Psyc 208 team-based learning and final projects, Psyc 100 field trip to Science World and last day festivities. What a great year! I selected a few photos to represent each of these activities and I’m having it printed out as a giant poster to stick on my wall, that I can add to as years pass. Yay! It makes me smile

As for my to-do list… well, I have managed to check off 7 chapters of the research methods textbook I’m adapting. That’s half the book! Before I get to the other half (which I need to finish by the end of July), I need to spend some time on a few other projects. Let me share with you some of the other projects, besides the textbook, I’ll be working on these coming days…

UPDATE June 10: I have crossed out what I’ve accomplished in the past week. Not quite everything, but pretty close. Paperwork is complete for the poster session venue. Gotta pause the report for now while I get another couple of chapters under my belt!

• Analyze data and write up the Program Evaluation Report for 2010/2011 TA Development activities. Such a report is a condition of funding from the Provost’s office, and it’s been really helpful to make informed changes to the program based on participants’ feedback over the years.
• Do some early prep for the 2011 TA Development Day, including set the date, book the venue, set the broad agenda, send a “save-the-date” email to incoming grad students, and submit the ethics application for next year’s program evaluation.
• Book the venue for the Psyc 217 poster session upcoming in November 2011.
• Contact applicants for next year’s Psyc 100 Peer Tutors (I was *so* excited reading applications yesterday!! This is going to be a phenomenal team!)
• Help with the website and first meeting of the UBC Instructor Network, which will be a way for teaching-stream faculty to connect with each other. Previously we’ve been sprinkled around campus unaware of each other.
• Deal with the email backlog. Always the email backlog!
• Read a couple of chapters in the stats book I’m using for Psyc 218 in January.

Now that I’ve scared myself by listing all that, I better get to it! Well, after I make a cup of coffee…

As the end of Olympic/Spring Break draws near, I’m staring down at my “break to-do list” is realizing there isn’t as much crossed off as I hoped there would be by this time. I do have some key tasks crossed off, but I doubt I am alone in this feeling that I could have accomplished more b now. Last week I took a few days off and it felt so good to relax that I don’t regret that decision. But pulling myself back into work mode has proved challenging. Part of the problem, I think, is distraction. The Olympics are on! In my city, no less! I have surprised myself with how much I have enjoyed tracking how our national athletes are performing — and identifying examples of psychological phenomena (e.g., hindsight bias, social comparison). Another part of the problem is that I have, yet again, fallen prey to the Planning Fallacy: the tendency for people to underestimate the amount of time tasks will take to complete. I have known about the planning fallacy for years, yet I still manage to think I can read and take notes on a chapter, for example, in a couple of hours. That I can sit down and write a 2-3 page lit review in a day or two. Knowledge of biases, it seems, may not always provide the power to combat them.

A quick glance at the literature on the planning fallacy reminds me of the nuances of accurate planning that I forgot to employ when building my to-do list. From their original article on the topic, Buehler, Griffin, and Ross (1994) identified that when estimating completion times people tend to focus on the future, rather than their past experiences with similar activities. More recent work has identified two strategies to employ while planning to combat this fallacy. First, try “unpacking” the activity — breaking it down into component parts (something past experience can help with), and using those components to guage the time it will take to complete it (Kruger & Evans, 2004). Then, form implementation intentions (e.g., “From 8-10am I will conduct a literature search and build an outline for the paper.”) to help with following through and minimizing distractions along the way (Koole & Spijker, 2000). To make the most of my remaining Olympic break moments, I will use these strategies to whittle my to-do list down to a more realistic size and keep me focused as I accomplish those tasks.

Ahh! How is it the end of July already?! It feels like this summer has been completely packed full of things to do — and not relaxing things, either! Yet my to-do list seems just as long as it was a month ago! I’m feeling a bit disoriented as I transition to our new neighborhood at home and my new position as faculty at work. It kinda feels like my whole life right now is a meaning maintenance prime. Everything is the same but everything is different, and those differences are often subtle. The heat isn’t helping either.

When I feel this way I know that I need to spend some time goal setting and prioritizing. When I have a concrete plan of what needs to get done, and what order I’ll do it in, I feel much better about the whole situation. So that’s what I’ll do right now. Even as I write that I know I should be writing that chapter. But I find it difficult to work on something specific when I don’t feel ok about the whole. So goal setting it is.

Please note that for the next week I won’t have regular access to email. I appreciate your patience as I deal with emails the following week.

I have begun to receive emails about my courses from (potential) students. I welcome your communication. Please note that if you’re wondering about a specific course, I don’t have the syllabi totally prepared yet, but will by mid-August(ish).

Thanks!

Summer is beautiful expanse of time to get caught up on items from the “someday soon” to-do list that just don’t make it in to the school year frenzy. One of the first items on this list was to update my website. I developed my old site in the now-obsolete Microsoft FrontPage software, and haven’t been able to access it since I updated to MSOffice 2007 last year. It’s still online for now, until I develop this one and figure out how to link this page to my old url: www.psych.ubc.ca/~cdrawn. I’m enjoying playing with WordPress; it seems rather intuitive and produces a nice sleek design. I like.

Over the coming days (and weeks) I’ll be adding the basic content to this site. Check back to see what I’ve been up to, and feel free to add suggestions and comments using the Comment feature (please no mushy comments, mom — hehe).