What? This week played out much like the last, allowing me to settle into more of a routine, and work out what method of working suited me best. As mentioned previously, I am sometimes prone to procrastination, and so this week I set out to manage this by creating small pockets of time between activities to force me to work.

An example of this is doing research 9:30-11 and then taking part in a study in the psychology department at 12/1. 1-2 hours is not sufficient time for me to go home, and so I was “forced” to stay in the nearby department buildings and work. Added benefits of this were that the research I had just completed was fresh in my mind, helping my writing flow as my thoughts were more coherent, and receiving compensation for the studies, motivating me to sign up and take part.

So what? This allowed my productivity to rapidly increase, as I felt obligated to work, rather than wasting time at home. Also, it allowed me to focus on both small and large tasks, as I only had limited time, so smaller tasks could be fully completed, or larger tasks could be broken down into more manageable chunks and completed in multiple parts.

One downside of this that I recognised is that sometimes I felt rushed towards the end of my gap, so I either needed to stop (making me lose my train of thought when finishing it later), or rush and potentially reduce the quality of my work. To mitigate these risks, I stopped properly working 5 minutes before I was due anywhere and took that time to roughly note down any overflowing thoughts, so that I could refer to these later.

Now what? I recognise that during term time this is not always a reliable working method, however it applies to the awkward time between lectures, so in some situations I will utilise this method. In other situations, where this is less relevant, I will apply previously mentioned strategies, such as planning out my work, and taking social breaks to improve recall and focus when needed.

Having now devised multiple strategies to enforce productivity in myself, I feel more confident both with the end of my Laidlaw Research Project, but also going into 2^nd year, where the work quantity is likely to increase. Also, these organisational strategies can be applied in the real world, not just within a university context, which may be helpful for my LiA next summer, and in a workplace.