As this week has been the most stressful thus far, I’m offering some insight into the reasons why I don’t answer my phone, text back in a timely manner, attend social events, or do anything else really. Besides the fact I’m lazy. Here’s a typical day in the life of a doctoral student. Or maybe it’s just me.
4:02am – Coffee
4:06am – Open approximately 23 tabs of research articles and 1 word doc
4:10am – Try to figure out what I’m doing with my life
4:13am – Start typing
4:45am – Panic because I’ve forgotten where I was going with the million words crossing my mind
4:46am – Re-read everything previously written the past 32 mins
5:01am – Silence the alarm for the time I used to wake up before I decided to go back to school
5:02am – Panic again because the realization has set in I only have 58 more mins to type before I have to wake up mini
5:18am – Close one word doc and open another because I’m an idiot with overlapping classes
5:31am – Silence the alarm for the time I used to get up, back when mini didn’t go to school and I had a conscious thought process
5:42am – Check the due dates and put my head on the desk
5:43am – Sigh loudly, drink the coffee that’s now gone cold, and rethink my life choices
5:45am – Frantically type 250 more words in order to feel good about the perception I’ve done absolutely nothing the past 2 hours
6:00am – Contemplate requesting leave for the next 3 years until school is done
P.S. something terrible happened this past weekend and a file I had been working on went corrupt…kaput…a big middle finger to hours of work. No recovery software could save it. Alas, I cried. A lot. No one warned me I would be so emotional.
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I ask you –
Sorry. I have no questions. I’m typing this at an indecent hour because I totally forgot I hadn’t edited anything for the blog this week and I would feel bad for letting my readers down if I didn’t at least try to post something. So here it is. Something. You’re welcome.
(The post Anatomy of Paper Writing first appeared here at Running on Fumes.)
© 2022 Running on Fumes
Running on Fumes 
Do you use OneDrive or Google Drive to back your stuff up? Curious for you and for me. I’ve had files on my hard drive go kaput, but I have yet to have one commit cyber suicide. If file cyber suicide is a thing, I might have to start making multiple copies of EVERYTHING school-related to be safe…
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I have a personal onedrive (which is where my doc was when it disappeared). I also have my school’s onedrive – I back up there now, too. Finally, I use a flashdrive, as well. I’m not taking any chances anymore.
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Yup. Gonna start backing stuff up everywhere.
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I’ll have 14 copies of the same thing but at least I’ll have one usable copy in case shit hits the fan.
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