Boop

Hi! I started this week with a plan to follow a strict schedule. I have intense times approaching so, that was my suggested solution for getting plenty of my study tasks done, while keeping stress at bay. As long as tasks are being ticked off, I will feel better. Also if I do not have the time to feel anything I will not get very stressed. It does require decisive actions, and demands that decisiveness all the time. That takes a kind of resource that I do not have an abundance of, unfortunately. However, it has been going well in general but today I am taking this evening a little more relaxed to relieve tension from my mind.

I have managed about 9-10 hours of study and work combined on Monday and Tuesday. It is a bit less than what my schedule requires, potentially (also considering I am not focusing so well), but I cannot talk it down, I think I did a good job. Today I was a bit slower to move from task to task, so I managed only about 6 hours. That is sub optimal. I will still try to get in another hour of study (I did! That is the time lapse on the right).

Other than productivity, I have tried the take-away meals sold in the uni cafeteria- they were quite yummy! I will certainly try more of them during future lunches~ They look very appetizing too! I had a chicken Ceaser salad and a feta-mango-full grain something salad?

And once again the semester has begun. I was rather anxious the weekend before, trying to schedule everything in a way that was possible to achieve. It is the first time in my uni life during which I am trying to juggle both work and studies simultaneously. Thankfully the work is very flexible with weekly hours. To keep up with a full calendar, I am now trying to optimize my planner weekly spread, I don't think I have found the right way yet, but we will get there.

I would like to be able to say that the first week started strong but at the same time I am not so sure. I have studied more than I usually have at this stage, but at the end of the week, I already feel behind. My focus was not the best, maybe I can try to improve that to catch me up in the second week.

Aside from studying and working, I have tried to put attention to resting and recharging in the best way. I had already been trying to regularise my sleep times for the last couple of weeks, and I think it is going well. I am also trying to engage with hobbies that I like more (instead of watching videos, shorts etc.), and I think that helps me to feel refreshed. One thing that I had a hard time with was reading though, I don't like reading off of digital screens, and I couldn't find the motivation to read much. So recently I bought lotsa physical books with interesting looking blurbs. I found them all at a good deal too, 1-2 eur each! So now I am reading more, walking out more, and writing in my common place more~ I feel quite happy about all that + reading is a good before-sleep activity. Below is a picture of the books (and a very valuable fluffer).

And here is a picture of my common place. I recycled a couple months worth of pages from my Hobonichi journal (I had bought it for tracking cooking and exercise, but ended up not using it much after all- now I know!). I don't usually decorate the pages of my journal, but I thought that "May" dating on a page about autumn didn't look so well~

Firstly, I'd like to share this small progress I've made on watercolours! I recently picked up traditional drawing again, and am learning techniques. This week I tried wet-on-wet and I really enjoy its softness. Still wanted to add definition with coloured pencils though.

These past two weeks in the lab was spent doing protein purification and concentration in larger scale than before. Unfortunately at the end though, I am confused about how well that went. We used three methods for determining concentration but they all gave different values - my take away is that it is relatively low, at around 2.5-3 µg/µl. I should figure out what amount to report.

This week I was significantly less motivated and under the weather, but got through it with good results on protein expression (better than last week!) which means that we can continue to do protein purification in the next couple of weeks - excited!

The weekend also brightened the mood with a family gathering at the summer cottage. Found a four-leaf-clover, chased frogs and bugs with my 5 yo cousin and had yummy blueberry pie! Lovely way to end a week.

The last two weeks were the first weeks of my internship at a microbio lab! My supervisor and everybody at the lab are friendly and welcoming - I learned to find materials for working, correctly disposing of various types of wastes, using lab tools, and following and executing protocols. As is expected, not everything went perfectly smoothly but even if I messed up samples, my supervisor was encouraging :-)

The labs are spacially a little confusing for me, somehow I often walk past doors and need to go back - but I am getting used to that as well. Appropriately there are plenty of memes printed and pasted around various places:

Other than that I also finally did the differential calculus exam after putting off for months. I did not use my time well to study for it unfortunately, and consequently did bugger all in the exam. At least it is done and out of the way. The lovely flowers and sunny weather made up for the sullied mood after the exam :-)

20/100 Days of Productivity

7/100 Days of Productivity

2/100 Days of Productivity