The PhD Completion Plan

I had The Meeting on Friday afternoon.

The meeting about how I was going to finish my PhD, and get papers and a thesis out of it.

My proposed timeline does not appear to be poor judging by my supervisors' reactions. I may have given myself too much time for sample analysis, but it is more of a contingency than anything else! I am planning to enroll for another semester after this one, because as much as I would like to submit by August 31st, I have to allow for (more) delays.

Still, it would be better if I completed everything sooner rather than later.

So it looks like I'm still going to be in Sydney for another 9 months or so. Do I start looking for a new (cheaper) apartment again? A new (smaller) apartment? One that is better for my allergies (i.e. floorboards)? Can I find a place that is worth the removalist costs? Most of the time I dismiss my half-hearted apartment hunt as a form of procrastination, but I do resent how much rent I pay in order to be close to uni!

Sydney until September also means there's another City2Surf in me. I'm currently training to break 25 minutes in the 5km (I slipped back under 30min during Saturday's parkrun: 29:32), and will have the women's Nike 10km in May. So now I can continue to use running as a break from uni until August - I do tend to be goal oriented with my training... although it didn't quite work out last year!

I'm hoping that the weekly parkrun at StPeters will keep me motivated
during the lull between the 10km Nike run and the 14km City2Surf.

Image (of me!) from here.

So the grand plan for PhD completion and Running Glory:

1. Work during the day at uni
2. Hit the gym or go for a run, swim or cycle
3. Have dinner and maybe one TV show episode
4. Shower and write at night until falling asleep
5. Sleep
6. Repeat.

I suspect I'm going to rely on the exercise for sanity! :)