First day back

So, today wasn’t that bad.  I was actually quite productive!  Taking public transportation to work has done two things.  First, it has made it easier for me to wake up early since I don’t feel like I’m waking up early just to sit in traffic and I’m not waking up later to avoid it.  On the contrary, I’d rather be at the park-and-ride lot earlier so I don’t have to park farther away…human nature, we’d rather wake up earlier than have to walk more.  Now, if only I could get the going-to-bed-earlier part down.  Second, using public transportation has made be less stressed since I don’t have to deal with idiots on the road and traffic, which has made me more focused when I’m on campus.  But…

I could be completely wrong about all this and next week or even tomorrow, my productive streak will end.  This is what a PhD program does to you, my dear public; it causes you to qualify every statement.  Honestly, it’s hard to say what has caused this productive streak and unusual happiness (for the first day of the school year), there are insufficient data points and too many confounding variables: advisor’s first week back, advisor being in meetings all day, everyone’s first week back, catching up with everyone about their summer, having an office all to myself for the first time, the novel I’m reading (which I read on my way to/from campus), not having a lot of work to do for my advisor, the two new songs I downloaded from iTunes and have been listening to on loop for the past hour, being so close to being done with the program, having posted 17 textbooks from my quals days on Amazon today, the tasty homemade lunch I had, taking all my vitamins regularly for the past few days, the 3 days I took off from working on anything, drinking enough water, being in a place with AC instead of my sauna of a house, good episode of Grimm I watched last night, etc.  I just don’t know!!!  How will I continue being productive if I don’t know the cause of the productivity??!!!!  Or maybe the relationships go the other way, or are bi-directional!!  Maybe I’m not productive because I’m happy, but rather I’m happy because I’m productive.  Maybe that applies to drinking water too, maybe I remember to drink 8 cups of water when I’m less stressed due to being productive.  Or posted the books on Amazon because I had already finished all the work my advisor had given me for the day and made those posts before starting on my own work.  I think I feel my brain shutting down.

I guess like any good researcher, I must wait and see.  I must patiently plot my productivity throughout the coming days and make note of any other potential influences on my mood and productivity and see what it is.  Then, I will be able to bottle and sell it to other waning PhD students!

Oh!  And look at that!  I’ve made my blog post for the day!  And before midnight too!