Originally published on eve.gd on 4 September 2012.
Read this post on the web (with images, PDF and citation details)
With less than a week until my Ph.D. viva, I've been taking everyone's advice to heart and not going completely nuts on the revision. After all, I do know this stuff pretty damn well. Anyway, just so I remember what I did this week, I wanted to make a public note of it (probably of more use if, after the event itself, I can say it worked...)
My thesis is broken down into three distinct themes, or sections. For each of those themes, I selected a critical work (usually an introduction to the scheme of thought) that I thought was closest to my stance; refresher material. I also selected a couple of general critical works that I just enjoyed and think resonate closely with my work to get back into the swing of things.
Saturday: Read thesis, read book #1
Sunday: Read book #2, afternoon off
Monday: Read book #3, book #4
Tuesday: Read book #5, annotate thesis
Wednesday: Day off [I'm sitting on an arthritis research UK interview panel]
Thursday: Day off [I have to do my methotrexate injection. Ugh.]
Friday: annotate thesis [planning to re-check the footnotes that I've now forgotten ("for more on X see Y" -- what did "Y" say again?!)]
Saturday: bit more thesis re-reading, afternoon off
Sunday: bit more thesis re-reading, afternoon off
I'm also trying to exercise for at least 40 minutes every day, alternating between a hard workout and a gentler one every other day.