My Goals for 2020

Courtesy of PhDComics.com
It's okay, I don't plan on graduating this year anyway

Personal Goals

• Blog - If you remember this blog was originally started as a class assignment but I've decided I'd actually like to invest time into it and keep it going
• Post at least once a week
• Create a content schedule
• Personally tweet more, not just retweet content
• I signed up to curate for the #RoCurs @RealScientists and @IAmSciComm
• Also be personal in my tweets
• See my tweet thread below - I got personal about the slump I went through in 2018 and honestly, it was hard to open up so publicly like that

[Thread] I've been having conversations with a lot of other grad students lately about that third year slump. Did you experience it? When? How'd you get through it? I'll tell you about mine if you tell me about yours. #PhDLife #PhDChat #AcademicChatter pic.twitter.com/h5kk8ylW9y

— Caitlyn Cardetti (@CaitlynCardetti) January 10, 2020

• Keep reading - I've been really good at this especially with listening to audio books on my commute
• Journal more
• Get back into running - I fell off in November
• I currently signed up for the 2020 Long Island Winter Run series which involves four 5ks over the next few Sundays, I've already completed one
• Get back into yoga - I fell off this in November too, can I blame it on my thesis proposal?
• I will rejoin my weekly Monday class starting in February
• Keep a budget
• I started observing my spending last year by manually writing everything down, I'll keep doing this because it makes me highly aware of where my money goes
• I will cut back my spending on coffee out by limiting myself to one Starbucks run per week and by making cold brew at home (recipe to come in future post)
• Exception: I'm allowed to purchase coffee out in the following situations: coffee date with my SO or a friend, if I physically stay at the coffee shop and relax or do some writing (hoping this also serves as motivation to keep up with writing)
• Pay off some debt
• Learn more about finances in general through pfforphds.com 
• Learn some new recipes
• I have a whole list but I want to start with Yakamein (this is the recipe I want to try)
• Try the group led meditation on campus - this has been on my to do list for awhile, I just need to make time to go

PhD-Related Goals

• Theme my days to increase productivity
• Be better about keeping my lab notebook updated - my labmate is graduating soon and has been reminding me that I must keep proper notes now or I'll suffer later
• Get a fellowship
• I plan to apply for the F31 April deadline
• If that doesn't work out, I will apply for F99/K00 and/or AAUW Dissertation Fellowship
• Submit an abstract to present at a conference
• Get into a regular writing practice
• I think theming my days will help with this
• I will focus on writing fellowships in the spring
• In the fall, I will focus on writing introduction chapters for my dissertation and hopefully a publication 
• Take 1 course each semester towards an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Data and Computational Science
• If possible (depends on finances, timing and acceptance), attend CSHL writing retreat (date not currently posted but likely in fall)
• Learn protein purification - this is already in progress (see photo below)

Me getting to work on those 2020 goals

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