2010 - Clutter Away!!!

In the end, smlm (Monday, a Bank Holiday dkt UK ni), I still pergi lab, tp masuk lps lunch la. Just utk amik momentum and things rolling, if anything la kan. And boy am I glad I went. At least dpt la renew overdue books, kemas kini my desktop, did some filings of my academic journals, then did a little shopping utk peralatan sekolah dan tahun baru hihi... Yg ni bkn shopping suka2, dah mmg ada budget utk pembelajaran. Even better, I got almost all of them for half price or reduced price, coz dah lps Xmas kan. Me sooo excited!




Among the stuff that I got yesterday was a 2010 Filofax idaman hati. Aku ni mmg jenis manusia x bole study tanpa benda ni. Dari masa high school lg, dah ada benda ni. Dulu2 dpt free, sekolah bg, utk catat homework. Then sampai la ke zaman undergrad, beli sendiri cap UPM lg heheh, mainly utk catat assignments and all the meetings yg kena hadir, almaklum lah, dolu2 I org kuat Majlis Tertinggi Mahasiswa Kolej (oh kenangan!). X cukup ngan tu, masuk Kelab Kompang, Kelab Gamelan, PBSM, dan ntah apa ntah lg x ingat. How else nak remember all that kan kalo x catit?

Anyway, habit tu terbawa2 la masa MSc pon, tp usually dpt planner free dah by this time sbb dah keja. Skang ni terpaksa la beli sendiri, tp no hal la. Ooo sila jgn suruh I beli BlackBerry ke, iPhone ke, PDA ke, or download free planner online ke, sbbnya I am old school and just like to leaf through my planner to see and add things to do my day, without the hassles of trying to type on a ridiculously small-sized screen and fumble mumble with the keypads or waiting for my computer to boot up before being able to check my day. Not to mention I sokmo lupa charge battery and oh, one small hurdle - I x dak duit utk di spend kat gadget itu heh :)




And then I also bought this wall calender to replace my old desk calender. This one has got 3 columns, so senang nk letak stuff for me in one column (seminar, meeting, etc), then stuff for Hubs in another column (futsal, interview) and stuff for Aisyah in the last column (check ups, playdates, etc). It comes with stickers and a pen marker utk catatan, cool eh? Whatever pon, I think it looks good on my boring wall, very colourful and ceria gitu.




I also splurged a little on stickers. Don't worry, they cost less than 1 pound coz of clearance. I intend to use them as a small reward for my effort and productivity if the day goes well. You see, these stickers have 'Well Done', 'Excellent', 'Fantastic', and 'Good' written on them. So on days when things are going great I will reward myself with a 'Fantastic' sticker and stick it in my Filofax entry for that day. They are so damn cute mmg excited tgk. So jika asyik2 dpt 'good' sahaja, or worst, x deserve pon a sticker for a number of days in a row, then bole la sit back and reflect balik why this is so and then amik corrective measures. Ok x? Hehe apo la, patutnya method ni dah bole guna kt Aisyah, tp Ibu Aisyah pon still nk main stickers2 lg... Layan kan je la... hehe...




A few days before Xmas I had bought this 'accordion' looking thing. This is actually a folder, which I use as a place to store all my journal papers. Smlm baru la sempat kemas kini all papers. I also bought coloured labels utk sort out the papers into separate fields. How do you guys organize your papers ye? Digitally, I use text file je with *.bib extension to it, stored in the standard BibTex style, nanti senang nak call drpd LyX referencing function (I've blogged about it before).




Utk physical papers plak, I write on the top right hand corner of each paper the surname of the author, followed by the year of the publication, then the first word of the title (this is much like the BibTex format jg). So it looks like this "schwarz2008_concatenative". Before I put it into the folder under the letter 'S', I stick a coloured label for this paper to indicate whether what field of study it is. I have cooked up five so far that are related to my research, which are - Concatenative Sound Synthesis (red), Feature Extraction (green), Music Perception (yellow), Speech & Linguistics (blue), and Miscellaneous (orange). So for this particular paper, it gets a red label stuck onto its top right hand corner. If you guys have a better way of filing, please let me know. Bab2 filing ni I lemah, tu yg sukacita x psl tuh hehe... But saje je share kat sini, becoz sharing is caring...




Sbnarnya lps dah siap filing tu, br perasan yg the folder tu almost full dah. Aiyo. That's only for papers tau, theses org lain yg telah dibaca simpan dalam tempat lain. Mungkin nak kena gi beli another one for every year or beli yg lbh besar n diperbuat drpd besi terus kot. But at least filing system tu dah established. Sblm ni duk letak merata dlm several piles on my desk. Skang dah stored away neatly for easy retrieval. So Happy!




This is my workstation now. It's nothing to look at, but at least x de crap atas meja dah. I think I might want to get a plant for my desk, print some newer pics of Aisyah (gmbr atas desk tu gmbr dia raya 2 tahun lps) and maybe also pot pourri or whatever girlish, to make it more homey and hopefully increase productivity (Feng Shui, Zen, semua laaaa).

Speaking of productivity, I have set new goals for 2010:

1. To increase work productivity by:

---> following agreed Daily Schedule (ni biar la rahsia dulu, x implemen lg)
---> eliminate distractions (check FB, YM, emails, blogs (yikes!) at certain intervals only)
---> utilize speed reading (spt kursus yg dah pergi itu hari, read here)
---> spend 10 minutes at the end of the day to clear up workstation and plan next day's activity


2. To rise early (e.g. up by 5 am, sleep by 11 pm)

Yg ni relate dgn yg first. The earlier I get up, hopefully the more productive my day'll be. To read on the benefits of rising early, and how to do it, click here


3. To exercize, eat healthy, lose weight and look fab!

I thought I had lost some weight not long ago, but it keeps piling back now because winter makes me overeat. Plus Aisyah dah x menyusu sekuat dulu and I don't need to pump as much as before, but I haven't reduce my caloric intake pon, tu yg contribute to the weight tu. Now I realize that indeed, I have a problem, and for a start will cut back on my portion size and snacks. And whenever I can, nak grill or roast aje la daging2, senang keja I, x yah susah payah masak, just bung it all in the oven, woo hoo!

Not only that, I plan to exercize in the morning from home (nak bgn awal kan skang? hehe). I have a gym membership card, tp x gi2 pon gym nya lately, bcoz x cukup masa. But I found this smlm, and will try to do the home circuit in the comfort of my own home. And I will try to walk more. I know I walk everywhere, sbb x de kereta, but I guess dah x de efek kot sbb hari2 buat, so I am going to choose the hilly road now or will increase my tempo (brisk walking). Several of my friends have actually declared that they have lost a lot of weight in 2009. Please oh please let 2010 be my year!


4. Save more money, and pay more debt

Oyis ada debt?!?! Ye le, sapa x de, PTPTN pon kira debt apa. So will try to pay this off more now, and hopefully savings pon bertambah jg, kot2 la nak kena extend PhD ke (after 6 months dah x de elaun dah), or jalan2 Europe pon sounds nice ;)

Ok tu je la so far. Hopefully istiqamah la new year resolution nih :)