The Work Diary
August 24, 2009What it is: An attempt to force myself into doing more work each day by virtue of publicly shaming myself.
The details: Every day, around 7pm, I will post about what I've accomplished for the day. In order for this to work, I'm going to try to be as brutally honest about my slacking off as possible. Maybe seeing my crappy work habits in print, and knowing that friends, family, and (god forbid) coworkers will also read about my crappy work habits, will shame me into using my day more productively. Hmm, I might have to find a way to password protect these posts for the sake of my dignity in the classroom and in front of my colleagues. Then again, maybe that's incentive?
The inspiration: This lifehacker post. The Panopticon-like qualities of the simulated office made me think that maybe a little oversight and accountability are just what I need. I mean, sure, there is some long term-accountability in my line of work, and that's largely why I only manage to finish stuff right on or slightly after the deadline. But it seems like maybe accountability on a daily basis would help fight the impulse to procrastinate. At the very least, it should be an interesting case study in how graduate students learn not to work, but to be masterful time-wasters :-)