Subtle Reminders....pangs of fear...preparing for victory

I've had more than a few big exams or presentations that I knew were "a long ways off". It's been interesting to observe in myself how the stress builds up as the date draws near. Seeing the date of my upcoming defense exam printed as the best-before-date on the coffee cream today caused some mild anxiety. Every time I opened the fridge I got a mild pang of OMFG!!! It has prompted me to finally fully commit to this preparation and stop multi-tasking it with other things. I've got 12 days to get as reviewed and fresh as I can and then just accept my fate.



What's also interesting is structured procrastination. This is the theory that you can only overcome procrastination of a hated task when you are procrastinating on something else even more important and likely more unpleasant. Since this defense is definitely the most important and scariest exam of my life, and one I'm heavily invested in both emotionally and financially, I've suddenly been thrown into high gear working on a business plan, cover letters, CV, Resume(s), filing back-taxes, and my job experience report for my P.Eng. application.

Even writing this blog is just more procrastination. The mandatory PhDcomics.com cartoons display two fears: First that I will actually end up leaving it until the last night and second is that ever-slight doubt of if my work is "good enough"?





Whoops gotta run...the Canucks game is on!