In Pursuit of Thesis: Week One

So, it's week one of the sixteen short weeks remaining in my final year of my undergraduate career. Let's just take a moment to let that one sink in. I really do sound like a broken record, but I'm truly at a loss when it comes to how little time I have left here at Syracuse.

Anyway, enough dwelling on the future. Perhaps one of my most exciting, interesting, time-consuming, and anxiety-inducing projects this semester is none other than my senior thesis. I know you're no stranger to my thesis stress (or see this post if you are), but this semester will certainly encompass all of the above emotions even more than previous ones.

Not to beat a dead horse, but with this being the last semester in college, I'm facing the challenge of extreme time management in my thesis class, not to mention my life in general. This semester has the potential to be particularly challenging due to the relatively loose structure of the class. Less a few scheduled in-class reviews, my day-to-day progress and "assignments" are almost exclusively determined by me.

Generally, I consider myself okay at managing my time...once I get into the ever-elusive "work-mode." Give me an end goal and say "Go!" and I'm usually set. Although, with the end goal being sixteen weeks away, I'm finding myself mildly overwhelmed by the tasks at hand.

Time to use my noggin...

In a sort of "Ah ha!" moment, I decided to set out weekly goals for myself. Honestly, I'm not sure how productive I'd be on a day-to-day basis without some sort of plan in mind. It's pretty common knowledge that us college kids tend to avoid doing the majority of work until a week before we have a deadline or critique. It might have took four years to get here, but I'm seriously attempting to avoid that this semester. I guess I'll just have to keep reminding myself:

Do or do not. There is no try.

- Thanks Yoda -

Attempting to organize my life...maybe I should start with my desk.

Part of my need to give myself milestones is the fact that I want to get as much as possible out of this whole thesis thing. I figure, with a semester-long design project I should learn as much as I can. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly learn Revit (a building information modeling program for architects/engineers/designers) when I had a class devoted to it. My hope is that I'll be able to get really comfortable with the program by forcing myself to use/learn it for my thesis. I'm sure it'll be frustrating, and I'm sure I'll want to go on a computer smashing rampage at least two or three times, but it'll be worth it in the end...right?

Anyway, mentally preparing myself has been a valuable first step for me so far. I'm hopeful that I'll stay on task without placing unrealistic expectations on myself - guilty as charged. Can't wait to share my progress with you as I work through this exciting project! Check back next week.

Until next time,