Finding of the week #126

The importance of a quiet and comfortable workplace

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the importance of a good workplace in order to be productive.

Writing is a very demanding task as the author has to be fully focussed on the writing process in order to convert the own thoughts into written passages. Structuring and experessing the own knowledge is very demanding for the human brain as it has to extract the meaning and finally to express it in an understandable way. Furthermore, the demand for brain power increases when the topic becomes more complex and/or abstract as it is mostly the case in scientific writing. For the purpose of productive writing, it is absolutely necessary that the brain can fully focus on the task and does not get distracted by other events taking place around the writer. Moreover, the writer himself should feel comfortable as feeling not well can result in a reduced concentration.

In this case, it is very important to have a quiet and comfortable workplace in order to be productive. In general, a good workplace will increase the productivity as the author will not be distracted by other events and thus can fully concentrate on the writing without being in danger of losing focus. In such a productive environment, the writer can dive into the work and potentially get into some kind of flow that will keep him motivated to continue the writing process.

However, it is very easy to lose focus while writing as even the smallest distraction can reduce the required amount of brain power and disturb the process. In other words, a phone call, a playing radio or even a loud noise can disturb the writing process as the brain will automatically allocate some brain power to analyze the event. In this case, it is necessary to eliminate all potential distractions at the workplace in order to be productive.

Unfortunately, I had some issues with my workplace during the last weeks and thus all my scientific writing came to an abrupt hold. Normally, I can keep my workplace quiet and I feel very comfortable sitting at my desk. However, both conditions were no longer met during the last weeks as my region experienced a very hot summer period and thus my workplace was everything but comfortable. Aside from the heat, the silence of my workplace was disturbed by two large excavators that were demolishing the building on the other side of the street.

A noisy workplace

A noisy workplace

It might be true that science will never sleep, but science can be disturbed by unforeseen events …

Finding of the week #92

Winter solstice

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the winter solstice and the fact that the data gathering phase of one of my research projects is over.

Half a year ago, I wrote about Midsummer–the longest day in the northern hemisphere of our Earth[1]. At the summer solstice, the northern part of our Earth experiences the longest exposure to the sunlight during a whole year. At the exact same date, the southern part of our Earth experiences the shortest day of a year–the winter solstice. The reason behind this phenomen lies in the tilt of the rotation axis of the Earth relative to its orbital plane around the Sun. During one year–or an orbit around the Sun–the tilted rotation axis is causing the difference in the exposure to the sunlight.

Now, half a year after the first article, everything is flipped around. The Earth completed half of an orbit around the Sun and the northern hemisphere will experience the winter solstice tomorrow. In other words, the northern hemisphere has the longest night and the shortest day on December 21st. Regions north of the Arctic Circle will not have sunlight at all. These regions are now experiencing the polar night, because the Sun will not raise above the horizon. Moreover, it is the beginning of winter and this is hopefully resulting in freezing temperatures and a lot of snow!

Happy winter solstice everyone!

Schneeberg

Schneeberg

Apart from the announcement of this special day during a year, I do have also other great news to share: the data gathering phase of one of my research projects is over. This week, I conducted a final test in order to determine possible positive effects of playing a particular computer game. Of course, the research project itself is not over yet. Now, I have to analyze the data and to write a paper about the results. Although this will result in a lot of work, it is still a nice feeling of having finished the most essential part of a research project.

My very first paper

It was during the first half of April as my professor gave me a link to a call for papers for a workshop at the 43rd annual German conference on informatics[1]. At this time, the deadline was already very short. If I remember correctly, only one or two weeks were left. Altough it seemed very unlikely to finish until the end of the deadline, I started to write a paper just for training purposes. I finished the first version about a week later and mailed it to my professor to get some feedback.

It turned out that it was already more than just a training and it could have enough potential to be submitted to the conference. Fortunately, the deadline for the submission was postponed and we had enough time to improve my paper. Finally, it was good enough to give it a try and I submitted it. Unfortunately, I’ve done a terrible mistake in the process.

Several weeks later, the reviews were finished and I recieved the news that my paper was accepted. However, it needed a huge overhaul until the final print version could be submitted.

Writing my very first paper was an interesting experience and I’ve learnt a lot during this time. The majority of the gained experience however came from the mistakes I’ve done. Most of them were caused by the small amount of time (for me as a paper-writing-beginner) to write the paper. The other ones were caused by the fact that this was my very first paper and I haven’t done anything like this before. On the other side, I’m now prepared for future papers and have an idea how I’ll approach them.

However, my very first paper procedure isn’t fully completed yet. It was a paper for a workshop at the conference on informatics and thus the results have to be presented. That’s it, what I’m going to do tomorrow! I’ll head off to Koblenz today and finally have a short presentation tomorrow morning. When I’m finished with it, I’ll have survived my very first paper procedure from the beginning until the very end.

Veröffentlicht unter Ph.D

Working while traveling

As already mentioned in the previous blog post I was traveling to Northern Norway. But the stay on the Lofoten was not only vacation: I’ve also managed to work on my literature review for my Ph.D. At first I was not sure if I can manage to do both things the same time: enjoying the stay on the Lofoten and doing serious work. In retrospective I can now say it worked perfectly!

I managed to work on my computer while waiting for the next flight, during a flight and of course every evening. All in all it was a nice mix between relaxing in the amazing landscape and doing serious stuff: Being out in the nature helps me a lot to order my thoughts. I was mostly energized after we returned from an excursion to continue my work.

Due to the internet I even was able to search for some new papers and to do some additional internet research. I really enjoyed the concept of being able to work without having a lot of restrictions because I was abroad. Actually I managed to write the first version of my exposé.

Although I would define my work as „glocal“ it is nice being at my own desk again. On the other hand I miss the awesome landscape …

Veröffentlicht unter Ph.D

Master of Arts and a Ph.D advisor!

My master certificate arrived last week. I can now officially call myself master of arts! What an achievement! Wohoo!

Ok, back to serious business (and of course even more great news!): I found my Ph.D advisor! After a short meeting last year just before christmas, he told me the great news during a long phone call on january 18th. He told me also about the long and complicated path to the Ph.D again.
So, if I start to worry about my Ph.D and all the work I have to do, I need to remind myself of only one thing and only one date: It was my own decision on january 18th. No complaints!

Right now I’m trying to get a clear structure into my Ph.D research project so I can make a short run-through with my doctoral advisor and finally begin with my research.

Today, like Sheldon in the great Big Bang Theory episode „The vacation solution“ I took some hours off and had some interesting insight in biological work. I even pestled some dried lichen. Fortunately nothing was broken afterwards …

Chemistry

Soxhlet extractor (or as I would call it, the „Giant Lichen Coffee Maker“)