Category Archives: Personal Updates

Summer Plans

The lack of posting lately is directly related to the influx in homework and extracurricular travel that has accompanied this semester. But classes are over in a couple weeks, and I’m planning on creating a regular schedule for posting for the summer. Give me a couple weeks to create a backlog of posts so that the system works.

This summer, I’ve decided not to take on any commitments. No school. No internships. No job. May-August will be the longest streak of unstructured time that I have had in my adult life.

Junior/senior years of high school, I had a summer job. McDonald’s and Lonestar Steakhouse. From 2006-2010, I had 5 summer internships. Hope College, Case Western, UCLA, and 2 years at the Aerospace Corporation. 2011-2013 I was working at Booz Allen. So this year will be the first time I’ve had time to myself.

The goal is to be outrageously productive in research, to compensate for the fact that I’ve had to put research on the back-burner this semester due to homework and travel. Will update as I go. We’ll be in Bloomington for most of the summer, save for a few short trips.

School Schedule

As a reference, here are the courses I have taken at IU thus far. Recall that I am doing a PhD in Decision Science and Operations Management.

Fall 2013:
Linear Optimization (1/2 semester, Kurt Bretthauer)
Integer and Nonlinear Optimization (1/2 semester, Kurt Bretthauer)
Dynamic Programming (1/2 semester, Goker Aydin)
Exploratory Data Analysis (full semester, Karen Kafadar)
Foundations of Information Systems Research (1/2 semester, Alan Dennis)
Introduction to Complex Systems (full semester, Filippo Radicchi)

Spring 2014:
Inventory Theory (1/2 semester, Gil Souza)
Supply Chain and Distribution (1/2 semester, Gil Souza)
Behavioral Operations Management (1/2 semester, Shanshan Hu)
Humanitarian Logistics (1/2 semester, Alfonso Pedraza Martinez
Game Theory (1/2 semester, Eric Rasmusen)
Asset Pricing Theory (full semester, Craig Holden)

Task Switching

As a PhD student taking classes, I have a lot of tasks to switch between and focus on throughout the day. Homeworks, projects, papers to read, textbooks to read, the internet. I feel like I lose a lot of time, energy, and willpower over-thinking what I should work on next. I wonder if I should just pre-prioritize my tasks at the beginning of each day or week, and then only go the next task once the first is finished (or I am stuck without progress). It seems like it would be a big investment to start a prioritization effort like that (setup costs and commitment costs). Maybe next week…

The blog Study Hacks has multiple discussions about productivity.