Procrastination is my friend. To make it less friendly, I have a new method of getting things done.

So you all know that I am in the death throes of this phd. And there are lots of things that need to be done in order to complete this degree. In order to make it clear, I made another pie chart. I may be slightly addicted to these now.

To help me manage all of these things, I have found a super awesome tool that has gamified my life. It's called Habit RPG. I love it for many reasons, which I have totally detailed in (shocked face) another pie chart along with reasons you should join too.

For example, I grabbed a screen shot of my task list a little bit earlier today. There are four columns. In order, they are Habits, Dailies, To-Dos, and things you can buy with gold/spells to cast. The colors mean different things. Blue means I've been really good at keeping up with something in the Habits and Dailies columns. The grey in the Dailies column means I've done it for that day already. The red in the To-Dos means that that has been there for a while.
When I check things off, I get xp, gold, and sometimes loot. The loot is usually in the form of pet eggs, potions, or food for the pets. It's been incredibly motivating and fun to play with. I highly recommend it for keeping yourself on track and getting things done. ESPECIALLY with all the fiddly things I need to do to make sure I get this PhD done on time. I've used it for getting results, for writing sections of papers and my dissertation, for remembering to send things to my advisor/committee members, to apply for my degree... anything you need to remember to do can be put on your list of to-dos. And then you get to check it off. AND THEN YOU GET GOLD. I mean, that is just awesome.

Like I said above, I've been recommending it to everyone. It's an open source work in progress, and the tireless volunteers are working hard to add features and fix bugs. Once I have some free time, I plan to contribute to the site. It's been that helpful.

Bonus picture of Lois and a puppy dog:

My orchid bloomed, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Last year sometime, Jeremiah bought me an orchid. It was big and pretty and covered in blooms. I put it on my desk and appreciated the heck out of it. I think it felt my appreciation and used it in place of water because I am bad at plants.

Well all the blooms fell off eventually, as happens. The poor orchid sat, bloomless and neglected all winter. I watered it every once in a while, when I remembered.

Imagine my surprise when this happened:

The orchid made it! Who knew?! Apparently it should now bloom for most of the summer and I should repot and fertilize it in the fall. If it survives the move.

Speaking of moving, moving is contingent on graduating. And graduating is why I have grey hair. Well, actually I have grey hair because Lois seems to thing flinging herself off things is fun and games, And I think it's an exercise is mass-production for my adrenaline glands. So far, so good, she hasn't seriously hurt herself. Yet.

This is a short post because I have dissertating to do. I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting, and you may get some short posts. Short but witty. Or short and boring. I guess that's an individual thing. In other news, I saw this somewhere and I like it. Therefore I share. You are welcome.

Pie charts are my friend but I'd like them a LOT better if they were actual pie.

Reasons I have not updated this blog:

Reasons I now want to update this blog:

Also: Jeremiah hates the map song from Dora. "I'm the map, I'm the map, he's the map, he's the map, I'M THE MAP!" So just now, being the kind and understanding partner I am, I tried to get Lois to sing it. It didn't quite work... she only spend the next 5 minutes going  "Map map map map mapmapmapmap."

Jeremiah thanked me for teaching Lois a new skill. I'm not sure he was sincere.