Blog post updates

Dear guests,

As I have not been actively posting for almost a year now, I recently checked this page and very honored to see that the blog is getting views from various places. My life changed a lot since last year and as a first year PhD student, I am very motivated to keep this blog going as part of my personal development. Since I am a full-time PhD student now, even though most of my blogs will be mainly on research, I am highly motivated in working with industrial collaborators and therefore will continue to post both about industry and academia. I have a very challenging and honoring 4 years ahead, however, the reality is only approximately 10% of PhD students find permanent positions in universities. For this reason, once again, I will be doing as much as both I can to have chances in both in a professional career.

I will be posting every Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

Once again thank you for following my blog.

Structuring a day on a long period time off

I am at a very special phase in my life. I recently married and moving on to a new life soon. I quit my full time job 2 months ago and working freelance for same company. I quit job to have sometime for myself and complete the paper work and necessary steps before I move on to my new life. I roughly counted how long I have until I can start a new job and it looks like I have 60 days to move to my new home and another 90 days until I can start working, which adds up to 150 days approximately. During this time line there are a few things I want to accomplish since I have plenty of time and not sure when I will be such free ever again. From today onward here is how I will be structuring my week day.

- 1 hour studying for a test I like to take for my career - personal goal
- 1 hour working on scientific papers - I have 3 lined up and I would like to submit them all before I start with full time job
- 1 hour for PhD and job applications - this usually takes a lot less but I would like to include writing a proposal and sometime to think about cover letters
- 1 hour of walking - it is very easy to stay in because of laziness
- Keeping track of my days
- Motivate myself - having plenty of time can lead to feeling useless so even if it is a few minutes, I'd like to think about how far I've come.
- Last but not least work for my freelance job - there are days I have to work 8 hours and there are days I do not work at all so this point is unlimited

The reason I wanted to make a simple TO-DO list without tiring and bother myself much is because I believe most precious thing we have is time and unfortunately we cannot store it or go back in time.

How to use free time wisely

Lately, I have a lot of time for myself since I am working freelance and wrapping up my life to start a new adventure. One struggle with having an unlimited time is that when you have a lot you want to do but you feel like you are not using your time effectively.

Here are some tips helping me to get through the day.

1. List down plans

It can be reading books, writing a paper, taking a test for certification or anything you've been putting off for when you'll have time. Be realistic, if you have limited amount of time off, plan accordingly to not overwhelm yourself, and also to not disappoint yourself. No matter what the reason is you have time off, take it also to enjoy your free time, life can get very tricky once you get busy.

2. Make a list of things you like to on free time

I believe this is as important as writing down your goals. If there are some books you'd like to finish or some serials you'd like watch make a list of these.

3. Define time slots

Now that you have 2 list, one for leisure and one for goals, see how you'd like to shape your day. Try to use a percentage like 40%-60%. 60 % of your time you put to your goals (min) and 40% of your time you can put into leisure.

4. Be flexible

Working throughout the day can be exhausting or you may be disrupted. Allow yourself some time to switch around.

5. Use time wisely

It is very easy to waste time when you have plenty of time. By planning right, and managing your time wisely, it could be a life building time.

How freelancing job affected my life style?

Soon I have to re-locate and change continents. For this reason I quit my full time job 5 weeks ago. I was responsible for two 60 000 square meter projects, for this reason I spoke with my manager 2 months before the date I was expecting to quit.

I learned from embassy that it will take me approximately 6 months to get work authorization in this new place. Assuming I will find a good job in 3 months, I have 9 months of free time. I have been independent way too long and thinking I will not have any financial and career income didn't make me feel good. For this reason I asked my manager if he would be supporting me to work freelance on one of this projects. This was a very risky decision. In an industry job sometimes project conditions change few times a day. I know myself pretty well and I was confident enough that I will be able to handle whatever is needed.

Here are the major changes that happened;

1. My concentration improved

This was something I expected pretty much. I made myself a small home-office in my parents flat. I just assign myself a task for the day and depending on importance, if it needs to be done in work hours, I structure my day around it. This affected also my productivity.

2. I started enjoying life

This was again something I was expecting but was a little worried that I would have to work less productively. Once I know what to do for each day, I know how much time I have for myself.

3. Emotional balance

Emotions effect concentration and productivity in my case. I am a lot calm now and hopeful for my goals.

4. Time management

Now I have time to go out and have fun, take care of myself and keep moving forward in my career and long term goals.

5. Personal Improvement

Time management has a huge impact on this point. I have plenty of time to read books I've been keeping off for awhile. I am starting new hobbies, walking as much as I can.

After experiencing this adventure only for 5 weeks, I am highly motivated to support that we need more freelance jobs and give people life style flexibility.

Gym Visits 3 Times a Week as an Office Employer

I am an engineer and I chose to work at an office. This literally means, sitting 8 hours a day. We all know how dangerous it is to sit for a very long time. We all know it is the new smoking. There are some solutions like stand-up desks or replacing office chairs with pilates balls. Lets come to the reality. How many of offices actually support those? Even if they do, most of us feel very embarrased to use those. Short term effects of "sitting too long" starts with back and body pains. We try to increase blood circulation outside work hours.

I wanted to get a gym membership this year to get in shape for my wedding and also to lose the 10kgs I still have from the time of my master's degree from Texas (yes, everything was big there and I never regret it).

Here's is what happened after I started going to the gym;

1. I no longer have back pain

I mainly do cardios and it is enough to sweat off the "poison". I believe this is one of my biggest gain because I suffer a lot from back pain.

2. I feel happy

Not only because of the increase of endorphine, but knowing that I did something for myself made me a better person.

3. Reduced stress

No matter how easy life is for you, we all have stress on daily basis with different intensity. After a tough day, tiring my body makes me a better person and I have good energy for the loved ones at home.

Whatever it is you like to do, just set a side 3-4 hours a week for yourself and you will see your life changing in every way.

4 Reasons why we need a side job?

As you know I am currently working as a structural engineer in a design firm. It is my full time job and I make a good enough salary. Besides this, I am conducting research as time allows. There are a few things I wish I could do on daily basis and sometimes it is not possible.

I describe a side job as an ending project that increases excitement. If it is boring and "I have to do it", it is more of an assigned job. A side project should add something to both your social and professional career in my opinion.

The idea of a side job might mean;

1. An extra earning

Why not earn a little extra cash and save it for summer vacation? Or even something smaller like a present for yourself. Yes, but buying yourself that go-pro you always wanted.

2. Useful hobby

If you describe a side project like me, it will eventually increase your creavity.

3. Time management

By doing a side job, you can find a better work-life balance to increase your productivity.

4. A back-up plan

You never know what happens in life. You may have saving and plan B or even C but once shit hits the fan, it at least psychologically takes some time. Once you have something you can rely on financially and as a habby, this will make the situation easier until you make a realistic plan and take action.

Even though currently my only financial income is through my full time job, I am trying to add something to myself everyday that I can start using as a side job.

I turned my work e-mail notification off for two weeks and here is what happened

I started my professional career as a workaholic. My first few weeks I was very motivated and satisfied with work and environmental conditions. I was working long hours during the week and I would even go to work a few hours on Saturdays. As a new graduate I didn’t have too much responsibility but whatever I was given, I tried to do my best and work my way through. After I a month I was given responsibility of coordination between the firm in USA we are working for and internal coordination. I was doing my best passing on information to right group of people at the right time. I added the email to my phone, had the notification on.

One disadvantage of working with a firm across the ocean is time difference. They would send an email during their work day and it would be midnight in our time zone. And I learnt this the hard way, no, not all emails are nice. Sometimes they would send you an email that would really give you trouble. I did lose few nights of sleep because of that. After I decided to quit that firm, I deleted my e-mail account from my phone and didn’t care about anything after work hours or during the weekend.

I started working with similar excitement in my current firm. The e-mail traffic is not too bad however, internal emails can be a little too much sometimes. I decided to turn off emails from my phone and turn off the notification from my computer. Guess what, it was a smart decision after all. Sometimes if I concentrate on a task, I don’t even check my emails for couple of hours. I strongly believe emails are not for urgent tasks. Everyone I work closely with has my phone number. Instead of writing an email they can just ring me and check how I am doing.

As a conclusion, it is one of the smartest decisions I ever took. This helps me keep my concentration high when I am working on a complicated task and I don’t ruin my personal time by worrying about something I cannot control at that point.