Current Affairs ....

Looking back this week regarding the PhD ... not much done actually. It was not a good idea somehow to cancel the lab meeting on Thursday morning. I was not "forced" to present some results. It was a great opportunity again to procrastinate on this project. Yes, I did the protein networks for the mouse, but as I had created quite a system for this it was easily done. By the way, my supervisor hasn't said anything to the results yet *sniff*. So, what are the next steps then?

The gene expression data from Kate focusing on Macrophages looks quite interesting. I am concerned about the value of this approach as mouse PPI data, especially for the endocytosis process, are not enough of quantity so far. But I would like to give it a try, to get some analysis data for my thesis. That means I have to do some mapping again. So, let's find a way to find the connection between the GEO project GSE10246 (I like this number) and Entrez GeneIDs.

Also it would be good to get the third chapter of my thesis going. Not much context so far. Ok, to be honest nothing so far ... still just the mindmap. If there wouldn't be all these other much more interesting projects in my ToDo list. The possible outcome of all the other projects excites me more than this PhD. What is the goal again? Hello ... where are you? Is it just because of the title? Who cares about this network thingy I am doing? ... Ok, I assume that's always like this with research. Just keep going now.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

As I have told a couple of blogs ago, I am back with ThinkingRock. There are some pro and conts, like for any tool and toy. The Pros are that I have things every time with me on my USB stick. So far, wherever I am, there is a computer ... so all good. Of course, I am still carrying my notebook with me. First of all to make notes and second to track my expenses. I might need another strategy for this one. Another thing I like with TR is, it creates all recurrent tasks by itself. That's THE advantage to offline tools – automatisation.

What I am struggling with is the Context feature. I am still not sure for what it is useful. Ok, I actually haven't read David Allen's book “Get things Done”, but Stephane tried to explain it already several times. But no nice way came to my mind. It is a bit annoying as it splits the sorting function. I definitely will have to rethink this feature and make it useful for me.

Before TR I had the strategy to work on a specific project on a specific day. As I couldn't already manage this before jumping onto TR, now it might be even more trickier. As soon as I get an email regarding one specific topic, I can't wait until the day for this project arrives and process it then. What do you think? And also how much details would you put into TR regarding actions and projects. As I want to empty my mind immediately, I would put things down as detailed as possible. Otherwise I keep thinking about it or even forget it and I would lose information.

Yes, in summary I am still in the testing phase, but looking forward to get the projects moving.

Each day now the fight about the PhD. No enthusiasm left. But what can I do? It would be quite stupid to stop now. Now that I am using ThinkingRock, I write down every idea I have and do it step by step. That are really baby steps. Rohan, my supervisor, also mentioned 2 weeks ago, I should start writing my third chapter of the thesis. What I have done so far is a MindMap, better than nothing, right?

No one said it will be easy. I don't make it myself even easy with all the other projects I am running next to it. So, what can I do to make it happen?

- I have to keep meeting Rohan on a regular basis.
- I have to ask the right questions.
- Get the notes down on paper and straight into TR.
- Brainstorm the third chapter. Actually start writing it. It will never be perfect anyway.
- Try to concentrate for 20min ... remove any distraction (email, twitter, etc.)
- Just do it.

Regarding the concentration, it could be still the issue coming from my thyroid. The lower dosage of hormone supplements is apparently not enough to have the energy level as an average normal person. But I need this energy to focus and concentrate.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Yes, interest and the right persons around me would make it easier as well. I see it right now as a time waster. My interest is somewhere else, same for goals and applied strategies. I see the PhD as a job I have to get done. Then I can follow my dream fulltime, hehe.

Change in the organisation ...

So, yesterday I have decided to change my personal project management. I am stepping back from the offline agenda to Thinking Rock (TR). It is a software I have used a year ago, but never really made to get into it. I will give it another go, as they give it significant changes and I am ready to use it fully, for business and PhD.

During the last couple of weeks I still made my notes for the PhD completely out of my range. Now I will and can force myself to make the notes (thoughts) directly in TR. This way I will see them every day. I have to admit I am not daily at Uni, but why should I. I can work from everywhere, as long as I have internet connection.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Just yesterday was such a day, where nothing went as planned. And if you knew me, you would know how grumpy I can become. So, I just stepped back from the things I had on my list and re-structured everything. In such situation I just do things which are out of any logic. This way I came back to TR again. I know that Apple offers more flexible toys, but I don't have the capacity yet. Don't worry, I am on my way to play with such toys soon *evil*.

This morning the daily activities keep me busy and I should do my PhD stuff. I love to do them, as they give me quite some value and I see more opportunities coming up. But I will have to be more strict on it. 10min for every "Gadget" has to be enough. The network will grow, slowly but strongly.

That was easy to say for my supervisor, to get some gene expression data from another group and then we visualize them in Cytoscape. Sounds easy and is easy, but ... my protein-protein network I have worked on so far is a human one. The gene expression data of interest are done in mouse, hehe.

Ok, I've decided to get the homologues between the two organisms from Homologene and just create the same network just for mouse. We have to be precise with this one. Although mouse and human have 80% of their genome in common ... I still prefer to get things right here. All this means I will have to do a lot of mapping again. Will see, if there are enough PPI data for mouse out there, otherwise we really have to assume high similarity between human and mouse. Will see what APID will spit out ;o)

I am also happy that I have finally fixed the XML issue we had on our download page of LOCATE. The XML schema is still not perfect, but at least there shouldn't be any issue anymore in the XML for mouse and human. I really took the time to go through the schema and tried to understand it. I think I got it. At least I understood so much, that I could fix something.

So, you can see I did some work for my PhD. Nice way to report it *whew*.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

As I am running several projects at the same time, I will hopefully get a quiet minute over the weekend to get things structured. I cannot jump from one project to the other. It is not good for the project itself, neither for me. Yesterday I got a bit knock down with plenty of headache. Drinking of 1.5L of water was not enough. I had to take some painkillers. And people who know me, know how much I hate that. Anyway, feeling better today with a clear mind after an evening without screen in front of me.

MyJuicer has reached another level, after we have put the sales letter online. We really have to get the keywords right. There is no point to get visitors from the US as we only supply Australia. BoutiqueWineries needs a bit of a kick as well. I think we all have to learn from outsourcing some projects. As soon as they overlap, it delays the progress. And we want to have the new website online as soon as possible. Fingers crossed. My project to find a new hosting service for InformationProfessionals is a bit struggling. This paper work is quite painful. Let's get this structured with nice procedures ... and all will be good.

the change of habit challenge ... trial 2

And it didn't became a habit ... I did write for some weeks almost every second day about thoughts, plans, up and downs and all this usual stuff. Two weeks ago I procrastinated, day after day and now here I am. I didn't miss it and I didn't feel any urge to write. Do I have nothing to say? Maybe ...

I cannot say that something unusual happened during the last weeks. There is still the pressure for the thesis and still the driving force to be active in BoutiqueWineries, MyJuicer and InformationProfessionals. Maybe I could blame Twitter? ... Nice try, right?

So, yeah, I don't really have a reason for not writing, but do I have a reason to write? YES, because there is still the dream to write a book one day. And for this adventure I have to learn to write. I will take this opportunity to re-start, re-focus and re-think the strategy. I need topics. What could I tell the reader about? What do they want to read? What value could I give them? About one value I am pretty sure already, and that are Markus' pictures. He uploaded plenty of new pics ... this resource is secure for the next coming weeks. So, let's make a plan.
Yep, I came up with some points. (And hopefully a lot of points are missing!) Most of them developed during the last couple of months. As you can see Passion and Purpose are the ones I still have to figure out. Stephane made me start thinking of them. I was not really aware of these two before or I didn't really pay attention. I can see now that passion and purpose are determined for every human being. We just have to figure it out what it is. What also opened my eyes is being part of XL. I still enjoy having the right people around me.

I can see lots of ideas are coming up for some blog entries. Let's rock it!

How to handle routine in your life ...

As soon some activity becomes routine in a human life it can be automatized. The question is, do you want it be automatized and out of your mind?

• You pay weekly/monthly your rent? You could set it up with your bank that the money is transferred automatically on a regular basis.
• You are traveling very often? Create a list with a spreadsheet, with all things on it you need everytime you travel. Such things could be your laptop, toothbrush or your favourite business shirt. So you just need to print the list before packing and tick off the item you put into your trolley. Quickly done and nothing has been forgotten.
• Accounting or bookkeeping are such activities which come up regularly and are not the most exciting tasks, at least for most of us. However, there are people out there who love to do it. The option here is to outsource these things. A virtual assistant might has already set up a nice system and is just waiting for you to get it done. Think about it.

I am not a big fan of routine tasks, but we can't avoid all of them. However, for some people it might be could to follow a daily/weekly routine. That is there way to get things done. That might be even the majority of people.

Photo Courtesy of Markus Brosch

Also, if you want to be more aware of things in life, it might be better to set up some routine procedures. Especially when it comes to regular payments. Getting out of debt is a great goal and achievable, when you keep track of your incoming and outgoing money. I love handling my bank accounts online. But at least once a month I sit down and follow things up. This way I am aware of any transaction happened. I also have set up my own balance sheet ala Robert Kiyosaki in his CashFlowGame. This way, I learn on what I have to focus more ... income!

Yes, you give some control away when you outsource things and automatize procedures. At the end it is up to you if you can trust the virtual world and save some time.

How many baskets do you have ?

The current financial crisis changed a lot of people's life. Yesterday rich ... today one in the 90% of the population that own 10% of the money. One way to avoid such a incident is to have your eggs in several baskets. If you invest only into the stockmarket your future depends on the stockmarket ... quite risky. So, why not creating several different streams of income ... coming from completely different areas. It could be network marketing, stockmarket, investment in properties, having several businesses or even passive income (copyright on books and songs etc.).

Steve Pavlina just wrote an interesting blog about the current Financial Meltdown happening worldwide.The last paragraph in the blog is as followed

Are you worried about the current financial and political climate? If you’re worried, then turn and face those fears. Accept responsibility for what’s happening. Is there some part of you that wants to get something for nothing? Do you value money ahead of personal relationships? Is greed more important to you than service? What will you need to change in order to live more consciously? What must you learn to let go of? Are you living your life as part of the solution, or are you part of the problem? You choose.

Most of the blogs from Steve are an eye-opener for me and I am enjoying his writing. I am also keen to get his recent book.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Where on one side the PhD is my main focus right now (it should be at least), I am involved in projects to create other baskets. It is quite time consuming, but that's the way I have chosen. Just today we have started to outsource some work for MyJuicer. The outsourced projects for Boutique Wineries provided us with nice results and we are looking forward to get the new website layout done by the end of the month. Also InformPros will get something done this month ... so things are moving. It is hard not to get the reward immediately. But it is all made to reward me for the future ... so let's keep going.

How to tell your PhD supervisor about the dark side ...

Tuesday - it was time for a meeting with my principal supervisor. We had several items to go through. It was a good re-focus and goal setting session.

The collaboration with the German research group will be treated first as helping each other. If there will be a publication at the end ... we will see. It will be now a big exchange of data and ID mapping. You might be already aware of my issue with the latter one. I just need to establish my own little knowledge base with all mappings possible and I am ready to go. I will contact the group in Germany still today. Fingers crossed it will be a fruitful team work.

Rohan also came up with that I might start thinking about what I will do after my PhD. Here it comes ... how do I tell my PhD supervisor, that I want to switch sides. I want to start my own businesses and become an entrepreneur. I am already in the process of doing it. Now the matter of conscience: Should I tell him the truth? I really hate lying. But how much will the truth affect the work with him during the last couple of months? Will he still support me as he did in the last 2.5 years. He is an awesome supervisor, getting just the best out of me. I am afraid to hurt him by telling the truth. He can be grumpy and he is Australian. Do you know what that means? ;o) 80% of all living things on this continent is toxic ... I don't want to end up like Steve Irwin. Please let me know if you have any idea how to go around this issue. I think I have to face it one day. The sooner ... the better? I don't think so. I will just have to chose the right words.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

The nerd in me

This morning I did some work on our Boutique Wineries database. I loved it. Tracking down the code where a specific issues had occurred. I went through three different cold fusion files, that were involved in this process. But the actual issue was in a stored Procedure. I've found it and I am very happy. Yes, it was a bit time consuming, but sometimes I love tinkering with something. I was happy that I still understand the system behind Boutique Wineries. I wish I had more time to do such things. The bigger projects will be outsourced and I just do the stuff I love to do. Conclusion ... finish the PhD successfully and the world is yours :o)

Happy birthday Jeremiah and happy birthday DDR

Interview with Ricardo Semler

Ricardo Semler is the CEO and majority owner of Semco SA, a Brazilian company best known for its radical form of industrial democracy and corporate re-engineering. Under his ownership, revenue has grown from $4 million US in 1982 to $212 million in 2003 and his innovative business management policies have attracted widespread interest around the world. TIME featured him among its Global 100 young leaders profile series published in 1994 while the World Economic Forum also nominated him.



The Wall Street Journal America Economia, the Wall Street Journal's Latin American magazine, named him Latin American businessman of the year in 1990 and he was named Brazilian businessman of the year in 1990 and 1992. Virando a Própria Mesa ("Turning Your Own Table"), his first book, became the bestselling non-fiction book in the history of Brazil. He has since written two books in English on the transformation of Semco and workplace re-engineering: Maverick, an English version of "Turning Your Own Table" published in 1993 and an international bestseller, and The Seven Day Weekend in 2003.

A rocking weekend ... to get things done

8:15pm on Sunday night and Stéphane and me are sitting in front of your babies, oops I mean computers *blush*. I like the weekends. Then we sit together and exchange our ideas and thoughts. We share troubles and happiness. During the last couple of months we have developed our own language. English is already a quite simplified language, at least regarding to French and German. But we've discovered an even more simply way. I think as long we understand each other all is good ;o)

We are trying to simplify as much as possible. Where I am in the process of de-cluttering my room, Stéphane just found another Mac-Application to have a more simplier online ToDo list. The advantage is the synchronisation with the iPhone. There is a lot of stuff out there and some are pretty good. I am unfortunately working on to many computers right now. I did start with ThinkingRock, but never really got used to it. I might will check the latest version, just to have an Australian product on my Laptop :o) But I can see there is a huge playground waiting for me.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

I also tested my cooking skills today again. I've prepared our muesli for the next 2 weeks and I did bean stew for Stéphane. Will get part of it to the freezer, so food for the next days is secured. I do have fun with cooking. I just don't like it when I have to do it for myself.

So, still want to do some work for BoutiqueWineries and then I want to check out another business opportunity.

Passive income stream and network marketing

What the issue with network marketing? I have the feeling being an Independent Distributor is more a kept secret than a real business. On the other side, in the US (especially Utah) everyone does it and it is widely accepted. Every MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) company has a different strategy, but the main business idea is quite similar.

As an Independent Distributor you have your own business ... wow. That rocks! You can decide when you work on/in your business. No boss telling you when you can have your lunch ... awesome! You earn according the effort you put into the business (at least at the beginning). Later your downline will work for you. Sounds unfair? The downline wouldn't be there if you haven't done the work before. So, fair enough. In a real job the income stops when you stop ... think about it ;o)

As an Independent Business Owner you have in most countries tax advantages. People are so scared of tax or they just use it the wrong way. I haven't done much research in this topic yet, but the more I become a business woman, I might have to.

MLM companies exist for a wide range of products. Yes, you can see the Mama of all MLM companies and you can see all the new Web2.0 based MLMs. We will see which one will adapt quicker to the demand in the market. If you don't adapt your products, you will just miss it.

Why has the MLM strategy such a bad reputation? Or do I just listen to the wrong people? Where are the people open enough to accept this huge opportunity?

French Monopoly

Just today I read a Blog from Tim Ferris (yes the guy with the 4-hours-week). It reminded me of last weekend, where Stephane and I played Monopoly. The last time I have played this game it was in the early 90s. Anyway, the bigger challenge was ... it is in french :o) Yes, and I still don't speak french. The blog was a good reminder that I have my french-learning software somewhere here, possibly quite dusty already. Stephane and I communicate in english. Let's say Australian english, right buddy? :D But sometime I would prefer to speak just another language again, for fun. And maybe just to feel different again. ... Back to the Monoploy game. I thought I had no chance. Stephane could have told me anything, I would have done it. Did I have another choice? But I won! Yes, I've won a french Monopoly. I will now go to Paris and buy a property on the Champs- Élysées.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

PhD update

I am still having my fingers crossed regarding the collaboration with the German research group. Meeting with my boss is next Tuesday. This gives me more time to play with the different applications. I might have found another one .. VistaClara. It has this nice bar graphs for each node to display different gene/protein expression levels. Also it looks like that the mapping feature from UniProt is working again. Would be great to go around this issue ... pretty annoying. Anyway, I am a bit more up regarding my PhD ... let's keep it this way.


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4-days report

hhuuhhuu, yes, I did a bit of procrastination ... but I am back. Last week was just a bit too heavy. Just not enough sleep. All the motivational seminars and books are great, inclusive all the blogs I am following now, like ZTD, Steve Pavlina, Tim Ferris and so on ... and I agree ... set your goals and go for it ... and I am sure, when I have reached a certain level, I will have my 4 hours - week as well ;o)

The last weekend was one of theeesseee weekends, where I didn't know what I want. Especially regarding the PhD. I definitely have to step back from the computer, otherwise my mind is just blocked. During the last two days I did some research for tools and their usefulness. That is the biggest challenge. What the point of having a great application for network visualization made for Windows if all Biologists are using Mac (yes, I really mean Mac). So, my current plan is as followed. I would like to create a procedure (aka system) to establish the endosomal protein network:

• Cytoscape - The visualization tool (I think); I am not into creating new plugins, there are enough out there, you just have to apply and adapt them to your own problem
• FireGoose from Gaggle; it is a very interesting approach and definitely worth to explore; How to convince biologist about a RMI tool ;o)
• PIPE - the latest clue from Paul Shannon; Have to emphasize the usefulness of it
• DomainGraph (Cytoscape plugin); felt almost scooped after I saw the domain architecture; hope I can build up on it with them!
• Cytoprophet (guess ... another plugin for Cytoscape ;o) ); not sure about this; draws a bit too many lines between the nodes, hehe
• APID2NET - awesome plugin, great annotations and expansion for network
• MCODE - getting the (maybe) interesting modules out of the network (or removing the proteins of the boring signaling pathways)

If I could bring all of them together somehow that would be great. Input and output values are of course quite different, but as I have told you already, that is pretty normal in Computational Biology. So, during the next days I will review these applications, test and validate them. And then fingers crossed I will be a step closer to my PhD. No other tools to check out, enough is enough.

Markus is finally back from his holidays. As usual he forgot to write me a postcard *sniff* But anyway, more pictures for me to present on my Blog. He did a good job again. Did we expect something else ;o)

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

To actually get things done, I have set up a new procedure. I have a couple of projects running right now and it is quite challenging to keep up with all of them. So, I set up different levels of priority to them. My daily projects will be PhD and BoutiqueWineries (now being soooo close to be a stakeholder). The other projects as MyJuicer, Information Professionals and NetworkMarkting will be split over the week. Will see how it goes over the next few days, as networking still takes its time. Shall I reduce this a bit? Now, that I am soo well known, hehe.

• Facebook
• ecademy
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

The Power of Web2.0 ... will see if I can use it somehow ... all in progress

@Stephane ... BKBH ... You can make it happen :o)

Declutter your life

Whew ... I think I did clean up 5 or 6 boxes already. And actually my room looks more empty now ... more simple. That is good progress. I still remember and still hear the words from Daddy "We might need this one day". Oh no, when I need something I will get it somehow. Just storing everything, because I might need it someday ... not with me (anymore). I want to be flexible. Having things stuffed in every corner and wardrobe around me ... scary. It is like, things are following you everywhere. Yes, some things are emotional and some kind of souvenir. But I want to move ahead. I have dreams and goals. Getting stuck in the past is not much of help then. I am not saying, forget about your past. I am convinced the good things happenend in your childhood or whenever will be always with you ... in your heart. That is the best place to store things anyway.

Also decluttering my life will make it easier to move. Settling down somewhere is not really my thing (right now). So, having not much to move, makes me more flexible. Ok, let's move to Singapore for 6 months. That is what is driving me. I find this so exciting.

So, I will keep decluttering on a daily basis. Ebay will be one helper and there are charities as well. Let's do it .. :o)

Photos Courtesy by Markus Brosch

I actually had planned to report more about my progress with my PhD. There is not much motivation left, that could drive me. Yes, I still hope, that I can finish it in April next year. Sometimes I feel I am just playing with some data, checking out several tools and no one cares. That's science. These biologist really dream of the perfect tool for their own specific interest. The biggest problem is really the inability to use unique identifiers for genes and proteins. Mappings are likely to be incomplete as every consortium uses different rules. Also the just wrong use of common biological terminology is a big obstacle. These things slow heavily down the progress to visualize and automatize biology in general, let it be System Biology or Computational Biology. Call it as you like. We cannot only blame biologists, also mathematicians and statistician coming up with great algorithms and analysis to prove/dis-prove biological pathways assume things which can break down any system easily. Any bottom-up or top-down approach has its dis/advantages ... and this must be clear to everyone ... sorry, I start to philosophize ... also scientists have to be open minded to any other approach, especially if it doesn't make (the logical) sense at first. Anyway ... what I wanted to show is, how I am struggling with the thinking that is going on in Science. And I am not happy with that.

Habit 1: 30-days trial of collection ...

Ok, there we go. First round done. By coincidence during my de-cluttering process last night, I found a lot of spare paper. Also Stephane gave me a lot of notebooks. Looks like someone is waiting for me having great ideas ... yeah, why not. Let's put them down.

I see it as a sign to keep going. Writing things down on paper should not be a challenge anymore. I have paper always with me and a pencil anyway.

It was a good start to test these 30-days trial of changing a habit. I have learned to monitor myself and watch how I am doing one specific thing. Changing more habits might be doable, but more tricky. This depends how focused you are. In the next days I will have a look at the second habit from ZTD ... Process. But more about this in my next upcoming blogs.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

So, it is getting to the end of September and I haven't done my Tax Return yet. It will be the second time for me. And trendy as Australia is, they offer an online version. I think it works pretty good. So, will see in the next couple of days how it goes. This time I will do it as a business. The time being an employee is over ;o)

Habit 1: collecting in train & car ... (28 & 29)

... or how do you make notes when you are just riding your bike? Every day I take my bike and do the 25min ride to Uni. Beside that I should pay attention to the traffic, my mind is wandering around catching thoughts here and there. So, how can I keep ideas stuck in my head to put them down on paper as soon as I arrive at Uni? Maybe I should create a mnemonic trick.

When I am in the train going down to Gold Coast, I have of course my agenda/notebook with me. And anything that I read in a magazine goes straight in there. I think driving a car might be the same challenge as riding a bike, except that you can have a notebook on the co-driver seat. And if you are lucky and you are not in a "green wave", you find time to put words down. "Green wave" is a German saying for the settings of traffic lights that you don't need to stop. The traffic lights are synchronized with each other so the main flow of traffic just keeps moving. German Engineering, hihi!

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

So, I am getting close to the end of this 30-days trial change of habit. I have to conclude, that it was not a major change. But I am definitely more aware of the process to keep the mind empty and that's what I will go on doing. Every week will come with more exciting challenges.

Habit 1: still collecting ... (day 26 & 27)

The last two days were full of ideas. Yes, I made notes immediately, except when I was in bed already. I know, I should have written them down. I promise to improve this. Still plenty of things going on in my head. But this is just the proof, the more often you empty your mind and put things down on paper, the more ideas will suddenly pop up. It is like the buddhist saying When the student is ready, the teacher will come. Only when your mind is free and open, ideas just flood your mind. And you better keep up with writing them down. ;o)

I am looking forward to the next habit from ZTD to process all these ideas. Maybe I should actually have the ideas and thoughts on paper for a while, before I jump on them. But I am sure I will report about this during the next up-coming 30-days trial for habit 2.

As promised some picture from our Leadership seminar at the Sunshine Coast. Please excuse the red eyes. Maybe someone could fix that for me (Maaarrkuuuuuusss!!) ;o)

@Sunshine Coast just before the "Sand castle - competition"

Stephane and I with Annie and Alex Jesaulenko. (Did I mention that Alex is a Football Legend here? He is listed in the Hall of Fame!)

On the way home at the beach of Mooloolaba

Habit 1: Collecting tools ... (24 & 25)

In all blogs regarding Habit 1 I only mentioned the analogue tools, paper and index cards. However, there is also the digital way to collect your ideas and tools. This could be your PDA, iPhone or any other kind of mobile. I agree with Leo here when he says that the analogue works much better and it is so much faster. It sounds somehow old fashioned but think about the time if you value it ;o)

I spent yesterday almost the whole at my desk at home working on several projects. In such case thoughts and ideas go straight into my agenda. During my one-hour PhD work I saw emails coming in regarding Boutique Wineries. I have to admit my attention span is not the best one. I can hardly work and focus on one project for a whole hour. So, I keep checking emails. But ... I don't switch projects like this, I just make a note in my agenda and try to refocus again. It works, but definitely needs more training.

Also during a small Skype session with my business partner Jodie in Kuwait, I make notes, when I feel this task will take me longer than 2 min. (famous GTD rule!)Today I will have one meeting with Anthony away from my desk, so we will see how I put things down. I also have to make some notes beforehand of the meeting to make sure that I really talk about everything I have planned to do. Also another PowerUp event tonight. Looking forward to meet all these like-minded people again. This meeting will touch another way of collect notes, as I won't have a desk and I will have my agenda with me. But also I will have my notebook with me ... ahhh ... too much choice, hehe.

Habit 1: Collecting during a seminar ... (days 20 to 23)

I have to apologize for my late blog, but I was away over the weekend for a business leadership seminar. Stephane and I spent the weekend at the Hyatt Regency in Coolum. Amazing place. It was worth to go. Although there was the leadership training during the day, we had fun, good food and met amazing people.

The dinner on Friday night gave me already sweaty hands. We did sit at the same table as the CEO of the company Aaron Garrity and his wife. Annie Jesaulenko and her husband Alex joined us as well. And you know what? They are people like you and me ;o)

Yes, we even made some pictures and I will upload them asap I get them from Stephane's camera. I really did enjoy the weekend, although it was quite tiring. And Stephane made it again, he won with his team the team building competition. I still can say that my team did second out of six. The competition was in "Creating sand castles" at the beach. It was fun. I am motivated again and I am now even more sure that we can make it big in this business.

I've mentioned that we had seminars as well. And most seminars are done with a PowerPoint presentation. The challenge here is, how do you make notes from a slide? Do you listen and write or do you read and write? Does the presenter just tell you what is presented on the slide? So, we had several presentations with different presentators, so we had to adapt quickly. I tend to write down words or phrases I like and think are important. Most of the material presented is available as some kind of hard copy anyway, but it was pretty good input. Especially when you hear, they care about their business and business partners.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Ok, back home and have to re-focus on my PhD. Got a bit of drawback today, as I have noticed that I cannot save changes to some files in the APID software. Not funny. I will have to do more testing on this, before I actually start with any analysis. I also have to keep in mind to systemize things, in all areas.

Habit 1: Collecting during a meeting ... (day 18 & 19)

Being a PhD student, I have weekly meetings with my supervisor. Most of the meetings are great and make me refocus on to my project and finally to finish it. I am struggling to make notes during such meetings. There is no one who takes minutes. Being polite I am listening to my boss and look into his face. Making notes would interrupt all this. Who can write and listen at the same time. Maybe it is harder for me, because English is not my first language.

I am afraid these kind of meetings should be more interactive. When I put down some notes, they are either too short or my handwriting is crap. Finding the right keywords is a tricky thing. Not sure how to approach this issue. Someone out there with useful suggestions?

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

What I have noticed is, that during the meetings with BoutiqueWineries, I could write down notes. Is that my old thinking, a habit to change? What I mean is, having a supervisor for my PhD and being a business partner make me behaving differently. I am still looking up and shut my mouth during the meetings with my supervisor. It is mostly not a real discussion, where on the other side during business meeting I give my opinion about specific issues or I come up with new ideas.

Maybe I should start to see my PhD as a another business, and the meetings as business meetings *think* Why not? That would fit more to the style of my agenda ;o) Hey, let's try this and keep making notes ... get it out of your head and down to paper ... it works for my business, so why not for my PhD

Habit 1: Collecting ... (day 16 & 17)

Let's go back to the main idea of this habit and this is to Collect. Reviewing the last two weeks ... I am pretty much collecting all my ideas and thought. So, yes, I am doing well. I am just not doing it as Leo suggested it in his ZTD-ebook. I have my A5 agenda with different categories and one of them is called ideas. Most of the thoughts that come up are related to the project I am working on, so things go mostly straight on to the today todo list. Maybe not the best solution, I agree, but this way I will see it during my next review and then I can re-sort it. Other ideas, not related to my work at this moment go directly to the Ideas chapter. The whole agenda is reviewed weekly. This way I can make sure not to lose any information. I can re-think it, make it more clearer and detailed and then I decide whether I keep it for later or it fits into my current projects.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

Yes, I still will and have to improve my collecting habit. I even have to change the categories I am collecting all this stuff. I started to use the Archive option in Gmail and did some successful searches already. I will definitely keep going on this one.

For my work for Information Professional I will (have to) use Outlook *ouch*. I am such a dummy in this one, hehe. It will be an interesting experience. But this will also another incoming stream of information, virtual and real paper. So, I will have to be aware of how it comes in and where I will put it. As I am "acting" at at least three different places, I have to be careful where I put what. Lot of monitoring to do ... I will go through it somehow. It is being aware of every moment ... why I am doing what when ... does it bring me where I want to be ...

Habit 1: Everywhere ... (days 12 to 15 )

... just not into the notebook. It really looks like, that I spend 24/7 on my desk. Thoughts and ideas go most of the time straight into my agenda. Am I without any imagination as soon as I leave my desk? Maybe ... will monitor this.

Also, I might have to focus on blogging regularly, the latest entry is now already 4 days old. Stop whinging ... re-focus on your goal. Yes, the last days were quite busy. But somehow I like it. Although I have to force myself keep asking, is it what I am doing right now helping me to move ahead. So, what keeps me so busy?

First of all, BoutiqueWineries is expecting a new team member. I had a great first meeting with Anthony last Wednesday. I like his motivation. He is full of ideas. I hope I can learn from him a lot, especially when it comes to selling. He is quite experienced in this area ... so another level has come into my journey. Looking forward to hear about his Wealth Dynamics profile. My opinion is he is a Dealmaker. But we will see.

Also, I did some progress in my work for Information Professionals. I learned something in the area of DNS, like domain forwarding etc. Stuff I have never heard before, but there is always a first time. I am more keen now to learn about CMS (content management systems). In the next weeks I will dive into Drupal, one of the leading CMS softwares (open source of course!)

And then my PhD project. After the weekly meeting with my supervisor, I got some little ideas where I could build from my protein networks. The whole project is more testing, analyzing and re-writing the project ;o) Might be a common issue for the final year projects, hehe.

Regarding the notebook, I will put some index cards into my pocket. Might have to check if all my skirts have a pocket ;o) I am now in the second half of this 30-days-habit-change-trial. I keep going and we will see at the end.

Habit 1: where is it ..... (day 9, 10 and 11)

... the notebook. It just doesn't want to stick with me. ;o) Not sure, but I have the feeling it is time to change the size. A6 is still too big. And I am clashing with my agenda most of the time. That means, I can put my thoughts straight into it. I need a better procedure. When and where does the agenda go with me and when the notebook? It is not yet in my mind to take it with me as it is for the purse or my sunglasses. I just did 30% of the whole 30-days trial. Ok, let's keep focussed then and refine the procedure:

• Agenda with the option to put thoughts, ideas straight into the right place:


• @ home
• @ office


• Notebook


• @ train
• any time I am out
• anytime I am away from my desk(s)

Maybe this is still not detailed enough, but I will see how I go. At least it is written down somewhere now ;o) So, do I switch to index cards now? *thinking* I think a couple of days more with the A6 papers and then I decide.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Next to this habit-changing-project I am quite busy with all what I am doing. Information Professionals will get a new home soon. BoutiqueWineries is thinking to get fresh wind as well, so fingers crossed the meeting with Anthony will run smoothly. And my PhD needs another kick. I want to finish it. Here as well I have to learn to write things down, the plan is not clear which is not really good at the final stage of a PhD. I keep things posted!

Habit 1: Get it out of your head ... (day 7 & 8)

... and onto paper, so you don't forget it. This is especially important during meetings. I am not saying write down everything that is said. When things come up you have to do, write them down, don't wait for the minutes after the meeting. And if it is only a phone number or an email address ... write it down.

I used my A6 notebook during the last meeting we had at BoutiqueWineries. Maybe it is a bit small for a meeting. I prefer to put down some issues quite detailed ... I have learned from previous experience. I was always thinking, yes, I will remember this. And then you do completely different things and the actual task got lost. It is not about being oblivious, it is more about getting your mind free of stuff. I can remember things pretty good, especially numbers .. but I have seen the advantage of an empty mind as well. I feel like I am getting more open for new things. I am not blocked as I am used to be.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Of course I am still falling back to my old habit (and pride) trying to remember things for "later". Sometimes I pay for it and sometimes not. I can say after one week, I will keep my notebook and I will progress in changing the habit, to keep the mind clear.

Habit 1: Things will never get lost again ... (day 5 & 6)

We're going to try to have a place for everything coming into our lives, and get into the habit of writing things down immediately, instead of relying on our brains to keep track of it all. Leo - ZTD

A6 ... *thinking* ... I tend to believe it is still too large. I don't have these big pockets on my trousers, although these things are quite trendy right now. But it might be a more male thing anyway. I have cut more spare paper down to the size of A6 and just put a paper clip on top of them to keep them together. Yes, I use it ... but not heavily right now. All the PhD notes have to go into the Lab-book ... rules are rules. It is all about IP - Intellectual property.

One issue I want to focus on these days is to write thoughts down immediately. Especially when I am supposed to work on something else. I tend to do several things at the same time, because things just pop up in my head and a new tab in the browser is opened easily. So, I force myself to write it down and do it afterwards when I have time set up for this project or I have some free time.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

So I will keep dealing with the A6 size paper notebook for another week, then I will decide if I go smaller, like index cards. I am concerned about the size issue when it comes to make notes during a meeting. Of course it depends on the meeting, but I would like to learn to keep it simple. So, today we have our weekly BoutiqueWineries meeting again. Also, I might have a short meeting with Stephane about things coming up in the next weeks. I will give it a try, otherwise I will never know how simple my life can be.

Habit 1: The collection habit is simple ... (day 3 & 4)

I really like the idea to put things down on paper, so my mind get free and open for new stuff. I noticed that I need my small collection of DIN A6 paper always with me. Some people sing under the shower and the others think, like me ... ;o) Ok, I don't really see that as a problem, just as a small challenge, as usual.

Yes, I had already introduced a self-created notepad in the size of DIN A6 a couple of months ago. That was and is my way to use spare paper. Just cut used A5 and A4 paper down to A6 and clip it together. I will test this the next days how it is to have this size but especially to have it always with me.

So, this will be then one version of an inbox. Fair enough ... but I still have other inboxes, like the normal email one and the paper inbox at home (for cheques etc. :o) ). In general I can say that I handle these three inboxes already quite good, at least that I don't have more inboxes that need to be checked daily.

However, especially the email inbox needs some improvement. I have a gmail account, so everything is forwarded to this account. I haven't started yet to use the option to archive the emails. Yes, you can use the search option to find older information. But ... Out of sight, out of mind.. I keep emails in the inbox, because I want to be remembered to do it (maybe one day). Looks like I have to be more strict and do things as soon as they arrive in my inbox (which is actually habit 2).

Let's focus here on the collection stations. Is there something else, than these three inboxes? Mmmmh, I still have my email account in the office for PhD related stuff. But fingers crossed this will be over soon, won't it Dr J ? ;o) Ah yeah, Leo mentioned it in the ebook, but not sure if I shall see Facebook and ecademy (my main social online network tools) as an inbox as well. Yes and No I would say. I actually receive the messages on my gmail account as well. But then I have set up specific days, when I update these networks. So, for me not really inboxes.

Ok, keep collection all these things the universe has prepared for us, keep dreaming big!

Habit 1 : ubiquitous capture ... (day 1 & 2)

Ok, let's straight go into it. What is ZTD-habit 1 all about? The first habit worth to have is called Collect. Keep your mind free of thoughts and try not to remember things. As soon an idea pops up in your mind write it down. Don't bother to evaluate it, whether it is worth to make a note. Of course it is. Otherwise you wouldn't have thought about it. You and only you are responsible for your thoughts, so monitor them, write them down and at the right time you will sit down and have a look through it. Then you decide if it is worth to further investigate this idea and or you just delete it.

However, the habit is actually more about having the right tool all the time with you to actually write the idea down. As we are talking about to simplify our life, a simple notebook should be enough and I absolutely agree with that. Index cards or a small notebook size DIN A6 or A7 are just fine. It fits easily in your pocket. You are into something, a chat with a friend or you are just walking around and ... there it is, the idea of the day. What do you do .... put it down and go ahead ;o)

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Anyway, how have I been doing the last two days? The tool I am using to write things down is actually my agenda with the size of DIN A5. I know, that is not the size I was recommending. I might change to another tools later. I just wanted to give it a try. The most convenient thing is, I have my agenda always with me. In the office at Uni, I have spare paper where I put down my ideas, especially when I am just doing something else. I might have to change that, as spare paper is and always will be spare paper. It should not be used as a idea-collecting tool. I need one small tool, where I can collect ideas and thoughts, and really only one. Having several 'inboxes' makes things just more confusing and time wasting. So, let's see, I get something smaller next week. My agenda is not the right choice, as this includes the actual to do lists, so ... not good for putting down your ideas. Ok, more in two days ... take care and keep collecting ... it's fun :o)

The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

I am off for a new challenge, which will keep me writing this blog. I will report here how I am doing with this new adventure. Actually there are several challenges to come. So, what is it about.

A couple of months ago I discovered the very successful blog ZenHabits from Leo Babaula. I love the way he is approaching this project, how he writes and especially about what he is writing - Simplify your life.

Leo did publish an ebook as well, ZenToDone in November 2007, extremely successfully.

"This book was written for those who want to get their lives organized and actually execute the things on their to-do list" - Leo

To achieve this I will have to change some habits. And I will do one at the time. The ebook lists 10 habits that can simplify your life. To adapt to a habit you have to stick to it for at least 30 days monitoring yourself. Here the 10 habits Leo describes in his book:

1. Collect


2. Process


3. Plan


4. Do


5. Simple Trusted System


6. Organize


7. Review


8. Simplify


9. Routine


10. Find your passion

Possibly not all of these ten habits will work for me. But if I don't try, I will never know. So, let's do it then.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Reporting on this blog every second day will help me to commit to it and monitor myself. Sometimes I wonder why I am so stubborn and go through such processes (similar why I have started my PhD). I still see it as a good quality of mine. I want to learn what is best for me, so I have to keep trying and testing new things. I have big goals because I am dreaming big ... and I want freedom so badly.

Another cloudy day here in Brisbane. At least it was not freezing this morning. But still, I had troubles again to get out of bed. I thought the morning was my most efficient time for me. Right now it doesn't look like it at all. The alarm is set to 4:30am so I could get at least 6hours of sleep. It is 6am already when I finally make it then. I feel like wasting my time like this. Why do I need so much sleep? I don't do a lot that would cost me extra energy. At least I don't feel like it. Is this related to my thyroid? That would explain why I am getting distracted so easily. I am lucky when I work on something for 10min in row without doing anything else.

It took me 15min to start this Blog. I just sit here and stare at the screen without any idea popping up. But I want to write, because I want to be committed to it. I want to learn how to write. So, I just keep going, no matter what ...

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Yes, I have several things running at the same time. It is hard for me, to give these tasks different priorities. I feel like everything is important.

• I have to grow my wealth network, so I have to update ecademy and facebook regularly.


• I want to learn how to write, so I keep going with my regularly blogging.


• I want to be motivated and inspired, so I keep reading Blogs of interest.


• I want to learn more about entrepreneurship, real estate and passive income, so I keep going to seminars.


• I want to keep working on my projects and getting the real experience, such as in www.BoutiqueWineries.com.au and www.InformPros.com


• and so on ...

oops, completely forgot about my PhD in this list. I might have given it a lower priority unconsciously already. And this should be of highest priority actually. So, what now? Shall I quit some of these things or delaying it? There should be a way to do all these things, that is not so much ...

I am convinced, I can be more efficient, just have to find the right rhythm. Fingers crossed the thyroid issue doesn't hinder me on this journey.

Teamwork ...

And again I am sitting here in this office in the cutting-edge research institute alone with my project. I have to sit down and come up with the ideas, what will be my next steps. When I have troubles with something, I have to find the way out of it. Because at the end of this PhD you sign a paper, that this work was done by only your brain.

Just yesterday I read in Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing ….” It is all about teamwork. When you want to have a successful bussiness, you better focus first on the right team around you, might it be laywers, attourneys or investors. You just can’t do everything by yourself. And do you really want people working for you, who are not interested in the success of the business, who don’t understand the mission of your business? That’s, why I say, go for the right team.

As Robert said, it is shocking what we actually get trained at school. Getting help from someone else means you have been cheating and you are out of the “game”. What a wrong approach is that?

I have to say, it was not easy for me to learn to work in a team, to accept other opinions and to actually get critisized. But everytime, our result of a teamwork project was amazing. No one could have done this by him/herself.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

Coming back to my PhD project. What is my next step? I am stuck here again. The administrators for LINUX OS are a big joke here. The worst thing is, I don’t have admin rights on my machine. And does anyone out there ever seen a working HelpDesk, hehe? I will go back to my papers here and I will create my own virtual team around me, who will help me through my last months of this PhD.

ToDo list …

There are a lot of books, blogs and articles out there helping the humankind to manage its day. It is good to read a couple of them and then find your own way, what suits you most. Everyday is different, every project is different and especially every human being is different.

The biggest challenge is the time management. How do you know in advance how long a task will take you? Ok, when your ToDo list contains only tasks you do daily anyway, you might have already achieved some experience. But I am mostly dealing with tasks that are new to me. Testing an application can be done in 30min or 30 hours. It always depends on how many variables are influenced and need to be checked. Or how many different cases in a case study are influenced by this application. I am sure there exist similar projects where you don’t have any clue about the time management.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

So, there is big difference if you have 10 item listed on your ToDo list and you have finished them in 2 hours or you have 2 item listed and still after 4 hours you are dealing with the first one. The questions you can ask in such a situation are:

• Can I break this task into smaller subtasks? - This will help you see progress more easily and you will allow yourself to take the needed breaks to reload.


• What are the most important tasks (MITs) I have to do today? - You shouldn’t have more than 3 MITs on your daily list. If you have finished these 3 ones, you can celebrate, only low level stuff is left! *dance*


• Are there any tasks I can delegate? - Outsourcing is a big trend right now, and I do it as well. I am managing some programmers for BoutiqueWineries. There are Pros and Conts ... the questions is, how much you value your time :o)

Of course this list is not complete. So, feel free to come up with your own questions to improve your ToDo list and therefore your daily progress to reach your goals. There won't be the perfect solution, but it is definitely worth it to think about it and then action on it ...

Stay committed and have a beautiful day!

I made it ...

Yes, I went through all 20 points about motivation given by Leo from ZenHabits. I posted every second day ... big commitment. Now I have reached the next level, which is coming up with my own ideas. The challenge is, that the ideas won't pop up every second day ... so what to do? Writing when the idea comes up, just making a note to not to forget? I think I will do some testing.

Also I might have to figure out what my blog is or will be about? What do I want to tell the readers? What are 5 keywords to describe my blog? Yes, I want to improve my writing and I am doing well so far. There is always improvement.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Will my blog be about my journey, like a diary? Maybe somehow, but also I would like to put down my thoughts on things, things that keep me moving. I have my goals, but to go there will change. I keep reading books, I might want to discuss some issues said in these books.

We will see where this blog will lead us to. Enjoy your day

Find pleasure again ....

Today is one of such days where I have to review my own blog, because I am out of motivation and I lost the pleasure in doing one of my projects. So, why did I start it? It was new and exciting. It feels like it became a boring day-to-day job now, so I have to reconsider, why am I doing it. I even might have to change some procedures or step out for a couple of days.

There has to be fun, pleasure, joy in it, every day ... where is the satisfaction after I have finished another step? Maybe things are just not going the right way right now. Is it again my inability to be happy about small achievements?

Ok, I will step back a little bit and refocus to get the big picture right. I will do it on paper or on the whiteboard, maybe even a mind map. There is no way I give up ...

"Never, never, never, never give up. - Winston Churchill"

Be aware of your urges to quit, and overcome them ...

If your will is strong and you are patient enough, the urge to quit won't appear. But that is a lot to ask for. Is your will strong enough:

• Supported by big dreams and goals?


• daily visualization what the outcome will feel and look like?


• the right people around you?


• Monitoring all the up and downs?


• Reading about your dreams and goals?


• Never skipping two days in row?


• ...

Are you patient enough:

• Setting up mini goals?


• Rewarding yourself for every little step?


• squashing negative thoughts?


• staying accountable?


• Getting excited again?


• Getting help during low points?


• ...

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

It is all coming together now. The urges to quit appear now and then. For me it happens often as I am not the most patient person, but then I find quickly my goals, have a quick read, talk to the right(!) person ... and I am back on track. You can plan for such "attacks". Have the visualized goals every where in your flat, agenda or office. Keep squashing the negative thoughts ... turn them into something positive. Always remember why you are doing specific tasks, why do you put so much effort into this project ... create your own strategy to refocus.

You will be so proud of yourself, when you finish big projects or you finally reached your goal. Let it be one of your mini goals. But this pride will be full of happiness, honesty, brightness and wealth with a big smile in your face. You will have got so much value that you start leveraging it, spreading the happiness, brightness and wealth ... it comes all by itself, when you are open and ready for it. :o)

Cape diem!

Use visualization ....

Have you seen the latest Mini ... *sniff* ... wouldn't it be good to have one like this? I know exactly that I want to have one. This car will be part of the outcome of all the effort I am making now. I love driving cars, and it will be great to have my own one again. And I will buy it without making any debt.

These first lines are part of my vision board. There are plenty other things I am dreaming of in quite detail. Doing this daily keeps you going, because nothing is impossible. I am convinced that I will pay one day my parents a flight to wherever I am in the world, is it to Fiji or Singapore. I will call them, tell them I got the tickets and that I would love to spend a nice time with them. I know I will do that.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

Having created several streams of income will give me the freedom to be everywhere I want to be at anytime. And of course my vision board includes the latest laptop and other IT toys, because my current laptop is already 6 years old (don't ask me how I did that, hehe). My vision board is big, because I dream big, because I want to live big. Stephane used yesterday these words from the documentation "What the Bleep do we know?"

How deep do you want to go down the rabbit hole?

And my answer was, very deep. I am just at the beginning ...

Never skip two days in row ....

We are not perfect, but we can be committed to our goals and dreams. Skipping one session, a day or whatever it is ... that is ok. But you better don't skip the next one.

I started blogging 3 years ago, but actually skipped almost one complete year. Now I am highly committed to writing every second day and so far, I am doing pretty good. Because I have a goal to improve my writing. I want to see, if I can express myself in words. One of my big goals is to write a book. Not sure about what, I just don't want to struggle with my writing when the big idea suddenly pops up in my head. So, I train myself this way. During the low days my blogs will be smaller, sure ... I am not perfect. But getting used to writing, getting things out of my head may actually help going through such days.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Today I want to have the first draft of the final 6-months-plan written down. I did some procrastination on it, but not today. If I skip one more day ... I will be stressed again. So, I have to switch my brain to PhD mode and just do it ... baby steps, as usual ;o)

Get a coach or take a class ...

I think that is the most expensive way to get motivated in an area you like. And Leo is right by saying '... at least you show up and take action ...'. It worked for me. I spent a bit more than AUD1000 to spend three days at an amazing seminar from Roger Hamilton last March. It was most inspiring and motivating. I wrote already about the different wealth profiles he is using to find your flow and to find your passion. And this seminar went deeper into it and yes, I can say it was one of the critical moments.

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

For example, at this seminar I met a Creator and we kept in contact. And now I started some IT consulting for him and his company. More to learn, more people to meet and I am so excited about it.

Getting a coach can be seen in different ways. Everyone who has read a book from Anthony Robbins can say, yes, he is my coach and use his books as a guideline. Seeing it this way, I have several coaches, as Robert and Kim Kiyosaki, Anthony Robbins, Leo from ZenHabits and many more. But I have coaches in "real" as well. People I can see and meet regularly and I can bother them with my questions. First of all Stephane. Since we know each other, he is showing me the world, my surrounding, from a quite different perspective as I got it taught in school or from my parents. There is nothing wrong and right. I have just learned to see it from more angles and this gives me more opportunities and more understanding. I am really grateful for this lesson and to all these lesson to come ;o) BKBH

Having met Jodie and Jeremiah, gave me the unbelievable opportunity to have a coach in a pack of two. Sharing the same goal in a business, seeing it growing with some up and downs, working in a team ... it is a great foundation to learn and I appreciate to know the two and to keep working with them. And of course, never forget the fun part of it ...

If the student is ready to learn, the teacher will turn up.

Have all a magical weekend!

Go for mini-goals ...

Breaking down big projects into smaller steps is almost essential. I even would break them down to a daily to do list. I am so happy to see all the tasks ticked in my agenda .. then I know I am a step closer to my goal. Personally I am still struggling with a weekly of monthly goal, as I am really working from day to day. But I do review projects weekly, so I don't lose control. I would adapt my daily agenda to it.

Doing it on a daily basis, my agenda can be stuffed with things to do. I train myself to be so committed and disciplined, that I really go through the list and do the task and then I tick it off. Yes, I won't make the whole list for a whole day sometimes. How do you know how long it takes for some tasks? The answer for me is practise, just do it and you will see. I know I can spend 30min to write an email, because it is not my "speciality". But at least I did it.

My mini-goals for today are quite a lot of networking. This would include some "work" in ecademy and facebook. But this was done already this morning. And it is rescheduled in a couple of days, so I really don't procrastinate it. Another goal for today is, sending 3 birthday card, which means finding the right words for the right person. And I almost forgot how to write in german. For my PhD project I would like to start the analysis today, running the IntAct data for human interaction and filtering just the proteins out which I have in my list. Unfortunately, we have today our 2-hours labmeeting. For this I had to prepare a small presentation and this took me already more than 60min. This would be one example for failed time-management. Anyway ... it is all about failing forward ;o)

I wish you all an amazing day and make Magic :o)

Happiness ...

I just have written about it in my last Blog and completely failed in practising it. Yesterday I had to give a so called Monday Midday Meeting-talk, where the whole Institute comes together and listens to two speaker, presenting their work. But what can you talk about in 20 min, especially when you have a 3-years project. Anyway, it was my turn yesterday and YES, I was nervous. It was supposed to be my final PhD talk, so fingers crossed I will go without any talk until next April 8-)

So, having finished this talk with some technical issues, that were not my fault ;o) , I expected to be absolutely relieved for the rest of the day. But nothing. Really, I was almost down. I didn't see the achievement I had just completed. I didn't acknowledge any nice comments from colleagues. It didn't cheer me up. Instead, I looked straight ahead again, what is awaiting for me in the 6 months. What next obstacles I will have to manage. Why am I doing this?

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

Why can I not be just happy and celebrate a little bit? And just today I read in the ZenHabits blog from Leo the following words:

Happiness shouldn’t be something that happens to us in the future, maybe someday, if things go well. Happiness should be here and now, who we are now, with the people we’re with now, doing the things we’re doing now. And if we’re not with people who make us happy, and doing things that make us happy … then we should take action to make that happen.

I really have to learn to be happy anytime, and celebrate every little step that I make in the right direction.

Reward yourself often ...

"Yes, done" ... sometimes this is reward enough for me to keep going. But there are moments, where I think "and now?" Then I have just forgotten, that I have just done a little step forward to my goal. So, rewarding is very important. As I have mentioned in my last blog, a week full of Xs can be so satisfying ... I swear. I would never cheat on myself.

Yeah, a simple chocolate bar is a reward for me as well, so long I don't take reducing weight too serious. I think it is still not urgent, is it? So, tomorrow I give my talk in front of the whole IMB institute, maybe around 150 people. So, what will be the reward? I don't know yet to be honest. Stéphane is not here, so I might just be happy for myself and say "Yes, done!" with a big smirk in my face.

YES, I am f... nervous, that's why this blog is so short. But I will make it! See you on Tuesday, one step closer to my goal ;o)

Chart your progress ...

This is something I must have inherited from my mum, tables, statistics, spreadsheets and so on. Sometimes as a kid, I only did the housework, because I wanted to see the X marked in the calendar. It was even more satisfying to see a full row of Xs than the achieved sum of pocket-money at the end of the week. It just kept me driving.

And still today … I have re-discovered the power of charts, spreadsheets and calendars. Putting things down, keeps your mind free. One really important feature. But having a goal, like in the worst case doing a PhD *smirk*, and you have a plan written down, it is more motivating than knowing, it will be over in 3 years. But you have to chart your progress. I failed at first in doing that. I didn’t see the results I have reached in between. I just saw the work ahead, not the work I have done so far.

I don’t say it is easy. I also started a lot of things and tried to monitor and chart the progress, but after a couple of days or weeks, I didn’t see any inspiration in it anymore. Mostly, because I was just too impatient I didn’t get the results straight after the first week. But being a lord-like person, I still love looking at tables and charts. They tell me sometimes more than a fancy picture.

So, where do I use charts right now?

· Balance Sheet ... I started to monitor my monthly income and expensive in the style of Robert Kiyosaki, but I got bored, because it was every month the same ... will go back to it soon, as the income is growing
· Google Analytics ... paradise for Lords and Mechanics
· SpeadReading ... words per minute rate
· and so on ...

Thoughts ...

During the last 2 days, I had meetings with several people about completely different things. But next to the actual topic we talked about I got something out of them, that makes me think now.

I spoke with an eMarketing Director about the use and improvement of SEO of a specific website. Maybe I was blended by the name of the position this person is holding and I should definitely remove this prejudice, but I am struggling now. Using a content management system, learning about a specific industry area and looking for the right keywords ... I don't really see the challenge.

Another meeting was about my presentation I have to give next week. My supervisor didn't like one specific part of my talk and I just didn't get it what he wants to see there. I felt like explaining nodes and edges being proteins and their interactions was too primitive. But obviously not. Networks and their utility in Molecular Biology ... for me .. it just jumps straight into my head. It is so clear for me. Why am I hesitating so much to go back to the basics? I am working in a research institute ... I mean cutting-edge research ... top research ... and I still have to explain the basics? My supervisor says, the audience is too broad. Still? Most of the talks and presentation I am listening to, I get the main idea and I understand them. Either is it developmental biology or stem cell research in kidney ... I get the main point. Do I really have such a broad background?

Then later the day I had a meeting with a CEO of a IT company and we chatted about moving website and how I would monitor it etc. And then he said something, which touched me deeply ... he said something like this: You have high expectations from yourself, so you expect the same from people you are dealing with. That's where you get disappointed in others so easily. I heard similar comment from someone else before, and I am surprised about this. Because we are going right now during a similar process. We set our goals and dreams ... and do action ... we want to be different

Yes, I challenge myself, because I get bored too easily, so I think that is a normal reaction. And yes, I am struggling with people around me. We don't have similar thinking anymore, and I don't want to go "back" to this thinking. I prefer to be out of the box. I think this underlines I really have to find people who are supporting me, who I can still learn from, people who challenge me, people who are out of the box ... I know where to find them ...

Get help ...

It is hard to accomplish something alone, but this is how I feel about doing a PhD. Everyone is praising teamwork and it is proven that several minds work better in a team and that you can go much further than working alone on a project ... but no, doing a PhD is about you. You have to sit down and do it. You can not delegate the work, because what appears in the Thesis at the end must have been done by you alone. And right now this thinking is so much the opposite what I have learned during the last couple of months with XL and the big entrepreneur world.

However, to come back to more positive thinking, there are people I can ask to inspire me again, to help me with ideas and I can sit down with them for a brainstorm session. And I am very grateful for this.

For all my other goals and dreams there is plenty of help out there. You just have to see it, it is sometimes not really obvious. But with an open mind it all comes to you. For example to improve my reading, I apply special techniques as suggested in several books and I keep track on the words-per-minute rate. Like other people are counting calories intake daily, I count the words I can read per minute. And I keep reading about it to stay motivated.

If someone comes with the excuse I don't know how ... I don't believe him/her anymore. If other people have done it already, you will find either a blog, an e-book, a book or something else about this topic, online or in real ... just ask the right question (in Google) ;o)

Just get through the low points ...

Motivation is like the tide, it comes and goes. So, one good thing to do is Work during the "high tide". It feels soo miserable, when you can feel it going away. What do you do then?
I am not in the state anymore, that I want to throw away everything I have done so far. I am well aware of that the motivation is coming back. You just have to go through it. Either you find someone to talk to. Or just go back to the books and CD, who brought you where you are now.

View from my balcony

There are not many people I actually can talk to. Or I might have to say it this way, there are not so many people who can actually motivate me again. Especially during low points you better avoid doomsayer. If I cannot reach someone, I just go to bed and prefer to be alone.

I have to say, it is still not easy to be motivated for the final months of my PhD. But the goal is set and I can see the end already, I just have to go through it. It would be much easier with a bit of motivation ... will see ... I keep searching. Might have to create mini goals ... *thinking*