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!