rphilos

Put the fear of God in 'em! That's what I say!

I sit at the front of the room and stare forward, motionlessly, like this:
 

Hi everyone!
In a couple of weeks I'm starting my first year as a PhD student. A few years back (or more) I completed an MA at a different school than this one, but I had a lot of trouble with time management, and I feel like I could have done a lot better with those two years. Since then, I've been teaching and developing better time management skills, but grad school is going to test my ability to stay on top of things (as it does to us all.) 
I know that time blocking is a great way to plan and manage one's time, and I just am wondering, for those of you who practice time blocking in a planner, online, or on the back of napkins from Starbucks every morning, what does your schedule look like?  
I'm hoping that mine will look something like this:
8:30-9:20 AM TA-ing
9:30-10:40 AM class (Tues, Thurs)
-or-
9:30-12:00 Language homework (M, W, F)
12-12:30 Lunch
Afternoons-- classes on Monday and Thursday
-or-
Afternoons Tues, Weds, Fri- read for 2-3 hours, write for 1 hour 
5:00-8:00 pm workout, rest, eat, TV
8:00-10:00 pm leftover work I didn't get to
......
That seems like an overly full day, huh? But that's basically what my husband did for his grad program. Saturdays I'll try to catch up on things for a couple of hours (trying to take most of the day off,) and Sundays are for prep for the new week.
How do you time block? How much time to you give yourself for different tasks? How do you estimate how much time you will need?
Edited to add that in those longer time blocks, I will schedule breaks every 20-50 minutes. I know that helps avoid burn out.

I said that accusations of sexual harassment should be justified. TakeruK objected. I explained why I think it is morally wrong to make unjustified accusations.
Multiple people (e.g., @NoirFemme) down-voted my posts saying that we should be careful about making accusations potentially based on false information or innocent misunderstandings. The vast majority of the people commenting on this thread said that the behavior described by OP in her original post was a clear-cut case of sexual harassment, even though the facts given in the original post did not support that verdict. Making false accusations is itself a horrendous, socially destructive thing to do. What I am trying to "accomplish" with my back and forth with TakeruK is to encourage people to rethink their immoral position that false accusations aren't a big deal.

The programs you're aiming for generally recruit people from the top 1%, if not the top 0.1 or 0.01%, of academic ability. Even if it were possible for you to be admitted, would you really feel good about being in an environment where your peers will be much more academic? It sounds like you would be a valuable member of a lab as a technician. You don't need a PhD to be a technician.

What kind of places are you aiming for? To be competitive at PGR-ranked PhD programs I think you would need to significantly raise your V and Q GRE scores.

For me, it depends on what I need that day. Taking handwritten notes does help me focus in the moment, but I have tremendous difficulty rereading them later and actually using them as study instruments, especially if there's lots of unfamiliar vocabulary. So if there will be lots of memorization required, I need to type notes or have them provided on PPT or handouts. If I need to understand a process (statistics, math, signaling pathways), I'll use the strategy of taking notes to stay present and engaged for the duration of the class period, without the goal of using the notes later.

Just wanted to let you know that a colleague of mine (from a different area though) also got an invitation for a video. He emailed the people from SAGE and they said that they're contacting authors based on the amount of downloads their articles have had and they're using that as a proxy for 'people are reading this, so they must be interested'.
 
So... yeah. I guess you're more popular than you think?

GUILTY OF DOING THIS IN CLASS! 

At the risk of sounding a little, well, maybe "too concerned" you don't worry about all the pictures/personal info you post on your webpage? (Yes, guilty, I clicked on it). I know it seems a little bit weird but you never know who is checking you out on the Internet.

OR the much much MUCH more common case where legacy status outweighs your lack of personal and academic merit. I mean, you can try to twist and turn this in whatever way suits your conviction that systematic discrimination against people of lower resources should remain enshrined in the educational system. However, that does not change the fact that legacy-anything is just another bureaucratic maneuvering to make sure the rich still have first-hand access to as much opportunities they can at the expense of the poor. 

Is "mental gymnastics" just your way of describing "rational thought." If there's something wrong with my arguments, quote what I wrote and explain why it's wrong.

Guilty as charged. It's very sad that you and some others on this forum don't care much about morality, and are unable to follow my arguments. I thought this was supposed to be a message board for scholars.

A large percentage of people are not capable of learning social norms well enough to always avoid inadvertently making others uncomfortable. This article talks about a professor (on the autism spectrum) who was driven to suicide by the pain of continually offending his colleagues: http://quillette.com/2017/07/18/neurodiversity-case-free-speech/
You keep saying that reports to a Title IX office aren't "accusations." I'm not sure what you mean. American Heritage Dictionary defines "accusation" as "A charge of wrongdoing that is made against a person or other party." The only reason to submit a report to a Title IX office is to inform them of some sort of wrongdoing. You say a Title IX investigation is "is not a disciplinary process." I guess an "investigation" is not a "disciplinary process" per se, but Title IX investigations can lead to serious, formal punishments. And, as a matter of fact, there are countless examples of Title IX committees committing travesties of justice (I gave one example above where Title IX officers expelled a USC student from the football team for abusing his girlfriend while the girlfriend kept protesting that he was innocent).

telkanuru, can you please provide evidence that I caricatured TakeruK? TakeruK said that you "should not have to justify or...determine whether or not the action they are complaining" about fits the definition of sexual harassment. They say: "If anyone feels that something is amiss, they should make a report/complaint" and "the Title IX coordinator decides that the report/information is actionable." TakeruK explicitly says that you should make a complaint even when you were offended by someone who "just doesn't know the social norms," which in practice means disproportionately reporting people who are on the autism spectrum or are for some reason socially impaired.

I said that accusations of sexual harassment should be justified. TakeruK objected. I explained why I think it is morally wrong to make unjustified accusations.
Multiple people (e.g., @NoirFemme) down-voted my posts saying that we should be careful about making accusations potentially based on false information or innocent misunderstandings. The vast majority of the people commenting on this thread said that the behavior described by OP in her original post was a clear-cut case of sexual harassment, even though the facts given in the original post did not support that verdict. Making false accusations is itself a horrendous, socially destructive thing to do. What I am trying to "accomplish" with my back and forth with TakeruK is to encourage people to rethink their immoral position that false accusations aren't a big deal.

Is "mental gymnastics" just your way of describing "rational thought." If there's something wrong with my arguments, quote what I wrote and explain why it's wrong.

A large percentage of people are not capable of learning social norms well enough to always avoid inadvertently making others uncomfortable. This article talks about a professor (on the autism spectrum) who was driven to suicide by the pain of continually offending his colleagues: http://quillette.com/2017/07/18/neurodiversity-case-free-speech/
You keep saying that reports to a Title IX office aren't "accusations." I'm not sure what you mean. American Heritage Dictionary defines "accusation" as "A charge of wrongdoing that is made against a person or other party." The only reason to submit a report to a Title IX office is to inform them of some sort of wrongdoing. You say a Title IX investigation is "is not a disciplinary process." I guess an "investigation" is not a "disciplinary process" per se, but Title IX investigations can lead to serious, formal punishments. And, as a matter of fact, there are countless examples of Title IX committees committing travesties of justice (I gave one example above where Title IX officers expelled a USC student from the football team for abusing his girlfriend while the girlfriend kept protesting that he was innocent).

@serenade, @avflinsch, @NoirFemme, @Hope.for.the.best, @Pandas, @aberrant, @Comparativist, @TakeruK, @Concordia, @fuzzylogician, @telkanuru
@cowgirlsdontcry
@Sigaba, @EliaEmmers
I have read all your advice, suggestions, possible departments /individuals to approach, sympathies, and thoughts. Thank you.
I have a meeting tomorrow where CreepProf, as Fuzzy christened him, will attend. I am going to take it step -by -step for now. And start by seeing if I am too uncomfortable attending the meeting. And if I am, then I will consider approaching another PI who is younger and seems quite motherly (I know I'm completely stereotyping here and it's unfair that women often get burdened with more disclosures). I think I'm gonna make an appointment with counselling, too, just to see if they might have ideas as professionals.
For now, I think I will try and "move on" and try not to let him affect my work. It just doesn't seem worth it. And this board / forum has been immensely helpful in helping out things in perspective, including the *initial* questions about context @rphilos and @Comparativist. I appreciate (very much!) that women and men who are uncomfortable with a proposition should not have to provide context, *but* I can also appreciate that if I am asking for advice, I should have to contextualise it for more complete advice.
Thank you. This has helped clarify the yes-it-is-no-it-isn't thoughts.
And I'm gonna bring lots of chocolates for the meeting tomorrow. A female friend in my department always reminds me for all stressful days that "chocolates help when dementors are nearby." (Harry Potter fans will understand) :-)
P.s., if I left anyone's name off the list, my apologies.
 

THIS. I mean, the sheer mental gymnastics that rphilos engages in to try to justify to himself why women should not speak up when facing harassment  deserves its own gold medal on BS. 

I said that accusations of sexual harassment should be justified. TakeruK objected. I explained why I think it is morally wrong to make unjustified accusations.
Multiple people (e.g., @NoirFemme) down-voted my posts saying that we should be careful about making accusations potentially based on false information or innocent misunderstandings. The vast majority of the people commenting on this thread said that the behavior described by OP in her original post was a clear-cut case of sexual harassment, even though the facts given in the original post did not support that verdict. Making false accusations is itself a horrendous, socially destructive thing to do. What I am trying to "accomplish" with my back and forth with TakeruK is to encourage people to rethink their immoral position that false accusations aren't a big deal.

telkanuru, can you please provide evidence that I caricatured TakeruK? TakeruK said that you "should not have to justify or...determine whether or not the action they are complaining" about fits the definition of sexual harassment. They say: "If anyone feels that something is amiss, they should make a report/complaint" and "the Title IX coordinator decides that the report/information is actionable." TakeruK explicitly says that you should make a complaint even when you were offended by someone who "just doesn't know the social norms," which in practice means disproportionately reporting people who are on the autism spectrum or are for some reason socially impaired.

A large percentage of people are not capable of learning social norms well enough to always avoid inadvertently making others uncomfortable. This article talks about a professor (on the autism spectrum) who was driven to suicide by the pain of continually offending his colleagues: http://quillette.com/2017/07/18/neurodiversity-case-free-speech/
You keep saying that reports to a Title IX office aren't "accusations." I'm not sure what you mean. American Heritage Dictionary defines "accusation" as "A charge of wrongdoing that is made against a person or other party." The only reason to submit a report to a Title IX office is to inform them of some sort of wrongdoing. You say a Title IX investigation is "is not a disciplinary process." I guess an "investigation" is not a "disciplinary process" per se, but Title IX investigations can lead to serious, formal punishments. And, as a matter of fact, there are countless examples of Title IX committees committing travesties of justice (I gave one example above where Title IX officers expelled a USC student from the football team for abusing his girlfriend while the girlfriend kept protesting that he was innocent).

Good comeback. I guess you won the argument.

Good comeback. I guess you won the argument.