This is probably my first new year resolution. Year 2018 is dog year, which is my Chinese zodiac year, which also indicates I am turning 24 this year. I used not to have plans in my life. However, now I'm more feeling growing up and I want to improve myself to a better person. So here are my new year resolutions that I hope I can work on it throughout this year.
Academic goals
Research Comp
As a phD student, at the end of April (2 days after my birthday), there is an phD standing evaluation test called research comp. I passed the programing comp last semester which is mainly tested about my programming skills and this semester, I am evaluated on my research progress. To be honest, I've not been fully involved in research last semester because I'm chill/lazy about doing research and plus I am still in the phase of figuring out a direction to take in the project. This semester I decided to spend much more time in research. I put following sub-goals as the details of what I will be doing. In general, I hope I can pass the research comp.
Reading 2 papers a week
Reading is definitely an important part in phD career. In the last semester I did not keep reading. This year, I decided to read 2 papers a week, including detailed notes taking.
Start the day at 9am
One good part of not having that many classes is that I have more time to sleep. Sometimes I find myself going to the lab pretty late. This semester I want to start my day early including waking up at 9am and eating breakfast. This may be hard to achieve since it's winter semester but I would like to give it a try.
Have plans for every day
In order to improve working efficiency and keeping track of myself, I want to start planning work out for every day, including what I want to achieve every day and what I've done at the end of the day.
Networking with more people
I wanna be more brave in terms of socializing with people this year, including the people I met in academia and people I met in industry and try to build up a personal relationship with those people.
Health goals
Go to the gym three times a week
I started to have a rigorous gym schedule, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I've been doing pretty good this month and it really helps my procrastination by having a fixed workout schedule.
Doing one pull up
I have no idea if I am able to do this but I'm working on it.
Doing one push up
This sounds more practical but still needs more work.
Travel goals
Travel to a new place
Tbh, I don't see much travel chances coming up this year but I still wanna squeeze some time for traveling.