# TT Self Study Journal # 7

\[Epistemic Status: This is an artifact of my self study I am using to help self manage. As such, I don't expect anyone to fully read it. Please skim and leave a comment, even just to say "good work/good luck". \]

Highlights
==========

*   I started a more focused project to look for work/mentorship/networking this sprint. I'm looking forward to continuing with that in the next sprint!
*   Despite enjoying the Transformers from Scratch content, progress continually stalls! I'm hoping shifting my goal from progress per week to pomodoros per day will help me stay consistent.
*   I like the pomodoros as units of focus. I think they encourage time focusing on things, but even more than that they discouraging me spending too much time on any one thing which avoids me burning myself out and neglecting other things.
*   Depression affected my productivity this week. I'm hoping to use clock-in and clock-out times during the next sprint to help me get started in the morning and avoid working too late in the day and messing up my sleep schedule.

Review of 6th Sprint
====================

My goals for the 6th sprint were:

*   Do between 1 and 4 pomodoros looking for work per day.
*   Do between 1 and 2 Transformers from Scratch submodules per week.
*   Do at least 1 pomodoro per week focused on ndisp project.
*   Spend no more than 1 pomodoro per day on writing.
*   Write something down in my worklog at the end of every day.

Daily Worklog
-------------

| Date | Progress |
| --- | --- |
| Th, Feb 5 | * Published [TT's Looking-for-Work Strategy](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/w9yPcWvLH3xMCzby8/tt-s-looking-for-work-strategy) * Published [TT Self Study Journal # 6](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/u5ymjf5Y6fgthC7nS/tt-self-study-journal-6) * Started 6th SSJ sprint! |
| Fr, Feb 6 | Looked at FIG fellowship with Y. Bengio. It doesn't look like the current projects are a good fit for me. |
| Mo, Feb 9 | * LfW: * Started [a g-doc for my list of companies, people, and fellowships.](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x9czXc21PWHnAPIOqtSLn4AvUH-H1YTCsTQljzQeUQw/edit?usp=sharing) * Referencing [the Shallow Review of Technical AI Safety](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Wti4Wr7Cf5ma3FGWa/shallow-review-of-technical-ai-safety-2025-2) * Sent email to UVic graduate student recruiter. * Send other networking emails. * TfS * Reviewed 1.11️⃣ * Started 1.12️⃣ |
| Tu, Feb 10 | * LfW: * Continued populating [my LfW list](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x9czXc21PWHnAPIOqtSLn4AvUH-H1YTCsTQljzQeUQw/edit?usp=sharing). |
| Wd, Feb 11 | Preoccupied with other things. |
| Th, Feb 12 | * LfW: * Continued populating [my LfW list](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x9czXc21PWHnAPIOqtSLn4AvUH-H1YTCsTQljzQeUQw/edit?usp=sharing). |
| Fr, Feb 13 | Not recorded. |
| Mo, Feb 16 | Holiday. No progress. |
| Tu, Feb 17 | No progress. |
| Wd, Feb 18 | Not recorded. |
| Th, Feb 19 | No progress. |
| Fr, Feb 20 | * Wrote and posted SSJ #7. |

Sprint Summary
--------------

### Overview

I was feeling good about making progress last week. I feel hopeful about the prospect of directly reaching out to people, both as a strategy for looking for work, and for helping me feel connected to a community of people focused on the topics I wish to focus on.

( Content warning: The following two paragraphs include light discussion of depressive disorder. )

But this week wasn't good at all. On Monday night I was feeling so anxious and depressed that I couldn't sleep and stayed up almost all night listening to an audiobook and then fell asleep in the early morning. After sleeping most of the day I was feeling too depressed to get out of bed and spent most of the rest of the day doomscrolling. That cascaded until Wednesday afternoon when I was feeling well enough to actually get up and bath and eat a proper meal, take melatonin and get back on proper sleep schedule.

Thursday I was still feeling very hopeless and depressed about the global AI situation and my personal situation, so I took a long walk in the woods and did some meditation which seemed to help put me in a better mood.

Friday I am (hopefully) back on track. I am feeling hopeful because I'm writing this entry only 2 weeks after the previous entry. I think this is a better frequency and will hopefully set a trend for not seemingly losing a month at a time in the future.

### Looking for Work

Of course I made much less progress than I wanted. It's always like that.

But I have been following my [Looking-for-Work Strategy](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/w9yPcWvLH3xMCzby8/tt-s-looking-for-work-strategy) by populating [my LfW list](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x9czXc21PWHnAPIOqtSLn4AvUH-H1YTCsTQljzQeUQw/edit?usp=sharing). It is fun reflecting on how many cool people I'm aware of and learning more about them and the companies they have worked for or founded. I'm anxious about actually reaching out to people, but I think it is the most sensible thing to be doing.

### Transformers from Scratch

Despite really enjoying being in "studying mode" I failed to actually make much time for this. I definitely failed my goal of 1 to 2 submodules per week. I think I will drop that goal and focus instead on doing at least 1 pomodoro per day, which seems like a better strategy for tricking my executive function into actually getting me spending time on this.

### ndisp Project

I did not work on this at all. I think "at least 1 pomodoro per week" is too abstract, rather I need to schedule a specific day, or commit to working on it every day, which I will try for the next sprint.

### Writing

I didn't get distracted by writing or editing posts and neglect to do other work, so that is a success, but I would still like to have done that optional 1 pomodoro a few times. Alas, maybe next week.

### Worklog

As mentioned in the overview, this was good last week but failed this week. But it doesn't seem like there is as much of a problem with doing work and failing to record it, the issue seems more to be getting depressed or distracted with other things and failing to do any work. So in this case it seems like the worklog is working as intended! I just need to get better at self management, and keeping a worklog serves as a good diagnostic tool.

Goals for 7th Sprint
====================

I'm very happy to actually be writing this entry at the 2 week frequency I intended, and I'm happy with the work I was doing when I was working during the last sprint. The problem seemed to be keeping on top of my self management system and putting in time working, so for the next sprint I'm going to try setting and recording a clock-in and clock-out time for daily work.

The clock-in time will be useful for making sure I'm getting started early in the day, while the clock-out time will discourage me from focusing late at night and instead calm down and not disrupt my sleep routine.

My focuses for the next sprint are:

*   Fill in worklog at end of every day
*   Record clock-in and clock-out time every day
    *   Goal is 9am to 5pm including lunch break
*   Break up daily focus with pomodoros:
    *   2 ≤ pom/day ≤ 4 : Looking for Work
    *   1 ≤ pom/day ≤ 3 : Transformers from Scratch
    *   1 ≤ pom/day ≤ 3 : ndisp Project 
    *   0 ≤ pom/day ≤ 1 : Writing