During the past few months,  I decided to put together a list of my personal goals toward completing my dissertation. Entitled, “10 Things I Need To Do Everyday,” here is my list:

10 Things I Need To Do Everyday

1. Work on my Dissertation
This is obviously number one on my list, but I feel the other elements on my list will help me progress through this process. I once talked to a principal of a charter school who told me that his role in the school was to help kids create ‘hooks’ so that they could learn the skill of making connections. I think in academia, this idea draws heavily from the concept of schemas. In order to facilitate efficient recall of information stored in long-term memory, the amount of connections we make about a concept has a tremendous impact on the retrieval process. I’ve found that new experiences (both positive and negative) have always had a place in my dissertation process. You would be surprised to see how instructional design impacts so many non-academic everyday activities. I realized this when I took a cooking class from Chef Dan (at The Seasoned Chef Cooking School), where he taught us how to produce a meal not through a recipe, but through using basic skills and techniques (such as cutting food, watching for smoke when heating a pan, and checking the temperature of protein). According to Chef Dan, once you have mastered the basic skills and techniques, the most important questions are : 1) Does it taste good? and 2) Is there enough for everyone? In instructional design, we also talk about teaching skills over rote memorization. I found the art of cooking to reinforce these concepts.

2. Make Something 
This means making a product, and showcasing it somehow. It can be a drawing, a meal, or even a fort in my living room. At the TEDxBoulder 2011 conference, I was inspired by Jake Nickell’s presentation entitled, “Never stop making.” He stated that while experts routinely do their jobs efficiently and effectively, innovation often comes from amateurs who may not be doing it the right way. In life, such unintended consequences can only come about if we feel the need to keep making. “Do it for yourself…don’t be a passive viewer of the world.” Jake Nickell also stated that you don’t need a master plan, “Just get it out of your head.” I really like this idea. In the past year, I’ve been getting into sewing, gardening, and cooking, and I hope to make something meaningful out of each of these hobbies.

3. Watch (Look at) Something
One may argue that human beings in the 21st century are overloaded with visual stimulation. Whether it be through the internet, the TV, through video games, or through our smartphones and tablets. We probably need less of all of those in a given day. But, what I’m talking about here is the need to watch something or look at something that is informative and helps us 1) learn a new concept or skill,  2) navigate through information critically, and 3) reconsider convention. As an example, I recently decided to take up sewing, knowing absolutely nothing about the subject. After the sewing machine’s arrival, I realized I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it. Thankfully, through YouTube, I watched tons of clips on threading my sewing machine, threading the bobbin, cutting fabric with rotary cutters, quilting, backstitching, adding buttons, and so forth. In addition to learning about sewing, I also learned about what makes a good video tutorial. Concepts like audio quality, the use of background music, close-ups, and rapport between the narrator and audience were extremely important to me. This was also true when I had my documentary-watching marathon. There is a lot of criticism on education-related documentaries produced in the past few years such as Waiting for Superman (2010), the Lottery (2010), Whatever It Takes (2009), or The Cartel (2009). Questions of bias and the methods of presenting information in addition to the whole debate on improving education is reflective of how we consume information. In this way, I think learning how to use my visual senses critically is extremely important.

4. Talk to Someone
(…and meet up with someone face-to-face at least once a week). In the past twenty years, different social media have taken over my life. I find myself being overwhelmed by the exponential increase in and bombardment of the amount of information presented to me in a given moment. Learning about my friends in 140-character bursts or through a filtered Instamatic-type image is intriguing, but I am left with so many questions. Fifteen years ago, I could just give my friend Emily a call, meet up, and talk. Amy and I would go on random drives “to get lost,” going back and forth on the Seven Hills, hitting our favorite bump on the side of the road as we talked about spontaneous things happening around us. Now, much of the daily feedback I get are in the form of a blue thumbs up or an @ sign. It is so easy, efficient, and comfortable. But I want to make my life difficult. If I call you, I probably just want to hear your voice, see how you are doing, and draw inspiration from your life.

5. Write Something
I was talking to my friend Jason about how we were both not updating our respective blogs. The paradox of blogging is that you need to consistently post content or you do not receive traffic or feedback. However, without feedback and traffic, you lose the motivation to post. I often begin writing a post as a draft, without ever finishing it or publishing it. Jason mentioned something interesting to me about the difference between our speaking skills and our writing skills. Why is it so much easier to articulate things through speech than it is to just sit and post a blog about it? He suggested that it is because, while we have many chances in our day-to-day lives to practice our verbal communication skills, once we graduate from school, we rarely practice our writing skills (to the same extent). So writing for me daily will get me in the habit of purposeful synthesis of thought jotting.

6. Read What I Wrote the Day Before
For those who know me, I carry around a un-lined notebook and a glue-stick everywhere I go. In addition to gluing ticket stubs, business cards, receipts, and stickers, I often write down my thoughts or doodle in them. I have been writing since high school when my friend Toby gave me my first brown Sherlock Holmes notebook, and I have been gluing since I visited Europe with my friend Ginger just after high school. For all the writing and gluing I have done, I have rarely ever re-read anything in those books. As I read about formative evaluation in instructional design, I think re-reading my work and improving on challenges is important in my learning process. In Thomas Friedman’s book, “The World Is Flat 3.0,” one of the characteristics necessary in becoming successful in the future is to learn how to learn how to know. It isn’t specifically what you know (lower level knowledge) that is important, but how to learn (higher level knowledge). I think exercises in metacognition, or thinking about thinking, may be a good first step in reaching those goals.

7. Eat a Healthy Vegetarian Meal At Least Once A Day
(…preferably organic and not radioactive). I’ve always prided myself in being a healthy eater. I almost always cook at home, and I enjoy a balanced diet without overeating. However, in light of the radiation disaster in Japan, I began to learn about how we needed to consider not only the types of food groups we should consume, but also the quality of the food that we purchase. I recently watched the documentaries, “Food Inc” (2008) and “King Corn” (2007), coincidentally just before the TEDxBoulder 2011 conference where many of the speakers were in the food-related industry. One speaker in particular, Robyn O’Brien, gave a presentation on how she learned about one of her children’s allergies and her subsequent passion to be informed and inform others about the food we consume. What was surprising to me, in particular, was the correlation (not causation) between the increase in genetically engineered products with the increase in children born with food allergies. As someone who hopes to have kids of her own one day, one of my goals is to make better choices on not only what I eat, but also, how I choose to eat.

8. Drink Less Alcohol (and Soda)
The soda portion is pretty easy, since I don’t drink that much soda in general. However, curving alcohol consumption is probably one of the hardest goals on this list since I have been drinking alcohol daily since I can remember. So far in my life, I have never thought of it as a big issue in my life, until recently, I happen to re-read an almost illegible scribble in my journal: “Stop drinking so much. You are an idiot.” Which made me wonder if there wasn’t a way to moderate my drinking. So here is the plan which I am stealing from the time I was training for the Half Marathon using the Nike+ wristband and also from my readings on assessment and motivation. It involves positive reinforcement and rewards. For every day, I don’t drink, I give myself a star. When I reach 10 stars, I get to do something super cool (and there are so many cool things I want to do). Every time I reach my goal, I add five more to the goal. So first iteration: 10 stars. Second iteration: 15 stars. Third iteration: 20 stars. If I do drink one evening, no worries. Just try again the next day. So far, I’ve found ways to replace my soda and alcohol consumption with other beverages. One of my friends, Mario, recently gave me a ton of amazing loose tea leaves from Germany. I had my first sip the other day, and I instantly fell in love with German tea.

9. Play Music or Listen to Something
I always love listening to different types of music, but two audio related hobbies I’ve picked up recently are audiobooks and playing the ukulele. I have found audiobooks to be a great form of entertainment on my 1 hour+ drive to Greeley. I also listen while I sew because I feel so guilty not doing dissertation reading while I am so engrossed in putting together a new sewing idea. Playing the ukulele was initially something I had always wanted to do, but never got around to doing. I simply wanted to find something relatively easy to learn, but portable and fun. I never realized how much patience I needed, though, I think it’s helping me with my hand-eye coordination (something I was never very good at doing). Digital media online has made learning a new instrument extremely inexpensive. My teachers are random people on the internet who take the time to post videos, post tabs, and provide chord charts. Similar to the experiences of learning how to sew, there are so many creative people putting up tutorials online.

10. Do Something New
I don’t know what to write here, except, I draw inspiration from a question that I was asked during my comprehensive exams. My committee and I were discussing how report cards and grades never encouraged students to be creative or to take risks. For example, while I do believe that goals and objectives are important in learning, creating a box rubric and saying you will receive full points if you complete the listed goals limits the student’s motivation to push themselves one step further. The question, “So, how do you propose to change the grading system?” still intrigues me. This question was like asking, “how do you place a grade on non-visual aspects of learning, such as effort, motivation, creativity, inspiration?” In order to search for the answer, number 10 on my list is left vague to open up the possibility for new experiences and ideas.