Slowing Down

At the beginning of this week I was reckoning with stalled momentum. During week one I threw myself into the project, eager to start making big progress. I spent a lot of time with github, spent a lot of time with MAST and then when the clear tasks were done I had trouble figuring out how to attack the huge challenge that lay before me. I spent the last couple of half days of the week somewhat aimlessly biting off small pieces of photometry, hungry for some structure and purpose. Coming back to the work after this weekend I was determined to make a structure for myself, knowing that I had a purpose which would rely on structure to succeed. With the inspiration from our monday meeting to to slow down, read more about photometry, and really understand it before I dove in, I spent the first two half-days of the week with the photutils tools reading about their implementation. These two days of slowing down and backing up gave me an informed base from which to begin practicing the tools of photometry.

The Reward

Once I finished reading the photutils docs that pertained to out project I got to try what they talked about on sample images of my own, finally being let loose on the text editor and the command line. With a basic understanding of the commands, I felt much better making photutils code that did photometry. The abstract goals converted into concrete goals (i.e. make this program produce a result). I spent a lot of time working through stack exchange and other online sources to find how to make the code do what I wanted. By the end of the week I had two and a half out of three pieces of strong photometry code that give me the results I want and save those results in a way that any other program can draw on them. Coding not only feels good and purposeful, it also produces clear indications of progress.

What I Learned

This week I learned that making a plan has to be the first step in the process for me. I spend my time much better when I have a plan with attainable waypoints to keep me focused and driven even through distraction and confusion. Having goals with tangible completion helped me to make significant progress this week, and this progress builds on itself as I get more and more engagement with the project. I hope to continue making plans on a daily level to continue getting the most out of the precious time I have to work each day.