Snippets and Advisors

I’ve started using a strategy that my husband recommended. At his work (as a computer programmer and researcher at the major search engine), every week they have to submit a report to their manager called “snippets.” It’s a simple report that contains a bullet list of what they’ve accomplished in the past week, a bullet list of what they’re planning to accomplish the next week, and maybe a paragraph describing their progress or new and interesting ideas. Right now, my snippets are in one document, and each week I add to the top of the list. (I keep them and all my freewriting in a program called MacJournal that can go full screen so I’m not distracted by other programs.) My husband claims that snippets can really help with efficiency, because you can recognize patterns of times you stall out or tasks that seem to take weeks. I have to confess that for the month of September, my snippet just seemed to repeat itself for 5 weeks in a row--I was getting very little accomplished. My husband also suggested that I use the snippets as an easy way to report in to my advisor so he can help guide and direct my studies, or at least be aware of how I’m progressing.

. . . which brings me to the question of the day: How have you guys set up your relationships with your advisors? So far, my advisors are very hands off. They’re more than happy to talk if I approach them, but don’t check in, nor have they set up expectations of when I’ll check in or what type of work I’ll have them look at (rough, rough drafts; chapter drafts; working ideas). And I don’t have a clear sense of the roles of my various committee members. I’d love to hear how your advisors work, and I’d love any advice on how to approach establishing expectations for the relationship.