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Author: grace-ac

_posts/2026-02-02-Monthly_goals.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: February Goals 
+date: '2026-02-02'
+categories: [MonthlyGoals]
+---
+Goals post for February 2026.
+
+# Goals when I need something "easy" to do: 
+Organize multispecies repository! 
+1. Rename files to be more clear and helpful      
+2. Remove files that are not needed        
+3. Update readme.md files in directories 
+
+Goal is to have it be easily navigable for collaborators (and for my future self years from now if I need to know what I did) 
+
+# Chapter 1 -- submit to a journal
+The paper that I submitted to Philosophical Transactions B was rejected, and so myself and coauthors are going to be coming up with a new plan and identifying a new target journal. Get that to a journal this month. 
+
+# Qualifying Exam Studying
+I have received some reading lists (primarily academic papers, and one book) and have been thinking about a study plan for a while. I am now starting to implement the process! 
+
+I am using Zotero to read the papers and am highlighting according to a color coding system where I highlight Yellow: main ideas/ takeaways; Green: Definitions, methodology, technical terms; Pink: Important supporting details, evidence, statistics; Blue: citations or quotes - references that need to be followed up; Red: Controversial points, crucial questions, critical results. 
+
+I am taking notes in Zotero and will be linking papers to connect broader themes (there's a way to link papers using notes in the Zotero app). 
+
+I will soon also be setting aside writing practice time. I'll write another notebook post later this month detailing the study and preparation methods that seem to be working best as I go along. 
+
+My qualifying exam is going to be March 16-20th. One question/day for 5 days. 
+
+# Multi-species
+I'm currently working on cleaning up the repository. I did it last quarter for a while, but I still know I have far too many things in there and I also didn't get to the data directory because I was a a bit overwhelmed by it. As I clean it up, I'll try to focus extra on what I would want it to look like if I were to send to a collaborator who hasn't seen the repo before and have it be clear. 
+
+I also want to finish my draft that I've been working on so I have it ready to share sometime this quarter to get feedback. 
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