Academic Bubble

The guide book I found a few months ago -  Dissertation and Research Success (2013) by Robin Buckley (PhD) and Timothy Delicath (PhD) - said to create an "Academic Bubble" in which to keep your notes, research, resources, etc. out all the time.  Here's a photo of mine.

It's a little tricky as my computer and peripherals cease to become part of the Bubble at 9:00 a.m. ET, Monday through Friday when I take my student hat off and put my systems engineer manager hat on.  The rickety desk on the left remains part of the Bubble, but I have to go through it almost daily to keep it from becoming a collector of odds and ends that have absolutely nothing to with my dissertation.

I finally got the three-monitor set-up to work this morning.  Windows 7 makes a two-monitor set-up easy.  I had to get a USB video adapter (from StarTech) to make the third monitor work.  By the way, I found an awesome sale on those three Samsung monitors at Staples a couple of weeks ago.  The monitor stand is pretty cool, too (found it on Amazon)--it's hard to see in the picture, but they all are attached to a stand with a single pedestal.  Underneath the center monitor is a brick wrapped in a towel to give the stand a bit more stability.  These 24" monitors are heavy.

For the dissertation, my main document appears on the center screen.  Endnote (with the file containing my research and resources citations) is on the right.  Research is on the left.