kareina

I have a major grant application deadline coming up next week, and I have been particularly stressful about coming up with a budget for the proposed project. My boss has been too busy on meeting his own deadlines to be able to talk with me about it. This morning I read over the instructions for the entire application packet again, and this time really noticed the part that says that in addition to filling out the on-line form with the budget numbers I also need to attach an appendix which will "Explain the proposed budget; briefly justify each item in the submitted budget."

I hadn't started that document yet, so I decided that was a good place to spend the morning. This turned out to be what I needed to get past my fears of filling in the numbers--in the course of writing up why I wanted to do each thing for which I will need money I was suddenly able to make up numbers that sound reasonable for covering each item, and now it is only 11:00 and my draft of the budget itself and the appendix justifying it have both been sent off to my boss for comment. Hopefully he will find time to make time to check this and give feed back--editing this document and adjusting the numbers up or down as his experience dictates has got to be easier than answering the vague "What do I include?" questions I last sent him on this topic.

Now to return to adding more science background information to my project plan...