the grid

the grid

Wednesday 31 December 2014

Jan-Apr TLQ session. Sign up Jan 2-11.


Ring in the new year with some focus on that Top Left Quadrant (important but not urgent tasks). Our Jan-Apr session will be 15 weeks long.


Jan 2-11: sign-ups with your overall goal and your first weekly goal
Jan 16: first check in.
April 24: final check in.

Feel free to invite other folks and/or post a link on your blog. The more the merrier!

Watch for the Jan 2 sign-up post.

Monday 22 December 2014

Overall goals for this block

For those who set goals for this block, they are posted below. I failed to do so. JaneB, I couldn't find record of yours either...in the first week, you noted that you would get to it the following week, but one thing leads to and overwhelms another... -humming

Allan Wilson: to write and submit a manuscript called pirate, while improving my overall level of health and fitness. But I also have lots of wildly overdue things to do. Hmmm. They might end up here on the margins as well.
Amstr: Overall Goals: 1) prep, plan, and start to execute Dissertation to Book transformation; 2) land a teaching gig for winter; 3) health (eat well, sleep well, exercise regularly); 4) make progress on non-academic writing (3 ready-to-edit children’s book drafts; 1 short story).
Contingent Cassandra: Semester Goals (more or less in order of importance/likely tackling): (1) attend to health/wellness: restart exercise program, cook/eat healthy meals, get regular sleep; (2) continue progress on getting financial matters in order; (3) get community garden plot fenced and prepared for winter; (4) work on apartment home-repair/improvement projects. If things go well, there might also be some work on reacquainting myself with my research and/or preparing for next semester, but let's leave it at the core 4 for the moment.
Daisy: get rid of all three thesis papers
Der Modell Wissenschaftler:
1) Finish my dissertation and submit it to my committee by XXX (I haven't even committed the deadline to memory yet!)
2) Stick to my health and exercise plan, and mentally not get sidelined by the overwhelming amount of junk that needs to be done before we can sell our house
3) Defend my dissertation and deposit it by end of semester
4) Write and submit application for teaching certificate
-Keep up Secondary Field momentum. How best to do this is something of a question. (Just do it. Any old way, some part of me begs.)
Earnest English:
-Schedule and be firm about making enough time to properly prep and grade for the intensive classes I have this quarter. (My family is very home-based, and I plan to be at home more this quarter, but this means doing work at home, which is sometimes very difficult for me to do. I just need to be firm about it -- not angry and panicked because I'm already too far behind.) Next step: figuring out times when I can regularly schedule work time.
-Stay engaged with my child's homeschooling (though my partner is definitely going to have to pick up on that). To make that concrete, I'd say that I should make sure to do at least two sessions with him a week or take two classes together per week (which are already on our scheduled actually, though as the weather turns, I imagine we'll want to stay home more). This should be okay, but since I've never balanced work and homeschooling before, I'm nervous about it.
-Maintain gardening, composting (order that composter!), and holidays/family traditions through the term.
-Take care of myself: get enough sleep; eat good vegan food as often as possible (and no going to work with no food!); take supplements; exercise at least twice a week; try to catch up with the doctors, especially the eye doctor -- also find new doctors since the move; consider meditation or use writing as meditation; let loose sometimes (go out for drinks with Mentor). Take that yoga class already?
-Keep up minimal research in my Primary field enough to not have to go insane right before a conference. This means getting some reading and some notes done. Next step: schedule?? I really only need an hour or so per week for this.
-If possible, write some notes about intensive classes I'm teaching.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell: Semester goals: write the article, assemble the dossier, stay healthy, stay sane.
Good Enough Woman:
1) Read key texts on theory that will tie all of the thesis chapters together, put together an outline and bibliography for the introduction.
2) Revise and develop chapter two of the thesis.
3) cook from the farm box, walk regularly, and make sure weight goes down, not up.
4) Make five doctor's appointments for myself because I am way behind on all fronts (dentist, dermatologist, eye doctor, mammogram--you know the rest).
5) Have at least two one-on-one dates with each child and with my husband.
KJHaxton:
1. complete professional development activities, 1 by mid October deadline, and two others thereafter. These types of things always feed into each other quite well hence tackling several in one go.
2. rewrite manuscript that was drafted over the summer for a new journal - the one I was aiming for (with quite a specific focus) no longer seems to exist. Oh, and find new journal to submit to.
3. Get back to writing for 30 - 45 minutes first thing each day to plug through the other manuscripts in the list.
Matlida: Overall goals for this block:
1) An article which will be a part of my book.
2) A book proposal.
3) Exercises, healthy eating, learning languages.
4) 15 minute-writing every day
Susan: My general goals for TLQ are
1. Finish the book,
2. Get the balance back in my life, with decent sleep, healthy eating, and exercise. I'm pretty good at the first two, but exercise has been more of a challenge,

3. Get rid of paper in my house, and turn my former study, which now functions as "where I put things when I have no better idea" into a den or exercise room that works.

Sunday 21 December 2014

Happiest Holiday Wishes

With it being Solstice, halfway through Hanukkah, and Christmas and New Years around the corner, I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a joyful end of 2014. Take a good long deep breath. How was your TLQ this time? What worked well? What might you do differently next time?

And speaking of next time, our esteemed and wise guide JaneB has asked for preferences on 3 month blocks (Jan-Mar, Apr-June, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec) or 4 month blocks (Jan-Apr, May-Aug, Sept-Dec)? Looking forward!

Last set of goals:

Allan Wilson: re-focus on health, sleep, exercise for a few weeks so I return in a much better state.
Amstr: 1) finish reading dissertation; 2) catch up on budget stuff; 3) exercise 4x.
Contingent Cassandra: 1) finish grading; 2) do some gardening; 3) at least contemplate how to fit exercise, cooking, mucking out (at least to the point where I might have a place to put a Christmas tree), financial stuff, enough rest to be restorative, and prep for next semester into the month or so I have off. 4) Also do something about Christmas presents (some done; some not).
Daisy: 1) Research travel  2) Program development writing 3) Newsletter for professional association 4) Work on Paper X
Good Enough Woman: 1. Gather articles and create bibliography related to Chapter 2 and the presentation paper I need to write based on chapter 2. 2. Take care of test and lab work for daughter. 3. Prep house for house- and pet-sitters. 4. Pack 5. Walk/run at least twice. 6. Grade final papers and exams. (I know these are more like TRQ, but even though the grades aren't due for a couple of weeks, I'd like to get them done before our trip, so in some ways, that makes the work TLQish.)
JaneB: 1) Christmas prep. 2) Do SOMETHING to one of my neglected research papers. 3) Write 1-2 300 word abstracts for next summer's big conference and submit. 4) Get a lot of sleep, drink a lot of fluids, be nice to voice!
Susan 1. Finish substantive work on chapter 2. Christmas preparations 3. Christmas cards.

Sunday 14 December 2014

Moving toward closure

There are about two and half weeks left in the year. Many of us are pushing to wrap up the final bits of the semester, others are finished, some are already engaged in moving toward holiday shopping, cooking, travel, or retreat.

As we move toward setting goals for the final weeks of this incarnation of TLQ, it’s an opportunity to take a moment to look at our successes, be grateful for what we’ve accomplished, and begin thinking about how we might do things differently in the future. What are your plans for finding closure...or ignoring closure as a concept all together?

Listed below are folks who set goals last week, but anyone who’s been on board is of course welcome to continue the conversation.

Amstr: 1) consistent bedtime, 2) exercise 4x (even 5 min. counts), 3) send off drafts to readers, 4) read 1 diss chapter, 5) get caught up on finances + declutter progress.
Contingent Cassandra: weave at least a bit of exercise, cooking, apartment-tidying (mucking out is more like it) and/or attention to financial stuff in between bouts of grading (and accomplish some substantial bouts of grading).
Daisy: 1) Finish all grading 2) Get rid of lingering accounting 3) Send away first paper
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell: 1) Revise the paper. 2) Hydrate and exercise. 3) Inch into the holiday spirit.
humming42: 1) grading continues. 2) Tiny project 3) finish class research paper due on Thursday.
JaneB: 1) get all remaining classes completely prepared 2) do some damage control on research type stuff. 3) clear off my desk in the office
KJHaxton: finish the Christmas stuff; tackle filing and tidying both at work and at home so that I can be productive in the lull between Christmas and New Year.
Matilda: 1) Work on the book of Chapter 1 and Introduction.  2) Write for at least 15 minutes a day. 3) Exercise for 5 minutes a day. 4) Prepare for 2015.

Susan: 1) library: manuscript/rare book work, note checking, reading. 2) visit with lots of old friends. 3) some walking

Sunday 7 December 2014

This one goes to 11

I am finished with teaching for the semester and now have two weeks of exams and grading ahead. I am likely to take my usual approach: rather than pushing through the grading, I dole it out until the day all grades are due so I can start enjoying other diversions as well as getting caught up on service and dabbling in research & writing.

I have done a horrible job of checking in to TLQ lately. It took me all semester to realize that maintaining this “just in time” strategy means that I have been in a perpetual state of TRQ. Why I ever thought that would be a good way to manage multiple projects…

With my own bad history late, I’m resolving to check in, show up, do better. Goals from last week are posted below. If you didn’t check in (like me), please post a goal or two or five for the coming week. Hope to see you in the conversation here.

Allan Wilson: 1) complete all work on the WHK draft, including revised abstract. 2) revise abstract TET paper and other promised revisions. 3) measure required animals for a new TLQ paper. 4) clean up spreadsheet for the new TLQ paper. 5) do the logistic regression for FS. 6) exercise 3x
Amstr: 1) consistent bedtime; 2) exercise 4x; 3) send off 2 drafts to 2 readers for critique; 4) read 2 diss chapters; 5) get caught up on finances + declutter 3x20min.
Contingent Cassandra: No check in.
Daisy: Work on other paper A LOT!!
Der Modell Wissenschaftler: No check in.
Earnest English: No check in.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell: 1) Revising the article. 2) Get through medical tests. 3) Get through husband’s surgery.
Good Enough Woman: No check in.
humming42: No check in.
Ivy: read through paper and send to postdoc advisor.
JaneB: No check in.
KJHaxton: No check in.
Matilda: 1) Work on the book and the book plan. 2) Write for at least 15 minutes a day. 3) Exercise for 5 minutes everyday. 4) Prepare for Christmas and 2015. 
Susan: 1) Finish tragedy! Start comedy. 2) Walk three days. 3) Prepare for research trip. 4) Trying to get a little bit prepared for the holiday season. 5) Weed and maybe harvest the lemons.