the grid

the grid

Saturday 26 August 2017

Week 15: Summer's End

Here in the UK this is the last big holiday weekend of the summer - Monday is  a Bank Holiday and some schools start back later in the week, so the traffic news makes me happy to not have anywhere to go, the air is filling up with evening barbeque smells, and shops are having amazing back to school offers (have I ever mentioned that I have a Little Spending Problem when it comes to stationary?  As in, I can't resist spending on it?  I loooove this aspect of back to school time).  In the US many of you are already starting the first semester - here in the UK we have a few weeks left, but summer is definitely going out the door.  I think we all deserve at least a new notebook or two to start the new academic year, even if we no longer need the whole backpack, pencil case, and complete geometry kit package!

All that means that it is time to review progress this session, celebrate our achievements, note any lessons, and plan for the next few months!  That's quite enough of a topic, so I won't suggest anything else.  Thanks everyone for taking part, for your company on the journey of scholarship and survival-with-integrity in the modern academy which we're all making, for your comments and inspiration.  I'll finish by repeating the poem DEH shared with us in week 8:

What Any Lover Learns
by Archibald MacLeish

Water is heavy silver over stone.
Water is heavy silver over stone's
Refusal. It does not fall. It fills. It flows
Every crevice, every fault of the stone,
Every hollow. River does not run.
River presses its heavy silver self
Down into stone and stone refuses.

What runs,
Swirling and leaping into sun, is stone's
Refusal of the river, not the river.

Last week's goals:



Contingent Cassandra (carried over)
1) Get grades in (TRQ, but also necessary to having a bit of time to concentrate on TLQ)
2) Figure out what I'll do when in the next month as much as possible
3) Keep lifting weights; get in the pool; move some more mulch if weather cooperates

Dame Eleanor Hull
Self: twice-daily stretching and some form of cardio; get back to the gym; adjust sleep schedule.
Teaching: finish two syllabuses.
Research: 6 hours (4 x 1.5 hrs).
House: finish packing study and guest room. Garden work as needed.
Other: campus errands.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell (carried over)
Walk forty-five minutes a day.
Work on Prudence one hour a day.
File thirty minutes a day.

GoodEnoughWoman
1) Return the ill-fitting pants and shoes I ordered for the kids.
2) Walk 3x. Swim 1x.
3) Write 500 words.
4) Start drafting course outline for new course proposal.
5) Go through article to change British punctuation and spelling to American punctuation and spelling.
6) Go to doctor's appointment and move like water in response to whatever I learn..

heu mihi
This week: Keeping it very modest because it's Friday, so I have a pretty good idea of what I'll be able to accomplish (= not much; was at the in-laws' Sun-Wed and have no child care this week):
1. Annual faculty report
2. Process (with help of husband) approx. 50 pounds of paste tomatoes

humming42
1 submit article review (TRQ)
2 finish chapter 1 revisions
3 spend time working on grant proposal
4 draft rough outline for Snow

JaneB
1) tick off 6/10 of BlackSummerProject
2) work out shape of Picky Paper as it stands
3) Gallimaufrey review and possible grant - collect up comments so far, pull together, propose tasks others can do, send out emails
4) clear my office desk!
5) enjoy working with the Visitor
6) move more!

Karen (carried over)
1) finish abstract ahead of extended deadline
2) draft theme area grant application
3) do one pomodoro of office tidying
4) move more (2 x yoga, 1 x walk - think about downloading a couch to 5k app)

KJHaxton
1. trip to big city
2. trip to conference
anything else is a bonus

Matilda (carried over)
1) Finish first draft of Chapter 2.
2) 5-minute-exercises at least twice a day.
3) Find ‘my own 15 minutes’ as many as possible, and do something.
4) Re-consider my plan.

Notorious, PhD (carried over)
-3000 words this week
-3 yoga/four morning meditation
-One source collection
AND... clean up desk mess!
Oh -- you know, I'm going to add to my list: "Finish one nagging task." I have three, so I should be able to pick. Decluttering the mind.

Susan (carried over)
1. Make sure I've ordered desk copies of all books for fall
2. Keep moving
3. Keep reading

Waffles (carried over)
1. Outline for expectancies paper
2. Asthma paper - figure out next steps
3. Email guy from Tennessee
4. pack, clean, pack, clean, and random details related to packing and cleaning!
 

Session goals:

Contingent Cassandra
--Make consistent progress toward making at least one kind of movement (walking, swimming, weight-lifting, gardening) part of most days.

Dame Eleanor Hull
*First six weeks: primary goal is packing up my house and doing necessary maintenance to sell it. I'm trying to put in 1-2 hours a day on research and teaching tasks.
*Five weeks in UK: in addition to teaching responsibilities, which involve field trips as well as classroom work and grading, visit two places of personal significance, and ramp up the research considerably, since I will be living a few minutes' walk from a major research library that calms and inspires me.
*Final three weeks: take a week off from all work, then prep for the fall semester, mop up whatever tasks need mopping. With any luck, unpack in new place.
*Product goals: sell house, move; review all sections of translation that I have yet to review; get two R&Rs out the door (probably a good UK task); read, take notes, and move my book project forward; finalize syllabus for UK teaching; plan for fall classes.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Session mantra: Move, contemplate, create
Plan and draft sabbatical request.
Walk at least half an hour every day.

GoodEnoughWoman (GEW)
1) Do all things necessary to get kids set up in their own rooms (rooms that will be good sanctuaries for them for the rest of their time at home). This will involve MUCH moving and purging (and building of a backyard "office/library/studio/witch hut").
2) Eat the rainbow and help my family do the same.
3) Move more and build family practices for kids to do the same.
4) Just read daily and widely, regardless of topic. As for Dune, I'm not sure.
5) Write 5x per week, min of 15 minutes. Finish a chapter or a short story.
6) Since we aren't traveling as much, take advantage of local attractions and activities.
7) Spend more time on family to improve relationships, future memories, and bonds. (The relationships are good, but they definitely played second-fiddle to the PhD for the past year.)

heu mihi
The first three are non-negotiable:
1) Revise Norway talk (by 6/18)
2) Draft tenure statement (by 6/1); revise it (by 7/1)
3) Write ACLA paper (by 6/18)

The other big goal is...finish Book 2! I don't need to have this done by the end of the summer, strictly speaking, but for various reasons I want to. This involves the following sub-goals:
4) Revise chapter 3
5) Revise chapter 5
6) Revise ch. 2 as best I can
7) Finish tenure portfolio (which I need to do anyway)
8) Prepare for final read-through (by fixing notes and obvious problems in some chapters)

humming42
1 As ever, write 5x/week
2 And also, read 5x/week
3 End of month Pop revision
4 Revise and resubmit book review
5 Meet deadlines for Talk project
6 Draft outline for workshop
7 Outline and lit review for Snow project
8 Pick and complete a project to submit for conference

JaneB
1) domestic chaos reduction and self-care
2) having a good set of lists of preparation for late September, and having the main logistics for the early October fieldtrip in place
3) submit two ProblemChild papers and have the third close to ready
4) make good progress on PickyPaper
5) finish and submit that GrantINeverShouldHaveStarted!
6) go through and act on all the notes from SouthernCountry conference I just attended, the two March Meetings, and the things I've left aside in my email since January (or at least add them to a single list).
7) slightly stretch: get Ferrett ready for submission, have a complete draft of Gallimaufrey Review, and have started NextGrant (whatever that will be).

Karen
1. Put in promotion application
2. Have a documented map of full new degree structure informed by one feedback cycle
3. Make progress on KL project (application); Grass (conference paper, data gathering); and Farm (creative work)
4. Create more functional spaces at home with a focus on lounge room, bedroom, and built structures in the garden.
5. Nurture self with improved sleep, regular exercise.

KJHaxton
1. Complete and recover from treatment, get back to work full-ish time
2. create oral presentation and poster for (assuming abstract accepted) and attend conference at end of summer
3. Finish big blanket and purple scarf knitting projects
4. Start and finish a printing project
5. Submit ethics form for House project

Matilda
1) Finish the revision of the first drafts of Chapter 2~5.
2) Make a concrete plan of the structure of the book.
3) Establish good eating and exercising habits.

Notorious, PhD
• draft two book chapters (crappy draft okay)
• Revise co-authored article MS (this one's a maybe; chapters are the priority)
• Go through all papers/files in home & office & e-mail inbox and throw away or properly file everything.
• Reboot my physical fitness

Susan
1. Desk clearing/deck clearing: I ran away for a bit over a week in the UK right after the end of our term (a talk and a paper), came back and almost immediately had to drive my mother 250 miles for an event at my niece/nephew's school. (Why this is a late check in). My desk/study is a TOTAL disaster. I need to clear off the stuff from this past year's teaching to make space for next year, and to be able to work.
2. Course preparation: I'm teaching a new graduate seminar, and an altered version of a course I've taught before. I want to get ahead on them so it's not all last minute.
 3. Finish Old Conference paper and submit it for publication. (the proceedings were supposed to become a volume, but didn't, and I've been encouraged to submit this to a journal.) Probably needs a week or so of work, but nothing too extreme.
 4. Make revisions to "Way Outside", a paper that took over the last session, when I get comments from the editors. (This paper is in another discipline (English) and another century (20th) from that I usually work in, which is why it has it's name.) My hunch is that it's close to done, but like Old Conference, it needs a week or so to polish it, deal with formatting questions, etc.
 5. New Project 1: I have a plan for a short book that is largely synthetic. I want to start writing/outlining
 6. New Project 2: I am thinking through my next BIG project (I'm assuming 8-10 years), and I'd like to spend some time reading/thinking about how I might approach a big broad subject.
 7. Read. I have been trying to get back into reading novels/books.
 8. Walk regularly. When I'm not teaching, I need to pay real attention to keep myself moving.
 9. Relax. I just published a book, and I am trying not to make myself crazy with deadlines.

Waffles
1. Submit trans paper
2. Resubmit aging paper
3. Resubmit relat paper
4. Submit gender paper
5. Submit discrepancy paper
6. Submit PTSD paper
7. Submit scoping review
8. Get a handle on longitudinal paper
9. Figure out story for IPV paper
10. Figure out story for suicide paper
11. Move?
 

Saturday 19 August 2017

Week 14: What Didn't Work?

Next week is the last week of this session, and since we'll probably want to end next week on a positive note, I thought that this week, we could look back on the TLQ areas from this session that were especially challenging, analyzing why we had trouble with them and how we might need to adjust our behavior or adjust our goals in the future.

Some of you were very successful with all of your goals, so you are welcome to skip the topic and just do check-in, or perhaps you can share a time from the past when you had trouble focusing on a TLQ goal or establishing a new habit but then managed to overcome your obstacles to create a pattern of success.

My first day of classes is Monday, and I know many others are preparing for a new term. I hope you all find time for TLQ and "deep work" even as the tide is turning (or the river is getting wilder, or whatever nature metaphor you might fill in). For those of you not starting a new term yet, I hope you can avoid meetings and continue dig into TLQ.

Also, wherever you might be, watch out for Nazis and the Klan.


Contingent Cassandra (carried over)
1) Get grades in (TRQ, but also necessary to having a bit of time to concentrate on TLQ)2) Figure out what I'll do when in the next month as much as possible
3) Keep lifting weights; get in the pool; move some more mulch if weather cooperates

Dame Eleanor Hull
Self: regular stretching and walking; see if I can get back to the gym without injuring myself; haircut; massage; have fun with out-of-town visitor.
Teaching: finish syllabuses for fall; set up Blackboard shells for classes.
Research: 5 hours each on revisions and on translation project.
House: Garden work, finish packing my study, finish packing the guest room. 

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Walk forty-five minutes a day.
Work on Prudence one hour a day.
File thirty minutes a day.

GoodEnoughWoman
1) Do last syllabus. Make necessary copies for first week of classes.
2) Get new curtains for daughter and a curtain rod for son.
3) Hem existing curtains for son.
4) Exchange daughter's clarinet for a flute (long story involving clarinet cheilitis).
5) Write 1000 words.
6) Walk dog with son. Watch Gilmore Girls with daughter. Take both to the beach for boogie boarding.
7) Arrange for a piano to be moved from my mom's house to my house (I don't feel like doing this AT ALL. Too much organizing and coordinating of schedules.)
8) Oh, and swim at least once.

heu mihi
1. Full rereading of ch. 2; get that one book to finish that one paragraph.
2. Reread intro and figure out what I need to do. 
3. Read SD's thesis (defense on Friday).
4. Keep working on to-do lists for other chapters.
5. Get caught up on some phone calls and emails; schedule car maintenance.
6. Finish syllabus 3/3 (this should take all of 15 minutes; no excuses!).
7. If I have time and/or need something concrete and mindless to do, photocopy stuff for second course pack.

humming42
1 finish grading and post grades
2 submit page proofs
3 submit reviewer comments
4 finish chapter 1 revisions

JaneB
1) write up and send notes/samples related to BlackSummerProject, try and tick off my part of the next step
2) write up the Picky Paper results from last week
3) Gallimaufrey review and possible grant - collect up comments so far, pull together, propose tasks others can do, send out emails
4) clear my office desk!
5) enjoy working with the Visitor
6) move more!

Karen
1) finish abstract ahead of extended deadline
2) draft theme area grant application
3) do one pomodoro of office tidying
4) move more (2 x yoga, 1 x walk - think about downloading a couch to 5k app)

KJHaxton (carried over)
1. finish posters
2. finish exam questions
3. finish skirt
4. start new knitting project (wool is ordered, sketches and plans made...)

Matilda (carried over)
1) Finish first draft of Chapter 2. 
2) 5-minute-exercises at least twice a day. 
3) Find ‘my own 15 minutes’ as many as possible, and do something. 
4) Re-consider my plan.

Notorious, PhD (carried over)
-3000 words this week
-3 yoga/four morning meditation
-One source collection
AND... clean up desk mess!
Oh -- you know, I'm going to add to my list: "Finish one nagging task." I have three, so I should be able to pick. Decluttering the mind.

Susan (carried over)
1. Make sure I've ordered desk copies of all books for fall
2. Keep moving
3. Keep reading 

Waffles
1. Outline for expectancies paper
2. Asthma paper - figure out next steps
3. Email guy from Tennessee
4. pack, clean, pack, clean, and random details related to packing and cleaning!