Well here we are… The end of another session! I think we’ve done some pretty great things in the last few months. We’ve definitely had lots of rough bits, but I hope the weekly check-ins and chatting has helped with those a bit! Logistics for the next session can be decided with new hosts, Julie is considering, thanks!
Below are our goals from last week along with our session ones for reflecting and celebrating.
One last positive prompt: tell us one or two things for which you are proud of yourself this session! Because you are all lovely and awesome and sometimes everyone needs a reminder of that…
Thank you to HeuMihi for excellent co-hosting, and thank you to everyone who keeps showing up (for all kinds of things!) week after week after week! It means a lot!
Last week’s goals:
Dame Eleanor Hull
- dead language group prep
- finish prepping the last two grad lectures
- more work on expanding article
- review copy-edited Other Article
- do some gardening
Daisy
FINISH revisions on accepted paper
Confirm summer field accommodations and timing (so much work in one sentence!)
Work on two conference talks
Use conference talks to outline paper
Read and edit many student thesis chapters
Finish all marking and grade submissions
Heu mihi
This week--must get back into
chapter 2, which is a bit of a hairy mess and nearly entirely unwritten:
1. Draft G section of ch. 2--this includes a quick lit review and rereading the
primary text, so this is my Major Goal
2. Read over any of the remaining 3 essays' proofs that come in (proofs are due
5/1)
3. Go to TWO MEETINGS, one of which is actually a 2.5-hour session of
interviews for a new Town Clerk
4. Revise short, low-pressure talk
5. Resume normal routines
JaneB
* do the everyday baseline chores when
they need doing, not when I've run out of stuff (we keep trying)
* eat more mindfully
* do paperwork for intake to try out ADHD medication (I am so scared about this
- but in the usual "meds are best" way, I have to try meds in order
to keep my referral for assessment for psychosocial coaching...)
* do some D&D prep, play D&D (because it's fun)
* read another book, do a little crochet
* prepare for staff-student committee, prepare for last week of teaching next
week, complete report on commercial project, peer review an article for a
journal, don't obsess about the whole union thing/marking boycott.
Julie
1. Finish reading thesis and write
report.
2. Two final exam preparation sessions for the modules I taught last term.
3. Meetings with 2 PhD students.
4. Plan this term's research, chase one archivist about visiting in May.
5. Do some minor house jobs.
6. Book dentist and hairdresser.
Susan – on the Camino!
Session goals:
Daisy:
Get my new lab completely functional and organized
Submit 2 papers that have been languishing for far too long
Get my library/music/games/craft space functional and beautiful
Try two 100-day projects (one with yoga, one with drawing)
Get back on the exercise wagon
Do one fun thing every week, bonus points if it is new
Dame Eleanor Hull:
- grade efficiently and return comments in a timely
manner
- make progress on book
- do some Responsible Adult tasks (such as get a new driver's license that
satisfies Real I.D. requirements, find a new doctor)
- make progress on unpacking and other House Tasks
heu mihi:
1. Encyclopedia entry due 1/31
2. Conference paper due 3/7
3. Book review due 3/25
4. Draft three (ha ha! Look at me being ambitious!) chapters
5. Do fun things, like seeing a friend, at least three times a month
6. Sit regularly, run regularly, get back into a steady yoga practice (at least
one lesson a week on average); keep track of alcohol consumption, out of
curiosity
JaneB:
1) Self-care - this comes first, and is about
making sure that when I don't have very many 'spoons', I don't automatically
throw them all into work. It's about maintaining the little habits and slowly
adding to them, finding the motivation to make a pan of soup on the weekend,
practicing saying "later" and "no" and "not
today."
1a) reclaim my immediate physical environment. October, I decided to take some
steps, and reached out to a professional declutterer plus researched and signed
a contract to get the house doors and windows replaced (original wooden ones
are close to 40 years old and have not been well maintained, plus drafty). In
November, my roof sprung a leak which ended up requiring a complete re-roof of
the house which emptied my accessible savings and beyond - but I do now have a
water-tight house. And I'm committed to the windows and doors, so they should
get done this month (all these expenses makes industrial action and pay
deductions scary... but the medium term will be OK, just got to get through the
next few months). After which, I want to work with the decluttering lady every
few weeks, until I get to a point where I can possibly feel OK having a cleaner
in once a month, and start saving again towards getting some redecorating done
by persons not me! (unlike the Dame, I am terrible at painting walls).
2) research stuff. This is mostly just "ticking over" - I have two
grad students at the moment, and several early career folks who I work with/mentor
in various informal ways at other places, plus am part of various collaborative
projects. Things which need to happen during this session:
2a) poor abandoned multi-author paper - needs to be revised using all the
comments I got 14 months ago and be resubmitted
2b) review paper - a collective effort, the journal wants it in March (already
about a 6 month extension).
2c) paper with senior grad student - their first manuscript, a little side
project of theirs which we worked on together - would like to get a full draft
by the end of the session
2d) consultancy - SGS and I have about a week's worth of computer modelling to
do which is applied work on an interesting problem, will provide SGS with a
nice bit of extra pay, and form the final section of a paper the scientist from
the commercial organisation is already writing, so low effort for a solid
reward
2e) wish-we-never-started project - has been and still is a nightmare but I
HAVE to start producing outputs, even through I still don't know how to pay for
stuff from the project (it's only been 18months of internal confusion...)
2f) what-do-you-mean-we-got-the-money project (I'm a minor partner on a very
off-the-wall sort of project idea which was thrown together in about ten days
for a cross-funding-body new horizons funding call, and, well, we were all
rather shocked and now something has to happen. Thank the good LORD the hiring
has worked smoothly and we have a great technical hire locally to actually do
the making things happen...).
3) teaching. I have three modules to coordinate (all team taught, all
non-standard in some way), a small herd of final year project students to
support, and a newish administrative role to navigate on top of the two I
already have. This is actually not only my light semester, but I have some
extra-for-this-year-only help with some of the in person teaching (for two
units, I do the writing/slides/ViLE setup/marking, and teach the virtual
repeat, but the in person classes are taught by other people which saves me
some commuting)... my main goal here is just survival, but to set something a
bit more measurable, I'm aiming to be at least 7 days ahead in terms of
prep/paperwork, and more once we reach March, the bulk of the content delivery
is over, and the focus is on workshops and projects and the like.
4) fun: this includes writing fiction or poetry, reading fiction or
non-work-related non-fiction, making things, and playing Dungeons & Dragons
with my nibling and their friends. I want to spend at least a couple of hours a
week doing FUN THINGS.
Julie:
Research:
Finish and submit the journal article I was working on last term (I came
so close before Christmas!)
Plan how to use research leave next term.
Teaching:
Keep teaching under control - do only essential prep/revisions, resist
the temptation to go the extra mile. Remind myself no one will
notice whether I do or not.
Home:
Try to tackle some of the projects on the list, but not beat myself up
about them.
Life:
Book holidays.
Regular exercise
Try to make some time for myself and use it mindfully.
Karen:
Research - have KL article ready for submission; be
on track with body project
Teaching - stay at least a week ahead on VILE; all marking done within 2 weeks
Self and home - keep up monthly and weekly planning in bujo, maintain an
intentional exercise schedule each week
Susan:
Research:
1. Actually finish Famous Author (with whom I am very bored) so I feel
free. Send to publisher. Get it done.
2. Get draft of Intro to Big Collaboration drafted. I'm not teaching this
term (lots of admin instead) so this should be possible)
Home:
1. This is the busy season for the garden: prune roses, pull up grass
while the ground is (VERY) wet. Put down weedblock and mulch.
2. Plant some low growing drought tolerant plants along the new
irrigation piping so the yard looks better.
3. Sort books that I don't want to keep and take them to various places
where they might find homes. (This is in preparation for moving/downsizing when I retire,
probably formally 3 years from now.
Life:
1. Make sure I do something social for fun every week.
2. Regular exercise. At the very end of this session I've signed up for
a 10 day walk along the Portuguese Camino de Santiago. So I need to be able to
walk 10 miles a day. Walking, riding my expensive bike, yoga etc. Something
every day.
May the spring and summer be a good change of pace and a beautiful season :)
