Last week's discussion of rituals was great, but the real energy came around JaneB's suggestion of a "Brain Off Button". Most of us could use that. It is possible that some clever undergraduate in Magineering will figure it out! Until then, I thought we might celebrate the relatively small tasks that end of feeling like we've done something big. Sometimes these are things that hang over us even though they will take only about an hour or less; sometimes they haven't even been on the list but when we do them we feel extraordinarily accomplished.
Goals from last week:
Daisy:
Learn new and review old music for upcoming concerts
Urgent lab work day, send off samples
ALL the student thesis rewrites
Make and give conference presentation, enjoy conference
Make and give student event presentation
Dame Eleanor
Exercise: cardio x5, yoga at least x4. Swim x1. Trainer x1.
Work: do something on sample syllabus for 1 course proposal; ~3-5 hours/day on research (reading, translating, outlining, writing); prep for Latin group; finish Alms section; conference paper work.
Social/outings: Zoom with conference collaborator; eye exam; read book for group next week.
Creative: write out story climax idea/scene (may not have time for this, but it's a nice thing to keep around).
Planning: finish April trip arrangements; assemble tax documents
heu mihi
1. Get set up for spring break writing: reorient myself with my current chapter and/or think through ch. 5 some more; try to make some kind of progress on the floundering abstract of nonsense
2. Students: Read advisee's prospectus, take care of an incomplete, bunch of little things for my class
3. Send next issue of journal off to the press
4. Start ch. 3 revisions
JaneB:
1a - move intentionally three days
1b - do seven household tasks (check list in my bullet journal)
1c - eat mindfully
1d - make sure I do rest after a few hours
1e - read one book on neurodiversity
1f - the decluttering woman cometh, so I need to brace for that! Some VERY dusty bookcases are going to be purged...
2a - spend some decent fiction reading time, do some doodling, knit/crochet
2b - do some D&D preparation for a game I run, play D&D
3a - maintain boundaries, do minimal work hours (no meetings in the diary for the coming week, so will just aim to do email triage once)
Julie:
1. Revise grant application to make use of positive feedback from colleagues.
2. Talk to research support staff about costings.
3. More meetings, but last week of term.
4. Try to do some other bit of research/writing if time.
5. Restorative stuff
6. Exercise: run x 3, pilates x 1
7. House jobs: aim for 3
8. Book theatre weekend for summer with friends.
Susan
1. In theory everyone is supposed to get everything on big collaboration to us by Friday. So most of my time this week will be on that.
-- work on introduction
-- start work on illustration table in the form they want it
--read and deal with essays that come in late
--zoom meeting with co-editor
--communicate with authors who are late
2. Administrivia: there are meetings on several subjects that need attention. I will chair one tomorrow, and need to do it with friendliness and grace
-- reach out to admitted students about questions
3. Find time to plan time at conference in great midwestern city. What sessions will I go to? Which museum will I go to when I play truant?
4. Deal with necessary phone calls, schedule cat for boarding, etc.
5. 3 journals
6. Take a trip to the dump with stuff in garage. Maybe go to storage unit for a preliminary scan of the challenge there.
7. Test drive one of the cars I am thinking of buying when I get rid of the current car.
7. Something nice/fun. Eat/sleep/move
Good prompt. I think the small tasks get overlooked. I read somewhere that instead of writing a 'to-do list', we should write 'ta-dah! lists', that is, list everything you've done that day, including the small everyday tasks, and celebrate how much is there.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the small work tasks that tend to hang over me are the administrative kind: the email to start the ball rolling on something, or the form-filling. It's the same in other areas of my life. I am terrible at making appointments, especially over the phone, so I always feel a huge sense of achievement if I manage to book a plumber or an eye test. The same goes for making contact with an archive, or booking a research trip. I really need a secretary or PA elf, as well as a grant-writing one. Or a magical spell to deal with admin.
Last week was very messed up, as Monday my lower back pain flared up again, probably the worst it's been for a while. I did get to the physio and it is gradually getting better with the help of scarily strong painkillers (the kind that come with dire warnings on the packet because they contain opioids) and some back exercises. I haven't been able to sit for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time without it seizing up, however, so my concentration has been wrecked. I did shift things around and do some things that were planned for next week because I could do them in very small chunks, but the writing I planned to do went out the window.
1. Revise grant application to make use of positive feedback from colleagues. - NO
2. Talk to research support staff about costings. - INITIAL EMAIL
3. More meetings, but last week of term. - YES (no choice)
4. Try to do some other bit of research/writing if time. - READ ONE ARTICLE
5. Restorative stuff - YES (enforced, and had to be standing/in short bursts, but read a couple of books, watched some TV, made minestrone and baked cookies this weekend)
6. Exercise: run x 3, pilates x 1 - NO
7. House jobs: aim for 3 - NO
8. Book theatre weekend for summer with friends. - NOT YET (need a decision on which play!)
This week
1. Revise grant application & work on costings
2. Start marking latest batch of essays
3. Finish watching recorded presentations for conference sessions (on the judging committee)
4. House jobs - aim for 3
5. Book theatre weekend
6. Exercise if back recovered enough - run x 2, pilates x 1
So sorry to hear about the back! Bad backs are the WORST, they get in the way of absolutely everything... and they don't even come with some nice obvious markers like a cast or whatever.
DeleteOuch. I'm glad the back is getting better, but that is so painful. (I think the last time my back when out badly was before so much of my life was on a screen, so I can't imagine now.) I hope the recovery continues. And I'm big on the ta-dah moments!
DeleteI'm much the same about appointments and contacts. I don't know why they're so hard, but there's always such a lot of inertia about getting them started, and then eventually I feel silly about making them into a big deal. I hope your back improves rapidly. In the circumstances, I think reading an article is excellent progress!
DeleteOh no! I'm sorry to hear about your back. I hope that you're feeling better!
DeleteI'm 100% with you on appointments etc., especially (maybe even only) when they involve phone calls!
I've kept a done list for about 8 years now and it is GAME CHANGING for me. It has really helped me get rid of the "I did nothing all day" feeling, and is also a better incentive for action for me than ticking things off.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on getting better at accepting that some things are just always going to be harder for me than they "ought to be", than the person assigning them or the person wondering why I didn't do them thinks or genuinely experiences. it's always been this way - AuDHD helps put a lot of these things together into one pattern for me, but it's still very much a work in process/progress.
It was not a great week. I'm bored of writing that. I'm incredibly stressed about work both in general (like many "lesser" UK universities we are entering another round of extreme cost cutting, voluntary redundancies, and likely compulsories or closures following from that) and in particular (Interim Head of Department and her ableist comments is taking up more and more of my head. Last check in she told me that if I came onto campus four days a week and interacted with people in person that would make my schedule more normal and probably fix all my sleep issues. And she argued with everything I suggested about reasonable adjustments - I think she just argues with me as an instinctive response by now, we have never had an easy working relationship and now I'm on sick leave in an untidy way, not in the Mary Plane sense but in the mental health/invisible disability way, I feel like I'm on her last nerve and she is definitely on mine. And then messing up the phased return... Sigh! I'm trying not to think about it, but it's really worrying me).
Oh, and the University rebranded and the colour choice is just...exquisitely awful to my eye. Anyway. I had three decent days, then the decluttering person had to cancel at short notice (her child was sick, fully understandable), I had to have a review meeting with Interim Head (in theory to discuss my teaching allocation for next year, but that was not discussed. Not sure I'm supposed to be having those anyway as I'm on sick leave, not on phased return), and I kind of lost the plot, lost the ability to sleep at night or stay awake in daytime, did very little and basically was a pathetic person. Coming back today, thankfully...
LAST WEEK:
1a - move intentionally three days two
1b - do seven household tasks (check list in my bullet journal) four
1c - eat mindfully mixed. But I did some food prep today...
1d - make sure I do rest after a few hours not relevant really
1e - read one book on neurodiversity yes, and it was GOOD - historical, which always appeals
1f - the decluttering woman cometh, so I need to brace for that! Some VERY dusty bookcases are going to be purged... postponed two weeks :-(
2a - spend some decent fiction reading time, do some doodling, knit/crochet ish, no, yes
2b - do some D&D preparation for a game I run, play D&D yes, once
3a - maintain boundaries, do minimal work hours (no meetings in the diary for the coming week, so will just aim to do email triage once) not very well, c. 2:30 between email and the review meeting
NEXT WEEK:
Delete1 - self care: move intentionally three days, do seven household tasks, eat mindfully, make sure I do rest after a few hours. Contact employment advisor at the local charity, journal daily, read next book about neurodiversity, GP appointment about returning to work or having a few more weeks to recover (feel like I am about 50% of normal now, and would be happy to be partial, but being expected to be FULLY back and FULLY on campus in four weeks feels unlikely (& I'm scared that if I mess up that return, I'll be on the path to lose my job)).
2 - Fun - read a novel, make some Easter cards, knit/crochet, do some art. Do some D&D prep, play D&D at least once.
3 - work and boundaries - maintain boundaries (possibly push back on Interim Head of School wanting another check in meeting, contact union to check about that), do minimal work hours (this week I have meetings with two grad students in the diary, plus will do email triage)
4 - work projects - nothing.
"Done" lists also help me. I get so rebellious when I look at a "to do" list, even if I made it myself (sometimes I wonder how I've ever managed to accomplish as much as I have in my life!). With me, it seems a lot has to do with the sleep issues: when I'm rested, I can actually deal with the "to do" list, but when not, everything is like toiling uphill through a swamp.
DeleteThat sounds very familiar - there is this rebellious toddler inside me... I mostly get it to do things by offering choices e.g. "do you want red boots or blue shoes?" rather than orders e.g. "put your shoes on" - so I rarely manage a tightly scheduled writing plan, but if I have a writing block of time and a choice of things to do (draft that, edit this, read those, work on that figure or table) then I find that a lot more amenable to the brain squirrels...
DeleteI love reading about how we all have found things that do or don't work for us.
DeleteSorry about all the understandable worry and stress.... Interim Head sounds really annoying, to put it mildly. I hope that the Interim part is truly Interim and she doesn't become permanent!
Over this weekend I did a bunch of things that would be part of spring cleaning: yesterday I went through an entire closet rod getting rid of things. This morning I cleaned the gutters on my garage, which I hadn't done for a few years, so there were dandelions growing in them. The dandelions are now gone! And while neither of them were on my list because were not a huge deal, they both gave me a great sense of accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
1. In theory everyone is supposed to get everything on big collaboration to us by Friday. So most of my time this week will be on that.
-- work on introduction
-- start work on illustration table in the form they want it
--read and deal with essays that come in late
--zoom meeting with co-editor
--communicate with authors who are late
YES to everything I could do, but did everyone get essays in? No.
2. Administrivia: there are meetings on several subjects that need attention. I will chair one tomorrow, and need to do it with friendliness and grace
-- reach out to admitted students about questions YES, SOME
3. Find time to plan time at conference in great midwestern city. What sessions will I go to? Which museum will I go to when I play truant? SOME, and Dame Eleanor will meet me at the airport!
4. Deal with necessary phone calls, schedule cat for boarding, etc. ALL BUT ONE
5. 3 journals FOUR!
6. Take a trip to the dump with stuff in garage. Maybe go to storage unit for a preliminary scan of the challenge there. YES, NO
7. Test drive one of the cars I am thinking of buying when I get rid of the current car. NO
7. Something nice/fun. Eat/sleep/move YES, YES YES YES
It was a pretty good week: my Tuesday meeting went well, everyone behaved, and it was useful. While we're still waiting on some essays, it's under control and the to do list gets shorter. My co-editor dealt with the illustrations, but we talked through where we were. When we met with the editors of the 5 volumes of this thing (each with 30 essays) it was pretty clear that none of us would make the end of March deadline, but most of us would be done by the end of April. And that sounds right to me.
I not only went to the bulk trash place, but I went to the county dump where they took all the old batteries and an old mercury thermometer. So that was a HUGE success. And then last night I went to one of the big local fundraisers, and saw some people I hadn't seen for ages.
Goals for this week: (Very limited because I leave at 4 AM Wednesday for a conference, and then the following week is spring break and I am taking a break.) Tuesday will have lots of meetings because a candidate for our new dean is coming...
Do some more work on introduction; deal with any essays that come in late
Send out list of admits to faculty - write to admitted students
Look over program for conference, make plans
Enjoy myself
Eat/ sleep/ move
Oh, excellent on the cleaning and decluttering! Also on limited goals for the week ahead! I look forward to seeing you soon.
DeleteYay for the cleaning/decluttering, and for a meeting where everyone behaved well!
DeleteVery jealous of a meeting IRL! Enjoy the conference.
DeleteOnly one month late for the five-volume, 150-essay collection? That's amazing!
DeleteHave a great conference!
Like Julie, my small/big things are often making appointments or similar. One of the things I did a couple of weeks ago, which I forgot to report, was call my former gym to find out if their gift cards expire, as I have some from pre-pandemic that I could use for massages. This has been on my list for, literally, two years. And the answer was no, they don't expire, so that's great. No idea why it took so long to make a 5-minute phone call.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
Exercise: cardio x5, yoga at least x4. Swim x1. Trainer x1. YES (OK, 2-3 times on yoga, but I'm going to call it good enough).
Work: do something on sample syllabus for 1 course proposal; ~3-5 hours/day on research (reading, translating, outlining, writing); prep for Latin group; finish Alms section; conference paper work. NO, YES 3 days, YES, NO, YES.
Social/outings: Zoom with conference collaborator; eye exam; read book for group next week. YES, all.
Creative: write out story climax idea/scene (may not have time for this, but it's a nice thing to keep around). YES! I lost most of the details due to the delay, but I did get the main elements down, and at some point I hope to work with them further.
Planning: finish April trip arrangements; assemble tax documents. PROGRESS on both. I still need to arrange a couple of train trips, but the flights and places to stay are nailed down. I've opened all the physical envelopes associated with tax stuff.
ALSO: tested microwave chocolate cake recipe with rice flour (came out very well); attempted some other similar adaptations, less successfully so far; got side-swiped by a teenage driver, so need to get my passenger side mirror replaced; inquired about getting a medieval MS selection digitized (probably possible but may take some time due to rearrangements at the library in question); wrote another couple of long-overdue e-mails.
New goals:
Exercise: cardio x5, yoga at least x4. Swim x2. Trainer x1. See if light weights are okay now.
Work: ignore the syllabus! ~3-5 hours/day on research (reading, translating, outlining, writing). List the "done."
Social/outings: campus run, medieval talk on Zoom, pick up Susan, go to book group, go to party.
Planning: book trains, message VRBO hosts with arrival times; finish assembling the tax docs; get estimates on car repair.
Yay for a new treat recipe and massage gift cards, boo for teenage drivers - it sounds like a very productive week overall!
DeleteSounds like a good week, and with a lot of social stuff lined up for this one. Enjoy!
DeleteIgnore the syllabus! Yes!
DeleteThe small task that kills me is doing accounting for grant reimbursements. I have no problem paying actual bills, it is filling in all the forms and organizing the receipts and the other paperwork for reimbursement that I postpone endlessly. It makes no sense, it is not that hard, and I get money in the end, but somehow it feels like a huge task. I mean, it is a giant pile of annoying paperwork with obscure rules/customs/expectations but it is really not that hard… Maybe tomorrow I will do the accounting for my trip this week immediately and feel very accomplished!
ReplyDeleteLast week’s goals
Learn new and review old music for upcoming concerts ONGOING
Urgent lab work day, send off samples DONE
ALL the student thesis rewrites ONGOING
Make and give conference presentation DONE
Make and give student event presentation DONE
Conference was amazing, I sound like a 1940s torch singer from all the talking, I am beyond exhausted, and feel need to eat only green vegetables for a week to recover/detox, but it was worth it. Special session was great, my talk went really well and sparked a few really interesting new opportunities. So, now it is catch-up week, short and crowded…
This week’s goals
Get extra sleep if possible
Set up and start academic advising
Practice music for upcoming concerts
Student theses feedback and rewrites
Fun meeting for new joint paper
Accounting for trip
Slightly overdue review
There's nothing like a great conference! And then the niggling accounting details are all the more annoying when you're coming down from that high of all serious (and also entertaining) discussion all the time, which feels like what we're really here for. Too bad we don't have secretaries to deal with the paperwork!
DeleteOh my goodness accounting... anything to do with the university finance department is PAINFUL whether it's £5 or £50,000. Just grim... good luck riding the conference high to get it done!
DeleteThank you for reminding me that I need to file expense forms for my February trip. I HATE doing it.
DeleteChiming in with hating expenses. I think the university makes it deliberately complicated in the hope we won't claim. Every single item has to be uploaded separately. If I could just hand over a bunch of receipts, I would, but now we have to scan everything, upload the images...it takes forever.
DeleteI absolutely hate our expense report system, which only seems to get more complicated. They're supposed to be moving us over to a new system that only involves two separate programs, as opposed to the FIVE that each expense (even for a $10 book) currently requires. That will be nice, but then, of course, I'll need to learn two new systems. Doesn't help that this is the kind of thing that one only does once in a while, so it never gets easy!
DeleteOK, got a little side-tracked there.
I love those little things! I mean, I hate them, but when I'm done with them they're the best. Trimming the cats' claws is one of them. Our cats are actually pretty okay with this process, but I have to go ALL the way to the basement to get the clippers, and then ALL the way back down to put them away. Even though I regularly go to the basement during the course of the day, it can take me weeks to do it when it's about cat-claw-trimming--by which point they're walking around on little needles.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Get set up for spring break writing: reorient myself with my current chapter and/or think through ch. 5 some more; try to make some kind of progress on the floundering abstract of nonsense - SORT OF
2. Students: Read advisee's prospectus, take care of an incomplete, bunch of little things for my class - YES
3. Send next issue of journal off to the press - MOSTLY (just finished this today)
4. Start ch. 3 revisions - NO
This week is spring break--which means that I've been trying to both relax and rest AND do everything. So far, the doing-everything is winning, but I feel pretty good about that. Since it's already Wednesday, I'm going to include a few goals on which I've already made progress.
1. Reread ch. 6 and complete preliminary revisions (basically, make sure that the chapter is really finished)
2. Round of revisions to ch. 3
3. Festschrift abstract of nonsense
4. Return to notes re. ch. 5 and start figuring out next steps...
5. Read and prep for next week's class
6. Process article reviews
7. Exercise like a fiend
8. Read book I'm considering for next year's class (it's short)
9. Clean house
10. Make cookies
11. Write LOR; read dissertation chapter
12. Send email about workshop for grad students
That is clearly too much...and yet...and yet! I might be able to do it! Numbers 3, 4, and 11 are going to be a struggle, though.
Enjoy spring break!
DeleteI recommend focusing on 7 and 10!
Delete