Topic of the week: the task that turns into multiple unanticipated steps. Sometimes I have a suspicion things will work out this way, so it turns out that "procrastination" was actually saving the task for when I really would have time for it; other times, it's totally unexpected. See the commnts for my not-as-anticipated experience with power washing the mossy side of the house!
Here are last week's goals; let us know how you're doing, especially any happy successes even if they weren't on your goals list. Also feel free to rant about the Unexpected Crud!
Contingent Cassandra
--Write two emails having to do with the study leave and the October program (this is not done but really needs to get done tomorrow, so good timing).
--At least begin listing and prioritizing the things I could, should, or must do before the October program and beyond to advance the study leave project
Daisy
Finish popular article on research
topic
All accounting for August
Read and comment on thesis
chapters URGENT
Begin sample organizing process
Exercise at least 4 times,
anything counts
Dame Eleanor Hull
- finish the undergrad grading,
comment on grads' short things, start next round of grading
- power-wash the north side of the
house
- write my overdue sabbatical
report
- establish a schedule for working
on research, at least 20 minutes a day on book project
- prep grad class
- swim 2-3 miles, cardio/weights
x2, just cardio x1
1. Full draft of little essay
2. Finish tenure review book
3. Administrative: Get spring
schedule in order; get requests for fall '25 schedule; find out about this
person who wants to teach for us; finish faculty report; review colleague's
tenure file
4. Exercise: Run x3, Yoga x1, Swim
x2--this will keep me sane
5. Town service committee: Finish
putting together little brochure
6. Enjoy being outdoors sometime
this weekend, while *not* running
JaneB
1 SELF-CARE. Remember I'm still
recovering from burnout and be kind to myself.
(i) do at least one mildly
creative-with-the-hands thing
(ii) start book about Aztecs,
continue current novel
(iii) play D&D with nibling
(or at least hang out and chat!)
(iv) three days of stretchy/bendy
type intentional movement for at least 15 minutes
2 HOUSE-LIFE ADMIN
i) at least 75% of regular chore
list
ii) declutter kitchen
iii) do more sums related to
latest voluntary redundancy scheme and some pension modelling
3 TEACHING AND ADMIN
i) at least one teaching block
(3-4 hours) on non-urgent teaching prep (non-urgent = happening AFTER next
week)
ii) do all the needed things to be
ready for next week's teaching
iii) get the instructions for
placement year reporting all approved and on the ViLE
4 RESEARCH
i) at least two hours on part 3 of
discussion for consultancy paper
ii) an hour of notes on my grant
idea
iii) abstract for Very Slowly
Developing paper
Julie
1. Maximise time in archives.
2. Keep email and other work stuff
to the absolute essentials, even if next week will be manic as a result.
3. Enjoy time away!
Susan
1. Keep digging to find out where
the sources I want *are*. It's amazingly opaque.
2. Prepare for fellows symposium
next Monday and Tuesday
3. Keep reading
4. Read for fun
5. Tapestry
6. Take advantage of events here
7. Go to the gym,
8. Get to medical test that has
taken ages to schedule.
How I did:
ReplyDelete- finish the undergrad grading, comment on grads' short things, start next round of grading: YES, YES, BARELY
- power-wash the north side of the house: NO, see below!
- write my overdue sabbatical report: YES, submitted Monday so it wasn’t really late.
- establish a schedule for working on research, at least 20 minutes a day on book project: Not exactly a schedule, but I’m mostly managing some time at least tinkering with the Alms chapter.
- prep grad class: BARELY counts, right? Class happened, a lot of it was sort of off-topic, but I think the digressions were in fact useful, and we did hit some key points from the main readings; also given the topic, we’ll be able to return to these readings.
- swim 2-3 miles, cardio/weights x2, just cardio x1: YES, 2 2/3 miles (3 times in the pool, including once after a session with my trainer, which impresses me immensely), YES actually x3, YES.
Steps in power-washing the house: get out power washer. Plug it in. Find outlet is dead. Change to other outlet. Connect hose. Fill soap container with soap and bleach mix. Turn on hose at tap. Check that water is running through washer (yes). Turn on power, squeeze handle on “wand” (giant water gun, in my mind), reel in astonishment as wand detaches from the washer’s hose and legs are soaked in soapy bleachy water. Turn off power to washer. Look at wand/hose conjunction. Turn off water at tap. Look again at broken conjunction, conclude that it is broken without possibility of repair, ask Sir John’s opinion just to be sure. Sir John concurs, suggests web search of brand and model number. Discover there is two-year-old recall order on this product. Plan to phone hotline on Monday (no weekend hours), then wait 3-4 weeks for replacement hose. Hope there is a tolerably warm day toward the end of October on which I can power wash the north side of the house. Optional: upbraid self for not tackling this task early in the summer so there would be plenty of hot days on which to play in water (Sir John notes that there is no reason to anticipate breakage of three-year-old seldom-used equipment from reputable store).
New goals:
- Basement Cat to vet
- call washer hotline
- 20 minutes/day Alms, plus one longer session
- read at least one chapter in each of two scholarly books
- grade undergrad papers
- check grad bibliographies
- go to medical procedure, allow self the rest of the day to recover
- cardio + weights x2, swim at least x2, yoga x4
The power washing sounds like the kind of thing that would happen to me! You have my sympathies, and Sir John is right.
DeleteHey, you actually tackled the power-washing! Anticipating all of these complications can keep me from even trying a chore like for a very long time... and plenty of other yeses (barely totally counts!) for the week
DeleteAs someone who hires people to power wash the house, I am impressed.
Delete@Susan: it really is just a giant water pistol. I love using the power washer.
DeleteI love the IDEA of a power-washer...
DeleteWow, great job with the work-outs! (Envious over here.) I love your power-washer story. We have stuff like that happening all the time--usually to my husband, who tends to tackle the more complicated house jobs that I don't want to bother with--but of course I can't think of a single example at the moment.
DeleteSo many tasks end up requiring multiple steps and those tend to be the ones I procrastinate on most. I really like finite tasks that I can cross off a list quickly, or tasks like writing where the end isn't necessarily in sight, but the process is enjoyable and whatever length of time spent will be worthwhile. But I get tired just thinking about all the steps that will be involved in the new bathroom project. I know the advice is to break these daunting tasks down into smaller steps, and sometimes that works, but when the steps spawn further steps, it's frustrating.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Maximise time in archives. - YES (not everything I looked at was useful, but probably about 90% was, and I figured out a strategy for making sure I always had stuff requested in advance or reserved)
2. Keep email and other work stuff to the absolute essentials, even if next week will be manic as a result. - YES (dealt with quite a lot on the train yesterday)
3. Enjoy time away! - YES. Weather was glorious, blue skies, summer warm without being sweaty heat, so I fitted in long walks in the evenings round the very pretty centre, stopped for drinks outside cafes, and read a lot.
Now I'm back home, it's grey and cold, and term approaches...
1. Teaching prep for two modules
2. Admin: organise a viva & a meeting with new TAs.
3. Progress review for a PhD student.
4. Organise photos & notes from trip.
5. Workshop to discuss a colleague's major grant application.
6. Fill in new diary for academic year.
7. Choose tiles for new bathrooms.
8. Exercise, eat healthily, sleep.
Sounds like a great week in the archives! Filling out the new diary is usually fun (if daunting) - anything that lets me get out several colours of pens makes me happy. This year I added a list of the following week's classes to the notes section on each teaching week because if I can finish the week with the NEXT week's class sessions mostly ready, the weekend involves less worrying. It worked so far (one week...)... good luck with the students!
Delete90% useful in an archive is *amazing*. And it sounds like a lovely week. There's something about the freedom of not being responsible for your home that is enormously freeing.
DeleteThat sounds like a wonderful week! Since usually 90% of what I look at in archives is *not* useful, I'm very impressed.
DeleteMulti-step tasks are really hard for me - they tend to octopus into hydrae and are very daunting and anxiety-triggering. How multi-step a task is also varies a lot depending on the mental and emotional weather... making a cup of tea can be a marathon on a not good day, so many steps and opportunities for distraction along the way, but on a good day it's just a single task. Learning that this is an ADHD thing has been a revelation and is helping me feel less down on myself for being slow. I get overwhelmed breaking things down into their sub-tasks quite often too (didn't used to, but it's happening a lot lately, thanks burnout), so even writing the lists can be painful!
ReplyDeleteLast week was Welcome Week for the new students, so I had to be on campus three days of the week and on Friday too which is usually my day off, so a shortened weekend. A small cohort, and attendance wasn't the best (often isn't in welcome week), but it went. I didn't feel good either (probably hormones) and this week is another challenge with two consecutive days on campus needed. Oh well. We keep going...
Also the IT service took away my desktop computer which I loved (and which was still on the old operating system) and now I have to lug my laptop in every day (which may be a better computer on paper, but between the new operating system which seems memory greedy and which is just less efficient and customisable, and the much smaller local memory, and it being a laptop which is ergonomically a pain even with the docking station supplies) AND I can't run any simulations taking longer than the period of time I can leave the laptop in one place (I could leave my desktop on for a week or more at a time, but I have to turn off the laptop to take it home or to work, so...). And it was just unreasonably upsetting and I'm scared I'm going to forget my laptop and I may have cried about it more than once at work (not in front of anyone at least).
I am feeling very fragile with all the "People Change Programme" stuff as it is now called - they've extended the consultation another week which postpones any concrete information. I've been having very strong impulses to just apply for voluntary redundancy and run away, rather than sit with the uncertainty and the risk of someone else deciding I am redundant (we appear to be going to be scored and ranked on a series of "objective criteria" which, well, I'm not great on, and I already have a huge amount of anxiety and issues around being judged by others). Also I asked about taking partial voluntary severance (i.e. I currently work 80% of full time or 4 days, and I want to explore working 2 or 3 days and getting the redundancy payment for the 2 or 1 days I would be giving up) but the university has decided this time not to allow that (they have allowed it before).
Original plan was to see how this year went, giving myself time to get into a renewed rhythm and recover more from the whole burnout thing and relearning myself and my needs as a late perimenopausal neurodivergent arthritic person, then decide whether to apply to reduce my working hours, but all the People Change thing is making it feel like I need to decide now because it would feel wrong to watch colleagues forced to leave THEN ask to cut hours a few months later. But then I feel like it's awfully arrogant to assume I won't be cut - because honestly I am pretty sure I am in the risky bottom end of the list zone given the criteria listed, the fact we can only use evidence from the last 5 years, and everything that has gone on over the last few years... I don't know. But I keep finding my head full of it at the oddest times, and in the wee hours, and it's not helpful!
On the plus side, I played D&D with Nibling this afternoon, and they are having a great time at university - they've made friends in their programme, they've joined the Coffee And Cake society (which arranges cake tastings at local cafes all over the city for members), they have a timetable that suits their needs, they've been to their favourite sausage-butty-for-breakfast-shop so often they are now greeted by name, and although they think it's a "total ripoff!" they have mastered the laundry system in their halls of residence. They're doing better than I was in the first week, I'm pretty sure, and I'm so happy and relieved for them! (it will wear off, of course, but still... a good start!).
DeleteLAST WEEK'S GOALS:
1 SELF-CARE. Remember I'm still recovering from burnout and be kind to myself.
(i) do at least one mildly creative-with-the-hands thing yes, did some drawing
(ii) start book about Aztecs, continue current novel yes and yes - novel is a slog, and it's not even a quality book, but it's not quite bad enough to quit. The Aztecs book is "modern" in style, where each chapter starts with a person-vignette, but I like that instead of stories about the modern people who studied the topic which has been annoying me so much in popular non-fiction lately they are vignettes of individuals from the time period as reconstructed from the archives, presented with nuance. I am enjoying my ignorance of the whole subject.
(iii) play D&D with nibling (or at least hang out and chat!) yes
(iv) three days of stretchy/bendy type intentional movement for at least 15 minutes two done and I'm part way through a third today, doing 4-5 minute chunks because I'm low on spoons and high on unhappy sinuses reflecting the damp, mouldy weather)
2 HOUSE-LIFE ADMIN
i) at least 75% of regular chore list yes
ii) declutter kitchen no, but it's not worse...
iii) do more sums related to latest voluntary redundancy scheme and some pension modelling well I sent a couple of emails. More than nothing
3 TEACHING AND ADMIN
i) at least one teaching block (3-4 hours) on non-urgent teaching prep (non-urgent = happening AFTER next week) yes
ii) do all the needed things to be ready for next week's teaching yes. We can no longer access the shared drive quickly from teaching room computers - it's possible, but it's much less quick/tidy/discrete - so I bought myself a very cute memory stick which is a small black cat - we'll see how long it takes before I lose part of it!
iii) get the instructions for placement year reporting all approved and on the ViLE yes. That was unnecessarily complex
4 RESEARCH
i) at least two hours on part 3 of discussion for consultancy paper no
ii) an hour of notes on my grant idea no
iii) abstract for Very Slowly Developing paper yes
THIS COMING WEEK:
DeleteI need to be on campus Monday and Tuesday for teaching, I have an international researcher starting Monday who is here to work with me until mid-December, and I have to do a lot of 1:1 meetings with undergraduate advisees and project students (which means a lot of keeping track and chasing up the disorganised ones!). And a few online meetings on my work from home days too, plus the Decluttering Person should be coming on Friday. I hope! Rescheduled once due to car problems (not mine for once).
So self-care will be important.
1 SELF-CARE. Remember I'm still recovering from burnout and be kind to myself.
(i) do at least one mildly creative-with-the-hands thing
(ii) continue book about Aztecs, finish or set aside current novel
(iii) play D&D with group or with nibling
(iv) three days of stretchy/bendy type intentional movement for at least 15 minutes
2 HOUSE-LIFE ADMIN
i) at least 75% of regular chore list
ii) declutter kitchen
iii) do more sums/plan summarising related to latest voluntary redundancy scheme
3 TEACHING AND ADMIN
i) at least one teaching block (3-4 hours) on non-urgent teaching prep (non-urgent = happening AFTER next week) ii) do all the needed things to be ready for next week's teaching
iii) read chapter for grad student
4 RESEARCH
i) an hour of notes on my grant idea
ii) at least two hours on part 3 of discussion for consultancy paper
iii) make mutually agreeable plan for first few weeks with Visitor
I just can't imagine the level of anxiety the People Change Program is creating for everyone. And like you, I'd be awake in the wee hours.
DeleteI hope things go well with International Researcher, also that Nibling continues to do well and be a source of happiness for you.
DeleteI'm sorry about all the anxiety. It is awful having that hanging over you. Unless your institution has been explicit about the criteria (and if they have, that's awful of them), I wouldn't be so sure that you're on the danger list - from what I've seen, some institutions have gone for their full professors, as being the most expensive.
DeleteGlad that Nibling is doing so well - sounds like they have really made a great start. A Coffee and Cake society sounds amazing!
Yeah a Coffee and Cake society sounds pretty neat!
DeleteThey've shared a 5 page form with numbers of points you get for things and it's heavily built on amount of money, amount of Visible Leadership etc. - and only over the last5 years. They have declared Pools which will be confirmed in early October, but for my school the "consultation" says we're to shed roughly 1 in 3 Profs and 1 in 4 SL/Rs. Which is better than it was in August (1 in 2 of both to go), but still rather unnerving. They're going for full profs and readers/senior lecturers here because we're expensive...
Wow, that's horrible. The stress on your campus must be palpable. I can imagine wanting to just run away from it all--but it does sound like these processes are unpredictable, even when criteria *are* distributed. I'm sorry.
DeleteThat does sound awful, I'm sorry. Restricting it to the last five years is horribly discriminatory - I would have thought the union ought to have challenged that one. I mean, pandemic????
DeleteAt the moment I can't think of multi=step processes, but as I thought about it I remember a novel in which a character broke down lists into the smallest possible elements, but also included things like "eat breakfast" and "brush teeth". It's sometimes helpful to remember that "cleaning the bathroom" means 5 or 6 separate tasks, that sweeping and mopping are two different tasks etc.
ReplyDeleteGoals from last week:
1. Keep digging to find out where the sources I want *are*. It's amazingly opaque. YES
2. Prepare for fellows symposium next Monday and Tuesday YES, I'M READY
3. Keep reading YES
4. Read for fun YES
5. Tapestry NO
6. Take advantage of events here YES
7. Go to the gym, NO - need to email trainer to get me started.
8. Get to medical test that has taken ages to schedule. YES
Generally a successful week. We had yoga in the garden, I went to a play and spent time with other fellows, etc. I spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with the shipping company on the delivery of my new computer, leading to 2 1/2 afternoons at home, and probably a total of 3-4 hours on the phone. (When I missed the delivery, I took advantage of hte ability to pay $10 to reschedule delivery to a time you could be at home, and then they didn't deliver then. It's been a nightmare, though a supervisor finally gave me a workaround for the catch-22 I was in.)
I also spent time on car shopping, and I pretty much know what I want to buy, but I have to figure out my trade-in, and get pre-approved for a loan etc.
This week I am going home for a few days, as a concert I've been involved in working on for two years is happening on Friday with a trio from the Silk Road Ensemble, with a bunch of related events. It will give me a chance to pick up stuff I'd forgotten, see friends, and get my hair cut!
Goals for the week ahead:
1. Enjoy presentations at symposium Monday and Tuesday
2. Meet with curator to talk about art
3. Go pick up computer at depot
4. Make inquiries about trade-in of current car
5. Pick up stuff at home
6. Enjoy concert and talks related to it
7. See friends
Oh the frustrations of delivery services! Although overall they are pretty neat. It really sounds like you have a good balance this week!
DeleteGetting your computer delivered seems like a pretty multi-step process! But it sounds like you've had a lot of good stuff going on, with more to come.
DeleteUgh, delivery services! Either they don't turn up, or they leave the parcel somewhere to get wet and don't tell you, or they just open your door and throw it into the hall without waiting for you to answer (or is that just me?). But yoga in the garden sounds like it might balance out the frustration of waiting on deliveries.
DeleteOoh! Unexpected crud! I am on that one!
ReplyDeleteI have Covid. My husband, who is just recovering from 2+ weeks with giardia (not liver disease, thank goodness), also has Covid. Apparently the "cold" that our son had 10 days ago was actually Covid (he tested negative, but he did the last time that he had it, too). But this month has just been nuts with illness. I canceled class today, although I'd initially planned to lecture on Zoom--I just couldn't face that, and it was the right choice, even though it's quite a mild case and I'm feeling a lot better (husband, however, is not).
The silver lining is that I find that my Covid brain is sort of a heavy, inert, yet strangely awake sort of being, which makes it ideal for tackling long, boring tasks that I've been putting off. Since Thursday, I have: a) finished reading for, and then written, a tenure letter; b) read an entire dissertation that I have been dreading; c) reviewed a colleague's tenure file; d) made significant progress on my book by finishing (most of the) edits to chapter 3, formatting the notes for the intro-ch. 2 according to the press's guidelines, and getting a start on formatting a cumulative bibliography (which is really the most boring work of all).
But here's how I did on my stated goals:
1. Full draft of little essay - YES! DONE! I needed one hour, and that's all it took.
2. Finish tenure review book - YES, thanks Covid
3. Administrative: Get spring schedule in order; get requests for fall '25 schedule; find out about this person who wants to teach for us; finish faculty report; review colleague's tenure file
- Um, what's this faculty report I spoke of? I actually have no idea. The other things are more or less done or in progress.
4. Exercise: Run x3, Yoga x1, Swim x2--this will keep me sane - x1, x1, x1, and then I got sick.
5. Town service committee: Finish putting together little brochure - NO--that's a boring task for tomorrow
6. Enjoy being outdoors sometime this weekend, while *not* running--NO, due to Covid
This week:
First of all, I shall not exercise, which makes me sad but is the right and responsible thing. I hope to make it back to campus on Wednesday (and will mask through the rest of the week, doing what I can on Zoom rather than in person) (today, Monday, is day 6, so I'm not pushing the boundaries here and am well within CDC's admittedly generous guidelines).
1. Finish LOR for grad student
2. Loose ends for ch. 3; start editing ch. 4
3. Finish town document thing
4. Add ch. 3 to master document and fix notes; make progress on bibliography
5. Catch up with teaching stuff; schedule appointments with suspected AI-using students
I think there's something else, but maybe there isn't? I'll leave it at that, then!
I am so relieved to hear the news about your husband! Giardia is much more treatable than some of the things you probably worried about. And my experience of Covid was similar; I could get quite a lot done on certain kinds of tasks, though new and original thinking was right out, as was anything energetic. I hope your recovery continues uneventfully. But I am sorry that you have the "unexpected crud" entry.
DeleteWell, I don't know about "only giardia", but at least it's treatable and not life threatening. And so sorry for COVID. So many people I know have been sick this fall. MY rule is you do what you can, and give yourself permission on the rest.
DeleteI had to google giardia and it sounds nasty, so full sympathies. At the same time, I get that anything treatable with antibiotics is much better than something that can't. And sorry about the Covid. I feel I've been hearing about a lot of cases in the US: maybe you are all testing more than we are in the UK. I did test my daughter tonight when she wasn't feeling well, but negative thankfully.
DeleteCOVID is on the rise again (in the UK too, but current strains often don't show up on tests, a positive means you probably have it but a negative doesn't tell you either way, so frustrating!). make sure you rest - and even more so your poor husband - I don't want to know any more people with post-COVID problems, it's too common... Take care of yourselves!
DeleteOoh, that's worrying on the Covid tests. I made my daughter test two days in a row, both negative (or so I thought). She is symptom-free now, so no idea. But now wondering if a couple of times when I had mild symptoms and tested negative I actually was positive. From the point of view of knowing whether to stay away from people or not, that's tricky. I mean, I would try to keep my distance even with just a cold, but Covid is more serious.
DeleteOh goodness! That sounds so frustrating! I hope you can preserve the crystal balls . . . the rubber ones will be there later, no worries! (No doubt covered in cat hair and mouse-cookie crumbs, but whatever . . .)
ReplyDeleteI love "give a mouse a cookie" as the model. So often. And just sympathy about access to systems that makes no sense. When we have to be the admin assistants as well as faculty, it's exhausting. Hope the field trips are good.
ReplyDeleteUgh! What a frustrating week--it's so nice when there's someone knowledgeable to handle those things for one, isn't it? I hope that you get an admin assistant soon!
ReplyDeleteSounds like such a frustrating week! Hang in there. I hope you get an admin assistant before you need to give away many more cookies or shave any more yaks.
ReplyDeleteWhoops, looks like Daisy deleted her comment and left the rest of us hanging! Oh well, we know what we're talking about . . .
ReplyDeleteWeird... it just disappeared! Will put goals back up at least...
DeleteMore unexpected crud: Basement Cat has a liver tumor. He's 16 years and five months, so he's had a good run, and it's always going to be something, someday, but one always hopes "someday" will be "not now." We can do palliative care as long as he's still interested in eating, but one of the attitude problems that contributed to his being called Basement Cat is that he Does Not Want To Be Messed With: no pilling, no syringe-feeding, no interventions. So, yeah, not a great week here.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm sorry. Having a good run doesn't make losing him any less sad.
DeleteOh no! So sorry to hear that. Basement Cat will get all the treats for as long as he can...
DeleteOh no! I feel like Basement Cat is an old friend, we've "known" each other blog-wise for most of his life so far. I hope you have a good time together until he's ready to go. Sometimes too much treatment/palliative care just doesn't seem kind for an independent kind of cat, but it's so hard as the human...
DeleteHe's certainly appeared on my blog since he was a kitten! He's doing okay this week, and I think he'll make it clear when it's time, but it's hard on us anyway. He's the cat we've had the longest---though the Shakespearean Heroine lived to be probably 18 or 19, she was already 12 or 13 when we got her. Other cats had health problems that made us feel we'd triumphed if we got them to 10 (the Tiny Cat) or 13 (the Grammarian). I'd hoped we'd have a really long run with Basement Cat, who is the sort of whom it's said "God won't have him and the Devil thinks he's too much trouble," but I suppose that doesn't really apply with cats.
Delete