Nine must be good luck, right, it's three times three, and three's a lucky number, so . . . Do you have any good-luck rituals? Wishing on the clock when it reads 11:11 or 12:34, carrying or wearing a talisman object, or checking in with a particular friend (someone reliably encouraging) before you start something challenging? Or maybe you associate a particular place with "good vibes," or there's something that your day/week/month just doesn't feel complete without . . . . Tell us if you feel like it, or just go straight to the check-in.
Daisy
Finish and give
invited talk
Overdue review
Overdue editor recommendation
Finish thesis edits
Finish popular article
Finish reference letters (2 now)
Three field trips
Mark and return 7 thesis proposals
Do teaching organizing for the rest of term (or
maybe for the next week?)
Dame Eleanor Hull
- go back to
gently trying to encourage all cats to get along via very brief encounters that
involve treats
- 20 minutes x3 on Alms or its larger project
- read at least one chapter in one scholarly book
- finish taking notes on another book
- start grading undergrad papers
- comment on grad paper proposals
- write up notes for grad class
- read dissertation materials for student A,
advise on restructure
- cardio + weights x2, swim at least x2, yoga x4
- bake a cake
heu mihi
1. Review fall
schedule
2. Read two chapters of Kr's diss (defense is late
next week)
3. Revise ch. 5 of book now that I have my
friend's comments!! If this happens quickly, SEND MS TO PUBLISHER!
4. Full slate of workouts (Wed. optional--see
above)
5. Send out journal proofs; catch up on articles
under review
6. Prep PowerPoints for next week
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) read most days
(iii) play D&D with nibling (a Hallowe'en game is required) and possibly
with group
(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) wash all the towels
iii) pick up the kitchen again
iv) make a Christmas Wish List (for circulating among the family)
3 TEACHING AND ADMIN
i) 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 teaching after Reading Week
iii) feedback on third year draft assignments
iv) another chapter for grad student
4 RESEARCH
i) last minute stuff and hosting of local seminar
ii) referee paper - now VERY urgent!
iii) at least one hour integrating other people's comments into the consultancy
paper, ugh!
Julie
1. Complete
form for annual progression review. (now urgent)
2. Teaching prep: keep minimal.
3. Read PhD student's work for meeting Wednesday.
4. Do at least two hours research for article due
January.
5. Organise PhD viva I'm chairing Thursday
(basically, set up Zoom link, check procedures)
6. Tidy up once bathrooms finished (hopefully
Wednesday).
7 Father's birthday present.
8. Get haircuts and book daughter one.
Susan
1. Good day of
research
2. Enjoy conference
Well, I will have a job beyond mid-December, and I'm not sure if I'm relieved or resigned. After the consultation, we were all sent confirmation of which redundancy "pool" we were in and how many "people-equivalents" needed to be removed by one means or another. The centre then opened the voluntary leavers scheme as I mentioned above. My pool had 7 people in it, 6.4 full time equivalents, and needed to lose 2.0 full time equivalents (workload won't actually change until next summer at the earliest, but let's set that aside for now). One person chose to take voluntary severance, and got around the "I can't tell anyone rule" by doing a quick tour of the offices telling everyone who was in that day that he was about to file the paperwork (he's going to effectively take early retirement, fortunately his partner is well paid and he's a few years older than me so they can make it work). The rest of us then had a conversation about possibly making a counter offer that we would all take an hours cut - a second person (0.6) said they had applied for voluntary severance (they've got a new job, very impressive in this market), so that left us needing to find 0.4 of a person - so we all agreed to drop an afternoon a week and get paid less for the priviledge. After a VERY stressful couple of weeks - collectively writing the request, getting it through the various levels of people who might be able to approve it, getting a very mean-spirited response, working out a collective response etc. - we got official letters on Friday confirming that we were no longer at risk of redundancy.
ReplyDeleteSo I get a pay cut and an hours cut (so I'll be 3.5 days a week not 4), and we have to deliver the rest of the year and a major curricula review short 5 people-equivalents out of a current about 16 (it's variable depending on how much of our collective time is going to secondments to faculty roles, buy-outs for research, or "loans" to teach on the master's programmes, none of which are actually compensated for with replacement teaching time).
it was all an extremely unpleasant experience. And we are still waiting to hear what happens to some other pools in our School, and what happens to one of them is a major determinant of just how much worse things will be after December at work. I'm not sure if this is a good outcome. But it's an outcome, and I will have an income for at least another few months (I am fairly confident that we'll be safe until Summer 2025 now, but have no doubt at all that there will be more cuts and more expected for less... sigh!)
LAST WEEK:
DeleteWas tiring, for some reason. Nothing too much actually happened, although I was on campus two days consecutively, had some social stuff like the local hybrid seminar, and a scramble to get ready for playing D&D with the nibling on Hallowe'en rather than at the weekend. But all the background work stuff has been a drain.
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 Inktober sketches finished
(ii) read most days no, two or three days
(iii) play D&D with nibling (a Hallowe'en game is required) and possibly with group yes to the Hallowe'en game which went well. No to the group
(iv) three days of stretchy/bendy type intentional movement for at least 15 minutes nearly 3 days - one was 14 minutes
2 HOUSE-LIFE ADMIN
i) at least 75% of regular chore list no
ii) wash all the towels no
iii) pick up the kitchen again no
iv) make a Christmas Wish List (for circulating among the family) no
3 TEACHING AND ADMIN
i) one teaching block (3-4 hours) on non-urgent teaching prep (non-urgent = happening AFTER next week) yes, but I TOTALLY messed up and prepared a class I can't use because it's not aligned with the essay question. Gah!!
ii) do all the needed things to be ready for teaching after Reading Week nearly. One thing depends on former Interim Head of Department and she likes to do things very last minute
iii) feedback on third year draft assignments yes!
iv) another chapter for grad student yes
4 RESEARCH
i) last minute stuff and hosting of local seminar yes, and it went well
ii) referee paper - now VERY urgent! yes
iii) at least one hour integrating other people's comments into the consultancy paper, ugh! no
THE COMING WEEK:
Is "reading week" for one of our undergraduate programme sets, and that means I don't have any class room teaching in the coming week. So I have put in for a couple of days of annual leave - not approved yet, but I can't see why it won't be. I'm scheduled to work Monday and Tuesday then have five lovely days of not having to be on campus or do work, hopefully.
1 SELF-CARE. Remember I'm still recovering from burnout and be kind to myself.
(i) do several mildly creative-with-the-hands things
(ii) read most days
(iii) play D&D with nibling or the group, and prepare to the end of the current arc in the game 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) get fully caught up on laundry
iii) pick up the kitchen again, get caught up on dishes etc.
iv) make a Christmas Wish List (for circulating among the family) and some Christmas planning listing
3 TEACHING AND ADMIN
i) half a teaching block (3-4 hours) on non-urgent teaching prep (non-urgent = happening AFTER next week) - planning out what I DO need to do to sort out the session I messed up on last week.
ii) do the final thing needed to be ready for teaching after Reading Week
4 RESEARCH
i) second referee of another paper
ii) at least one hour integrating other people's comments into the consultancy paper, ugh!
iii) meet with postdoc from other uni who wants advice on the methods I specialise in
iv) catch up with Visitor's work (she's been away meeting with colleagues at other universities in the country and doing a little touristing for a few days, since she's visiting us from a different continent for three months)
Well! I'm not sure whether to congratulate or commiserate---some of each, I guess. That does all sound like a very unpleasant experience (and unnecessarily so; but at least it sounds like your "pool" collaborated well on working out a feasible outcome), and I am not surprised that you didn't get to various other tasks, or that you prepared a class you can't teach (this year: maybe it'll come in handy as a present to a Future You). I hope you get your five days off and can use them well for rest and recovery!
DeleteEchoing Dame Eleanor here - I don't know whether to say congratulations or not. Probably better to have a job for the time being, until you can figure out what other options might be out there. And nice to see some collective solidarity: these situations don't always bring out the best in people. But it all sucks, especially the constant having to do more with less. Well done for taking annual leave and hope you can use it to recharge a bit.
Delete(And by the "not surprised" comment I mean that in all the stress one might easily do something like that.)
Deleteyes if I get stressed enough I start to "make up" things like, oh, different essay questions to the one I set, or what a deadline is, or what I actually said I'd do. As a kid I'd often do stuff like go to sleep Monday and wake up CONVINCED we'd also done Tuesday, right down to "knowing" what the homework was and what happened in class, then go to school with my books/timetable for Wednesday, and get very confused...
DeleteThere's still a lot of stress because the professorial pool is yet to be resolved, and we will be losing three from eight - losing two of those people would have possibly programme-ending effects on my teaching team, definitely severe workload implications, not to mention they're also the two I actually like, respect and rely on most, so it'd be a huge personal loss in terms of my support network (and right now at least we're going to need that collegiality, especially as the new teaching area we are supposed to merge with in the summer are known for NOT being colleagial, especially towards the other programmes in my current wider team).
My leave is still not approved, but it also hasn't been denied, so I am going to assume that the Head of School has other priorities and just take it! With a couple of hours work, probably, because I didn't do a full day today as I had one of those "I feel miserable and shivery, and I have no motivation" spells around lunch time and it was a grey, cold work from home day with NO meetings scheduled in the afternoon, so I took to my bed with a podcast and a cup of tea and put on my fake Oodie (oversized hooded fleece sweatshirt thing - mine is grey and black leopard print, somewhat toothpaste and ink stained, and definitely not work appropriate attire) to warm up, and ended up having a nap as well, which kind of ate into the work hours!
And I have a specific research related task which should fit that time-slot, so it's constrained...
What an absolutely insane process... on so many levels. I am so sorry you and everyone else has to go through all that!
Delete100% take the leave and make the most ofbit. You certainly need the break. Hope it is quiet and restorative and makes the stress recede at least a little bit!
Well, it's an outcome with an income, at least for now, and it buys you time to think about what you would prefer for the future. I'm sorry--this all sounds just hideous!
DeleteComing in late to echo everyone on the insane process, but glad you have colleagues who figured out a solution which protects everyone for now. And glad you won't be unemployed come December, though all this "do more with less" stuff is exhausting, and I always end up suggesting we do less with less!
DeleteI don't think I have any good luck rituals. I do have things that give good vibes, I suppose - favourite mugs, jewellery that was a special gift. One reason for my favourite cafe being my favourite cafe is the good vibes.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
Should have been relaxed because there was less teaching and one child was away, but the other child suddenly had a lot of social events and other stuff expanded to fill more time than planned. The viva was a nightmare: I was only required to chair (something we do when no one local has the expertise to be an internal - we appoint two externals and a chair) so not reading the thesis, just advising on procedure. But the two examiners had very different takes, and even after the viva, couldn't agree. So the poor candidate will need to be examined all over again by someone else. And it was all on Zoom, which made it even harder. On the plus side, the bathrooms are done, and are much nicer, as well as having a lot more storage space.
1. Complete form for annual progression review. (now urgent) - YES (one of the expanding things)
2. Teaching prep: keep minimal. - YES
3. Read PhD student's work for meeting Wednesday. - YES
4. Do at least two hours research for article due January. - NO
5. Organise PhD viva I'm chairing Thursday (basically, set up Zoom link, check procedures) - YES
6. Tidy up once bathrooms finished (hopefully Wednesday). - YES
7 Father's birthday present. - YES
8. Get haircuts and book daughter one. - YES
This week:
1. Teaching prep, keep minimal.
2. Two hours research.
3. Organise selection panel for postdoc applications.
4. Self-care: read, exercise, cinema trip.
5. Find a dentist.
6. House stuff: organise getting garage door replaced, decluttering.
7. BIL's birthday.
Oh, dear, the poor student---what a nightmare! Congrats on getting the annual progression review form done (those things do expand, don't they), and hooray for new bathrooms! Is there a particular film you want to see?
DeleteThank you, yes, and it's quite a soul-destroying form (summarise all your achievements etc). We are going to see Small Things Like These. I can highly recommend the novella the film is based on, and hoping the film will do it justice.
DeleteYes, I HATE those forms. They open up so many possibilities for imagining all the boastful or magnificent things other people might be saying and making yourself feel inadequate and judged as wanting (maybe that's just me...).
DeletePoor student... I get to chair one later this month (we always have Chairs, as an independent witness, whether there is an internal second examiner or not) and need to practice my poker face because it's an area I do know something about (but did not get to be on the committee because internal politics). Hopefully the examiners will at least agree...
Hope student comes through the experience ok. That is a difficult one to navigate...
DeleteGood luck with all the forms and associated annoyances!
Definitely not just you, JaneB: https://dameeleanorhull.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/annual-reviews-why-i-hate-them/
DeleteHmmm… I do not think I have any luck-related rituals or habits… Routines maybe, if bribing myself with coffee counts? Good vibes places definitely, my old town’s coffee shop was one, in my new town I have a few spots on campus I really like, including the faculty club with a fully stocked bar… I do have celebration routines - latte and butter tarts are absolutely required. I have not found a really good butter tart provider around here though, so I eat a lot of them when visiting my old town!
ReplyDeleteThis week is a crazy one, the last really chaotic one of the term I hope. Lots of meetings, travel to PhD city, meetings there, some visiting with people, and a pile of grading, and new exams. I have very little hope that I will get the thesis work done, but I will try. Maybe good airport work?
Last week’s goals:
Finish and give invited talk DONE, WENT WELL
Overdue review DONE
Overdue editor recommendation ALMOST DONE
Finish thesis edits NOPE
Finish popular article NOPE
Finish reference letters (2 now) DONE
Three field trips DONE
Mark and return 7 thesis proposals MARKED, NOT RETURNED
Do teaching organizing for the rest of term (or maybe for the next week?) DONE FOR WEEK
This week’s goals
Finish organizing, travel to, and run big group meeting for national organization
Overdue editor recommendation
Thesis edits
Set up exams for two classes
Write and submit report for different meeting
Discuss new paper with coauthor and make plans
Figure out new-to-me journal system and do AE tasks
Department and review/promotion meetings
Organize and entertain two guest speakers
Still seems like a lot got done. Hope the week goes well and you can find butter tarts!
DeleteWhat a week you have coming up! I hope it goes well
DeleteFeel I need to post here today to send good vibes to all the Americans! We are watching here with everything crossed.
ReplyDeleteThank you! A friend sent me a sort of virtual sticker: "Remember to put your 'I voted' sticker under your pillow so the Election Fairy will leave you a Xanax." I think I may try it, speaking of rituals for luck!
DeleteSeconding the good vibes! And for the days to come as there will doubtless be delays and faffing and waiting for other shoes to drop. Hopefully the Election Fairy will at LEAST deliver some quality chocolate and a tipple!
DeleteWell, what the what now.
DeleteI like to make wishes on appealing clock times, though nothing ever comes of it, except perhaps reminding myself of a goal.
ReplyDeleteHow I did (answering as of today, Wednesday again):
- go back to gently trying to encourage all cats to get along via very brief encounters that involve treats: SOME
- 20 minutes x3 on Alms or its larger project: x1, I think
- read at least one chapter in one scholarly book: YES (one)
- finish taking notes on another book: NO, but c. 800 words of progress
- start grading undergrad papers: NO
- comment on grad paper proposals: YES
- write up notes for grad class: YES
- read dissertation materials for student A, advise on restructure: NO
- cardio + weights x2, swim at least x2, yoga x4: YES
- bake a cake: YES (actually, two, the original plus one for our Guy Fawkes evening)
Not only am I checking in late, I'm also a bit under the weather, and tomorrow is crammed with extra meetings as well as classes, so I'm going to try to keep actual goals (as opposed to the to-do list) brief.
- one household task of some sort
- read at least one chapter in one scholarly book
- start grading undergrad papers (2 sets now)
- write up notes for grad class
- read dissertation materials for student A, advise on restructure
- yoga x4, swim x1, other exercise as possible
Hope the under the weather part goes away quickly and all the creeping tasks stay contained!
DeleteAnd two cakes, brilliant!
Welp, it's Wednesday of a crappy election week, so I'm basically gonna phone it in on the goal-setting and all that. I've skipped two workouts already (slept all of 30 minutes last night), and am just watching comforting TV or reading silly mysteries whenever I feel like it. It's working pretty well.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Review fall schedule - YES
2. Read two chapters of Kr's diss (defense is late next week) - YES; defense has been rescheduled because the advisor's father has incurred brain trauma and is deteriorating quickly.
3. Revise ch. 5 of book now that I have my friend's comments!! If this happens quickly, SEND MS TO PUBLISHER! - YES! SENT!
4. Full slate of workouts (Wed. optional--see above) - YES
5. Send out journal proofs; catch up on articles under review - PROOFS YES (well, my co-editor did it); I know what verdicts to give for the articles, but am awaiting my co-editor's consent
6. Prep PowerPoints for next week - YES, although I rewrote part of today's lecture at 6 am on no sleep. Amazingly, it was much better than most of the lectures I've given this semester.
So, yeah. I went to yoga and Tuesday and plan to run tomorrow and swim on Friday; this weekend, I'll be at a church youth retreat with my son, which will be kind of nice--the annoying teenagers will distract me. So I'm just doing what needs to be done, without goal-setting, and moving along until All The Feelings die down.
Yay for manuscript to publisher!!! That is a great milestone and we are all very happy for you!
DeleteLots of things done, good luck with this week and all the feelings.... we certainly share those...
Hooray for book to publisher and also for the excellent lecture re-write!
DeleteI'm sorry to hear about your student's father. It's good the student is so far along with the diss, as these things can seriously derail writing progress.
It's Thursday, and I'm just showing up. I've spent the week alternating between anxiety and then dejection on the one hand, and frantically working on the other, hoping that work will prevent me from focusing on the world. I'm now on a news diet, consuming as little as possible.
ReplyDeleteIn the good news department, yesterday I heard from my editor that Famous Author has been accepted by the editorial committee at the press, which is a relief. Not entirely unexpected, but still nice, and particularly nice to get the news yesterday!
Good luck rituals? I don't think I have any, but I have a lovely necklace with a small book that I wear when I'm giving talks. (And the book has pages, made from Victorian pattern books. It's amazing. From the best museum gift shop ever, the Victoria & Albert.)
How I did last week:
1. Good day of research YES
2. Enjoy conference YES
The whole trip was good, including a few days with an old friend where I didn't plan anything. That was incredibly relaxing. Also, they live in an area of Maine with very good oysters, so I at good seafood.
This week, I have a bunch of stuff that needed to get done, thus the burying my head in work. Next week, I'm presenting an old paper to the group seminar here, but it's a paper I want to shape up and polish up for publication, so there's that. And next week I head to my second fall conference, where I'm giving a paper on new stuff, so I need to finish that.
1. Finish paper for next week's conference, send to commentator
2. Prepare for seminar
3. Return to Famous Author to finish all the bits and pieces that still need doing -- bibliographical essay, appendices etc.
4. Clean and organize the house
5. Go to a local museum this weekend
6. Remember to have fun.
So happy to hear your trip and conference was energizing and relaxing! Anything woth good friends and food is a success I think.
DeleteCongratulations on Famous Author news!!! Expected or not, we are all cheerknf and celebrating with you!
Yes, great news on the book acceptance!
Delete