Sounds like it's been a difficult week for many people - commiserations and hoping this coming week is better. I started this week with churning anxiety about finishing my journal article, on top of a whole bunch of other things, including a tax return (which I hate doing) and teaching a topic which I don't really feel I have a strong grasp on. It's to first-years, so knowing the basics is usually as much as I need, but every year I breathe a sigh of relief at getting through without being found out. (Every year I vow to read up more on the subject, and of course every year I fail to do so.)
Normally, churning anxiety induces paralysis, especially when it comes to writing, and for a while, that's how it felt. Then somehow, I don't quite know why or how, a gear shifted and I found I was calmer. I kept going back to the article every time I had a couple of hours free. In the other gaps, or in the evenings when I was tired I did the other stuff, including the tax return, which I did alongside cooking dinner one night.
I haven't quite finished the article, but I enjoyed the writing process, once the paralysis eased. I will be scrambling to finish it and submit it tomorrow, hopefully before the editors start chasing me. But although I haven't ticked off that goal yet, I feel better about the article than I would have done if I'd let the anxiety take over and just churned out words as quickly as possible. Instead I got to sink into the writing and spend time looking through sources again, and finding other things to say.
All this is a long-winded introduction to this week's prompt, which is about celebrating the process of working towards goals, rather than the completion of the goals. We tend on here to make lists and report each week on how many things we've crossed off, and there's good reason for that. But for this week, may also reflect on something you didn't complete in the time you set, but where the process of working on it felt like an achievement in itself. Something where you got more out of doing it than you might have expected, or learned something along the way.
Susan
1. Do ALL THE THINGS, SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT
2. Keep up with some kind of exercise / healthy activities
3. Keep up with morning prayer
4. Clean the house
5. Do something nice at the weekend.
Contingent Cassandra
--Finish reading documentation and exploring models for
project site; make as much progress as possible on setting up site to hold
study leave project documents; creating tracking spreadsheet for documents; and
adding at least one document to site.
--Keep moving: lift weights 3x and walk and/or climb stairs regularly as
weather allows.
--Continue trying to figure out workable daily/weekly routines, starting with
establishing an end of day/bedtime routine.
--Take advantage of upcoming spell of warmer weather to complete some gardening
tasks that got interrupted by cold snap
-- Continue work on packing up & mailing packages (mixture of returns &
gifts for family members I didn’t see over Christmas)
Heu mihi
1. Re-review grant applications and submit ratings
2. Read next 1/3 of book I need to read + 35 pages of Italian book
3. LOR for excellent grad student
4. Do one more inversion practice before the month ends!
5. Draft program newsletter
6. Get ready to teach again!
Dame Eleanor
- keep working on revisions to a chapter
- do some scholarly reading
- process at least 4 grad applications
- write and post assignments, post links or files for reading
- gym x4, swim x1, yoga x5
- talk to someone about the expectations for the Revised Thing
Daisy
Two long-ish writing sessions with no other activity (booked
them on calendar)
Exercise 4 times
URGENT Student thesis stuff
Major admin task
Conference prep with students
Class adjustments
URGENT 2 grant applications
JaneB
1) SELF-CARE (recovery and self-kindness)
* habits: something creative, D&D, read a novel plus three chapters of
crusades book, intentional movement 15 minutes x 3 days, a social thing (a long
thank you/catching up letter to an old friend)
* Specific things - make sure I eat at least 5 portions of at least three types
of fruit/veg a day and don't dive into the bread-and-butter-and-biscuits beige
comfort food pit too deeply
2) HOUSE-LIFE CARE
* 75% or more of the weekly minimal chores, tidy up the upstairs landing
* write and send an appropriate condolence card/letter to Uncle (I find these
things HARD)
3) TEACHING AND ADMIN
* marking - first year essay one, first year essay two, all the "had an
extenstion" third year essays, moderation and spreadsheet admin stuff.
* prepare classes for next week and do ViLE stuff
* stay in my lane!
* go through full draft for MRes student and comment lightly.
4) RESEARCH
* final final proofs of accepted chapter
* prepare for project meeting
* read/comment on latest version of the paper that never, ever ends
* try to be positive and productive when meeting new research student (whose
start was postponed due to the (still not fully resolved) job uncertainty
within the School).
Julie
1. Finish article and submit!
2. Finish teaching prep.
3. Read 4,000 words of student's dissertation by Friday.
4. Essential admin stuff.
5. Tax return: due Friday!
6. Book Easter travel
7. Son's birthday: bake cake, finish wrapping presents, celebrate!
