I hate to tell you this, but we're midway through the session! And that means checking in on our goals, deciding what to keep, what to get rid of, as well as (sometimes) having to add something new that has come up. Sticking with the recipe theme, sometimes things go bad in the fridge, or the electricity goes off and you have to use up everything in the freezer, or something delicious comes in as a gift or appears at the farmers' market and so you drop the original plan in order to use the new item. So if something like that is going on, think of it as being a thrifty house-holder and using your stores effectively.
Of course, you may already have accomplished something significant, so we can have midterm celebrations along with the sorting-out of goals. Here's something sparkly for all of you (alcoholic or not, as you prefer). Tell us what you're lifting a glass to!
First, here are last week's goals; session goals are further down:
Dame Eleanor Hull
- enjoy conference and visiting friends
- write down everything anyone wants me to do and leave it till I get home
heu mihi
1. Finish book to review
2. At least 50 pp. of Italian novel
3. Keep my inbox(es) fairly clear
4. Finish green sweater that I don't really like
JaneB
1) building better habits: one creative thing with the hands, keep reading for pleasure, start a new yarn project
2) Environment: get caught up on chores, electric meter visit, book car for service
3) blocks: no goals this week
4) writing: at least one hour on each of three different projects with meetings this week
5) grad students: meetings, comment on mountain of first draft of discussion from now-senior graduate student, try to sort out review meeting for junior MSc by Research student
6) be kind to myself and stick to the three days.
Julie
1. Write and submit report for PhD review.
2. Read chapter for a PhD student.
3. Finally finish French PhD I was reading.
4. Read a paper the French PhD student has sent me and email back with comments.
5. Last big meetings of term, get Windows upgrade, do other work-related admin, catch up on emails.
6. Self-care: read, exercise, catch up on TV series, enjoy time with brother and niece.
Susan
1. Make sure power point is set up for talk
2. Read paper one more time. Do I dare read off my i Pad?
3. Spend some time with microfilm
4. Read essay for young scholar
5. Enjoy the workshop
6. Get ready for vacation
And now for the session goals. How are you doing? Are things ripening in the garden? Is there anything you can put in the compost?
Contingent Cassandra
You had a lot going on; do you want to post rest-of-summer goals now?
Daisy
Two new papers submitted
Revised course material for fall and winter
One defended graduate thesis
Good experience for 2 hired undergraduates
Kayaking
Exercise
Garden improvement
Dame Eleanor Hull
* write essay due at the start of September
* plan work for summer TA and do some supervising of her
* write and deliver two conference papers, focusing most energy on the one that will be the core of a book chapter
* plan classes for next year
* submit two course proposals
* swim 2-3 times a week
* yoga on the deck as often as possible
* work in the garden 3x/week
* do 5 Life Stuff tasks
heu mihi
1. Research/writing: Complete copy-edits of book, submit revised article, submit abstract for MK, start working (idly) on research for MK, read and review book
2. Creative: Finish green sweater, work on knit dress, make a book or two, other projects!!
3. House: Clear out storage area, fix basement doors that don't close properly, wash windows at some point
4. Family: Costa Rica album, anniversary book, vol. 2 of uncle's memoirs
5. Personal: Read Italian novel vol. 2, get outdoors as much as possible, lots of exercise
6. Misc. work: Update program website, prep new class
JaneB
Home, self and life:
1) Building better habits: more small things that bring joy, especially in terms of making stuff/doing art. More things which engage my brain and are Not Work (D&D, reading for fun). Paying attention to eating as a self-kindness not as a tool to shut up the toddler/appease the negative brain weather.
2) improving my environment: sorting out the war/floor-drobe situation, doing one big Improvement Thing (I'd like that to be getting a sofa - so would ShoutyPants!), getting the front gutters replaced, doing a big turn out of the spare bedroom/craft space/home office where I spend most of my time at home.
Academic work (the job and the work both):
3) use the block model as last summer - aiming for 24 blocks (3-4 hours of future-focused work like preparing for teaching in the following year). Aims are to get on top of teaching prep and maybe do some "just for me" research tasks (exploring future ideas).
4) I have a lot of writing projects (grant ideas and journal articles) which all involve other people therefore are not fully in my control - I'm setting the goal of substantial progress on four of them this summer.
5) supporting graduate students (it's only sort of a TLQ thing, but it is taking up a larger than normal amount of my summer, and it is important, so I'm including it).
Julie
1. Research & writing (this will be buffet style)
i) Revisions to article currently under review (assuming it will come back some time this session)
ii) Outline at least, write if possible, two different chapters I've been invited to contribute to edited volumes. Both mean revisiting old material, so I'm dragging my feet a bit here. One is also for a popular audience, so a different style of writing (cookery?) than I'm used to.
iii) Organise workshop in June
iv) Do some research on current project. Depending on outcome of grant application, work out priorities for next year.
v) book review
2. Teaching
i) Get all marking done.
ii) Read final final drafts for one PhD student; wait to see if other student will ever send written work (this is heading for a car crash).
3. House
i) Big project for this session: getting the garden how I want it.
ii) Small jobs as and when time allows.
4. Fun stuff/self care
i) Exercise - improve fitness.
ii) Eat healthily - this session will either be great for this or terrible.
iii) Sleep!
iv) Continue reading for pleasure
v) Journaling, more creative stuff.
Susan
1. Get Famous Author out the door (goal June 1)
2. Write short essay about recent book, theoretically due June 1
3. Write keynote address for late June workshop, preferably before I fly to the UK on June 15
4. Start poking around in archives on new project
5. Have a good vacation with my sister in Paris and with friend
6. Start preparing my head for the fall and a return to teaching.
7. Keep up with some kind of exercise/ fitness
8. Enjoy myself - museums, theatre, etc.
9. Be sociable, try to meet people
For once I did very well on last week's goals!
ReplyDelete- enjoy conference and visiting friends: YEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!
- write down everything anyone wants me to do and leave it till I get home: YES, facing up to the list now. :)
I'm lifting a glass both to completing the two conference papers I had to get done and to the fantastic week I had in what Writing as Jo(e) used to call the Big City Like No Other. I stayed with friends and it was lovely to see them and be part of their family life. The conference itself was marvelous. And the crowning glory was that I got to see a 1483 Caxton book of which there are two copies in existence. Whatever else happens in 2025, and Cat knows it's been a long decade already, it will be the year I interacted with that book.
OK, let's do the session goals check-in next, and then I'll do this week's goals last, so I can try to align them with the revised session goals.
* write essay due at the start of September: KEEP
* plan work for summer TA and do some supervising of her: PLAN MADE, and starting tomorrow I'll go out to campus one day a week for hands-on tasks
* write and deliver two conference papers, focusing most energy on the one that will be the core of a book chapter: YES. DONE!
* plan classes for next year: KEEP
* submit two course proposals: KEEP
* swim 2-3 times a week: KEEP (now that the pool is open and I'm at home, I can get on with this one, which is a True Summer thing as well as exercise)
* yoga on the deck as often as possible: COMPOST (it'll likely be too hot/humid for the rest of this session to do yoga outside)
* work in the garden 3x/week: KEEP BUT tailor to weather, and keep sessions brief, 20-30 minutes
* do 5 Life Stuff tasks KEEP, aim for one per week
ADDED UNTO ME: I have been getting advance warning of conferences I want to go to in the next year, plus the year after, and I'd like to do some thinking about what I might present at them.
Happily, I seem to have got a sufficient grasp of my dietary triggers that it seems I'm going to be able to sleep and make plans like a normal person! I can have a schedule! And I intend to schedule some fun summery things as well as work.
This week's goals:
- make weekly schedule for the rest of summer
- campus day tomorrow, meet with two grads, spend 30 minutes tidying my office
- swim x 3, yoga x5, get up early enough to walk on days gym is closed, or else climb stairs somewhere with a/c
- send e-mails related to last week's conference
- identify and contact reviewers for edited volume (v much past due: what's more TRQ than TRQ??)
- read and note three articles or chapters
- create syllabus for one to-be-proposed course
- fireworks! Dinner with friends! 3 x 20 minutes in the garden!
- organize the guest room closet and shelves
Hello! Another mini-heat-wave thing here (thirty degrees Celsius here today - even though that's still 80s F, in UK terms that is excessive, along with the humidity), hopefully calming down in the next day or two. Last week was a slog - hot, and stressful, and I was definitely (and AM definitely) And we found out that our Head of School (new last May, arriving claiming he promised continuity and had no desire to continue to climb the ladder, has been firmly steering our coming merger with a very different group of people in a direction that is HIS vision, but none of ours - not saying he's WRONG, but that he is the guiding force and without that direction we wouldn't be doing it this way, because we are honestly all exhausted, cynical and over-worked after the last year or two, the loss of so many colleagues etc.) is going to be leaving us to be Interim Dean from the 1st of July. No idea who our "Interim Head" will be - I have my suspicions, and am not at all happy about having to have the "these are all the things that are wrong with me" conversation with that person, but we will see. Oh, and another colleague took voluntary severance, so left today (we found out three days before they left because the process happens fast. They got a job at a more prestigious university - nice for them. They are one of those "students are the second priority after My Important Research" types - they did a reliable job with the students, but they definitely had far more self-belief in the huge importance of their research and by extension them than is comfortable in a colleague, and I won't miss them the way I miss some of the others) - it's causing a lot of upheaval for the only part of the school which did NOT lose people before, as it heavily impacts two third year modules. It also leaves me with a bit more teaching - but I am OK with that. I just feel like I've run out of capacity to appreciate ANY more changes - I KNOW it's good for us that the Interim Dean cares about our school (of the four-becoming-three in our Faculty, the last decade or more of Deans have all been from disciplines from one specific school which is the opposite end of the Faculty spectrum from us, which has been a particular issue around things like paying for field trips (which that other subject never does) and Career Preparedness (that other subject trains students for a very specific set of accredited career paths, ours sends them out to almost as many destinations as we graduate students). But that just isn't registering with my "I am totally ticked off with all this CHANGE" feelings!
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling very burnt out and like a failure and an imposter (the I have no right to an academic job when I am so fed up with it and not able to muster up the enthusiasm and energy to work the hours needed to actually deliver the bare minimum on the ridiculous list of expectations set of feelings). So it was a SLOG of a week! On the plus side, THIS week I have a week off.
LAST WEEK:
Delete1) building better habits: one creative thing with the hands, keep reading for pleasure, start a new yarn project made a birthday card for nibling, and did a little noodly watercolour exercise; read quite a lot (lurking indoors next to the fan with a book is a very Jane-Friendly option for the weather of the last few days); did not start a new yarn project (my heat intolerance means my fingers itch and sometimes blister anyway without touching any yarn...)
2) Environment: get caught up on chores, electric meter visit, book car for service no, yes, yes
3) blocks: no goals this week good thing too as there was no time
4) writing: at least one hour on each of three different projects with meetings this week no
5) grad students: meetings, comment on mountain of first draft of discussion from now-senior graduate student, try to sort out review meeting for junior MSc by Research student yes, all except for three short pieces, made a little progress
6) be kind to myself and stick to the three days. no. Struggled, and worked most of Friday as well.
SUMMER GOALS:
DeleteHome, self and life:
1) Building better habits: more small things that bring joy, especially in terms of making stuff/doing art. More things which engage my brain and are Not Work (D&D, reading for fun). Paying attention to eating as a self-kindness not as a tool to shut up the toddler/appease the negative brain weather. KEEP. Indeed START most of these - I mostly gave up on June as being the month to wrap things up and be adequate, leaving July and August as the months for resetting and progress. Which now feels like a very small amount of time!
2) improving my environment: sorting out the war/floor-drobe situation, doing one big Improvement Thing (I'd like that to be getting a sofa - so would ShoutyPants!), getting the front gutters replaced, doing a big turn out of the spare bedroom/craft space/home office where I spend most of my time at home. Keep. Haven't started yet, but I will start on the spare room I hope when the decluttering person visits later this week
Academic work (the job and the work both):
3) use the block model as last summer - aiming for 24 blocks (3-4 hours of future-focused work like preparing for teaching in the following year). Aims are to get on top of teaching prep and maybe do some "just for me" research tasks (exploring future ideas). I have managed exactly NONE of these so far...
4) I have a lot of writing projects (grant ideas and journal articles) which all involve other people therefore are not fully in my control - I'm setting the goal of substantial progress on four of them this summer. I have been pottering along, but I am very behind on things. Keep, and keep going - the tortoise got there too!
5) supporting graduate students (it's only sort of a TLQ thing, but it is taking up a larger than normal amount of my summer, and it is important, so I'm including it). I feel like I'm doing a decent job with two of them and being a bit neglectful of the others, but that's how it often is when their needs start to be urgent, but I have a lot to juggle.
So overall no changes.
NEXT WEEK:
1) building better habits: one creative thing with the hands, keep reading for pleasure, start a new yarn project, take some time to think and journal about what "better habits" really are, get a bit ahead on D&D preparation
2) Environment: get caught up on chores, start decluttering study etc. room
3) blocks: make some lists and set up a July Plan
4) writing: no goals
5) grad students: no goals