Abstraction is not my greatest ability, but let's give metaphor a shot this week: do you have a "recipe" for any part of your work? A standard approach to writing an article, designing a syllabus, or planning a lecture (pick one or more, as you like)? Do you need to proceed step-by-step or can you dump all the ingredients in the same bowl and stir like mad? What "ingredients" do you need to have on hand in order to produce an article, a syllabus, a lecture? What do you vary according to the season?
And how did you do with last week's goals?
Daisy
- Accounting from trips
- Giant meetings with many committees
- Write web articles, now just annoying
- Majorly overdue review
Dame Eleanor Hull
- try to figure out some sort of "syllabus" for the rest of summer (interim due dates, etc)
- one campus day, meet with grad, spend 30 minutes tidying my office, scan essay and return book (yes, again, different book)
- swim x 2, yoga x5, cardio x 3, do PT exercises 2x/day
- identify and contact reviewers for edited volume
- take notes on articles read 3 weeks ago
- create syllabus for one to-be-proposed course
- organize the guest room closet and shelves
- think about fall courses
- make some measurable progress on 2 research projects (M and W)
heu mihi
1. Finish uncle's memoirs
2. Housework projects (clean garage and/or wash windows)
3. Finish reading research-ish book
4. Yoga retreat this weekend! Drinks with friends on Wednesday!
5. Clean up email somewhat
JaneB
1) building better habits: one creative thing with the hands, keep reading for pleasure, start a new yarn project, journal, play D&D
2) environment: do week's chores. Sort out post pile of doom
3) blocks: two teaching blocks - one sorting out the laptop, second looking at the module I am now fed up about
4) writing: do some more work on the collaborative paper with a deadline, two re-reviews for journals (sigh).
5) grad students: Only ONE meeting this week, in the diary at least. And maybe no paperwork? MAYBE?
Julie
1. Write as much of chapter as possible, ideally close to full draft.
2. Send PhD student comments.
3. Read a chapter for a colleague.
4. More bits of boring work admin.
5. House/life admin: holiday prep, nephew's birthday, reply to some emails.
6. Self-care/fun stuff: lunch with friend, find holiday reading, exercise, journal, keep going with sleep, watch more T de F.
Susan
1. Finish reading dissertation, prepare for defense tomorrow late afternoon (time zones from BST to PDT mean an 8 hour range...)
2. Try to get to the library for a few hours of microfilm tomorrow
3. Order documents for Scottish research (which has now expanded to another library to help a friend in the US).
4. Keep up with administrative stuff, keep planning events for start of semester. (This will be mostly early morning/ evening stuff)
5. Have fun! Enjoy walking, even if it does rain.
I don't have standard recipes because as soon as I DO have a recipe, the brain-squirrels start to resent it and not want to do it that way - I'd say it's more like the skills you pick up as a "good plain cook." Things like "onion cooks slower than garlic, so don't put them in the pan at the same time" or how to make an omelette, or a basic set of baking ratios like 4:1:1 for scones (flour/fat/sugar) and 3:2:1 for shortbread. And I do tend to make a basic set of slides for each module (cover page, module outline, summary, section dividers, any repeated things we do like structured discussions, and make choices of colour/icons/images) and then make each class in a copy of that basic slide deck. But I do like to modify things every year (and the "best practice" for what is good slides for students with SpLDs keeps changing too).
ReplyDeleteLast week was just another week, and I was Not In The Mood for work! This week, yippee, I'm on annual leave...
1) building better habits: one creative thing with the hands, keep reading for pleasure, start a new yarn project, journal, play D&D more paint by numbers, yes, not yet, no, no - the nibling was at LARP and my other game is on summer break
2) environment: do week's chores. Sort out post pile of doom no, no (did it today)
3) blocks: two teaching blocks - one sorting out the laptop, second looking at the module I am now fed up about not really - much faffing and a trip to the IT hub led to me being loaned a second laptop which won't even log on (I have to log on to it for the first time on campus, but no one reminded me of that...), so THAT was fun), and I did sort out the first class for the module plus I had a meeting with the other people teaching on the module & we made some decisions...which I documented and emailed straight off to them so they can't say they didn't remember...
4) writing: do some more work on the collaborative paper with a deadline, two re-reviews for journals (sigh).yes, one done
5) grad students: Only ONE meeting this week, in the diary at least. And maybe no paperwork? MAYBE? only a little paperwork... and a fair few emails...
THIS WEEK
Annual leave! So only setting goals in the first two categories.
1) building better habits: one creative thing with the hands, keep reading for pleasure, start a new yarn project, journal, play or prepare for D&D
2) environment: Sort out post pile of doom. do simple financial chores/make list for complicated ones. book gutter fix. at least three house chores. Decluttering person at last (I hope). Car service.
Yay for leave!!! Hope you get to do some of the things you really want to!!
DeleteYour course approach gives me ideas! I usually use a document to plan classes, but I wonder if slides would help me visualize things and move stuff around more easily. I may try that. Thank you! And I hope you have an enjoyable and relaxing week.
DeleteFor papers I have to start with the data – I write mostly from the middle out, data first, and then figures for data, and then what we refer to in our field as “dreaded Figure 2” which is always the hardest and most complicated because it has to show everything you are writing about in detail and has to be beautiful and concise and also readable at page size and so on… Once that one is done other things fall into place. Of course there are edits but the first draft is critical. One of my co-authors can only go in order – introduction first, then the rest in sections, so her introductions are always works of art, and fit nicely with my data sections. I cannot write without the data and the figures…
ReplyDeleteFor course outlines I start with the calendar and dates and put in all the laboratory things first, then everything else fits around that. This year I’m radically changing to order of things for two classes so it will be an interesting experiment. Tension is around deciding what goes first, theory vs. practical… I’ve tried all permutations of theory first, this year I will do practical first and sprinkle in theory at appropriate points, kind of like basil, or cheese, or toasted nuts…
I’m having a bit of a summer-is-over-panic, but in reality I do have some time left… But, I am now officially department head for the foreseeable future with the real one off sick, and I have to do my promotion dossier, and learn a bunch of new music for September concerts… And I just inherited a big mess in a committee I was supposed to babysit while real owner is away, but turns out things cannot wait so I’m on for everything. So, summer is now relegated to afternoons on the deck and maybe some early morning beach time. I will fit in a tiny but packed trip with kid this coming weekend, so that is nice.
Last week’s goals
Accounting from trips DONE
Giant meetings with many committees DONE
Write web articles, now just annoying SOME DONE
Majorly overdue review ALMOST DONE
This week’s goals
Write documents resulting from giant meetings
Finish web articles
More awkward meetings
Finish much overdue newsletter
Work on student projects with all of them
Process and send away samples
Finish overdue review
I will join you in the it's-almost-over panic, though I do not have so much on my plate as you do. That's a good lot of DONE, though, congrats on that! Sorry to hear about the committee mess.
DeleteI realized when I was telling my husband about some obnoxious thing Word was doing that I have a process for writing scholarship that involves what might charitably be called an annotated bibliography. Not that I assemble a list of things I want to read, read them, and summarize in a few sentences their main arguments. Hell no. I keep a document with a proper bibliographic entry for each item that seems related to a given topic, and then write reams of notes about anything that stimulates my thinking. Sometimes it's quotations I want to use, or ideas that seem important, but then I go on to question the statements, to say "if that is true of my text, then the implications are Y, but if it's not true of mine, why is it true for her text but not for mine?" and so on. In other words, my argument develops from arguing with other people in this bibliographic document. It seems to me that this is a slow and clumsy process, but it's what I do, and is a great example of how I write both quickly and slowly. I can always sit down and write some quotations and some commentary on them, with comparisons to a text I'm working on; but letting those thoughts grow into an essay with an original argument can take quite a long time.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
- try to figure out some sort of "syllabus" for the rest of summer (interim due dates, etc): NO, I'm giving up on this one. Things that truly have to get done by the time classes start will get done, and lots of other stuff will slide, and there it is.
- one campus day, meet with grad, spend 30 minutes tidying my office, scan essay and return book (yes, again, different book): YES, YES, NO, YES. There was a veeeeerryyy long meeting with other faculty that et the whole day. It needed to happen, but I would have been glad to have it be shorter.
- swim x 2, yoga x5, cardio x 3, do PT exercises 2x/day: YES, +/-, YES, MOSTLY (I think I managed 2x/day more than half the days)
- identify and contact reviewers for edited volume: NO (oh great Cat, please help)
- take notes on articles read 3 weeks ago STARTED! 650 words.
- create syllabus for one to-be-proposed course: NO, but I finished off the last one by adding learning objectives
- organize the guest room closet and shelves: YES!!! Not yet completed, but I unpacked two boxes, have another box of stuff to go to Goodwill, and I threw out some things.
- think about fall courses: YES. I need another physical activity besides visiting a church and writing with quill pens.
- make some measurable progress on 2 research projects (M and W): YES for small amounts of measurable.
ALSO: attended a couple of online conference sessions; light housecleaning b/c our cleaners skipped; changed fluorescent tubes in 2 laundry-room fixtures; about 40 minutes of weeding.
New goals:
- one campus day, meet with grad, spend 30 minutes tidying my office
- swim x 3, yoga x5, cardio x 3, do PT exercises 2x/day
- identify and contact reviewers for edited volume
- take more notes on articles read last month
- create syllabus for one to-be-proposed course
- finish organizing the guest room closet and shelves OR start on my study
- think about fall courses
- make some measurable progress on 2 research projects (M and W)
- do some other Life Stuff and/or tedious work tasks