Well, that was a week - a LOT of drama from both staff and students, and two writing projects coming to urgent deadlines. Hopefully some of you had a quieter time to balance that out! At least the article due 15th October was finally submitted (after 2 hours 45 of fighting the submission site), so we get virtual chocolate all around!
This week's discussion topic is inspired by a couple of super-organised female first years who like to sit at the front of any class, have those large canvas pencil cases stuffed with supplies, and pull out 3-5 coloured highlighter pens as soon as any kind of handout appears. I have bought so many highlighter pens over the years - ones in cute cases, ones arranged into a flower shape, ones which promise to be muted colours, ones which claim to not bleed through even the thinnest of paper. But somehow they never transformed my reading comprehension, my memory r my organisation. Opening a new pack and making test-swipes in my notebook is always a moment full of promise though so it will probably happen again! What's your experience with highlighters? Must have or meh?
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| Home office supervisor/micro-manager |
LAST WEEK'S GOALS
Daisy
Student abstracts/presentations/posters
Web posts
External event and preparation
Accounting
Start on giant review committee task
Two fun friend meetups
- at least 3 writing sessions (TRQ paper, think about abstracts for conferences, festschrift, how to make all this work)
- grade the rest of the undergrad essays, prep for grad class, write another grad quiz, write another undergrad assignment, comment on in-class undergrad work
- write a sample syllabus for a proposed course
heu mihi
2. Write teaching award recommendation after observation
3. Answer interview questions from my press for a blog post of some kind
4. Read undergrad's short story ahead of Friday meeting
5. Read 35 pages of Italian
6. Keep up with workouts--I might run in a 5k on Saturday, because why not?
JaneB
a) intentional movement for at least 15 minutes three days b) making a couple of times a week in addition to Inktober,
c) two gently social things (D&D hopefully)
d) keep up reading for pleasure
e) do not eat sweet treats already bought for Christmas (not a good move)
IMPROVING MY ENVIRONMENT
a) 75%+ of the weekly list of chores
b) make a plan for the shelving in the living room
c) don't make clothes worse
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
a) week 6 materials ready to go
b) limit teaching and admin to 2 hours at weekend (I have a three hour research meeting on my "no work day" so...
c) pick up graduate student applications postponed due to group paper
d) do appraisal training (new system. SIGH)
RESEARCH
a) multi-author paper (due 15 October) - create final draft on Monday, send to the two copy-edit/references volunteers. Submit the whole darn thing on the 15th (allow several hours for the stupid exhausting submission system for this set of journals, and writing the cover letter).
b) test the computer stuff we set up two weeks ago if possible... collaborator on that project goes away end of week, so we want this ready to go if possible for the next stage
c) return box text to main team
d) schedule mock viva for junior PhD student.
e) find time to work on budget planning following a meeting two weeks ago. Grrr!
f) work on revise-and-resubmit of the multi-author paper which has been ongoing for at least 5 years. SIGH.
I don't really get on with highlighters. i like the IDEA of them, but between having Feelings about colours/in response to colours, sometimes having trouble reading through highlighting (I suspect I'm mildly dyslexic, always have done since I encountered students with formal diagnoses, but being book-smart I was always accused of laziness/carelessness/rushing at school rather than tested, and I've mostly got work arounds in place), and not being consistent enough in my use of colours/highlighting, it's never really been something I used. But I do have a very cute set of highlighters where the case is made into a cat (basically it just has little ears and a cute face on the cap and a slightly raised tail impression on the case) which live in my desk at work for the rare occasions I do use them - last week for the lab class for example students had three different techniques to do, and there's only white paper around at the moment, so I photocopied the group copies of the three techniques on three separate pieces of white paper then highlighted the titles in different colours, so it was easier for me to say to the groups "method x with the yellow heading takes the longest, so do that first", and easier for the GROUPS to keep track of having three things to do. That was their first lab class at university and for many of them their first since they were 15 or 16, so I wanted to make things obvious.
ReplyDeleteLAST WEEK
SELF-CARE:
a) intentional movement for at least 15 minutes three days yes
b) making a couple of times a week in addition to Inktober ish - crocheted during two very dull project meeting calls!
c) two gently social things (D&D hopefully) no, nibling had Social THings this weekend and called off D&D at the last minute, sigh! I could have done with knowing earlier so I didn't prepare stuff on Saturday, but hey, these things happen
d) keep up reading for pleasure yes. Finished the (unusually lengthy) latest Tuyo book and read a cozy mystery
e) do not eat sweet treats already bought for Christmas (not a good move) ate sweet treats bought for Christmas. ordered more. Second order of Halloween gift chocolate arrived, and I did eat some - the rest is now gift wrapped which I wouldn't usually do for a casual care package, but it helps me avoid nibbling...
IMPROVING MY ENVIRONMENT
a) 75%+ of the weekly list of chores hahah no
b) make a plan for the shelving in the living room no
c) don't make clothes worse clothes are worse - we're back to "is there anything under that mound of mounds?"
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
a) week 6 materials ready to go nearly. One short slide deck/mini lecture left to prepare
b) limit teaching and admin to 2 hours at weekend (I have a three hour research meeting on my "no work day" so... haha no. 9 hours on Friday. Three at the research meeting, the rest on teaching stuff, and I still have things I really should have done
c) pick up graduate student applications postponed due to group paper no - teaching preparation and Colleague Drama won out
d) do appraisal training (new system. SIGH) no...
RESEARCH
Deletea) multi-author paper (due 15 October) ALL DONE. I hope it stays on their desk for a couple of months, as it does need more work but I am DONE with it for the moment! A quick reject would mean I had to look at it again soon...
b) test the computer stuff we set up two weeks ago if possible... collaborator on that project goes away end of week, so we want this ready to go if possible for the next stage no, but she managed it, so...
c) return box text to main team yes, and they approved it, and the only thing left to do for that is get the figures finalised and the highly competent Former Senior PhD student firmly took on that task because they are aware of my limitations - and a little controlling about how they like a figure to look, which is 100% fine by me!
d) schedule mock viva for junior PhD student. ish - still juggling times, but I think we have a mutually agreed date
e) find time to work on budget planning following a meeting two weeks ago. Grrr! no, still not done
f) work on revise-and-resubmit of the multi-author paper which has been ongoing for at least 5 years. SIGH. yes. Got a lot done - I think we've addressed all the big bits, just need to go through again and make sure all the typos are addressed, and write the letter to the editor explaining what we did
NEXT WEEK:
SELF-CARE:
a) intentional movement for at least 15 minutes three days b) making a couple of times a week in addition to Inktober,
c) two gently social things (D&D hopefully)
d) keep up reading for pleasure
IMPROVING MY ENVIRONMENT
a) 75%+ of the weekly list of chores
b) make a plan for the shelving in the living room
c) don't make clothes worse
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
a) prepare for week 7 meetings
b) week 8 materials half done
c) limit teaching and admin to 5 hours at weekend
d) pick up graduate student applications postponed due to group paper
e) do appraisal training (new system. SIGH)
RESEARCH
a) read and comment on draft of paper for not-my-grad-student
b) read and comment on draft of paper from surprise collaboration
c) find time to work on budget planning following a meeting two weeks ago. Grrr!
d) work with lead author on revise-and-resubmit of the multi-author paper which has been ongoing for at least 5 years - get sent to rest of multi-author team.
e) confirm mock viva for Junior PhD student
Do you have synesthesia?
DeleteThat looks like quite a lot of DONE, but Friday sounds like a long hard slog. I guess you have the D&D prep done for your next session, whenever that is--do you have to refresh your memory before play, or does the prep stay done without further going-over?
Nine hours on a Friday is brutal. But well done on submitting the paper! Definitely chocolate time!
DeleteJoining the chorus about 9 hours on Friday. Just NO. But you got a lot done!
DeleteI don't think I have synesthesia - my Mum does a bit, the days of the week and the months are all colours for her - but I do tend to have a lot of similes and metaphors in my head which are more solid than they are for most people.
DeleteWith the game prep, I was mostly annoyed because I could have really done with the time to do Very Little away from my computer chair after the Friday - and whilst it's nice to be prepped (so, yes, I only need a 5 minute refresher before we play), the next time we're likely to play is actually our Hallowe'en game which is a one-off which I haven't started to prep, so I could have done that. And having the game cancelled late on really threw off my day and I basically did nothing else with the time other than stress about the coming work week. Sometimes it takes very little to derail my get-up-and-go!
I've never seen the point to highlighters.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
- swim x2 or x3, cardio x3, weights x2, yoga x5: No swimming, yes to the rest.
- at least 3 writing sessions (TRQ paper, think about abstracts for conferences, festschrift, how to make all this work): ONE.
- grade the rest of the undergrad essays, prep for grad class, write another grad quiz, write another undergrad assignment, comment on in-class undergrad work: YES, YES, YES (but partially on the wrong material, so I have to re-do it: read the f-ing syllabus, prof!), YES, NO.
- write a sample syllabus for a proposed course: STARTED.
ALSO: got flu shot, went to dinner with friends, drove 5 hours (round-trip) for a 4-hour party, met with independent study-er, made cookies. W/r/t sleep it was a terrible, horrible, no-good very bad week, and I am amazed that I managed to show up for everything I was supposed to show up for. So I am starting this week way behind and feeling terribly overwhelmed.
But I am starting to believe that I actually AM intelligent b/c there is no way I got to where I am today by sheer hard grind! Somehow all the things are going to get done, eventually, even if it means re-writing syllabuses some more, or replacing morning swim sessions by morning writing (kidding [maybe]; I really missed the pool this week).
Next goals:
- swim x2 or x3, cardio x3, weights x2, yoga x5
- at least 3 writing sessions (TRQ paper, think about abstracts for conferences, festschrift, how to make all this work)
- re-write grad quiz, comment on last week's in-class undergrad work, plus another if I dare assign anything else right now, grade grad quiz
- work on sample syllabus for a proposed course, also add required boilerplate to another one I mostly did last summer
- breathe!
Hope this week is better for sleep!
DeleteSo sorry about the insomnia. It makes everything harder. Not that drafting sample syllabi is fun/easy either!
DeleteUgh, terrible sleep, long drives, and sample syllabi sound like a not much fun week. I hope the party was worth the drive and the cookies came out well!
DeleteThat is a lot of stuff done! Especially for a week of terrible sleep...
DeleteHope it gets better this week! Enjoy swimming!
I'm not a highlighter person either. I tend to just underline things in pen if working with print-outs.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful autumn colours here - hope same is true where you all are.
Last week:
1. Meeting with PhD student to discuss viva prep. - YES
2. Reference for another student. - YES
3. Complete Personal Research Plan (department requirement, but more sensible than other plans forced on us). - NO
4. Finish typing up some notes, organise photos and notes from this trip. - YES (took longer than expected)
5. Put meetings etc in new diary. - YES
6. Review abstract submissions for big conference next year. - NOT FINISHED
7. Life admin: book dentist and flu jab, organise son's school trip, order school photos, send sister's birthday card. - YES, YES, YES, YES, NO
8. Get back to exercise - YES (run x 3, pilates x 1)
ALSO: booked haircut for daughter at a new salon, went to meeting about next year's teaching because we are redoing our first-year curriculum almost entirely, watched a film with daughter last night since son away.
It has been a mixed week. My dad is ill (he's still in Spain, but thankfully with my mother and family). He has cellulitis, which is under control now, but was anxiety-inducing for the first day or so waiting to see if the antibiotics were working. They were in A&E twice. So a lot of stressful calls and WhatsApp exchanges. And the conference abstracts are taking forever. Because it's a centenary, and in London, we have way more than usual, and it's a slog to get through them, especially when lots are on financial/banking/economists discovering things historians have known since 1950 history. But we have had some glorious autumn days alongside the rain and the fog, so that helps.
This week:
1. Finish the damn abstracts (deadline theoretically today)
2. Personal Research Plan (deadline Friday)
3. Start reading book for review
4. At least one research/writing session.
5. Self-care/fun stuff: baking, make soup, exercise, sleep, maybe do something creative, hopefully see friend at weekend.
6. Home/life admin: stock up at farm shop, take daughter for haircut, organise getting piano taken away.
I'm so sorry to hear about your dad! Cellulitis is scary, especially at his age (and what a crap birthday present for him, too). Your goals sound excellent, especially 5 & 6!
DeleteCellulitis is scary, but treatable. But scary. (My mother had it several times.) And oh, the economists discovering history, oy. So painful. "Yes, if you'd read our work 40 years ago, you could have saved yourself several regressions!". But that's interdisciplinary work for you!
DeleteOh the joys of non-specialists discovering your field! As a genuinely more interdisciplinary than most researcher (head full of squirrels, a collector of any appealing snippet or factoid out there, and the problems I work on let me read across multiple fields continually which is always fun) the lack of humility of people from one field discovering another (especially more quant people discovering a less quant field - the disdain some scientists or data types have for social science and humanities, the way they assume it must be easy to get into, is a constant mystery).
DeleteToday's "I hate my life" moment was courtesy of a person from the humanities who had decided to propose a PhD idea right smack in my field of expertise, yet asked someone with a completely different skill and knowledge set to be the co-supervisor and said to me "well there isn't any room for another supervisor". So I am mad with them (they have no excuse - we have co-taught an interdisciplinary module, they know exactly who I am academically), mad with the other person (who knows they don't have the right expertise - they actually asked me to write the methods design for them - but says they need the supervision credit so it will be fine. Which, I get, but I also need the credit. And I suspect the person taking the lead on this wants that other person because they are more junior and will be grateful or something. Or they think it doesn't matter that that person has NO publications in either the methods or the topic of the project, whereas I have several decades), and mad with myself because some of the brain squirrels think it must be my fault for being unlikeable because the person didn't want to work with me. But I think they just think everyone in vaguely science related beach studies is the same and interchangable when it comes to PhD supervision.
Another member of the no highlighting team. I tried it my first term at university, and I ended up highlighting every other sentence. I've never recovered. I don't do many marginal notes either, except when I'm teaching (When I'll sometimes use post it notes to flag important passages.)
ReplyDeleteWe are not quite in the autumn colors yet, but last week we had RAIN (over an inch) and some lovely cool days. It's a bit warmer, but we're into the comfortable weather, and sometimes even the heat coming on in the morning...
How I did:
1. Actually start drafting paper for conference in two weeks YES
2. Set up brown bags NO
3. Set up speakers for spring NO
4. Keep up with BIG STUPID COMMITTEE YES
5. Do one box from room of doom, and the cart NO, but did the pile on my chair and started on one of the desk piles.
6. Call doctor for referral to PT YES
7. Contact realtors for initial meeting YES
8. Do something fun at the weekend YES
9. Keep up with exercise 5 of 7: I'll take that.
10. Keep up with regular sleep Yes
And also attended the local No Kings event, where I saw lots of colleagues (which my Congressman also attended), did work in the garden, did needed admin stuff for the grad students. For the first time this semester I don't feel terribly behind. And while I didn't clear the box I planned on, I keep throwing things out: I see something and it isn't necessary, into the trash/ donate piles. So making slow progress.
So a pretty good week. I think the draft of the Big Stupid Report is almost done, and we have a meeting on Friday. I've started on the paper for next week (thankfully, I can reuse stuff I've already written and shift the discussion). I'm behind on stuff for my classes but I can't get into Canvas right now so. . .
I'll be going to the city to stay with friends for the meeting of the Committee that is writing the Big Stupid Report (I realize the committee isn't stupid, we're just responding to a stupid proposal.) So that will be fun.
Goals for this week:
1. Send out draft of Big Stupid Report
2. Get a bit more of paper written for next week.
3. Set up brown bags, schedule seminars for next semester
4. Clear journals off my desk
5. Keep sorting stuff, getting rid of what I can
6. Enjoy trip to city, time with friends, and even the committee meeting
7. Keep up with exercise (cycle x 3, yoga and weights x2)
8. Make sure I keep sleeping
It's amazing what progress one can make with sorting/tossing by just doing a little bit at a time! The problem for me is getting started . . .
DeleteThe problem for me is once I start sorting, things need to go somewhere (e.g. donate, recycle etc.), and those create new doom piles and boxes!
DeleteI hope there are many small bonuses around the Big Stupid Report trip!
Incremental progress still counts! And gets results, we know it works for everything from paragraphs or throwing things out.
DeleteEnjoy the report trip! Definitely good to have side benefits to something like that!
I haven't really used highlighters since high school; I'm more of an underline-and-annotate type of person. I guess circling words has replaced highlighting them for me?
ReplyDeleteLast week was pretty nuts. My colleague with the recent cancer diagnosis (I *have* mentioned this, right?) ended up having her surgery rescheduled to this past Monday, so I had to do a lot to help figure out coverage for her class and (significant) service/admin position (surprise! I'm taking over the service/admin work). She also found out on Friday afternoon that she'll need chemo and so will be out for the rest of the academic year. Hopefully she'll be okay after all that!
Last week:
1. Read ch. 2 and 3 of the dissertation - ch. 2 yes, ch. 3 no
2. Write teaching award recommendation after observation - yes
3. Answer interview questions from my press for a blog post of some kind - yes
4. Read undergrad's short story ahead of Friday meeting - yes
5. Read 35 pages of Italian - yes
6. Keep up with workouts--I might run in a 5k on Saturday, because why not? - yes, and I ran the 5k! I did skip Thursday and Friday workouts, though, for reasons of some kind (which I can't remember right now--I think I just had too much work).
This week:
1. Read ch. 3 and 4 of the dissertation
2. Run event and get organized for colleague's service/admin position
3. Final (??? I hope) edits to book MS--I just got another email with some very fiddly questions that I need to answer
4. Gift for baby shower
5. 35 pages of Italian, keep up with workouts
Best wishes to your colleague, and to you with her work, and congratulations on the 5K! You're doing great with the Italian.
DeleteAll best to your colleague and to all of you who are swinging into action to cover. It's always hard. And go you doing the 5k as well as all the running around metaphorically on campus and with work!
DeleteWhen the super fiddly questions start showing up the end of editing is getting close! Hope it is indeed the final stretch.
DeleteHope your colleague's surgery goes weel and everyone pitches in to cover work as needed...
ReplyDeleteHighlighters… Meh… Never use them for studying or reading. Sometimes I find them helpful for highlighting lines of spreadsheets and budget reports if I’m checking things or looking for stuff. Sometimes I use them in my to-do list, once or twice I’ve colour-coded my list but that was intimidating, so not a regular thing.
Last week’s goals
Paper data processing NOPE
Student abstracts/presentations/posters DONE AND ONGOING
Web posts NOPE
External event and preparation SUCCESS!
Accounting NOPE
Start on giant review committee task STARTED
Two fun friend meetups HAPPILY DONE!
In good news, the show I’m playing did indeed turn into fun when the actual performances started. Four more of those this weekend. It is nice when you can see a whole hall full of people leave a show happy, so I’m enjoying being part of that. I will be happy when it is done and I am not driving all over hell’s half-acre every night, but it is definitely fun.
For everything else I feel like I am completely under water. Part of it is unforeseeable people-management issues (emotionally draining time-sink), part of it is the shear volume of student work I am supervising, and part of it is big institutional things. None of those are negotiable, or can be farmed out, they just have to get done.
This week’s goals
People-managing issues
Accounting
Read and comment on thesis work (3 students)
Update course outlines
Finish giant review task
Review co-authored paper
Finish grading!!
Something fun with friends
So sorry about the people-management issues. It's so energy draining. But glad the show is fun. That helps. And fun stuff does help with energy.
DeleteYou did remind me that I DO use highlighting when I'm writing, to show where I need to add things or something that's not working. But that's just on the screen!
Off-topic: In August '26 I am going to be in the city not so far from you! You might be off doing field work but let's see if it's possible to arrange a meet-up.
DeleteI do use highlighters on the computer but it's a faff as many programmes only have painful colours unless you do fiddling, and one person I work with quite closely is colour blind in a less common way so that also limits the colours I can use and sometimes leads to extra confusion because the choices he can see can give me the wrong information (I do have strong associations of whether a colour is positive or negative, which can make it harder for me to keep track of things if a positive trend in the data is in a negative colour, plus if the contrast/colour combination isn't quite right the numbers/letter are harder to read. Actually, that has just triggered a lightbulb moment - some of the colour thing might be because of dyslexia - I strongly, strongly suspect I am dyslexic, just not badly enough that it was really obvious - I spent my entire school life being called careless, lazy, sloppy for misreading things and misspelling things, and I still have to make a conscious effort to tell the difference between b,p,d and q in the nice plain san-serif fonts everyone says are good for students (my brain interprets typed serif fonts or cursive handwriting more easily than the really simple stuff, and I read fast, so I do tend to make up sentences rather than actually read them if the font is slippery. And without decent line spacing or a serif font lines of text tend to move around and swap words when I'm tired. But that aside, I know many dyslexic students have their ability to read and comprehend transformed by colour overlays, in both positive and negative ways, so maybe some of the colour stuff is connected to that?).
DeleteSorry, I seem to be hijacking comment threads right and left today!
People stuff is just exhausting! Sending good vibes your way... and I'm so glad the show is turning out fun in the final stages.
DeleteDEH! YES!!! to meet-up - that is 100% worth crawling out of the woods for :)
DeleteJaneB I teach a lot of 3D stuff that is wickedly difficult for some dyslexic students and have had really good success with colour-coding things like cardinal directions on maps, up/down arrows, kinematic notations etc. Bit of a hit-and-miss to find colours that work for people, but can be done. And have become a huge fan of Comic Sans font because it is one of the most dyslexic-friendly fonts out there, with actual research backing it up... Fascinating!
I really strongly prefer serif fonts and find sans-serif hard to read, as in, yes I can read it fine but it feels tiring. I've recently found (through casual conversations, not really tested) that I'm better than average at mentally rotating things, and I don't know why I'm not dyslexic given that tendency--but I'm only not dyslexic in the Roman alphabet, I am mildly so in the Greek alphabet, which I learned as an adult, so maybe I just managed to fix pqbd in my mind so early that they're okay, whereas mu and eta are more troublesome? But also the Greek fonts I usually see are sans serif, so perhaps I should see if I do better in a serif font.
DeleteI am fascinated by the way minds work! A lot of this current ruminating started when I met an old friend of Sir John's who has aphantasia. So interesting talking to him about how he learns and remembers things.
Minds are definitely very interesting. I am so interested by the idea of later learned alphabets being harder, I immediately want to try and learn a new alphabet to see if that happens to me! And finding ways to help dyslexic students is an enjoyable challenge too - I know comic sans is supposed to be very dyslexic friendly, but I asked several diagnosed students last year and it only worked for SOME of them - for them it worked very well, but others said meh or not at all. SO interesting! For me, it's better than some other san serif fonts but I feel that's more because its bigger and less boring (ADHD brain squirrels dismiss anything in very smooth round fonts as BORING) as because the shapes are more differentiated. The biggest issue I have is the words going for little walks or the letters inside the word swapping or transforming into other words (usually but not always with the same start and end), and the reason I prefer a serif font is that the feet help keep the letters stuck together into words, help stop the pbqd group from rotating by grounding them, and help keep the lines of words fenced off into their own space and not crossing over and swapping places. So for me, the advantage of the greater letter differentiation is offset by the way that to my eyes comic sans is a more each-letter-is-detatched font and there's less of a clear bound to the word at the bottom, so they get to wander around. It's not, I think, a visual thing in that they don't literally move in front of me, but the words that my brain translates are not the same place/order as the ones on the screen unless I sub-articulate them (read them to myself "aloud in my head"), and that slows me down hugely (so the squirrels start to lose focus - if I don't read fast I drift very easily) and can distract from the meaning of the text, especially if I'm grading poorly written student text!
DeleteNaturally the standard requirement is for students to submit work in 12 point san serif 1.5 spaced, and the little dears seem to always get the san serif right (it's set as the default on all the university software) but frequently forget the spacing (which slightly offsets the san serif problem for me) and font size (10 point in the uni default fonts is too small for me in single space in the marking system we have to use, where there is a comments panel taking up part of the monitor), and it can really make reading work hard and frustrating!