I hope all US-ians have had a lovely Thanksgiving and are enjoying their leftovers (honestly the best part of any holiday meal in my opinion). As always at the end of November, the demands of the teaching term (and looming assignments bringing out the students who have not been showing up or replying to checks for weeks now - and all need attention NOW) and the looming list of Christmas chores are building up just as the weather hints firmly that hibernating inside under the duvet is the only logical thing to do - how working parents manage I don't know, they must run on nothing but sugar, caffeine and adrenaline for at least a month!). A long weekend and a big feast would be a very nice minibreak right now, so I hope it went well for you all.
 |
| Shoutypants is back in his winter bed, and disapproving of me turning on the lights and waking him up |
This week's stationary item is more stationary-adjacent, and follows on from last week's talk about binders quite nicely -
filing cabinets. Are they still a thing for you/in your office? Do they make things vanish (out of sight out of mind) or help keep things in order? Or is everything digital now? (and if so, do things disappear or stay organised helpfully in your online systems?).
LAST WEEK'S GOALS
Daisy
New/Old paper to co-authors
One review now extra urgent
Review committee homework
Read grad student chapters (one for each would be good)
Practice like maniac for upcoming shows
Dame Eleanor Hull
- swim x2, cardio & weights at gym x1, keep up as best I can during Thanksgiving break*, yoga x5
- at least 4 writing sessions
- finish final exam and review sheets for grads
- add policies and send sample syllabus
- Thanksgiving cooking for two
- jigsaw puzzle? fun reading? something fun!
heu mihi
1. Find reviewers for two journal articles
2. Write a letter of nomination for a teaching award for a grad student
3. Work out 3-4 times (including a yoga class)
4. Enjoy family
5. Read a little for research on a subject I'm just interested in, not planning to write about (what luxury!)
JaneB
SELF-CARE:
a) intentional movement for at least 15 minutes three days
b) dentist's appointment, ring GPs to see if I can make a non-urgent review appointment
c) making a couple of times a week
d) two gently social things (D&D hopefully)
e) 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 week 12 materials
b) mark on-time submissions for big assignment
c) limit teaching and admin to 5 hours at weekend
d) feedback on draft from former senior PhD student
e) start on feedback for Senior MSc by Thesis student
RESEARCH
a) finish very long lasting multi-author paper resubmission
b) if possible read revised manuscript from last autumn's visiting post-doc.
Julie
1. Finish and send chapter to editors.
2. Aim to finish other chapter
3. Score poster submissions for conference.
4. House/life admin: find plumber, get gutters and roof cleaned (unless it snows again), eye test for daughter, hair cut for son, financial stuff.
5. Self-care/fun: baking, make soup, read, journal, keep up with exercise, sleep more.
Susan
1. Finish all the copyedits
2. Clear my desk and all the piles around the house
3. Order snacks for various events that are coming up
4. Get all the rest of the assignments up in my classes
5. Send out notice about upcoming events
6. Read MS for journal
7. Do something on the decluttering /clearing project (1/2 hour four days)
8. Keep up with exercise
9. Take at least Thursday off for the holiday
Echoing the hope that everyone in the US has had a good Thanksgiving. My children were off school on Friday, which here in the UK is Black Friday, a day of deals on consumer goods that prompts a shopping frenzy and even more spam in my inbox than usual. School don't admit that the day off is for Black Friday, but the timing is suspicious. However, a long weekend has done them both good. I feel other countries do a better job on the timing and frequency of long weekends than the UK - winter is when you need a break, not May or August.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Finish and send chapter to editors. - YES
2. Aim to finish other chapter - NO, but good progress
3. Score poster submissions for conference. - YES
4. House/life admin: find plumber, get gutters and roof cleaned (unless it snows again), eye test for daughter, hair cut for son, financial stuff. - IN PROGRESS, YES, YES, YES, IN PROGRESS (did some online research, felt overwhelmed, postponed decision)
5. Self-care/fun: baking, make soup, read, journal, keep up with exercise, sleep more. - YES (apple muffins and a crumble), YES (autumn vegetable and chickpeas), YES (another Tricia Ashley winter-themed romance - pure escapism, even without the joy that is Clara Mayhem Doome), YES, MOSTLY, NO.
Also: read multiple drafts of daughter's university application, bought and fitted new lampshades, bought SIL's birthday present, had lunch in favourite cafe, with book.
This week:
1. Finish other chapter.
2. Review an article.
3. Practice interviews for university applicants.
4. House/life admin: more Xmas presents, start on making calendars for parents, more financial stuff, get work done on car, follow up with plumber, book meetings with daughter's teachers.
5. Self-care/fun: exercise, read, sleep, journal, do something creative, book club, wander round local Christmas fair on Friday.
Yay for all the fun and food things you managed to fit in! Baking and soup are the best parts of this time of year I think!
Deletelunch in a favourite cafe with a book sounds like an excellent addition!
DeleteForgot the prompt! I used to have filing cabinets, which were more useful for dumping all the admin stuff like meeting papers and handbooks that I didn't want cluttering the place up. I did tend to forget what was in them. Now my office doesn't have one, so stuff is either in folders, as per last week's post, or in online folders. I used to have everything beautifully organised online, then Covid happened, stuff ended up divided between my laptop at home and my desktop in the office, and now it's a bit of a mess. Official department and university stuff is on a new Sharepoint site, where it is almost impossible to find things.
ReplyDeleteI hate Sharepoint SO MUCH.
DeleteI also hate Sharepoint SO MUCH. Why is its search engine so dire? Why??
DeleteOur campus uses Box, which is not as dire as Sharepoint. But clumsy as anything.
DeleteSharepoint is straight from Satan's software development shop...
Delete!!! The reverse of Santa's workshop!
DeleteI disliked box but then it was replaced by Sharepoint and I would be very happy to see box back!
DeleteI liked having filing cabinets, although as we moved to more things being on line I started using them for box files and for cardboard boxes full of stuff. I still have a LOT of filing cabinet in my office, although we don't really use them (I was moved over all protests into a large office with limited shelves about ten years ago, just as filing cabinets were becoming less used, and they were all just moved with me, so naturally they have continued to hold A LOT OF STUFF. I sorted through some of them this summer in advance of the supposed office move, which still hasn't happened). I also like that they have metal fronts so I can have magnetic stuff or use magnets to hold pictures/documents on the front and sides of them (I especially like a small stuffed cat my sister found for me who has a magnet in each paw so can be moved around to various climbing poses on the cabinets - he's very popular with students.
ReplyDeleteI have been both anxious and ratty this week, I itch (possibly the cold?), and I am just DONE with the term. Plus only 3 of my third years showed up last week for class, which is getting silly, and NONE of my second year study skills tutorial group chose to attend. But then two emailed me asking for a meeting at their convenience for some help with time management, which was the actual subject of the tutorial they chose to skip (they had a deadline for a different module on the day of the tutorial. A deadline which was past by tutorial time... but never mind. These things happen. This weekend I decided that my only job for Saturday was to read short novels, since several had built up on my Kindle, rather than the fairly-good-but-depressing-setting novel I've been working on (near future, fire fighters are losing the battle for Sequoia National Forest, discover cryptids), which sort of helped - helped in that I gobbled a Ngih Vo (beautiful language) and a young adult novel (set in the aftermath of world war II and pleasingly hopeful), then my brain decided to fish up a character I really like from some mindcandy, and I ended up rereading all the shorts on the author's website and novel 1, and am now well into novel 2 (of four, incomplete series sadly but I just wanted to hang out with them again). Which completely messed up my sleep, but has helped my mood, so that is something. As long as I can put it down and get to bed this evening before eleven ready for work in the morning!
LAST WEEK:
SELF-CARE:
a) intentional movement for at least 15 minutes three days three, but one was short on time
b) dentist's appointment, ring GPs to see if I can make a non-urgent review appointment yes - I need a filling :-(, no
c) making a couple of times a week one, I did a decent amount of crochet during a long meeting
d) two gently social things (D&D hopefully) texting chats with a friend and my sister, and D&D
e) keep up reading for pleasure well, I doubled my monthly book count this weekend... but I have been reading, and I am definitely getting pleasure from the current re-read, plus I have a new MurderBot and another new Martha Wells (Demon Queen) and a new(ish) Penric and Desdemona all waiting for me. So doing well here, apart from having to go to work...
IMPROVING MY ENVIRONMENT
a) 75%+ of the weekly list of chores not quite
b) make a plan for the shelving in the living room no
c) don't make clothes worse hahah well... no new cat hair as he's moved back into his igloo bed
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
a) prepare week 12 materials done
b) mark on-time submissions for big assignment done<.i>
c) limit teaching and admin to 5 hours at weekend yes
d) feedback on draft from former senior PhD student yes
e) start on feedback for Senior MSc by Thesis student no
RESEARCH
a) finish very long lasting multi-author paper resubmission YES!!! Virtual (and real) chocolate earned!
b) if possible read revised manuscript from last autumn's visiting post-doc.no
SELF-CARE:
Deletea) intentional movement for at least 15 minutes three days
b) ring GPs to see if I can make a non-urgent review appointment
c) wrapping Christmas stuff, finishing Christmas shopping
d) making a couple of times a week
e) two gently social things (D&D hopefully)
f) 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
d) set up advent calendar (I got a fancy one...)
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
a) mark late (extension) submissions for big assignment
b) limit teaching and admin to 5 hours at weekend
c) start on feedback for Senior MSc by Thesis student
RESEARCH
a) read revised manuscript from last autumn's visiting post-doc.
b) read chapter for meeting in December
c) work on outline grant text
d) work on modelling - check pilot results, plan next steps
Didn't know there was a novel set in Sequoia, which I think of as one of my neighborhood parks. And there have been fires there.
DeleteSorry about the students. It's really annoying when we go out of our way for them and they don't show up!
Also, I love Shoutypants' bed!
Please please tell me you have not agreed to meet individually with those students!
DeleteI completely get needing to reset your mood with reading. Sometimes a good book, or a light, distracting one is the only fix. But seems like a lot of yes for you and well done on the paper submission - definitely chocolate time.
Congratulations on paper submission! That is a huge win and definitely celebration-worthy! Sending all the virtual chocolate for that one. Hope the students and everything else falls into place better this week.
DeleteSaturday novels are the best - I think there should be a sub-genre for the kind you describe!
I offered the students one fixed time to meet, before a class they were in which I was teaching, and the ones who came were very grateful.
DeleteThe sequoia book is the start of a series by Veronica G Henry and is called The Canopy Keepers - I still haven't finished it but it was good so far, just a bit too aligned with what I'd been teaching for comfort (the week before last I taught classes including the topics of extinction, pandemics, and what happens when the Gulf Stream switches off (and why), so it was NOT the week to try and escape into a novel about wildfire! my teaching content is usually much more varied, but clearly I need to go tweak some modules so that next year all these topics don't coincide again!). This week I was on to more neutral or positive topics (reflective practice activities, student presentations, conservation planning)...
Filing cabinets: I have a big four drawer cabinet at home, and an equally large one at work. The one at home has things like the remaining articles I photocopied, notes from classes I took at university 50 years ago, and from almost all classes I taught until about 10 years ago, when everything went digital. Also old tax returns etc. I've been slowly emptying it out, but it all has feelings. The one in my office I am also emptying, mostly notes from committees when I didn't take notes on my laptop, and old classes.
ReplyDeleteMy digital files are semi-organized: I pay for a subscription to Dropbox, and keep EVERYTHING there. I need to create some big files to move things into -- like all the courses I taught, and maybe I won't need to keep all the stuff from committees I served on?
But I don't really trust electronic files, and so I'm also paying attention to what I want to make sure I don't lose. (My disaster scenario is when all the data centers and AI farms fry the internet and destroy everything we've saved in the cloud. And then electricity disappears too so we can't use computers.)
How I did:
1. Finish all the copyedits YES
2. Clear my desk and all the piles around the house HA! No
3. Order snacks for various events that are coming up YES
4. Get all the rest of the assignments up in my classes YES (I think?)
5. Send out notice about upcoming events YES
6. Read MS for journal YES
7. Do something on the decluttering /clearing project (1/2 hour four days) Probably 2-3 hours over the week
8. Keep up with exercise YES
9. Take at least Thursday off for the holiday YES, though I did some clearing
AND ALSO: Wrote a reference for a student, sent invitations for my holiday party,; GOt an appointment for my car to be serviced for the problem I'm assured is not a problem but I know it is. And met with the publicity person planning the publicity campaign for Famous Author.
It was great not going to campus this week. The copyedits just kept on adding questions. (And I know we need alt text for images but kill me now.) I'm pretty much caught up with work stuff, but all the other stuff now will do me in. I had a nice dinner with a friend for Thanksgiving (and enjoyed a bottle of good champagne), and have been living off leftovers ever since. I've packed up 5 boxes of books - - 4 to bring to campus for an imagined "sale" in my office (free to a good home) and one for the library's used book store. I need to have more boxes ready so that I can just keep putting books in them. I've been mentally pruning a bunch of shelves.
For next week:
1. Read article from colleague
2. Read student piece before I meet her
3. Deal with questions for BIG COLLABORATION
4. Clear all the piles of paper
5. Draft Christmas letter (yes, I still send actual cards!)
6. Start planning party
7. Keep up with all the admin stuff and work
8. Make sure that I'm far enough ahead on anything I can do that when proofs come I have mental space and a clean desk
9. Keep up with exercise
10. Do something fun sometime (tonight I went to the Holiday Pops concert from our symphony, so progress.)
Your disaster scenario sounds scarily possible! A lot of yes last week.
DeleteI figure if that disaster takes place we'll have larger problems than what happened to our files!
DeleteBusy week! Glad you got good leftovers and something fun out of the week. Hope copy edits are in their last phase, and that you can clear out enough things to have mental and time space for proofs!
DeleteI also still send physical letters & you have prompted me to add writing one to my to do list....
DeleteWell, I've already noted that filing cabinets are not very useful for me. I have two big ones at work, with not very much in them, except for a heap of folders containing articles that once upon a time I had on reserve at the library, for one course or another. That's another stack that I need to check to see what is unavailable online and should be scanned, vs the just-toss-now stuff. At home I have two two-drawer oak veneer cabinets, stacked, with a combination of work, personal, financial, etc documents. Periodically I purge these, and it's no doubt time for another such effort.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
- swim x2, cardio & weights at gym x1, keep up as best I can during Thanksgiving break*, yoga x5: swam once as the pool closed a day early, YES to the rest.
- at least 4 writing sessions: NO
- finish final exam and review sheets for grads: NO, YES
- add policies and send sample syllabus: NO
- Thanksgiving cooking for two: YES
- jigsaw puzzle? fun reading? something fun! LOTS of fun reading: I checked out 2 novels (for adults) by Tove Jansson, plus her letters, from the uni library, then got 3 mysteries from my public library, re-read a Moomintroll book of my own, and allowed myself to buy the two latest Trisha Ashleys. So far I've read the Jansson novels, browsed the letters, read one mystery, and about 5/6 of one Ashley.
ALSO: shoveled snow, made carrot muffins twice, put up coloured fairy lights in the living room (less Xmas lights than "get Eleanor through the winter" lights), cleaned the tops of the living room bookcases, wrote questions for a PhD candidacy exam.
New goals:
- swim x2, cardio x3, weights at gym x2, yoga x5
- at least 4 writing sessions
- finish final exam for grads
- add policies and send sample syllabus
- finalize PhD exam
- pay bills
- set December goals
Lots of fun reading! I've bought coloured fairy lights for the first time, but haven't got round to putting them up. I do like the idea of leaving them up for the winter.
DeleteA few years ago I put up outdoor lights for Christmas, and I've never taken them down. My excuse is that the street is a bit dark, and they provide light, but I just like the light. And now both my neighbors have lights that they leave up all year.
DeleteOutdoor lights are great any time of year, and are just so nice in January and February when it is still so dark! Same for fairy lights inside!
Deleteooo twinkle lights. My cat finds them fascinating which can be a bit worrying!
DeleteFiling cabinets… Hmmm I do not have any that I consider “mine”. My office houses the department’s filing archive in some nice wooden cabinets which contain absolutely fascinating things from decades past. I have a couple of drawers in one of the big ones that I use for all the things we are supposed to keep for a year (exam papers, student work) or more (finance). Outside of the cabinets there is a constant fight between “need to see what I have” and “need to clean it all up and have tidy office” so folders and folder boxes generally help for both of those.
ReplyDeleteLast week’s goals
New/Old paper to co-authors NO
One review now extra urgent DONE
Review committee homework DONE
Read grad student chapters (one for each would be good) NOPE
Practice like maniac for upcoming shows ONGOING
It felt like a chaotic week but was actually not bad, mainly because I just did not do some of the less time-sensitive things I was supposed to… They will haunt me later. This week clearly has the same vibe given that this is a Thursday check-in!
Had two excellent concerts, two more this weekend, and then only one per weekend until Christmas. We also had a snow day yesterday, (which of course wrecked a lot of careful lab exam scheduling) with loss of power/internet for the morning so I was happily obliged to read a book after my laptop battery ran out! It was wonderful! By afternoon all was functional again but the unexpected morning off was a lovely gift from the universe.
This week’s goals
Figures and text for paper section
New/Old paper to coauthors
Review committee homework and meeting
Read grad student chapters (one for each would be good)
Data for students
Association proposals urgent
Keep practicing like maniac for upcoming shows
And also, must do something about Christmas presents...
DeleteWhen something has to give, of course it's the less time-sensitive stuff! Can't be helped. Sounds like lots of lovely music, which is sustaining in other ways.
DeleteSnow days are great - there's something about having no choice about sitting still that is special. (As long as you don't have really important stuff to do, like medical appointments.)
Deletethat sounds like an excellent snow day, not lasting so long it became a real pain, just long enough to have some guilt-free pleasure!
Delete