Welcome to the first session of 2026! Dame Eleanor and I will be co-hosts. The session will run through until Easter, as both of us are away some of April, so the last session would be 29th March. That makes this a shorter session than usual, only 12 weeks, so if people want to continue some informal goal setting over April, particularly people in the US whose teaching might not align with these dates, feel free.
As usual, this first week will be for setting session goals, introductions if anyone new joins (all welcome!) and first week goals. Normally, prompts will be related to writing: a mixture of quotations from real and fictional writers, and questions taken from Hattie Crisell's book In Writing, based on her podcast of the same name of interviews with writers about their practices. (If anyone is interested, I'd recommend the podcast over the book.)
For this first week, however, I wanted to use Susan's New Year post about kindness, because that seems such a good way to start what is already proving to be a tough 2026. I particularly liked the point that kindness is within our control. So how can we be kind in 2026? This could be to ourselves, to others or both.
I have no equivalent of a Shoutypants to entertain you all with each week, but have a photo of New Year's Day sunrise over the river, taken on my way to park run. May there be light for all of us these next few months.
So, for the benefit of anyone new, I'm Julie, a mid-career historian at a university in the north of England which is suffering the same pressures as everywhere else in higher education, but is prestigious enough to be still attracting students and thus not in imminent danger of collapsing. This year, I'm on research leave, so have no excuse for not doing TLQ stuff. I'm a widow, with a teenage daughter and son.
ReplyDeleteKindness: I think I try to be kind, but it's also easy to make the excuse that I'm busy. So I will try to be as supportive of family and friends who are struggling in as active a way as possible. I also think one way to be kind to myself is to make the most of pockets of time in which to rest, or to go for a walk or to do something creative. This last week, we've had a lot of sunshine, and in our house it comes in through the back windows in the morning. One morning I sat in the sunlight in a rocking chair and read for an hour before switching the laptop on. Yesterday morning, I did some painting by numbers in a patch of sunlight. To sum up, I'll spend as much time in sunlight as possible!
Session goals:
1. Research/writing:
(i) Big article, which I am hoping to send to a top journal. Plan is to have a full draft I can present at a seminar at the end of April.
(ii) Chapter for a local history: I have a 15,000 word draft, and the editor likes it, but wants it to be twice as long (!) to fit with other chapters, so I need to pad it out. (IMO this is ridiculous, but I am committed now. And I will be paid for this.) Due April
(iii) Review article for anniversary edition of a journal, due 1st April.
(iv) Grant application: start the process.
Teaching
(i) Preparation for new first-year teaching next year (we are redesigning our curriculum, so I have to participate in this): keep to the bare minimum.
(ii) PhD corrections for final PhD student.
Other academic stuff:
(i) Organising committee for big anniversary conference in April.
3. Life admin/house stuff
(i) Plan big summer trip to celebrate significant birthdays (the actual trip will be self-care/fun, the planning is too stressful to be).
(ii) Finances: tax return, but also some big decisions to make
(iii) Small to medium jobs: decluttering, new lamps, get pictures framed and hung, get a standing desk and new chair for study, new chair for spare room (for reading in the morning sun), touch up paintwork in various rooms.
Kids:
(i) Ongoing parenting stuff, plus school work, final-year assignments, daughter's driving test.
Self-care/fun:
(i) Meet-ups with friends, especially around significant birthdays.
(ii) Reading for pleasure
(iii) Journaling
(iv) Do more creative stuff.
(v) Exercise
And this week's goals:
ReplyDelete1. Research: go through notes and archive photos to find examples for Big Article
2. Writing: new, longer introduction to local history chapter.
3. House/life admin: return library books, do some research for summer trip, pay in a cheque, do some decluttering, organise for weekend away.
4. Self-care/fun: text friend, read, exercise (find a weights class?), weekend away with family.