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.
Hi, I'm JaneB, a late-mid-career academic at Northern University, a squeezed-middle regional university in England, and I'm working through burnout/recent AuDHD diagnosis on top of all the usual delights of academic life (we had major cuts to staffing last academic year and are feeling the consequences, and were reorganised over the summer into a new School, which has been interesting) and, of course, the madness that is 2026! Just me and my cat, blog nom-de-plume Shoutypants.
ReplyDeleteThe shorter session actually suits my work quite well as two of the papers that were submitted last session came back as revise and resubmit with deadlines at the start of April, and I'm lead author for one of them. SIGH.
Kindness - "pedagogy of kindness" was an idea I got very interested in around the COVID pandemic. It can be seen as soppy or soft, but being kind to me is about treating everyone as an individual and not assuming I know their context or they know mine/ours as academics, about having integrity and being open and honest. It's maintaining rigour in standards and processes - but it is doing that in a human, communicative, facilitating way. It's actually kind of subversive in the academic setting - the hallmarks of the stereotypical successful academic are the conferences, the papers, the grants, and they have to put student interactions and support and colleagiality lower down the list because there is only so much time in the day - they mostly have to be careless towards the little people in the system - or their carelessness is considered excusable or to be expected BECAUSE they are so smart/successful!
SESSION GOALS:
DeleteSELF-CARE: all process goals, for three term time months:
a) intentional movement for at least 20 minutes three days a week or 15 for four days a week (this can be stretching or more active exercising, but it needs to be intentional and additional to just "doing life"),
b) some kind of making (art or craft) a couple of times a week,
c) doing something gently social (playing D&D online counts, or a multi-text exchange with a non-work friend, or spending time on a forum a couple times a week
d) keep up reading for pleasure and read at least one non-fiction book
IMPROVING MY ENVIRONMENT: goals carried over!
a) keep doing the weekly list of chores - aiming for 75% done every week to be realistic.
b) sort out new shelving in my living space - and maybe a sofa
c) clothes storage solutions (currently all my actually-in-the-rotation clothes are either in the laundry basket, on the airer, or piled on a chair or in the clean undies basket. This is not ideal).
d) plus pay more attention to my finances. Not quite sure what that will look like, but it got dropped last trimester, and I need to be less careless!
TEACHING AND ADMIN: This is a lighter semester, but the first month is full of grading from the first semester whilst preparing for the second's teaching. Process goals here for the session because the session doesn't line up with our academic calendar (which is a mess...).
a) end each work week (Thursday) with everything set up ready to go for the following week and, if possible, have a solid start on the week after that.
b) limit working on teaching and admin issues over the weekend (let's say no more than 5 hours) and if possible ZERO
RESEARCH
I have a lot of balls in the air, but for this session I do have some very concrete goals, very different for me!
a) revise and resubmit two papers by due dates in early April (one I'm a minor author on, one I'm leading)
b) be on top of contributions to large project where I have a small part - by the end of the session I would like a clear plan for the little part of the project where I am the leading expert.
c) complete and submit a first-stage grant application
d) keep up with all the other pieces of research and writing as things come in and go out (they're all collaborative, so what happens when isn't entirely in my control).
c) make measurable progress with at least three other writing/data processing projects (I'll make a list now of what I'm working on)
THIS WEEK'S GOALS:
DeleteSELF-CARE: all process goals, for three term time months:
a) intentional movement 20x3 or 15x4
b) some kind of making (art or craft) x2
c) something gently social x2
d) read at least one chapter (of fiction) every day this week
IMPROVING MY ENVIRONMENT: goals carried over!
a) 75% of weekly list of chores
b) make an appointment with declutterer
c) make a plan for the shelving in living space
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
a) finish second year grading and start first year grading
b) set up ViLE for module that starts late February
c) schedule and complete appraisal meetings (it's a "cascaded duty" which makes it rather pointless - but I have to appraise three juniot colleagues this week)
d) prepare lectures for first week of teaching
RESEARCH
a) read over referees comments and suggested responses for minor author paper
b) schedule a meeting to discuss plan for lead author paper
c) read papers in advance of meeting for Large Funded Project
d) read and reply to email from Unexpected Collaborator
Oh, and e) make a list of all the projects that might need attention this session!
Delete