2026 Summer session: Week 8

Hi everyone!

It is our midpoint check-in week! Weekly goals first, and then session ones… Time to revisit and revise, subtract or add things, and check in with your intention for the summer session.

 Garden/plant observation for the week… According to my self-imposed rules the picture I use each week  has to be from the week before each post, which has been a fun challenge. This week I wanted white and pink multiflora roses because they are everywhere, and are stunning and smell beautiful especially along part of my bike route. But then we had a few days of rain, and I did not bike, and by the time I went on my photo trip they had gone past their peak and were starting to brown. I did get a few in a secluded spot, and for consolation, the wild roses have come out beautifully in shades of pink, so we have both.

 

That’s the prompt – do you have fleeting things you love but have to be enjoyed exactly at the right moment or they disappear? For a related challenge – find something fleeting and drop everything to enjoy it in that moment and tell us next week😊

 

This week's goals: 

DEH

-at least two hours on M-work
-finish revisions to W-essay
-plod grimly on with editing which will be around my neck till end of time
-book flights
-return some stuff
-swim x2, weights x2, bike x2 (means getting up early)
-attend fireworks on the 3rd; consider parade on the 4th

JaneB

SELF-CARE:
* 4x20 intentional movement, 3 x making (including birthday card for nibling), 2 x small things with people, reading every day (a lot if I want to!)
* resting during the day in hot weather with my feet up
* write a "tasting menu" of both small chores and small fun things, and aim to do a couple every day - more is nice but the goal for this week is REST in all its flavours, and a couple of those things a day is enough for that.
HOME AND ENVIRONMENT:
* 100% of chores
* set up my diary for the new academic year
* small items as above
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
* one email check. ONE.
RESEARCH:
* referee one journal article

Julie

1. Be as productive as possible in libraries and archives.
2. Enjoy workshop and catching up with people.
3. Enjoy time away in pretty places as much as heat allows! 

heu mihi
1. Write a more realistic 4000 words
2. Read grad student's third exam document
3. Read and add to Festschfrift intro
4. Do some house projects (as yet undetermined)
5. Clear out some of the give-away pile in the basement
6. Sit some number of times 

Susan

1. Unpack more books
2. Do some of the dining room boxes to create space there
3. Pack for summer/ early fall in research country
4. Set up TV
5. Help my successor in my admin role if necessary, but try not to be too involved
6. Send another draft bylaw revision from the easy committee that will not die to the people who need to look at it.
7. Get on plane! 

Daisy

Finish student chapters
Plan/book field work accommodations
Get data processing done
Finish several lingering administrative projects

 SESSION GOALS – to review, report, revise ad libitum

 And, for a symbol of perseverance and abundance, a bonus photo of a dogwood tree that has been blooming for weeks and just won’t quit!

DEH

Intention: divide and conquer!

Complete 2 conference papers and 1 Festschrift essay,

Revise 2 syllabuses for fall classes

Stay in shape

Go on 3 trips with my husband

Take care of necessary house and personal maintenance

Deal with special-issue editing tasks

Urgently finish way overdue essay

Daisy

Intention: breathe

One new first-author paper ready to submit
One student paper ready to submit
Get reasonable start on new project
Help student finish up thesis work
Regular exercise, and some kayaking
Trip with kid

JaneB

Intention: life and work kintsugi

SELF-CARE:
regular intentional movement, making, doing small things with other people and reading for pleasure. I want to do all these things an appropriate number of times a week. I also want to explore a wider range of kinds of making over the summer, and I have an aim of having a more habitual practice in all these areas by the time we start back with students.
HOME AND ENVIRONMENT: regular chore habits, plus working on the living room (shelf-box-sofa project), working on clothing storage/management, and working on my finances.

TEACHING AND ADMIN: it is summer, but...
* I need to rewrite my final year honours module to fit into a different trimester (and fit around the honours project drama - modern students canNOT seem to work on anything else around the few weeks before the project is due, and I'm leaning into that because there's no point fighting it any more)
* I have a lot of minor tweaks to do to my other teaching (spread across four modules)
* I WANT to work through the practicals from another colleagues modules - they teach GIS mapping, and I want to be up to date on how they are teaching it so that I can better support my students (and know what I can expect from them so push them to deliver on it in assignments - most assignments should have a map included, and this is one of the tools we can ask them to use).
* I'm on a "task and finish" group (i.e. co-producing a report for Faculty) which might or might not involve a lot of work
* There will be extra work around trying to show we are taking the current recruitment crisis seriously (so much drama and stress and other people not so much dropping balls as yeeting them into orbit or dropping them into random abysses), but I don't know what will be my part. I'll roll that in with getting settled in to my new admin role
* I also want to get one of my MSc by Research students completely done (and working on publishing her work) and the other much closer to submission than they are now
RESEARCH:
As ever, balls in the air!
* contribute to governmental advice reports
* keep up contributions to Big Project (which is doing my head in because, too many people and too little clarity and organisation)
* progress at least three writing projects from a list substantially

Julie

Intention: be more focused

1. Research/writing
i) Finish 30,000 word chapter asap and get irritating editor off my back. (I have kept to deadlines, he keeps deciding I need to add stuff.)
ii) Have a full draft of Big Article for people to read and comment on. This is top priority.
iii) Make some progress on a grant application, but this is lowest priority.
2. Teaching & teaching-related
i) Preparation for new team-taught module next year.
ii) Sign off final corrections on a PhD.
iii) Meetings with students about final-year dissertations for next year.
3. Life admin/house
i) Finalise summer travel
ii) Get a standing desk & proper adjustable chair.
iii) New chair for reading corner in spare room.
iv) Persuade kids to declutter their rooms?
v) Clear more garage space?
4. Self-care/fun
i) Exercise: run at least 3 x week when at home, find weights and/or pilates class
ii) Travel and meet ups with friends.
iii) Read, preferably in garden.
iv) Journal, also preferably in garden.
v) More creative stuff

Heu mihi

1. Writing for fun: Get to a point with a (creative?) project where it will be easy-ish to sustain going into the school year. In an ideal world, this would mean about 40k of a messy draft, but I'm not fixing a number on it.
2. New research: Read some primary sources to find another topic for a case study. (I have an idea for a very different kind of book that I might enjoy working on.)
3. Existing research: Complete and submit festschrift, which includes writing the introduction.
4. Home: Annual deep cleaning stuff (garage, windows), clean out computer files, get patch of ceiling fixed, scrub or otherwise deal with the stupid popcorn finish on the bathroom ceiling
5. Crafts: Finish knitting shawl, start sweater, anniversary book, new journal?
6. Italian: Make my way through a substantial part of this rather more difficult (and very long) novel that I've started
7. Habits: Add some actual sitting, maintain exercise
8. TLQ: Check in on Mondays at least 75% of the time!

Susan

Intention: welcome new adventures
Otherwise, given that I really don't know what retirement will be, I'm keeping these VERY general.
Teaching and admin:
1. Finish my time as graduate chair without leaving too many unfinished tasks
Research:
2. I am expecting to spend much of the summer dealing with copyedits of Big collaboration (a collection of 30 essays on my historical period I am coediting). We have been told that we'll start getting copyedits in early June.
3. Keep up with research on Rest of My Life project, especially preparing for the keynote I'm giving at a major conference in November

 

2026 Summer session: Week 7

Hello everyone! 

It is the time of the summer where I am consistently seeing two things happening in my world, and they are giving me a good dose of cognitive whiplash…

On one hand there is the “time flies” approach. I was planning things with a group of campus leaders, and someone said “well we’d better get on with it because summer is almost over”… It was said at least partly in jest, but does reflect a very real feeling of time flying by and us hanging on for dear life…

On the other hand I’ve hung out with a lot of high school seniors the last week who have graduation on Monday, and their overwhelming opinion is summed up as “we are ecstatic that the long summer days are here, and isn’t it great to have two whole months of summer ahead of us!”. They have lists of summer jobs (all the camp councilors I know are even more excited for those than the campers!), plans with their families (everything from camping to finally painting the whole barn!), plans to learn new things (new instrument for band camp, of course!), no plans at all except chill with friends or alone (introverts I see you!), and their enthusiasm and joy has been wonderful to see.

I see the second attitude reflected in the outdoors right now too, with abundance everywhere. Asparagus is not sold as bunches, they come in buckets. Strawberries do not come in individual containers but in cardboard flats. Flowering bushes are not producing one set of blooms, they are doing thousands like the one in this week’s picture (if someone knows what it is, I’m curious!).

 

 Those two groups are talking about exactly the same span of time… 

So, a timely challenge for the week (we are doing mid-session check-ins next)… How can we shift from our typical “adult” scarcity approach, and embrace more of the feeling of abundance the “kids” have going into July and August? What can you do this week and for the second half of the summer to maintain that feeling?

DEH

-back to gym: swim x2-3, weights x2, cardio x3
-finish the editing tasks and make the issue the press's problem
-4 x half-hour on research
-more defracking of habitat
-book the dang August trip
-get EU visas for July trip
-avoid thrashing

JaneB

SELF-CARE:
* 3x20 intentional movement, 1 x making, 1 x small thing with people, reading every day (with dinner, in waiting times)
* resting during the day in hot weather with my feet up - the inflammation and swelling that comes with hot weather gives me a lot of joint pain and definitely contributed to last summer's plantar fasciitis flare, and I want to Be Sensible this year. Also horizontal rests do a better job of resetting my irritation levels!
* write a small list for the following week - which I have taken as Annual Leave, and whilst I want to do a lot of rest/chore things I'd like to do a couple of more finishable, not-just-more-of-the-usual things
HOME AND ENVIRONMENT:
* 75% of chores
* make the most of the decluttering session (which is rescheduled to the coming Friday) and if not do one thing off the small items list
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
* last exam board for this session this week and associated paperwork
* one hour on Icky Admin Task
* checking in with other research masters student
* one block on teaching for next year
RESEARCH:
* submit small group paper if time (will take 2-3 hours because, ick, submission portals)
* continue to help student with changes on rejected paper
* discuss progress and run a couple more sets of modelling (park writing til July)
* complete first draft of revisions for the group paper (I submitted a revised version in April - It's come back quite quickly with a much more positive and useful set of comments, thankfully) - it needs to go to the rest of the team at the end of this week.
* referee two journal articles (I'm an idiot, only meant to accept one...)

Julie

1. Plan for next week's trip to archives.
2. Finish the primary sources I was working through, maybe look at another set if time.
3. Read ILL books, take notes, add bits to Big Article.
4. Get back to a student who emailed ages ago.
5. House/life admin: get daughter safely off on trip, plan for being away next week, book a bunch of train tickets, if possible book a bulky rubbish collection for later in the month.
6. Self-care/fun: run x 3 unless heat is too awful, journal, read, above all, remember to pause!

heu mihi
1. Write 3500-4000 words
2. Find reviewer 2 for new submission
3. Process other journal submission
4. Read grad student's exam doc
5. Read two essays for festschrift; check formatting consistency
6. *Only* read Italian and Legenda Aurea on days that I'm home!

Susan

1. Keep unpacking
2. Contact handyman about attaching stuff to wall
3. Have a fun reunion with friends from last year
4. Keep up with admin stuff
5. Try to get back into formal exercise that isn't unpacking stuff
6. Get back to cooking (that involves putting stuff away enough that I can use the cooktop - the nice thing about induction cooktops is that they do provide extra counter space when not in use. )

Daisy

REMEMBER the small actions!
Get some teacher gifts
Comments and edits for student chapters
Do a lot of data processing for joint project
Enjoy/appreciate all the “lasts” this week and next
Bike to work 3 times

Good luck with the week! 

2026 Summer session: Week 6

 Hello everyone

Lupin season continues! The visual impact of a giant field of lupins is always wonderful, and my feeling is the more the better. Our local highways are beautiful right now, all the ditches and banks are full of flowers. My garden ones are a bit past their prime but still lovely especially up close… Beautiful up close on individual stalks, and beautiful when they contribute to a giant field…

 

I’m struggling with overwhelm right now, everything feels too big, and small actions seem inconsequential, so this week’s prompt is my reminder to reset, and to remember the power of small actions repeated over time and space. What are your favourite, or most effective small actions, in work or life, that are valuable on their own, but also multiply and grow and contribute to making things beautiful?

Goals below, have a wonderful week!

DEH

-take shoes to UPS for return
-swim x2, gym x2, outdoor bike ride x1
-plant cucumbers
-book August trip
-work on new paper
-lots of editing stuff

JaneB

A LOT of meetings and diaried items this week, so it's going to require attention to get anything TLQ done this work week. And hopefully the decluttering happens this Friday.
SELF-CARE:
* 3x20 intentional movement, 1 x making, 1 x small thing with people, reading every day (with dinner, in waiting times)
* doing and planning some food prep
HOME AND ENVIRONMENT:
* 75% of chores
* make the most of the decluttering session (if it happens!) and if not do one thing off the small items list
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
* another exam board this week and associated paperwork
* one hour on Icky Admin Task
* checking in with other research masters student
* one block on teaching for next year (I have multiple small tasks like correcting problems I noticed with slide order, updating case studies, changing discussion questions that didn't work as I'd hoped etc. - I jot these down after sessions during the year when I often don't have the bandwidth/time to do them properly, then batch them as part of preparing for the next year. These are well suited to fitting in around meetings to add up to a block
RESEARCH:
* submit small group paper if people reply
* help student if needed with changes on rejected paper
* write draft text for second set of results from modelling problem, and run a couple more sets of modelling
* start working on revisions for the group paper (I submitted a revised version in April - It's come back quite quickly with a much more positive and useful set of comments, thankfully).

Julie

1. Big Article: 3 days
2. Collect inter library loans, return a book, borrow others.
3. Read two articles for teaching prep meeting.
4. House/life admin: do proper clean of cooker and oven, plan for being away next weekend & family visit, find out about visas for summer trip, niece's birthday and Father's Day.
5. Self-care/fun: run x 3, try for a walk the other days, read, journal, enjoy weekend away with friends and family visit Sunday evening.

heu mihi
1. Write 6500 words (I have an end-of-month goal I'm trying to reach)
2. Process one journal submission; process one revision; maybe start the next submission
3. Annoying life stuff: Deal with car thing, deal with excise task thing, settle upcoming travel to see parents; email catch-up
4. Grad students: Prep for (and preside over) a prospectus defense; read grad student's exam document

Susan

1. Enjoy my sister's visit, even though she is not staying at my condo (that was the plan)
2. Start unpacking
3. Do the minimum of administrative work to make sure the wheels all keep turning.

Daisy

Make project plan for intern and two other students
Do data processing for student project
Open one of the research project docs and do more than one thing
Conference accounting and catch-up with everything

Exercise

2026 Summer session: Week 5

 It is lupin season! Fair warning, the next few weeks of photos will probably have a lot of those… I really love them. Imagine my surprise when I mentioned to a someone that I’m trying to turn my yard into a lupin field, and she was totally surprised, and said she cannot stand lupins and thinks they look terrible… We happily agreed to disagree on that! But seriously, how can anyone dislike lupins?

                 

Which made me think about some of the things we sometimes dislike for no apparent reason, particularly things that other people think are perfectly normal, or even great. Also, I have very little brain power for thinking deep thoughts, so for this week, tell us about a strange or petty aversion that you have to something everyone else seems to be ok with.

Goals below, and a heads up that we might be close to a mid-session check-in (I know, I do not believe it either...). 

DEH

-finish conference paper
-go to conference and have a good time
-get a massage
-start frantic last-minute editing chores
-finish booking August trip
-exercise as much as possible given conference

JaneB

SELF-CARE:
* 3x20 intentional movement, 1 x making, 1 x small thing with people, reading every day (with dinner, in waiting times)
** pretty list of making methods and projects
HOME AND ENVIRONMENT:
* 75% of chores
** make nice looking lists (steps for the living room, the smaller tasks, the finances, the clothes projects)
* make list for decluttering person, make the most of session with her this week (if it happens!).
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
* more assessment-related bureaucracy and list of small end of year necessities
* one block of time on Icky Admin Task
* feeding back on final drafts for research masters student who hopes to submit this coming Friday (doing that is what displaced last week's teaching block)
RESEARCH:
* submit small group paper if people reply
* read through rejected paper and advise student on any changes before sending it elsewhere
* write draft text for second set of results from modelling problem, and run a couple more sets of modelling

Julie

1. Big article: one day.
2. Read through comments on review piece and decide responses.
3. Chase mentor for a meeting.
4. Book a room for a teaching prep meeting.
5. House/life admin: Father's Day, niece's birthday, book summer activity.
6. Self-care/fun: Dublin!

heu mihi
1. Write 5000 words! Can I do it?
2. Italian, read a daily story from the Legenda Aurea (just catching up on my medieval best-sellers here), exercise
3. Journal catch-up! Read proofs for two articles; process new submission
4. Enjoy birthday stuff and let myself be lazy/relax/have fun whenever I want this week!

Susan

1. Close on the condo (scheduled for Wednesday)
2. Figure out carpet
3. Talk to movers
4. Keep up with admin stuff from current employer
5. Do at least 5 chapters
6. Do fun things
7. Try to be helpful

Daisy

Make project plan for intern and two other students
Figure out rest of summer for work and family plans
Do something fun for birthday
Open one of the research project docs and pick a task to complete
Conference accounting and catch-up with everything

 

2026 Summer session: Week 4

Hello!

Thank you all so much for sharing the small beautiful things you noticed this week. I really enjoyed reading them, sorry for not getting comments in for everyone earlier in the week, it has been a long week…

I’m still traveling and have jumped forward in time to a full spring with blossoms everywhere, amazing what being on a slightly more southerly island can do. So, the picture of the week is two of my favourite blossoms: apple and ornamental plum. I love the colour contrasts between the outside and inside petals of the apple blossom, and between the leaves and the blossoms of the ornamental plum. Somehow the contrast makes both colours for each shine.

So, from that… The theme of the week is contrast and harmony… Do you have two or more contrasting things/themes/approaches in your work that brings out the best in both? Do you have two contrasting parts of your personality that make a good pair? Do you have a colleague with a contrasting style of working that somehow fits with yours and creates a dream team of collaboration?

 Goals below as always... Have a great week!

 JaneB

SELF-CARE:
* 3x20 intentional movement, 1 x making, 2 x small things with people, reading every day (with dinner, in waiting times)
** make pretty list of different making methods and projects I might play with this summer: pick up one thing from it I haven't done for a while
HOME AND ENVIRONMENT:
* 75% of chores
** make nice looking lists of the steps for the living room, the smaller tasks and the finances
** braindump the clothes projects
** think generally about what might get done when
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
* more assessment-related bureaucracy
* one block of summer teaching tasks (which may need to be squeezed in in hours here and there around the meetings, sigh)
* one block of time on Icky Admin Task
* roughly map out what might get done when this summer, and prioritise if needed
RESEARCH:
* submit small group paper if people reply
* continue calm systematic exploration of the laptop problem.
* write draft text for second set of results from modelling problem
** schedule meeting for teaching related project

Susan

1. Finish microfilms
2. Clear out office
3. Meet with incoming chair to go over looming issues.
4. Have fun with friends
5. Make sure final pieces are in place for condo purchase
6. Set up internet, electricity, and gas for the condo.
6. Stay zen

Julie

1. Three days on Big Article
2. Meeting with one mentee, email the other.
3. Print reviewers' comments on 5,000 piece & decide on responses (revising piece is something to add to Session goals).
4. House/life admin: travel insurance, research activities for summer trip, post book club swap, look for new chair, FIL's birthday.
5. Self-care/fun: run x 3, find weights/pilates class, read, journal, carry on watching addictive TV series

DEH

-file travel voucher
-get mulch for veg patch
-finish Overdue Essay (now TRQ)
-produce readable conference paper (also now TRQ)
-regular PT exercises, swim x2, bike x2, weights x2
-finish booking August trip

heu mihi
1. Add last few article summaries to Festschrift intro
2. Process two Festschrift article revisions
3. Process new journal submission
4. Write 5000 words (let's be bold!)
5. Italian x 5, exercise x usual, sit x 3
6. Clean my house a little more thoroughly than usual ahead of weekend visit from parents

Daisy

Stay on top of admin 
Continue planning and get a summer schedule sorted
Review data and future publication plans with field trip people
Eat a few salads

2026 Summer session: Week 3

Hello everyone!

Hope the proverbial garden mulching and weeding and tending has gone well! I am on a big field trip in a lovely area for the week. It is 2 degrees, with horizontal rain/sleet, and foggy… Everything is still beautiful of course, and the actual subject of the trip is fascinating but the big views and wide open vistas are not quite as impressive as expected. So I thought I’d share a few pictures of tiny beautiful things I’ve taken in the last few days. It is still very early spring here so plants are just contemplating coming out of hibernation, almost nothing is blooming yet, and there are barely any leaves out...

 

The first picture is of some alder catkins, with tiny new leaves and flower spikes. The second is the ubiquitous juniper bushes with new berries, they will be dark purple in a few months. The third is a little patch of lingon berry flowers (called partridge berries here)… They will be bright red berries by the end of the season.

This week’s prompt… Did you notice any particular tiny beautiful things this week? Or, alternatively, what tiny things did you start this week that might bloom into something new by the end of the season?

Last week’s goals below…

DEH

-Write (or transfer) 3000 words for Overdue essay.
-Write or polish 1000 "real" words for First Conference Paper
-Contact last writer with reviewer comments
-regular PT exercises, gym x4 (swim x2)
-finish booking 3rd summer trip
-file travel voucher
-get mulch for veg patch
-review essay for journal
-make a cake

Daisy 

Take time to do project planning 
Polish and give talks and support students with theirs
Have fun catching up with people at conference 
Keep admin work going while away

heu mihi

1. Write 3000 messy words
2. Italian x 5
3. Sit x 3; exercise as usual
4. Start reading the Legenda Aurea (because why not?)
5. Catch up on some lingering leftover work stuff

JaneB

SELF-CARE:
* 3x20 intentional movement, 1 x making, 2 x small things with people, reading every day (with dinner, in waiting times)
** make a list of different making methods and projects I might play with this summer
HOME AND ENVIRONMENT:
* 75% of chores
** braindump the steps for the living room and clothes projects
** braindump smaller house and environment things I would like to get done this summer
** braindump where I want to get to with my personal finances
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
* assessment-related bureaucracy
* meet with the MSc by Research student who is furthest from submission
* one block of summer teaching tasks
* one block of time on Icky Admin Task
RESEARCH:
* submit small group paper
* continue calm systematic exploration of the laptop problem.
* write draft text for first two sets of results from modelling problem
* schedule meeting for teaching related project

 Julie 

1. At least two days on Big Article - write one section, plan out the rest.
2. Final sign-off on PhD corrections.
3. Submit request for funding for travel this summer and book if possible.
4. Two teaching meetings (one on assessment).
5. House/life admin: book more summer travel, travel insurance, organise and post parcel for book club swap.
6. Self-care/fun: run x 3, find weights or Pilates class, read, journal, theatre trip Friday.

Susan

1. Get through at least 3 microfilms
2. Empty storage unit / stop paying for it!
3. Attend meetings
4. Start on office clearout
5. Visit with friends
6. Deal with any lingering admin stuff on the condo purchase
7. Try to get more sleep