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Friday 13 February 2015

Coherence



I’ve spent the week working at a library a few hours from my home, one where a bunch of people I’ve known for many years are on fellowship this year; I’ve also had the opportunity to hang out with several people who I don’t know well, but whose work I’ve admired for a long time.   So it’s been a sociable week, but with professional friends.   These are people who know me as a scholar, but who also treat me as a person.  We can move from talking about ideas (how do you read those plays? How can you open up that argument? How do you get going on the new project?) to talking about life and gossiping about other colleagues.   Last night, as I was returning from a very relaxed dinner with someone I’ve known for over 20 years, I realized that these times help me feel as if my life has some kind of coherence: there are people who link my professional and personal life.    So the question for the week is this: what are the things that help you feel as if the pieces of your life fit together? Or isn’t this important to you?

Goals from last week:
Elizabeth Ann Mitchell
1) revise tenure documentation, which is due Tuesday
2) Start writing March presentation, 100 words 4 times this week.
3) Make third doctor’s appointment.
4) Start meditating at night, in hopes of better sleep.

Contingent Cassandra
1)Continue paying attention to sleep routine, exercise (walk at least once; lift weights at least once), and cooking healthy foods (freeze current pot soup; make another).
2)Do what's necessary (assignments, sample materials, logistics) to get students started on DH projects.
3)Do something (anything!) to make incremental progress on finances (at the very least, decide which of two spring professional trips I should use available travel money on).

kjhaxton
(1) Pin, press and hem the cut fabric.
(2) do something about the untranscribed paper
(3) writing daily

Good Enough Woman
1) The conference paper is not on the border between TRQ and TLQ. It would be easy to prioritize other things until Wednesday, but I want to make sure I don't do that, so I'm still listing it here. Finish paper by Wednesday night!
2) Track water/exercise/spending.
3) 7 minutes exercise everyday.
4) Ask husband for true amount of time I need to do work this week. Let go of guilt for time away from the family this week.

Susan
1. Read the ms. for the journal -- that review is due on the 16th, as the editorial management software reminds me
2. Read primary sources at library
3. Get going on writing, expanding this chapter
4. Walk or other exercise daily -- given the gardens I'll be working in, the walks are inevitable. And one day, there will be yoga in the garden.

AcademicAmstr
1) regular bedtime (between 10:30 and 11pm)
2) 1 hour or more on proposal chapter
3) ½ hour on proposal
4) exercise 4x
Daisy:
(Goals: NONE right now. I'll be back in three weeks, after adding a catch-up week after these two.)

JaneB
1) use the calendar pages to track: a) 5 minutes every day of house related stuff b) 5 minutes every day of some kind of exercise and c) 5 minutes a day of deleting/filing/curating old emails and 2) 2 lots of 30 minutes on Crunchier. TRQ is to complete all of last semester's administrative paperwork for one of my roles... sigh

Allan Wilson
1. exercise every day (aka stay sane)
2. do one analysis on a TLQ paper to my satisfaction, so I can get it submitted by the end of next week. I have contracted with my awesome boss for chocolate if I do it.

Matilda
1) Week 3-3 of Belcher's book.
2) Review the important book.
3) Write the introductory part of the review article.
4) Exercise for 5 minutes everyday. 2 sessions, if possible.
5) Have snacks, but not too much. You can do it!

So, comment on topic, report on last week, and set next week's goals.   And I'd like to give a cheer for Elizabeth Ann Mitchell who has now (by hook or crook) submitted her tenure portfolio!

30 comments:

  1. When I finally sat down on Wednesday to post, I realized I should just wait those last few days and post this week instead. Happy to be back.

    Coherence as you describe it has piqued my curiosity. I feel like my identity is somewhat scattered. A graduate school friend and I would joke that a PhD program was like a Dementor from Harry Potter: it sucks the soul from your body. Then, trying to put yourself together in a new way with a new identity post-PhD. I think coherence might be a word for this thing I yearn for that seems impossible, but I do have people, both from graduate school and before, who are touchstones for me. And even though I may not be able to get it to cohere, I do appreciate how those friends help put me back in contact with parts of myself.

    Previous week’s goals
    Finish the conference paper and submit: yes. Big exhale.
    Submit creative piece: Yes.
    Write every day: Some days but not all.

    I’m hopeful that I have some big projects behind me and can focus on the TLQ projects that I am drawn to. So:

    This week’s goals
    Finish and submit past due article
    Finish and send proposal to friend for feedback
    Write at least three days

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    Replies
    1. I nearly wrote about friendship, but then I wondered if there were people for whom coherence came through an activity - writing, for instance. And I suspect it's always aspirational! But I'm curious...

      I'm glad you've got a few things off your plate - good luck with the week ahead!

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    2. I can related to the post-PhD identity construction! Congrats on all the progress.

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  2. First and foremost, thank you all for the congratulations on getting my tenure documentation done. *happy dance* Now I have done everything I can control, and it is all done except the waiting. Waiting is not easy, but I can work on accepting I have done the best I could. Again, I appreciate the support so very much.

    Thoughts on the topic: I revel in the coherence I find with the few friends who embrace the personal and the professional me. I have a dear friend from graduate school whom I see once or twice a year, and it is like walking into a room with a warm fire after walking in the snow. We have known each other for decades, and it is such a comfort to be able to have the ease of conversation flowing from sixteenth century printers to colleagues we know to celebrating life’s triumphs and hugging over life’s sorrows.

    I find that I have to keep a distance from my staff, and even my colleagues. I do not have temporary administrative duties, I am it until I retire or they toss me out on my ear, so it is more difficult than a rotating chair position would be, where everyone sees it as a temporary nuisance they all have to endure. Therefore, my research contacts and friends at other institutions are key to that coherence.

    Last week’s goals:
    1) revise tenure documentation, which is due Tuesday. DONE! 20 copies of my documentation are winging their way to known and unknown reviewers.

    2) Start writing March presentation. No. I am on a search committee, and guess when we had the interviews. Right, two interviews last week and two the week before. Can we say exhausted?

    3) Make third doctor’s appointment. Yes, somehow I managed to make this call.

    4) Start meditating at night, in hopes of better sleep. Except for the nights when I was up with my Weimaraner, yes.

    Next week’s goals:
    1) outline the presentation I have to give in March.
    2) Write 100 words a day.
    3) Sleep.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I'm sure that part of what makes coherence is time. And since I, like you, have administrative responsibilities ( in theory temporary, realistically probably till I retire) I wonder if that makes the time with off campus friends valuable... Good luck with everything!

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    2. Here's a virtual "waiting" present for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr6yZrSdrGU&noredirect=1

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    3. 20 copies!?! Well, they will certainly be thoroughly reviewed. Sending congratulations for finishing doing all you can, and good thoughts for the waiting time.

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    4. I'm impressed that you made your doctor's appointment. I hate both making and keeping said appointments. Good job taking care of things!

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    5. Thank you all. It is nice to be done, and Amstr, I love the youtube video of waiting!

      GEW, I hate them, too, so I have to force myself to do them.

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  3. Coherence is a good word to sum up what I lack in my current job - and probably need to face up to missing locally for the rest of my career, unless I manage to find a job which is better on that front - and that would probably bring worse things on some other front, the grass isn't greener but it might be a different species over the other side of the fence! thinking about this topic has reaffirmed my sense that I need to try and spend some time with people who DO make me feel like a complete person during my study leave... and somehow balance that against not travelling too much (no budget, need to reduce stress etc.). Ideally of course I'd find a way to invite three or four of my favourite colleagues-who-are-also-friends here... hmm....

    And I have you guys! You definitely help - you make me feel normal, or at least within reasonable grasping distance of it, and a sense of alienation/isolation/being the only one struggling is probably the greatest enemy of coherence. I've felt hugely coherent without being in any special company, when I have a day which balances ideas and kindness and communication and growth and health, and it's a sort of mindful flow state - not total absorbtion, more an appreciative submerging... and now I'm woffling. goals, woman!

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    Replies
    1. You have done so much to keep us all coherent together, JaneB! Thank you!

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  4. goals:1) use the calendar pages to track: a) 5 minutes every day of house related stuff b) 5 minutes every day of some kind of exercise and c) 5 minutes a day of deleting/filing/curating old emails and 2) 2 lots of 30 minutes on Crunchier. TRQ is to complete all of last semester's administrative paperwork for one of my roles... sigh

    achieved: 1) nope. Kept to the email one, the exercise one was ropy - some days I literally managed a minute of marching on the spot and a minute of stretching my neck and shoulders, but it wasn't a great week for allergies, hormones, lurking-depression or stress. Also, my cat had a cold (so I spent several days checking for symptoms of something more nasty every time she sneezed, which bugged her greatly as she just wanted to sleep, of course), I heard that someone I knew a little and admired hugely had died, and that my Dad has a new health problem (nothing immediately deadly, in fact on medication he now sounds better than he has in months, and he's 83, parts are going to wear out, but still...). And I got out of bed every. single. day even when I didn't have to go to the office and did something beyond feeding the cat and myself. Some weeks that is just as good as it gets! House stuff. Huh. mixed. Today was quite good though, for some reason, and just five mintues here and there between work (sigh) and reading a bit more novel (oops) and napping (heck, I like napping, and it's less fattening than chocolate!) means that although I haven't made noticeable headway I am now back to where I was a couple of weeks ago, which makes me a little more optimistic that this coming week might be one to make progress in!.2) I think I did one? I don't know, the week's all blurry :-( (I mentioned depression is lurking again? It blurs things, the bugger). TRQ: made great inroads on Sunday and Monday last week, but have run into the wall of Other People's Input again.

    I finished up my meeting handcraft project two weeks ago, and ordered some new supplies - everything I have on the go at home requires a pattern, or multiple colour changes, which means it's not noddy enough to be a good meeting task for me. The new project is a mile-a-minute afghan, in cheap but pretty yarn - basically a load of simple scarves in single colours which are then joined together - so portable and handy. The supplies arrived Friday, packaged in a very cute free project bag, and starting it off definitely improved the last meeting, so at least I have that to enjoy!

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  5. Oops, had to split that one, too long, sorry!

    next week: Technically I'm on study leave. In practice, I count this week as the last week BEFORE leave, because I have to teach a stats class (refresher for project students) and attend multiple meetings related to last semester's teaching and exams process. I'll have a different pattern of going on campus, working from home Tuesday and Thursday and going on the other three days, and it will be interesting to see if that is better at giving me the space to keep some TLQ momentum going. So what am I going to do? 1) keep up the 5 minutes of exercise, house stuff and email blitzing. 2) Put in an abstract for a conference at the end of my study leave in a UK city which I love but which is a good day's travel from here, a conference I've never been to because it's not really in my field at all (although it's one I find fascinating from the outside, and cite from in about a third of my papers), but there's a perfect session for me, and meeting a load of new people and hearing about developments in this field sounds like the kind of positive stretch that would make a good ending for study leave... (and I can either book a couple of extra days in a hotel or arrange to stay with good friends who live about an hour from the conference venue, so add some personal social and recreational stuff in which means even if I have to pay myself, ALL of me will get something out of it... there's a great wool shop I've read of in that city, and wonderful medieval art in the museum, as well as opportunities to meet a couple of old friends from one of my post-docs for lunch). I will moan a lot about trying to write the abstract, but this feels like a wholly positive thing to apply for (unlike the big one I did earlier, the travel and language barriers and cost feel daunting and stressy still). And... OK. 3) On both of Tuesday and Thursday, I will do at least half an hour on Crunchier, even if it is just working on tables. Otherwise - TRQ is to continue with admin as it trickles in, write 8 module specifications on the horrible new forms, teach the statistics session, and attend meetings in a Positive And Professional manner.

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    Replies
    1. And I got out of bed every. single. day even when I didn't have to go to the office and did something beyond feeding the cat and myself. Some weeks that is just as good as it gets!

      Indeed. And string enough of those days and weeks together, and some stuff tends to get done, however miserable the process may feel.

      The somewhat-out-of-field conference does sound like a nice bookend for the end of the study leave. Best wishes for working your way toward the beginning; it sounds as if escaping the gravitational pull of the non-study-leave routine is going to take a bit of effort.

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    2. I suspect that one of the conditions of academic life is that for many of us, coherence happens when we're off somewhere else: so many of us are intellectually isolated, and then we move to a place for work, but that means the people who have history with us are far away. . .

      Congratulations on keeping going, and good luck with the last week pre-study leave. It really is one foot in front of the other.

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    3. The slightly-out-of-field conference sounds great! A perfect opportunity for coherence, I'd say. I am cheering you from the sidelines to submit the abstract!

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  6. Coherence: I have been feeling such a lack of coherence lately. Really, there's been a disconnect between my academic life and the rest of my life since I had kids (I was the only grad student I knew with children), and the disconnect became more pronounced when I moved across the country from my uni. My advisor (as always, much smarter than I) encouraged me to find some academic communities to be a part of. I did not, however, follow his advice. (I'm not sure I would have known how to.) I do have some wonderful friendships from my MA program (GEW included) and one from PhD days that have that wonderful fluidity Susan described. I also feel like I'm in that "post-PhD reinvention" stage that humming42 mentioned.

    Last week’s goals:
    -regular bedtime (between 10:30 and 11pm)--mostly; the last few days were ruined by getting ready to travel. I made up for it by going to bed at 7pm last night.
    -1 hour or more on proposal chapter--½ hour
    -½ hour on proposal--yes
    -exercise 4x--yes

    I'm on a snow trip with the family this week--the first time my kids (ages 7 and 9) have seen snow. It's hilarious to watch them stare out the window.

    This week: relax with family, and do some stuff outdoors.

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    1. The snow trip sounds like fun. 7 and 9 are pretty good ages to discover snow (if one hasn't done so before). Hope you get in lots of good sledding, snowperson-building, etc.

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    2. Yes, moving is really hard -- one of the things that few people realize about academics is that we often move away from supportive communities.

      Have fun in the snow!

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    3. Your goals for this week sound fabulous! :) And thank goodness I've had you in this process--one of only a couple of people who are part of my both my intellectual and personal lives. xo

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  7. Hmm; coherence. Count me as another participant who has trouble finding as much as she'd like in her professional life, in part because I'm a non-tenure-track faculty member, and a lit Ph.D. teaching writing in a program that has a new Rhetoric & Comp grad program. Oh, and I'm trying out the DH stuff. It's hard to figure out where to focus the limited time I have available for research activities (which aren't officially part of my job), or even which activities are most likely to keep me employable as long as I need to be. The more positive side of this is that, if you leave aside the question of employability, my professional activities, official and not, do reflect longstanding interests (writing, the more historical side of literary studies, interest in what's going on in other disciplines, even some connections to faith and how it's lived out in the world).

    I also have grad school friends (mostly from other disciplines) who have landed in various sorts of jobs -- enough of a variety that it's clear that there never was any obvious, easy-to-follow path from which some of us strayed along the way.

    And I belong to a church community with a lot of highly-educated members -- definitely an intellectual as well as a spiritual community (and one which sees no conflict between the two).

    Finally, there are activities which I've enjoyed for a long time, especially walking (particularly along canal towpaths; there's one here, where I grew up and now live, and another in my grad-school town) and gardening (this latter complicated a bit by the lack of a garden I own).

    So, I don't feel completely incoherent, but I do feel that I struggle with coherence, more so than I would if I were sure that I could stay at my present institution for the rest of my career, and/or if I owned a home with a garden. The pieces of my life -- career, home, community -- are definitely less intimately intertwined than I imagined they would be at this point when I was 25 or 30. I suspect that's true for many people -- and for those of us for whom some feeling of coherence is important, it's useful to be able to identify the people, activities, etc. that can make us feel a bit more coherent.

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    1. Goals from last week:

      1)Continue paying attention to sleep routine, exercise (walk at least once; lift weights at least once), and cooking healthy foods (freeze current pot soup; make another).
      2)Do what's necessary (assignments, sample materials, logistics) to get students started on DH projects.
      3)Do something (anything!) to make incremental progress on finances (at the very least, decide which of two spring professional trips I should use available travel money on).

      Accomplished: well, it definitely pays to set modest goals, since I can say I made at least some progress on all of the above. I didn't walk (it's cold!!!) or life weights (no real excuse there), but the soup did get frozen, and some eaten, and some other healthy food (but not yet more soup) made. And I've been doing reasonably well with sleep. I'm making progress on the DH class (with some inevitable bumps in the road), and I did complete several small financial tasks, including making some reservations for the two trips (which should help me figure out which one is going to cost more, and so should have the travel money applied to it).

      Goals for next week:

      1) continued attention to self-care: sleep; exercise (lift weights and either walk or do something else -- perhaps some stair-climbing -- if it's too cold); cook (prob. soup); eat more salads; take at least one full day off.

      2) Make substantial progress on DH assignments, handouts, examples, etc.; plan 1st round of grading.

      3) Begin tackling/planning financial tasks in a more systematic way; do travel request.

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    2. Ah, my church community is not particularly intellectual right now, and I miss that! But also, you've highlighted how the rise of contingent labor works against a life where things fit together. And I love towpath walking -- it's flat!

      I think the small goals are easier, and it's also part of kindness to self.

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  8. Well, coherence was my issue, and as is obvious from my introduction, I don't feel as if I have it in my everyday life. Part is that I was widowed a year after I moved here, so people didn't really know my husband; thinking about the people I saw this past week, most of them knew him, and knew us together. And that connects pieces of my life. And I moved here 6 years ago, so it still feels new-ish; other than my mother, who also lives here now, no one has a long history with me. I don't have close buddies here, though I have some emerging friendships. But those friends don't really understand my research area, so life is bifurcated.

    Last weeks goals:
    1. Read the ms. for the journal -- that review is due on the 16th, as the editorial management software reminds me - Not done, must do tomorrow
    2. Read primary sources at library - Yes
    3. Get going on writing, expanding this chapter - a little, but not as much as I'd wish
    4. Walk or other exercise daily -- given the gardens I'll be working in, the walks are inevitable. And one day, there will be yoga in the garden. - Done: Some walks longer than others, but some exercise every day, and two good yoga classes, and a good class at my sister-in-law's gym yesterday. Today I even walked when I got back from my long drive back.

    Goals for next week, somewhat vague because I have interruptions for meetings or other appointments 4 out of 5 days this week.
    1. Review article for journal - I will have to silence the evil email prompts!
    2. Keep plugging along on chapter --
    3. File expenses for research trip
    4. Keep going on garden cleanup
    5. Continue with exercise -- maybe figure out how to integrate yoga at home.

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  9. Coherence. Susan's comment about moving city/ house/job and therefore 'no one having a long history with me' resonates. I feel that this is a particular loss often endured by academics, and one which often leads to loss of coherence. As someone with a recent history of moving for work, often temporary (this is my first permanent position), it has often been difficult to find coherence. I feel most coherent with very old friends that I can still discuss my work with, who are interested in what I do.
    One pattern that I notice in my new city is that many of the academics/ researchers I know have partners who are in very dissimilar work, so there are reasons to expand beyond traditional academic and topic boundaries in social situations, and I like that, as otherwise it seems to me we can be too focused on talking shop, and while that is sometimes helpful, I don't actually find it relaxing. On balance, I like the change as it helps me to construct a vision of a rounded real life.
    Goals: Exercise every day- I am still going well with this, not every day, but most days: I am helped in it by my daughter who has been a wonderful encouragement and walks with me.
    Doing my one analysis - no. My time has been sucked up by a number of urgent tasks. These have, however, come to an end today, and although I am busy with something else tomorrow, I feel that I will have time at the end of this week to attend to this goal, and hopefully get my chocolate. I feel fairly focused about it now, rather than scattered, and even excited by the idea that I might be able to complete this task. I also mentioned it to someone who I will probably need to ask to help me with it, and who I have now confirmed is around this coming week. So, it is kind of on track.
    So, goals for this coming week: the same. Exercise every day, and complete the analysis with a goal of having the paper tidied up as well.
    Unfortunately I won't be able to check in next week- I am away - so will be back in two weeks.
    allan wilson

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    1. Good luck on finishing the analysis, and have a good trip.

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  10. Coherence: Well, in some ways, my life is very coherent since I've lived in the same area for nearly 23 years. Still, I've changed jobs and careers while living in this area, so I have "before" and "after" lives, this world and the other. Occasionally, these lives overlap (it's a small town kind of place) and people crossover, which is always fun. In other ways, the parts of my life are incoherent. Since I am completing my PhD part-time (and not in residence), I am isolated in my research. This isolation is compounded by the fact that I teach at a two-year school, so most of my colleagues aren't involved with research. Also, my husband is in mathematics, and I am in literature, so it's hard for me to talk to him about my research. I see his eyes glaze over when I explain things to him.

    This weekend, I attended a regional conference that was held locally at my MA institution. At the conference were faculty from my M.A. program (who are now friends I've known for years), along with a colleague (a fairly recent hire) from the college where I teach. It was an interesting "coming together" of worlds. Mostly, it was just nice to immerse myself in my discipline. Attending conference helps me feel less isolated even if attending the conferences doesn't connect the research to other parts of my life. Also, I have a couple of friends (just a couple, one of them being Amstr) that bridge my scholarly life and my personal life, and these relationships bring coherence.

    Lastly, I find that I really enjoy talking to my children about my research (when I can find stuff that interests them).

    Last week's goals:
    1) The conference paper is not on the border between TRQ and TLQ. It would be easy to prioritize other things until Wednesday, but I want to make sure I don't do that, so I'm still listing it here. Finish paper by Wednesday night!--Yes, I did!
    2) Track water/exercise/spending--No. I got wrapped un in the conference.
    3) 7 minutes exercise everyday--No. See #2.
    4) Ask husband for true amount of time I need to do work this week. Let go of guilt for time away from the family this week--YES!

    This week's goals:

    This week, I mostly need to catch up with TRQ, but I do have a few TLQ tasks:

    1) Complete draft of Summer Institute application
    2) Organize my work bag and desk areas to help get routines back in order
    3) review my timeline for the next 5 weeks to see if it still works

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    1. I think when you do a lot of teaching, it's really energizing to go to a conference and hear other people who think like you do. So glad that went well!

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    2. friend *who* bridge ... (I couldn't let that one go)

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  11. Hello. I am checking-in very late, again...

    Topics:
    I have enjoyed reading other comments on this topic: coherence. I have a friend I have known each other since we were undergrads, and we have kept our friendship so long. Now we are both academics and we can talk about our jobs, families and other things, easily, frankly with respects. Some comments talk about old friends, and I understand them well.

    Last goals:
    1) Week 3-3 of Belcher's book. - This is about the argument on my chapter. I need to keep working on argument, but also I need to proceed.
    2) Review the important book. - not yet.
    3) Write the introductory part od the review article. - a part of it.
    4) Exercise for 5 minutes everyday. 2 sessions, if possible. - I missed 3 days.
    5) Have snacks, but not too much. You can do it! - I did have snacks, but not too much, 3 days.

    Next goals:
    1) Week 5-1 of Belcher's book.
    2) Review the important book. I cannot put it off any more!!!
    3) Finish the introductory part of the review article.
    4) Exercise for 7 minutes everyday.
    5) Be tolerant of snacks, but try to have healthy one.

    Have a happy week, everyone!

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