Week 2 Check In Post

Welcome back!  This will be a quick-and-dirty check-in post (no new topic), since I'm at a conference this week, and constructing the post in between sessions.  Feel free to continue discussing listmaking/planning methods, or to relate what you learned from last week's discussion of same, in the paragraph before your check-in. Or take the week off from reflecting, and just check in -- your choice. 

Here's a reminder of the standard format for check-ins:

1. comment on the week's topic, when there is one
2. report your progress against last week's goals
3. analysis (optional): analyse what happened, what went well, what came up to derail things, note what you learnt/want to change, ask any questions of the rest of the group if you want some tips or suggestions
4. planning (optional): something about the coming week: what the priorities are, what issues are going to present challenges, what the framework for your goal-setting is
5. goals for the next week (or multi-week period until your next check-in)


Last week's goals:


allan wilson 
(possible late check-in)
1. Exercise four times
2. encourage myself toward goal one
3. Make a list of tasks for CR

Amstr
1) write 3 days
2) rough drafts of 2 job apps
3) gather info for letters of rec; email Kind Advisor
4) exercise 3x

Contingent Cassandra
1) Take at least one early-morning walk, plus one other exercise activity that could form part of daily options for the summer (walk at another time, a swim).
2) Make progress on household chaos-reduction to the extent it can be combined with packing for trip/organizing for return & start of summer session (just packing for the trip & being ready for the start of the summer session would be enough).
3) some family/friend connection/communication (probably mostly beginning the process of planning get-togethers for after I get back; there are also 2 sets of birthday gifts to buy/send)
4) more planning if there's time/energy 

Daisy
1) Awkward talk with ex-supervisor - the "either read and comment on two papers you've had for 6 months right away, or give me permission to submit without you" talk. Not looking forward to that!
2) Do all accounting from the last term, and sort out summer student contracts
3) Read a new paper every day
4) Finish revisions for lingering old paper (L2)
5) Sort out all field gear
6) Try not to freak out about leaving for field work in two weeks, way sooner than I thought!

Elizabeth
1) Finish compiling the articles I need to read for the literature review.
2) Read and take notes on one article.
3) Walk for half an hour 5 times.

GEW
1) exercise 2-3 times
2) makes plans, establish strategies for productivity
3) outline thesis intro
6) plan and shop for daughter's b-day party

humming42
1) finish Proposal Em and send to Colleague
2) set task list for Fem Proposal
3) sweep up all teaching-related tasks from spring semester
4) move bookcase in home office and bring in books from the garage

iwantzcatbocl
1. Make outline for June
2. Do fieldwork
3. Write some on Tuesday and Sunday (at least two hours).
4. finish some admin
5. try to be patient with grad students

JaneB
1) write a one-page research idea statement
2) go through my notes from the workshop and send some follow-up emails
3) go to bed before midnight
4) get some exercise at least three days
5) spend 10 minutes a day on something decluttering or not-desperately-urgent housework related

Karenh
(goals from Week 1, since I don't think I see a Week 1 check-in, though I do see some comments; apologies if I missed your Week 2 goals, Karen)
1) pick up dropped admin to do list and knock off a couple of items (P1)
2) organise all conference papers into one folder (P2)
3) physio exercises x4 and set a bed-time alarm every evening

kjhaxton
(next check-in will probably be week 3)
1. Finish as much marking as possible, what is not done by home time Thursday will be done on Wednesday.
2.  continue the list making and planning habits,
3.  start to write a small amount each day.

Let's Do This

(condensed; apologies for anything lost in the process)
1. finish the article. Sub-goals: Revise all existing prose. Work in survey results. Work in remaining scholarship. Re-format into Chicago Style (UGH).
2. "read Book 1 thus far" and "read Book 2 thus far,"  "if I have time."
3. Support my daughter as she heads back into the gym (she's a gymnast).
4. Keep up with the house.
5. Play with the baby! Enjoy his little sounds and faces and hugs. :) 

Matilda
1) again, to write a research report for the grant I got.
2) again, to write (start to work) on the chapter 1 of the book.
3) to exercise for 5 minutes everyday, when I have time.
4) to have less sweets.  

Mercy
a. read and comment on 2 MA thesis projects, and meet w/students
b. finish grading for WS class
c. read for HA paper: 3 poms/day on 3 days/week
d. finish not one, but two, time-sensitive admin tasks
e. take a lunch walk on 3 days/week

Susan
1. Actually move text into my new outline, and begin to write the connecting pieces
2. Make reading/ILL list
3. Email potential volume contributors
4. Email presses re. my book and essays
5. Vacation planning (JaneB, I will email you!)

Week 1 check in post

Apparently if you complain about the internet on the internet, the internet mends itself??  I dunno - my connection was ropey all day possibly because of some work going on down the street, but it's magically back now.  Ahem.  On to business...

Welcome back!  I hope you all had a reasonably productive first week, making due allowance for the time of year ('productive' might mean grading on track, grades submitted, that wonderful out of office email set up to deter all but the most determined of student enquirers, enough sleeping in and unwinding done so the ear-shoulder gap has returned to normal and you don't dread looking at your email, or the pasty white skin of the office-denizen getting a hint of sun-colour - unless you live in the antipodes and are digging out jumpers, sorry, guys!).  We have fifteen members, and fifteen weeks in this summer session, so lets hope that's a good omen for fifteen sets of goals achieved!

The format for 'normal' weeks reporting is a three to five paragraph one:

1. comment on the week's topic, when there is one
2. report your progress against last week's goals
3. analysis (optional): analyse what happened, what went well, what came up to derail things, note what you learnt/want to change, ask any questions of the rest of the group if you want some tips or suggestions
4. planning (optional): something about the coming week: what the priorities are, what issues are going to present challenges, what the framework for your goal-setting is
5. goals for the next week (or multi-week period until your next check-in)

topic for discussion:

In last week's comments, several people wrote about lists: picking up neglected lists, making lists of projects or for projects, reading lists, lists of recipes or holiday options, to do lists or things done lists.  I have to admit to a kind of love-hate relationship with lists.  I really really like how making a list makes me feel in control.  I like crossing stuff off.  I like planning.  But lists and plans can also feel confining or daunting, and lists flourish like the cedars of Lebanon, easily overshadowing any sense of achievement or progress and sneaking into all corners of life reminding me of what I haven't done.  It's so easy in this job to feel overwhelmed - sometimes lists are a great tool to control the overwhelm, but sometimes they contribute to it!  This year I've been experimenting with writing a 'done' list throughout the day, to kind of balance out the to-do lists, and I think it's helping.  Anyway, this week, as a topic, let's talk about lists!  How do you manage your lists?  Have you been using one system for years, do you tend to set up new systems and then have them lapse, do you have special list-making tools that you prefer (I currently use 6"x4" index cards - there isn't room for the list to get too scary-huge on any one card!  Also low-tech works for me, as I'm not always near a computer...)?  How do you feel about lists - essential, over-rated, a complicated relationship?

goals set last week

 allan wilson
1. plan and decide which paper to start on
2. list what tasks I need to do
3. write an important email about museums
4. exercise four times(?)
Amstr:
1) write 5 days,
2) gather info for letters of rec,
3) email Kind Advisor re: letters and what to say to my other recommenders,
4) print out apps for 2 jobs.


Contingent Cassandra
1. rest, regroup, and plan, in whatever proportions feel right
2. make some progress on reducing household chaos
3. start walking again
4. do some communicating with family and/or friends (it looks like this will be family, since I just learned of a dfficult/sad situation that is affecting several family members)

Daisy
1) Collect all files and check through all data for almost finished new project (N1)
2) Make preliminary outline for N1 paper
3) Write data section for N1 paper
4) Read a paper a day

Elizabeth:
1) to compile the articles I need to read for the literature review,
2) to read and take notes on one article.
3) Walk for half an hour 5 times.
4) Compile healthy recipes that will appeal to the denizens of Testosterone Palace

GEW
1) exercise twice
2) make reading list and plans for next two weeks

humming42 apologies if I mis-translated your goals here, trying to summarise a longer post
1) grades!
2) clean up Proposal Em and send to Willing & Kind Colleague
3) think about how manage open time without overeating/overreading mind-candy

iwantzcatbocl
1) make a clear outline to get the work done
2) write for 2 hours per day
3) work 2 hours per day on each of two long overdue reports

JaneB

1) write for 5 hours

2) keep a DONE list as well as a TO DO list

3) write a talk and give it at a workshop (also travel to and take part in the workshop...). 

4) Go to bed before midnight every night!

  

Karenh:
1) pick up dropped admin to do list and knock off a couple of items (P1)
2) organise all conference papers into one folder (P2)
3) physio exercises x4 and set a bed-time alarm every evening

kjhaxton
1. tidy office, file all the left over bits of teaching stuff
2. write some lists of what needs to be done/improved/changed for each module I teach in.
3. start working on the planning habits
4. make headway in the marking

Let's Do This
1) finishing the article draft ahead of a short research trip in two weeks
2) re-reading what I've written so far of Book 1 (a lot)
3) re-reading what I've written so far of Book 2 (not a lot, but I'm only writing half of it, so maybe this is okay?)
4) enjoying my birthday, my anniversary, and my daughter's birthday!


Matilda

1) to write a research report for the grant I got

2) to write chapter 1 of the book.

3) to exercise for 5 minutes everyday.

4) to have less sweets. 

Mercy
1. survive the student presentations and grading
2. catch up with other grading and close off the semester
3. time sensitive admin task
4. work out when to squeeze very small fieldwork project into the summer (again, I may have mis-summarised this!)

Susan

1. Finish revision of last chapter, start work on introduction by setting reading list, sketching where new sections need to come into the intro.
2. Meet with colleagues to discuss ToC for collection of essays, write press and start writing potential contributors.
3. Send a few necessary emails related to decluttering.
4. Walk four days
5. Find out about potential vacation destinations (Do email if I can provide any UK info!).

First week report in – delayed

hello everyone, hope you are having a good week.

it's my turn to host this week's report in but for some reason my Wi-Fi will only talk to my phone and not to any of the computers that I can actually type on dot dot so the report in post will be up as soon as computers begin tocooperate with me – apologies for typos I am actually dictating this to my phone because the stupid interactive keyboard is too hard for me on a Friday evening…

Summer Session Goal-Setting

[I'm getting this post up a bit early, lest I get it up too late, especially for those in the earlier time-zones, since I'm still in the middle of the final-grading rush.  As continuing members will realize, significant parts of the prompt below are taken verbatim from the prompt beginning our last session (Thanks, Susan and Amstr!), and from JaneB's posts earlier this month. -CC]

Welcome to the Summer '15 session of the TLQ group!

If you'd like to join us (whether or not you've already expressed an intention to do so in response to an earlier post), please post a comment in the format described below. 

This session of the group will follow much the same format as the last. The ground rules were all laid out in the first post on the blog , and JaneB described some of the logistical details for this session in the last two posts: It will run from Saturday 16th May to Saturday 28th August, and will be jointly hosted by Contingent Cassandra and JaneB (taking alternate weeks, mostly).   We'll aim to get prompts up on Friday (though the timing may vary somewhat, since Cassandra is in the Eastern US Time Zone and JaneB is in the UK),  so that people can take stock of the past week and make plans for the coming one over the weekend. 

Most people will be taking breaks over the summer at some point, and that is no bar to joining in and taking part - just let us know in the comments for the week when you'll next be reporting back.  And as ever, we aim to be an open group for anyone wanting a little support and company with the ongoing juggling act of finding time and space for important, non-urgent activities, including both writing and self-care - so do please feel free to announce the new session in your blogs, link to this post, recommend the group to bloggers you read who are wondering about their summer plans or feeling a bit isolated and unsupported in their research, and generally let people know they are welcome to join in.

For this first post, briefly introduce yourself

Then identify your key goals for this period of time.  As a reminder, these are things that are important but not urgent.  What is important to you, but gets put on the back burner? For many of us it is our own research and writing; but it has also included exploring different fields or new forms of writing, exercise, gardening, healthy eating, etc.  
 
Finally, set your first weekly goals (for the week of May 18-24 or thereabouts, depending on exactly where you prefer to set the beginnings and endings of your weeks). Think about how you can take small concrete steps to make progress on your TLQ session goals.

We may also have topics for suggested discussion some weeks; we've decided to let that be an occasional feature, if/when the spirit moves one of us, this summer. In the meantime, feel free to welcome each other, and/or comment (helpfully) on each others' goals, and remember to come back next Friday, 5/22, for the first weekly review. 

Thoughts of summer

That seems an odd title, writing on a cold, damp, grey, completely overcast morning in the UK and wondering whether to go and dig out hiking socks because my feet are cold in normal socks!  But summer writing season is coming close - some US readers may have already finished teaching and grading, and the teaching part of my own semester is drawing to a close although the grading and the meetings will drag ooonnnnn and ooooooooonnnnn.

The next TLQ session begins formally on the 16th, next Saturday, when we'll be setting goals for the summer and for the next week. We already have two new sign-ups - welcome to iwantzcatbocl and Lena Corazon - as well as some regulars, and there's plenty of room and time to decide to join in. 

Today I thought it might be worthwhile to contemplate those summer goals.  How do you go about setting them?  Do you just carry on working through your usual to-do list, do you have some external deadlines, or is it a chance to pick up a piece of work that's been lying fallow or to start something new?  Do you think about your goals using words like "ought" and "must", or words like "want to" and "enjoy"?  How do you feel about your goals - excited to spend time with them, daunted, disenchanted, obliged, enthused?  Are you going to set time goals or product goals this summer, are you aiming high and challenging yourself or trying to be realistic and secretly hoping to achieve more than you set out to do?  Any tips or lessons learned from past summers or past TLQs which you want to use this time, or want to share?

Next session of TLQ group

Hello everyone, hope the end of term madness isn't too overwhelming for those in the middle of it!  This post is just a quick announcement about the next session of this TLQ group. 

It will be jointly hosted/compered by myself and Contingent Cassandra (taking alternate weeks, mostly) and will run from Saturday 16th May to Saturday 28th August.  There will be a pre-session post next week for those who have recovered enough to want to start planning their summer writing and other TLQ activities, so it won't go silent over here.

Most people (including CC and myself) will be taking breaks over the summer at some point, and that is no bar to joining in and taking part - just let us know in the comments for the week when you'll next be reporting back.  And as ever, we aim to be an open group for anyone wanting a little support and company with the ongoing juggling act of finding time and space for important, non-urgent activities, including both writing and self-care - so do please feel free to announce the new session in your blogs, link to this post, recommend the group to bloggers you read who are wondering about their summer plans or feeling a bit isolated and unsupported in their research, and generally let people know they are welcome to join in.

And now I have to go read some 12,000 word projects.  I opened the first one yesterday but the abstract appeared to have been written by a process involving a lot of very illiterate monkeys sitting around on a keyboard, with a careless garnish of punctuation added after the fact, which was kind of off-putting (I get this faint psychic impression of an indignant student saying "but I'm a scientist, why do we have to do WRITING?" and "no-one cares about this except old people" <--- response: your future boss will probably be an old person.  Your markers, who are both under 50, are also apparently old people because they do care.  So your point MAY be accurate but I don't see how it's relevant).  So I look forward very much to talking about SUMMER PLANS next week with you all!