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Friday 15 May 2015

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. 

53 comments:

  1. Hi, I'm karenh. I lecture part-time in a regional southern hemisphere university - so this is my winter (she writes, as the fire dies down and the chill starts setting in). I also have two small children and a continuous list of unfinished house and garden jobs!
    Key goals for the research/writing side are: for Project One (curatorial) to be prepared for the exhibition and a separate publication; Project Two is to get one of my old conference papers revised for submission as an article. One the self-care side, regular exercise and more reasonable bedtimes.

    For this first week, I have a set of first year esays to mark and return, so time is limited. Project One: pick up the dropped admin to do list and knock a couple of items off that; Project Two: find all the conference papers and drop them into one folder; Self-care: physio exercises 4x this week, set a bed alarm clock each evening.

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    1. Welcome! It's not terribly 'summery' here in the UK either - grey skies, wind and drizzle right now!

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    2. Hello! Sleep is very important, but so easily cut down, I know. Hope you have a good winter!

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    3. I hope the marking goes well...I've got a fair bit to do as well.

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    4. Welcome, karenh. The juggling act you're performing sounds familiar (well, minus the kids). And yes, sleep does help (and I like the idea of setting a go-to-bed alarm clock; I should do that, too).

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  2. Hello everyone, I’m Elizabeth. I’m an academic librarian at an R1 in upstate New York. I am ABD in Medieval Studies, and am in the middle of my tenure review, which has left my college and is in the hands of the university P&T committee.

    My key goals for the summer session are 1) to move forward on the dissertation, which needs an updated literature review, and a rewritten introduction and first chapter, 2) to walk more, and 3) to eat better food mindfully.

    My first weekly goals are 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.

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    1. Hello and welcome back! Hope the recipe compiling goes well...

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    2. Nice to have you again, Elizabeth Anne Mitchell!

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    3. Recipe compiling sounds intriguing!

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    4. Welcome back, Elizabeth! Sounds like you're making a good start on what we all hope will be a productive summer.

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    5. Cooking for "denizens of Testosterone Palace" sounds daunting. It also makes me think of a meal I had in Wales. I was served duck pate for an appetizer, and my entree had a giant bone (like a giant dog bone), sliced lengthwise into halves which were filled with some kind of bone marrow paste, and this bone was the side dish for a 16 oz steak. Afterwards, I felt like I might need only salad for about a month.

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  3. Hello,

    I am Matilda and I teach history at a private university in a non-English speaking country. I have two young children, my husband living and working quite far away. I am hoping to write a book on a medieval aristocratic family in a few years. This is my biggest project ever, and uncountable obstacles facing me, including my poor ability, demanding jobs both at home and at work, but I do want to do it. Joining this group has been always great help to me. I hope this time again. Have a good summer, everyone!

    Session goals:
    1) to write two chapters of the book.
    2) to write for 15 minutes everyday.
    3) to exercise for 5 minutes everyday.
    4) to eat better, less sweets.

    Weekly goals:
    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.

    Thank you for hosting, JaneB and Contingent Cassandra! It is very kind of you really, and I always enjoy reading your posts.

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    1. Less sweets - I need to do this as well.
      I like that you've got a long term goal with your book. I hope you make good progress this summer.

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    2. Welcome back, Matilda! I like that you have both length and time-per-day goals for your writing. That seems like a good way to make, and to measure, progress.

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  4. I'm a senior lecturer at a UK university. I generally struggle to do all the things, particularly when the urgent and important things scream so loudly! I've been planning this summer since before Christmas and have deliberately said no to certain things to make more room for TLQ stuff.

    Thanks for running this again JaneB and Contingent Cassandra. This group is generally helpful but I tend to disappear when the TRQ stuff gets overwhelming, particularly towards the end of the teaching part of the year. This is a great time of year to start though because I'm heading into marking time so semi-structured time rather than highly timetabled (when teaching) or structure-less (the summer proper). So it's a good time to set some good habits.

    Session goals:
    1. papers: gem stone paper, acronym paper
    2. projects: ethics and research tool for scary project
    3. planning: to work on papers and projects for 1 hour per day (week days), to spend 1/2 day a week getting next year's teaching in order, to restrict email to two 1/2 hour periods per week day.
    4. personal: paint several rooms in the house, make curtains for dining room, print various pictures for competitions and our walls.

    This week:
    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

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    1. Welcome back! A lot of what you wrote resonates with my own experience (including the tendency to disappear when the TRQ stuff ramps up; in fact, I still need to take stock of my spring goals). The semi-structured marking period does, indeed, seem like a good time to take stock (especially at the beginning, before it, too, goes TRQ -- or at least that's what happened to my last few weeks, I think).

      P.S. I like your paper/project nicknames.

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    2. Oh, me too - I disappear everywhere when TRQ ramps up. Then I get sick and get to disappear from work too, some years...

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  5. Hello everyone, I'm JaneB and I'm co-hosting this session. I'm a not-quite-full-time academic in the UK, mid-career in the sense that retirement is a long way off but I've been doing it long enough to not have access to any early career opportunities, and technically I'm on study leave at the moment. Technically. I work at a "squeezed-middle" regional university, which is turning itself inside out trying to reinvent the wheel and keep up with the league tables without having much of an idea of how to do that, or many resources (and those it has go mostly to new colleagues and to 'stars' - anyone who works here for more than a few years is apparently assumed to have lost any potential they had to use any extra resources well...). Oh, I also tend to complain at length about things!

    summer goals: Do All The Things!!! So many things... simple goals, though: Progress goals of: one grant application (to make my head of department shut up, not in actual expectation of success), one paper's worth of progress with writing (might not be all on one paper), redesign of both Difficult Team Taught Second Year modules (this may only be an hour or two of work each, but I want to do them in the summer - one of the reasons they are designated Difficult by me is that I've tended to leave planning until the last minute by focusing on my final year stuff, and I've ended up doing too much experimenting supplemented by things I can prep quickly when the semester went into crisis - they get acceptable reviews, but they could be so much better) - and all of these things to be underpinned by a habit goal of reading research, working on figures or writing for a minimum of 1 hour a day, every "normal day", with the internet OFF (!step 1 - find the button to turn off the wifi pickup on the new laptop... WHERE IS IT???). If I could carry a habit of even 30 minutes a day into the new academic year, I think I'd feel a lot better about myself and stay in touch with my work...

    Self-care: to be in a better position for the new academic year which involves domestic decluttering, better sleep, eating and exercise patterns, plenty of 'mental health strategies' to hand, and something of a five year plan/exit plan so I have more of an anchor against the surges of AllTheRhetoricAndCrapola...

    That'll do.

    goal for next week: write for 5 hours, keep a DONE list as well as a TO DO list, write a talk and give it at a workshop (also travel to and take part in the workshop...). Go to bed before midnight every night!

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    1. Done List is the best list! And since most of us have to provide some accountability in hopes or raise or promotion, I'm pretty determined to be thorough on that one. And also because it is just so blessedly satisfying.

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    2. I'm going to adopt the idea of a Done list right away!

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    3. I love my done list, it's nice to see it growing every day, and makes it easy to track things down for 'accountability reports' or to answer the "I did NOTHING this week!" whine with a bit of data. Now, actually getting the Done list to match up with the To Do list... that's usually a bit beyond me.

      They can be really helpful with the overplanning problem - if I look at my Done lists and realise I'm say spending 2-3 hours a day in teaching semester on drop-in conversations and the quick tasks that result from them, then I can make better choices - either I have to work somewhere where that doesn't happen, or accept I'll lose those hours and plan accordingly.

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    4. I, too, like the idea of a "Done" list. As I get well into middle age, I'm finding it harder and harder to remember by the end of the semester *why* the beginning of the semester felt so unusually busy, until I think about it a bit and remember "oh, yes; I was doing that, and that, and also that other thing."

      And yes, being realistic about where the time really does go (and sometimes must go) is also a helpful approach.

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  6. I'm GEW (short for GoodEnoughWoman, which is the pseudonym for the blog I started quite a while back but that I now ignore). I'm a tenured member of the English faculty at a two-year community college in California. I'm just finishing my 14th year of being a full-time faculty member. I am also a part-time PhD student at a university in the UK, and my deadline for submission is about 18 months away, so I need to get serious. I also have a spouse (who teaches at the same college as I do, but in a different department) and two kids, ages 10 and 12. It's been very difficult for to me to make substantial progress on the thesis, but I have sabbatical in fall, so it's time to get busy.

    Session goals:
    1) Do work necessary for NEH Summer Institute that will be held in July (related to sabbatical project)
    2) Draft introduction to PhD thesis (by July 1)
    3) Revise two chapters of thesis (also by July 1)
    4) Prepare article for journal submission (by August 28th)
    5) Exercise (walks with dog, visits to fancy athletic club)

    This week's goals:

    This week, I have to finish grading and finish writing my speech for commencement (eep!), so it will be mostly TRQ. But I'll throw in two TLQ goals:

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

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    1. Hi GEW, yay for sabbatical, and a summer to gear up for it!

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    2. I'm excited to see all the progress you're going to make this summer and fall!

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    3. That sounds like a challenging but realistic goal list. And hurrah for sabbaticals! It sounds like yours is well-timed.

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  7. New beginnings! I’m a now mid-career prof at a mid-sized state uni in the US. I am grateful for this group as ever, and look forward to good, positive accountability this summer. Through a strange set of circumstances, I’ve ended up with opportunities to submit three different book proposals, in part because I have put each of them off for differing lengths of time. I too have said no to things (mostly to myself!) in order to make as much space possible for these proposals, which I’ll call Em, Ala, and Fem. I also live in a falling-down house that badly needs attention, and while I’d rather not acknowledge it, I need to include it in my weekly goals in order to ensure I get some things done.

    Grades are due on 20 May and I still have a good bit of work to do there. But in between and beyond, I will set deadlines for Proposal Em and Proposal Fem. Proposal Em is almost finished by needs to be cleaned up and sent off to Willing & Kind Colleague who is actually responsible for introducing me to the publisher. This first week will also be about getting a sense of how to manage great open spans of time without overeating or falling into a fiction addiction. Having discovered that I’ve only read two novels this year makes me quite sad, but fiction is also a terrific distraction/pleasure for me.

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    1. Hi, Humming42! Fiction definitely needs to find a little space in a summer, if only for the nostalgia trip of those summer trips to the library and whole days in our "den" (my parents planted a hedge part way down the garden of our very suburban house so that there was a corner where we children couldn't be seen from the house, so that we could make ourselves a private space...) - settling in for a day with a pile of cushions and the hot grass to lie on, bottles of water or home-made lemonade or ginger beer, maybe some fruit or cookies, the hedge and next door's big tree for shade and a big pile of books, plus our guineapig run, made for some wonderful summer memories...

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    2. Fiction is definitely an important part of summer (and also good for our overloaded brains, I've read -- at least that's the study I chose to remember/believe).

      I'll be interested to follow your progress on book proposals(!), since that project (just one) is looming on my horizon.

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  8. Hello group. I am iwantzcatbocl. I am Associate Prof and department chair at a large state U. I am desperately in need of accountability and a big dose of buckling down, but would probably be even more productive if someone could take some of my administrative responsibilities off my shoulders! But alas…

    Key goals: On a book deadline that I must finish it by June 30—I’ve blown through several deadlines for this project over the past year, so it is time for me to finally wrap it up. After that, I have two long languishing articles that need revision that I would like to complete for the end of August. I have a little bit of fieldwork to complete later this month. I also I have a mini-goal of actually planning each day (making a list in my special notebook), which always makes me feel like I have more time, but somehow I don’t do it! Would like to exercise daily (realistically—five days a week). Also would like to meditate for ten minutes a day.

    In the next week: Make a clear outline to get the work done. Do at least two hours of writing per day. Finish two outstanding reports on projects that are long overdue. Work two hours a day on each of these.

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    1. Hello, iwantzcatbocl! Welcome to the group. Oh, wouldn't it be nice to shed the administrivia in our lives...

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    2. Welcome! I'm impressed that you've made progress on a book while chairing. That seems to be an all-consuming job these days.

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    3. Thank you for those words of encouragement. It seems so backward for that to be true---but I want to go up for full next year and I refuse to let this stupid admin stuff stand in my way!

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  9. Hi all--

    I'm Amstr. I finished my PhD in Ren Lit almost 2 years ago, and I've been taking a break from academic life (except for the tail end of work on two book articles that are out last year and this coming fall). My time now is divided between being a stay-at-home-mom to my 7 and 9 year old kids and transitioning into writing for children and freelance editing. I'm also applying for a few adjunct positions to teach lit and comp this fall.

    key goals: 1) develop a strong writing habit, 2) start submitting to agents, 3) learn (again) to eat well, 4) finish job apps, 5) get prepped for freelancing to start in the fall.

    weekly goals: 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.

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    1. Welcome back - it's nice t know I'm not the only person continually re learning habits that didn't quite stick...

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    2. And another welcome back. It sounds like you've got a good mix of academic and non-academic projects. I'll be especially interested to hear how the freelancing plan goes.

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  10. Hi everyone! Late to the party, but...
    I'm Susan, I am a senior prof in history at a small public R-1 that is (if possible) even more under-resourced than most public R-1s in the US. I am competent and generally fair, so I tend to do a lot of service, and I probably have a fairly major admin position as well, which gives me a teaching release. I am a widow, and live alone with a cat -- my second cat, the little one, died suddenly last Friday, so her mother and I are both trying to adjust. (And to answer the questions, she was 5 1/2, and she had a heart attack, but it may have been caused by previously undiagnosed colon cancer that had possibly metastasized.) I am finishing up a sabbatical, but work stuff is beginning to invade my space: I even went to a meeting today because it appeared that we needed grownups, and as one of the more senior faculty, I wanted to be able to pull rank if needed. (But it wasn't, so I didn't.) My mother lives in the same town I do, so I occasionally have to drive her to out-of-town appointments.

    Session Goals:
    1. The book. I am completing a book ms. I have a draft of all the chapters, which are now almost fully revised at least a first time, for flow and repetition and overall argument. My goal is to send a ms. to a publisher for review by the end of the summer.
    2. Other project: for my administrative role, I'm editing a collection of essays, and I have to get the proposal for that written, send invitations, and get in touch with the press.
    3. House: I'm slowly decluttering and redecorating. I've got a plan for new furniture and a new seating arrangement in my living room, and I want to begin work on that.
    4. Self care: one of the goals of the sabbatical was to get into good sleep and exercise patterns. I am now mostly getting 7 hours of sleep a night (my goal) and eating well. But my exercise life is erratic, and I always seem to have other things to do if a friend who is in town occasionally isn't around. So it's exercise that needs to be the new goal.
    5. In the middle of the summer I have a 3 1/2 week trip to the UK, which is partly work (I must check footnotes) but also fun. I need to plan at least one week of real vacation. I've got a bunch of possibilities that I need to work out, including family visits to lovely places, visits to cities I've never visited, and time at the beach.

    Goals for this week:
    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.

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    1. So sorry to hear about the little cat - much empathy. Furry family members are still family members, and they leave a hole when they go...

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    2. I am also sorry about the little cat. :( And I hope you can still capture the "sabbath" for a bit longer.

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    3. Additional condolences on the little cat's death. I've had a young cat die unexpectedly, and it's a shock.

      On a more cheerful note, it sounds like you've made some solid progress on various projects during your sabbatical.Sending good wishes for bringing some of them even closer to fruition before regular obligations reclaim your attention.

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  11. Hi everyone!

    I'm a wee bit late here as well, but I'm happy to be a part of the group. I'm an associate prof in English at a large state university in California. Our teaching load is heavy, so my writing achievements have been slim to date.

    Session goals:
    I'm working on a couple of books and an article right now. My writing goals for this summer including finishing the article by June 8th (totally achievable) and finishing both books before my fall term begins (ummm ... maybe less achievable). Given the timeline, these goals might seem both urgent and important, but I hope I belong here anyway, as I'm not really feeling the urgency so much these days (even though publishing and getting to full is the only way to get a much-needed raise). I'm not sure how to explain the lack of urgency, but I know it perhaps ironically helps me get things done. My non-writing goals include enjoying every minute with my long-awaited wee baby, who is about to turn 4 months old, and trying to get the house in order once and for all. Luckily, it's a small enough condo that it almost qualifies as a tiny house, so "getting the house in order" mostly means getting rid of things.

    Goals for the week:
    *finishing the article draft ahead of a short research trip in two weeks
    *re-reading what I've written so far of Book 1 (a lot)
    *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?)
    *enjoying my birthday, my anniversary, and my daughter's birthday!

    Thanks for letting me be part of the group! Special thanks to GEW for welcoming me.

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    1. Welcome! Sounds like a busy summer ahead...

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    2. Yay! Welcome! And yay for all of this week's celebrations.

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    3. Welcome! It sounds like you've got some exciting projects underway!

      And happy birthday, anniversary, and birthday!

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  12. Hi all, I hope I can still join the fun! I started reading all of the profiles yesterday, got distracted half-way through, and then forgot to come back here and sign up to be part of the writing group, too.

    So, I'm easily distracted. I'm teaching at a European university on a 5 year contract, with no chance of renewal unless I win a grant or publish, publish, and publish some more. Because of the high teaching load, neither the grant-winning nor the writing/publishing part has worked out so well this year (although I did get a lot of props for submitting a big grant proposal even if I didn't end up getting it).

    On the personal front, there's an also-academic spouse (at a US university) and 3 kids (ranging from 3 to 13 years of age) who we schlepp back and forth in our trans-Atlantic work/home set-up. The good part is that we'll all five of us be together in the same place for all of the Summer: six weeks in Europe, 2 months in the US.

    The Goals for the Summer as a whole are to:
    1) get back to LC paper and submit it!
    2) write a complete draft of HA paper for my real-life writing group, revise based on their comments, and submit also
    3) wrap up teaching-related stuff asap (last class this coming Thursday) and be done with teaching until next semester

    Goals for this week are to:
    1) just survive the week: student presentations in Wed and Thu classes, grading the presentation w/colleague
    2) catch up on pile of grading so I can close the books on this semester's classes
    3) 1 admin task that is time-sensitive

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    1. wait, also goal 4: some very small "preliminary fieldwork" project to squeeze into this Summer; I can't believe I forgot about this!! (This is related to eventually getting the grant, by doing some more exploratory work so I'll know better what I'm talking about when writing the proposal. Is this a Freudian slip that I completely forgot that I need to get this fieldwork time in this Summer??)

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    2. Happy for you that you'll have the family together for the summer. And welcome!

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    3. Welcome! It sounds like you're juggling a lot! Best wishes for surviving the week; that's where I was a week ago, and it does feel good when it's finally over, but getting there can be painful (so much to do, so little remaining energy to do it).

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  13. Hi everyone!
    Glad to be back for the summer group, good wishes to everyone that all the summer plans work well and that there is also a lot of fun involved!

    I'm a third year tt faculty member in physical science at a tiny regional university with lots of teaching and not much money. I have a growing research program that needs lots of care and feeding over the next few months.

    Summer goals:
    In one sentence - ALL research, ALL the time!!! And READING. Lots of reading about new techniques, new areas, new applications and new ideas. The reading part is truly TLQ because there is rarely time to read properly during term time, and it can easily get lots in the mechanics of research.

    Specifics:
    1) Get rid of last 2 lingering thesis papers - either submit them or pull plugs on them (L1 and L2)
    2) Write up almost finished new area project and submit (N1)
    3) Write up preliminary report for huge project (H1)
    4) Design and start next phase of huge project (H2)
    5) Design student part of huge project (H3)

    I want to be very careful this summer not to get distracted by any work that is not research. In order to do this I will designate one day or afternoon each week to deal with all other stuff - admin, teaching, programme development etc. and try to keep it contained. That sort of stuff can spill over so easily.

    I have at least 6 weeks of field work to do, so my summer weeks at home are fairly restricted anyway, I really want to make the most of the time I'm around.

    This week's goals:
    I'm away for lab work right now, so my goals will be related to that.
    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

    On the personal and reading front I'm going to designate a few habit-forming plans for the summer.
    1) Read one new research paper every day
    2) Do one fun adventure or new activity with child every weekend I'm home
    3) Run or do something active every day
    4) Cut most sugar and processed junk out of eating plans

    I think that's all for now? Will probably think of other stuff later, but I think that is enough! Till next week anyway..

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    1. Welcome back, Daisy! I like the idea of restricting non-research stuff to a particular slot during the week. That sounds like a good plan (and I'll be interested to hear how it goes).

      And yes, reading has a way of slipping to the bottom of the to-do list, but it's so essential to keeping up with a field. I try to treat going to conferences and listening to lots of papers as a partial substitute, but its isn't, not really.

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  14. And I'm very late, at least to the goal-setting part.

    I'm a mid-career (by the definitions others have used; JaneB's definitely applies) full-time but non-tenure-track English (mostly composition) professor at a big state R2 in the U.S. Although research isn't officially part of my job, I do have some ongoing projects of the research/writing sort. For the last year or so, however, I've been focusing more on what I call "infrastructure" -- trying to get my home life and health in better shape. That (along with teaching 2 sections of a 2-month summer class) will also be my focus for the summer (though a transition back to fitting in research and writing needs to come soon).

    One reason for my late posting of goals (besides the fact that I finally got my grades in on Sunday) has been a bit of dithering about which of the many projects I'd *like* to tackle this summer, and/or will *have* to tackle at some point (because they'll become TRQ by the fall; scheduled conference presentations come in this category). I think I'm going to go minimalist/purist, and just list the goals that are completely TLQ, and so most likely to slip through the cracks.

    So, more or less in order of priority, here are my TLQ goals for the summer:

    --make substantial progress on getting household & financial matters in better order

    --maintain and improve self-care: exercise (especially taking advantage of the pool while it's open), sleep, and good meals.

    --maintain better connections/reconnect with friends and family.

    Ideally, I'd like to make a bit of progress on each of them each week. Two out of three wouldn't be bad, and one out of three will do on the busiest weeks (e.g. when I'm conferencing with my summer students).

    And here are my goals for the week:

    --rest, regroup, and plan, in whatever proportions feel right

    --make some progress on reducing household chaos

    --start walking again

    --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)

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  15. hi all, I'm late too with the goal setting and signing in. hi everyone! I think one of my main goals is to maintain exercising every week, preferably four times. that's the goal that skips most easily for me. Workwise: overall goal is to submit three papers. So, a goal for this week- to plan and decide which paper to start on, and list what tasks i need to do. Also, to write an important email about museums.
    allan wilson

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  16. and to introduce myself- sorry my comment here has already been eaten twice!! why?
    I am a fairly new research scientist in a government institute in a non-US country, trying to cement my expertise by writing papers, and getting the hang of my workplace. Also, a mother of three. allan wilson.

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