Top Left Quadrant: Week 7 check-in: you've negotiated, but now you have to actually TLQ

Saturday 4 July 2015

Week 7 check-in: you've negotiated, but now you have to actually TLQ

Hello everyone, and Happy Independence Day (aka fireworks everywhere day?) to our American members! I hope you all had a productive week. The UK is sweltering in a heatwave, which is causing much amusement in the rest of the world, I'm sure - here in The North, it was 28-29 degrees centigrade (80-85 F) multiple days last week, and humid, and our norm is about 18-20 (mid 60s F), so hardly hot by many peoples' standards - and it's definitely summer!

Last week our topic was about negotiating for time for TLQ stuff with other people in our lives, and a lot of replies identified that negotiating with ourselves was also a big part of the challenge - not just for people living alone, either. So I thought that this might merit exploring a bit more this week, especially as it links in with the problems of 'inner voices' we've talked about before under various guises.

Topic: You've successfully negotiated blocks of time for your TLQ work, and you are ready to start work - sitting in your favourite coffeeshop, at your desk or your kitchen table, refilled pen and fresh piece of paper or fully-functioning laptop ready to go. Things should be easy now, right? But this is often the hardest part of all, the reason the voices of TRQ and BRQ and even BLQ tasks win out - important stuff is hard, and it can be scary. After all, if you're too busy to try, you can't fail, right?

A previous iteration of the writing group addressed this via Dame Eleanor's Power-Writer Anti-Bugge spray, and what with all the ants and wasps and flies and gnats attracted by the picnics and sweaty walking-buffet mammals up here in the northern hemisphere, this seemed an appropriate time to dig it out again. So - to what 'little voice' in your head would you most like to apply The Dame's Bugge Spray? And have you any tips on how to power on past the doubts and achieve TLQ goals anyway?

Last week's goals:
allan wilson
1. Finish revision of CR
2. Prep talk
3. Exercise 3 times
4. Eat no more than one piece of junk a day
5. drink at least 4 glasses of water

Amstr
1) exercise 4x
2) write 3x
3) agent/query progress
4) cover letters
5) nightly planning sessions

Contingent Cassandra
1) Do some follow-up on financial projects started last week; start process of switching to smartphone (purchased but not yet set up) and changing carriers.
2) Continue activity of some sort most days, most likely mulch-moving (I've given into the reality that this seems to be my physical activity for the moment; the mulch is available unusually late in the year, and will run out soon; in the meantime, it's valuable -- and free! -- raw material for several gardening projects, and the best partial solution I can find to a flooding problem).
3) Replace key tag I need to get into pool (which I somehow managed to lose off my keyring while -- what else -- moving mulch).
4) Follow up w/ family member
5) Take advantage of holiday weekend to relax a bit and detach briefly from online class, in preparation for a very busy teaching week (draft conferences) next week.

Daisy (carrying 3-week goals forward)
1) Work on writing projects at least 30 minutes every day
2) Keep up reading project
3) Make better field notes than last year because for the love of pete I wish I could go back and slap my former self silly for taking terrible notes!!!

Elizabeth (from week 4 - hoping all's well and you're just having too good a summer to need the group?)
1) Another of the critiques came in for the co-authored article, so I plan to work on those edits.
2) I’m only going to try for walking three times this week, as I still feel somewhat shaky.
3) Two recipes for healthy food, as I am still trying to fool the family into eating better.

GEW
1) Finish most of reading for Topic S and incorporate references into draft and write related sections.
2) Maybe: Drive to UC library that is about 90 minutes away in order to access databases and useful books
3) Make time for a couple of quality activities with my son
4) walk dog 3x
5) nightly planning (with discussions with Hubby)

humming42
1) Talk with book publisher, start to figure out how to pull this together.
2) Work on Upcoming Article
3) Finish book for review
4) Work on proposal for edited collection

iwantzcatbocl
1) Work on text for chapters 2, 3 and 4.
2) Finish chapter 2.
3) Get deep into chapter 3 (it is a long one).
4. Go to Favorite Café every day
3. exercise 4 times
4. make flight arrangements for flight at end of summer for big trip
5. prepare progress toward tenure letters (all of them, because they are due Friday!)
6. check in with TLQ group!

JaneB
1) focus on Three Managable Things each day, one for work, one for my environment, one for my health and well-being - and I can use either/or items to appease my inner toddler if necessary, as discussed before!
2) nag the co-author of the very close to submission paper pair Crunchier and Crunchier's Little Brother - he promised them back last Tuesday, that's nearly a week ago...

Karenh
1) Knock off 2 tasks from P1 admin list
2) 30 min writing x3
3) read/note 2x article for P2; order in book that looks directly on topic
4)reinstate bedtime alarm, 4 x physic exercises.

kjhaxton.
(a) Scary project: start re-analysing data for maybe conference presentation and read new literature on project.
(b) Gemstone Paper: play around with data and start planning the figures
(c) continue list making and cross off some small items from the various lists.

Let's Do This
1. Finish the article that I wanted to finish last week. Email it before I leave town for the holiday weekend. This gives me three days, ACK!.
2.Do the dreaded bills.
3. Fix the captioning and the video summaries on the two videos that have been uploaded thus far. This will ease me into finishing, uploading, and captioning the remaining videos next week, so I can get started on that article before my parents arrive on the 10th.
4. Pack for the weekend trip. Something I love to put on the list because then I can cross it off later!
5. Enjoy extra time with my daughter, who has a break from the gym this week.

Matilda (carried over from week 6)
1) To continue to revise Chapter 1.
2) To continue to read important articles relating to Chapter 1.
3) To exercise for 3 minutes after one working session (that is, 25 minutes)
4) To have less snacks, both day and night.

Mercy (moving week! Much empathy!)
a. attend important meeting on Mon
b. read 1 more MA thesis (on Sun)
c. read 3 HA-related articles this week
d. take some excercise each day, not just sitting at home

Susan
1. Send off review
2. Send proposal to publisher
3. Start going through incredible ILL piles that make my office dangerous right now.
4. Bibliography stuff
5. Organizing tasks in former study, bedroom closet.
6. Exercise at least 4 times

52 comments:

Contingent Cassandra5 July 2015 at 01:01
Topic: for me, it's mostly a little voice running through all the other things I need to have done (or may have forgotten I need to do, or might want to do someday), and wondering how long they're going to take, and how I'll function if I don't get a full night's sleep soon, and so on. Writing it all down somewhere (an outline-based to-do program, in my case) helps a bit, as does actually getting several good nights' sleep in a row, but it's still hard. It's one reason I do better with familiar tasks and routines, even daunting/exhausting ones, than unfamiliar ones. At least I *know* that I can teach 4 sections of the comp class I teach most often, and which weeks will be exhaustingly full, and which ones will offer a bit of a respite. When I don't know how long it will take to accomplish something new (and when there's a deadline; I'm actually okay in just-keep-plodding-along writing mode, but that's partially because I don't generally have deadlines for such work), I find it hard to concentrate.

Last week's goals:
1) Do some follow-up on financial projects started last week; start process of switching to smartphone (purchased but not yet set up) and changing carriers.
2) Continue activity of some sort most days, most likely mulch-moving
3) Replace key tag I need to get into pool (which I somehow managed to lose off my keyring while -- what else -- moving mulch).
4) Follow up w/ family member
5) Take advantage of holiday weekend to relax a bit and detach briefly from online class, in preparation for a very busy teaching week (draft conferences) next week.

Accomplished:
1) I'm making progress on financial organizing (mostly filling in the details of the current situation, which is somewhere between as manageable and a bit more manageable than I thought -- so, mostly good news). Began setting up new phone via wireless internet connection, but still need to order SIM card and transfer to new carrier.
2) Alternated between several quite-strenuous days of mulch-moving and a couple of rest (and grading) ones
3 & 4)Still need to do
5) in process

Next week is the draft-conference week (see "weeks I know will be exhausting," above), so TRQ duties will be heavy, and TLQ goals need to be correspondingly modest. The good and bad news is that none of my students signed up for a Monday conference, so I'll have a slightly gentler entry into the work week than I anticipated (but, no doubt, a correspondingly tougher end of the week, and most likely a day of make-up conferences a week from Monday).

So, goals for the week:
1) Keep working on phone setup and at least check in on other financial/household projects as/if possible.
2) Get at least a bit of exercise most days (walking, mulch-moving, or swimming, as schedule allows)
3) Replace key tag so I can swim
4) tough base w/ family member
5) use time between conferences (if any) to work on DH website from class last spring, about which I'll be presenting at conferences this fall (this isn't on the official summer list, because it's one of those TLQ things that will eventually become TRQ and so get done, but it's worth getting a start on, and should combine with the conferences pretty well)
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Daisy5 July 2015 at 02:28
Hello! Happy to be back!

Last week’s Topic: Great topic, couldn’t resist getting my 2 cents in!
Negotiating with others is definitely the hardest thing about working with or among people... I hate it, and it makes me crazy. Husband is the worst. We’ve tried many times to have my schedule set in stone and he simply ignores it after a few times. Recent failures: One where every Thursday night I can stay at work – did that twice because he scheduled other things for it, and the guilt trip was just too much for me. One where I could have mornings to work during a recent summer – did that or a week until sleeping in for him became a priority and I didn’t get to do anything until after lunch (I remember emailing a friend “he can get up at 5am for 3 weeks to watch the Tour de F@#$%^% France but not for my work???). One where I could go to work early a few mornings a week and leave the school drop-off to him – didn’t last a week... Same with exercise for me – when I had a set running group that met at non-negotiable times it was fine, but now that it is “just me and I can do it any time” the guilt trip and payback is making me crazy. I know part of the problem is me, I don’t insist hard enough and I feel guilty for taking any time away so I give up on things. He says I “just have to ask” when I need time. I feel like I shouldn’t have to “ask” for something that we’ve discussed to death already... I have gone to the system where I just announce what I am going to do, and then deal with the guilt afterwards...
Colleagues are easier, they respect boundaries much more. And they have their own negotiations to do, so it generally works pretty well in my department and with most of my collaborators. For this session of field work we only had to work out who got the helicopter for which days, easy!
People in positions of power are much harder because their priorities are very different sometimes. My ex-supervisor is still holding papers hostage because she just doesn’t read them, and no amount of negotiating on my part has made any difference for that. And I understand that it is not a priority for her, so conflicting interests are difficult to reconcile.

This week’s Topic:
I would love to spray into oblivion the nasty little voice (with the huge influence) that says “this is such a BIG revision/project/paper/programme that you (you = a lowly noob researcher with no real skillz) have no chance of making any decent progress on it, especially not today, so you might as well work on something you are actually capable of doing...”
As many of us have said the only way past that voice is to do it anyway and make regular progress on small things so that the big ones don’t look so overwhelming. If I knew a better way I’d be doing it!

Last few weeks:
Field work was absolutely amazing. If it wasn’t for my child at home I would have stayed the entire summer and not even bothered coming back! Seriously, I would have stayed. I’m already looking forward to August when I get to go back there. I had a hard time adjusting to walls, traffic and darkness at night! So I took child and went camping for a few days to ease into being back in town. I’m looking forward to getting to office on Monday and getting back into writing.

Previous goals:
Reading: Kept up with reading project at about 50%, but only for field related papers which doesn’t really count. But I’ll take it!
Writing: Didn’t do anything except project work. Also ok given how much work the field part was.
Field notes: I think they are better, will know in a few months when I try to reference them!

New goals:
1) Negotiate return of hostage paper with ex-supervisor via phone call.
2) Start writing field report immediately so it is still fresh. (DO NOT postpone this!)
3) Send revised paper to friendly editor for advice.
4) Get caught up with all three student projects.
5) Restart reading project, YAY!
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AcademicAmstr5 July 2015 at 07:20
I'll check in tomorrow, but just a quick note about an article I read today (here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/common-mistakes-destroying-productivity/).

One of the most striking things for me: list items with an ACTION (e.g., not just "article," but "write six paragraphs of article"). This strategy and breaking big to-do items into concrete smaller tasks both help me get to TLQing. I've been woefully bad at all strategies of late. More later . . .
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Matilda5 July 2015 at 15:41
Hello,
I have missed last week, which was gone fast as other weeks, but anyway.

Topic: when I am at the desk and open my PC to do my TLQ, I sometimes start to think other domestic chores, kids activities need to be arranged, and so on. I usually just write them down in my schedule notebook so as to remember them, and then turn to my PC again. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Then I feel I need to make a good plan to do my TLQ, then I open my research journal to make a plan, for the week, for the revision work on my article and so on. After one hour passes, and I find myself have made no actual progress on my TLQ, only planning or thinking other things. I think I understand Contingent Cassandra and Daisy’s comments…things-to-do lists, fear and other thoughts come into my brain when I have time and set to work on TLQ. Is this fear to face the difficulty? Procrastination? Just I am not concentrating enough?

Last goals
1) To continue to revise Chapter 1. - I have been reading articles and not written or revised the draft yet.
2) To continue to read important articles relating to Chapter 1. - Yes, I have been reading them. Now is the time to make it into my revising work.
3) To exercise for 3 minutes after one working session (that is, 25 minutes) - Not very much, but maybe three times? 3 minutes are very short, but I felt good after doing it, so it seems to work.
4) To have less snacks, both day and night. - mmm.

Next goals:
1) To revise Chapter 1 on the articles I have read recently.
2) To exercise for 3 minutes at least three times a day.
3) To have good sleep, and do not think that I should have worked instead. Sleep is important.

Have a good week, everyone!

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Elizabeth Anne Mitchell5 July 2015 at 22:01
Topic:
I struggle most with self-doubt, “You’re not good enough, no one wants to read what you write.” The best I can offer is that I write what I want to write, and I would want to read what I write, and phooey to anyone else.

Long-Ago Week’s Goals:
1) Another of the critiques came in for the co-authored article, so I plan to work on those edits. Yes, I did get the suggestions done.

2) I’m only going to try for walking three times this week, as I still feel somewhat shaky. No, only once.

3) Two recipes for healthy food, as I am still trying to fool the family into eating better. Nope.

Analysis:
Although my father seemed fine at first, my sister had an odd conversation with him, and called me on June 15th. I flew down on the 17th, and he passed away on the 20th. From July 4th, 2013 to June 20th, 2015, I have lost my mother-in-law, my brother, my mother, a niece, and my father. I am a mess, to be honest.

Next Week’s Goals:
1) Back to the dissertation. Three days for an hour a day.

2) Take care of myself, both physically, and by allowing myself to mourn. I have the first two of four doctors’ appointments in the month of July this Wednesday.
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humming426 July 2015 at 03:08
Topic: I’ve been sitting here for quite awhile, trying to figure out how I get past my procrastinations and get started with work. Maybe coming up with an answer would give me some insight into how to do it more often and better. I signed up for Camp Nanowrimo, intending to work on the book project, and couldn’t seem to get the hang of writing 1600 words a day just because I said I would (JaneB, I’m amazed at how you’ve mastered NaNoWriMo). I’m a dropout. Yet when I get started, through whatever magic makes that finally happen, I can get pretty deeply engaged. So I’d like to apply Anti-Bugge Spray to the voiceless urge that pushes me to check Twitter or email or Feedly just one more time before I get started.

Last week:
1) Talk with book publisher, start to figure out how to pull this together: done.
2) Work on Upcoming Article: made good progress.
3) Finish book for review: done.
4) Work on proposal for edited collection: thought about it but no progress

I have a long weekend family thing that includes travel, so that will take a chunk out of my work time. I’m setting goals for two weeks to accommodate that.

2 weeks ahead:
1) continue work on Upcoming Article
2) write book review
3) write proposal
4) finish revise & resubmit
5) submit old article to new journal (if coauthor agrees)
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Good Enough Woman6 July 2015 at 05:04
I haven't really mastered negotiating with myself. I really liked the schedules I made each evening a couple of weeks ago. They really helped me with productivity the following day. But it's been much harder to do them with the whole family around. I just don't have that much control during the day, so I haven't been doing them. My work times have sometimes been more spur-of-the-moment, and so then the negotiation takes longer. I do best when I'm writing with a clear sense of purpose. Other times, I'm not that good at focus. But this is a great topic for me to think about.

1) Finish most of reading for Topic S and incorporate references into draft and write related sections. NO. I read more for Topic S, but I'm not quite finished, and I didn't write much.
2) Maybe: Drive to UC library that is about 90 minutes away in order to access databases and useful books. YES! It was awesome! I can't wait to do this again.
3) Make time for a couple of quality activities with my son. SORT OF. No major activities (fishing, hiking), but we definitely enjoyed some nice moments.
4) walk dog 3x (2x?)
5) nightly planning (with discussions with Hubby). NO, but since he supported my research trip, I was all good.

This coming week, I want to get work done, but I also have to prepare for a lot of travel. I'll be taking the train next Saturday on an overnight trip to a training institute. That will last a week, and then my family will pick me up, and we'll be on the road together for three weeks. So I have to pack for myself, get stuff organized for the kids, and take care of everything that needs to be done to leave the house with a house sitter for a month. I'm not sure I'll get much TLQ done.

Everything I want to put on my list seems to be TRQ. The TRQ list is LONG.

This week's goals:
1) Walk the dog everyday (I have been gaining weight since the semester ended, and I need to do a better job of getting moving, especially in the mornings)
2) Pay attention to food portions (I realize this is vague, but it helps me)
3) Write for at least four hours by Friday.
4) Read at least 75 more pages of institute reading list by Friday.
5) Figure out what books/reading materials to pack.
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AcademicAmstr6 July 2015 at 05:16
I have been in a funk lately. I think it started post-vacation, then weeks filled with unpacking, summer adjustments for the kiddos, camp for them, managing schedules, dealing with them when they've had poor and not enough sleep. It's wearying!

I started reading a book called "How to be a Writer" (by Barbara Baig), and she discusses the idea of having a writing practice that's not necessarily performance oriented--like a musician practicing for a concert, or an athlete practicing for a race or game. We writers, she argues, don't give ourselves much time to practice (freewriting, collecting material, etc.) so when we do write it feels do-or-die. It's been really helpful to get back to the basics and examine my writing habits and what I want them to be.

Bugge-Spray of the moment should apply to: "you don't really have anything to say," "you're not an expert, so you can't offer anything," and "you're just not a morning person, so morning writing practice isn't for you."

I've decided that I need to start getting up early to fit in an hour or so of writing first thing in the mornings. I'm so resistant--I'm much more of a night owl, stay-late-at-the-party kind of gal, so mornings sound dangerous. But I'm learning to arrive places early (such a stretch for this notoriously-late lady), so stranger things can happen.

This week:
1) exercise 4x--yes. And I'm really enjoying it!
2) write 3x--yes. Thanks to the book. Not much progress on what's due for my writing group, but I did write.
3) agent/query progress--nada
4) cover letters--nada
5) nightly planning sessions--yes at the beginning of the week. I definitely tend to peter out by the end of the week. I think I need a special Wednesday evening reboot (maybe with a margarita in hand?) to get me reconnected for the end of the week.

Next week I have a pretty insane driving schedule. I'll be luck to have two hours a day in which to do everything which doesn't have a solid time slot.

Goals:
1) exercise 4x
2) get up at 6:15 every morning to write. Write from 6:30-7 at least.
3) make progress on Work-In-Progress 2 (WIP2)
4) take care of employment details (transcript requests, contact for I-9 protocol, maybe even cover letters)
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iwantzcatbocl7 July 2015 at 06:41
This is exactly where so many of my problems live. I established the “sticker system” to try to eradicate the doubt sitting on my shoulder. I wish that I had actual suggestions for ways to eradicate this problem, but I don’t. The comment about finding twitter or ideas about how to do X (instead of work)… resonate so much with me. Making the first move into the writing is the hardest part for me, followed right behind by the second move, and then the third move. Or maybe the third move is the hardest one, followed by the second move, etc. Each and every move feels difficult some most days.

One thing I have somehow been thinking about lately is the fact that all of this doubt has existed with me since the beginning of (my) time. I am always thinking that I haven’t done enough, have wasted another day, have let the progress that happened on one day sabotage the next. Somehow, in the midst of so much failure have been so many successes. Are these the things that I have been doing as procrastination? Or is this the way that working works? Not a fan. But it does seem to be life.

Last week I said I would…
1) Work on text for chapters 2, 3 and 4.
2) Finish chapter 2.
3) Get deep into chapter 3 (it is a long one).
4. Go to Favorite Café every day
3. exercise 4 times
4. make flight arrangements for flight at end of summer for big trip
5. prepare progress toward tenure letters (all of them, because they are due Friday!)
6. check in with TLQ group!

I basically haven’t accomplished all that much since my last check in, except that I am plugging away at various BOOK CHAPTERS. I have been going to the Favorite Café and I have been exercising. I am still not finished with the G-D tenure letters (maybe after this).

Next week plans:
1. Serious book progress. Deadline is July 15. I don’t feel like breaking it down more than this at the moment.
2. Seems the only thing I can really do is to promise to go to Favorite Café daily and keep working.
3. Keep up exercise.
4. Sublet apartment?
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Susan7 July 2015 at 06:42
Two unexpected and negative events in the last week - one at work that may lead to a grievance, the second a medical crisis for my mother - means that I don't have the brain for it. See you next eek
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Anonymous8 July 2015 at 09:56
allan wilson:Last weeks goals
1. Finish revision of CR
2. Prep talk
3. Exercise 3 times
4. Eat no more than one piece of junk a day
5. drink at least 4 glasses of water
For once in my life, a yes to everything!
this week's goals:
I am away from the office this week, so potential internet difficulties. However, my goals will be
1. drink lots of water (I loved this one - I think I feel better)
2. finish conference talk post colleague critique
3. enjoy my life
4. do wildly overdue ethics app- added because of my comments below!!
One of my worst things to deal with is self doubt. a bit similar to Daisy- am I good enough? I just have to get in there.
And, an awareness that i am worst at dealing with people eg doing ethics that requires contacting others- essentially, i am just painfully shy and together with self doubt, slows me right down. However, I am working on these- lists are good. The people stuff is still a work in progress though.

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the grid

Saturday 4 July 2015

Week 7 check-in: you've negotiated, but now you have to actually TLQ

52 comments: