Apologies for late posting; I'm recovering from a week of student-draft conferences (which went fine, but was still exhausting. 'Tis the nature of the beast.)
I'm also not going to be very eloquent in framing a topic, I'm afraid, but I can think of two possibilities. Feel free to pick either, or start a conversation on something else:
--Several of last week's posts (and a morning spent singing hymns at the bedside of a longtime, but still relatively young, member of my church who is under hospice care) serve as reminders that sometimes life becomes terribly difficult: heartbreaking, unpredictable, exhausting, infuriating, all of the above. I'm thinking we might share experiences coping in such situations (while realizing that such experiences, and ways of surviving them, tend to be very individual/personal, so what works for one person doesn't always work for another). In particular, how (if at all) does one hold onto (or even define) TLQ goals, especially if crisis situations bring some combination of myriad TRQ tasks and a radically redefined set of priorities? Does one simply set existing TLQ goals aside for a while, in the name of reasonable expectations and self-care? Hold onto at least some TLQ activities as a bit of normalcy/continuity at a time of change and uncertainty? A bit of both? Does it depend on the situation?
--Amstr posted a link to a PBS article with productivity tips , including a reminder to use active verbs on to-do lists. That article also mentions that attempted multi-tasking undermines productivity, as does this story that I heard on NPR this morning. Maybe something in one of these articles will spur a thought about what's going wrong, or right, with your TLQ quest this summer, and how things might be adjusted to improve productivity during the rest of the summer (which is probably just about 1/2 over, at least in terms of this group's timetable, so maybe we should be doing a halfway check-in, but I'm going to end this here and get it up. Maybe a just-past-halfway checkin is the topic for next week).
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
(may or may not check in depending on internet availability)
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!!
Amstr
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)
Contingent Cassandra
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)
Daisy
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!
Elizabeth
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.
GEW
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.
humming42 (goals for this week and next)
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)
iwantzcatbocl
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?
JaneB
(goals from week 7)
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
(goals from week 7)
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
(goals from week 7)
(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
(goals from week 7)
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. 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
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.
Mercy
(goals from week 7, aka moving week)
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
(implicit) Survive what promises to be a difficult week
Goals from week 7:
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
Topic (#1): I've definitely had times when all I could do was put one foot in front of the other, if that, but they have also been times when it was hard to define TLQ goals (because of the crumbling academic job market, and/or because other related/similar circumstances made the things I might want, long-term, seem so far out of reach that it was hard to define even incremental steps in the right direction, and/or because I was too depressed to come up with anything I wanted/wanted to aim for). When circumstances are less dire, I generally find routine comforting, so if I've got a routine set up around a TLQ goal, or can recapture one (even if it's something as simple as self-care things like walking and cooking good food), I generally find that helpful (but/and it's also helpful to realize that progress toward the goal will probably be irregular; I'm something of a recovering -- or perhaps too-well-recovered -- perfectionist, so not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good is generally helpful). Returning to (or increasing) activities that are part of my core identity (writer, walker, gardener, church/choir member) also seem to help. But ultimately, all that really helps is time. And I might react differently in a different kind of crisis; the ones I've faced have generated some periods of frantic TRQ activity, but have involved longer periods when it was hard to think of anything to do that felt truly productive toward a long-term goal.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
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)
Accomplished:
1) ordered a sim card. I think that's about it. Oh; renewed my i.d. for my apartment complex.
2) didn't even move mulch (it's been raining a lot here, but still. . .)
3) done (well, got card with barcode number for old key tag since new ones are on order)
4) nope (but did participate in the spur-of-the-moment hymn-sing mentioned above, which is somewhat though not quite in the same category)
5) did one small DH-oriented thing, but not this
Analysis: conference week was, as usual, all-consuming, and I'm also feeling pretty tired in general, and ready for a real break (the constant rain, and consequent lack of sun, is probably also affecting my energy/mood). Having looked at my calendar, and thought about what I need to get done, I'm also feeling a bit more optimistic about being able to take a break after the summer class is over and then devote a week each to 2 or 3 large projects/groups of related projects, which may be more satisfactory than trying to parcel them out incrementally among other things (see topic #2, subtopic downsides of multitasking). So that's more or less how I'm thinking at the moment -- try to stick with the current pattern of teaching the summer class and fitting in some garden work/exercise/smaller household tasks in between for the next two weeks, then take a real 10-day break (eating, sleeping, reading, and exercise only), then spend a week each on 2 major categories of household/financial tasks, with 2 weeks left over for a combination of class prep and DH class windup/conference prep. I'm grateful that Labor Day is late this year, making the summer break at least seem longer (though I suspect this also means that the fall semester will end closer to Christmas than I'd like, but I'll face that one when I get to it, and try to plan course calendars to minimize the effect).
So, goals for the coming week (when students will be revising the final projects on which we had conferences, and I need to wind up a lot of bits and pieces of grading that were neglected due to conferences, so TLQ time will be more abundant than last week, but still somewhat limited/fragmented):
Delete1) Set phone-carrier switch in motion; check on other financial/household projects in progress; tackle other small financial/household matters as possible in between student communications & grading
2) Get at least a bit of exercise most days (walking, mulch-moving, and/or swimming; try to step this up a bit)
3) tough base w/ at least one family member (and maybe a couple of others; once I get the phone working, I intend to use my niece/nephews for texting practice, since one of the purposes of switching to a smart phone is being able to communicate with them in their native idiom, whatever it is this week)
5) work on tying up odds and ends of communications w/ members of my department, plans for the fall semester, etc., well enough to allow me to go incommunicado for a week or so after grades are in.
6) work on getting class DH site ready to go public/be presented if time (but if not, don't worry; this *will* become TRQ-er by late August, and I will find time to do it).
Conference weeks can be rough! I'm glad you survived. I like your plan to have a weekly focus after a break. I think I'm going to assign a day to different projects to help with that multitasking. I have so many little tasks that I get stuck trying to figure out what to do.
DeleteSorry to hear about your friend from church. Lots of illness, death, and grief being faced in our group. My best wishes.
DeleteAnd thanks for your comments about DH. I have a feeling that I'll be much more tapped into the community after this week.
Thanks for the good wishes, GEW. This is not somebody tremendously close, but somebody I've known for some time, and worked closely with -- one of the effects of being part of a small(ish) community. And she just retired, just had her first grandchild -- it's hard to watch, and hard in a memento mori sort of way.
DeleteEnjoy your DH training; it's a good community, I've found.
Topic: I'll start with multitasking. I'm finding this summer that having my kids around makes me feel like I'm multitasking, even when they're fully taking care of themselves. They're 8 and 10, and this is the first year we haven't had a sitter a couple days a week during the summer. Even though the sitter didn't do much last summer, it made a difference to not have to be available for hours at a time. It feels almost like having a newborn--I'm always keyed up for an emergency. So my task for the rest of the summer is to figure out how to schedule in time that's not interruptible. I can trade childcare with a neighbor, and I can hire a sitter. I can also make it clear to my kids that they'll be on their own for a couple hours while I'm in my backyard office. Whatever it is, I need to change something!
ReplyDeleteI'm also going to continue my writing in the mornings. I was able to convince myself that I could let everything go until 7:30 or 7:45--my usual wake-up time--because everything waited on the days I slept in. I do now need to get to bed earlier so I'm not in sleep debt all the time.
Goals: 1) exercise 4x--3 times, but one time was a gym workout without my trainer, so I'm counting that double(!!)
2) get up at 6:15 every morning to write. Write from 6:30-7 at least.--But some miracle I succeeded. And it was good.
3) make progress on Work-In-Progress 2 (WIP2)--yes--in fits and starts of morning writing.
4) take care of employment details (transcript requests, contact for I-9 protocol, maybe even cover letters)--yes. I'm still having cold feet about applying to more jobs, so this week I'm going to listen to my resistance and figure out if it's a good resistance or a bad resistance.
I drove about a zillion miles this week. Son hated sports camp. Daughter loved horse camp. Both cried about karate and swim team practice. It's been an emotional week over here. Carving out time in the mornings has been HUGE! I'm no longer feeling antsy about not having written, but I do need to figure out how to take time during the day to do some tasks. The summer's half over, and I feel like the kids and I are just about to find our rhythm.
For next week:
1) exercise 4x
2) plan food
3) examine job possibilities and feeeelings about them
4) work out help from other people to have writing time during the day
5) plan a writing retreat and plan anniversary weekend
Sounds like a somewhat tricky age/stage: they're old enough to self-supervise for stretches of time, but haven't had much practice at it, and aren't yet old enough to relish not having you immediately around (and/or simply sleep through the most of the morning if permitted to do so, which has its advantages). And school ended not so long ago, and there was a holiday, and . . .I'm not surprised it's taking a bit of time to find a rhythm.
DeleteMornings are, indeed, great work time, but planning sleep to allow for being fresh in the morning (and the rest of the day) is essential.
I like the idea of "listening to your resistance" on the job-application front. It sounds like you've got a lot of home/family duties to juggle with whatever paid work you take on, and, while academic employment is flexible, it's still very time (and energy and brain-power) consuming (and one can say the same for applying for same; I think that decisions about when to spend time applying for things and when to spend that same small amount of available time doing things that might make one more employable -- e.g. research and writing -- are some of the hardest ones for those not in permanent or semi-permanent jobs, and perhaps one of the hidden costs of contingency).
You said it so well, working at home while big kids are doing their own thing IS a bit like multitasking, because even if one doesn't have to do anything for/with them most of the times, you might be needed ANY time, so constantly being alert for the "just in case" is a constant, and not very helpful, undertow. Not in a position to offer any real advice on this, except to say that even if multitasking means one is less productive than if one were single-tasking, one still gets stuff done even if multi-tasking. So if that's what you have to do, it's better than not doing some of the tasks at all. And I'm sure that our kids are pretty happy to be left to their own devices most of the time (even my 3-year old is these days)
DeleteI used to grab for TLQ as a safe space, a haven from all the very difficult and hard stuff. It was mine, it was long term rather than immediate, you know? And I guess there's a bit of the 'this is my immortality' about any kind of writing, it's a communication with people in times and places entirely outside the days and the places and the invisible tangles we live in.
ReplyDeleteI don't really know when I lost that. Team writing, obligations to collaborators, and the REF nagging, all conspired to take away the 'mine' and the 'not yelling' aspects, I guess. I know that anti-depressants, whilst wonderful things, took away a lot of the part of my brain that wrote poetry like breathing so that that too is now hard rather than a release. I don't know. Now I just want to sleep (with occasional pauses for chocolate) when things get messy.
On the second point, how to improve productivity, I will come back later, with lists etc. For the rest of today, I have declared all such matters off the table!
Oddly, I think one of the reasons I've managed to keep the sense of my writing/research as something that's my own is precisely because it's not part of my job. I strongly suspect that if it were part of my job, it would feel much less "mine" (and not only because deadlines would figure much more prominently, though that's certainly part of it). I suspect (based in part on the topics I've seen chosen for post-tenure books) that some people regain that feeling after tenure (where available), but I suspect even that is becoming less common, as getting tenure, at least from what I've seen, now often signals the beginning of a major struggle to wrest any research time from service/administrative tasks, and/or, at some places, major pressure to get to full in relatively short period of time, but without some of the support available to junior faculty.
DeleteWhatever the structure/framework, it seems like places of refuge are increasingly few and far between.
Well, as one of the crisis people last week, I'll talk about that one: I think there are times when a family crisis becomes TRQ becomes life. It's what needs doing, and it takes priority over everything else. And such crises always lead to other things that need to be dealt with - travel plans, family conversations, etc. That has largely been my life since I found my mother on the floor of her house on Monday: I've done a few things related to work, but I've been at the hospital 8-10 hours a day, and I don't have much energy when I come home. I can keep up with email, but that's about it. The same thing happened when my husband was ill. People take priority over most work stuff and getting another article out. This is a version of the "when they are dying people rarely say that they wish they had worked more" thing. When things calm down you pick yourself up and figure out how to get back to TLQ. And even what TLQ is.
ReplyDeleteAnd a note to Elizabeth Ann Mitchell: I can't imagine the level of loss in the last two years -- I'm so sorry, and know that self-care is the most important thing. Sometimes self-care while mourning involves working, to engage with other parts of your life, but sleep is really good!
OK. Goals from last week:
(implicit) Survive what promises to be a difficult week DONE
Goals from week 7:
1. Send off review DONE
2. Send proposal to publisher NO
3. Start going through incredible ILL piles that make my office dangerous right now. Not really
4. Bibliography stuff - started
5. Organizing tasks in former study, bedroom closet. DONE! Two new bookcases installed, old stuff gone to a good home.
6. Exercise at least 4 times 2 or 3, I can't remember. That was two weeks ago, nothing this past week.
Analysis: well, even before my mother's crisis (which is real) there was a work event that may lead to a grievance. And that took a huge amount of emotional energy, as well as planning. And other people were upset enough about what had happened to me that I had to manage their responses. (Really, this is inappropriate, but it is not unfamiliar.) I've got my response to that underway, and have plans for the week ahead. The week ahead should be much easier: the good news is that my mother's fall was not the result of a stroke, so while she is weak, she just needs to regain strength. She will move to a rehab hospital tomorrow, where I won't be expected to be around all the time. And I will be able to begin to get a regular schedule of work.
Goals for next week:
1. Finish proposal for publisher
2. ILL stuff
3. Finish bibliography work.
4. Exercise or work in garden four days
I'm so glad your mother's fall wasn't worse and wasn't because of a stroke. And I'm glad you'll get some respite from lots of hospital time. That can be really wearing.
DeleteAll my best for this upcoming week. I hope getting back into some routines will help recharge you.
Yes, what you say about TRQ and TLQ and life is true. And "self-care" (or moments outside of the crisis) are so important to sanity. I, too, am sorry about your mother. You seem to have balance (of tasks, of mind) even in the face of this crisis. Best wishes to you and her.
DeleteI am sorry to hear about the life crisis, and glad to hear it wasn't even worse. And you are right about a crisis becoming TRQ, and just dealing with it. And because crises change things, I guess afterwards TLQ doesn't look quite the same anymore either, unless maybe the external-imposed TLQs of all the things one should do.
DeleteI increasingly think (find?) that the emotional-energy requirements of various events/jobs are at least as important in determining how much time/effort they take, and how much they interfere with other tasks/projects, as the sheer time involved. And yes, managing others' reactions can be a chore in itself. By comparison, health crises (at leas health crises of those with whom we have a relatively decent relationship) are easier in some ways, because there's clarity. But that doens't make them easy, so I'm glad to hear your mother is doing better, and will soon be in a place where she'll be able to focus on the goal of regaining strength/mobility (leaving you some time to focus on your own life). I hope the work issue also begins to resolve (but those can take longer, and produce at least as many recurrent/sub-crises along the way as health problems).
DeleteCompletely agree with you, CC - emotional work is a much greater determinant of the hardness of a task, for me, and all sorts of life things can use up one's "emotional spoons" to borrow an analogy from the chronic health issues community (here), so that even when you have time to tackle a task you don't have the resources you need. At least, it can for me...
DeleteI think Susan was very eloquent about how life affects TLQ. And I also think her comments about self-care are very important. It's can be so draining (and even damaging) to deal with crisis situations with no respite. Sometimes TLQ can be that respite; other times, we get behind and then just start back up when we can.
ReplyDeleteAs for multitasking, I think I need to do a better job compartmentalizing e-mail, service tasks, etc. I lose a lot of productivity to these regular TRQ interruptions. Has anyone read "Lean In"? If so, is it good?
Last 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). NO. Only about 4x.
2) Pay attention to food portions (I realize this is vague, but it helps me). YES, a little bit. But not enough.
3) Write for at least four hours by Friday. NO.
4) Read at least 75 more pages of institute reading list by Friday. CLOSE.
5) Figure out what books/reading materials to pack. YES.
This past week, I was getting ready for my trip to the training institute as well as for a family trip that will last three weeks. And I'm not going home in between, so I had to get myself ready for both parts of the trip, and I had to prep the kids for their part. Sooooo, I didn't get much TLQ done. I had hoped to send a 2nd draft of chapter one to my supervisor before I left home, but I didn't. I'm making good progress, but it's not clean enough to be worth her time at this point.
This week, I'm away from home at the institute. I'm hoping to get work finished here, but the training lasts all day, and I have a feeling evenings will be quite social. I might just have to give up on getting the draft finished. But the difficult thing is that, from here, I go straight into a three-week family vacay, and I don't get much done during family vacations. I'm falling behind from my timeline that would let me submit in February. I think the think might be to keep plugging away--even if it's just for 30 minutes a day.
This week:
1) Walk to and from institute location whenever it's safe enough to do so (i.e., not dark).
2) Write for at least 30 minutes per day on chapter draft.
3) Say no to socializing if I really don't want to do it.
4) Be a good listener during the training. Don't raise hands to make too many comments or questions.
5) Each evening, write lists of "intentions" for the following day so that I'm not just spinning wheels during any open times.
6) Enjoy and be grateful for this week of time during which I get to work on things that interest me.
And I think I might go see the documentary "Amy" one evening, too. I rarely go to movies, and I don't know much of Winehouse's music, but I'm compelled to see that movie, and it's playing quite close to my training location.
I've read Lean In. It's okay--kind of meh. But a pretty quick read. It's really aimed at early career women who want to have kids. It also has some career advice for people who change jobs (more corporate than academic). I'm glad I skimmed it for the cultural relevance. My husband read it because all the women on his team, most of them recent college grades, were reading it. It did start some good conversations in his office.
DeleteStay strong on items 2 and 3 this week! And I love your #4--I'm imagining you with both hands raised at once. :)
I hope the training is a good one for you.
I second the view on Lean In as an easy read, but ultimately not much to it, and not something that I as a NOT "early-twenty's person with no kids and going for a big career" hadn't heared before.
DeleteHaven't read "Lean In," but several (middle-aged, mid-career) friends have found at least parts of it inspiring.
DeleteHope your institute goes well (and I feel you on the difficulty of figuring out how/how much to participate; it's always a tricky thing to calibrate in a new group, maybe all the more so when a number of the participants are used to being at the front of the room in one capacity or another).
For whatever it's worth, my one regret about my own weeklong DH training is that I was teaching an online class at the same time, and so wasn't able to spend evenings either socializing (for which I have a limited tolerance anyway, since I'm an introvert) or (more likely) working on a project directly related to/using the skills I was learning. Different things work for different people, of course, and one can't always set aside everything else, but I think there's something to be said for an immersive experience when/as much as possible.
Sorry to have missed last week’s check-in: moved across the Ocean for the summer, and don’t have internet set up in this place yet.
ReplyDelete1. Last week’s topic has continued relevance to my situation, though, for as soon as I finally am less busy and could feasibly get back into my writing, I find that I don’t have a good routine for doing so, and the prospect is just too daunting. So after the legitimate busy-ness of actually packing, being on the plane, and unpacking, I spend way too much time telling myself that I really am still busy, or tired from having been so busy, or in need of some “me time” in order not to have to start writing. And once I realize—after a week or two-- that what I’m doing is in fact avoiding my writing, and that I should just suck it up and get started, then I really get down on myself for being such a lazy slacker. That’s not very helpful to start developing a writing routine. I’m smack in the middle of this “you’re a slacker” – “well, if I am, might as well stop trying” dialogue with myself (which can take another two weeks easily). So, the bug spray defininitely needs to go to BOTH of these voices: “you’re a lazy slacker” as well as “well, let me just give up then.”
2. Progress on my goals from the week before last (continued into last week):
a. attend important meeting on Mon DONE
b. read 1 more MA thesis (on Sun) DONE (but took much longer)
c. read 3 HA-related articles this week DONE over course of 2 weeks
d. take some excercise each day, not just sitting at home NO< but started yesterday
3. Analysis: since my goals were so modest (Note: No actual writing!) and they ended up being spread out over two weeks, I actually mostly met them—but that doesn’t make me very happy, because the real TLQ that is the biggest SHOULD in my life, and around which I have lots of bagage and need lots of bug spray (so, writing) wasn’t on my list. I can do most to-do’s as long as they don’t have writing goals on them.
4. Planning: I’m single-parenting the coming weeks, so I won’t have much time besides the household and child care duties. I’ll also need to spend some more time unpacking, cleaning, and organizing—and of course, reconnecting with friends in this place. So, it will be another week of modest goals, and no actual writing except free writing.
5. Goals:
a. Read 1 more MA thesis for final grade
b. Read 5 HA-related articles
c. Freewrite about the article for 15 mins/day
d. Do some form of excercise each day (taking kids to park will count, too)
e. Start gratitude journal
Wishing you all a great week!
That inner dialogue sounds all too familiar! and free-writing (even writing about why one is finding it difficult to write, which I think is a trick I picked up from JaneB) sounds like a good way to work your way out of it. I think one of the things we have to figure out is how long it realistically takes us to get back into writing after a semester, or a disruption (and it sounds like you deal with a good deal of, and regular, disruption, given your bi-continental lifestyle). I wonder whether the gratitude journal (or somewhere else) might also have a page for notes on what helped you to get back in a writing routine, and how long it took, and such, so that you at least have some new points to add to the dialogue ("well, it usually takes me about 2 weeks to settle in and really be able to get down to substantive work, but in the meantime I can usually [insert anything even mildly productive/getting-back-into-work or eliminating-obstacles -related here]"
DeleteTopic: For real crises all things need to move aside as needed. Sometimes I find keeping a few TLQ things going is helpful to feel "normal", other times just not.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1) Negotiate return of hostage paper with ex-supervisor via phone call. DONE
2) Start writing field report immediately so it is still fresh. (DO NOT postpone this!) STARTED
3) Send revised paper to friendly editor for advice. YES, got great advice :)
4) Get caught up with all three student projects. TWO out of THREE
5) Restart reading project, YAY! DONE (binge-reading on Friday totally counts!)
This week's goals:
1) Field report
2) Revise Discussion and Methods for neglected paper that has been languishing on back-burner
3) Reading project
4) Run outside 4 times this week
I did the awkward ex-supervisor conversation by email instead, chickened out of phone call. It may have had the desired results, apparently this week she is working on them (Really? This week you have time? For the first time in 2 years? Really???). I'll believe it when I see them in my inbox. But... adding that editor of target journal has encouraged a submission for one of them may have had some effect. We'll see, not getting excited yet...
Well let's hope she DOES find time... appendages duly crossed! And binge-reading definitely counts, especially if it was actually fun!
DeleteWell, at least you've opened the dialogue, and she's made a date-specific promise, and you can now follow up on that. As someone who sometimes lets things I know are important go far too long until something comes along to make them urgent I'm somewhat sympathetic (but only somewhat so, since I'm usually pretty good -- maybe, as we've discussed, too good -- at prioritizing things that affect other people). Anyway, I hope she does find/make time, and come through, since this sounds like one of those things that take more energy than they should because of people issues. Having the editor to invoke (i.e. outside pressure on you, that you're just passing on) sounds handy.
DeleteSounds like good progress on other fronts, too. Sometimes the getting-to-the-point-of-beginning part is the hardest (slow and steady is all very well, and perhaps ideal, but, realistically, for many of us, many things seem to get done in binges, which perhaps might more positively be described as moments of uni-tasking/focusing).
goals for last whatever:
ReplyDelete1) 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! Did that one day...
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... got them back, prepared them for submission, submitted them
achieved: I did the final faffing and submitted Crunchier and his Little Brother! Repeater, which we submitted back in May, came back with 'major revisions, revise and resubmit' but with pretty intelligent comments (PDF is cross with one of the reviewers for not reading what we actually wrote, I am more zen about it and think that it's a good sign that we weren't clear enough). Everything went well in the first part of the week. Then I went to the gym after work Wednesday, feeling all virtuous, slightly overdid it, hurt my knee, and then had a slump which lasted until this morning. Grrrrr! WHY can I not find equilibrium? The knee is probably nothing serious, I can walk on it perfectly well, but it's niggling, and having had ligament problems in that knee and ankle, and it being the leg with the wierd hip anyway, I've been babying it (and not been back to the gym, which is probably dumb too. But slumps involve being dumb, right?).
All I've done since is some fiddling towards presentations for a conference at the end of the month, and to make final and concrete the decision not to attend this conference. I want to spend some time at the actual conference, but realistically, it's a double-digit flight time to a super-hot and humid place, I am super super good at picking up bugs on planes, lots of the people I most want to meet up with aren't going this time (due to cost etc.), and also I clearly wasn't really intending to go as none of my travel and accomodation bookings were finalised and I still haven't renewed my passport (because I can't find my expired one. And because I have spent far too much of the last 6-12 months doing the bare, bare minimum of personal maintenance). So, anyway, I withdrew/arranged for someone else to give my talk (which I now have to write, sigh).
planning: this is a bitty week, even without being "mardy" - graduation parties which I want to attend, a compulsory training session on something to do with risk and legal duties (::pout::), needing to be 'around' to have input into the move of one of the lab spaces (which still isn't scheduled. Though I just heard that it's probably going to be on the day when neither the party nor the risk thing are. Lovely). I need to get that talk written enough to at least get input from the person who will give it, want to make some progress on another paper to a point where I can see if it's enough as it is or I should keep going and add more to it, talk to some people... and I don't want to do anything, that would be good too. or clean the house (for about ten minutes until my knee sulks or I break something or the dust sets off my hayfever or I find a book that wants to be read or some other reason to continue being idle). And I want to plan for a really good entry to the following four weeks, when I will NOT BE ON CAMPUS AT ALL. I am going to aim to have a 'proper summer' rhythm - coming into the office throws me off in about 60 different ways - with a small few hours of high quality reading/writing/thinking time, a substantial but not too onerous daily chunk of decluttering/environment fixing/passport hunting/domestic chore doing (e.g. heating system service, cat innoculations, car service and inspection, chimney sweeping, bank appointments, all that sort of stuff), near-daily exercise with or without the gym, a chunk of creative/fun time, all pretty unstructured but keeping up a structured sleeping pattern and hopefully doing more cooking from scratch/salad-compiling. So not exactly vacay (although I have already planned an overnight visit for "movie night" with my niece, and depending on the weather hope to get to a beach and a nature reserve or two in the later part of the break), but more like 'living my ideal working life'. Actual holiday - which needs booking - is happening in September to mark the end of the sabbatical (such as it has been), when my cat is booked into the cattery for two weeks. The time begins with a new-to-me conference in a more northern city I enjoy and know but haven't visited for ages, where I have friends I haven't seen for ten years and have splurged a little on a room in a cute boutique hotel rather than the cheapest chain place, on a topic which is more fun than work for nerdy me (apart from the session I am speaking in, which is on the fun arm-waving side of my work anyway). The vague plan is then to spend the rest of the time wandering my way south (maybe with an initial detour north and west for some proper dramatic rocky coastal scenary, driving no more than 2-3 hours a day - conscience says I should get south enough to visit the parents for a couple of days towards the end of the time, preference says they chose to live somewhere flat and I feel in need of staying in the hilly spine of the country, but we'll see. Hmmm, maybe I could rent a self-catering place on the southerly edge of the hills, or find a nice hotel, a couple of hours drive away from them, and persuade them to drive over and stay with me, a bit of a holiday for them too?
Deletegoals for the remainder of this week:
Delete1. get the poster finished and the talk cancelled for cancelled conference.
2. go back to the gym twice and Bugge Spray the 'you should do more!' voice firmly when it tries to make you do more than you plan - regularity is more important than the overall amount of exercise this week.
3. survive the various parties and trainings and being in the offices. Do not lean too heavily on chocolate or succumb to too many fatty-but-delicious university catering snacks, and follow GEWs example and don't talk too much!
4. look at Smart Paper and rough out the results section; don't fret about whether it needs more info yet.
5. write a blog post for Shared Professional Blog about the very very late paper that finally came out (25 years after the samples were collected...)
6. Bed before midnight without electronics!
That'll do.
Sorry this got so long... if I'd had more time I'd've written less, etc.
Sounds like some excellent progress, on getting things done (hurray for submissions!) and on deciding what *not* to do (that conference definitely sounds missable, for a variety of reasons, not least that attending it might well undermine more important adjacent or semi-adjacent activities, especially the more pleasurable conference/ vacation trip, which sounds lovely, and well worth saving up available time and energy for. For whatever it's worth, given that it signals the end of a not-always-satisfactory study leave, and prepares you for re-entry into what will undoubtedly be a very busy, and sometimes infuriating, fall term, I think you ought to do exactly what you will most enjoy/find relaxing. Inviting your parents to join you for part of the time sounds like a nice compromise between ignoring filial obligations and letting them usurp part of your vacation/recovery/preparation time).
DeleteHope things go well at the gym. It is, indeed, hard to stop when things seem to be going well -- and then one realizes a few hours later, or the next morning, that "well" was actually "too much." That probably is an area where slow-and-steady is best.
Hope the entry into Smart Paper goes well, too. It sounds like you're making good use of momentum (both starting on the new paper and getting one more short semi-publication out of what I assume is the Crunchier saga, which sounds like quite a saga).
Hi TLQ group. I am just bopping in to say---I am almost done!!!!! Manuscript int he final throes of figure wrestling! That is my only check in for now!
ReplyDeleteSounds like progress! Hurrah!
Delete