Many of use are making goals that aim to create new habits - or break old ones. Habits can be incredibly useful tool for removing decision making from our actions: so habits can be helpful if you are trying to do something you know you should fo/it will be good for you but you have low motivation for doing, or where you spend so much mental energy on excuses, procrastination or anxiety that there is little headspace left for the task. There is a lot of writing on habits, and plenty of advice out there, but paying attention to what works for you in building or breaking habits can hep you to figure out how to try and include the habits you want in your life. So for this week's topic: what are your approaches to making and breaking habits?
AcademicAmstr
1) write 2x
2) work on class prep for 2 hours
3) read draft for AD
4) check in on time!!!
Allan Wilson (aw)
see check-in at the end of week 2 comments.
Week 3 goals:
1) Exercise at least 4x
2) Not work on holiday
3) Do a bit on JL paper, with the aim of having it fully revised by the following week.
Contingent Cassandra
1) get back on sustainable sleeping/eating schedule, and begin adding in
regular exercise (especially walking, since the next month or so will
bring some of the best outdoor-exercise weather available in our
climate)
2) continue progress on household/financial tasks
3)
planning for rest of semester (including scheduling of prep for school
and church classes and figuring out where to fit in conference prep and
possible work on DH article)
Daisy (away this week, but for the record)
Two weeks worth of goals:
1) Revise and submit 2 old papers that are almost ready...
2) Write data sections for two collaborations and send off
3) Start grant application
Earnest English
-stop munching after 11pm
-engage in stress-relieving at home
-prep and get syllabi to printing by end of the week
-roll back sleep slowly until I'm waking up at 6am without undue pain
-make some headway on the boxes in the home office
-plant elderberry
-make serious plan for the article that is due in two weeks and get major headway made
-get caught up, somehow, on overwhelming service responsibilities
-collect and assess Big Project work
-figure out Absurdist Child's birthday
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Next week’s goals: Write for 5 minutes 5x.
Walk for 20 minutes at midmorning 5x.
Do not eat lunch at my desk, but in a peaceful environment.
Good Enough Woman
1) Exercise 5 times (walking, swimming, or yoga).
2) Take 5-10 minute activity breaks every 90 minutes.
3) Read 8-10 articles/chapters.
4) Write 1000 words.
5)
Make reservation for solitary November writing retreat. (Oh, how I wish
it could be in an English cottage, but I will settle for a cabin in the
redwoods.)
humming42
1. Read remaining chapters for book review 2.
2. Work on IRB paperwork for co-authored project.
3. Do some research for October presentation.
JaneB
1) get the second lot of minor revisions done and off to co-authors
2)
spend half an hour looking at the grant I should be working on and make
a chore list for it (so making it easier to actually start)
3) Focus
on eating healthy snacks, with enjoyment, and adding an extra portion
of veg or fruit to every meal even if the meal itself is less than ideal
(cheese and apple sandwiches are just as indulgent as cheese
sandwiches, right?). Continue setting and reacting to computer
off/pottering time/bed time alarms to structure the evening.
karen
1. 15 minutes writing on P1 every work day to be done in the office.
2. Hard no screens after 11.30 rule, aim for earlier.
3.
Food to be eaten (as far as practical when dealing with children)
seated at table or peaceful place (thanks Elizabeth) ie, not standing in
the kitchen, not at desk.
KJHaxton
1. finish scary project research tool and collect the first sets of data
2. finish house project research tool and collect the first sets of data
3. buy craft supplies.
Matilda
1) Prepare for an article related to my book draft.
2) Re-read Chapter 1 and make a revision plan, again.
3) Do three minute-exercise three times a day.
4) Write for 15 minutes on the article everyday.
Maude
My goal is at least 30 minutes of writing a day for the rest of the
week. It'd be nice to get 500-750 words a day out of that because by
Sunday that will give me lots of stuff to work with on top of the
conference paper part of this I already have.
Mercy
a. prep, but not overprep those lectures
b. finish the grading & do accompanying documentation
c. 5 mins on HA paper on 4 days/week
d. kid goal: beach
e. no email at night, to bed on time, walk during day, eat lunch in peaceful place
metheist
1) Edit 15 pages of Behemoth
2) review part of one book
3) cook 3xwk
Susan
1. Write almost overdue book review (and read book first, natch!) (this is really TRQ, but . . .)
2. Print out copy of book ms, and read from beginning to end so that I can revise conclusion and streamline argument
3. Do more work on planning major lecture course for spring, choosing readings.
4. Do gym thing. Don't procrastinate!
5. Use iPad only before bed, then move it away so that I get up when I wake up. That will help my exercise plan.
I have survived week 1 of the semester. It was a tough week in places - was doing a lot of prep in evenings which is not a habit I want to establish. So, from this week, I hope to focus on setting good habits. I generally need a good reason to establish a habit - in this case, if I'm working on evenings or weekends, there must be more benefit to TLQ stuff. So, no marking or sorting out lectures. Just the research type stuff. Once I've got a good reason, I just need to do it and not get too despondent when I can't do it for a specific reason.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it is easier to modulate a habit than to break it - smoking cessation studies sometimes show that it's the culture around smoking (going outside, talking to fellow smokers) that can lead to relapse which is why products that replace the actual procedure of smoking are fairly popular. So instead of saying I wont work in evenings, I try to do tasks that bring greater benefit to me personally. Instead of trying to quit playing silly games on my iPad, I installed an app to scan journal articles - the activity on the iPad and the timeslot in my life is the same but I get more out of it.
Last week's goals:
1. finish scary project research tool and collect the first sets of data - done
2. finish house project research tool and collect the first sets of data - done
3. buy craft supplies - partially complete.
I've got my first scary project data set and am ready to send out the tool to collect more next week. I've got the first full set of house project data and have been coding that today. I've bought some new geeky fabric to replace the stuff I've used to create 19 items this week (as prizes for my students or gifts) and am heading out this afternoon to hunt for a few more things. It was a hectic week but 1 and 2 were essentially TRQ by Tuesday so that made prioritising them easier, sadly.
This week's goals:
1. finalise plan for collecting more scary project data and send out the necessary stuff.
2. finish the preliminary coding of house project dataset 1 and anonymise the submissions for the next stage. Send summary to colleagues.
3. read through report on project (acronym paper) ready to meet with person to discuss finishing the report.
3. is a pretty big 'new goal' for the period that popped up a few days ago. I thought it was no longer possible to do the report, hence focussing on the publications but I was wrong so I need to deal with that. Otherwise, I have to do a small planetary mass worth of teaching prep so some balance between that and TLQ stuff will be good to find.
Well done on surviving week 1 - It sounds like despite the masses of teaching prep you are making good progress with TLQ, so I hope ou are ale to keep up the momentum with it.
DeleteI really like the idea of modifying behavior rather than changing it. That's useful...
DeleteIs the app one that would work for all disciplines? I might want something like that!
DeleteI, too, like the idea of modifying habits to more closely align with goals rather than starting from scratch. And I think our library offers a similar app (we got an email a while ago, which I'm sure I saved; I should look it up, since I'm not good at keeping up with the literature in any of my several fields, and at least scanning tables of contents regularly and reading an article now and then is within the realm of things I could actually do).
DeleteGood Enough Woman - I have journal RSS feeds on my iPad, no fancy app I'm afraid. I usually play on the iPad in the early morning before my husband wakes up - I don't turn the light on so the back lit screen and silent typing/swiping works well.
DeleteI should probably consider a separate app for my RSS journal feeds as currently its muddled in with all my fun blog reading.
I am a person who falls into habits easily (3 times and its traditional!) but mostly in incorporating habits I do so when I link them to something that I already do regularly - so linking physio exercises as the next step before my regular evening shower worked best for maintaining those. Having external accountability is good, and generally doing a bit of treating myself like a toddler by manipulating the environment or choice architecture in advance so I don't really have a choice is another trick.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
Was pretty busy, with husband flying out early in the week and my parents arriving later in the week - with the magnificent culmination on Friday of the announcement that we need to pretty much write our new course structure by December.
1. 15 minutes writing on P1 every work day to be done in the office.
Halfway - 2 days out for four, and one of the missed days I was teaching for the entire time.
2. Hard no screens after 11.30 rule, aim for earlier.
Held with maybe a 10 minute fudge factor. Am keeping this to try and make it a habit - I want to stop non-productive noodling around on the internet thinking I should be working but actually not and just getting tireder.
3. Food to be eaten (as far as practical when dealing with children) seated at table or peaceful place (thanks Elizabeth) ie, not standing in the kitchen, not at desk.
Improving - and the peaceful place commitment go me a lovely sit in the sunshine one day.
Next week:
Aside from the mountain of marking...
1. Maintain good habits - hard 11.30 screen shutdown, eating at table or in peaceful place, 15 minutes each day writing on P1.
2. Book Christmas travel once husband is back to discuss.
3. Read P1 relevant book and take notes.
Hurrah for the lovely sit in the sunshine -- always a good thing, and available in many climes at around this time of year.
DeleteI, too, need to work on a no screens cutoff/bedtime routine (talk about toddler training routines).
1. Habits: I'm finding it a bit hard to establish new habits at this time in my life when I'm moving places quite frequently and when the kids are so young that the things that work for them change pretty dramatically every 6 months or so, too. Still, I've had some success with establishing better routines at work. For me, workrave on my computer has been great, b/c it reminds me when I've been working on the computer for 45 minutes straight, which then is my cue to get up and wander around a bit, preferably outside. I've also gotten better at not checking email so frequently, by not automatically turning on the email program when I turn on my computer at work. No email at night has also been easier to get used to because I've translated it to "no computer time at night"--it was too automatic to check email when I was on my computer (and like others have said, it wasn't that I was so productive at night doing class prep or some such--lots of web serving too; plus, do I really need the extra prep time at night?) I'm not sure what the magic trick is here that allowed me to get into these new habits in the past few weeks. One thing is for sure, the same method has not worked for getting regular writing into my schedule. I guess the big difference is that it's easier for me to NOT do things--email, internet serving, typing endlessly on my computer without a break, eating at my desk--that I don't really want to do, come to think about it. So just a little more mindfulness prevents me from doing these things too much. It's different altogether with writing, which I don't really want to do at all, b/c it's scary and difficult. And b/c all my writing is TLQ, and I "should" do it, but don't really "have to or else". . . well, as much as I try to make time for it, or promise myself I'll only do it for a little while . . . more often than not, I still don't do it. It's an uphill battle!
ReplyDelete2. Last week's goals and accomplishments:
a. prep, but not overprep those lectures --> okay: spent too much time in first half of the week, but less in the 2nd part (and those 2nd half lectures went better, too!)
b. finish the grading & do accompanying documentation --> grading all done, documentation not yet
c. 5 mins on HA paper on 4 days/week --> nope, NOTHING (see what I mean?)
d. kid goal: beach --> yes, gorgeous weather, too!
e. no email at night, to bed on time, walk during day, eat lunch in peaceful place --> going well
3. Analysis. Most things went fairly well, except for writing time. I know it is absurd that one isn't able to fit in a measly FIVE minutes for writing each day. But I so don't want to do it, and it's been so long since I've seen this paper, and I have no idea what to write, and I think my material is all just stupid. . . all of that makes it hard to sit down and "just do it." Some might think I just don't "want it enough" to do it, and they could well be right: I definitely don't want to write--and my job is very ambiguous about it being actually required or no, as long as my teaching and service are fine. The one weird thing is that I used to LIKE writing when I was writing the diss, so that's what accounts for me continuing to get back to writing as "something I do."
Delete4. Planning for upcoming week: I'm getting 100 essays on Tuesday, so I'll have a lot of grading (not planning to get it all done in one week, obviously, but I want to stay on top of it). I also have a few ap-pointments with colleagues visiting from other places, and a not-so-great batch of lectures from last year, so it will be a bit of a squeeze to fit it all in. AND I want to continue to try and make time for those 5 mins of writing on HA paper each day, by whatever method I can get myself to follow through.
5. Goals:
a. prep lectures, but don't overdo it
b. write & send off grading rubric for essays
c. meet w/colleagues
d. TRY AGAIN: 5 mins on HA paper, 4 days
e. walk daily, lunch in pleasant environment, no email/computer at night, go to bed on time
I would think that if I were approaching a paper I had decided was no good etc. it would be very hard to do five minutes: I'd need an hour or so to just read it and plan how to make it better. So maybe it makes more sense not to try five minutes a day, but to find a stretch of time that allows you to get into it. THEN the five minutes can be productive in the "in this place I need to shift and talk about X from the lit" or "I need to explain this/cut that/ etc". Anyway, just a thought. I don't do well with five minutes, so. . .
DeleteI find when writing anxiety and project anxiety combine it is incredibly difficult for me to get started - would you consider tryign freewriting? Or like Syusan suggests, having some more directed starting points can be useful. Rowena Murray's How To Write a Thesis has lots of prompts for writing that I find apply to any research project,
DeleteI was going to say something similar to Susan. Maybe since you are dreading it so much, thinking about doing it 4x in a week is just "Bleck!" Maybe one day for 20 minutes? Re-reading the paper? Or if you do 5 minutes, the free writing idea is good.
DeleteCongrats on the goals!
I, too, am not good at 5-minute (or even 15- or 30-minute) writing blocks, though I know some swear by them. 45 minutes is probably my minimum for a session that isn't more frustrating than it is productive, and having at least 1-2 hours available (though perhaps not always fully used if there's a chance to "park on the downslope") is better. On the other hand, telling oneself that one only *has* to write for 5 minutes (or maybe 15? 5 seems really short) if it's going badly, but allowing a bit more time in case the ball gets rolling, seems like a possibly-useful approach. But I really think productive writing patterns vary from person to person (and perhaps writing project/stage of life as well), and the main thing is for a writer to figure out what works for hir, and not be intimidated by those who insist that they've found the one true grail of writing success, and everybody else must embrace it.
DeleteJaneB had a really good post a while ago (whether here or at her personal blog a while ago I can't remember; I think it's probably over at what-was-i-doing.blogspot.com, but I can't figure out the search terms to find it) about writing one's way back into a project that seems disastrous by writing about everything that's wrong with it, why one can't write it, etc., etc., until clear problems, and then possible solutions, being to emerge. Maybe she'll see this comment and post a link; all I remember was it seemed like a very clever solution to the problem of an anxiety-producing draft (and one which seems obvious in some ways, but I'd never considered it).
I wrote a long thing about habits and blogger ate it (my own fault, I wasn't logged in, and if you try to log in in order to post a comment, the system wipes the comment box...). basically, I am not good at habits, neither creating them nor keeping them - I very easily feel trapped by them rather than coccooned. Hoping to learn! I definitely do the 'toddler training' tricks as much as possible! "apple or banana?" rather than "what do you want to eat?"
ReplyDeletegoals: 1) get the second lot of minor revisions done and off to co-authors yes
2) spend half an hour looking at the grant I should be working on and make a chore list for it (so making it easier to actually start) yes, plus an hour setting up the university required annoying budgeting system. Progress!
3) Focus on eating healthy snacks, with enjoyment, and adding an extra portion of veg or fruit to every meal even if the meal itself is less than ideal (cheese and apple sandwiches are just as indulgent as cheese sandwiches, right?). Continue setting and reacting to computer off/pottering time/bed time alarms to structure the evening. set alarms, did not always respond to them appropriately. I am really stressed at the moemnt and it takes me a long time to wind down of an evening - plus I don't usually want to go to bed because that means morning, and more work stuff, will be there sooner - kind of the inverse of the Christmas Eve effect! Not turning on a computer in the evening helps, BUT missing those small things, like an hour cleaning the inbox or dealing with not-urgent emails or sorting out the VLE or even grading half a dozen pieces turns into either MORE stress later on or having to work a full day at the weekend, which I am trying not to do. And no, I can't get up earlier and do it then - literally, can't. Stupid depression and medications have stolen my early morning mojo. And give me brain fog - things take 3x as long to do in the morning as in the evening. Which is why I requested adjusted teaching hours this year, which Incoming ASSURED me would happen, but guess what? They haven't. On the food front - gah. Struggling. It was one heck of a week of awfulness and frustration and I fell back on 'walking to the chocolate machine in the next building' as an escape/vent at least 4 times... and never made it to the gym, I was just DONE with being around people by the end of the day, and usually in pain from my sinuses (building work dust is horrible) or a lurking migrainous headache (which never actually emerged full-blown, thus making me go home/to bed, just dragged at my heels), and the noise and lights of the gym seemed a painful prospect.
analysis this was always going to be a tough week. It was worse than anticipated. We've never had such a hard start to the semester as this one. It was really brought home when a colleague who's spent the summer rushing between her much-loved elderly aunt's bedside (as the only living relative in the country) and her family responsibilities (teenagers, large dogs, emergency house repairs, partner - at least he's mostly a help not a drag) and who thereby missed on compassionate grounds most of the chaos of the last month or so, came in on Friday fresh from the funeral to meet project students and looked the most rested and happy of all my colleagues at the meet and greet social that lunch time. It's unsustainable, undoable, unbearable... and probably the new normal. Humans are adaptable, right??
Deletegoals for next week: 1) be nice to JaneB. Go to the gym at least twice. Pack a lunch. Spend time in daylight. Do just enough. Your goal is to get to December 18th with all classes taught, talks given, conferences attended. Not some done really well then others cancelled due to sick leave. So... enough. OK?
2) spend 1 hour on the grant text, make an appointment/send an email to Incoming about getting permission to submit it (new system. More patronising de-professionalism. Yes, I know, there are many positives and good reasons. But it FEELS insulting, and right now feels are what I have room for. I can't write a grant, work on papers, teach, do my administrative role AND rationalise the edicts sent down from above, rationalising or processing the emotional response takes a LOT of energy that I don't have to spare. I'd rather use it on running away to NaNoLand if I possibly can...).
3) deal with responses from co-authors and resubmit the revised papers, if at all possible...
4) write a couple of paragraphs for International Working Group Thing.
Two things are true at once here: it does absolutely suck to be working in a system that seems to be becoming toxic by design, to work in an immediate environment that does not do the bare minimum of meeting minimum requirements for supporting the needs arising from your disability let alone going to the level expectable from reasonable humans of taking care of each other AND in the face of all that stress you made really good progress on your goals.
DeleteLots of thoughts here that might go into the next post. But, in the meantime, apple and cheese sandwiches? Do the apples not make the bread soggy?
DeleteI like the idea of adding a bit of fruit or veg even to less-healthy meals (and I'm pretty sure that many nutritionists agree that this can be a more effective approach to healthier eating than trying to cut things out -- well, at least unless one is the sort of person who derives satisfaction from cutting things out; I suspect such people exist, though I definitely am not one of them).
DeleteIt does sound like the situation is unquestionably, verifiably bad (the lack of schedules/failure to follow through on scheduling promises, especially those which are officially accommodations would drive me batty), and like you're managing to be quite productive regardless.
And given all of the above, and just on general principles, I really like this goal: Do just enough. Your goal is to get to December 18th with all classes taught, talks given, conferences attended. Not some done really well then others cancelled due to sick leave. So... enough. OK?
Check-In on Last Week's Goals
ReplyDelete-stop munching after 11pm: better, not great, but better
-engage in stress-relieving at home: somewhat -- am getting better
-prep and get syllabi to printing by end of the week: got everything to printing and up on Blackboard (to a seriously never-before seen standard) this afternoon.
-roll back sleep slowly until I'm waking up at 6am without undue pain: fits and starts here; I had a day of 5am insomnia and a single day I let myself sleep in until 8:30. Progress, not perfection.
-make some headway on the boxes in the home office: some, yes
-plant elderberry: yes
-make serious plan for the article that is due in two weeks and get major headway made: I made a plan but did not follow it when I realized that working on it was keeping me from focusing on syllabi
-get caught up, somehow, on overwhelming service responsibilities: uh, not really, got one thing scheduled but there's much more to do
-collect and assess Big Project work: no
-figure out Absurdist Child's birthday: yes, almost completely: I'm rockin'
Analysis
-The thing that sometimes motivates me to get something done is the stress I feel thinking about it and not doing it. This stress also drains my energy. Modulating emotions and getting things done without really worrying about it is really important.
-I got lots done in some ways, but it was a transition week really. Now it begins.
Habits? I feel like I'm always trying to press forward with a new habit, something I should give up or do. Making habits is exhausting. It takes a lot of energy, all that rushing forward with your shoulders squared to move through anything. Instead I'm trying to move like water. The only way to make it to December is to see a wall, go around. And lots of healthy supports too. That's the habit I'm trying to cultivate -- the habit of doing healthy things, whether it's exercise, or having a tea, or taking a bath. I am hoping to keep myself proactive and stress-relieving as I'm having really painful and annoying sciatica and I'm going to have a very challenging quarter.
This Week's Goals
-GET ENOUGH SLEEP!! (sorry, but I'm really really dreadfully stupid about this one. I have some thing in me that wants to stay up and have me time, dammit, me me!)
-Eat decent food at regular intervals. Plan ahead.
-Stop periodically. Check in. Take a breath. Take another breath.
-Do pilates twice this week.
-Use the relative lull of the early part of this week to pump out that article!
-15 minutes of writing a day is still writing
-Have a book at the ready for moments away
-Chip away at service pile
-Make sure to do the online class with Absurdist Child early in the week and watch Wednesday Nature program.
-Be calm. Nothing is worth killing yourself over.
I like how your goal list for this week is small chunks and a lot of midfulness - sounds like a useful mix to me!
DeleteI do the late night thing, too. Every is asleep and the house is all mine.
Delete"Trying to move like water." I like that.
When living with others, I do the late-night (or, more often, early-morning) thing, too. Anything for a bit of time when one can hear oneself think. Walking alone can also serve that purpose, if conditions allow; don't know whether that's a solution.
DeleteAnd I'm very sure that my grandmother's supposed insomnia had similar origins (though a degree of worry probably played a role, too; but, even more than that, she couldn't admit out loud that she wanted/needed time to herself. I suppose it's a small bit of progress that we can at least say it, whether or not we actually get the time in a healthy/productive way).
So, habits. I'm not good at doing these intentionally, though I'm in the middle of trying. I liked KJHaxton's thought about modulating habits rather than changing them - once they are habits they meet some need of ours, even if we (rationally) think it is stupid. My current habit change (see below) is an attempt to substitute: so not doing the iPad in the morning is also about going to exercise. And I think I might manage this, slowly but surely.
ReplyDeleteGoals from Last Week:
1. Write almost overdue book review (and read book first, natch!) (this is really TRQ, but . . .) DRAFTED
2. Print out copy of book ms, and read from beginning to end so that I can revise conclusion and streamline argument PRINTED, STARTED READ
3. Do more work on planning major lecture course for spring, choosing readings. I'M PRETTY CLEAR ON READINGS, BUT NOT MUCH ELSE
4. Do gym thing. Don't procrastinate! YES! AND WENT TWICE
5. Use iPad only before bed, then move it away so that I get up when I wake up. That will help my exercise plan. THREE DAYS GOOD.
Analysis: Well, I'm on a big committee to plan one of the "strategic pillars" which had a meeting with our provost this week, and that was stressful, This strategic process is his baby, and it's a big mess, and we've tried to make it work; but he's focused on one particular aspect of the plan rather than the plan being successful. Then on Friday he (without telling the committee) sent an email to the whole group that he did not approve our plan, even though we left the meeting telling him we would meet and see if we could adapt our plan in ways that he would approve. And we hadn't done it. That was pretty stressful, and pretty much killed the afternoon -- and this morning I opened my iPad and saw one of the Friday emails and thought I had another message from him, and I've spent at least three hours thinking about how I might respond -- and it turns out I don't have to.
Also, I discovered I was the victim of attempted identity theft on Friday, so spent half the day on that. It was NOT a great day.
These two things really slowed me down on writing and reading. Because I was perseverating about the service situation.
On the other hand, I signed up for the gym. One reason I chose this gym is that two women I know and like meet there three days a week at 6 AM. And I think, seeing them is an incentive to go. So, that's started. It's getting me up earlier, and I think will help my work patterns too -- less time fussing around on fb etc.
On the other hand, the days I wasn't going to the gym I was less successful with hiding the iPad. Especially this morning, when I'd had an interrupted night, worrying about the service bs.
Goals for next week.
1. Final read and send off review
2. Book tickets for December trip to UK
3. Write short proposal for art exhibit
4. FInish reading MS, and make revisions.
5. Outline syllabus for next semester
I have to be on campus four days this week, though mostly for meetings, and I'll just come and go. I'm trying to not just hang out.
It sounds like the iPad moving/seeing people approach is helping the gym habit to get off the ground well.
DeleteProvosts and their plans (and their jargon -- yours has pillars; mine has signature thises and thats). Aargh! And though I don't have service (and thus am able to mostly avoid administrative emails), I know the feeling of perseverating on an email without having opened and/or fully absorbed it, and then realizing it's not as bad as I anticipated (long/repeated chains of emails with difficult or anxious students produce a similar effect for me).
DeleteI like the idea of meeting people you actually want to see at the gym. Especially if there's time for a cup of coffee, or even just a brief chat, that seems like a nice substitute for whatever pleasure the ipad offers.
Making/breaking habits: For breaking habits, my best success is to remove the trigger/disrupt the habit (e.g., if there are no chocolate chips in the cupboard, I can't automatically reach in to have a handful). For making them, I wish I had a better track record. With exercise, it's scheduling time, being accountable to others, and telling myself I have no choice. I hope that can work in other areas too, especially writing, since I'm terribly out of the habit.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1) write 2x--yes-ish. Not very inspiring
2) work on class prep for 2 hours--probably closer to an hour, but I did get a revision of the essay assignment done.
3) read draft for AD--YES!! This has been on my desk for 2 months.
4) check in on time!!!--Here I am!
In some ways I'm still catching up after having been sick. But I'm also overscheduled, trying to fit a bunch of stuff in before I start teaching. I've got another full week without big blocks of time to myself, so I'm going to have to make due and use little chunks of time well.
Goals for the week:
1) nightly check-in (especially to plan eating)
2) write 5x
3) 4 hours on class prep
4) 4x20 minutes decluttering (bedroom, office, or garage)
Nightly check-in. Yes. I need to go back to that habit and, along with it, scheduling the following day.
DeleteShort amounts of time on decluttering can make a big difference - hope that goes well!
DeleteHabits: I don't think I am very good at committing to habits that I don't want to do or that are really difficult to do because of time. That said, some habits (or routines) have really helped me over the past two weeks. I've taking to swimming at the same time on TR, and I walk the dog on WF, and then on M I clean and do chores instead. On the weekend, I try to squeeze in a dog walk or some other activity. These plans have cut out a lot of the day-to-day decision making and planning, and I am LOVING swimming. Plus the pool is outside at the fancy club, and the weather has been beautiful, so it's a reward in itself. And I already feel stronger from the regular exercise. But these are sabbatical habits that will disappear when sabbatical is over. Normally, I feel more like Earnest English.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1) Exercise 5 times (walking, swimming, or yoga).-->YES! Swam twice, walked twice, played in ocean once.
2) Take 5-10 minute activity breaks every 90 minutes. --> Not like clockwork, but I definitely tried to move around from time to time, taking short walks or doing some chores or stretches.
3) Read 8-10 articles/chapters. -->More like 6-7.
4) Write 1000 words.-->NO.
5) Make reservation for solitary November writing retreat. (Oh, how I wish it could be in an English cottage, but I will settle for a cabin in the redwoods.)-->YES! But I decided I couldn't afford the cabin, so I'm going to camp in our Westfalia camper van. Should be interesting.
Goals for this week:
1) Go back to Chapter 1 to make a few changes (even though I thought I was finished with it)
2) Read 5-6 articles/chapters
3) Write 500 words of Chapter 2
4) Write 500 words of Introduction
5) Do volunteer duties for 5th grade carnival
6) Procure costume supplies and help daughter distribute invitations to Halloween party.
A retreat in the camper van does, indeed, sound interesting. If you're saving some money by not renting a cabin, can you spend a bit of the savings on whatever things the camper van might make a bit logistically difficult (e.g. preparing/procuring meals)?
DeleteOne possible upside to the camper van: if you could establish a connection to it as a place of productive writing activity, then you might be able to take shorter writing "retreats" closer to home (even in your driveway, if that's where it usually lives).
Hopefully the weather in November will still let you set up outside the campervan - writing in the natural environment makes it feel extra special.
DeleteCC, the camper van has a little kitchen! Two propane burners and a small sink attached to a small water tank. The little fridge doesn't work, but I can use a cooler, and the campground I'm going to has a little store if I need more ice or something. And, yes, it would be great if I could establish a connection to the van as a work space. Currently, my husband uses the van for grading (at the top of a hill overlooking the ocean) and surfing, so I've never felt a claim to it. I tend to just go to coffee shops.
DeleteKaren, I hope so, too! It's not super isolated, but it is right on the beach. I hope I can at least leave the sliding door open to the world. If it's raining the whole time, things might start to feel a bit cramped.
Topic: Establishing habits/breaking bad habits: This may sound really weird and silly, but I use the same technique I did when my kids were small to get them doing their chores and homework. A check mark for every day that I performed the habit (or avoided doing the one I want to break). There is a small reward for every five checks (sit and read a chapter of a novel, sit quietly with a cup of tea for ten minutes, that sort of thing), and built in bigger rewards for longer periods (That dress I’ve been tracking that is now on sale; the slightly expensive yarn that would make a gorgeous scarf). I think it works partly because I am so visual, but also because small slips are reasonably easy to overcome, but falling off the wagon is readily visible.
ReplyDeleteLast week’s goals: Write for 5 minutes 5x. Yes, and I have five check marks!
Walk for 20 minutes at midmorning. Despite the crazy week, I walked four out of five days.
Do not eat lunch at my desk, but in a peaceful environment. Yes!! On one Indian summer sort of day, DH and I ate outside by the central fountain on campus. The university has refurbished it with new plants and the fountain does different sprays on the half hour and hour. It was very nice. On a chillier day, we splurged and ate at the faculty club.
Analysis: Taking things slow worked well for me. I had a lot of little crises pop up this past week, so planning had to be abandoned, but these little things could still fit into the madness.
Next week’s goals: Write for 7 minutes 5x.
Walk for 20 minutes at midmorning 5x, and add 20 minutes in the afternoon 2x
Organize my next day at the end of the current day 3x.
I like your idea of brief midmorning and midafternoon walks. I read something recently about the value of midmorning breaks in particular to productivity later in the day, and have been thinking about whether I should try walking then. Although I'm most productive in the morning, I tend to prolong the morning work period more than I should, I think, and things tend to go downhill from there.
DeleteI'm never quite able to figure out if I'm a creature of routine/habit or not. I definitely like familiarity of pretty much any kind, and I like the idea of routines/habits in theory, though, like others, I find that trying to stick to them brings out my inner toddler (and as someone who had temper tantrums into her early elementary school years, I have a formidable inner toddler). There are definitely habits/routines, mostly involving walking and other exercise, that have felt very good, and that I've maintained for a while, and would like to recapture. On the other hand, I've got a perfectionist side that had me planning a lot of things far too tightly when I was a young adult, and then getting frustrated when I couldn't follow my own plan perfectly. I've eased up on that a lot -- perhaps too much. It's hard to find a happy medium. Mostly, I need to keep reminding myself that just because one part of plan hasn't worked out, it doesn't mean I can't follow the rest, or readjust. That's especially true when I don't get up as early as I'd like (and I really do like getting up early -- but perhaps mostly during the few early summer months when that means getting up with the sun. I'm not finding getting up in the dark quite as painful this fall as I did last, and having a light alarm definitely helps, but it's clearly less pleasant than waking to natural sunlight at an early hour).
ReplyDeleteLike others, I find habits/routines easier to build when they can piggyback on things I have to do, like driving to and from campus to teach classes. I've several times during my life worked walking into my routine by choosing a trail that's between my home and campus, and stopping by on the way home. That's also how I got a good deal of gardening done last fall, and hope to get some more done in the next month, though the period between the end of classes and sunset is shorter this semester. That's one of the difficulties for academics in establishing routines, I suspect: we just get into a habit, and then the next semester has a different schedule/rhythm. I'm sure that goes double for people with children (and children's activities). Even without children, I'm finding that I rarely have what, at the beginning of the semester, I think of as a "normal week." That makes it hard, though not impossible, to create the sort of weekly master schedule that many time-management books recommend, and that confers the benefit of not having to think about what one will do when that GEW mentions (which strikes me as one of the major benefits of routines). On both a daily and a weekly basis, I suspect I need something more like a standard plan for a routine and a couple of variations to deal with common exceptions (so, if I get up at 5:30/6 on a teaching day, I do x; if I get up at 8, I do y; if I have all of Saturday free, I do q, half free r, and so on). I sort of have that, but it's breaking down in places, mostly around beginnings and endings of days and sleeping/eating schedules on non-teaching days. Or, rather, I have a routine, but it involves getting too little sleep on the nights before I teach, and catching up by sleeping later on non-teaching days, and never really getting into a routine. I'm all for working around what I actually do rather than what I think I should do when possible, but I don't think that's the best solution in this case. I do, however, have a fall break coming up next week, and I just realized that, with my present teaching schedule (which I haven't had in a while), that means a full six days between on-campus days. So maybe that will offer a chance for a schedule reset, and I can start working toward making the best use of that opportunity this week.
So, on to the specifics.
DeleteLast (two) weeks' goals:
1) get back on sustainable sleeping/eating schedule, and begin adding in regular exercise (especially walking, since the next month or so will bring some of the best outdoor-exercise weather available in our climate)
2) continue progress on household/financial tasks
3) planning for rest of semester (including scheduling of prep for school and church classes and figuring out where to fit in conference prep and possible work on DH article)
Achieved:
1) I'm doing better at shopping ahead of time and eating relatively regularly (though I'm not back to cooking as regularly as I'd like, which means that what I'm eating is less healthy); as noted above, I'm not doing very well on establishing a sleep schedule, or a regular exercise routine.
2) Although I never seem to do exactly what I'd planned to do when I plan to do it, I'm making pretty good progress in this area as well. I got one major financial-planning task and a few smaller ones done; took care of the car's annual inspection, registration, etc. (though that's really TRQ); and cleaned out my largest closet, which I've needed to do for some time, and hadn't really scheduled, but ended up doing last Friday (since this is both the place where my clothes live and a walk-through area that leads to the one and only bathroom in the apartment, it's also an improvement I notice multiple times a day). I also replaced the belt in the vacuum, which had needed to happen for some time (and without which vacuuming is considerably less effective). Generally, I seem to be regaining a bit of momentum/sense that I can combat the inertia of objects in my home, and am seeing some clear/clean spaces where chaos had reigned for some time, which feels like progress that will beget further progress.
3) a bit of rough planning for things coming up in the next month or so, but I can't say I have a master plan. I suspect the master plan is going to be trying to do things with deadlines the week or two rather than the day before they're due, and finding a way to build on the early-November conference presentation (by working on related DH web site, drafting an article, or both) once it's over. But I should check some deadlines for possible venues for follow-on articles for the conference presentation, since I might need to act sooner than that.
[I'm publishing in increments both because I'm writing long, and because my internet connection is a bit flaky today]
DeleteGoals for this week:
1) continue shopping/eating at regular intervals, and maybe even cook a bit, or at least shop in preparation for cooking during fall break); continue trying to get into better sleep routine (or at least thinking about/planning for how I can do so over fall break); take at least a walk or two, and plan for more.
2) make additional progress on household/financial tasks (especially financial)
3) check out possible venues/deadlines for follow-up to conference presentation; schedule follow-up
Hello, I am checking in late.
ReplyDelete1. Topic:
Great topic, again! It is very interesting to see how others trying to make or break habits. I myself am very poor at changing things, so poor at making or breaking habits. But when I am trying to, I usually write down what I am going to do on my journal and put a post-it there. There are some post-its in my journal showing the things I should note. I sometimes re-read them and remember ‘Oh, I have decided to get rid of this habit!’. Does this work? Well, sometimes.
2. Last goals:
1) Prepare for an article related to my book draft.- I have started, but not going well, so I sent an e-mail to the organiser of the book asking whether I should/can relinquish from the project. He very kindly replied, no, you can do it. Ok.
2) Re-read Chapter 1 and make a revision plan, again. - I slowly re-read the related materials.
3) Do three minute-exercise three times a day. - Not very bad. It does good to me.
4) Write for 15 minutes on the article every day. - Not so regularly I expected, but I at least sit at my PC and type some keys.
3. Analysis:
My article is on the related subject to my planned book, and definitely I need to work on it. But my book project itself is sometimes intimidating for me - I feel ‘no, I cannot do it, it is beyond my ability’. Therefore I think I subconsciously have been avoiding to face the project, by saying ‘I’m busy today, so I will work on my book tomorrow’. Perhaps I fear when I start and face the reality, I might fail. Maybe I can start from some small steps, reading materials and writing one or two paragraphs…?
4. Planning:
I will start to meet my students intensively on their projects next week, which will take time, reading their papers and meeting individually, though I usually enjoy the procedure, sometimes can be very productive. What I am afraid is that I again may take so much time for the student-meeting, just ignoring my TLQ. I need ‘to create time to write and stick to it’.
5. Next goals:
1) Start to write the article.
2) Re-read Chapter 1 and 2 and make a revision plan, also start writing, at least a little.
3) Do three minute-exercise three times a day.
4) Write for 15 minutes on the article every day.
Have a good week, everyone!
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