Hello, fellow TLQers. A lot of you have been doing a great job with your goals, and all of us have done a good job with some of our goals. But many of us have specific goals that we consistently do not meet. For me, I've had a difficult time doing the writing lately. I keep reading and reading and not writing. I'm also not working as quickly as I want to. Some of that's because of outside interference, but some of it is my own fault.
So I started thinking about incentives. What could I offer myself to really get myself going? This also connects to Amstr's comment about internal/external motivation. Some goals seem to have their own reward (more sleep, for example), but we still avoid them because we're seeking other rewards (e.g., late night "me time") that override the inherent rewards of the goal itself.
So this week, maybe we can think about those stubborn TLQ goals and how we might motivate ourselves just a bit more. I'd like to encourage you to attach a very specific incentive to at least one goal for this week and maybe another one for one of your session goals, too (since we're more than halfway through!). It's difficult for me to identify incentives that are sufficiently motivating but that are also affordable in terms of money and time--and that I won't give myself if I don't actually reach the goal.
For example, I'm thinking that if I submit my chapter draft revision by November 24th (which because of interruptions this week could be very difficult to achieve), I can go to Target and spend $100 dollars (I want almost every sweater in that store right now). Or maybe if I submit an article by December 1, I can go to an afternoon matinee. I don't know. I just know that I need to give myself a kick in the pants or I'm going to have some regrets later down the road. (If you have a date-oriented goal that spans more than one week but not the whole session, you can keep it at the bottom of the goal list for each week so that it will track forward.)
I hope you all have a great week! November is a tough month; it tends to just slip away and dump us into an even faster-moving December. Let's make sure that we don't lose track of our intentions.
If you missed check-in last week, just jump back in!
Amstr
1) TRQ teaching stuff
2) make a list for holiday prep with deadlines
3) exercise 4x; clean bunny hutch 2x
4) nightly check-ins.
aw
1. Finish data entry -NO
2. Draw some graphs related to project ppw -NO
3. Finish the CR draft, which I now feel much more motivated about because I can see an end to it.-NO
Contingent Cassandra
1) do most urgent conference follow-up, and plan additional, including thinking about/investigating whether and where the presentation might become an article (preferably a fairly short but peer-reviewed one)
2) keep to reasonable sleep routine, and try to work in at least some exercise (especially gardening, since the deadline for fall cleanup at the garden plot is looming)
3) cook & freeze some food, and/or stock reasonably healthy pre-made frozen food
4) catch/keep up with most urgent household/financial tasks (I'll return to these with more focus once the garden is put to bed for the winter).
Daisy
1) Data processing for two collaborative projects
2) Run three times (take 2)
3) Read extra new papers and write literature review for new project.
Earnest English
1. Keep up a decent grading pace, which unfortunately includes the stress of telling my family to leave me alone (repeatedly because 7-year olds don't get it).
2. Some kind of relaxation work each day, whether that's escapism (watching shows), working on the relaxation workbook, or tuning in to some kind of creative well-filling activity.
3. 30-minutes daily on Tiny Article. It will get done by Friday. Yes, it will. Even after two sessions, it's much better than it was, so don't stress about this. Don't think about it. Just do it.
4. Magnesium. Take it daily.
5. Do leg lifts and crunches while watching shows at night.
6. Continue to prioritize eating at regular intervals for good energy all day long.
7. Don't expect anything of yourself after long teaching days.
8. Instead of stressing, see what service you can scoot over or enlist help with. (Had a great conversation with a colleague who is sweetly worried about my health who asked why I don't go and get out of one service commitment that is pretty much languishing. She's right.) Don't get involved in big arguments because chest pains suck.
9. Nothing is worth killing yourself over. Move like water. --> recite mantra at will.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Write for 30 minutes 4x to finish some of the blog posts I have simmering.
Walk midmorning 7x, and mid afternoon 5x. I plan to add dog walking to the mix.
File the stuff left over from decluttering my desk for 15 minutes 5x.
Organize my next day 7x. I’m going to try to extend this habit to the weekend.
GEW
1) Outline Chapter 1
2) Add in 30 pages worth of Moleskin notes/quotes to Chapter 3
3) Read at least 5 chapters/articles
4) Find checks or contact bank
5) Keep up with exercise
6) Settle on some course changes so that I can start working on syllabi for next semester (sad face)
humming42
1. Write every day
2. Finish book review
3. Read one chapter or article for book project
4. Catch up on obligations for conference planning
Karen
1. Continue work on conference paper - 2x1hr sessions, 3x15 minute sessions
2. Move grant application along - get rough draft of idea to coherent stage and out for feedback.
3. Spent time outside each day
4. Do something kind for my body each day - stretching, bath, whatever.
JaneB
1) self- care and domestic environment care
2) get the grant dispatched
3) do proofs for the Crunchier papers
4) have a plan for the following week assuming partial voice
Matilda
1) Again, finish the first draft of the article.
2) Do three minute-exercise three times a day.
3) Think of working hard, and taking care of my health at the same time.
metheist
1) Finish the 4 grading projects
2) take the notes I have and apply to revamped intro
3) Go to bed earlier
Susan
1. (Really TRQ, but) Finish the piece for next week's conference
2. Get book order in before deadline
3. Reexamine the prospectus.
4. Keep up with exercise.
I like the idea of very specific rewards for something on the list. The thing that I've been failing at the most consistently is running. So, that will be a good one for a reward.
ReplyDeleteReward plan: If I run three times a week, every week until the week of December 7th, I will go to the fancy running store in the town I will be in for lab work that week, and buy a really nice pair of running shoes. When I was running a lot I never thought twice about fancy shoes, but now that I'm just puttering I feel like they are too much of an indulgence. So, very appropriate reward for a good cause! And I can't do it here, there is no similar store in tiny town, so it has to be done elsewhere.
This was a hard week mentally. Lots of grading, the kind that makes you think you are crazy to try and teach writing in an engineering program (and we're not even talking "writing" writing, just basic factual report-writing...) Oh well, it is almost done, but I find it incredibly draining and depressing. And the whole institution is being told that lay-offs are coming and the finance people are telling us to expect the worst, so morale is just terrible. My response to that is to spend all my accumulated Professional Development money as fast as possible (European conference, yay!) and to get my research grant dispersed among labs for future work in the form of pre-paid lab-time. That way they can't make either of those disappear :)
Last week's goals:
1) Data processing for two collaborative projects ONE DONE, one to go
2) Run three times (take 2) TWICE so better than nothing!
3) Read extra new papers and write literature review for new project. READING done, NO writing.
Next week's goals:
1) Run 3 times
2) Finish data processing
3) Drag out 75% done paper that is languishing in file system and figure out what it needs to be finished.
4) Literature review, at least make some notes...
Have fun picking rewards! It is kind of nice :)
Commiserations on the predictions of impending budget doom. May they turn out not to be as bad as predicted. In the meantime, I like your way of coping; very smart!
DeleteI agree with CC on the commiserations and the preemptive expenditures! This year, the entire faculty of our college received a total of $5000 for professional development (we have about 400 faculty members if you count tenured and adjunct). Granted, we're a two-year college, so we don't have to do research, but we *are* mandated by the state to do professional development. I have a friend at another California two-year college, and at her institution, most faculty members get $1000 per individual per year! This year, I wasn't quick enough with my conference application, and our $5000 pot was gone in about a week. So put that money to good use while you can!
DeleteAnd I'm excited for you about your new fancy shoes incentive! You can do it! You only need to do 3x for three weeks. Nine runs! Just DO IT! :)
Fancy running shoes are such a good idea - motivation to to reach the reward and to keep going after!
DeleteJust commiserations about the budget. People are beginning to take in how slender our budget is, and that it's not getting much better, and yes, it's really bad for morale.
DeleteI'm just not very good at the whole business of motivating myself via promised rewards (and, as far as I can remember, didn't react very well when others tried similar tactics on me when I was younger, so I suppose it's a built in personality quirk, or character flaw, or whatever). I really do much better focusing on rewards intrinsic to the task itself, whether that's satisfaction in a job well (enough) done, or just relief at not having it hanging over my head any more. But I'm sometimes not even very good at doing things I know I (will) enjoy, such as walking. So maybe I'm hard to motivate? I do sometimes feel that inertia is my natural state. Anyway, I'll come back and see whether anybody else's approach to self-motivation sound like it might work for me.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, goals for last week:
1) do most urgent conference follow-up, and plan additional, including thinking about/investigating whether and where the presentation might become an article (preferably a fairly short but peer-reviewed one)
2) keep to reasonable sleep routine, and try to work in at least some exercise (especially gardening, since the deadline for fall cleanup at the garden plot is looming)
3) cook & freeze some food, and/or stock reasonably healthy pre-made frozen food
4) catch/keep up with most urgent household/financial tasks (I'll return to these with more focus once the garden is put to bed for the winter).
1)not much
2)some gardening; uneven sleep; no walking
3)mostly piecemeal shopping for frozen/premade things
4)yes, did the most urgent things
The next few weeks are student-conference weeks, which means a lot more hours on campus than usual; the online professional development class I'm taking is coming to an end,with several tasks I need to complete; and, although the garden is ready for fall inspection, I still need to build a raised bed and get some bulbs back in the ground. So goals are, again, going to need to be very modest.
So, focusing on the stuff most likely to get left behind:
1) work on conference follow-up
2) try to keep to reasonable sleep/eating/exercise if possible routine despite very full days
3)keep up with most urgent household/financial tasks
CC, I have never really used these kind of incentives either, but I decided to try it! Good luck with all of those student conferences. I find them useful but taxing.
DeleteYes, I'm not big on incentives, because my life is relatively spartan anyway, and I don't want much. I'm trying NOT to buy stuff -- clearing out a house does have a way of affecting you!
DeleteI sometimes find incentives work for me, but I usually find that just having accountability from someone else (i.e., a paying job, someone who will send me pesky email, having to check in with an advisor who I think will think I'm a flake if I don't check in, etc. is enough). That said, I'm going to be thinking of a good incentive for my healthful eating--it's been a big struggle and will be even harder during upcoming holidays.
ReplyDeleteThis past week:
1) TRQ teaching stuff--yes--I even got done earlier than I though I would and managed to binge-watch How to Get Away with Murder.
2) make a list for holiday prep with deadlines
3) exercise 4x; clean bunny hutch 2x--yes.
4) nightly check-ins--yes.
I built myself a daily schedule last weekend, and I updated the next day's schedule each night. I actually did stick to my blocks of worktime, managed to estimate my time needed pretty accurately, and had a nice check list to work with. I'm going to keep it up this week.
This week will be a doozy: 90 paragraphs and 24 essays to grade, at least a half-day on campus at my kids' school, three nightly events this week, and we leave Friday for a 4-day holiday trip with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. I'm actually starting the week in really good shape, and after scheduling out the week, I think I may be able to get the bulk of the grading done by Thursday (maybe even Wednesday?) and even have some free time before the trip! It will be a full week, but a manageable one. Worst case, I can save some of the grading until next week.
Goals:
1) TRQ teaching stuff
2) TRQ holiday stuff
3) exercise 3x; clean bunny hutch 2x
4) nightly check-ins.
TV binge sounds like a pretty good reward. I might have to think about that one...
DeleteYour week sounds very busy, indeed, but I'm glad it's feeling manageable and that your scheduling is working so well. And a big congrats on getting teaching TRQ things done ahead of schedule!
I like the idea of scheduling holiday prep. I think I should do that with gift-shopping and wrapping.
I've never been big on self-identified rewards whether they be stickers, prizes, or whatever. But I've been dragging my TRQ heels, so I decided to try something new. On Wednesday morning, I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I lay there thinking about progress and incentives. The most significant thing I realized was this: If I can have the whole dissertation MOSTLY finished by the end of May (so that the summer will be spent mostly polishing and editing rather than drafting), I might have time to set up a "she shed" in the backyard and work on some landscaping. This would be HUGE because I'm guessing that this summer my kids will probably (finally) quit sharing a room (he will be 13, she will be 11). They really like being in the same room, but I think it will be time. And when it's time, I will lose our spare room, which now serves as a study/library/knitting/music room, and I will desperately want a space of my own. If I still have a crushing amount of dissertation work to do, I'm sure I'll just have to box up my stuff or something. But if the workload is less crushing, we can take the time to create a little backyard workspace for me. So that is my ultimate incentive, and it is a powerful one.
ReplyDeleteI'm having a more difficult time coming up with short-term incentives. This is what I'm working on:
Chapter 3 sent to supervisor by Dec 1: I get to spend $150 at Target (most likely on sweaters for me and a few holiday decorations for our house). And I've just decided that if I send it off by Tuesday, Nov. 24th, I get a $75 spending bonus for Target or another store of my choice. I will clear these expenditures with my hubby so that the purchases can be celebratory and GUILT FREE.
Chapter 4 revised by December 18: incentive TBD
Article submitted by January 8: incentive TBD
Last week's goals:
1) Outline Chapter 1--Not really.
2) Add in 30 pages worth of Moleskin notes/quotes to Chapter 3--YES. I went through 40 pages of notes/quotes and typed them into my chapter draft so they can be smoothly integrated later.
3) Read at least 5 chapters/articles--YES, about that.
4) Find checks or contact bank.--NO. Must do this.
5) Keep up with exercise.--YES! Swam 3x. Could have walked more, but still.
6) Settle on some course changes so that I can start working on syllabi for next semester (sad face).--NO.
Analysis: I had some interruptions this week, so I didn't get quite as must work time as I had planned on, but on Friday afternoon, I finally stopped reading and started writing/editing, and it felt GREAT. I think I hit that point with reading where I realized I kind of know what I need to know. Most of what I read now just gives me a different take or a few good quotes--things I can skim for footnotes once the draft is complete. It's like a switch went off in my head, and I was just ready to GET ON WITH IT.
Planning:
This week a couple of work days are cut short because my daughter gets out of school two hours early each day b/c of parent-teacher conferences (no-school November!). But on Friday, I head out for my 4-day writing retreat, so that will be a GREAT way to get a lot finished before the Thanksgiving break.
This week's goals:
1) By Wednesday, insert all notes/quotes into chapter, and get footnote citations in order since I won't be able to take ALL of my books with me on the writing retreat.
2) Exercise 3x, including yoga while binge writing.
3) Make Christmas gift list.
4) Find checks/call bank.
5) Make persimmon bread.
Congrats on hitting the "I'm done with research" moment! Yay!!! May your writing retreat be especially productive!
DeleteWow - it sounds like you are really getting traction with your thesis. Hope the momentum continues this week.
DeleteAnd a writing shed/studio sounds fabulous. There's something about having physical separation that really does help with focusing on work and setting boundaries.
Well, I've got traction with this chapter. And, yes, with the rest of it, too, but there is still MUCH. TO. BE. DONE.
DeleteThat moment of realizing that more research is not going to add much is great. And have a terrific writing retreat!
DeleteMotivation-wise, I tend to fall into the needing external expectations camp or jumping ahead the reward ahead of the task (marking and chocolate is especially bad for this). I'm trying to think of motivations that are linked to the task in a meaningful way, or at least not actively derailing other TLQ goals. I might try doing a variant of pomodoro techniques where if I accomplish designated sections of task I might give myself short bursts of office/home decluttering or garden time. (garden time was a motivation I used when working on my thesis).
ReplyDeleteLast week:
Overall, still quite flattened by recovering from chicken pox. I can feel my energy levels are better now, but I only did one full day at work last week and it exhausted me. At least the curriculum redesign stuff is now beyond my level, and the semester two marking is submitted and done! A reasonably busy weekend as well, with juggling a floor talk (me) and running a concert (husband) and the Gruffalo-themed birthday for the now two year old girl.
1. Continue work on conference paper - 2x1hr sessions, 3x15 minute sessions. Nope.
2. Move grant application along - get rough draft of idea to coherent stage and out for feedback. So nope - and now the deadline is looming and I'm not sure that I'll be able to get it in. Also, all I really want is time - it's hard to make a compelling case for just let me think and read and write, and then I'll come up with neat grant-style projects.
3. Spent time outside each day
Yes.
4. Do something kind for my body each day - stretching, bath, whatever.
Mostly.
This week:
My one week of vague normality (hopefully) before two travel-heavy weeks, but I do need to get the conference paper prepared for that and have some input in the major grant the non-profit group I'm on the board for is putting together. So:
1. Writing conference paper - need a complete draft by the end of Thursday. Linked motivations - declutter time/garden.
2. The gym trial I was thinking of isn't going to work with upcoming travel, so I'm going to try out online yoga videos. If I do 3 sessions a week in the trial period then I will subscribe.
3. Making a complete list of all Christmas presents. This is a kind of reward in itself as I do enjoy Christmas planning,
I hope you are feeling more fully recovered this week so that you can make the most of it before travel.
DeleteIt sounds as if the yoga subscription would be a nice reward for a week of yoga!
Last Week's Goals
ReplyDelete1. Keep up a decent grading pace, which unfortunately includes the stress of telling my family to leave me alone (repeatedly because 7-year olds don't get it). YES, but sometimes "decent" means not pushing myself.
2. Some kind of relaxation work each day, whether that's escapism (watching shows), working on the relaxation workbook, or tuning in to some kind of creative well-filling activity.: YES, to a point. A lot of escapism; not a lot of well-filling or relaxation activities. And not nearly as often as I'd like. I hate going to bed without any me time, but that's what's been happening a lot.
3. 30-minutes daily on Tiny Article. It will get done by Friday. Yes, it will. Even after two sessions, it's much better than it was, so don't stress about this. Don't think about it. Just do it. NOPE: I did not get it done. I asked for an extension and have worked on it in one-hour increments. It's already much improved.
4. Magnesium. Take it daily.: YES
5. Do leg lifts and crunches while watching shows at night. NO
6. Continue to prioritize eating at regular intervals for good energy all day long. YES, most of the time, but department meetings during my only break suck. They do.
7. Don't expect anything of yourself after long teaching days. CHECK!
8. Instead of stressing, see what service you can scoot over or enlist help with. (Had a great conversation with a colleague who is sweetly worried about my health who asked why I don't go and get out of one service commitment that is pretty much languishing. She's right.) Don't get involved in big arguments because chest pains suck. YES. I'm now so stressed that I react to all new requests poorly. Must work on that.
9. Nothing is worth killing yourself over. Move like water. --> recite mantra at will. YES
I've been grading and grading. I've lost two student papers. Things are falling apart. I'm doing my best. I hit a big low on Sunday, when I had yet another day when I focused on work and didn't even get outside (on probably one of the last warm days of the year!) or do gardening (my poor garlic!) or anything that would make me feel more like a person and less like a work machine. I do need to remember to use my sound wave gadget more often as it really does help me focus.
I'll work on developing a concrete incentive to get something done. Such a thing seems too advanced for me at the moment.
This Week's Goals
1. Make a list of Thanksgiving fixings to give to Absurdist Partner.
2. Figure out a couple dates to tell our babysitter so we can hopefully get a night out together in Nov-Dec. My real goal is actually two nights before the end of the year.
3. Call back the doctor so I can get my cardiology tests scheduled even if they are several weeks out.
4. Schedule taking in my car to get the winter tires put on and anything else that's supposed to be done even if it is several weeks out.
5. Be excessively kind to self.
6. Don't freak out on colleagues and chair.
7. Get big administrative thing and big service thing done on Wednesday.
8. Keep grading.
9. Sneak in a little escapism, well-filling, or relaxation every day.
10. Nothing is worth killing yourself over. Move like water.
Nothing is worth killing yourself over. The one thing about losing student papers these days is that they usually have electronic copies. I know someone who, back in the old days, put a pile of (graded) student papers in the washing machine and ran it.
DeleteThat pile of (graded) student papers in the washing machine made me laugh harder than I have in weeks. Thank you.
DeleteI, too, crave a little time before bed in order to watch a show and unwind. I hope things get better rather than worse in your efforts to find a little down time, along with time to have dates with Absurdist Partner and trips to the doc as necessary.
DeleteAnd, yes, the graded papers in the washing machine is priceless. And so metaphorical.
Topic: Incentives. It is only in the last couple of years that I have gotten any good at all with incentives. I never felt that I could “afford” incentives, even those without cost, because there was always a time or effort “cost.” Now I’ve managed to lighten up, at least a little.
ReplyDeleteMy creative writing always falls off the radar. I can do the academic writing thing: plan it, write it, edit it, proof it, and put it on the CV. *dusts hands* Why is my creative writing different? After much rumination over the past couple of days spent in one doctor’s office after another, I think I’ve discovered that I don’t value it because there is no public gain to it. On one level, that is clearly untrue, because I do have followers, and I do get comments, and sometime praise. But on the “can I make a living at it, and bank my publishing advances?" then clearly that is true.
So IF for the next three days (since I am so late in checking in), I can do the 30 minutes a day on my creative writing, I will allow myself a manicure. I have only had two in my life, but I loved each experience, and dream of having beautifully manicured hands.
Last week’s goals: Write for 30 minutes 4x to finish some of the blog posts I have simmering. No. *dashing away tears*
Walk midmorning 7x, and mid afternoon 5x. Yes, I am adding to my distance every day, yay me.
File the stuff left over from decluttering my desk for 15 minutes 5x. Only 3 times.
Organize my next day 7x. I’m going to try to extend this habit to the weekend. Yes, another win.
Analysis: A project at work imploded due to team members deciding to do something that the team had decided NOT to do, which delayed a crucial part of the project. In what I tire of finding normalcy in academia, everyone pointed fingers at the person they could, and since I was out of town at doctors’ appointments, it was safer to point at me, the co-chair of the team. Therefore, my dean decided that I should not receive the administrative promotion she had promised me, also while I was at the doctors’ appointments, finding out I have to have more surgery in January.
My husband is a philosopher, and has been sending me Stoic quotations over the past two days. I could scream, I could cry, but I think I will concentrate on what I can control (see, DH, I did read those Stoic texts), which is my own department, writing, and life.
Next week’s goals: Write for 30 minutes 3x only on creative writing. Manicure as carrot!
Walk midmorning 7x, and mid afternoon 5x.
File the stuff left over from decluttering my desk for 20 minutes 5x.
Organize my next day 7x.
Goodness that's awful – your dean makes my head of department sound like a paragon !! Is there no evidence for any of this she could look at, or track record?? Sometimes people are really dire...
DeleteI have worked directly for her for three years--and despite a paper trail that proves they were loose cannons, it's still my fault for not riding rein on them.
DeleteThank you for the sympathy!
Oh my gosh, Elizabeth. Shocking behavior from the Dean, and I'm so sorry for the missed opportunity. Any chance there is a silver lining? More time for writing? At moments like that, I try to lean heavily on the parable of the Chinese farmer:
Deletehttp://www.whatilearnedwhen.net/parable-of-the-chinese-farmer/
I hope the creative writing has goes well this week!
Thanks, GEW. Yes, there is the silver lining of more time for writing, as well as being able to leave a lot of the stress at work. I've been working the "new" job unofficially in addition to mine for several months, so the work load will drop precipitously.
DeleteIncentives: I'm not good at incentives, mostly because I try not to want too much, and I don't often deny myself things. So there's not much I want. And I don't have a massive sweet tooth, or anything. I'll have to think about this.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, goals from last week:
1. (Really TRQ, but) Finish the piece for next week's conference DONE, given and it is over
2. Get book order in before deadline - 1 down, just a few days late. Finishing the other tonight.
3. Reexamine the prospectus. No
4. Keep up with exercise. Sort of -- while home, but not while traveling.
Analysis: Conferences always take a bit more time than I expect, and there has been a bit of administrivia I've had to work on in recent days. (I drafted two sets of learning outcomes for different programs within 24 hours.) I will get back to the book project tomrrow, and work on the prospectus, and then footnotes.
Goals for the rest of this week:
1. Prospectus in the email
2. Go back to book ms, work on footnotes
3. Second set of book orders
4. Contact person who will help with special class project for next semester.
5. Exercise 4 times.
6. Read a book before bed. (I'm wondering if a positive one will work better than the "no iPad" one.)
I hope the conference was a good one! And I'll be eager to see if a good book before bed helps you to oust the iPad.
ReplyDeleteVery late check in but want to wipe off 2-week old goals to 'start fresh' this week.
ReplyDelete1. start typing in the data for scary project
2. find and read journals for gemstone paper and project
3. start getting ready for the Christmas crafts by tidying the work space and working out what I need to buy (hopefully nothing).
Essentially just done number 3. The last couple of weeks were supposed to be things slowing down but haven't. At all. Chaos.