Welcome to the Top Left Quadrant session for Summer/Winter 2016!
Your hosts are myself, JaneB, and Humming42, and this session will run for 17 weeks, until the weekend of 27-28 August. The basic ground rules are posted here. We will put up weekly prompts for discussion and check in each Friday, which allows participants the chance to reflect on the previous week and get ready to start the next week with goals in mind at whatever point over the weekend they prefer.
Welcome to both old hands and newcomers - if you are interested in joining us and want to know more, read back through the last few weeks of check-ins. We are a comfortable group, and that reading will give you a good idea who we are. To officially join in, just leave a comment below following the prompts. Please feel free to share and promote through your own blogs and social media.
As usual, for this first week, please briefly introduce yourself, where you are in your career, at what sort of university or school, and anything else you may want to share about your life and your summer/winter plans.
Then set your key, overall goals for the session. KJHaxton commented recently on her goal-setting strategy:
I will think about sitting down with a cup of tea on the first day of semester in September: what do I want to think back on and feel really satisfied that I did this summer? What would I regret spending time on? And what must I do to find more time during semester for TLQ?
Although the original emphasis of TLQ (important but not urgent) was research and writing, many participants have added goals for creativity, self-care and other things that are important in our lives - and finding time and space for these can be particularly important in the summer, which most northern hemisphere academics hope every year will be a magical, rejuvenating space, despite prior experiences to the contrary...
Then set your weekly goals, which you will report back on through the check-in post going up on Friday, 13th May. Weekly goals are a great way to break down the overall goals into smaller, manageable steps, and you might want to think about goals that could be set for each day or a couple of times over the week as well as single action goals. Goals can be set in whatever units work for you - for example, writing goals can be set as number of words added or pages edited or read, or number of writing sessions, or an amount of time (1000 words/edit 50 pages/read 1 book/write 3 times/work in paper Y for 2 hours).
Welcome again and all the best with your goals; please join in by commenting on each others posts, since the interactions within this community make it a fun, social and productive space - and the world needs more of those!
I am Matilda. Could I join?
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for hosting this session, JaneB and Humming42.
My last session has gone with the wind - I lost in touch with TLQ in a few weeks after the session started, sadly, I sometimes visited the site and saw how you were doing, though. I actually hesitated to join this time, being afraid of fading away again. However I like this group very much, so I came here.
I am Matilda. I teach medieval history at a private university in a non-English speaking country. I am a mother of a daughter of 8 and a son of 5. My husband works for a different university far away from mine. I am taking my study leave next year and staying in England during that period, and I need to think various aspects of it, related to my life and to research. Study leave itself is wonderful, but preparing it, especially considering that taking my family with me, sometimes seems daunting to me.
Overall Goals:
1) Write Chapter 2 2) Revise Chapter 1 3) Plan Chapter 3 4) Write a book review
5) Keep writing regularly 6) Construct healthy habits
I set fairly big goals as the session goals, and I divide them into smaller one for each week.
Weekly goals:
1) Read materials for Section 2 of Chapter 2.
2) Re-read the book I must review and write the outline of my review.
3) Write 15 minutes a day.
4) Have less snacks at night - no sweet snacks at least.
Have a good week, everyone.
Hi Matilda! I faded out as well, but one thing I think is nice about this group is you feel like everyone understands why that can happen, and isn't judging.
DeleteHow exciting to have study leave on the horizon :)
Welcome back Matilda! We all know how it is to backslide on good intentions, no judging here.
DeleteStudy leave, a PROPER one, how exciting! But I imagine also pretty daunting, especially needing to pack and move a family - will Dr Mr Matilda also come to England with you?
Glad you are here again, Matilda. I appreciate your wisdom in how thinking things through is part of the process. A friend who has tourism as one of his research interests says that a trip begins when you start imagining whether or not you will go...long before you start traveling. It's easy to forget how that deliberate practice can make a big difference in outcomes.
DeleteThank you for your comments, karen, JaneB ad humming42! JaneB, well, Dr Mr Matilda is coming, and preparation for his own study leave has needed much energy, negotiation, talk with the head and so on...
DeleteI'm glad to see you back in the group, Matilda. A study leave sounds exciting, which is the other side of daunting. I hope all comes together well for you on that!
DeleteThank you for your comment, Elizabeth Anne Mitchell! Yes, I hope I can make the most of the opportunity. At least I am trying to!
DeleteSo I was a drop-out last session, but I'm trying again! I think a shift in my work pattern (not working Mondays) made it rather tempting to not think about work on Sundays nights, which had been my previous TLQ check-in time. But making Sunday a planning space was a good pattern for me that I do want to get back.
ReplyDeleteI'm a lecturer in a regional southern hemisphere university, working 4 days a week, and I'm just in the process of taking on additional administrative responsibilities. I have children (2 and 5 years old) and a garden that goes through phases of attention and neglect.
TLQ goals for this session are constrained by teaching (finishing one semester, running a large online unit for the first time in winter break, starting another semester) and the admin stuff. So I'm going for manageable and sanity-saving rather than ambitious 'should' goals. So overall goals are:
-make space for reading (reading fuels writing)
-forward (incremental) momentum on writing
-committed but flexible approach to self care (exercise, sleep, good food choices)
In this week, this means:
-find, read and note-take one article for landscape paper and one article for SoTL project.
- Start by trying time goals rather than word goals for writing. 60 minutes writing across the week - see where it fits.
-3 x exercise activities over the week.
It's a constant work to make and keep planning habits for some of us - maybe all of us! But a Monday planning habit might be useful if the work pattern recurs, instead?
DeleteGood to have you back, Karen.
DeleteSuch a good reminder that reading fuels writing. Lately I've started reading with my laptop close by, in addition to the pencil I usually use to marks stars and tiny notes in the margin. I find that a few sentences about what I'm reading helps me better organize my notes when outlining an d writing.
Welcome back, Karen! I had a planning meeting as one of my goals for weeks on end this past session.
DeleteI also like your time goals rather than word count goals for writing. A local NaNo group does writing sprints throughout the year--something about the ticking of the clock gets me going, even if it is only for twenty minutes.
Yay! TLQ!
ReplyDeleteI'm Earnest English, and I teach in a service department at a small college in the U.S. focused on things 180 degrees from what I am or what I do (a point that is really bothering me just now, though I confess I'm always grumpy at this time of year). I'm just finishing up my first year as a tenured associate professor. I'm on the hateful quarter system, so this TLQ session encompasses the five weeks left of the quarter and 8 or so weeks of summer, so I have two sets of session goals.
Spring Quarter Goals
1. Maintain good eating, decent sleep, me time, and babying of injury so I don't go freaking nuts on people during this grumpy-making time of year.
2. Moderate emotions and try to keep up with decent grading clip.
3. Get garden started so there'll be something fresh to eat this summer!
4. Work on Secondary Field Project with the goal of 4y by the end of the quarter.
5. Turn in (totally doomed) Sabbatical application.
6. Do stuff early so that I don't have to spend all summer doing service.
7. Keep up with Spirited's Therapy.
8. Get Spirited back into music lessons.
Summer Goals
1. Work like crazy on Secondary Field Project, achieving 8R and 8y by end of session, and getting a fair amount of related reading done.
2. Talk to NonAcademicFriend about non-academic work.
3. Gardening!
4. Read Scholarly Book.
5. Get FallClassesandPlan together.
6. Have a wonderful family summer with lots of field trips!
7. Get back into yoga or tai chi or something!
8. Do Little Project plans.
This Week
1. Maintain good eating, decent sleep, me time, and babying of injury.
2. Moderate emotions and try to keep up with decent grading clip. I have a big stack of things to respond to and a small stack of detailed grading to do this week. On Tuesday, another stack of detailed grading will come in (rolling deadline). I just have to get through it. I should probably break this down into more reasonable daily goals.
3. Tomato, celery, and other seeds MUST get started this week!
4. 3x on Secondary Field Project.
5. Work a bit on Sabbatical application.
6. Come up with date for Service Thingie in June?
7. Keep up with Spirited's Therapy.
8. Leave a message on music teacher's voicemail about intentions?
9. Call doctor and see if I can get a mammogram appt without a doctor's appt.
Hello Earnest English! I admit I've always been interested in the quarter system--as a student and as a prof--because I like the intensity of a summer course. But I can imagine the challenges of adapting to an entirely different way of teaching.
DeleteI'm curious about why you describe your sabbatical application as totally doomed? And thinking a lot lately about how much effort we invest in so many things, not knowing which will matter and which will come to fruition.
Hi humming42! I have to confess that my institution is on a modified quarter system, so we actually have more face time with students per week than is usual on the quarter system. It's okay, but I think everyone really starts to feel it around now -- halfway through the third quarter. It's awful.
DeleteI was on the quarter system for a year when I started out a PhD program, but then left. I really thought I would like it because I, like you, like the intensity of the summer course. But I found that as a student, it was hard because I ended up having so much on my "to read during summer" list and it was dreadful to write a seminar paper in 10 weeks. Lots of incompletes, because what can you do? Of course, all of that may have had something to do with the three 33-student discussion sections I was carrying each quarter. As a teacher, I definitely prefer the semester. Then again, I haven't taught on it for seven years, so who knows if I'd feel super-sluggish around week 10.
I usually get cranky around Week 12. I hadn't thought about how difficult it is to write a seminar paper in 10 weeks--you can't manufacture more evenings and nights to get the research and writing done in a compressed timeframe.
Delete"Read during summer" for pleasure is especially pertinent to me right now--I looked at my goodreads account and discovered I have only read one novel in 2016. Horrified! I immediately checked out an ebook from the library, but making time to read will still be challenging.
Hi, Earnest English! I am with you on the yay, TLQ cheer.
DeleteHello and welcome back! We have semesters on top of terms (which were the old rhythm of the UK academic year and only survive at a small number of places - they are kind of like quarters, in that there are three of them in an academic year rather than two semesters, but they weren't of equal length as teaching wasn't modularised rather cumulative, with final assessments mostly in the third term). What it means is that my 'second semester' isn't over for students until late May and ambles on into June for academics, bureaucratically speaking. So, empathy!
ReplyDeleteI like having two sets of goals...
Oh I empathize with having a summer that isn't time off, but is actually just less work because of no teaching! Grrr.
DeleteHello everyone,
ReplyDeleteI'm JaneB, I'm a Reader in a mid-sized, mid-ranked, "squeezed middle" university in the UK, and we're facing an interesting summer, what with reorganisation into Schools with all new management structures, a new information management computer system and a new VLE, along with building work. I work in a STEM field but in a mixed-discipline department, and I really enjoy curriculum design and mentoring, have a bit of a grumpy mid-life-crisis type relationship with my research, and am really very fed up with my institution and my profession, so grumbling happens a lot. Grumbling online helps me be professional off-line! (at least, that's the theory...) As I said above in what was trying but failing to be a reply to Earnest English, I also have a few weeks to go until "summer proper" (which isn't proper at all, in the sense of not being an actual extended break from obligations other than research or from having to be physically present on campus at least once or twice a week, but is at least a period of minimal current-undergraduate-related duties and greater research expectations).
Therefore I'm going to set two sets of goals, like EE, and in fact only set one set now because I'm not good at setting reasonable goals and am trying to get better at only looking at the problems immediately ahead, not at all the things coming along the track for the next six months - no point in borrowing tomorrow's trouble when today has enough of its own!
So this set of goals is for the period between now and the 25th of June, which is seven weeks.
1) paper, joint with my now-colleague PDF, which is due for a conference special issue at the end of June (so far exists as a conference presentation from last summer).
2) write and give talks at regional meeting (late May, mostly written), international meeting-via-Skype (they invited me, I was already committed to regional meeting, so will be talking without the travel. Mixed feelings on that one!), and if I get my Passport back in time, a talk at a workshop in a handily nearby part of Europe.
3) substantial progress on the simulations needed for ProblemChild, a project that has languished in the mires of Poor Communication, but now the blocking collaborators have re-emerged and the work needs to move quite fast (it's due to be presented at the start of July at a conference and submitted for publication late summer). I'm not the lead here, just the technical advisor!
4) develop an exercise habit
5) develop a decluttering/housework habit
And that will be QUITE enough, what with exams and final projects and next year's student projects and multiple kinds of administration and Uncle Tom Cobbley and other kinds of cobblers!
Also, I talk too much, write too much, and hated precis when we had to do it at school...
DeleteGoals for this coming week:
1) 500 words on Special Issue paper which needs a nickname
2) 3 gym visits
3) 3 decluttering 15 minutes
4) meet with PDF about plans for the simulations
I can't imagine facing reorganization and a new IT system at the same time. As we have had some administrative changes this past year, I am coming to understand that the university is still recovering from merging colleges nine years ago (before I arrived). The uni where I teach moves at a sloth-like pace, so I hope your adjustments will be quicker and smoother than ours.
DeleteYou do have a robust research agenda! I do too, and am working at trying to not see it as overwhelming. It will all get done, because deadlines.
I'm interested to know your thoughts on decluttering and the process of it...if you have a master plan or have in your head what needs to be tackled.
Oh, and we're going through reorganization too. Supposedly there is a whole new college structure that's going to be in effect in a couple months, but no one has seen a plan or extended memo that actually says anything about how this is going to play out. For the love of Pete!
DeleteHello! I'm Heu Mihi, a scholar of medieval literature at a public R1 in the U.S., with a husband who cooks a lot and an almost-four-year-old son. The semester just ended (I have 4 or so papers left to grade), but I won't be writing much over the next few weeks, what with travel and my son being out of school for the upcoming week.
ReplyDeleteI am really struggling with knowing what kinds of goals are realistic and attainable, and what simply aren't. I always have at least 1.7x as many things on my semester/summer to-do list than is at all possible, but I can't seem to break the habit. This kind of stresses me out. But there it is.
So, here's my overly ambitious summer project list:
1) Book review 1
2) Book review 2
3) Write chapter 6
4) Revise and add M to chapter 4
5) Research trip in late May! Then add research to ch. 3
6) Conference paper proposal (due 6/15)
This week's goals--are very modest; see child out of school (+ also Kalamazoo!):
1) Finish reading AA
2) Read one article on MP
3) Go to Kalamazoo and have a fabulous time! (Despite my paper's 8:30-am-on-Sunday time slot.)
Do you over-commit, heu mihi, or do you want to do all the things and cannot decide? That difference may affect how long it will take to complete a project--maybe that will help?
DeleteEnjoy Kalamazoo--I am missing it this year, due to a course I have to take (and am hating, as it is too basic but full of unhelpful busy work--but that is another whine).
Here's to a fabulous time at Kalamazoo!
Hello, and welcome to summer - Kalamazoo sounds incredibly fun, hope it goes well!
DeleteSee you in a few days, I hope!
DeleteI’m humming42, a mid-career prof, teaching at a mid-sized state school in a small US town. This session of TLQ almost exactly fits my summer break--I’m grading final projects this week and will be returning to classes just as we wrap up. I also have a book manuscript deadline just as we wrap up, so that will be a significant focus for me.
ReplyDeleteSession goals, then:
1 Finish book manuscript (also known as RBP, revised book project, named by Dame Eleanor many moons ago)
2 Mercury essay draft due mid-July
3 Mars essay due end of July
4 Submit Venus abstract at the beginning of August
5 Try to work yoga into life
6 Keep up with household rehab
Week ahead (which includes a good bit of non-research tasks):
1 Grade all the things!
2 Write conference call for papers
3 Finish typing RBP notes from Big History Book
4 Read 50 pages for Mars
5 Read 50 pages from library book for Mercury
6 Organize articles in Bookmarks for RBP
Hello! HAve you an entire solar system's worth of essays planned??
DeleteI thought it might be a fun way to name things!
Delete:-)
DeleteEspecially when you get to the asteroid belt... or is that just the regular round of emails??
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteApologies, as the time got away from me, as I unmerrily packed for 13 hours today. I will post my goals tomorrow, I promise. May my boxes all unpack themselves if I don't!!
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be delightful if your boxes unpacked themselves anyway?!
DeleteVery true--but only at the other end!
DeleteI'm Susan, a senior professor at a relatively new university in the US which is research intensive. Because we are (like most universities) under-resourced for our ambitions, we live in a state of almost constant stress, not helped by some administrators who are difficult. Starting in late August, I will take on a leadership role in the faculty senate, which should be interesting.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of TLQ, I'm almost finished a book manuscript (awaiting reader's reports) and my main goal for this session is to get it off to the press and in production. I just want to be DONE. There are a couple of other minor tasks -- a book review, preparing materials for a regular merit review, etc, but the book is the thing. In addition, my elderly mother, who has been quite ill with various things over the past year, lives in my town, and requires regular attention. I will disappear for the month of July because my sister is coming to be the responsible person for my mother. I will take vacation -- or rather three separate vacation trips. Then I have a conference for which I have to write something thoughtful in mid-August. So that's the summer. In all of this, I'd like to keep up with exercise, and return to reading. We'll see!
Goals for this week:
(It's exam week, and still some meetings, so not quite break.)
1. Book orders for the fall
2. Finish minor revisions of paper for volume
3. Start working on footnotes.
4. Read a non-work book.
5. Finish container plantings for garden.
And thank you JaneB and Humming42 for hosting! This group helps keep me sane.
DeleteYay for reading non-work books! Summer reading is the best kind...
DeleteDoes your faculty senate have actual power? If so, I'm envious! Ours is only advisory. :-(
DeleteHi all,
ReplyDeleteI am a researcher in a southern hemisphere government research institute with a STEM background. I have now been working as a researcher for nearly 10 years, which is a bit scary on lots of levels, and as well I am a mother and partner. I live in a community where connections with people are strong, which is wonderful, but it also means I have many (time consuming)commitments to others in that community. At the moment I am feeling under a lot of career pressure, and struggling with that; also, some very difficult events in my personal life over the last two years have drained me emotionally. Hence I love this group as it helps me to find a bit of clarity around my professional and personal goals. I have been using the psuedonym allan Wilson for a while, in honour of an exceptional molecular biologist with some characteristics I wanted to emulate (confident, creative, curious, decisive). At the moment I'm thinking of changing that name, but not sure what to choose yet. .. I don't know what to pick as an overall goal: what comes to mind is something like 'not fall apart', which I think on reflection probably involves
1. stay fit and exercise
2. find a creative outlet for stress, either playing an instrument or handcraft
and a work goal 3. submit 2 more papers.
This week's goals:
1. finish draft and send back to MR
2. begin revisions on CR
3. resubmit W
4. sort out data for SS.
allan wilson
Not falling apart is good, though it's discouraging when that's an accomplishment. I hope you find something creative that helps!
Delete'not fall apart' is pretty much my goal every day... but creative outlets are good! (I just bought a load of new yarn for a crochet blanket, since this summer is going to be really not much fun, so... I needed a new project)
DeleteHello, everyone! First, my sincere thanks to JaneB and Humming42 for co-hosting this session. I need this group for accountability and camaraderie. I’m Elizabeth Anne Mitchell, and I’m almost through my tenure decisions--my college voted yes, the university voted yes, the Provost has recommended me to the President, who has yet to recommend me to the Board of Governors. My chances are quite good now that I actually do have tenure. I am an Associate Librarian with teaching-faculty status at a science-intensive R1 in New York State. I am ABD in medieval studies with ¾ of my dissertation written, which I plan to finish as a book. I am also the chair of a department, without secretary or other administrative support, about which I will probably whine during the session.
ReplyDeleteI have a husband and a Standard Poodle at home. About a year ago, my two sons, in their early twenties, asked to come home to attend college. The resultant crowded conditions, and the rapid disenchantment with our rental needing several repairs, led to our finally deciding to buy a house, of which we hope to take ownership at the end of June. I blog less often than I would like at http://elizabethannemitchell.com , and even less often at http://www.lapidaryprose.wordpress.com; I blog about my progress on fiction writing (or lack thereof) on http://www.leavekeeping.wordpress.com.
I really like KJHaxton’s idea of looking back at the end of this session of TLQ--what do I want to have accomplished? Although I am 12-month faculty, and have no diminished responsibilities in the summer, I do not want to blame any lack of progress on that. I do have a conference in late June, but luckily no paper to give this time. I am planning to take time off to pack and unpack as need be, but I really want to get some TLQ accomplished.
Session goals:
Have office in new house set up and functioning
Finish required class (May 27th)
Have Pierpont article roughed out in first draft
Have footnotes done for Prudence book
Take some time to figure out my fiction writing
Walk/swim to enjoy the summer weather
Weekly goals:
Finish culling DH’s clothing and packing winter clothes 1 hour x 3
Cull pleasure reading books and pack the “must-keeps” 1 hour x 2
Diminish clutter at work--½ hour x 5 days
Work on class assignments 1.5 hours x 5
Pierpont article--outline ½ hour x 5
Prudence book--footnotes ½ hour x 5
Walk ½ hour x 5
Hope the house turns out to be perfect for you all (and your boxes are easy to pack and unpack... and none of them mysteriously go missing or end up in the wrong room)
DeleteGood luck with the move! If the packing elves show up, remind them to come over here next.
DeleteThank you both for the good wishes, and dameeleanorhull, I will send those packing elves right over the instant they are finished!
DeleteSorry I'm late! I got distracted by Mother's Day and by my son's birthday (he's 13 today!).
ReplyDeleteI have kind of a strange situation. I am tenured faculty at a two-year community college in California, where I've been working for 18 years. But I'm also a part-time PhD student at a university in the United Kingdom. I teach English (which includes composition, critical thinking, and introductory Brit Lit courses). My PhD focus is eighteenth-century British literature.
My session goals are not terribly complicated:
1) Finish the PhD thesis (all but minor editing, such as proofreading and changing punctuation and spelling from American to British--these things can be done in September).
2) Try not to neglect the family all of the time.
3) Try not to feel to guilty when I do neglect the family.
4) Get a little bit of exercise (let's say some kind of movement at least 3x per week).
5) Advocate for my needs/rights with my PhD university if need be.
Regarding #5, I recently found out that my supervisor is leaving my university this summer, and when I submit the thesis (late September), someone else will have to handle it. This someone else is my secondary supervisor, but she is rather new to me, and she has never communicated with me (no email messages, nothing), and, as far as I know, she has never read my work. My primary supervisor says she'll still read things and give feedback, but I'm concerned that I'm going to be left high and dry. We shall see. I will continue to hope all works out well.
Goals for this week:
This is the last week of classes, and I mostly need to find and tie up loose ends to get ready for the deluge of exams and papers that will come in next week during finals. If I can keep up with everything that comes in this week, I can finish next week's grading by Friday so that I can turn my full attention to the thesis.
1) Grade a lot and do not procrastinate on this.
2) Finalize details for son's b-day party (which will be on Sunday).
3) Help daughter make colonial dress for her history project (and try not to freak out about this project).
3) Do PhD stuff (writing for intro, reading) for at least two hours Friday afternoon.
Oh, and I forgot to say, I have a husband and two children (boy who is 13 today! and girl who will be 11 in June).
DeleteHappy birthday to Boy, and here's to the Summer Of The Thesis!
DeleteHappy belated to your son, and I'll echo JaneB's Summer of the Thesis (it sounds like a movie!)
DeleteMy supervisor left right before I wrote my PhD comps. I had a wonderful secondary supervisor, who really found a good balance between oversight and direction that I think we both appreciated. My supervisor became more like a mentor. As a second-career older student, this worked beautifully for me. I hope you have a similarly smooth path to finished.
DeleteWill your current supervisor still be an examiner? I hope this all works out. You might ask your current supervisor whether she thinks there should be a transition process, or whether you're close enough to the end that this isn't necessary.
DeleteThe whole supervisor thing can get very complicated (I lost both of mine right after comps, and never really established a full relationship with either of the eventual replacements, which was definitely a problem). Since you're so close to finishing, I hope it all works out more smoothly; I think that would have been possible at the university I attended, but I have no idea how it works elsewhere, especially in the UK. My sense is that, at least in the U.S., it can vary a lot by institution, department, and even individual advisor.
DeleteI think I know all of you from previous iterations of writing groups etc., but I'm in my mid-to-late career at a large regional university in the American midwest, trying to get un-stuck from Associate Professor. I'm married to a man and have 3 cats.
ReplyDeleteMy summer goals look frankly insane, so I'm hoping this will help me keep an eye on the most important things. It's encouraging to see that you're forgiving of people who wind up dropping out, because that could happen. It's alarming to think that in 17 weeks, I'll have taught my first week of fall classes.
By the end of August, I hope to have sold a house and moved. If the house doesn't sell, then we will get to unpack a lot of boxes, arrange for some repairs and new appliances, and stay put another year. I dread moving but I think I dread the continuing battle with this house (and garden, and commute) more.
On the work front, I have the following tasks:
1. an R&R to deal with (needs more reading)(MMP-3, if you recall my old nomenclature).
2. complete revision of another article that has now been twice rejected (MMP-1).
3. conference paper in August, based on material for which there isn't really room in (2).
4. write syllabuses for fall classes by early August, because I'll be away at the conference when they should be turned in. This involves changing both a 3-day course and a 1-day course to 2-day schedules.
5. That book manuscript . . . It is at least now a book-length manuscript instead of an idea, but it is a hot and cold running mess. In the interest of finishing the other things, I think I'm probably putting it on hold for the summer.
6. translation: I will spend a week in the UK with the rest of the translation team, in June, and I need to see if I can finish my share of the translation by then. Or at least finish polishing a roughly finished chunk and complete and polish the chunk I'm currently translating. Then there will be one more chunk to do later . . . sometime.
The work alone would be fairly nuts without the hassle of getting a house ready to show. I think I'm going to have to take a week in which to focus on sorting and packing, without even attempting to work. We'll have to set a time limit on how long we try to sell the house, because I don't think either of us can face keeping it show-able all summer.
Goals for this week: complete presentation for Kalamazoo (International Congress on Medieval Studies), drive there, have a good time, don't buy too many books.
Hello and welcome, how nice to have you around again!
DeleteKeeping a house showing ready with three feline residents dounds pretty stressful...
But... if you're DRIVING to a conference... isn't the POINT so that you can buy lots and lots of books at yummy conference discounts?? :-)
So delighted to have you here Dame Eleanor!
DeleteHello, dameeleanorhull, it is great to have you in the group!
DeleteTHinking about keeping a house in show-able state with three cats makes me tired already. I do know that when I next sell a house, I'll rent a storage unit and just hide some of the junk.
DeleteGood to see you here, DEH! While I'm not contemplating the degree of household upheaval you (or Elizabeth Anne) are/is, I, too, am wondering whether a week focused just on household tasks would be more helpful or more exhausting. At least I've got the luxury of choice. . .
DeleteHello everyone!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting another session :) This group is a wonderful resource!
I'm a 4th year tenure track assistant prof in physical science at a very small regional university. I have a daughter in early elementary school, and a partner who lives 4 time-zones away, recipe for logistical nightmare. Field work and lab travel will take up a huge part of my summer and I cannot wait for that to start, it is my inspiration and the best part of my job by far!
For travel this summer I have: 6 weeks of field work (in two shifts), three major lab trips (about 1 week each) and a "vacation" week (aka do all childcare and house stuff just like normal but in a different location with none of the usual conveniences...)
TLQ goals:
1) Redo a hideous Revise/Resubmit paper left over from the winter term (the paper was hideous, the review equally and deservedly so...)
2) Do three major analytical projects and write a report for each
3) Learn fancy new-to-me analytical and modelling software
4) Exercise!!!!
5) Camp in at least three new areas with child, and do a few trips to old favourites
6) Write paper for new field area
This week's goals:
I'm away for lab work this whole week (child in tow, thank you understanding lab manager!) so I will have small goals...
1) Write up methods for this project while fresh
2) Write outlines for analytical projects to send to labs and collaborators
3) Take my grad student out for dinner and make sure she's not stressing out over her project
4) Buy new running shoes and sports bras to help with longer term goals!
Hello Daisy! I'm so interested in the idea of a hideous paper to which you are able to remain committed. I admire that. Looking forward...
DeletePicky Paper is my 'hideous paper'. I have to live with it for quite a while yet. It's not fun :-(
DeleteHope yours quickly finds its 'forever home', Daisy, and that you have a great summer!
I'd like to join, if that's ok. I am a PhD in psychology about to start a postdoc. I have been struggling post-defense with the blues and low productivity, so am hoping this can be a boost. Last week, I started a 90 day challenge for which I am running daily and eating far more healthily. I'm also taking a couple days this week to unclutter my house. Am hoping these help me start the postdoc afresh.
ReplyDeleteTLQ summer goals:
1. Manuscript 1 submitted
2. Manuscript 2 drafted
3. Manuscript from diss
4. F32 application
5. Other minor grant apps
This week's goals:
1. Figure out measures
2. Feedback on R03
3. Figure out funding issues
4. unclutter house!
5. keep running every day!
Welcome, Waffles! That post-defense period can bring a whole new set of challenges for many of us. There are a lot of analogies I could use, but my own experience was like being a caregiver of this growing creature for three years, and suddenly it was no longer there. It was an unexpected transition, but your summer goals can be a great way to keep your wheels spinning.
DeleteWelcome, waffles! I, too, found the post-defense period difficult (though I had some other things on my mind -- then again, don't we all?) A combination of exercise and focus on one's physical environment is a pretty good prescription, I think, especially if you can combine it with at least a bit of work (but low(er) productivity for a while seems reasonable, especially if, like many of us, you put a lot of energy into the final push. On the other hand, the postdoc should help keep you focused on forward motion.)
DeleteWelcome, Waffles! I definitely had a post-PhD defence low, but starting a post-doc was actually a nice curative - the slow realisation that I actually knew what I was doing was such a nice change from the PhD where you spend the first years learning what you don't know and making false starts, then the last year or so madly trying to do three year's worth of work and write the thesis-beast, that it did help.
DeleteBut it's perfectly natural, and as long as the urgent stuff gets done having a few months of working like a 'normal person' with a goodly dose of self-care and refreshment of mental energy and re-acquaintance with non-thesis-writing self is entirely healthy.
We look forward to hearing about your journey!
Are you moving to a new lab/group?
Thank you for the welcomes! This week has been really good for me - both in terms of getting things done, and taking a break! JaneB - I'm doing a 50/50 postdoc - which isn't ideal, but one 50% is with someone I've wanted to work with for a long time, and with whom I have worked on the side for a few months. So, that is new, and helps me take really strong steps toward my ultimate goals.
DeleteHello all, and thanks for making this group again. It's so useful. I'm an academic in a science department. This summer's going to be an odd one with a big change at work as I stop being one thing and start being something else. I'm hoping the something else will allow more time to do things better generally. I'm tired of feeling like I'm scraping by all the time. This summer's goal is to put things in place to have more TLQ time during semester and so that the 'just scraping by' feeling is replaced by something more satisfying.
ReplyDeleteSession goals:
- acronym report and paper done and submitted
- House project variant 1 - summer student supervised and significant progress
- House project variant 2 - summer students recruited and decent progress
- Test the water on various other projects
- Scary project - paper submitted, next steps established
- 8 science outreach events planned, run and evaluated
- draft paper on tesla project outlined and data considered
- one conference presentation given, abstract for another to submit and give if accepted
This week's goals:
- finish planning and run two outreach events.
Anything else will be a bonus!
Looking over the next few weeks, I've got a lot of train time which is good for outlining and planning. I've also got a lot of marking so that will consume most time.
Carry on with my GoodReads challenge - now at 32/52 books. Not sure about hand crafted items this summer - the garden calls more strongly in the summer months so I'm thinking more 'grow pretty flowers and tasty fruits and veggies'.
DeleteI hope the "something else" will bring you goodness and more satisfaction with the projects you complete. "Scraping by" hits on a feeling I would imagine most of us feel. It's a frustration of overwork that seems present all across academia.
DeleteHello and welcome! I should do a goodreads type challenge, but the last couple of months I have been doing the 'inner toddler' can't-cope thing of obsessively re-reading the same small set of fantasy or science fiction books (Tales of the Raksura this year) - I get to the point when my imagination wants escape, but no surprises, I think, and re-reading suits that. Also, well, I do obsessive well...
DeleteAnd scraping by. Scraping by is No Fun but it seems to be the norm, entirely. Hope your marking contains pleasant surprises and students doing MUCH MORE than scraping by!
Hello, all! Sorry to be checking in so late; I've been grading (am still grading, in fact).
ReplyDeleteAs returning members know, I'm a longtime full-time contingent faculty member who teaches composition (mostly a junior-level writing in the disciplines class) at a directional state university in the U.S. that's teetering on the R1/R2 cusp (in other words, we have a teaching-intensive past, and are in the process of realizing longheld ambitions to become research-intensive; some of that process has, unfortunately, involved handing over much of the most labor-intensive teaching to people like me, and to even more overworked and underpaid part-time contingents. Grad students play some part in the teaching mix, but not as much so as at more-established research universities with more/larger Ph.D. programs). While my professional experience is now mostly in the teaching of composition/writing/rhetoric, I also have a Ph.D. in the literature of a particular time and place, and a related (but mostly neglected) research program.
On a personal level, I'm middle-aged, single, and don't have children, but am quite focused on maintaining ties with my brother and his children in the wake of our father/grandfather's death this spring, and some other, ongoing family upheavals. I live in a small apartment, but have a household's worth of furniture and other accoutrements in storage, for reasons that are too complicated to get into here. I've been focusing my goals her in TLQ-land for a year or so now on what I call "infrastructure": trying to get my household, financial, and self-care arrangements in better order. Progress has been slow, but I have made some headway (or at least things haven't gotten worse). My father's death will make some additional financial resources available, and remove some variables from the planning process, both of which are helpful, but, not surprisingly, I'm profoundly ambivalent about that fact (but not so much so that I'm resisting planning with the new facts on the ground in mind; I am, however, still absorbing them, and some specifics are still to be established).
So, like several others, I'm in transition, and trying to figure out exactly what that means, and how to cope with it.
With that in mind, here are my goals for the summer, and some comments (especially in light of the fact that I know they're overambitious).
DeleteOne more additional bit of background is probably in order: I am one of the lead organizers of a group of contingent faculty who have recently won a grant for what I guess we could call curriculum development, though there's a publishing aspect as well (or will be in the long term). So far we've won one internal grant (and have good reason to think we'll get another), and have solid reason to think we'll get another. In the longer term, we plan to apply for additional, outside funding. In some ways, this is TRQ-ish (we have the grant; we are responsible for producing certain things by the end of the summer), but I'm including it here because it is something I've voluntarily taken on because I think it will be good professionally both for me personally and for my (all-contingent) faculty cohort, and because I know it's going to take up a good deal of time, and I'll feel better for including related activities in my goals, set and achieved, here. In that way, it's much like publishing for people who need to do that as part of their jobs (and I think we all get things done at times by putting ourselves in a position where they take on some TRQ qualities).
1. Keep up with both individual and managerial/organizational contributions to grant project; do some planning for future stages (mostly identifying possible additional funders).
2. Self-care, including increased exercise (walking; swimming; weight-lifting; gardening, but not at the expense of the other three); brain retraining/rejuvenation via breaks from the internet and time spent on long-form reading (recreational and/or professional); improved diet (more home-prepared food, more fruits and vegetables); good sleep routines.
3. Continue getting financial affairs in order, planning for next 15-20 years and beyond (with as much flexibility/room for accommodating the general uncertainties of life and the specific uncertainties of contingent academic positions as possible).
4. Stay connected/reconnect with family and close friends, especially the elderly and those recently affected by death and other upheavals. This will probably involve at least one week-long and several weekend trips, as well as regular long-distance communication.
5. Make progress on household projects, especially creating additional built-in storage in apartment.
6. Make progress on organizing/sorting/culling items in offsite storage and preparing for move (to cheaper interim storage or directly to 2nd home/investment property in lower-cost-of-living area). #s5 and 6 are somewhat interconnected, and I’m realistically probably going to make anything resembling visible progress on only one of them; I suspect it should be #5, if only because visible progress in the apartment is more visible, and so has a greater effect on my morale.
7. Reconnect in some way with research/writing in original field (realistically, this is unlikely to go further than re-reading a draft or two to see where things stand, and identifying/doing some secondary reading, but I’d like to do at least that).
8. At some point, I need to figure out how to balance original field research/writing with teaching field research/writing (including activities in #1), all in the context of a 4/4 writing-intensive load with no built-in sabbaticals. That probably points to the value of finding a way to afford summers off, or at least less-frequent summer teaching (see #s 3 and 6). This is a well-beyond-the-summer TLQ/professional goal to which some of the above contribute (and which needs to be kept in mind while making decisions about how to spend time and money).
Realistically, if I do a reasonably good job of #s1 and 4, make some progress on #s2 (especially exercise), 3, and 5, and do even a bit of #7, I’ll consider the summer a success.
And here are my goals for the week:
Delete1. Finish grading (TRQ but necessary/almost all-consuming at present)
2. Attend day-long workshop related to grant
3. Set TLQ goals for summer (yes, I'm including this one so I can check it off; it is Thursday, after all)
Welcome back, grading or not! Summer starts in different times at different places... (for me, the first day I need to take hayfever meds is a seasonal marker...)
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