As the world continues to turn in strange and unpredictable ways, we press on. I’m struck by how many of us are moving offices or moving homes, or considering the possibilities of such.
When I visited the university I ended up attending as an undergraduate, one of the people I spent time with on my visit told me to be sure I brought something from home that would be an anchor for me. He assured me I would know what the right object was when the time came to move. While I remember that so well, I cannot recall what my anchoring object was. But I can tell you about a handful of other objects that I have carried with me from one office to the next, one home to the next, and put on my desk or in a place where it could function as a kind of touchstone.
Do you have a touchstone, talisman, or anchoring object that is the first thing you unpack? Something you make sure you carry with you and have easy access to? If not, what might work well for you?
Here are last week’s goals. Looking forward to a steady, solid week ahead.
Allan Wilson
1. Exercise every day- slightly longer walks
2. Limit chocolate to three days
3. Work on revisions for CR for at least 4 hours
4. Work on ppw for at least 2 hours.
Contingent Cassandra
1. Finish preparing for summer term class (begins next Monday, so TRQ at this point)
2. Finish computer update (including adding memory to backup computer, just in case the update takes longer than planned; I'm cutting it a bit close at this point)
3. Try to take at least a day off (maybe 2?)
4. Get moving at least a bit (a walk? a swim?)
5. Reading and chaos-reduction as time allows.
6. make progress on connecting with family and friends
7. begin planning real break for after summer term (these two are probably connected, and may not actually happen until next week, but at least I'll have the reminder).
Dame Eleanor Hull
1. Do All The Things that have to happen before I leave for the airport.
2. Get myself to my destination.
3. Meet with translation team; work based on decisions made in our discussions.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Finish packing the house
Pack for the conference
Try to relax and enjoy the conference
Good Enough Woman
1) Be present with family at the cabin. Enjoy the river and the mountains!
2) Move like water while spending time with my dad. He is lovely, but sometimes I feel very "on" and it's hard to get quiet time, and it's hard for me not to have quiet time.
3) Read two articles or chapters.
4) Read 50 pages of primary source material.
5) Start making a bibliography from citations in the footnotes: Put in 20 sources.
heu mihi
1) Write 2500 words? Possibly too ambitious.
2) Significant progress on revisions due 7/1
3) Review article for journal
4) Read three things
humming42
1 Begin revision on Chapter 1 of RBP
2 Read peer articles from Mercury journal
3 Map out approach to space for Mercury
4 Read parts 6-8 for Mars
5 Read through Mars conference presentation
6 Set dates for fieldwork
7 Attend faculty writing retreat
JaneB
1) restore good habits following travel - mindful eating, bed times, exercise at least a couple of times
2) Make measurable progress with Problem Child
3) Do at least 500 words of writing on Special Issue Paper
4) Take at least 2 slots of half an hour to organise notes from Gallimaufrey meeting that I just attended, to free-write about some of the ideas that came up there, and to process materials
5) write a blog post for Gallimaufrey site about the workshop
KJHaxton
1. survive yet more meetings
2. prepare for and run two outreach activities
3. leave office in tidy state despite outreach activities
4. submit draft application for consideration
5. submit paperwork for new degree programme
6. plan blanket for new wool and start it [I have rainbow yarn, http://www.thehomemakery.co.uk/dusky-rainbow-yarn-pack-stylecraft-special-dk because I need some easy knitting. I can't follow patterns at the moment because I'm too tired. So nice easy colour block blanket]
7. review summer students' work and get other 3 summer students started (and sort out their payment)
Matilda
1) Set the time to write, and keep it.
2) Continue to work on Chapter 2. Revise the revision plan.
3) Writing exercise 5 of Goodson’s revised book.
4) 5 minute short exercise more than three times a day.
6) No snacks at night, just tea or coffee, instead. Or healthy snack.
Susan
1. Finish revisions to conclusion
2. Go through ILL books to get footnotes checked and finished, so I can start returning ILL books.
3. (Really TRQ, but. . .) Pack up office to prepare for office move next week
4. Do car rentals
5. Do more pleasure reading
6. Get through some more piles of junk
7. Walk 2x along with 3x morning class
Waffles
1. Finish drafting research strategy
2. Finish support analyses
3. Send off components of grant to various and sundry people for feedback
4. Analyses for religion paper
5. Try to get back to relations paper
I don't think I have a single object like that. Certainly my u office doesn't have some kind of object like that -- it's a disaster of papers and books. But I do know that I went without most of my things for about seven years and rather than learning that I could live without a lot of it -- which you'd think would be the big lesson there -- I found that I was so happy to see all my stuff! Anyway, that's one of the things I should work on this summer.
ReplyDeleteLast Week!
I didn't check in last week, which was because I was in grading mania, which I'm glad to say has ended. Let summer begin! Interestingly, I find that I'm not flat-out exhausted, as I usually am at this point, but I'm excited about the summer and eager to get on with many parts of it! For example, I'm eager to begin the Slow Professor discussion (at my place: absurdistparadise.blogspot.com), which we'll start on July 1) and have ILL many interesting things to look at for my fall courses, and I've been getting myself into writing, slowly, and Spirited and I have read a chapter from the Young People's History of the United States. . .I love summer!
I should probably re-look at my session goals before I go on. The big project this upcoming week is gardening.
Your joy for summer finally arriving is marvelous. How great to not be so exhausted that you need a week's recovery before you can dig in.
DeleteI have my copy of Slow Professor and look forward to that discussion over at your place.
Hurrah for summer bringing renewed energy!
DeleteI've bought my (virtual) copy of The Slow Professor (it's on my phone, the better for reading in odd moments -- which is perhaps a bit counter to the purpose of the book, but I can get at it on my tablet, too), and am enjoying it so far (enough so that I'm wondering whether I should propose it for a campus face to face book discussion group I often attend), and am looking forward to the discussion.
So here are my session goals, reformulated a bit.
ReplyDeleteSummer Goals
1. Work 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. Engage with some relevant scholarship as desirable.
5. Get FallClassesandPlan together.
6. Have a wonderful family summer with lots of homeschooling, reading with Spirited, and field trips! Make Spirited feel as if he's the center of my world!
7. Get back into yoga or tai chi or something!
8. Do Little Project plans.
9. Learn about herbalism.
10. Read nonscholarly books and have fun!
11. Yeah yeah, do the workthings I promised to do but don't let them take over.
Upcoming Week
1. Gardening is the biggie this week -- or there will be nothing to harvest later.
2. Do yoga or tai chi one day this week.
3. Write. Engage in one small Secondary Field Project piece at least every other day (reading or writing is okay).
4. Engage with Spirited stuff most days.
5. Get Workthing done. Bit by bit. Without panic or stress.
6. Take baths to reduce the serious muscle tension in my shoulders.
7. Keep up with Farmstead duties.
8. Identify first herbalism project?
Topic: no, like EE I can live happily without my stuff and then be delighted to see it all again. Maybe my laptop. I think there was a point at which I tried to set myself up with a talismanic object, long ago (on the order of 30 years ago), and it never worked. Recently when I was sorting stuff that has been stored for a long time, I came across a small plastic box with a picture of a unicorn on the lid. For a moment I felt as if a flood of memories was about surge forth in a Proustian rush, and then the moment passed like not needing to sneeze after all, and I knew it was a box in which I kept earrings as a teenager, and that is all I recall. I have no idea whether I got it for myself, or if it was a gift, and if so from whom, or what it meant to me at the time. And so it goes, I think, with many things that occupy an important position in our lives for a time, and then fade in significance as we move on to other things---bigger earring boxes, for example.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1. Do All The Things that have to happen before I leave for the airport. YES (all the crucial ones; there are some garden things I'd hoped to do that are waiting till my return)
2. Get myself to my destination. YES, only one snag and that very minor.
3. Meet with translation team; work based on decisions made in our discussions. YES. Excellent progress.
This week's goals:
1. Finish reviewing one chunk with D.
2. Meet with D and W about another chunk and plans for proceeding from here.
3. Review another chunk, or at least half of it, on my own.
4. Enjoy travel/holiday for the rest of the week.
5. Eat proper meals at least twice a day.
I laughed out loud about the almost-Proustian moment passing like not needing to sneeze after all. Maybe I am the rare bird with deep connections to material objects.
DeleteGreat to hear that the work-related side of travel is going well. I hope the same for the holiday part of it too.
I moved offices (and departments) in January. When I moved, I brought with me a chair from my previous office, and some artwork. My university had an interior design heyday in the 60s, so we have some great midcentury furniture and art - and those are the items that came with. They make my office feel both fun and adult. I have some tchotchkes that make it feel homey for me as well. I needed my new office to be "just so" for it to feel like mine.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Finish drafting research strategy - NOT DONE, but closer. I got some feedback on my aims, and I need to finalize those before doing more on my strategy.
2. Finish support analyses - DONE, but now I've been asked to try something else since they weren't sig.
3. Send off components of grant to various and sundry people for feedback. AIMS SENT.
4. Analyses for religion paper - DONE, not sig. I'm really sad.
5. Try to get back to relations paper - NOT DONE.
I'm panicking because my grant is due to our office on research at the end of July!!! I really need to get with it! But I had kind of a rough end of the week, which lowered my confidence level, and made it hard to buckle down this week.
This week:
1. Tomorrow, need to finish research strategy and send out.
2. Update support analyses
3. Write up religion findings
4. Get all of grant app in decent shape by July 4 to give to mentor (AAACCKKK!!!).
How delightful to have objects that feel both fun *and* adult. It seems more often than not that we have to choose between, like there's a spectrum with fun at one end and adult at the other.
DeleteI agree! I manage this by having dark wood matching furniture with a couple colorful accents and a couple fun things (like a lego doctor). BTW - as an update, I had a great meeting with a mentor this morning, and I learned that a training to which I wasn't accepted also didn't accept a faculty member I know well. This makes me feel way better about myself!
DeleteYay for good news!
DeleteA second hurrah! for good news (and helpful feedback; context is always useful, especially if one is making the transition -- I don't know whether you are or not, but I know I had to at some point -- from usually having applications for various things accepted, to having them rejected as frequently as not, and needing to figure out what that means in terms of whether and when and how to apply again).
DeleteAlso hurrah for universities with good furniture stashes (with the exception of one style of not too bad traditional wood bookcases, my university's furniture staff is a repository for the truly awful. Even the solid wood desks have woodgrain formica tops. And apparently we have an unending supply of orangish-brown carpet. And desk chairs with springs ready to poke through the seats and poke you in the rear.)
I love my stuff, too, but I can't think of a *particular* object that has moved with me in a meaningful way. Maybe it used to be my Gumby doll, which I got for my ninth birthday--it was in my office for a long time--but now my four-year-old has claimed it and it's his very favorite thing in the world (its arm may be about to fall off from over-playing, in fact).
ReplyDeleteLast week:
Week of 6/20:
1) Write 2500 words? Possibly too ambitious. DONE
2) Significant progress on revisions due 7/1 DEFINE “SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS"
3) Review article for journal !!! NEED TO DO
4) Read three things DONE
This week
1. Meditate 5 times--I really want to make this a priority
2. Write up ideas for mentoring exchange for L
3. Review article
4. Finish revisions to VS article? My self-imposed deadline is 7/1, but we'll see.
5. Write 1500 words on ch. 6
6. Read 3 things
This sounds like a good week of meeting goals, especially the "possibly too ambitious" 2500 words!
DeleteA few years ago, I went to a favorite shop in the city where I went to college and bought a Gumby and a Pokey. I recommend following Gumby on Facebook because he and Pokey and the rest of the gang pose for photos for many holidays. Maybe your son will enjoy it as much as I do.
Fun fact: The Son and grandkids of the inventor of Gumby live in my small town.
DeleteI hope the meditation goes well!
Allan Wilson
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have ever had talisman objects. Or not that I can currently recall. Although I have become aware with the passing of time, objects that are meaningful to me and have strong memories associated with them will mean nothing to others in the future, which is weird. An object remains an object. I guess mostly I like my workrooms to be Spartan, although I do have a birds nest collection I am quite fond of, that I have in my office.
1. Exercise every day- slightly longer walks MOSTLY
2. Limit chocolate to three days. HMM. LOST TRACK, BUT LIKELY, NO
3. Work on revisions for CR for at least 4 hours, NO
4. Work on ppw for at least 2 hours. YES
A bit of an odd week- a couple of good days, and a couple of bad ones (for various reasons), and some in between.
Nest week's goals:
1. Work on CR revisions for 4 hours
2. Exercise at least 3 days (I will be away and out of my routine)
3. Finish two transcriptions.
I so admire Spartan, especially as I seem utterly incapable of achieving it. I hope for more good days than bad in the week ahead.
DeleteI definitely had a "transitional object" as a child: a doll that had been my mothers (life-size to a several-month-old baby) that went with me to first grade (and yes, I was teased for it; and no, I didn't care). I can't say I've as strong an attachment to another object (though I still have Crybaby -- that was her name -- somewhere; given that her head and extremities are made of some sort of pottery, she's very much worse for the wear, but I couldn't throw her out. Somebody else will have to do it someday.)
ReplyDeleteI do like familiar things; enough so that I've been paying a ridiculous amount of money for storage for over a decade now, as I very slowly regroup after a traumatic move from the house in which I grew up (it was sold to a developer, despite many promises that that would never happen -- all part of a complicated family saga). One of the things toward which I'm trying to work is bringing more of those familiar objects out of storage and putting them to daily use. I do have a few currently out, e.g. my mother's wicker sewing box is sitting directly in front of me, amid a jumble of books and papers on a bookshelf.
My on-campus office is shared (with both my current officemates and the stuff of several others who moved on without all of their belongings), and, since the building is going to be torn down and replaced soon, there doesn't seem to be much point in decorating, though I do have a few things, including pictures on the wall and a few objects (some refugees from the home exodus that had to go somewhere). We're making the case for private offices for full-time (and part-time) non-tenure-track faculty every chance we get; if that comes to pass, I may have an office that feels more like "mine" for the last decade or so of my career.
So -- yes, an affinity for familiar stuff (including, of course, books), but no one talisman.
(doing this piecemeal, in between virtual office hours with my online students).
DeleteLast week's goals:
1. Finish preparing for summer term class (begins next Monday, so TRQ at this point)
Yes. I was ready by Thursday. Not a record, but pretty good for me.
2. Finish computer update (including adding memory to backup computer, just in case the update takes longer than planned; I'm cutting it a bit close at this point)
Still a few loose ends to tie up (and I didn't have much luck with the memory-adding exercise), but this is mostly done: my main computer has a new solid state drive and is running Windows 10, and all seems quite satisfactory. After a year+ of dithering about whether and when to upgrade, I'm glad to have this done, and relieved that it went smoothly.
3. Try to take at least a day off (maybe 2?)
Took one (thanks to a friend getting in touch Thurs. night to say she was available Fri., as was I. Good timing. I'd hoped/planned for more time off, but at least I got a bit. Sometimes I add additional stress to my life worrying that I'm not getting enough time off, and trying to figure out how to get a chunk of time off. I think I need to practice working in shorter breaks, though longer ones are nice, and necessary, too).
4. Get moving at least a bit (a walk? a swim?)
Not really, unless you count the outing with the friend, which involved some walking.
5. Reading and chaos-reduction as time allows.
Just a bit of each
6. make progress on connecting with family and friends
A bit, mostly due to someone else's initiative (see above), but that counts, right?
7. begin planning real break for after summer term (these two are probably connected, and may not actually happen until next week, but at least I'll have the reminder).
Thought about possibilities, but that's about it.
8. Finish my contributions to prep work stage of grant project (that day off is looking less and less likely, but at least I'll be able to include it in the "done" list!)
Deliberately put this off/let others take up the slack. No disasters, but I have a few things I need to do this week.
And for the coming week:
Delete1. Try to get into summer-term pattern that incorporates both getting necessary work done on computer and not spending any more time than necessary on computer. I'd really like to develop the skill/habit of checking/doing what I need to do/check, then taking a break by getting up and doing something else (household chores, exercise, even reading on a different device. It's all too easy to get stuck in front of the computer when I need to be on the computer regularly. The key is I don't need to be on it constantly).
2. Do each at least 1x: walk, swim, garden, maybe lift weights.
3. Make substantial progress on chaos reduction (mostly in kitchen, also take a load to storage)
4. Finish up computer upgrade, label & put away backup drives.
5. Work reading in morning and/or evening into schedule.
6. Continue reconnecting with friends & family; begin planning two trips and possibly one outing.
7. Finish prep stages of grant project and plan/begin my contribution to main stage.
8. Plan for time off over July 4th weekend.
I have a friend who, if I ever apologize for being out of touch, says "well I haven't called you either." That reconnecting is a two (or more) way connection, so you are still meeting that goal when someone else makes first contact. :)
DeletePrivate offices are not only deserved but badly needed. It sounds like you've made the best of the situation even though it's not an ideal one.
DeleteI so hear you on #1.
DeleteAs you might guess, I have an abundance of talismans and token objects that I like to have close by. It’s not a hoarding thing, though, I could (and have) fit all of these small items into a single small box. I would guess that my research interest in material culture fuels some of my collecting, or that my collecting has spawned my interest in material culture. EIther way, I have some tchotchkes that I hold dear.
ReplyDeleteLast week seems to have lacked substance. I don’t know what I did with all of my time, so I am initiating a “done” list for the coming week. Last week:
1 Begin revision on Chapter 1 of RBP: yes
2 Read peer articles from Mercury journal: no
3 Map out approach to space for Mercury: no
4 Read parts 6-8 for Mars: no
5 Read through Mars conference presentation: no
6 Set dates for fieldwork: yes
7 Attend faculty writing retreat: yes
Good thing I went to that faculty writing retreat so I could get some work done on chapter 1. If I were caught up on grading my summer classes, I might not feel so neglectful about coming up short on most of my goals for the week. And so I will reset the majority of them for yet another week, as I am still mostly in TLQ mode with everything.
1 Read peer articles from Mercury journal
2 Follow up with Mercury editors
3 Read parts 6-8 for Mars
4 Read through Mars conference presentation
5 Add new material to RBP Chapter 2
I am glad the retreat was productive, and I hope the grading isn't too painful.
DeleteAre you the one of us who has an owl in her office? I remember that one of us has an owl on the shelf that serves as a guardian. :)
I don't have an owl in my office but that sounds like a marvelous Harry Potter homage.
DeleteI am not doing great at the moment.
ReplyDeleteThe EU-leave vote caught me by surprise, the nastiness of some of the reactions is distressing, and my parents are determined to convince me they were right to vote for leave and I'm scared about my country, about what this means for the environment and science and education and decency.
I have to talk to them every night as my sister is in hospital with some kidney ailment which has not yet been diagnosed (and has been since early last week) and is choosing to communicate with the family by texting me and then I call our parents (very reasonably as she has more important things to worry about nearer home & parents can be stressful especially when they worry at you, it's NOT HELPFUL - she managed to negotiate an "afternoon release" to go to my nieces' birthday party, having organised the whole thing from her hospital bed) - she lives about 2 and a quarter hours drive from me and four-plus from the parents, but has a good network of local friends and fellow mums who are stepping in from the sound of things, to help out her husband with Niece and the three needy dogs - my Brother in Law's busiest time of the year is Ramadan, and summer Ramadans are especially challenging).
My anxiety needless to say is getting away from me.
Also, Problem Child project is a Problem Child, and PDFs work patterns are different to mine, and I get pulled into them, and I have so many things I ought to be doing urgently like last week, and going into work is so stressful because of all the building work, labs issues, politics, other people scared/upset about the EU thing, huge amounts of uncertainty, and all the usual.
Conferencing again this week (with ProblemChild, hence the recent pressure on that project), Tuesday to Thursday, in a nearish large city (far enough I've booked somewhere cheap to stay & catteried the cat, though it WOULD be drivable - either hanging out socially after sessions or hanging out alone in a different place seem like a better use of time than dealing with a notoriously congested commute.
Just learnt that a smarmy user of a colleague with very poor understanding of the technicalities of our mutual field but excellent ability to slither into other peoples' projects was made a full professor. That, after Very Difficult Colleague (who is a repeat offender bullier of junior colleagues, who has dated his own students, and who again has very limited actual knowledge of the work he actually does or has his students do, but makes sure it's done loudly and in exotic places) also got "Chair'd" a couple of weeks ago.
I had a meeting with one of the 'star potential' people appointed to professorships in Stationary Studies (part of which we will be merging with at the end of July) and one of his new (university funded) grad students (I have no access to same - not being 'new' or stellar). Their initial project is completely undoable, because of some things that weren't checked out before they were appointed. So StarProf decides that they can use data collected using my methods, because although StarProf knows nothing about them and student has no laboratory or field experience in anything remotely relevant, it'll be easy for them to get hold of other peoples' data. Enough for an entire PhD. Oh, and will I please teach them my methods and data analysis approaches, it'll only take a day or two (clearly because my stuff is so trivial). However those pesky little rules won't let me actually be on the students' committee, but it'll all balance out in the new organisation, right? Oh yes said Incoming what a splendid idea it will Show A Good Attitude. I do not have a good attitude right now. I do have an appointment to begin teaching the student stuff next week. I hope they're a quick learner! They mostly said 'no' and 'I suppose' in the meeting, but I'd be kinda upset with StarProf too at this point...
DeleteIncoming gave out "prizes" (wine and doughnuts) at the last department meeting for the people with the "best" feedback comments from undergrad teaching (all the "we love Dr X!" and "brilliant banter!" comments, of course) and to people who he felt had worked especially hard this year. But... he won't let some of us take on the roles we ask for which we could do, gets mad when we work so hard we make ourselves sick, and none of those people got anything. Needless to say there was also no actual information about the ongoing reorganisation of everything.
I'm so tired of everything. It feels like there is no point in trying to be a good scientist and a good educator, I should just have been pushing my way into other peoples' work and publishing half-baked snippets with a bit of school-level maths sprinkled on, and maybe I'd be earning more, respected more, and...
still not happy, but REALLY, it has been a CRAP WEEK.
I'll just carry last week's goals over, OK?
DeleteSorry to be a gloomy wimp, thanks for listening.
I'm sorry for so much strife in your world, JaneB. And I find the idea of handing out awards at the departmental level particularly infuriating. Don't most of us already know which colleagues have won favor with administrators or others, or need to be given prizes because they have weaseled their way into too many other people's projects? As they say out there on the internet, all the feels.
DeleteI wish you good travel and a peaceful week ahead.
I feel your pain on last week's vote -- because of my work, my network has been deeply affected and anguished. I alternate between reading everything I can and turning off the computer to avoid thinking about it. And it must be hard to talk to your parents: I think it's hard for people who are not integrated into European networks to understand how much goes through the EU...
DeleteI am so sorry about the vote, and the repercussions for you personally and professionally. I'm visiting a UK uni this week, and people here are very depressed about it . . . Except maybe some of the college staff.
DeleteJaneB, I am one of the very many people who from outside of the UK had watched the situation keenly and got shocked by the UK’s decision. Now I am very interested in what next actual step the UK will take. It will be difficult, but the UK is a very tough, resilient and innovative country. Also the EU has experience of difficult negotiations. I strongly hope the EU and the UK will construct a new great relationship.
DeleteJaneB, Crazy politics always derail me. At the very beginning of my first sabbatical, John McCain nominated Sarah Palin as his running mate, and I got nothing done for three weeks. So I can't even imagine the difficulty of focusing on anything but politics if I were you right now. Even on our vacation in the mountains, my husband an I are spending a lot of time talking about Brexit. And your department meeting? Terrible!!!
DeleteI hope you can find ways to settle your mind and heart this week. I think some knitting is probably in order. A lot of knitting.
I hope this week is getting easier.
DeleteTalismans: that's interesting. I don't have one, but I have lots of objects and images that I like to live with. My office at work has some work related images, but also some playful things that I'm fond of (my Shakespeare bobblehead, finger puppet, and puppet, for instance). Most of the things I care about have stories attached to them, about who gave them to me or who I inherited them from.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1. Finish revisions to conclusion DONE (kind of)
2. Go through ILL books to get footnotes checked and finished, so I can start returning ILL books. STARTED< ALMOST DONE
3. (Really TRQ, but. . .) Pack up office to prepare for office move next week DONE
4. Do car rentals ONE MORE TO GO
5. Do more pleasure reading PROGRESS
6. Get through some more piles of junk YES!
7. Walk 2x along with 3x morning class NO
I did pretty well this week, but following the UK EU vote on Thursday afternoon/evening was dire, and reading the papers on Friday not much better. Most of the work I'm doing right now is not very interesting, so I easily get distracted. The week coming up will be intense, because Saturday I drive to pick up my sister in the big city airport, and Sunday I leave for a month. I won't be entirely on vacation, but I think I'll be where I want to be, with few things to do other than a final read, and fixing footnotes. Much of what needs to get done this week is in fact TRQ, but that's what needs doing. One of those weeks when sleep is optional...
1. Finish ILL Stuff
2. Do another read through the whole MS. to fit in things that need to be woven in.
3. Cats to vet for their nails
4. Prepare material for personnel case
5. Make final choice of images and write for permissions
6. Keep preparing house for a month away
7. Keep reading for pleasure, even if for a few minutes each night.
8. Three days of exercise
That is a big week! Best wishes for all of your preparation and for the month away,
DeleteSo many things done! Although sleep is optional, rest is so very important to making sure everything else goes well. Off to a great start.
DeleteSorry about the vote, and about your sister's illness. It sounds like you're doing her a real service by absorbing some of the parental anxiety, but at a real cost to yourself.
DeleteHello, everyone,
ReplyDeleteLate checking-in, again. And again. Anyway.
Topic:
Well, my favourite is just a pen. Especially I like multi-colour ball point pens. I have a lot of them. Several years ago, I started to use them and since then I always keep some of them with me, in my bag, on my desk and somewhere near the book shelves in my office. So, when I see one, I feel I am ready to write, whether I really start to write or not.
Last goals:
1) Set the time to write, and keep it. - I was not able to keep time, but I have wrote some.
2) Continue to work on Chapter 2. Revise the revision plan. - I work on a material, which I found helpful. Not especially exciting, but useful, and also made me realise ‘Oh, I did not know even this!’.
3) Writing exercise 5 of Goodson’s revised book. - I have read the part and impressed, tried but only once.
4) 5 minute short exercise more than three times a day. - A few days, though I have light pain lots of parts of my body. I had no pain with the same exercise a few years ago. Sad.
6) No snacks at night, just tea or coffee, instead. Or healthy snack. - Healthy snack, exercise, but I had too much.
Next goals:
1) Set the time to write, and keep it. Amend it to fit to my working schedule better.
2) Think about my problems from my mental aspect. Do what I need to do but have procrastinated so long, too long, because there is no formal deadline, only I have decided to do that. So it is me who have decided and have to. DO.
3) Continue to work on Chapter 2. Write a draft. (following Goodson and others, write first, revise later)
4) 5 minute exercise more than three times a day. Continue.
Have a good week, everyone!
Having a pen that gives you the cue for writing time is excellent.
DeleteHave you made a set of deadlines for yourself?
Thank you for your comment, humming42. I have set some deadlines, and postponed, postponed, postponed. Now I suspect, if I subcousciously do not want to do my projects??? If really I want to, then I must have done them already? OR just I am very lazy...I am talking with inner myself on what I exactly have to do, want to do.
DeleteAs I'm opening a tab for my scheduling program to move my deadlines further into the future, I completely understand. I should have this conversation with myself too.
DeleteI'm checking in quickly, as I am in the mountains and my technology and connectivity are limited.
ReplyDeleteI got most of my goals done for the week. I can't cut and paste, so just a quick summary: I read a couple of articles/chapters, and I read primary sources and did some bibliography, but I came up a bit short of the amount of work. Also had a great visit with dad and we've had a great time by the river, despite terrible mosquitos.
Oh, I also submitted my "Intent to Submit" for the the thesis (for 30 Sept), and I have been assigned an external examiner!!! Things are getting real, y'all, which makes it feel rather WRONG to be on vacation. But family matters, too.
This week (what's left of it) will be tricky because of visiting in-laws.
Goals:
1. 40 pages primary sources.
2. Two articles/chapters.
3. Fix bib entries, and add five more.
4. Procure Slow Professor book.
5. Enjoy family while not feeling guilty about taking some time to work.
Vacation as the opportunity to restore and recover before the final push for completing your thesis. Makes the best sense to me. Enjoy time away and with family!
DeleteThings are getting real, indeed. Sounds like you have a plan, and spending some all-important family time first, before the deadline gets urgent, is part of it. Enjoy!
DeleteTopic: Meaningful objects
ReplyDeleteI do have a lot of talismanic objects. I suppose it started with stuffed animals when I was very small, but I continue to have meaningful objects many decades later. A friend gave me a small plastic tortoise when I started my dissertation, as a sigil for perseverance. It sits on my computer at work, even if my perseverance is needed in other areas these days. At home, I have a shelf with the few objects I managed to save from my parents’ house--a picture of the six of us in front of the house, my father’s dog tags, and a few pieces of pottery my mother made. That shelf will be one of the first things I will set up in the new house later today, which proves how important these objects are to me.
Last week’s goals:
Finish packing the house--No, but very close
Pack for the conference--Yes
Try to relax and enjoy the conference--Yes
Analysis: As was not surprising, packing 80% of things goes pretty well, with the major exception kitchen holdings. What I had underestimated was the 20% that is left over when the easy categories like clothing and books are packed. It has also been an exercise in negotiation between Mr. Throw-everything-in-a-box-and-figure-it-out-later and my Must-organize-on-this-end. Thankfully, in many ways, today is the throw everything left in a box--my win is that at least I have a box in each room marked for that room, so that limits the wandering around the new house.
Next week’s goals:
Start reading the Slow Professor
Unpack
Evaluate summer goals
Have a good rest of the week--I may again be late, since I lose internet after this morning until I get to work on Tuesday.
I hope the move goes well. I love the idea of a tortoise for perseverance.
DeleteMeaningful Objects: yes there are things I cart from desk to desk, country to country. These days it is mainly a small collection of minerals and fossils, various stuffed animals, doc marten boot bookends and a lego duck. It makes my office somewhat quirky but that seems to be appreciated by students.
ReplyDeleteLast Week
1. survive yet more meetings - DONE
2. prepare for and run two outreach activities - DONE
3. leave office in tidy state despite outreach activities - DONE
4. submit draft application for consideration - DONE
5. submit paperwork for new degree programme - DONE
6. plan blanket for new wool and start it [I have rainbow yarn, - DONE
7. review summer students' work and get other 3 summer students started (and sort out their payment) - in progress
It seems to take 2 weeks to get mostly anything done at the moment. The outreach activities were the only thing that saw me through last Friday's referendum outcome. I can't quite shake the feeling of dread and weariness. Like so many I now find I live in an area that strongly voted leave and I while I knew my politics were different to the people local to the area, I didn't realise how different. Endings and break-ups seem to be a theme for 2016 - I've got a month left with major admin role at work, there are some big reorganisations going on at work this summer but with limited information and a lot of uncertainty (no, I'm not at the same place JaneB is but it seems to be characteristic of UKHE at the moment), and I avoid the news.
This week (i.e. the one ending today!)
- finish up last week's to-do list
- write conference presentation
- give conference presentation
- add some rows to the new blanket
I definitely have objects. I like objects! But their abundance and importance does fluctuate over time... I definitely like to have fun things in my office (a "shark-cat" collage/paper art object with "I love you Aunty Jane" written on it in wobbly glitter pen made by my niece a few years ago currently has pride of place on my computer monitor stand, I have a furry toy mammoth who lives between books on one of my book cases, a small plush cat with magnetic paws who can usually be found climbing one of my filing cabinets, a section of pin board devoted to postcards of field areas , lots of silly notices mixed in among the serious stuff (e.g. alongside my teaching list/numbers type reminder is a small list of the top ten classes at Starfleet Academy - Command 102 Choosing Minor Landing Party Members Who Will Die etc.). Definitely makes my office more student friendly, and reminds me that I am more than my work in those spells when I spend most of my quality waking hours there!
ReplyDelete