This seems like a good moment to check in with ourselves with a six word story. This practice began with Ernest Hemingway, who wrote this one: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” This week’s practice is to write a six word story to describe where you are with things right now. Feel welcome to be as verbose as you wish as a follow up, but I’ve found it to be a good exercise to spend time realizing the incredible power of words.
May your week be rich, sweet, and calm.
Here are last week’s goals:
allan wilson
1. Exercise for at least half an hour a day
2. Make conscious food choices
3. In the spirit of summer, make some time to think about long term goals, without rushing
Contingent Cassandra
1. Do individual contribution to grant project.
2. Take a load of stuff to storage.
3. Work on contacting friends and family/planning post summer term travel
4. Try to work some exercise into otherwise very busy week.
Daisy
1) Prepare field stuff (TRQ)
2) Set students up for absence
3) All revisions for minor revision paper
4) Ignore Hideous paper some more (let's be realistic...)
5) Accounting
Dame Eleanor Hull
1. Find something useful I can do while in front of the TV (mending? sorting through a box of something?).
2. Make lists and plans for (a) House Stuff and (b) work, thinking carefully about remaining summer (about 5 weeks) and the transition to fall teaching.
3. Keep forging ahead on the MMP-1.
4. Do some reading for the MMP-2 revisions.
5. Have another go at the bellflower, and put plastic down over the parking space to kill weeds there.
Earnest English
1. SFP/writing: Keep on going with plans. Read. Write. Enjoy.
2. Gardening: Get salad seeds started in basement. Order elderberries and blueberries?
3. Work: Event this week so I have to prepare my talk and associated stuff, including little email. Letter of rec. Return student email.
4. Take a big breath and look at FreakyEmail. This counts as my LittleProject task for the week.
5. Yoga/tai chi/meditate. ????
6. Family fun and tasks.
7. Read.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Catch up with Slow Professor
Think about the projects and write a few sentences every day.
Continue unpacking one box a night when home
Investigate the neighborhood pool and the Y
Good Enough Woman
1) Finish major editing of chapter 3 by Friday.
2) Read secondary sources as necessary for chapter 3, then start reading for chapter 4 next weekend.
3) Read 50 pages of primary source.
4) Focus on work except for Tuesday (anniversary) and one major outing with kids (maybe to the pool? or a hike?). Work late at least 2-3 nights.
5) Make appointments: dentist for daughter, dermatologist for me.
heu mihi
1. Read/take notes on next new teaching book.
2. Meditate x 5.
3. Read one research book and at least two articles.
4. Reread rest of ch. 5/6 draft and figure out next steps.
5. Yoga x 2.
6. Run?? If it's not too hot.
humming42
1 Read remaining parts for Mars
2 Start drafting Mars revision
3 Outline Mercury essay
4 Pick an RBP chapter and revise it
5 Finish and submit unconfirmed thing
karen
-actually do some form of exercise that isn't typing :)
-get marginally ahead on content generation so next week is easier
-contact collaborators
KJHaxton
1. several days off
2. finish final version of thing 1
3. make more progress on acronym report
4. avoid all work related drama.
Waffles
1. Once I get edits from co-mentor on grant, turn it around quickly to give to mentor for review
2. get back to my pubs to try to get one submitted soon
Fun idea!
ReplyDeleteA watery summer metaphor:
"Flailing around, bailing, but still floating"
Thinking about our favourite mantra from recent sessions, which is also my summer 'theme' - move like water
"Eroding that mountain pebble by pebble"
I like that one, it feels optimistic without underestimating how much there is on my plate!
Although to quote my current album-on-repeat-in-the-car:
"...wish I could lie like a cat in the sun/'stead of working like a dog for the cash..."
It's been really hot this week, after a summer which has been quite cool and pleasant, and the abrupt change was hard to deal with. I had three days on a course (learning a new software package. it was OK, useful, but the leader has a more 'go with the flow, keep everyone together' teaching style than I prefer, and that coupled with a largish group some of whom were poorly prepared which meant that we didn't actually cover the last day of the three day syllabus. That, of course, was the part I really wanted to learn... Then Thursday I had errands that disrupted the day, and Friday was meetings. And stress, but at least stress-in-good-company. And (see pic on blog) the ducks on campus apparently realise how stressed everyone is (new organisation comes into effect 1st August. No one is ready, roles not appointed, chaos all around) and decided to add some cute to our lives by sending one of their number into the courtyard to hatch a late summer brood - 9 balls of adorable brown and yellow fluff bumbling around the flowerbeds and an excuse to run the hosepipe out into the courtyard from the utility room and play with water ("just refilling the water for the ducks/cleaning up duck poop"! It took five post-grads to refill one small dish on Friday afternoon, but they all looked a lot happier and cooler (if a little drippy) once it was done...) definitely improve things.
last week's list:
1) complete the lists no. I LIKE writing lists, but apparently not enough...
2) read and comment on second draft of paper with collaborators yes, and we submitted it Friday! This is Crispy paper, an offshoot of the Data Crunching project. I can't take much credit for it, all I did was a hard and thorough edit of two drafts and a proof read of the submission version, but still... progress!
3) spend an hour or so excavating and organising my desks at work and home no
4) go to the gym twice or so no. Been too hot. Gym is actually air conditioned, but the changing rooms and areas you have to pass through aren't, and include the swimming pool foyer - hot sweaty chlorine zone, and I was too heat-grumpy to want to deal with it
5) keep on top of emails ish
6) do software course and use software in some small project yes! And I used the method to automate and speed up part of Problem Child, which was satisfying
the coming week
DeleteSigh. I have my first counselling appointment in the short series work will fund (6 sessions) on Monday, then have to go straight in to the office to the last meeting of my main admin committee under the current structure, at which I will present the semester 2 admin role report & hopefully get it signed off. And then expect another long meeting with PDF about ProblemChild which will not quite solve everything outstanding, and Special Issue Paper which is due 31st July... Tuesday - Friday I have a student from another university coming for training, so that will keep me busy. I want to tie up a lot of loose ends at work, as I have the next two weeks OFFICIALLY OFF - staycation, but as I keep mentioning, my domestic environment is chaotic, and the plan is to write stuff I want to write for a couple of hours a day, go to the gym or otherwise exercise, play with the cat, work on my crochet project and novel reading, and work on the house/on decluttering. With a visit to niece in there somewhere.
Fun idea!
A watery summer metaphor:
"Flailing around, bailing, but still floating"
Thinking about our favourite mantra from recent sessions, which is also my summer 'theme' - move like water
"Eroding that mountain pebble by pebble"
I like that one, it feels optimistic without underestimating how much there is on my plate!
Although to quote my current album-on-repeat-in-the-car:
"...wish I could lie like a cat in the sun/'stead of working like a dog for the cash..."
It's been really hot this week, after a summer which has been quite cool and pleasant, and the abrupt change was hard to deal with. I had three days on a course (learning a new software package. it was OK, useful, but the leader has a more 'go with the flow, keep everyone together' teaching style than I prefer, and that coupled with a largish group some of whom were poorly prepared which meant that we didn't actually cover the last day of the three day syllabus. That, of course, was the part I really wanted to learn... Then Thursday I had errands that disrupted the day, and Friday was meetings. And stress, but at least stress-in-good-company.
TLQ for next week (a bit TRQish but...)
1) complete the lists!
2) complete and submit Special Issue Paper (design and create 2.5 figures, write the intro and abstract, and edit the heck out of the thing. PDF is in charge of references, at least!)
3) spend half an hour a day excavating and organising my desk/office at work
4) go to the gym twice or so
5) complete travel calendar etc. for rest of summer, put notices on door about absences etc.
6) meet with Incoming about LikesMaths problem and some teaching matters (ugh)
And I am now about to try & upgrade my home computer to Windows 10. I may be heat-maddened, and it might take a LONG time... but I'm two chapters behind on Slow Professor reading, so I'm off to do that Slowly, Calmly and Savouringly (I think it will go nicely with a glass of apple-and-mango juice with ice and a seat on the back step now that's just gone into the shade...)
DeleteSometimes it's just about the ducks. The diversion that we don't expect are a cheery necessity when so much else seems senseless. Just the same, things are definitely moving forward in your world. I hope the upcoming staycation will be marvelous!
DeleteThe ducks sound delightful, and just the ticket for summer doldrums. Here's to a relaxing staycation, with enough done to relieve stress without inducing more!
DeleteDucks are definitely good.
DeleteAnd I'm generally happy with Windows 10, give or take a wifi connection issue on campus (which I haven't entirely worked out; I think the bottom line is that they've hidden the menus for tweaking connection settings several layers further down in the name of "simplicity" and I haven't yet found them). The computer seems to be running very smoothly and a bit faster (but I upgraded to a solid state drive and did a clean install, and also upgraded memory last year, so it's hard to tell what to attribute to Win 10 and what to attribute to other factors. In any case, a computer which simply works most of the time, without a lot of delays, is a good thing. The only thing that doesn't behave all that well is the web-based interface for Outlook 365 -- school email. I hoped that running that on Edge would eliminate some problems, but not entirely.)
Surfacing. . . I am alive :)
ReplyDeleteI meant to check in, but vacation in multiple places is chaotic.
The party for 30 people was great -- everyone loved it, all 8 of my stepsons surviving cousins were there, plus children and some grandchildren. Everyone had fun. It turns out the BEST place to throw a big party is someone else's house: you don't spend the whole week cleaning, and you feel no compunction about going to the grocery store and buying everything. Aside from heating things in the oven, the closest we got to "cooking" was washing lettuce and cutting up strawberries. And a 5 year old girl proposed to my 6 year old grandson, who turned her down because he's marrying a girl in his class!
Anyway, to more serious things:
Susan (carried over)
1. Make last two revisions in text DONE
2. Finish permissions work DONE, Everything requested, no problems.
3. Begin bibliography/footnotes project. Get through Introduction. (That's the worst because everything is new to the bibliogrpahy.) I've finished the first run at creating the bibliography. Detail work to go, but. . .
4. READ, have fun. On Thursday I start a week with my three stepsons and 2 spouses and 2 grandchildren in a house I've rented. This includes a party for some 30 family members in a place I don't live on Saturday. I like everyone involved, but they are three brothers, and there are dynamics, so I want to try to keep calm and be low key.
That happened. And after my family week I had 6 days with a friend in a cottage where the owner (head of an Oxford college!) did not have internet. Which was great, because we could not obsess about politics. I've been in the big city for the past two days, and because I did *less* work on holiday, I've been working. But it's been fun too.
Goals for the next week:
I fly home Monday, and Tuesday leave for a 4 day trip camping just outside a big national park, entirely off the grid. So I'll set two goals
1. Begin to tidy up bibliography. Fix at least two problems I've identified with yellow highlights.
2. Have fun.
I'll add that disconnecting -- and being in a place with limited internet access - was really great. I'm looking forward to phase 2!
What delightful family stories. And I would guess that everyone being offline was good to focus on time together. I had the occasion of having my cousin's 11-year-old son talk to me while playing a game on his iPad and I realized how distracting my own lack of eye contact must be.
DeleteAnd getting work done on revision and bibliography too! I feel like these last weeks of summer will be both productive and pleasurable as many of us push to make the most of it.
So glad to hear that the party went well! And also that you had a lovely disconnected week.
DeleteDisconnection is a particularly good idea right now...!
DeleteIt sounds like such a lovely time. I agree with everyone above about disconnection. As much as I whined about not having internet for that first week in the new house, there was something quite nice about talking to the kids rather than everyone with their nose in their phones.
DeleteThe cottage sounds fantastic! Glad you've had such a lovely vacation (and have also made book progress!).
DeleteSound like a great several weeks -- and good inspiration for me for building a bit of something similar into the next few weeks, and much more into next summer.
Deleteallan wilson
ReplyDeleteCool topic! As I am currently reading Angela Duckworth's book Grit, the best six words to describe things right now equates to a Japanese proverb she mentions in her book: Fall down seven, get up eight.
Alternatively: winter is here, spring is coming.
1. Exercise for at least half an hour a day -YES. With help from the family. Sometimes I really love them.
2. Make conscious food choices -YES. I cooked tonight, quinoa and beans and coriander and spring onions, and it was delicious.
Elsewhere, I bought lots of chocolate this week- raspberry infused, and sea salt caramel, and I have looked lovingly at it, and not yet eaten it, because I really want to feel like it when I do,and savour every mouthful. It was thrilling just buying it, and now looking at it.
3. In the spirit of summer, make some time to think about long term goals, without rushing YES - starting to do this. I am really enjoying thinking about the relationships between passion and perseverance, and how that is reflected in my work and search for purpose in my work, and also the relationship of effort to skill, and what it means to lose your mojo, and how to get it back. As I mentioned above, I have found Grit interesting and I think a potentially very helpful book for me. Seems to suit quite well, given a recent spate of work management edicts apparently designed to mute the most creative of researchers!
Nest weeks goals:
1. Exercise every day (habit building is the goal here!)
2. Revisions paper 1
3. Draft revisions paper 2
4.Submit overdue, boring but very necessary report
I first heard "fall down seven, get up eight" in the aftermath of the Fukushima earthquake, and how those six words created an attitude of calm persistence and patience. I had never thought of applying it to my own life but I can see tremendous benefit there.
DeleteThe mindfulness of savoring the purchase, the presence, and the anticipation of chocolate is so lovely. You encourage me to be more mindful about food, which I seldom am, and results in a bad relationship between my mind, my body, and my consumption.
So much good reflection about things here.
Oh my, sea salt and caramel chocolate! Your mindfulness, as humming42 says, is exemplary. I did an experiment last night, taking one small piece of chocolate as dessert--and it was totally satisfying. Thank you for the inspiration!
DeleteI also need to do some reflection on perseverance and passion, as well as lost mojo. Your thoughts are helpful.
"Grit" is on my "after the thesis" reading list. Glad you had such a good week! Kudos on the exercise and mindfulness about chocolate.
DeleteA winter snapshot for my six words:
ReplyDeleteFire radiating, screen aglow, clouds gathered.
Last week:
The week of catching up never really caught up with itself.
-actually do some form of exercise that isn't typing :)
Does walking around on a Pokemon hunt with child count? I'll count it.
-get marginally ahead on content generation so next week is easier
Not so much
-contact collaborators
4/10 is better than none.
Next week:
I have a treat to look forward to that the end of the week, as we go away for the weekend for a big family birthday event. To make that happen I need to be focused and efficient this week - breaking things down to smaller tasks that mean I can keep putting one foot in front of the other. There's a whole host of TRQ stuff to work through around online teaching, face-to-face teaching and rapidly upcoming exhibition, but I will try and sneak in a few TLQs for balance:
- one form of exercise that isn't typing
-try long hand one page of writing on work days to start building a writing habit
-drink water
PokemonGo is definitely exercise! There are some very positive attributes to this mini-mania. People working together, walking, going to places they otherwuse might not.
DeleteMay TRQ be swift and easy!
My daughters are both involved in PokemonGo with the grandchildren, and it sounds like exercise to me!
DeleteI can attest to writing longhand helping me establish a writing habit--I think I do too much else on a keyboard, so it doesn't feel different enough, if that makes sense.
"Frantic and hot - thanks climate change."
ReplyDeleteSo, my NIH grant is due next week. Our big plans to have me submit a manuscript at the same time have completely fallen apart. Luckily my mentor is extremely okay with that. Unfortunately, she is now out of the country and likely will be pretty unable to check email and won't be able to review any more drafts - so I am on my own. I felt close to a breakdown about that yesterday.
I'm contemplating sharing my research strategy with my writing group, but they tend to suggest massive changes to ideas and methodology (and want the complexity to be increased tenfold)- and that is super not helpful right now. I also find their input to be a bit of an emotional downer for me. That said, it would be far better to try to get them to stick to what is doable in the given time frame and read it over for clarity BEFORE I submit it and find that the NIH couldn't make heads nor tails of my strategy.
Last week:
1. Once I get edits from co-mentor on grant, turn it around quickly to give to mentor for review - DONE and working on revisions from mentor's review
2. get back to my pubs to try to get one submitted soon - NOT DONE. Overly ambitious goal. My mentor very nicely put me on another manuscript that I can list. I've never been a part of a team where that happens - it's really refreshing.
This week:
1. Work on grant.
2. Freak out about grant (might as well make some achievable goals!).
As an aside - in my mentor's letter for my grant, she wrote that she was "quite taken" with my "creative mind" and my work ethic. Such a nice compliment. I adore her and am unbelievably lucky to get to work with her.
How lovely that your mentor wrote that, especially about a creative mind. That is so refreshing! Add to that you have a team that looks out for one another. Both those things are so positive, and may help balance the freak-out, I hope.
DeleteAll the best with however you decide to go with the writing group. Weighing pros and cons is always hard for me.
Not sharing your work with people who see things very differently from the way you do is a good, safe practice. I think it takes a real commitment to the quality of your thinking, creativity, and methodology to resist the people who want you to do it their way because it's all they know.
DeleteHow marvelous to include freaking out on your list of goals. That seems like a brilliant way to ensure you give yourself the space to freak out, after which it will probably be so much easier to maintain calm.
That's so fantastic that you will be including as part of the team on the manuscript, and great compliments from fab mentor!
DeleteI've worked in almost total isolation on my PhD thesis and have wished for a writing group, but your concerns about feedback sound justified. A colleague recently offered to read some of my chapters before I submit, and I told her she would only be able to suggest fairly easy fixes. #parameters
I hope your "freaking out" is the energizing kind!
I sent my research strategy to my writing group - fingers crossed I get good feedback. I like feedback from people in other areas with different research focii - what I don't like is when the feedback seems to take the tone of "the way my field does it is right, and your field is wrong" because that's not helpful, and that is often how some people in this writing group approach things.
DeleteSo far, freaking out has been to a minimum - except I was freaking out via email to my mentor because as of monday, I had whittled my to do list from 16 to 6, and I didn't see how it was possible that I could only have 6 things to do on the grant! I was convinced I was missing some huge things! :)
Topic: Six word stories
ReplyDeleteThis is a fun topic, although my entry is a bit sad. Chaos of boxes engenders chaotic mind.
Last week’s goals:
Catch up with Slow Professor. Complete failure, even though I like the book and the discussion.
Think about the projects and write a few sentences every day. Yes.
Continue unpacking one box a night when home. Yes.
Investigate the neighborhood pool and the Y. Neither.
Analysis:
I seem to have ground to a halt, partly due to a painful hip and neck, partly due to the incredibly hot weather and insufficient air conditioning, both at work and at home. The entire northern hemisphere seems to be getting this weather right now, so I know I am not alone, and shouldn’t whine!
The window shopping for furniture I did while in the big city was a lot of fun. I have been steadily unpacking boxes, and steadily ruthless about getting rid of things we don’t need. Even so, I think that I will have to add a storage piece for the kitchen, which was the one “meh” space in the new house. It is the original 1960 kitchen, when a toaster and coffee percolator were the only appliances gracing counters. I enjoyed going to shops with lots of mid-century modern pieces that would fit the house, while bringing it closer to my needs.
I also thought a lot about the various projects, especially on Thursday, when I received notice of a new peer-reviewed journal looking for submissions, where it seems my Pierpont article might fit. The first issue deadline is the end of August, so I am hopeful that I can pull something together for it.
Next week’s goals:
Prepare for mid-week meeting with the Dean.
Read the Slow Professor chapter I missed last week, and catch up with the discussion.
Write every day on Pierpont.
Set up bookcase in home office.
Have a wonderful week, and all my compatriots in the northern hemisphere, stay cool!
Your six word story points to clarity--an understanding that chaotic boxes are the reason behind chaotic mind. And yet, you are engaged in thinking creative thoughts and laying down the lines in the midst of unpacking madness.
DeleteDoesn't sound to me like you were at a halt. Sounds like you were focused on your home, which totally makes sense.
DeleteI hope the appointment in the city went fine.
Thanks for seeing the upside, humming42! I feel that I often sound so very Eeyore-ish in these posts.
DeleteI don't know yet about the results of the tests, GEW, but the fact that they didn't whip out a neck brace or metal halo is reassuring!
Six words: Gut recovered, Tour over, forge ahead.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1. Find something useful I can do while in front of the TV (mending? sorting through a box of something?). YES
2. Make lists and plans for (a) House Stuff and (b) work, thinking carefully about remaining summer (about 5 weeks) and the transition to fall teaching. NO
3. Keep forging ahead on the MMP-1. YES
4. Do some reading for the MMP-2 revisions. NO
5. Have another go at the bellflower, and put plastic down over the parking space to kill weeds there. NO
It was a bad week. Apparently coffee has to go on the Do Not Ingest list. I'm not complaining about that; I am more a tea-drinker, and tea is still safe, so I can get my caffeine. I like the taste and smell of coffee, but it's not in any way essential.
I AM complaining about feeling ill for four days. Now that I'm better in general, the things that are troublesome seem to hit much harder than they used to. When I feel ill, my head is full of doom-mongering voices and it's immensely difficult to get started on anything. I had two decent work days in the whole week, and for the most part I gave up and just watched the Tour, with a bit of mending done on a couple of days. It has been much too hot to garden (hi, Elizabeth and Waffles!). I did manage to make travel arrangements for August, ordered a book, and sent an e-mail that resulted in images for the August conference paper.
But now I seem to be back to normal, and the Tour is over, so if I stick to foods I know to be safe, I expect I can do much better this week. When I feel well, I can settle down to work with minimal procrastination and almost no brain-noise. The difference is amazing.
1. Finish the MMP-1 revision (main text).
2. Read for MMP-2 revisions.
3. Correct proofs for recently-accepted article.
4. Outline conference paper.
5. Work on syllabi and/or setting up Blackboard for classes.
6. Have another go at the bellflower, and put plastic down over the parking space to kill weeds there.
7. Plan the remaining three weeks . . . don't panic . . .
There are actually eight weeks till my sabbatical report is due, so that leaves a little time after classes start to perform mopping-up operations.
Shoo shoo those doom-mongering voices. They visit me too, especially with migraines.
DeleteTrying not to think that there are only five weeks left. Shooing away that panic too.
Break out the Bugge Spray!!
DeleteThere are no bugges. It's like I've moved to another climate. I can't get over the difference.
DeleteSix words: garden sweat, flock chores, happy summer.
ReplyDeleteI want to note this because sometimes I think I'm never happy, so negative that being happy is just not possible. I am happy. I mostly make my own hours, hang out with the family, do garden and chicken/duck chores, etc. I'm reading wonderful books about food and gardening and homemaking. I made dinner last night and Spirited!, who eats nothing new, actually ate what I made and said we should have it more often. I also made cookies last week. I love this. And it's not just that this is lazy time (though not being rushed is a huge part of my general happy outlook) because we have lots of chores and have to propel ourselves to do them; I think the happiness comes from not feeling any big compromise between what I believe and what I'm doing. This is important and signals to me some important things for the future (as in 10 years from now).
Last Week's Goals
1. SFP/writing: Keep on going with plans. Read. Write. Enjoy. YES!
2. Gardening: Get salad seeds started in basement. Order elderberries and blueberries? YES AND YES.
3. Work: Event this week so I have to prepare my talk and associated stuff, including little email. Letter of rec. Return student email. Talk done. Student email done. Must get letter of rec done.
4. Take a big breath and look at FreakyEmail. This counts as my LittleProject task for the week. DONE!
5. Yoga/tai chi/meditate. ???? Nope.
6. Family fun and tasks. YES!
7. Read. YES!
Analysis
Some scary extroverted things late last week, but I managed through them. I go to campus today and then I think I don't need to for the rest of the week. Woohoo!
This Week's Goals
1. SFP/writing: Keep on going with plans. Read. Write. Enjoy. Step it up on the 8y front and don't forget to move notes from notebook to computer.
2. Gardening: Water seeds in basement. Get stuff for blueberry planting and begin to dig the holes. Check out elderberry planting too, get stuff, and begin.
3. Work: Letter of rec. Some tasks and emails on Important Service.
4. LittleProject: send a packet this week to CoolJournal? To local organization who might care?
5. Yoga/tai chi/meditate. why is this still on my list? Yes, meditation is great. Yes, I really need some movement. But I need to really figure this out and not just feel bad about not doing it each week. Figure this out a bit.
6. Family fun and tasks.
7. Read.
I'm with you on #5. Regular classes have mitigated the yoga problem (I go twice a week, and that's enough for now), but I would like to build other movement (other than scrambling up and down the stairs in my house all day, which it often feels like I do) into my schedule. It's really hot right now, though. And meditation! Yes, so hard, for some reason, to keep it going.
DeleteLots of YES on your list. Hooray for that, and for happy too. Seems like it is truly summer, and truly a break, when you don't feel conflicted.
DeleteWhich raises that question about why we do so often feel conflicted...and reminds me that while I have read Slow Professor, I have been slow in posting to the discussion.
The gardening, reading, and cooking sound fabulous! Those are all of the things I want to do right now (this is typical when I must do something else). Each morning, before, I start thesis work, I watch an episode of Pioneer Woman to get my fix vicariously.
DeleteGlad summer is so great!
Thanks all! I appreciate your kind feedback!
DeleteAnd humming42, please don't make the Slow Prof discussion a stick to beat yourself with. But if there's something that I could be doing to invite you more fully to the discussion, please let me know. I really should comment on people's comments, I'm thinking. That would help. What do you think?
Thanks for that. I don't think there is anything more you need to do. We just need to show up in the space you've made.
DeleteHaving trouble thinking of six words?
ReplyDeleteMore seriously (and maybe too optimistically):
Doing better than I might think.
(At least, by my usual summer standards.)
I'm trying hard not to be alarmed by the fact that I have only four weeks until the week-long vacation at which I will not work, and to focus on really doing as much as I can before then. A big, solid push will have me making significant progress on multiple fronts this summer.
Last week's goals:
1. Read/take notes on next new teaching book. DONE
2. Meditate x 5. Mon/Thurs/ ONLY TWICE.
Some nights of very bad sleep, and then a sick kid, made it way too hard to get up early. (Or he was up early anyway.) I'm going to revise this goal in the future to get the number out of it--I will do it when it's strengthening and possible, not on a strict schedule.
3. Read one research book and at least two articles. BOOK yes, ONE ARTICLE--that's okay--I'm sick of that chapter and need to move on for a littlw ehile.
4. Reread rest of ch. 5/6 draft and figure out next steps. DONE! I think that I have a sufficiently workable draft for now and am ready to let it sit.
5. Yoga x 2. DONE
6. Run?? Yes--once. It's been really hot.
This week's goals:
1. Read and take notes on one (new) book that I'm teaching this fall.
2. Read VMO, which I should have read like in graduate school.
3. Meditate as is possible and strengthening.
4. Ch. 3: Rewrite/restructure/revise the whole damn thing in one week. Do it!!
5. Paint bathroom trim (finishing up a house project).
6. Schedule gutter replacement estimate.
Brilliant play on six words! I note that "Meditate as is possible and strengthening" is also six words, and a good mantra for me in this final push too. Wishing health for the whole family too...it's so hard when kids are sick.
DeleteHmm. A six word story. I don't have much of a narrative arc right now, so I'll take my cue from Dory (of "Finding Nemo" and "Finding Dory") who focuses on the now: "Just keep working, just keep working."
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1) Finish major editing of chapter 3 by Friday. NOT DONE, but getting close.
2) Read secondary sources as necessary for chapter 3, then start reading for chapter 4 next weekend. PARTLY DONE (Yes, for chapter 3, not yet for chapter 4)
3) Read 50 pages of primary source. NOT DONE (more like 20).
4) Focus on work except for Tuesday (anniversary) and one major outing with kids (maybe to the pool? or a hike?). Work late at least 2-3 nights. NOT DONE. I worked, but not enough. Had good family time though.
5) Make appointments: dentist for daughter, dermatologist for me. ARGGH! This week, I swear!
Analysis: This week, I got a cold, and that slowed me down. We're also dog sitting for my mom's adorable little dog, but this adorable little dog is somewhat distracting and is a bit disruptive to our family sleep patterns. All of this made me tired. I also, again, focused on kids too much. This is partly because my husband had to focus on digging a trench for our new sewer hook up (our whole town has to switch from septics to sewer--it's been a multi-decade controversy/ordeal but it finally happening). But the sewer hook-up is mostly done, and my cold is waning, so this week I should be able to focus on work. Trying not to feel guilty for taking so much time.
I'm just having such a hard time digging in and putting my nose to the grindstone! Must do better this week. I think part of the problem is that I am anticipating (anxiously) feedback from my supervisor on the chapters I send about 5-6 weeks ago. She said it would come at the end of July. Hard to move forward when I'm worried the feedback could be derailing. It's also hard not to focus on the kids.
This week's goals:
1) Make appointments.
2) Finish revision of chapter 3 and make major progress on chapter 4.
3) Read 50 pages of primary text.
4) Do 2 work nights (which means staying out at a coffee shop and skipping family dinner, or staying up later after family dinner).
Shortly after I wrote the above check-in, I took a quick walk down to the bay with one of the dogs. The walk took only 20 minutes, and as I result, I got to take in the beautiful bay (which is only separated from the ocean by a sandbar). During the walk, I thought, "I love seeing the water, and it only takes me 20 minutes. Why haven't I been doing it more often?" So I'm going to add the goal of walking to the bay at least seven times this week. One down, six to go.
DeleteI love the ocean, and am super jealous of your proximity!
DeleteHmmm, you make me remember that I live less than an hour's drive from a lovely ocean bay, and yet I haven't been there yet this summer. Something to add to the list. In fact, I think it should be TLQ - Stick Feet In Ocean. Walking access would be even better... but I can walk to a river or a common pasture (a landscape with grass and trees managed for conservation and cows, not for dogs and children - both need to be on leads, effectively!), and I haven't done THAT either.
DeleteOooh, walking to the bay or putting feet in natural water sounds like a wonderful goal! And I'm glad to see it because so many of you all's (no, I'm not from Texas, but I lived there one hot summer, so I'm allowed) goals are to be so productive! I hope we all remember to rest and feed our souls too! I find just looking at the pond calming. (And you all know about the studies that support interaction with nature, yadda yadda yadda.)
DeleteHmmmm... love the six word story challenge!
ReplyDeleteSince I'm leaving for three more weeks of field work in a few days, that is all I can think of!
"six flights, two days, helicopter waiting"
"blood-red lingonberries, yellow bake-apples, tundra moss"
At home right now it is more like:
"running around, searching, organizing, coffee helps!"
Last week's goals:
1) Prepare field stuff (TRQ) IN PROGRESS
2) Set students up for absence DONE
3) All revisions for minor revision paper DONE
4) Ignore Hideous paper some more (let's be realistic...) LIKE A BOSS :) when I ignore a paper on purpose, it knows it has been ignored...
5) Accounting DONE
For the next three weeks the only communications I will get are the ones sent by carrier pigeon. I cannot even tell you how much I'm looking forward to that!
Have a great couple of weeks everyone!
Oh I love your second one. It brings the whole feeling of a proper northern open landscape, Sphagnum and Cladonia and the indefinable not-a-smell cleanness of big air and wet peat and rocks and water... Envious!
DeleteEnjoy! The declaration of ignoring Hideous Paper does mean that you are in communication with it, so that's something to consider should you ever feel like talking with it again. As we say, silence is a speech act.
DeleteMy story: Pressing forward, determined but also scared.
ReplyDeleteFieldwork is done, micro-vacation is done, and now it’s just me and deadlines. Lots of them. I want all of these projects to be beautiful and excellent. So another six words: Buddha said, “just do your best.”
Last week:
1 Read remaining parts for Mars: yes
2 Start drafting Mars revision: yes
3 Outline Mercury essay: no
4 Pick an RBP chapter and revise it: no
5 Finish and submit unconfirmed thing: finished but not submitted
I did write and submit a quick digital posting that excerpted work from an old essay. It’s an online space that I have wanted to contribute to for some time, so I was satisfied. Also happy to finish unconfirmed thing, which I think has potential to be published.
This week:
1 Finish Mars
2 Make significant progress on Mercury
3 Revise an RBP chapter
4 Submit unconfirmed thing
5 Write Venus abstract
6 Write Capricorn abstract
This week:
ReplyDelete1. several days off - done, lovely break
2. finish final version of thing 1 - done
3. make more progress on acronym report - done and submitted (this has gone on for 3 years so I can't quite believe I've submitted it)
4. avoid all work related drama. - done
Today feels like the first day of summer and it's my last day in admin role. I remember a poem from primary school that always reminds me of that feeling of freedom:
Girls scream, boys shout, dogs bark, schools out.
It's not quite 6 words but it's always conjured up that sense of ending, summer expanding before me, and brings back the smell of warm tarmac and salty air.
No goals this week - I was still working on last weeks!
Yay, break! Yay, done! Yay, avoided drama! What a good week.
DeleteTopic: What's Left? Time? Tasks? Priorities? Recalculating.
ReplyDeleteAnalysis/explanation: it's getting toward the end of the summer term, and toward the end of the summer (since things really re-start halfway through August), so I'm trying to figure out what I can do, and what I really should do -- once I get grades in, that is. I think self-care and catching up with friends and family is the main thing, plus ongoing work on the grant project, and the minimal necessary amount of advanced class prep (the rest will be crammed into the week before school starts, on purpose -- that's enough time to do the job, and I want to protect what I can of the rest).
Goals for last week (actually, at this point, the week before last):
1. Do individual contribution to grant project.
2. Take a load of stuff to storage.
3. Work on contacting friends and family/planning post summer term travel
4. Try to work some exercise into otherwise very busy week.
Achieved/analysis: really only #1, and that only partially. The course is taking up most of my energy and attention, if not really all of my time.
Goals for this week (being realistic):
1. Finish grading as soon as possible (TRQ in service of expanding TLQ time/focus).
2. Keep planning/coordinating grant project work as necessary
3. A bit of planning for the few weeks "off" (though this will probably mostly happen next week)