Week 17 - final check in for this iteration

Hello everyone, hope your week has gone well.  Summer is verty clearly into its last days - US folks are mostly starting the new academic year, UK children are trying to ignore the Back To School shopping signs that are everywhere, leaves are just beginning to turn on the earliest trees, and my sister (a UK *$ loyalty card holder) has gotten the "one week to Pumpkin Spice Latte returning!" email... I still have a few weeks before students return, but things are ramping up all round.

So it's time for TLQ group to wildly celebrate all the successes of the summer, and take a moment (with or without a relaxing cup of tea) to think about how it went and how we want to go forward into the new academic year.  TLQ will be back to help us along the way, of course - Karen and Susan will be our hosts, and they both already have access rights to this blog so hopefully they'll update us on the dates soon! 

Last week we identified a summer success to be proud of.  As a discussion topic, let's keep that positive note going - what's the one habit or routine or practice you want to continue from this summer into the new semester (or break, for our southern hemisphere members!), and what's the good moment, the 'mind's photograph', from this summer you want to remember (any sense can be involved in a memory camera - sight, touch, smell, taste, sound - or emotion...)?

Last week's goals:
allan wilson (none set)
Contingent Cassandra
1. Finish up the last of the work for this phase of the grant project (mostly my individual contribution and some follow-up, especially making sure we all get paid).
2. As much class prep as possible (TRQ, but important to getting both TLQ and TRQ aspects of the semester off to a solid start)
3. Some family-relationship-tending (which involves, in part, visiting the storage facility, so I will finally get at least the partial load that's been in my car for over a month there in the process). 

Daisy(field)
Dame Eleanor Hull
1. Stick to schedule for doing research and class prep.
2. Finish footnotes for new and improved MMP-1.
3. Put in an hour doing something about the MMP-3 R&R.
4. Figure out new exercise schedule that works with the fall's on-campus days.
5. Important errands: 3A batteries, toothbrush heads, book for reading group. 
Earnest English
1. Writing: do what you can.
2. Gardening: keep on blueberry watch.
3. Draft email to SameMind.
4. Office: work on going through more boxes
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Assess what I want to write and put an outline of each project on paper.
Breathe.
Parcel out the bigger projects into more manageable pieces for the semester.
Good Enough Woman
1) Finish drafting the remaining sections of chapter four even if they are rough.
2) Write 700 words of conclusion.
3) Go through a lot of sources quickly on Friday at the library, return to library for half a day on Saturday if necessary.
4) Add 15 sources to bibliography. 
heu mihi
no goals set 
humming42
1 Write and turn in syllabi
2 Finish chapters 3, 4, and 5.
3 Look for photographs/permissions in spare time
JaneB
1) tidy the small table next to my desk, do filing (even if just into box files labelled "2015-16 misc"!)
2) prepare talk and workshop for conference
3) planning and identifying 'constrained units' of work to do during the following 3 weeks when I'll mostly be travelling
4) be deliberately deliberate.
karen
Eye proceedure and healing 
KJHaxton
1. get work ready to do while travelling and conferencing (I always get stuff done on trains or when I wake up stupidly early)
2. enjoy conference (presenting poster not talk so much more relaxing)
3. tidy up office and leave half-decent to-do list for following week.
Matilda
1) Work on the presentation in September- coming soon, but still long long way to go.
2) Prepare for the research trip to UK in the first week of September – coming very soon. Sending lots of e-mails to arrange my trip, also I will be visiting the place where my family will stay during my study leave next year.
3) Continue to work on Chapter 2.
4) 5 minute exercise more than three times a day. Have less and healthier snacks.
5) Have fun with my children. Stay together and have a good time together. 

Susan 
no goals set
waffles
1. Finish poster
2. Start review
3. Finish relat paper
4. Set goals and plans with mentor for upcoming months.   
  

SUMMER GOALS

allan wilson

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

3. submit 2 more papers.

Contingent Cassandra

here are my goals for the summer, and some comments (especially in light of the fact that I know they're overambitious).

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. 

Daisy

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

Dame Eleanor Hull (revised week 9)

1. Make a plan for moving prep, get some estimates, start some repairs.
2. Finish all revisions: MMP-1, MMP-3, article from last summer that needs only very very small points added (a recent acceptance).
3. Write conference paper, and arrange travel.
4. Finish syllabuses.
5. Keep ignoring the book till items 2-4 are completed.
6. I so want to work on reviewing chunks of translation, but given the time pressures of 2-4, I may need to ignore this for the next month, as well. OTOH I will see one of my collaborators in August, so . . . let's say review one chunk by then, so I don't feel like a slug when we meet again.
7. Do things that keep me in touch with my real values and priorities, and avoid reading or participating in things that interfere with these.

Earnest English

Summer Goals (revised in week 8)

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.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

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

Good Enough Woman

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.

heu mihi

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)

humming42

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

JaneB (from week 9)

1) Submitted Special Issue Paper
2) Completed the ProblemChild part 1 computer work, and have a complete draft of ProblemChildAdvertPaper and a rough draft of ProblemChildDetailsPaper
3) have a decent amount of teaching preparation done or exhaustively planned
4) make about a paper's worth (say 8-10,000 words) of progress on other important writing - Picky Paper, Ferret, and one or more grant applications are the top candidates here.
5) Have solved LikesMaths (my PhD student)'s paperwork/bureaucracy problem!
6) have a plan for Gallimaufrey web site for the next academic year and possibly a head start on the first few blog posts.
7) have a visibly more orderly house, which I can hoover easily without manouvering around piles of books, papers and miscellaneous stuff held together by a fine web of self-organising cat hair
8) have made the most of the summer resources to have a better exercise habit and lost a few pounds
9) have written the workshop and talk for the September conference

karen

-make space for reading (reading fuels writing)

-forward (incremental) momentum on writing

-committed but flexible approach to self care (exercise, sleep, good food choices)

KJHaxton

Session 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

- 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'.

Matilda

Write Chapter 2

Revise Chapter 1

Plan Chapter 3

Write a book review

Keep writing regularly

Construct healthy habits

Susan

In 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!

Waffles

TLQ summer goals:

1. Manuscript 1 submitted

2. Manuscript 2 drafted

3. Manuscript from diss

4. F32 application

5. Other minor grant apps