Week Two: Hold the Space

This session prompt is a bit shorter than usual - sick kid and solo parenting weekend. Many of us are in a busy period right now. How can we hold a space to be present and inentional for ourselves, and where applicable, for those around us?


Goals

allan wilson
exercise 3x, and not work.

Contingent Cassandra
come up with session goals. 

Daisy
1) Introduction, Literature review and previous work section for Paper 1
2) Data organization for Paper 1
3) Finish and perfect Major Conference Talk for next week

Dame Eleanor Hull
For next week: since I just submitted an article and my sabbatical report, and promptly came down with the respiratory crud that's making its way around my department, I want to rest on my laurels for a few days. My plan is to spend the weekend reading novels on the couch, and probably stay home on Monday, and then see if I'm well enough to tackle the rest of the week. So I guess this week's theme is "rest and recover," and if I regain some energy mid-week, I'll come back and add some more specific tasks related to my session goals.

Earnest English
Gardening: move forward on blueberry project

Writing: 5 sessions

Health: start going to bed earlier; take supplements

Mental health: meditate 1x this week; move like water; pay some attention to checking in and trying to relax

Cooking: one meal this week

Planning: spend a couple hours updating calendar and figuring things out

Spirited!: work with him to get him back on track

Work: spend a couple hours putting syllabi together instead of waiting until next week and panicking; spend minimal time on worry

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Write recommendation letter (TLQ now, but will become TRQ if I’m not careful)
Write commentary ½ hour times 5
Organize files for book ½ hour times 5
Walk the dog ½ hour times 3

Good Enough Woman
1) Finish the PhD thesis by Wednesday.
2) Print, Bind, and Mail the thesis by Thursday (or Friday if I have some technical difficulties)
3) Try not to cancel more than one day of teaching.

humming42
1 Finish references and final edits for chapters 2, 3, and 4
2 Write to JB and JW for photo permissions
3 Look through personal digital photos for decent shots
4 Read 50 pages of a review book 

JaneB
It's the last week before students return. I have a schools outreach thing to do, multiple meetings to attend (some of which will be stressful), and a gadzillion things on my list. My email count is already soaring... however, these are the things in the TLQ that I would like to aim for.
1) self-care - sleep, eat, back to the gym maybe twice (I've been travelling or recovering from an injured ankle for a month, enough excuses - and as I've hardly been in the office, my office-chair-aggravated back problems are currently much reduced, and keeping moving will definitely help that to last)
2) half an hour a day/2.5 hours over the week on the immediate list - Problem Child, article refereeing. Nowhere near what's needed, but realistically possible, and more than nothing.
3) take ten minutes every day at work to file stuff or tidy stuff or just sharpen pencils, to keep my space MINE.
4) take ten minutes every day for tiny pieces of chaos reduction, domestic maintainance, or crochet - something about things not words, and which feels like an achievement (even if it's just loading or unloading the dishwasher).
5) practice observing other people with detached kindness... (Oh look the funny man is shouting again, he's going red, how interesting, he must have had a bad morning already)

Karen
1. Writing experiment one - diarised time on two days of the week for reading then writing
2. Investigate stand-sit desk thingy
3. make daily to do lists

KJ Haxton
1. revise scary research tool, project information sheet and consent form and get it ready for printing
2. edit house research tool 1 and get it ready for printing
3. make headway in teaching prep.

Susan
1. Finish paper for October conference and post by Thursday.
2. Organize things for trip to lovely research library next weekend: which footnotes can I easily check there?
3. Finish reading novel I started when on vacation in August.
4. Walk one day.

Waffles
1. Make edits to religion paper
2. Write LOI
3. Outline lit review for intersection manuscript
4. Survive the first US presidential debate! :)

Welcome: Introductions and Goals

Welcome to the Tilting Season of TLQ

We begin another season, taking us almost to the Solstice.  Those of us in the northern hemisphere are watching the days get shorter and cooler, while those in the southern are experiencing the reverse.

Some guidelines and groundrules.  We'll be posting on Friday, and check-ins will generally be over the weekend.  (Though in practice, many of us wait till Monday so we can check one or two more things off the list!)  The session will be a bit shorter than the summer one (14 weeks), designed to finish on December 10, before the holidays completely overwhelm people.  

For those who are new, we each set goals for the session, and then for each week.   Our weekly post is a way to think about what we're asking of ourselves, and how we're doing.  In checking in, I've found myself realizing the ways I set myself up for failure, and many of us have tried to reframe our expectations of ourselves.  The primary focus has always included research and scholarly writing, but many of us have used the group to help us develop other dimensions of our lives.  The group has been supportive and encouraging, and has included lots of sharing of survival strategies for all parts of our lives.   All you have to do to join is introduce yourself below, and keep stopping by at some point, usually over the weekend.

For this post, we would like to have
a. A brief introduction: Who are you?  Where are you geographically and/or professionally? What is important to you right now?

b.  Goals for the session.  Last session, we were asked to think about what we'd like to say about the previous three months when we sat down with a cup of tea after it ended.  Where do you want to be in mid-December? What do you know you have to do? What do you also want to do?  This can fall into categories of research, writing, self-care, work: whatever works for you. Feel free to be as detailed as is helpful to you, and to include the things that won't get done by themselves.  You might also note any challenges you face in meeting your goals.

c.  Goals for the next week:  What do you want to accomplish in the next week?   Try to be specific (says someone who has written "Look at this project" as a goal).   We'll have a check in post up next Friday, September 23.  

Welcome again!  We will try to make this an enjoyable place to stop by and keep track of your life.  Feel free to comment on each other's comments -- that's part of what has made this a special community.  

TLQ Falling into Winter: Sign Up

Welcome to regular and revisiting TLQers, and hopefully to anyone new who would like to join in.

I'm Karen, and along with Susan, will be your co-host for this Fall/Autumn into Winter (or Spring into Summer for the southern hemisphere). We will be running a 14 week session starting on 17 September and concluding on 10 December. If you'd like to join us, please jump in through the comments on this post. We will have a more formal introduction and session goal setting in week one.

As the light changes and seasons turn, we are hoping that this TLQ session will be a place for collegiality, solidarity and a valuing of self. Some of the themes we imagine will come through will be the balancing (or tilting) between teaching, administration and research; finding and holding space amidst the corporatised and perpetually restructuring university; and negotiating the enactment of seasonal rituals of family celebrations.

For now, we look forward to seeing who will join us. And please feel free to use these comments to share successes and hold your course through challenges in the interim before the next session starts.