Contingent Cassandra:
1. Movement (whatever I can manage, but some), and continued regular sleep.
2. Get grading that needs to be done by end of spring break done by the end of this week, so I don't have to grade over spring break.
3. List prep and grading to-dos through end of semester.
4. Email elderly relative's granddaughter for phone #; send him card in the meantime.
5. Send 2 emails re: renewal/promotion
6. Draft conference proposal related to grant-funded project
7. Continue contemplating what I want to do about grant-related class (maybe a little light commenting on others' blogs so I don't entirely disappear)
Daisy:
1) Try the every paper every day thing so that each of the three papers has something to show by the end of the week.
2) Run 3 times
3) Finish non-urgent but nagging admin stuff
DEH:
1. House: do something. Anything.
2. Research: work in slots scheduled for research (5 days, this week).
3. Teaching: catch up with grading so I don't have much to do over spring break.
4. Health: get back to regular gym workouts 3x/week, stretch every day.
5. Fun/social: do something restorative/pleasurable every day; schedule something besides the play.
Earnest English:
On TLQ sabbatical :)
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell:
Three PT appointments and all the exercises in between.
Dental appointment.
Transcribe Latin and French once a day at a minimum of half an hour each day.
Read through the notes from the last research trip, and add to commentary.
Work with book structure three days for a minimum of half an hour each day.
Good Enough Woman:
1) Bills and banking, updating credit card, etc..
2) Well child appts for kids.
3) Schedule (or get) knee x-ray.
4) Tidy study.
5) Cut 300 words from article.
6) Create research/reading plan.
Heu mihi:
1. Work on ch. 4: do the easy parts, then reread once to flag problems and work spots (I can do this on the plane)
2. Read grad student’s intro (10 pp.)
3. Work on first 3 pp. of Norway draft
4. Clarify post-break assignments; update Moodle
Humming42:1 Read 5x
2 Research/Write 5x
3 Return Mars proofs (I have not been able to access them)
4 Draft book review
1) 1 hour on Ferret
2) 1 hour on typing up notes from the workshop thing
3) drink more fluids and focus on eating fruit and vegetable rich meals (I've been away, it messes with diet, ALWAYS, and I do find it hard to reset...).
Karen:
KJHaxton:adminfrustration x 3
writing x 3 [get the paper ready for submission]
crafts - bags for Easter must be finished
marking x 3
Luolin?
Susan:
1. Read book for Way Outside
2. Draft outline of paper
3. Walk two times
4. Read for pleasure
Waffles:
1. Aging paper methods and tables
2. Gender paper intro and results
3. LHF grant - reading and thinking
4. K99 analytic plan - finish
5. watch some tutes on using dedoose
After last week, I was thinking it would be interesting to talk about work and music - and here it is our topic! Kismet!
ReplyDeleteI can only listen to music I know very very well in the order I know it in - so I have several playlists I listen to when I work. Taylor Swift's "Shake it off" will always be indelibly associated with my dissertation, as I played it super loud every morning when I had to revise it based on feedback. :) For my diss, I had a playlist of indie music by women (e.g., pearl and the beard, karen elson, etc.). This summer, I switched to either the Hamilton cast album or a playlist of kind of old school gospel music (I used to be in a choir, and it is mostly music we sang). I'm completely 100% not-religious, but I find this playlist calming and energizing at the same time.
On nov 9, music interests changed, and I made a playlist of protest songs from the 60's. And recently, I have been listening to a playlist of Laurie Anderson pieces (performance artist). In the rotation too is the Hamilton mixtape.
But, if I am reading - I can't listen to anything. I can sometimes listen to music if I am writing, but not always.
Onto my goals:
Last week
1. Aging paper methods and tables - DONE
2. Gender paper intro and results - NOT DONE
3. LHF grant - reading and thinking - SOME READING AND THINKING OCCURRED. I had an idea to connect it to the K99 I am writing, and that will make the grant a lot easier.
4. K99 analytic plan - finish - DONE
5. watch some tutes on using dedoose - NOT DONE, but will do today
Analysis: Last week a different goal took priority and that was doing the final edits to a paper I submitted on Friday (yay!). I also got a little sidetracked by working on others' work, and a ton of meetings on my on-campus days. I'm curious how others balance others' work and your own? I was asked to read multiple versions of some colleagues' NIH grant. I'm not 100% certain why they asked me to read it, as I'm not on the grant. And although I want to help them, I don't know that it was the best use of my time - especially since it seemed like they disregarded chunks of my feedback. On the other hand, that is what colleagues do - they help each other even if there is no personal gain. I can't add this to my CV, but these are good relationships and they help me tons as well, even though there is no direct benefit to them. But how to balance that so that I don't fail to meet my own timelines?
Goals for this week:
1. Aging paper - near final draft (this has been a crazy project - we have basically 2 weeks to pull together a manuscript in an area none of us are expert in)
2. Gender paper (do *some* work on this)
3. LHF grant (pull together new idea and share with mentor)
4. K99 next iteration
5. Read for E's paper and work on intro
If others would be willing, I'd love to listen to a song that really energizes you and makes you happy. This is one of my best for changing my mood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07eJDn4_1mg
I could also use some advice on how to balance others' work with one's own. I'm known as a good editor (and I'm pleased by that), but then I'm expected to help out, sometimes at the expense of my own work. I've been told I'm too polite, or that I'm a weakling.
DeleteAs for the song, it's got a great, happy beat, which almost always works to make me happy. One of my mood changers is below. It's not the band's official video, but the pictures of Ireland make me happy as well as the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwXXvv1Sx7c
Delightful to find another Laurie Anderson fan. I've thought about buying United States, which I have never owned. Some of the old audiocassettes were replaced with CDs, but I haven't kept up with her recent work. Any recommendations?
DeleteYes indeed, you were the inspiration :)
DeleteI love the link you posted.
I normally have a theme song for each academic year. I pick a song that particularly resonates and normally listen to that as a reset. I now have a playlist of theme songs. This year never got one in the end so stuff that's made the list previously:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oiLfTnrC40 [has to be this version with the cute animals}
and this, Runrig/ Big Sky (live version - I like the crowd participation). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouHH7GVrkTg
Now, with two links, will this pass the spam filter?
I listen to Strange Angels and Big Science exclusively. I listened to Homeland recently - which is supposed to be her "most accessible" album, and I disliked it.
DeleteLove the marmoset song!
DeleteBTW - my current fave Laurie Anderson song is "Baby Doll"
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtXCNhSBMQA
One look at the lyrics and you can see why they might befit an academic:
"I don't know about your brain-
But mine is really bossy
I come home from a day on the golf course
And I find all these messages
Scribbled on wrinkled up scraps of paper
And they say thing like:
Why don't you get a real job?
Or: You and what army?
Or: Get a horse."
And then this part is every day with my brain:
"Well I'm sitting around trying to write a letter
I'm wracking my brains trying to think
Of another word for horse
I ask my brain for some assistance.
And he says: Huh...Let's see...How about cow?
That's close."
"Baby Doll"! My go-to Laurie is Big Science or Mister Heartbreak.
DeleteTopic: Music is pretty central to my work. I cannot write while anything with lyrics is playing, so my writing playlists are familiar classical works, like the Brandenburg Concerti, or the Four Seasons. I do prefer to listen to more lively things while doing tasks that take less concentration, highly dependent on my mood. I was on a Kelly Clarkson trend for a while (“People Like Us,” and “Breakaway” were my anthems) as well as Lady Gaga (“Bad Romance” and “Poker Face” usually have me dancing around--badly, and only when alone). If I’m happy, I’m usually listening to Irish music. One problem is that I have to wear headphones in my veal-fattening pen, and that is sometimes seen as running counter to the requirement of having an “open-door” policy. The end result is that I don’t get to listen to music as much as I would like, or ironically, as much as would help me be more productive.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
Three PT appointments and all the exercises in between. Mostly.
Dental appointment. Yes, and it wasn’t nearly as horrible as I had feared.
Transcribe Latin and French once a day at a minimum of half an hour each day. Yes.
Read through the notes from the last research trip, and add to commentary. No.
Work with book structure three days for a minimum of half an hour each day. Yes.
I slightly injured my arm Wednesday evening, which put me behind a bit. It’s ironic, because I was feeling better, so I forgot not to push myself up with the right (dominant) arm. It let me know quickly that it was not happy with the use!
As for the dentist, I had avoided going for a much longer time than normal, and then kept avoiding it. While I’m not going to get any awards for dental health, I was in much better shape than I expected.
The Latin and French transcription is still awkward, since I am holding a book and typing into a computer with only one good hand. It must make quite the picture, but I managed! I didn’t get to the notes from the research trip last year to a library downstate, but did manage to think about the book structure.
Next week’s goals:
Take a slow transition back to work on Wednesday.
Keep up with PT and exercises.
Preserve at least one hour a day for transcription and scholarly thought.
Staff evaluations, which are quickly approaching TRQ.
Once more into the breach. To quote Earnest English, move like water, friends!
Good job on appointments (of all stripes) and PT work! Yay! But sorry about the re-injury. I hope it wasn't too much of a setback.
DeleteI hope you recover quickly from the reinjury.
DeleteI find that songs in a language I don't know are OK when working - Scots Gaelic fits the bill nicely, particularly with the gentle celtic lilt.
Scots Gaelic is a great idea, KJ--I don't know it at all, so it wouldn't burrow into my brain.
DeleteWhen grading/marking, I tend to put on television for background--usually a series that’s very familiar that I don’t need to attend to. I will also play an array of YouTube music videos, but that can be a distraction, looking for the next best thing. Music is way too distracting when writing, but I do sometimes put on classical or jazz.
ReplyDeleteFor songs of joy, I’ll add Joe Jackson’s Another World (great housework and cooking music): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg_B-QnINXQ
1 Read 5x: 4x
2 Research/Write 5x: 2x
3 Return Mars proofs (I have not been able to access them): yes
4 Draft book review: no
This week is spring break and I am not traveling or vacationing. I set aside a lot of things with the assurance that “oh I’ll do that over spring break.” So here I am, with no excuses.
1 Read 6x
2 Write 7x
3 Finish book review
4 Finish other pressing review
5 Submit R&R
6 Find ways to savor time off every day
My spring break (which is not for a couple of weeks) will be like yours. Lot of work, but I hope to find ways to savor the time, too. If you find any good tricks, let me know!
DeleteI am jealous of spring break. Our Easter is in a few weeks, and yes it's 3 weeks long but we've been going since early January without let-up. We then get a stupid couple of weeks before the end of semester and it's just a scheduling nightmare. I'd prefer a week to break it up somewhere and keep on going right to the end.
DeleteI work a lot to the TV and yes, to shows I'm familiar enough for my attention to wax and wane and still have the thread of what's happening.
Throughout my entire dissertation/thesis process, I didn't listen to music while I wrote. This is partly because I was so often in coffee shops (so I guess there was SOME background music). Also, I really can't listen to music with lyrics while I write or read or grade papers. I should probably try to put together a classical playlist, but I do okay without music. I have found that I can do grading/marking with HGTV on in the background as long as the shows on are not any of my favorites. As I think I said before, during one paper in my MA program, I listened to Joni Mitchell's Ladies of the Canyon album over and over again throughout the whole writing process. It was great. Recently, I've been resetting my mood with the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack. :)
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1) Bills and banking, updating credit card, etc. DONE.
2) Well child appts for kids. NOT DONE.
3) Schedule (or get) knee x-ray. NOT DONE.
4) Tidy study. DONE.
5) Cut 300 words from article. DONE.
6) Create research/reading plan. SORT OF DONE.
Although my success looks moderate, I felt like I crushed this week. I was very productive even though my work time was mitigated by a lot of parenting responsibilities. I took care of a lot of little things I hadn't been dealing with. I paid bills. I uploaded files to Canvas. I can't even remember all I did, but it felt good. I took a page out of Contingent Cassandra's book, and I put my calendar to work. I entered all of the incoming batches of essays into my Moleskin calendar (which I hadn't really been using), and doing so gave me a good picture of what's to come and how I might pace the grading (and a good picture of the week's when I'll be slammed no matter what I do). I also did a better job of keeping a running to-do list for the week, and this helped my productivity tremendously.
I felt especially proud today that I finally took some souvenirs from the UK to a neighborhood girl who is an Anglophile. She has brain cancer and her mom asked me to pick her up some things because she LOVES the UK (mostly because of Harry Potter, I think). I did get her some things, but it's taken me two months to drop them off. Today, the kids and I took the things over there, and then, after that, we brought housewarming gifts to a friend of mine who recently bought a home. I was thrilled with myself. I'm not someone who naturally does thoughtful things like this that require extra errands. I'm really patting myself on the back. It feels good.
Even though I was very productive, I also felt like I had some relaxation time. I was more intentional about my time, and I found that listening to a good podcast while knitting a few rows could really reset my mind and make me feel less frantic--like I'd had "me" time. I found a podcast called "What Should I Read Next?" which is all about good books. It's been great.
This week:
1) Do taxes. boo, hiss
2) Take care of things daughter needs in order to be Selene, Goddess of the Moon at her school's Open House this week. Do other volunteer-related things for the open house in a timely manner. Drop off the silent auction thing on Monday afternoon or Wednesday morning.
3) Cut 500 words from article.
4) Read one thing.
5) Request the family's permission to work late two nights this week so that I can stay caught up (sort of) with grading.
6) Make x-ray appt or get x-ray.
7) Make well-child appt.
8) Exercise 3x.
This plan seems ambitious but maybe doable.
Yay for getting things done AND feeling that they're done! Those things don't always go together.
DeleteI'll keep adding to the topic in different comments. I've been watching all the YouTube links posted - it's really interesting!
ReplyDeleteLast week:
writing x 3 [get the paper ready for submission] - 2 x writing DONE but I'm still spiralising through the research stuff so haven't made substantial progress on this paper. I don't know what my problem is!
crafts - bags for Easter must be finished - yes done and given
marking x 3 - didn't do a great deal of this, was saving it for this week. It's a more prescriptive and linear task so better for chemo weeks.
This week:
It's a chemo week so we can look forward to a couple of days of steroid high (do all the things, don't sleep much, do more things) then a couple of days of crash (I don't want to adult today, I need easy tasks with clear mark schemes and well defined breaks and end points - marking week!).
marking x 5 (let's clear the decks so I can spend time spiralising various parts of the research salad)
adminfrustration/teaching prep x 3 (prep Friday's lecture for colleague to give, prep exam stuff. Tackle admin associated with the task where I broke the VLE, had to remake the assignment manually by exporting and uploading the student work and which will mean manually collating grades and feedback. Yes 100+ students doing self- and peer assessment creates about 6000 different sub-grades to compile using excel. Ugh - but for this week I just need to respond to student queries about the peer assessment.).
tidying and clearing up just keep things tidy, get all the research project paper filed into the nice folders I bought.Prepare for next week.
Ugh, so sorry to hear about the admin/broken VLE!
DeleteIt looks like winter has hit just in time for spring break. It will be cold all week and today it’s snowing. It sort of makes me wish I’d gone away . . . but there’s too much to do. And weather here is so unpredictable. A few years ago, I went to Arizona for spring break and it rained and was chilly there just as it warmed up markedly here, so I felt I really hadn’t gained a thing except for the change of scene.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
1. House: do something. Anything. YES! Finished those disgusting moldy boxes in the basement (see Spring Break, Day One, chez moi).
2. Research: work in slots scheduled for research (5 days, this week). MOSTLY. I think I put in 5 hours, not ideal, but way better than nothing. And finished an ILL book.
3. Teaching: catch up with grading so I don't have much to do over spring break. YES. Still have 9 revisions to grade but all the rest is done.
4. Health: get back to regular gym workouts 3x/week, stretch every day. YES!
5. Fun/social: do something restorative/pleasurable every day; schedule something besides the play. Yes and no—just reading and TV for the daily fun, no other social life.
New goals:
1. House: Clutter-busting binge, and talk to our real estate agent; get him to tell us what else must be done and what doesn’t matter because buyers would likely re-do anyway.
2. Research: one hour a day, just to stay in touch with projects.
3. Teaching: grade 9 essays that students revised. Put up post-break assignments.
4. Health: Continue regular gym workouts 3x/week, stretch every day, eat safely and try one new food.*
5. Fun/social: take time for fun reading and other relaxation; if regular Wednesday night thing resumes, bake for it.**
6. Other: renew passport.
*If I can bring myself to it. I lose a lot of time to feeling ill when new foods go wrong, so sometimes I really don’t feel like testing things. It might be worthwhile to test something that would be likely to rule in or out a whole category that is currently strongly under suspicion. But I’m working on finding the courage for that.
**I won’t be able to eat the thing I plan to bake, but I would enjoy the process and feeding my friends—plus doing so would clear some space in the fridge.
Did anyone do something to the settings for the blog, or is blogger just having an off day? I had to log in with my blogger account to post this. When I tried to comment with Open ID (wordpress account) or with name/URL, everything just disappeared and I didn't even get the "verify" pictures to appear.
DeleteI usually prefer silence or possibly classical music to write to or for serious reading. Classical guitar is good. OTOH, almost anything will do for grading, because mainly music forms a sort of counter-irritant to whatever paper I'm reading---it seems to give my monkey-mind something else to occupy it while I focus on commenting usefully.
DeleteUpbeat hard rock is great for Getting Sh!t Done, like "Paradise City."
Lately I've been listening to Leonard Cohen's last album (You Want It Darker) pretty heavily, because I love Leonard and it was an Xmas present. "Folk punk" sort of sums up my listening preferences in two words!
One thing I wish we'd done when we sold our last house was to just get a storage unit so the house could have less clutter without our doing all the work. But agents will know what will be worth it -- $10K to add $20K to the price is well spent.
DeleteGood luck. At least you're not getting the full blizzard treatment coming to New England!
I expect we will get a storage unit but things still have to be packed to go in it, and I refuse to store the moldy remnants from the Great Basement Flood! Deciding what I can live without for awhile is hard even if I know I can get it back. I'm trying to bring myself to give away my childhood dolls' house, my favorite toy. It's selfish to keep it. I'm not playing with it, and I don't have little-girl visitors. But I feel rather dog-in-the-manger-ish about it.
DeleteKeep the dolls' house! For now, anyway. I have two boxes of Breyer horses that I plan to tote around with me more or less until I die. Since I've given away just about every other childhood toy, I think it's fair.
DeleteOooh, good topic! I don't listen to music continually, but I do use it as a cue to work... which does mean some albums are now irrevocably linked to certain kinds of task (Keane "Under the Iron Sea" = astronomy assignments, Bach's Toccatta and Fugue = Maths for Physicists, Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" = revision for aNYTHING At undergrad). I like polyphony for focus, preferably something I haven't sung myself (New World Symphonies the current repeat-play). Grading music is typically folk-rock I know well - Steeleye Span's "Cogs, Wheels and Lovers" at the moment, mostly, with a side order of "All the Pretty Horses".
ReplyDeleteBut its best use is for emotional reset or get-butt-in-seat starts to tasks.
- NaNoWriMo writing, which happens mostly when I'm tired and in the mood to noodle around, is almost always Smoke Fairies.
- I have a short playlist of energetic songs and one of rebalancing songs which I use in the office to counter-balance the effects of meetings or email-borne stress. The lead "energy song" right now is Ray Wylie Hubbard singing "Whoop and Holler" (the sheer driving energy of it always straightens my spine), and for pulling out negative energy Alison Moyet's version of Dido's Lament.
Bad week all round here, and I'm really overwhelmed with teaching/university related TRQ stuff. Just so behind! I think the workshop I went to week before last was well worth it, but it upset the delicate balance of my semester, and now I'm off the wave crest and trying not to choke on sea-weed or get eaten by papery grading-sharks...
ReplyDeleteJust transfer the same goals forward, although THIS coming week is pretty bad too, so it may be a bit ambitious to find 2 hours for research stuff however urgent.
Sorry for the crappy week. Just so much to do sometimes...
DeleteMeh - sorry it's been a bad week. Keep swimming...
DeleteWhat a fascinating topic! I almost always work in silence. I have had various playlists at times that I've worked to, but I just never think of it. (And my playlists all got messed up a few years ago, so . . .) I do sometimes listen to music in the car -- especially recently, when I've wanted to avoid the news. So I've listened to the Hamilton soundtrack a fair bit recently. For a historian, "Who tells your story" is a great anthem... But mostly, when I do listen to music for working, it's music without words: classical, jazz, new age. For driving, words are key -- will also keep me awake. I used to have tapes of Jim Croce, Peter Paul & Mary, the Weavers, Holly Near. One of my issues is just adapting to the new technology. I don't think it's hard, but I have to DO it. A goal for the summer.
ReplyDeleteGoals last week:
1. Read book for Way Outside STARTED
2. Draft outline of paper NO
3. Walk two times NO
4. Read for pleasure NO
It was insane. I was out for work dinners two nights, and twice with friends. I had a day at a meeting in the big city; I drove my mother to an appointment in the city an hour away, which ended up being 5 hours out of my Friday. I haven't had a day off in I don't know how long, and I'm fried. I had a bunch of days where I had meetings on and off all day, and I barely got through email. Sigh.
On the other hand, on Tuesday night I got a physical copy of my book!!!!! (So one of my nights out was calling a friend and saying, I need to celebrate!) THANK YOU TLQ Group! You've been with me through this, and it's been so helpful.
Goals for this week:
1. Keep reading for Way Outside
2. Finish admin task
3. Finish grading
4. Walk once
5. Do something nice each day of the weekend.
Two weeks till spring break. I can't wait. I want one day when I lie in bed eating bon bons and reading something frivolous.
The book! The book! That is so fabulous! Amazing. It's like baby. You know, maybe sometime we should have a post in which everyone lists all of the articles/projects, etc. (not by title, of course, but just by generic type) that have happened during TLQ. Kind of like how these days one sees a list of "production babies" at the end of movie credits.
DeleteBut, really, congrats. So impressive to bring a book into the world.
And I am so excited for you to have a day of doing nothing and eating bon bons! In the meantime, I hope you have a productive week in the warm glow of the light that shines from your book.
Huge congratulations on the book! There's nothing like holding the physical piece in hand, so enjoy and celebrate!
DeleteI like GEW's idea of a list of our accomplishments, too.
Congratulations! So nice to have a physical thing that represents so much work.
DeleteI also like the idea of an accomplishment post - it would be good to reflect on how far we come.
Thank you!
DeleteCongratulations on the book!!!!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMusic is a big help for me. I usually only listen to BBC3 online radio in my office, they have enough variety for any mood, and are actually really good at playing stuff I don't know and including lesser known composers and genres. As a former musician this is crucial. The presenters are also good at the balance between talking and just playing music. Our local ones talk endlessly about crap, and only play about 10 composers (and don't get me started on the "first half of one movement" thing they do!).
ReplyDeleteFor other days there is the occasional "shake it off" Taylor Swift for when I am frustrated (loud, and sometimes our little hallway sings along), David Bowie's last two albums for darker days, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo for heritage and general mellowness.
Last week's goals: It was a reasonable week at first, but got derailed by teaching crises, and lots of events. Not a bad one for emerging from the fog!
1) Try the every paper every day thing so that each of the three papers has something to show by the end of the week. GOOD START
2) Run 3 times YES (does it count to substitute two skis for one run?)
3) Finish non-urgent but nagging admin stuff DONE
Goals for this week:
1) Every paper every day continued
2) Three runs
3) Report for contract work (not due yet, but don't want it to become a TRQ crisis)
4) Keep up with new time-tracking software, I'm really enjoying this one (toggl if anyone is interested)
I am so disastrously late to this check-in that I'm going to keep it short. I was at a conference Thurs-Sun, and have had a hard time getting going again since--the blizzard on Tuesday didn't help (because it meant my son was at home, too), and certainly I can't imagine spring birds waking me up!
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1. Work on ch. 4: do the easy parts, then reread once to flag problems and work spots - VERY LITTLE DONE
2. Read grad student’s intro - DONE! One thing, at least.
3. Work on first 3 pp. of Norway draft - NO
4. Clarify post-break assignments; update Moodle - NO
This week:
Priority is going to be help myself relax a bit. Since I basically have today and tomorrow to work, all I'm going to try to do is:
1. Read most of the book for next week's seminar
2. Read chapter 4 and flag problem parts
3. Make an effort to notice and, if possible, stop cycles of anxiety and mental busy-ness.
Late checkin here, too, partly because it's (supposedly) spring break (marked by ice, snow, and unseasonably cold temperatures).
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, though singing choral music is a regular part of my life, I don't listen to music much. I probably should experiment with doing more of that. For me, music that serves as a background to work definitely needs to be instrumental only; words are too distracting (and I may be someone who really concentrates best in silence, though I suspect that music might be a good way to "take the edge off" anxiety and/or boredom, and so increase productivity).
Goals for last week:
1. Movement (whatever I can manage, but some), and continued regular sleep.
2. Get grading that needs to be done by end of spring break done by the end of this week, so I don't have to grade over spring break.
3. List prep and grading to-dos through end of semester.
4. Email elderly relative's granddaughter for phone #; send him card in the meantime.
5. Send 2 emails re: renewal/promotion
6. Draft conference proposal related to grant-funded project
7. Continue contemplating what I want to do about grant-related class (maybe a little light commenting on others' blogs so I don't entirely disappear)
Achieved: actually caught up on grading (!!!!!); sent one renewal/promotion-related email. Mixed success on sleep; none on movement; continued to ignore class related to grant-funded project (which may be a decision in itself, and quite possibly a good one).
Goals for this week (which is spring break):
--rest/renewal: at the very least, plenty of sleep, preferably without getting badly off a schedule that works with school schedule (despite time change -- my least favorite one).
1. movement: try to work some in, despite weather
2. cooking (clean out/reorganize fridge; make/freeze some oatmeal, soups, etc.)
3. work on finances (esp. taxes)
4. list prep/grading to-dos through end of semester
5. do conference proposal and plan other grant-project work (which probably needs a new name, because it's not at all clear there will be any more money involved -- pedagogy project? curriculum project?)
6. figure out what to do about pedagogy/curriculum project-related class
That's too much, especially since it's already Thursday, but it's how I meant to spend my time, and I've done some of it, and will do some more)