Week 15: wrapping it up and tying a bow on it

Here are the session goals, followed by the weekly goals from last week. I thought we’d revised goals in week 7, but looking at that week’s comments, it seems like mostly people commented on what we were having trouble with, without actually setting clearly labelled new goals. So I’m taking the easy way out. But maybe you’ve done more than you thought you could! And if you want to comment based on your revised goals, please do.

How did you do? What have you learned? Remember to focus on the positive: if you’ve done less than you hoped, you’ve still done things, and are probably farther along than if you hadn’t set yourself some ambitious goals. Celebrate the things you’ve achieved! Even if you haven’t checked in for awhile, you’re welcome to tell us how you’re doing, and people who haven’t been in the group are welcome to congratulate us on achievements. :-)

Session Goals:

Contingent Cassandra
 
--improved self-care, especially continuing current trends toward moving more, cooking/eating more homemade food, getting sufficient sleep on a regular schedule, and doing more long-form reading (list is more or less in order of priority)

--continued progress on getting my financial (first priority) and physical house in order
--try to stay on top of teaching planning and tasks, the better to protect planned TLQ time from TRQ catch-up (and reduce the combined physical and psychological exhaustion that results from falling behind, and leads to lost/wasted time)

--get/stay in better touch with family and friends

--make continued reasonable progress on the grant-funded project (while keeping in mind that it isn’t currently actually funded, nor do I have any release time, etc., etc. to support it)

--prepare to apply for contract renewal and, if possible, promotion, next year

--continue thinking about next steps professionally, while focusing in practical terms on personal/household “infrastructure.” If I actually do something to advance professional goals, it would probably be writing about the grant-funded project and/or background reading for my own research

Daisy
Work:
1 - Get papers written - there are 3 for which data collection is just about complete, and need concentrated, sit-down, focused writing time. They will be my main priority.
2 - Ignore all politics, labour disruptions, gossip, and time-sucking whiny colleagues and FOCUS on Goal number 1...
3 - Hang out and work with good colleagues :)

Personal:
1 - Have lots of winter fun with kid - skiing every possible weekend, and other outside things.
2 - Get an exercise routine going so that it is an automatic part of every week.


Dame Eleanor Hull 
 
1. Life Stuff: get house on market.
2. Research: turn around two sets of revisions and get back to work on book-in-progress. Also prep for a conference in May (not a paper, another sort of thing).
3. Teaching: plan and deliver interesting classes, with useful and prompt feedback to students, without getting so detailed as to overwhelm any of us.
4. Health: maintain routines for safe food, appropriate exercise including stretching, yoga classes twice a week, and sitting 3-4x/week.
5. Leisure: plan and do at least one fun or social thing per week; plan and take a trip at spring break to visit my family.


Earnest English
 
-Grounding: Winter is difficult, so I need to really focus on taking care of myself physically, mentally, and spiritually. Sleep is a particular challenge both because of a limited day to get things done in (so I want to stay up and do or be more) and insomnia. Meditation and yoga would be wise. Baths and active self-care (such as singing) are incredibly important. I need weekly goals on this. I also have decided that I no longer want to give anxiety free rent in my head. So I'm going to work on more mental discipline aka distraction in my head.

-Spirited's therapy and education. We've started quite brightly this year, so I just need to keep on top of this.

-Gardening: Start early seeds on time at Groundhog Day and keep on top of gardening and associated projects.

-Plan and plod work: I need to keep up on my teaching and other work. This quarter I actually have a slightly reduced load and that plus winter usually means that I spend very little time on campus, which means I have to get work done at home. This is often difficult and filled with strife, both internal and external. I need to just establish a routine and keep on top of things at home and not feel guilty about it. I also need to research and come up with a snow day plan for taking my classes online.

-Writing Project: I've gotten behind on the writing (not the research, which I'm doing spectacularly on). I do need to step up my game here, so I'd like to get to 12X by the end of our session. I'm tempted to make a goal of 15x so there's 1x a week, just because that's a much more concrete goal.

-Big Report: I promised a colleague I'd write a big report, and I need to work on it a bit each week and incorporate that into my weekly plan so it will get done without panic.


Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
 
Session mantra: Plan, breathe, create
Write at least five sentences every day.
Leaven the excitement of new projects with the gratification of finishing old ones.
Monitor food intake and movement.


Good Enough Woman 
 
1. Drink more water (to avoid kidney stones).
2. Exercise 4x per week (walking and yoga, etc.)
3. Eat more veggies and develop some more healthy (healthful?) recipes for the family.
4. Totally finish dissertation (corrections, hard binding, etc.)--this extent of this goal will depend on what kinds of corrections my examiners require.
5. Complete conference paper (for Feb)
6. Submit one article for publication.
7. Take weekend time to work when necessary, but also carve out quality time for kids: hiking, board games, helping with projects.


Heu mihi

-MS revisions such that I'll be on track to have a complete, revised manuscript by September 1. For the next fifteen weeks, then, this means revising two chapters and the intro, and drafting the last unwritten section of ch. 4.
-Write 2/4 conference papers for Summer 2017. (Ideally, I'll write 4/4, but I'm trying to be realistic.)
-Return to and maintain my running schedule


Humming42

1 Read book and review (book not yet in hand)
2 Finish two revisions and resubmit
3 Follow up on work under review as appropriate
4 Submit Circus abstract at end of January
5 Submit Glass essay
6 Write 5x/week
7 Read 5x/week


JaneB

1) self-care
2) domestic progress (my house currently shares many of the features of a packrat midden - I haven't YET peed on the piles of random stuff, but...) and in an ideal world would be orderly and clean enough to invite my parents to stay by midsummer.
3) know what the situation is with regard to the trip, and be prepared for it.
4) Have a grant application text out for 'internal review' within the University
5) have made measureable progress on one of the papers _I_ want to write for _my_ research agenda, such as it is (as opposed to those which are more obligations to others/projects) - in my increasingly daft nickname system this means progressing Picky, Twiddly or perhaps ProblemChild-1-2


Karen 

Use the early part of this session to get ahead and stay on top of teaching to keep space for other TLQ stuff.
Work with co-author to get Earth paper ready for submission.
Work with research mentor to clarify longer-term research goals and steps.
More research-related reading generally.
Set in place some foundational self-care habits in the the areas of energy (sleep, movement, food) and connection (with people, with the environment).

KJHaxton

- Submit paper based on acronym report
- Write and send for feedback paper 2 (international) and paper 3 (testing)
- finish literature review for loop project and potentially review style article draft if co-authors interested
- Draft funding application on house project and decide between a grant or fellowship application (I can't do both).
- survive the last 5 rounds of chemo (every three weeks)
- walk every day, aiming for average of at least 3 km a day balanced between good weeks and bad weeks.
- work on crafty projects

Luolin

Research-
Write regularly.
Revise an article that was rejected in order to submit it to a different journal.
Submit abstract for fall conference.

Self-care-
Get more sleep.
Get back to my running schedule. (Like heu mihi! except where I live, summer is least comfortable time to run, so I'm missing out on the good running weather right now.)

Susan 

Session Goals
I'm keeping my goals modest, because on of my resolutions after finishing all the work on my book on December 23 was to try to slow down.
Research/writing
1. Write Way Outside Essay -- a semi-scholarly piece on a subject far from my expertise. I'm filling in for someone who dropped out of a collection, so the timeline is short.
2. Finish notes on forum contribution
3. Write paper for May conference
4. Start playing with material for my next (short) book, which I'll call Funhouse project. I'm teaching a graduate course related to this, so . . .

Health and home:
1. I gained weight in December, because of the cold that would not die, and then Christmas. I need to be regular about exercise. I normally go to an exercise session three mornings a week, and I'm trying to add to that. I'm not fixated on the scale, but I know I feel better when I'm exercising and eating well.
2. Declutter one room of my house, making it more functional.
3. Keep on top of incoming mail so that I don't drown in it.

Life in the world:
1. Spend time regularly with friends
2. Be an engaged citizen (rally on Jan 21, call congresscritter and senators, etc.) But try not to be overwhelmed.
3. Make sure I'm enjoying life

Waffles

1. NIH grant application (I am taking a grant writing class, and we have to write a whole application by the end of the semester; for those who know NIH apps, this will be a K level application - I'm currently awaiting the results of my F).
2. Get relationship paper finished and accepted.
3. Write election paper (I am more excited about this than anything right now - we have been able to survey almost 1000 people and counting - within a specific minority group - on their feelings about the election)
4. Get a bad draft of policy paper (not excited about this one)
5. Bad draft of dissertation paper (not excited about his, but diss advisor says doing it shows "follow through").
6. Start getting rid of stuff in my house to prep for move this summer
7. Spend some time each day on things that are not work related and that make me happy (like cooking, singing to loud music, etc) - I tend to either work or avoid working - I want to do some more purposeful things in my non-working time.

Week 14 goals

Contingent Cassandra  (from week 12)

--work on taxes (get as close to finished as possible, since the next few weeks will be busy)
--finish listing to-dos for one section
--move: walk, lift weights, and garden, at least 1x and preferably 2x each.
--participate a bit more in pedagogy project related class (maybe just some blog comments)
--write letter re: promotion to dept chair
--make progress on annual report
 

Daisy

1) Run outside 3 times
2) Continue on paper figures

Dame Eleanor Hull

1. House. Just keep going.
2. Research: prep for presentation on campus; work on Zoo thing.
3. Teaching: catch up with grading; post reading questions.
4. Health: continue regular gym workouts 3x/week, stretch every day, eat safely, go to bed early, add walking on non-gym days, now that I have good walking shoes.
5. Fun/social thing: track restorative activities to make sure I do them regularly. Consider whether Wednesday gathering is worth staying up late for.


Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Plan for the next day every afternoon, list tasks in priority order and post prominently on computer monitor
Two more days of interviews (sigh)
Plan birthday concelebration with Son Number Two
Finish blind review
More Latin (Is that like “More Cowbell?”)

Heu mihi

1. Finish rough draft of Berks (incorporate MN and CS, both of which I need to re-read/re-skim; reread the paper for continuity etc.; probably revise the intro)
2. Read the first 5 pages of ch. 5 in preparation for submitting it to my writing group.

Humming42

1 Read 5x
2 Write 5x
3 finish abstract
4 get caught up on grading and service

JaneB

1) relax actively - do some crochet, read some fiction, work on my NaNo writing
2) send easter goodies to family and notes to some friends
3) start work on Picky Paper OR rewrite GrantINeverShouldHaveStarted
4) keep all the rest of the job, emails and that, to one hour a day, however much fuss it makes!
5) domestic disorder reduction

Karen

-Make list of all the big picture thinking documents I've been promising to work on over the Easter break and rank the tasks
-Marking - make steady progress.       
-Offline time - planning to go camping for two nights over Easter

KJHaxton

1. gentle progress through the TRQ to-do list that needs to be done before going on holiday.
2. start new knitting project (small hats but knit with multiple strands of wool to test various colour combinations before doing something bigger).
3. tidy up house.

Susan

1. Really finish Way Outside
2. Walk twice
3. Make hotel reservations for short trip to UK in May.
4. Get good sleep, and avoid twitter and fb right before bed.

Waffles

1. Mixed methods paper and pretty much nothing else.