Next week is the last week of this session, and since we'll probably want to end next week on a positive note, I thought that this week, we could look back on the TLQ areas from this session that were especially challenging, analyzing why we had trouble with them and how we might need to adjust our behavior or adjust our goals in the future.
Some of you were very successful with all of your goals, so you are welcome to skip the topic and just do check-in, or perhaps you can share a time from the past when you had trouble focusing on a TLQ goal or establishing a new habit but then managed to overcome your obstacles to create a pattern of success.
My first day of classes is Monday, and I know many others are preparing for a new term. I hope you all find time for TLQ and "deep work" even as the tide is turning (or the river is getting wilder, or whatever nature metaphor you might fill in). For those of you not starting a new term yet, I hope you can avoid meetings and continue dig into TLQ.
Also, wherever you might be, watch out for Nazis and the Klan.
Contingent Cassandra (carried over)
1) Get grades in (TRQ, but also necessary to having a bit of time to concentrate on TLQ)2) Figure out what I'll do when in the next month as much as possible
3) Keep lifting weights; get in the pool; move some more mulch if weather cooperates
Dame Eleanor Hull
Self: regular stretching and walking; see if I can get back to the gym without injuring myself; haircut; massage; have fun with out-of-town visitor.
Teaching: finish syllabuses for fall; set up Blackboard shells for classes.
Research: 5 hours each on revisions and on translation project.
House: Garden work, finish packing my study, finish packing the guest room.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Walk forty-five minutes a day.
Work on Prudence one hour a day.
File thirty minutes a day.
GoodEnoughWoman
1) Do last syllabus. Make necessary copies for first week of classes.
2) Get new curtains for daughter and a curtain rod for son.
3) Hem existing curtains for son.
4) Exchange daughter's clarinet for a flute (long story involving clarinet cheilitis).
5) Write 1000 words.
6) Walk dog with son. Watch Gilmore Girls with daughter. Take both to the beach for boogie boarding.
7) Arrange for a piano to be moved from my mom's house to my house (I don't feel like doing this AT ALL. Too much organizing and coordinating of schedules.)
8) Oh, and swim at least once.
heu mihi
1. Full rereading of ch. 2; get that one book to finish that one paragraph.
2. Reread intro and figure out what I need to do.
3. Read SD's thesis (defense on Friday).
4. Keep working on to-do lists for other chapters.
5. Get caught up on some phone calls and emails; schedule car maintenance.
6. Finish syllabus 3/3 (this should take all of 15 minutes; no excuses!).
7. If I have time and/or need something concrete and mindless to do, photocopy stuff for second course pack.
humming42
1 finish grading and post grades
2 submit page proofs
3 submit reviewer comments
4 finish chapter 1 revisions
JaneB
1) write up and send notes/samples related to BlackSummerProject, try and tick off my part of the next step
2) write up the Picky Paper results from last week
3) Gallimaufrey review and possible grant - collect up comments so far, pull together, propose tasks others can do, send out emails
4) clear my office desk!
5) enjoy working with the Visitor
6) move more!
Karen
1) finish abstract ahead of extended deadline
2) draft theme area grant application
3) do one pomodoro of office tidying
4) move more (2 x yoga, 1 x walk - think about downloading a couch to 5k app)
KJHaxton (carried over)
1. finish posters
2. finish exam questions
3. finish skirt
4. start new knitting project (wool is ordered, sketches and plans made...)
Matilda (carried over)
1) Finish first draft of Chapter 2.
2) 5-minute-exercises at least twice a day.
3) Find ‘my own 15 minutes’ as many as possible, and do something.
4) Re-consider my plan.
Notorious, PhD (carried over)
-3000 words this week
-3 yoga/four morning meditation
-One source collection
AND... clean up desk mess!
Oh -- you know, I'm going to add to my list: "Finish one nagging task." I have three, so I should be able to pick. Decluttering the mind.
Susan (carried over)
1. Make sure I've ordered desk copies of all books for fall
2. Keep moving
3. Keep reading
Waffles
1. Outline for expectancies paper
2. Asthma paper - figure out next steps
3. Email guy from Tennessee
4. pack, clean, pack, clean, and random details related to packing and cleaning!
Hello everyone! Sorry I wasn't around much last week and thanks to GEW for popping in and commenting.
ReplyDeletelast week's goals:
1) write up and send notes/samples related to BlackSummerProject, try and tick off my part of the next step notes done, samples mailed, 4/10 of my bit done
2) write up the Picky Paper results from last week ish
3) Gallimaufrey review and possible grant - collect up comments so far, pull together, propose tasks others can do, send out emails not yet
4) clear my office desk! nope, but some productive procrastinationwas achieved!
5) enjoy working with the Visitor yes! A simpatico research collaboration, and seems to be going well so far...
6) move more! a bit. with Visitor, High School Student and a variety of stuff going on in the department this week, plus forgetting to pack lunches/being disorganised/not washing up the leak-proof containers I carry lunch in so I needed to go out to get food, I did move around quite a lot more at work than normal. My back likes it!
analysis
A mixter-maxter sort of week. A full 5 days, and long days at that, in the office meant I was thoroughly tired and demotivated at points, but I didn't turn on the computer in the evenings (hence lack of blogging) so did some reading and some early to bed sleeping which means I came into the weekend feeling less completely flattened than normal - today (Sunday) I actually felt like doing a few things, in the morning not just the hour before bed! Work shouldn't be this debilitating... and a fair bit of it is managing my own emotions and responses. It's boring! I have a lot of stuff progressing, and most of it is part done not near completed. So what didn't work?
1) focusing on ONE TASK - I wanted to get Picky Paper close to done this summer. That just hasn't happened - ProblemChild pushed in, GrantINeverShouldHaveStarted doesn't want to be finished, Ferret is nagging for attention, then there's the Gallimaufrey review, and Tagalong paper, and the one that got resubmitted which may not even have a nickname here, and a lot of teaching-related work... not to mention the stuff I'm pushing back until these things are done. It's hard! And sometimes I am confident that I MUST focus on one thing and put it first, and other times I feel that's just piling guilt on top of everything else, that I should work with reality not with some perfect dream state.
2) self care routines. I am just bad at this, and I know it ought to come first, but I get so tied up in worrying about keeping my job and doing it well enough and not letting people down that it is really hard to stick to this. Especially when I'm battling my basic instincts (which are, when things outside are hard, to hunker down and hide from people... which involves being static, staying in, eating comfort food, oversleeping/anxiety and panic, either being unable to read or plunging into books obsessively and being unable to STOP reading (which messes up my sleep patterns really badly), and reaching for distractors (sudoku, match-three games and the like on my phone). And no, at first at least, I do NOT feel better if I go out and eat clean and walk and all that stuff - I feel even more tired, guilty about not enjoying things, and anxious about failing...).
Gah, I don't want to think about this!
One more week of Visitor and High School Student, so goals will stay broadly the same.
goals:
1) tick off 6/10 of BlackSummerProject
2) work out shape of Picky Paper as it stands
3) Gallimaufrey review and possible grant - collect up comments so far, pull together, propose tasks others can do, send out emails
4) clear my office desk!
5) enjoy working with the Visitor
6) move more!
What didn't work, most of it?! This has been a strange summer to round of a strange year. Things that I've struggled with:
ReplyDelete- working between home and work, and assorted waiting rooms and cafes. When I'm working without clear deadlines (and the support that comes with collaborative papers) I tend to graze a bit through work so I like to have options and pick what I want to do. Being in different places means I have to be more specific about what I will do and where. It will be easier once semester starts when I'm mainly based at work, with a day at home.
- my filing system. I work between a few computers so I'm shifting all of my work (teaching and admin) to google drive, and all of my research stuff to dropbox. I tend to do more online editing/working on teaching/admin so using Google slides etc, but for research I tend to prefer offline hence dropbox. I trust the offline synch a bit more on dropbox.
- grazing around on projects. I need to try to wrangle my head into being slightly more linear and working on one project more consistently. I also think I work better in 2-week chunks than 1-week chunks.
I'm avoiding the more difficult to tangle with things such as the difference between good enough to submit and absolutely great, struggling to prioritise my own stuff over the needs of other folk,
Goals carried over
1. finish posters - done, printed, uploaded, blogged about and ready to go to conference
2. finish exam questions - partly done, I hate them.
3. finish skirt - not touched
4. start new knitting project (wool is ordered, sketches and plans made...) - wool arrived, just shy of half way through.
This week:
1. trip to big city
2. trip to conference
anything else is a bonus
What didn't work: getting back to work last week. The fragmentation, plus having enjoyed vacation and wanting more of it, led to my frittering away available time, in essence taking another week of vacation but feeling guilty about it. Humph.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
Self: regular stretching and walking; see if I can get back to the gym without injuring myself; haircut; massage; have fun with out-of-town visitor. YES, NO, YES, YES, YES. I hate the haircut, but at least my hair grows fast.
Teaching: finish syllabuses for fall; set up Blackboard shells for classes. NO, NO. I think I did about one hour of work on teaching.
Research: 5 hours each on revisions and on translation project. NO. A big, fat, resounding NO, as in zero.
House: Garden work, finish packing my study, finish packing the guest room. YES, NO, NO.
This week I really do have to finish the teaching prep, because next week I'll be in the classroom. I also have to get used to getting up at or before 6:00, and getting to bed early to match. Normally I am a lark but between one thing and another, this summer I've been sleeping more like midnight-to-8:00 than 10-to-6. This week I'm experimenting with carving the day into 1.5 hour sessions, alternating work with something else: research, cats/breakfast/stretching, teaching prep, lunch/leisure, packing, exercise, and a final chunk of whatever most needs doing (which can include putting my feet up and reading). It sounds like very little work, but (a) during the assigned slots, I am not allowed to goof off, so it's concentrated work, (b) the point is to set a low goal so I can definitely meet it, (c) the 1.5 hours of "something else" allows a cushion for 10-15 minutes to finish up something that finally started to go well. So far today, it's working; I'll let you know next week if this continues!
This week's goals:
Self: twice-daily stretching and some form of cardio; get back to the gym; adjust sleep schedule.
Teaching: finish two syllabuses.
Research: 6 hours (4 x 1.5 hrs).
House: finish packing study and guest room. Garden work as needed.
Other: campus errands.
I’m still trying to figure out how to be a writer. I have had so much free time this summer yet did so little writing. There are long lists of reasons for why academics don’t write, but none of them give me that aha moment that helps me get out of the space in which I would much, much rather read (passive) than write (active). Most other shortcomings and disappointments arise from this one.
ReplyDeleteI read this earlier and thought it was helpful: https://zenhabits.net/evaluating/. Leo Babauta’s version of gentle self-talk with gratitude is appealing, especially for those of us who have a hard time with our inner critic.
Last week:
1 finish grading and post grades: yes
2 submit page proofs: yes
3 submit reviewer comments: yes
4 finish chapter 1 revisions: no
I reset the rbp deadlines and still have almost a week per chapter. I wanted to get more work done before classes started than I did, but apparently I’m not terribly motivated to do it. I’ll be working on that, as ever.
This week:
1 submit article review (TRQ)
2 finish chapter 1 revisions
3 spend time working on grant proposal
4 draft rough outline for Snow
What didn’t work:
ReplyDeleteI didn’t do very well with health and writing.
Food: With so many home improvements going on, it was often difficult to use the kitchen, and when I did use the kitchen, I was in there constantly—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—sometimes for 4-5 kids. This put me in survival mode rather than let-me-experiment-with-new-health-recipes mode.
Exercise and writing: I think similar problems affected these two areas. The first was the expectations from family. Since my husband was working on the backyard all the time, he expected me to be doing chores all the time (and I did do a lot of chores). In contrast, the kids expected me to be entertaining them all the time (I did a lot of that, too). This meant I felt like everyone would be mad at me if I did things for myself. This left only early mornings or late nights for “me” time. I took advantage of these fringe hours a few times, but I think I was just tired. Tired from nine years of being a tenured instructor while doing a PhD and raising young children. So I didn’t use those fringe hours productively. I tended to sleep or read for pleasure. I did listen to a lot of podcasts about writing though . . .
I’ll be spending the upcoming weeks being honest with myself (I hope) about what I really do (and don’t) want to do, and what I really do need to do, and what sacrifices I’m willing to make.
Last week:
1) Do last syllabus. Make necessary copies for first week of classes. DONE.
2) Get new curtains for daughter and a curtain rod for son. HALF DONE. Didn’t find the right curtain rod.
3) Hem existing curtains for son. COULDN’T. The curtains I got for daughter were too sheer, so I couldn’t take the current ones down to hem them for son.
4) Exchange daughter's clarinet for a flute (long story involving clarinet cheilitis). DONE.
5) Write 1000 words. NOT DONE.
6) Walk dog with son. Watch Gilmore Girls with daughter. Take both to the beach for boogie boarding. DONE!
7) Arrange for a piano to be moved from my mom's house to my house (I don't feel like doing this AT ALL. Too much organizing and coordinating of schedules.) DONE. (Well, my mom did it, so I didn’t really do it even though it is done.)
8) Oh, and swim at least once. DONE!
This week was pretty good overall (except writing). Now classes have begun, so there will be more work details to consider.
Next week:
1) Return the ill-fitting pants and shoes I ordered for the kids.
2) Walk 3x. Swim 1x.
3) Write 500 words.
4) Start drafting course outline for new course proposal.
5) Go through article to change British punctuation and spelling to American punctuation and spelling.
6) Go to doctor's appointment and move like water in response to whatever I learn.
I feel like I'm forgetting some important things. . .
Also, I'd be happy to host at the beginning of 2018. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to check in to say I am now in NYC! My stuff isn't here yet -and I don't move into my apartment till Sept 1 - but I (and my two kitties) are here. Today will be my first day at my new university (just some meetings and a tour - I likely won't be there f/t till after labor day). Thank you all for your encouragement and support during this prolonged process!
ReplyDeleteYay, Waffles! Good luck settling in to the Big Apple with your kittums! Can't wait to hear more.
DeleteAbsurdly late check-in, so I'll skip the topic (I'm actually pretty happy with this session!) and go straight to the stuff.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Full rereading of ch. 2; get that one book to finish that one paragraph. DONE!!
2. Reread intro and figure out what I need to do. DONE--intro nearly revised
3. Read SD's thesis (defense on Friday). DONE
4. Keep working on to-do lists for other chapters. DONE (to-do lists mostly complete)
5. Get caught up on some phone calls and emails; schedule car maintenance. DONE-ish; I'm bad with emails
6. Finish syllabus 3/3 (this should take all of 15 minutes; no excuses!). DONE
7. If I have time and/or need something concrete and mindless to do, photocopy stuff for second course pack. DONE
This week: Keeping it very modest because it's Friday, so I have a pretty good idea of what I'll be able to accomplish (= not much; was at the in-laws' Sun-Wed and have no child care this week):
1. Annual faculty report
2. Process (with help of husband) approx. 50 pounds of paste tomatoes