Planning Your Plot* (Short Session--Week Seven)

Last week, JaneB's garden metaphor bore a lot of fruit (ahem), so I thought I'd extend it into this week. I was really interested in discussions about how to fertilize our research/writing gardens, how to let a plot lie fallow, and how to nurture seedlings that are shaded by larger trees. I was also interested in comments about planning: some of us seemed to plan our plots carefully, and others were more extemporaneous gardeners.

Currently, some of us are in project transition or are facing the possibility of new large projects or are juggling a lot of different projects, so this week, I thought we could share more about planning: how we decide what to plant, when to plant, and where to plant in order to cultivate the garden that we need or that pleases us (and, of course, that leads to the question, What if "need" and aesthetics do not match?).

As we do so, maybe we can reflect on whether or not we'd like our research/writing/professional (personal/TLQ?) garden to look different from how it does now. And do we think of our professional garden as separate from our personal gardens? Are we tending one large garden? Or do we have multiple small plots?

Feel free to choose whatever branch of this metaphor that suits your own ruminations.

I hope everyone has a great week!

*As I wrote the title of this post, suddenly, a whole new metaphor (about narratives and story plots) revealed itself to be buried within this one about gardens.

Daisy

1) Write two sections of fun new paper
2) Get nagging car, insurance, and pension stuff completed
3) Accounting for 3 projects
4) Start collecting material for upcoming conference talks 
5) Finish lingering service project

DEH

Cardio, weights, stretching, pushups (50?).

Finish off the application.
Plan revisions for remaining article.
Read for those revisions.
List books acquired at K'zoo.
Language review x4.
Do a whole bunch of house stuff.

GEW
1) 10 push-ups, 1 minute stretching, 5x
2) Draft short story for online SF writing class
3) Walk 2x, Swim 1x (getting to pool will be a stretch)
4) Make to-list for next few weeks, do one thing from list
5) pay bills
6) Read one chapter of an academic book

heu mihi
1. Finish Silence (unlikely, but hey, why not be aspirational?)
2. Spend 20 minutes every day in some kind of quiet contemplative activity, not necessarily meditation
3. Catch up on email
4. Grad clearances
5. Finish book and write review

humming42
1 Read and submit review for latest book
2 Spend some time working on Jewels
3 Set incremental deadlines for summer goals
4 Move previous research notes into new lit review files
5 Develop outline notes for Decoding

JaneB
1) be completely up to data with marking and marking bureaucracy
2) set up bureaucracy for SmallGrant
3) do test analyses for CrispyPaper (not sure what it's name was, but I got involved in it because of Crunchy paper and its relatives...)
4) reaquaint myself with Gallimaufrey paper
5) do something other than mess with phone each evening - at least one evening, do something OTHER than reading
6) book at least one summer thing which is not work
7) try to get work hours down to more like 8 a day than 10 a day for two days, retaining an early start.

Susan
1. Finish witch
2. Keep working in garden - weeding, watering, and dealing with the Ray's Ash that is dropping leaves all over the garden.
3. Keep working on review process due July 1
4. Keep walking
5. Spend time with friends 

Tending the Garden (short session week 6)

It's the time of year when All The Marking competes with All The Growing Things for attention on my twitter-feed, and conversations with my parents are mostly about their garden and allotment plans.  The marking wins for me - between the hayfever, the biting things and my creaky joints gardening is something I've always preferred to do in small snippets, and my current yard offers little scope anyway (and I'm less inclined than normal this year with the noticeable absence of a particularly bossy furry supervisor).  But all the garden talk - the varieties of plants chosen and not chosen, the feasts of fresh food being imagined, the selected images of particularly fine blossoms or laboursome new constructions - has made me think about the variety of research ideas and projects we need to juggle.  Maybe in our early PhD days we diligently mastered the trimming of box topiary or the training of vines to a frame, each alone, but as academics we are planning a whole garden, juggling autumn bulbs and summer seeds and flying cherry blossom pushed aside by the coming fruit, thinking about the size of bushes in a few years time when they have settled in, planting quick-growing salad and steady maturing potatoes and nuturing fruit trees that will hopefully out live us. 

Ideas, like plants, take time to grow and mature.  The things we produce can be quick and ephemeral, like a conference abstract, or complex and many-faceted, like a multi-authored book, and many things in between.  So of course we need to make choices, to share out our attention, to remember to prune this and water that and plant some of these over there or there will be bare ground come autumn.  I get the impression that there are differences between STEM and arts in making these decisions (fewer collaborators for a start!), differences between job type and academic systems (whether research is expected or not, how the quality of research is measured, what kinds of outputs are valued), and of course differences between people (some churn out a neat procession of articles of similar size and complexity and content, row after row of matched apples at the agricultural show each year.  Others offer up a flower arrangement using mosses and branches and all manner of things, each piece unique.  Some want to grow fruit but their system prefers vegetables, preferably root vegetables.  Some are the kind of gardener who plans meticulously years in advance, others toss out mixed packets of seeds that arrived with magazines and lost their labels, and sometimes make splendiferous discoveries a few months later.  How do you track your projects, and go about making decisions about where to focus your scholarly attention?  with the full summer session around the corner, and decisions to make, I'd love to hear how others do it!

Last week's goals:

Dame Eleanor Hull

Self: walk or cardio every day, weights three times, stretch at least once a day.

Research: prepare and turn in application and supporting evidence.

House/Life: ignore as much as possible. Keep the garden in check, as rain and relative warmth are making things grow like mad.

Daisy

1) Fix up festering figures after co-author comments

2) Plan out paper with grad student

3) Plan out technical paper with lab guy

4) Write one section of new fun paper

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Write or edit 5 hours x 5.

Go to doctor’s appointment.

Proofread 2 hour x 5.

Read criticism ½ hour x 7

Walk 3 miles x 7.

Good Enough Woman

1) Write 1500 words of fiction.

2) Finish most if not all grading by Sunday.

3) Be very patient as I help my son make a Cuban dish for his school's open house (for extra credit in Spanish class).

4) Don't start desperately grasping onto summer before I've really finished the semester. In other words, don't blow off work tasks and grading in order to relax.

5) 10 push-ups each day. At least one minute of stretching.

heu mihi

1. Admin: Grade Incomplete paper and figure out how to turn in the grade, submit receipts for conference, grad clearances after Tuesday, NOT worry about taking care of paperwork for students that isn't due anytime soon--that can be next week

2. Enter current revisions to Silence, integrate new research

3. Finish reading the book I'm reviewing (70 pages to go--airline delays make for productive, if tiresome, evenings)

humming42 (carried over)

1 Read half of next book for review

2 Set up project pages in new bullet journal

3 Copy project notes to bullet journal

4 Decide whether to submit abstract to nearby conference

JaneB

1) be completely up to data with marking and marking bureaucracy

2) reaquaint myself with one of the three paper-related things I need to do - probably Gallimaufrey paper, but may replace that with something more fun...

3) do something other than mess with phone each evening - at least one evening, do something OTHER than reading

4) book at least one summer thing which is not work

5) try to get work hours down to more like 8 a day than 10 a day for two days

Susan (carried over)

1. Get moving on Witch (I've been thinking about it, so it's probably not as bad as I fear)

2. Keep moving on items for my review this summer

3. Keep walking

4. Try to go to bed early.

Doing it with Style (Short Session Week 5)

I recently starting reading/skimming Helen Sword's Stylish Academic Writing, and as result, I've been thinking about matters of style. Most of the TLQers in our group have significant writing goals, and many of us write academically and creatively (not that they are mutually exclusive, but that's kind of the point of this post). Much has been said (note the passive voice) about the labored prose of academia, but it seems many academic writers (especially newer academic writers) feel that they can't break free from such prose.

I know that on this blog we usually talk about productivity habits, but some of us have also talked about trying to reclaim the joy in our academic work, and greater joy might lead to greater productivity. So I'm wondering: How would you describe your academic writing style. Do you take risks? Do you have flair? Do you CYA with citations? Do you opine/analyze freely? Do you stick to clean, direct prose? You might also share whether or not your style has changed over time or whether certain stylistic choices have enhanced your joy or productivity over the years.


Daisy
This week I'm away for field work,so my only goal here is going to be:
Don't fall into the ocean or off a cliff!


Dame Eleanor Hull
Self-care: Keep up with regular stretching and exercise, plus 36 knee pushups with good form; do what's necessary to eat safely away from home.
Research: finish and upload the last chunk of translation. Work on teaching and research statements for Full application.
Teaching: grade one set of exams, calculate and post final grades.
House/Life: Instructions for cat-sitter, mow lawn.


Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Write or edit 5 hours x 5.
Avoid rabbit holes when researching.
Proofread 1 hour x 5.
Transcribe handwritten notes 1 hours x 5.
Walk 5 miles x 7.


GoodEnoughWoman
1) Get all of the grading finished and recorded by Friday.
2) Screen candidates by Thursday night.
3) Write 500 words of fiction.
4) Give proper b-day attention to my son on Wednesday. Wrap his presents (etc.) by Tuesday evening.
5) Go to our literary journal reading on Thursday.
6) Maintain a sense of patience with other people and with myself.
7) Do some stretching and push-ups.


heu mihi
1. Meditate twice
2. 5 hours on Silence (I like the idea of taking writing breaks at the conference, since I love the social aspect but also find it overwhelming.... Plus, a lot of my friends won't be there this year, because NCS is in July and they aren't doing both)
3. Finish grading


humming42

1 Read half of next book for review
2 Set up project pages in new bullet journal
3 Copy project notes to bullet journal
4 Decide whether to submit abstract to nearby conference

JaneB
1) be professional in meetings etc. Make steady progress with small bureaucratic niggles that keep coming up right now.
2) finish marking all the work that came in on time
3) do something other than mess with phone each evening - at least one evening, do something OTHER than reading
4) visit the summer's calendar and try to find time to do NOWT
5) try to get work hours down to more like 8 a day than 10 a day (maybe a bit too ambitious for THIS week...)

Susan

1. Get moving on Witch (I've been thinking about it, so it's probably not as bad as I fear)
2. Keep moving on items for my review this summer
3. Keep walking
4. Try to go to bed early. 

Finishing well (short season week 4)

I've been watching quite a few gymnastics videos lately*, and one thing I always notice about gymnastics is the flourish with which routines finish - the wide-flung arms, the smile, the "wasn't that great?" body language, even though the athletes are usually panting and sweating from the exertion.  I vaguely remember from compulsory classes and gymnastics-mad friends that "sticking the landing" is an important points winner, and that even if you stumbled you were supposed to get back into your flourish-position anyway.

The usual verbal images I use for the end of the academic year imply some kind of extreme endurance challenge, with the participants limping or crawling over a finish line a muddy, battered mess.  But it's also a time of year when actively practicing compassion and tolerance seems to come more easily - tempers flare and pettiness erupts and demands are made, yet somehow because I know everyone is very stressed and tired, I find it easier than normal to let things roll over me rather than bothering me (and hope thereby that MY snapping will roll off others).  Maybe it's time to make a new mental picture - of a flourishing, power-stance finish to an amazing feat of skill, and as a celebration of a rather than a chore overcome or penance endured.

How do you imagine and talk about the end of the academic year?  Do you have any positive year-end rituals that put a bow on the season?
 
* this is not because I've Discovered Sport, it was the result of extreme procrastination as a temper control measure via facebook browsing then the videos of the Australian Dad trying to do gymnastics with his daughter - GrantINeverShouldHaveStarted, which I triumphantly sent off last Sunday and ticked off this list, had to be resubmitted for the fourth time on Friday this week; it kept bouncing back thanks to errors not made by me, but requiring me to correct them

Last week's goals

Daisy

1) Finish the new figures

2) Do edits with co-authors

Dame Eleanor Hull

Self-care: the usual, plus 30 knee pushups with good form.

Research: finish and upload a chunk of translation, maybe two. Finish proofs. Work on teaching and research statements for Full application.

Teaching: grade one set of papers..

Admin: fill out some paperwork; finish setting up new Moleskine.

House/Life: Do something beyond the usual keeping us clean and fed.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Unpack in the sabbatical office.

Try out the schedule to see if the time is sufficient, or too much, and adjust accordingly.

Proofread the edition 1 hour x 5.

Transcribe handwritten notes 1 hour x 5.

Walk 5 miles x 7.

Good Enough Woman

1) Try to concentrate despite the Annie mania, my son's upcoming birthday, and my father-in-law's weekend visit.

2) Order/acquire son's birthday presents. Stay calm about the birthday dinner happening on Sunday (homemade enchiladas for 17 people). Avoid procrastinating prep work. .

3) Stretch a little during the days. Try push-ups like DEH?

4) Write 500 words of fiction.

5) Grade first stack of essays by Wed. Grade stack of revisions and in-class essays by Thursday. Grade half of next set of drafts on Friday. (There is a lot coming in right now!)

heu mihi

1. Dive back into Silence on Wednesday and Friday. Read at least two articles.

2. Prep for TA meeting.

3. Meditate some amount (this has really fallen by the wayside; let's try again!)

humming42

1 Proofread manuscript page proofs

2 Write index

JaneB

1) read latest version of SurprisePaper and edit for English.

2) make a full marking list and a realistic plan

3) do something other than mess with phone each evening - at least one evening, do something OTHER than reading

4) finalise paperwork for visiting student!

Susan (carried over from week 2)

1. Finish long overdue book review

2. Do some reading for Witch

3. Enter admin stuff into website

4. Keep walking. Every day

5. Get on a good sleep schedule