the grid

the grid

Saturday 19 May 2018

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.

26 comments:

  1. What a marvelous (and, dare I say it, fruitful) metaphor! I like thinking of my scholarly projects as things that grow and can be tended. Working on my application for promotion has made me think about the shape of my career, and the story I can tell about it, and the difference between what I know to be true and what spin I can put on things.

    What I know is that there were two periods in which I didn't publish much, except for some reviews. The reasons were down to health problems, first mine and then my mother’s. Since her death, I’ve been much more productive; to pick up the metaphor, like cutting down a tree that’s blocking light to the whole garden. Even in the bad years, I took advantage of opportunities that fell into my lap, writing reviews here and invited essays there, and given the shift in my research from literary criticism to manuscript studies, I can make it look like I was working on re-training during the slow periods. That is what I was doing, although not deliberately and planfully.

    Going forward, I want to focus on doing the things that will make the most difference to me, rather than responding to what other people suggest. That means writing the books I have in mind. The translation project (which was my idea, and was connected to a manuscript in the first place), may bring more opportunities; but I need to think carefully about those and whether they will really serve me. It might be better for me to put that project in the service of Book Two, rather than to spin off conference papers and articles.

    At this point, I admire my younger self for plugging away at things that were within my capacity at the time, and starting things that have led to bigger achievements, even if the path was meandering. I’ve done okay. But now that the ground is cleared, and the soil is enriched, and I have a better sense of how to work with the layout of this particular garden, I think I can do better in the next 15 years or so, which is probably about the limit of my remaining time as a productive scholar. Maybe 20, if I’m lucky.

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    1. I love the idea of learning how to work with one particular garden. It makes so much sense of the occasional field envy or topic envy you get at conferences or when reading an especially great paper or hearing all about other people's grant success - visiting stunning gardens can make ones own feel kind of drab and tatty - but your own garden, attached to your own house/life/career/place, is the one you know most intimately and the one where you can really make changes.

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    2. Your simile about the large tree blocking the sun is very interesting to me. I find that even though I'm only (almost) 50, I feel like it's hard to imagine building new scholarly projects. This might be in part because I have young teenagers in the house, and I have a mildly disabled 77-year old mother just down the road whom, at some point, will require significant care. These are all big, beautiful trees, but they do limit growth in other parts of my plot.

      It sounds like you did a good job tending the "young growth" during the difficult years.

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  2. How I did:
    Self: walk or cardio every day, weights three times, stretch at least once a day. YES (though more walking than gym), NO (twice), NO (4 days?). I am up to 45 pushups in three sets of 15.
    Research: prepare and turn in application and supporting evidence. NO. Almost: I'm going to do some editing and fine-tuning before I hand it all in a day or two late (with permission).
    House/Life: ignore as much as possible. Keep the garden in check, as rain and relative warmth are making things grow like mad. YES. The garden is looking quite nice. I've done a couple of little bitty house-things. And the damned house has sprouted some new things that have to be repaired.

    Sorry, I'll have to return later for this week's goals.

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  3. Next goals:
    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.

    The house stuff is too boring to list and I always seem to wind up doing things other than what I have listed, but I'll try to have something to report, at least!

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    1. Well, you said you did a good job of mostly ignoring house stuff last week, so maybe you'll feel ready this week? Also, maybe it will be nice (regarding house stuff) to just list what you *did* finish rather than have to account for what you didn't. It might make you feel successful, thereby leading to more success? #optimism

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  4. goals for last week:
    1) be completely up to data with marking and marking bureaucracy I was as of Friday, so DONE
    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...sent emails about the other two projects, one of which led to discussion which brought me to the point where I can do some more data analysis. Did not touch Gallimaufrey
    3) do something other than mess with phone each evening - at least one evening, do something OTHER than reading ish, if podcast listening counts!
    4) book at least one summer thing which is not work ish - I have a time agreed to visit Sister and Niece in Niece's half term
    5) try to get work hours down to more like 8 a day than 10 a day for two days yes; mind you one day it was because I slept really badly so felt so grotty when I got up I went back to bed for an hour, and the second time was because my sister had to come to my part of the country to meet her tutor (she's doing a degree part time and long distance, at a university-college which is quite close to NorthernCity), and we met for breakfast, so again I got in later than "normal"

    analysis: last week I had two days of research focus (a planning meeting, essentially), and whilst all the people were there I did manage to stay focused. We started mid-morning, and I skipped going to the pub in the early evening, so other things got done mostly around the edges. But it was a pretty bad week otherwise, in small ways - new obstacles from research bureaucracy, GrantINeverSHouldHAveStarted came back to me AGAIN for the most RIDICULOUS reason (the person we will hire for one of the research posts if the grant is awarded currently works for NorthernUni in a part time administative role, because, you know, they need to earn money, and they're place-bound for family reasons. We indicated that they would quit that job if the money comes through, because they'd rather earn money doing research. The latest bounce-back was because someone at the grant awarding body didn't read that bit and pointed out that the total of current job plus research job would be more than 100% employment, which is not allowed. I copied and pasted the statement, but still, the ENERGY this stuff takes is out of all proportion!), unbloggables at multiple levels requiring quite substantial and annoying changes in my teaching next academic year AND a particularly stressful graduate student situation. It's Sunday evening and I just about feel human enough to actually tackle anything. Just in time to keep me awake and start the next week badly... sigh...

    goals for next week:
    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.

    Probably too many things, but sometimes it's hard to know where to start. I'll settle for any 4/7 as satisfactory!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I like your idea of trying to hit 4/7. It suggests that being aspirational is a good thing, and it recognizes that sometimes we're not quite sure which way the wind will blow during the week.

      I'm sorry the GNSHS just stay off your desk. Here's hoping you are almost there.

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  5. Last week it was Wednesday before I finished grading, so too late to revisit goals from the week before and commit to anything other than recovering from the self-inflicted end of semester stress. Knowing that we’re in the short session also gives me a bit of space to plan the rest of summer. This week’s post speaks so directly to my concerns and ponderings over the last year. And with marvelous metaphors no less!

    In the tradition of building backward timelines to determine what I want to have completed at the end of summer, I kept yearning for the projects I had not yet included even though there is simply no possible way to do all of these things. I’ve marked some benchmark dates for projects that I don’t intend to really see completed this calendar year but don’t want to toss aside. I think I’ll have a better idea after I establish incremental deadlines for which I will be overly optimistic, then once I settle into some summer routine I’ll have a better idea of what I can get done beyond the two projects I want to have mostly done by September.

    Last two weeks:
    1 Read half of next book for review: in sum, yes, since I started another review book too
    2 Set up project pages in new bullet journal: yes
    3 Copy project notes to bullet journal: yes, mostly
    4 Decide whether to submit abstract to nearby conference: yes, submitted

    This week:
    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

    Cheers, all!

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    Replies
    1. Recovery and planning are both very important. I'm in a better place this week after having done some planning with my RL writing group.

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    2. Regarding the projects that you won't be doing until later, and extending the metaphor, it seems fine and good that you are yearning for them. That's part of gardening right? We plant things that won't bear fruit or blossom for a few years. You are planting seeds (or seedlings) and that's good!

      Granted, I'm am terrible at delayed garden gratification (and gardening in general), but I admire that kind of planning and optimism and patience, and what's good for the garden is likely good for the research.

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    3. GEW, thank you for making the metaphor resonate even more deeply. I am not much of a gardener at all, but this works so well with regard to writing that will blossom in the future, as long as I keep tending it.

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  6. What I actually really want right now is to settle in for some...fertilizing, if you will (trying to adapt the metaphor): an extended period of just reading and reviewing some languages that have lapsed more badly than they should have. But things keep coming up. At the moment, I have two projects I'm trying to get out the door--Silence is close and Wonder is a mess; a very small conference paper for July that I have done almost literally nothing towards; and an essay to a festshrift that I was just invited to contribute, which means coming up with an actual topic and abstract within about the next month. Plus there's an edited collection that a friend and I have been fantasizing about. So I guess I'm still in the lots-o-projects-that-aren't-always-really-connected mode.

    In truth, though, during my time at Field College (2007-2015), I worked very differently. Because it was such a teaching-intensive college, once my first book was out in 2010, I only produced a few articles as I tried to get a handle on book 2. It's only in the last three years, since coming to Idyllic State, that I've been able to work on multiple unrelated projects at once--so perhaps it's more accurate to see this proliferation as an indulgence than a mistake.

    How I did--All right, I just need to own this:

    Last week:
    1. Admin: Grade Incomplete paper and figure out how to turn in the grade DONE, submit receipts for conference DONE, grad clearances after Tuesday NOT DONE, NOT worry about taking care of paperwork for students that isn't due anytime soon--that can be next week DONE (as in, I didn't do them)
    2. Enter current revisions to Silence, integrate new research DONE
    3. Finish reading the book I'm reviewing (70 pages to go--airline delays make for productive, if tiresome, evenings) -- NOT DONE (30 pages to go!)
    4. Meditate twice -- NOT DONE

    Actually, that's not as bad as I thought it would be. I guess I kept my list pretty modest. But I really did nothing on the list after about Tuesday--I caught a cold, and the three-day workshop was extremely draining, so everything else (including email, which is reaching a critical point) got ignored. Luckily, the cold was brief, I had a lovely weekend where I spent a lot of quality time with my son, and this week will be much quieter.

    This week:
    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

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    1. I've found it hard to get away from the not-really-connected projects, in part because some of these unexpected offers are things I really want to do, like festschrift essays for people I admire. You've moved to a new garden, so obviously you want to Plant All The Things! It may take awhile to work out what really belongs in that garden; and sometimes you want annuals to fill in gaps while the perennials get well established.

      Love the idea of language study as fertilizer. It really is. I don't do that much with classical languages in my research, but working on them is foundational in other ways.

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    2. DEH, I love how you have extended the metaphor in your response to heu mihi. Your reply seems very apt.

      heu mihi, kudos for not doing the things that didn't need to be done, and I'm glad your cold was mercifully short. I hope this week provides some white space around the edges for quiet time.

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  7. Right now, I feel like I'm still planning my garden plot, deciding whether or not it's worth planting trees or other things that will take much time and work to before they bear fruit. In the meantime, I'm just celebrating the volunteers that pop up on their own (like the artichokes next to my driveway) and doing the occasional urgent but discrete task, like pulling up a dead plant and replacing it with a fern (this can be read both literally and metaphorically).

    1) Write 1500 words of fiction. NOT DONE. But I DID sign up for an online Science Fiction writing class! I need to write a short story by May 29th. Deadlines are good for me.
    2) Finish most if not all grading by Sunday. NOT MOST, but quite a bit. Still some to go though. Have to finish by Wed noon.
    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). DONE!
    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. MEH. SEE BELOW.
    5) 10 push-ups each day. At least one minute of stretching. NOT DONE.

    Regarding #4: I realize that it's not so much that I start relaxing; it's just that I get called to tend to many other things related to family and work, etc. And today I was in interviews all day for a hiring committee, so there's that.

    Oh, I did make two doctors's appts for myself (optometrist and dermatologist), so I'm pretty proud of myself for that. And I made an appointment to meet with my son's high school counselor to discussion his educational pathway.

    It's TRQ that I finish grading by Wednesday at noon, so that will take up some time.

    This week:
    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

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    1. I forgot to save my comment and Google ate it. Reconstructing . . .

      The planning period is legitimate and important for both literal and metaphorical gardening. Maybe for now you need a shade garden with those volunteers that can deal with the conditions you have. Life does have its (growing) seasons, as Daisy says below. You won't always have early-teen kids, or your mom, so maybe this is a time to focus on "deepening the scholarly base," as Jonathan Mayhew calls it: read widely (or deeply), consolidate a language or other skills, prepare for a project that will be best tackled in another 5-10 years.

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    2. I think your words are wise. It's difficult, however, to trust the long view and the long term.

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  8. This is a great metaphor for research! Particularly relevant because in my "climate" (aka small teaching institution)the "growing season" (time to think and read and write without teaching) is particularly short, even more so because I am usually in the field for most of it. In my field things really do take a long time to mature, partly because there is so much field work involved, partly because there are so many analytical things that take a long time, and partly because of the number of collaborators and students involved. I'm now writing about and submitting things that came from field seasons from 4 years age. It is really helpful to keep reminding myself that it is not just me, it goes that way for everyone.
    The hardest part for me to manage is the data acquisition process so I try to always have something that is in the collection phase. Organizing the data immediately after I get it really helps, even if I cannot use it immediately.
    I've also learned the hard way that working on something "a little bit" is worse than not working at all because if something gets left half-done it always needs to be redone by the time I get back to it.
    Deciding what to actually work on is a complicated process of considering what is urgent, what I need to do for collaborations, what I need for far off future things, and what can actually be done at any given time. Keeping a spreadsheet with deadlines and project goals with everything on one sheet is very helpful for this so that I do not lose sight of the big picture too much.

    Last week's goals:
    1) Fix up festering figures after co-author comments DONE
    2) Plan out paper with grad student DONE
    3) Plan out technical paper with lab guy DONE
    4) Write one section of new fun paper NOT DONE

    This week's goals:
    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

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    1. "Growing season" is a great addition to this metaphor.

      JaneB, I think we're definitely in "epic metaphor" territory here, both literally in terms of the extended possibilities and as a term of praise!

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    2. DEH, I agree! This metaphor is really useful and illuminating.

      Daisy, it seems like you have figured out great working habits for yourself. And it's really interesting that you track your projects on a spreadsheet. You seem to have very good organizational strategies and self-discipline (I'm sure there are ways to frame those skills in terms of the garden metaphor . . . ).

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    3. Serious gardeners keep journals and spreadsheets, tracking what they've planted, how it did in what conditions, etc etc.

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  9. I love this metaphor. I don't plan gardens: when one neighbour admired my garden (my first), I admitted that I just planted things and if they didn't work, I planted something else. And I feel I'm in some ways that as a scholar: I am interested in multiple things, and pursue them. I'm at a point -- having finished a long and emotional project -- and I'm still finding my way forward.
    (I especially like this metaphor because over the last 10 days I've done lots of planting of both annuals and perennials...)

    How I've done:
    1. Get moving on Witch (I've been thinking about it, so it's probably not as bad as I fear) YES -- it has a shape, and I should finish it this weekend?
    2. Keep moving on items for my review this summer SLOWLY BUT SURELY It's boring as all get out.
    3. Keep walking Mostly
    4. Try to go to bed early. Heh. It's 10:30

    Analysis: too many meetings, too much problem solving. Also, this week I had jury duty -- I got the best deal I could, serving on a jury but the trial was over in a day. Also, I'm just tired -- so shifting gears from commencement to summer has been challenging.

    Goals for this week:
    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

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    1. Oh -- and today I've deleted 200 emails from my inbox. Goal for this week: 400 more :)

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    2. I like both your garden plan and its applicability to scholarship--I feel like I'm kind of the same way! Well done on Witch and with the email-deletion, by the way.

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    3. Oh, I should set some email deletion goals!

      Also? I think your leaf-dropping Ray's Ash has great potential within this whole garden metaphor framework.

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