It's the last week of our short session already. Thank you all for engaging so enthusiastically with our metaphor-fest. I really liked having a short transitional session - it seems to have fitted well with our varied academic calendars, and for me at least I've preferred it to having a gap. Let us know what you think in the comments! Maybe we should think about having a similar short session in September-time? Or is it actually unhelpful/unwelcoming for people on non-northern-hemisphere schedules, or not standard academic schedules?
Everyone who took part this session has been making a transition, from teaching to research, from semester to sabbatical, etc. Some of them have been swift, some slow, some ongoing and incomplete (e.g. an in process application for something exciting like a promotion, or a university with very long drawn out processes like my own, where teaching ends in early May but one is only done with the semester in July when the last of the paperwork and meetings are past). Academic life is full of transitions, within a day and within the year, yet many of us actually don't find them easy. We look forward to and dream of "vacation", of non-teaching-semester time, in order to be able to exercise the skills that make us academics, things like thinking deeply, comprehending complex ideas, piling up little nuggets of data and drawing out the patterns in our hordes, and pursuing knowledge wherever it is hiding - withour having to switch into committee mode or caring teacher mode or similar half a dozen times a day. Looking over this recent period of transition, are there things you've learnt, or been reminded of, that help or hinder? Any tips or thoughts to share about transitions, whether in the moment, from semester to vacation, or from role to role?
Please check in with both last week's goals and against the session goals. What's the state of your garden? Are you ready for a productive summer with tomatoes to harvest and peaches and papers plumping up nicely, or are you going for a wildflower, wild-life friendly, let it all grow whilst I drink lemonade and test out this hammock kind of summer? All kinds of gardens are good! (And I'm really sorry not to have gotten into last week's conversations, watching the metaphor flourish and ramble is always a joy - but work nonsense got in the way).
Last week's goals:
Susan
SESSION GOALS:
Everyone who took part this session has been making a transition, from teaching to research, from semester to sabbatical, etc. Some of them have been swift, some slow, some ongoing and incomplete (e.g. an in process application for something exciting like a promotion, or a university with very long drawn out processes like my own, where teaching ends in early May but one is only done with the semester in July when the last of the paperwork and meetings are past). Academic life is full of transitions, within a day and within the year, yet many of us actually don't find them easy. We look forward to and dream of "vacation", of non-teaching-semester time, in order to be able to exercise the skills that make us academics, things like thinking deeply, comprehending complex ideas, piling up little nuggets of data and drawing out the patterns in our hordes, and pursuing knowledge wherever it is hiding - withour having to switch into committee mode or caring teacher mode or similar half a dozen times a day. Looking over this recent period of transition, are there things you've learnt, or been reminded of, that help or hinder? Any tips or thoughts to share about transitions, whether in the moment, from semester to vacation, or from role to role?
Please check in with both last week's goals and against the session goals. What's the state of your garden? Are you ready for a productive summer with tomatoes to harvest and peaches and papers plumping up nicely, or are you going for a wildflower, wild-life friendly, let it all grow whilst I drink lemonade and test out this hammock kind of summer? All kinds of gardens are good! (And I'm really sorry not to have gotten into last week's conversations, watching the metaphor flourish and ramble is always a joy - but work nonsense got in the way).
Last week's goals:
Daisy
1) Finish almost
overdue review
2) Do something
with fun new paper
3) Finish service
thing once and for all
4) Recover
Dame Eleanor Hull
Regular cardio,
stretching, weights, pushups (60?).
Review c. 12 pages
of revision notes, schedule meeting.
One day of campus
stuff.
More packing,
tidying, etc.
Buy and plant some
annuals and creeping thyme. (For real, not a metaphor!)
Meet with real
estate agent.
JaneB
a) sort out my
summer plans, at least roughly
b) make steady
progress on marking things, but remember that external emergencies are not of
my making, and I can't make other people do anything...
c) 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...)
d) reaquaint
myself with Gallimaufrey paper
e) do something
other than mess with phone each evening - at least one evening, do something
OTHER than reading
Good Enough Woman
1) Family:
Facilitate daughter's trip to waterpark (whether I go or ask husband to go),
help son order stuff he needs
2) Writing: Write
500 words on novel, complete weekly assignment, read feedback on story, decide
whether next submission will be a revision or a new story
3) Exercise: Walk
2x, Swim 1x, 10 pushups daily
4) House/etc: Do at least two things from
list
heu mihi
1. Article review
2. Laura abstract
3. Submit book
review
4. 20 minutes/day
of contemplative activity (after travel is over)
5. Inbox 0???
humming42
1 Meet
microdeadlines
2 Submit book
review
3 Make progress on
Jewels
4 Read 5
bookmarked news stories/articles a day
5 Do daily mindmap
1. Do the final
polish of Witch
2. Do a
"further readings" for Way Outside
3. Get rid of 100
more emails (I did 130 this week).
4. Order textbooks
5. Keep going in
garden -- weeding, deadheading, cutting back roses, raking ash leaves, etc.
6. Keep walking
7. See friends
SESSION GOALS:
Daisy
1) Finish lingering zombie paper that festered all through
the winter semester
2) Finish new co-authored fun paper
3) Finish major service task for national organization
Dame Eleanor Hull
Complete all teaching/service work for the spring semester
while taking care of my health;
complete and turn in application for promotion to full
professor;
get the house on the market.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Session mantra: Research, write, enjoy.
Finalize plans for the sabbatical.
Refine the schedule with as much omniscience as is given to
mortals.
Splice exercise into desk work.
Outline the research questions and lacunae for the most
efficient use of library access.
Have fun scoping out the next couple of projects.
Good Enough Woman
1) Celebrate the kids without letting their birthdays
overwhelm EVERYTHING.
2) Submit "Spy" article by May 1st.
3) Write 5,000 words of the novel.
4) Write one short story.
5) Exercise twice a week.
6) Prep for summer trip.
heu mihi
1) Complete Silence essay.
2) Re-enter Wonder essay; maybe finish draft?
3) Plan Impatience mini-essay--to-do list at a minimum.
4) Plan the summer.
5) Put self-care back at the center: Resume all regular
exercise and have a serious talk with myself about where I see meditation
fitting into my life.
humming42
1 correct manuscript page proofs and write index
2 submit Jewel article
3 read Monsters book
4 write Monsters abstract
5 write and submit Decoding
6 finish and submit film review
JaneB
High level: to refind my rhythm after a cacaphonic few
months, and get TLQ things back into my schedule on a regular, calm basis
Specific things I'd like to do academically:
1) submit GrantINeverSHouldHAveStarted
2) have a clear plan for the summer, including HOLIDAY TIME
(and family visiting time - they are NOT the same thing!)
3) have a realistic work plan in place for this summer's
work on BusyProject and FavouriteIslandsProject
4) Have plans in place and Society paperwork done for
SocietyThing's first meeting (which I am hosting...)
5) have a clear idea of what my priorities are for the
summer
And personally (in support of research!):
6) be sleeping better and at more consistent times
7) book in some sessions with the decluttering service - get
over myself, I can't do it alone and if it wasn't an embarrassing tip, I
wouldn't need their help, right?
8) do something hand-crafty every week, even if it's just
half an hour in a meeting.
Susan
1. I have one overdue book review and 2 that are due.
2. Short Witch essay, due May 1 (which is looming, and I'll
miss that deadline, but not by much)
3. Finish Violent words piece. (for collection of essays,
due later in the summer, but it needs a week of work max to polish it up,
update references)
4. Do all the admin stuff for next years merit review. (Long
self-statement, making sure all my activities are logged in the right place)
5. Start reading for short book Polemic, that I want to
write half of this summer.
6 Keep up with walking. I've become an addict with my
fitbit, and have kept to the 10,000 steps a day. I'm feeling better, and my
resting heart rate is dropping.
7. Sleep: get to bed earlier, read, etc.
8. Friends: do nice things for myself, for others
Topic: JaneB, I agree wholeheartedly about the helpfulness of the short session. Despite being AWOL, I read the posts and comments, and found them very helpful. As for another short session at the end of summer, I will defer to the rest of the group. I will be traveling a fair amount in September, but will still be on sabbatical, so I am not a good gauge. Anything other than a gap is helpful for me.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, Dame Eleanor and I were going to co-host the longer session this summer. I assume we would start next week--but am open to the wishes of the group.
This session has reminded me of several things about transitions. I need a ritual, whether moving into writing, or into class, or (possibly the most necessary) into committee meetings. Sometimes all I need is a moment to clear my head from what I have been thinking about, to calm my spirit with deep breathing or visualization of a happy place. Diving back into research, I need some more time to muse where I was while I make a cup of tea, or find a good playlist. The present project is scheduled nearly to the day, so I look over the past few days and next few days of the outline and schedule. Surfacing from research, I need to write down the next pressing need--whether a book on ILL, a question I need to ask, or something I need to look up. Only then can I be fully present back in the real world, although I do sometimes capture the random thought on paper or in pixels when I can.
I love all the gardening images of the past few weeks. I have a very mixed garden going this summer. The cash crops (as Daisy called them) are in nicely ordered rows; the vines--beans, squash, and the like--are staked up against the fence where they can be trained and monitored. The flower garden is riotous and wild, with annual volunteers peeking out amongst the perennials, and the mix of colors and scents wafting over the whole. I welcome the native wildflowers, like the bed of violets; I root out with extreme prejudice the bellflower.
Last several week’s goals:
Write or edit 5 hours x 5. Yes.
Go to doctor’s appointment. Yes.
Proofread 2 hour x 5.Yes
Read criticism ½ hour x 7. No
Walk 3 miles x 7. Only 10 out of 14 times
Analysis:
My apologies for disappearing the past two weeks. When I went to my doctor’s appointment, I was found to have a stubborn infection. The strong antibiotic I was given makes me quite ill, and I fear I am not yet done with it. I had another test run on Thursday, but I don’t feel over the infection yet. Sigh.
Also, work continues to intrude. I was called in to choose office furniture from a pile of recycled furniture, then told I will not have a cubicle, but only an open desk without cubicle partitions mere feet from one of the main entrances into my staff area. Much as I tried not to let it bother me, I still find it eating away at me at unguarded moments.
Finally, I have been trying to resolve my problems with the knee I injured last January in a fall. I went to see an orthopedic surgeon two weeks ago, and had an MRI last Friday. It turns out I do not have a torn meniscus, which was a real possibility, but a severe sprain, which requires rest, ice, compression and elevation. Thank goodness for laptops!
.
However, on the good side of things. I have gotten a lot done in the past two weeks, by concentrating on a quotation from Marcus Aurelius: “The best revenge is to be unlike him who caused the injury.”
I am very sorry to hear about the infection, the strong antibiotics (cure sometimes feels worse than the disease), and the new desk situation at work. Fingers crossed that maybe by the time you go back, the plans will have changed!
DeleteIIRC, we were going to start the main summer session right on the heels of this short session. If it’s all right with you, I’d like to take the first week. In theory, alternating weeks should work, but if either of us gets overwhelmed, let’s get in touch and arrange to swap.
I love Marcus. We have about six different translations around our house and he’s possibly the primary reason I wanted to learn Greek.
Aaagh, open work spaces! That would definitely mess with my head even without the addition of strong antibiotics (a modern wonder, but one we would all prefer not to need at all).
DeleteBut you are still walking and writing and so on, you are WINNING!
My comment was eaten, so I'll try again. DEH, the plan sounds good, so the first week is yours. My philosopher husband had me reread Marcus during the year I lost so many family members, and it helped immensely.
DeleteThank you, DEH and JaneB for the commiseration. Jane, I am not at all sure how I will deal with the new space, but I am determined not to let the powers that be win the war by leaving. If headphones don't work, I have several other plans.
Session goals:
ReplyDeleteSession mantra: Research, write, enjoy. Less enjoyment outside the research itself than I would have liked, but much enjoyment of research and writing
Finalize plans for the sabbatical. Yes
Refine the schedule with as much omniscience as is given to mortals. Yes
Splice exercise into desk work. Not as much as I would have liked, but a slow trend in the right direction
Outline the research questions and lacunae for the most efficient use of library access. Yes
Have fun scoping out the next couple of projects. Some investigation, and some poking about
Analysis:
Despite work making me run an obstacle course over the past eight weeks, I am in a very good place on the research project, a reasonably good place with overall mood, and an okay place as far as mindset. The various medical difficulties are getting old--I’ve been fighting this infection for a couple of months, and dealing with the knee since late January--but I am enjoying the sabbatical to a ridiculous degree. I work at least 6 hours a day 7 days a week, and I have to force myself to take breaks. I am ridiculously happy to the point that the colleagues I have run into have all mentioned the change.
I hope everyone has a good week: good writing, good thinking, and good life. Excelsior!
That sounds like a real, dream sabbatical! May we all have one sometime...
DeleteIt has been amazing, JaneB. Even though I have had to deal with the stupidity of moving things out of the old office, and moving them to the new one this past week, I hang on to the scholarship and the serene wonder of it all.
DeleteI have made some inroads into getting back into the more academic side of things by offering to do a short presentation on a manuscript to a class later this summer. It's been great to connect with some others in my chosen (perhaps once and future) field.
And I agree, everyone should have a sabbatical like this one!
last week's goals:
ReplyDeletea) sort out my summer plans, at least roughly ish - I now have an excel sheet of dates and various notes, and I put in a time off approval claim (which coincidentally involves me not being there the week we have a variety of Improved Communication Activities (staff with similar research interests need to communicate more by... engaging in non-research activities! No thank you). I may not get that approved, but we'll see. Stupid approvals system...
b) make steady progress on marking things, but remember that external emergencies are not of my making, and I can't make other people do anything... some ranting happened, but mostly done. Just in time for my externalling to arrive Sigh
c) 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...) done, Skype meeting this coming week to discuss them
d) reaquaint myself with Gallimaufrey paper been actively ignoring it
e) do something other than mess with phone each evening - at least one evening, do something OTHER than reading reading and pod-cast listening. And some humid nights have not helped with good sleep. But I persist...
A mixed sort of week, more bureaucracy than I'd've liked and quite a few meetings with students, but more and more there is a little space for research. Exams officially finished on Friday - we are now technically into vacation, although all the marking and processing meetings are not done for another couple of weeks, and then there are other meetings after that. But we are getting there...
Short Session Goals:
High level: to refind my rhythm after a cacaphonic few months, and get TLQ things back into my schedule on a regular, calm basis
Specific things I'd like to do academically:
1) submit GrantINeverSHouldHAveStarted YES. Four times (gah). Also submitted a small grant for travel money
2) have a clear plan for the summer, including HOLIDAY TIME (and family visiting time - they are NOT the same thing!) I have a plan, if not an exact one
3) have a realistic work plan in place for this summer's work on BusyProject and FavouriteIslandsProject nope
4) Have plans in place and Society paperwork done for SocietyThing's first meeting (which I am hosting...) Society paperwork done and approved, dates fixed etc. At the Waiting On Other People stage...
5) have a clear idea of what my priorities are for the summer nope, not in writing
And personally (in support of research!):
6) be sleeping better and at more consistent times ish>
7) book in some sessions with the decluttering service - get over myself, I can't do it alone and if it wasn't an embarrassing tip, I wouldn't need their help, right? not yet...
8) do something hand-crafty every week, even if it's just half an hour in a meeting. two weeks out of 8. More than none?
You've made good progress on your goals! The next steps are clear, as well (write up priorities for the summer, then plan work for Busy Project and FaveIslands Project). The decluttering might as well wait till you feel more like the semester is over. I have found that even though many of my clear-out projects only take a short time (15 min-2 hours), I simply cannot shift gears from work-work to house projects during term time. It seems absurd, but I can't. Maybe you're like that, too, and when the marking etc is finally over, it will be easier to book the sessions.
DeleteDEH has an excellent point about the difficulties of transitions. I don't see it as absurd at all, btw. If one works for years on a "wait until summer to think about house and personal projects," it becomes ingrained, and difficult to break.
DeleteAlso, JaneB, you have movement on all your goals--you should be proud. I won't quote all the inspirational poster-type stuff of first steps and that, but there is a small nugget of truth in those posters.
I also liked the short session. I'm not sure that it would be particularly more useful than a regular session in the fall, but I'd be fine with whatever structure--as long as I have a check-in place, I'm happy!
ReplyDeleteWhat did I learn? Well, I think that one of the benefits of this mini-session, psychologically, is that it has been a sort of summertime trial-run. I often get so worked up about planning the summer that it feels over before it's even begun, and having this little session somehow reminded me *not* to do that. It helps that I'm not attending four conferences this summer (just one more to go), nor visiting three foreign countries (just one, and that's Canada), or finishing a book or going up for tenure.
I have a big shelf of books above my desk. I've listed them all in my day planner, and, in addition to my couple of *small* writing projects, I would like to read as many of them as possible. Most are work-related (though mostly tangential to my research), but some are for pleasure, and the for-pleasure list will surely grow.
How I did:
This week:
1. Article review (due 6/6) - DONE
2. Laura abstract - WORKED ON, but not done
3. Submit book review - DONE
4. 20 minutes/day of contemplative activity (after travel) - 4 of 5 days
5. Inbox 0??? - Inbox 6 (work) and 17 (personal). Getting there.
Session goals:
1) Complete Silence essay. - DONE
2) Re-enter Wonder essay; maybe finish draft? - Not in the least! And I'm completely OK with this!
3) Plan Impatience mini-essay--to-do list at a minimum. - NO, but it's To Do this week! The session isn't over yet, after all.
4) Plan the summer. - ? (Not sure what I meant by this.)
5) Put self-care back at the center: Resume all regular exercise and have a serious talk with myself about where I see meditation fitting into my life. - YES!
This week:
1. Notes and plan for Impatience
2. 20 minutes/day
3. Plan for remaining summer weeks
4. Laura abstract (finish it)
5. Inbox 0 (I enjoy working towards this one!)
6. Read a book
Thanks for your thoughts on the mini-session! I;ve noticed in previous years that we tend to run a summer session until late August, then take a gap and start the Fall/first semester/whatever session somewhere in late September or October at which point I'm usually sinking in a snotty mire of "freshers germ fest" and bureaucracy - so maybe a mini-session rather than a month gap and a holding post or two might be a useful addition to our schedule. I think it depends a lot on the particular schedules of the hosts of each session...
DeleteI like the idea of a summer trial run, and love the idea of a reading goal which freely mixes different kinds of book. Sounds really nice!
I love the reading goal, and agree with JaneB about the trial run. Summers are these treasured objects at the end of long tunnels. I was usually running so fast by the end of the tunnel, I overshot the summer by yards.
DeleteI found it very helpful to have a "taking stock" session, and I think a mirror mini-session at the end would be helpful for girding the soul for the fall.
Short session was great. Thank you JaneB and Good Enough Woman for hosting. I’m at a point where I feel like I have a sense of what I can actually do this summer and have a better idea of what my days might look like. I have all of those neat little rows planted. Making sure I tend to them is the important part.
ReplyDeleteSession goals:
1 correct manuscript page proofs and write index: yes
2 submit Jewel article: no
3 read Monsters book: yes
4 write Monsters abstract: yes
5 write and submit Decoding: no
6 finish and submit film review: no
Submitting page proofs also meant publishing the book. I feel weirdly ambivalent about it, because the manuscript was nearly rejected because it was too short. We found a way to get through--I added enough content on a short deadline to get it done. But I do want to thank you all for your support and the accountability that got me through the process.Thank you, thank you.
I didn’t look back at session goals when I made summer microdeadlines, so I have Jewel and film review scheduled for the coming week. I’m good with that. I also decided that Decoding, while enticing, was for a very small audience, and I am trying to learn that lesson about making good investments with my research commitments as I look toward going up for promotion.
Last week’s goals:
1 Meet microdeadlines: mostly
2 Submit book review: yes
3 Make progress on Jewels: yes
4 Read 5 bookmarked news stories/articles a day: some days
5 Do daily mindmap: some days
I’m happy to start the longer summer session whenever hosts are ready!
Yay for submitted proofs, and a nascent book, however ambiguous you feel about it now. I guess it;s sort of post-thesis let-down as well, when you let a book go? I've not done one yet... one day!
DeleteI like the idea of thinking about the showiness of your plants to visitors to the garden - may all your rows of seedlings flourish and the Devil's Rabbits be kept at bay!
The point JaneB makes about letting a book go is a good one; I also suffer from the perfectionism of "wait, I can make it better," that makes it hard to call anything done.
DeleteI also think it makes sense to weigh where to put your time and effort in anticipation of going for a promotion. Perhaps Decoding can wait until it can be a bit of a treat after all the promotion work is done?
This short session was great! Thank you so much to our fabulous hosts for the great prompts and discussions!
ReplyDeleteI’m now ready for a phase of heavy summer digging and planting in the field! Which to me is truly the best past of the year!
I find the transitions work best with a plan. It is worth taking a day at the beginning of a big block to plan things, both the “would be nice” plans and the “absolutely necessary” plans. It probably helps to have some back-up plans too! And critical to finish as much of the previous block’s stuff so it does not intrude and expand into other blocks – being able to switch things off is definitely helpful!
It was a pretty good week actually! Worked from home a lot and coughed and took some naps to recover from nasty bug.
Last week’s goals:
1) Finish almost overdue review DONE
2) Do something with fun new paper WROTE SOME OF MY PARTS
3) Finish service thing once and for all DONE
4) Recover SORT OF DONE, work in progress!
Also made some more new figures for the zombie paper which is actually looking pretty good now and is going in a fancier journal than the original plan.
Session goals:
I was pretty happy with the short session goals, the big thing is to be almost done with the zombie paper. We’re on the last round of exchanges between co-authors, and the process has reminded me again how nice it is to work with co-authors who actually care!
1) Finish lingering zombie paper that festered all through the winter semester JUST ABOUT DONE!
2) Finish new co-authored fun paper NOT FINISHED BUT MAKING GOOD PROGRESS
3) Finish major service task for national organization DONE
Thank you everyone for a great session, good luck with growing seasons, remember to enjoy the scents and sights of growing gardens even when things are busy!
Glad to hear you're feeling better, and that you have an exciting field season to come!
DeleteI can easily spend the whole of a summer trying to tie up loose ends from the previous year, and even then some trail into the following year. never sure whether to just hack a load of them off, at risk of losing crops (and connections, and wasting data), or just accept my work is more a kind of ongoing warp-and-weft-and-found-objects tapestry than a tidy production line. My Mum has always had at least one "proper border" in the garden, a densely planted (to suppress weeds) riot of interesting things organised vaguely by height and colour, often with cabbages in among the roses and the height at the back coming from fruit trees and even the odd bit of bramble-over-rickety-post, which looks fabulous from a distance despite the weeds coming up and the unintended leaving of seedheads and all the other things that happen in a garden when the gardener is busy and distractable - decorative areas get less attention than food, plus my engineering father with his preferences for straight rows and clear ground between plants is much happier dealing with hard structure and the main vegetable plots and production, so my Mum is "in charge" of the borders (which is more like a sort of vague herding, cutting something back hard if it's getting too loud, yanking out the worst of the bindweed and sneaky mint, than the kind of planned and structured plant and tend and harvest of a more formal space). Working in a publish-or-perish, Journal-Articles-Are-Kind discipline is a challenge for me, since I suspect given complete freedome I'd be more of a herbaceous border tapestry weaver type of thinker... (still finishing the thesis, having More Thoughts...)
Thank you for the reminder to stop and enjoy the garden, Daisy. I tend to keep my eyes on the horizon, so much so I miss all the wonderful things in my reach.
DeleteI also like the idea of planning so that things don't linger. I tend to have research projects that propagate by spreading, but I hate administrative things that do the same.
Great job on the goals, despite being sick!
Thanks, JaneB, for co-hosting with me, and a special thanks for your gardening metaphor. It's been a great way for me to think about and imagine my work. I appreciate all of the TLQer extensions of the metaphor, too.
ReplyDeleteThis week:
1) Family: Facilitate daughter's trip to waterpark (whether I go or ask husband to go), help son order stuff he needs. DONE. I took my daughter and three of her friends, and I helped my son order his stuff.
2) Writing: Write 500 words on novel, complete weekly assignment, read feedback on story, decide whether next submission will be a revision or a new story NO, PARTIALLY, YES, I TIHNK SO
3) Exercise: Walk 2x, Swim 1x, 10 pushups daily YES, YES, NO: I kept forgetting the pushups.
4) House/etc: Do at least two things from list. DONE
Session Goals:
1) Celebrate the kids without letting their birthdays overwhelm EVERYTHING. I think so. Daughter's birthday slumber party is this Friday, and the family celebration is Saturday, so the struggle is not over.
2) Submit "Spy" article by May 1st. DONE!!!
3) Write 5,000 words of the novel. NOT DONE. But maybe 2500?
4) Write one short story. DONE! Well, a first draft part of a short story anyway.
5) Exercise twice a week.GETTING THERE. I was much better towards the end of the session than at the beginning.
6) Prep for summer trip. SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS.
Overall, this has been a good short session. I feel great about having drafted a short story and submitted it to my online writing class for feedback. Even though I didn't get all of the words done on the novel, and I'd like to be getting more words done, the short story has stoked my writing fire.
I also feel great about having submitting the article. I doubt it will be accepted, but I'm glad it did it. It felt great to submit it to an open-access journal, too.
And, again, the garden metaphor has been a great way for me to think about things! I look forward to mulling it over further. I feel like I'm going into the summer with a strong start!
Congratulations on the submissions! Sounds like you are in a good place to start the summer proper...
DeleteHuge thanks to you and JaneB for hosting the short session, GEW. The garden metaphor was inspired, and it was wonderful to see what the group did with it.
DeleteI'm so glad you feel good about submitting the article (and to an open access journal--for which all librarians thank you!). As for it being rejected, my Appalachian grandmother always said not to borrow trouble. Writing was fun, submitting was fun, so leave tomorrow's worries with tomorrow.
I liked the short session as a transition and would like to try a similar short session after the longer summer one, which will end in August (I have a sticky on my desk that says it will be 12 weeks, 10 June to 31 August). By that time, I’m back to teaching, though I know not everyone is on that schedule. The early semester feels different from the settled, late-September-onwards semester, so a transitional session could be helpful. OTOH, there’s an argument for beginning as you mean to go on. It may depend on who’s interested in hosting the next session (or two).
ReplyDeleteLast week didn’t go quite as planned. My campus day was cut short, and on Thursday I started a bad food reaction that went on for days, pretty much ruining the weekend. (Chicory root is not on the Monash app but other sites that I eventually consulted say it’s high in fructans. Now I know.) Exercise went fine at the beginning of the week but at the weekend it was tiring to walk around the block, and I was not able to concentrate on work.
The good news: we signed paperwork to list the house, and the photographer and videographer are coming on Thursday! Then we’ll go live.
Last week’s goals:
Regular cardio, stretching, weights, pushups (60?). Ish (to copy JaneB).
Review c. 12 pages of revision notes, schedule meeting. NO
One day of campus stuff. NO
More packing, tidying, etc. YES
Buy and plant some annuals and creeping thyme. (For real, not a metaphor!) BOUGHT annuals, not yet planted, cannot find creeping thyme.
Meet with real estate agent. YES
Session goals:
Complete all teaching/service work for the spring semester while taking care of my health; YES
complete and turn in application for promotion to full professor; YES
get the house on the market. YES.
I really cannot believe that I have achieved these session goals! I thought the house would just keep dragging on, as it has for the last two years. Of course,we still have to find a buyer whose financials check out, and the house will have to be inspected, so there are plenty of ways this could drag on awhile longer.
This week I'm trying to work for a couple of hours early in the morning (and get back to early bed/rising, which really went to hell while I was feeling too ill to sleep), then work on house and garden. Stuff needs to go to Goodwill and to storage, my study needs to be tidied, those annuals need to be planted.
I'm so sorry to hear about the bad food reaction. It sounds like that really took you out for a few days. I hope you've recovered and that all went well on Thursday with the house photos, etc.
DeleteCongrats on doing so well with your session goals. It sounds like having the targeted attention of the short session might have been helpful? Or maybe you are just in a good flow and would have gotten it all done anyway. Either way, it's fantastic!
Thanks for agreeing to lead the next session.
Thank you. It was really a bad week, physically, but we did get everything prepped for the photography and the listing will go live sometime in the next few days. Now for more "living with uncertainty"!
DeleteCongratulations on getting the house on the market. You have had that albatross around your neck for so many sessions, it has to be a huge relief.
DeleteSo sorry to hear about the reaction to chicory root. I suppose the lists cannot be complete, but that is a nasty way to find out that something needs to be added.
Yay for house progress! That must be very exciting despite the chicory being evil...
DeleteI’m trying to think ‘exciting’ and not ‘anxiety-provoking’!
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