Looking over the past few weeks, I was struck by how many of us have been thrown
off course or becalmed, to borrow Dame Eleanor’s phrase. How do you cope when a
storm (life, external reviewers, or wayward colleagues) sends you far off course or
becalmed in the Doldrums? How do you find a balance between allowing some time
to regain one’s sightings, and moving back into the ocean stream?
off course or becalmed, to borrow Dame Eleanor’s phrase. How do you cope when a
storm (life, external reviewers, or wayward colleagues) sends you far off course or
becalmed in the Doldrums? How do you find a balance between allowing some time
to regain one’s sightings, and moving back into the ocean stream?
There is a difference between things that cannot be controlled and those that can, and
also between things that carry an emotional punch versus those that are more annoying
than hurtful.
also between things that carry an emotional punch versus those that are more annoying
than hurtful.
Feel free to respond to the prompt if it speaks to you. Please report your progress on
your weekly goals, analyze what went well or badly, and set goals for the coming week.
your weekly goals, analyze what went well or badly, and set goals for the coming week.
Bardiac:
1. Exercise.
2. Weed the damned garden
3. Write 5 pages
4. Practice
5. Plan trip out west!
Dame Eleanor Hull:
Keep up stretching, cardio, weights, and push-ups.
Finish the last set of revisions.
Put in two hours of fall teaching prep.
Prep for real estate open house.
Do something fun or self-indulgent besides reading novels.
Elizabeth Mitchell:
Go to dental and medical appointments.
Get pool pass and use it.
Ask neighbor about her cleaning service.
Start proofreading edition--3 hours a day.
Edit introduction and textual notes--2 hours a day.
Heu mihi
1. Read the work of one graduate student
2. Read half of one book
3. Sit x 6 (traveling—will this work?)
4. Wonder: Need a plan for revising. Part of the problem is that it's so cluttered with detail that I'm
having a hard time seeing the argument. So how's this for goals: a) cut 1000 words; b) work out topic
sentences for major subsections.
having a hard time seeing the argument. So how's this for goals: a) cut 1000 words; b) work out topic
sentences for major subsections.
5. Enjoy the conference and seeing friends.
Humming42
1 Finish reading and post two book reviews
2 Write and submit overdue film review
3 Write 1000 words for Tiny Project
4 Read though Sweet conference paper to determine next steps
JaneB
1) self-care: focusing this week on drinking enough water, on taking time to eat the food I choose, on
moving a little extra each day (despite it being hot - I can still benefit from doing my back sstretches,
if nothing else!), and on starting "sitting" again.
moving a little extra each day (despite it being hot - I can still benefit from doing my back sstretches,
if nothing else!), and on starting "sitting" again.
2) going through all my notes from meetings about my new admin role a few months ago, and
compling them into a single document
compling them into a single document
3) going through all my notes from last week's meetings
and taking small actions, planning/recording large ones, related to my various papers and grant
application in progress.
application in progress.
OceanGirl101
1. Finish major edits on Ch 6 and write 3,000 words for Ch 6.
2. Re-stake my tomatoes, weed the garden
3. Work out 2x with new personal trainer, walk 2x weather permitting
4. Spend three hours in the lab getting samples pulled for book related research
5. Finish test writing and copy edits on a co-authored article and send to my collaborators
6. Think about finding a decorator to help me get my home office in working order
Plant Girl
1. Begin work on a book review I've forgotten I had to do.
2. Review an essay.
3. Schedule necessary doctor's appointments prior to my move next month.
4. Edit book proposal.
Susan
1. Finish book review
2. Start work on Violence: 3x 2 hours figuring out what it needs for this new placement. (It was
originally written for a conference, revised for a potential journal issue, now part of a book from
another conference...)
originally written for a conference, revised for a potential journal issue, now part of a book from
another conference...)
3. Teaching: 4x3 hours on syllabus for new Lower division course
4. Journals: 4x 1/2 hour on journals
5. Clearing: 4 x 1/2 hour on desk mess
6. Walk or exercise x 5
7. Do something fun
Waffles
1. Take stock of journal review project and email team
2. Take stock of where we are for august presentations and make a plan
3. Take stock of PTSD paper and make a plan
4. Take stock of YRBS paper and draft intro
5. Circle back with VA suicide team
What Now?
1) Have a colonoscopy on Tuesday. I've been dreading this for ages, but at last it's here.
2) If my colleague gets back to me, talk with her about her feedback.
3) Prep the heck out of the three-week summer school session that starts next Monday. The goal is to
have it all laid out so that I just need to show up each morning and do the grading I need to do each
day, but that's it, and I can still be doing other things for those three weeks.
have it all laid out so that I just need to show up each morning and do the grading I need to do each
day, but that's it, and I can still be doing other things for those three weeks.
4) Get caught up on an online course I'm taking. I'm a week behind.
5) Finish reading some books! I'm partway through a whole bunch of books -- some work-related,
some personal -- and I'd like to clear the decks. I finished one yesterday, and it was very freeing.
some personal -- and I'd like to clear the decks. I finished one yesterday, and it was very freeing.
A very timely prompt! We learned earlier this week that the University is reorganising again, taking apart the academic structures imposed somewhat disruptively and rapidly two summers ago and replacing them with something which does not at first glance look MUCH worse, apart from the details. Oh, and not touching the administrative structures, which are the biggest problem at present (and decisions about how the new system interfaces with those will make or break the change, determine how much MORE time we will lose to trying to keep things working until we have an idea of what new structures will be. of course there have been no announcements about THAT yet, just the annoucements about the academic changes).
ReplyDeleteI'm trying not to borrow trouble but add to that the amount of teaching and admin that needs to be done and how little research I am getting done and, the weather being pretty hot this weekend, I've been avoiding the WHole THing in novels and naps. Which doesn't work too well at actually solving anything, but...
I'll check in properly tomorrow.
It is so very difficult to ply the waters of an institution undergoing major changes. I also find it hard to avoid thinking about it, although I like your solution of novels and naps.
DeleteUgh. I hate how often administrators re-organize while faculty is away. (At least around here.) They make things that make sense to people who've never worked as a faculty member, but make no sense to those of us doing teaching, research, and faculty service. Ugh.
DeleteI hope they don't mess things up too badly there.
Around here we're not completely AWAY, since we have 12 month contracts, but things are much quieter - people are distracted and yes, most try to fit in the majority of their annual leave, between child care and holiday, into the summer period and then there are conferences and field work and working from home.
DeleteWhat a timely prompt! I struggle so much when I get behind my writing schedule, even for truly appropriate reasons. It is so easy when life gets in the way for me to tumble into stress mode, anxiety mode, or resentment mode. This time around I am trying to just let things be easier. I am having a hard time writing my book, but I keep on asking myself, how can I make this be easier? I contemplated leaving the hard to complete Ch 6 behind to move onto an easier chapter. But I am going to give myself one more week to see if I can make progress on Ch 6 before I do that because its close to being done. And I am resisting the other tendency, to now overwork to make up for lost time. Striving for balance, its hard.
ReplyDeleteI kind of met some goals for last week:
1. Finish major edits on Ch 6 and write 3,000 words for Ch 6. I finished the major edits and wrote 1,000 words
2. Re-stake my tomatoes, weed the garden. Did the tomatoes, not the garden
3. Work out 2x with new personal trainer, walk 2x weather permitting. Walked 1 x, worked out 2x
4. Spend three hours in the lab getting samples pulled for book related research -Did
5. Finish test writing and copy edits on a co-authored article and send to my collaborators -Started
6. Think about finding a decorator to help me get my home office in working order - Not done
New goals:
1. Write 5,000 words of Ch 6
2. Finish text edits and writing for collaborative article and send to co-authors
3. Order books for fall courses
4. Work out 2x (weights), walk 2x, stretch 5x
5. Look for decorator for home office
6. Finish application to do Master Naturalist course
Given the recent upheaval in your life, you are getting back on course quite well. It is smart to see if there are ways to make the writing easier--I change what I am writing based on mood or inclination. It does mean some sewing together at the end, but it helps me get through it.
DeleteI had a period of eighteen months a few years ago involving a mother in memory care and several other serious diseases and deaths in the family, and it is just plain hard. Give yourself time and room to adjust.
Many thanks for the support. I symapthize with your 18 months of family work. It has been two years of this now (Dad died, Mom with COPD and starting to fail, now Aunt in Memory Care). I agree, it is just plain hard. I am trying to be take care of myself too in the mix of it all.
DeleteSelf-care is crucial in these situations. Put on your own oxygen mask first, and do what's good for you or you're not good for anyone else.
DeleteI've been the opposite of becalmed this week -- battered and buffeted by contradictory winds. Well, that's only sort of the opposite; in neither case is the ship making headway! All of which is to say that I've been feeling pulled in a million different directions -- the mental version of too many tabs open in my web browser, such that the processing speed has gotten very slow.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet I did get my goals done for this past week. Nothing like the accountability of knowing I'll have to check in to light a fire under me! I've spent part of this evening making a list of everything I'd like to get done in the next month to close some of those tabs this summer so that I'm in a calmer state. And the feedback I got from my colleague on my essay draft was remarkably good -- so good that I immediately distrust it.
Goals for this coming week:
1. First week of summer school -- Get it done with minimal effort.
2. Exercise three times -- a good test run for exercising during the school year.
3. Do at least 2.5 hours of revising the draft, implementing colleague's feedback, etc.
4. Finish reading two more books -- see above re. closing tabs
5. Stay caught up in online course (two more weeks)
6. Celebrate my birthday!
First of all--Happy Birthday in advance! Great job getting your goals done despite buffeting winds. Your description of competing winds is all too familiar--exhausting and debilitating. I laughed out loud at your reaction to the colleague's feedback, since it is so often my reaction as well.
DeleteAnd yes, having to confess my failings here helps a lot!
Congratulations! Sounds like you got a lot accomplished!
DeleteHappy birthday soon!
Enjoy your birthday celebrations - maybe that should be number one this week? And yeah, good feedback is unnerving - but I still work with academics whose goal is mostly, even if unconsciously, to ALWAYS find ways to make things even better - as a class we are really bad at saying "that's plenty good enough for the job, submit it!". Maybe your colleagues are less hysterically-in-pursuit-of-impossible-perfection than the academic audiences who used to read your work?
DeleteTopic: My ability to start up again after things fall apart varies greatly on how much I can control my reaction to whatever fell apart. When I cannot control the situation, I try find ways to mitigate the disaster in ways that I do control. Last spring, I walked out of a meeting when one colleague began shouting at another; it was clear that the chair of the committee (and supervisor of the colleague) was going to let it continue. I stood up, said that I would not attend a meeting that allowed such behavior, and walked out. Had I stayed, I would have been a wreck for the rest of the day. As it was, I took a walk outside and shook off the ugliness in a few minutes.
ReplyDeleteWhen it is completely under my control that I have stalled, I try to work around my resistence to start back up. If it is something I have to write, I may try a different section, or even a different project entirely. I also bribe myself with a chapter of a novel or twenty minutes of needlework if I finish a section or an hour of writing. Another trick is to write the hardest part at the best part of the day for me, which is first thing.
Last week’s goals:
1) Go to dental and medical appointments. Done
2) Get pool pass and use it. No
3) Ask neighbor about her cleaning service. Done
4) Start proofreading edition--3 hours a day. Done
5) Edit introduction and textual notes--2 hours a day. Done
Analysis: I really wanted to get the pool pass, but I ended up having a filling that was loose and needed another dental appointment. Unfortunately, I also found out that I have a large kidney stone rife with infection. I’m having trouble handling my emotions, despite my brash statement in last week’s comment that I have control over my emotions.
The kidney stone took far too much of my time, since the NP didn’t contact me about the stone (which she knew about after an ultrasound on June 29th), but waited until I returned for another procedure on Wednesday. Then she told me I needed a CT instead of the procedure, so I wasted that trip. I had the CT done on Thursday morning, and spent the afternoon finding a doctor in NYC for a second opinion. While I was on the phone with a nephrologist’s office in Manhattan, the NP called and left a message saying that her attending wants to remove the entire kidney. Thank goodness I am getting a second opinion. I spent Friday feeling sorry for myself, although I do have a low-grade fever from the infection, so I am not at my best.
Next week’s goals:
1) Go to medical appointment.
2) If surgery is not imminent, get the pool pass and use it.
3) If surgery is imminent, move Morgan Library research visit to September or October.
4) Proofread the edition for 3 hours every day.
5) Edit the textual notes for 2 hours every day.
Wish me luck on Tuesday. I hope everyone has a productive week, with breaks for rest and relaxation. Excelsior!
Elizabeth, I hope you get much better medical news this coming week.
DeleteSo sorry to hear about the kidney problem! Good luck with the second opinion, boo on that NP, and very best wishes for a comfortable outcome.
DeleteWell done on the walking out of a meeting! I kind of wish ours would reach the point where that was actually appropriate... they tend to simmer, rather than boil, and as one of those overly-sponge-like people who picks up emotion easily but doesn't process it well, I do find them hard.
DeleteSorry to hear about the kidney stone and the fever! Hope you get useful news from the second opinion and feel better soon
Oh, wow--I hope that everything gets better this week!
DeleteI need to remember and use your meeting protocol. It could come in handy.
I too need to remember the difficult meeting protocol- could come in very handy. And it is also good to be reminded of bribes for getting writing done and the trick of writing the hardest part first thing in the morning.
DeleteOh no, kidney stone and infection?! I hope things improve without surgery or that if surgery is necessary it goes well.
DeleteI can remember busting out my “mom voice” when two senior colleagues starting to insult each other at a meeting. I pointed my finger at them and said, “No, that is not okay. You cannot talk to each other like that.” I said it exactly the way I would have spoken to my children, who were quite young at the time. It was like a reflex.
I'm so sorry about the kidney stone: I'm glad you're getting a second opinion. And it's unfair that this is during your sabbatical!
DeleteThank you all for your good wishes on the stone situation. The doctor in NYC is many times more communicative and cautious, so I know a lot more about the situation. She is concentrating on getting the infection under control (which has gone unmedicated for more than a month now), then the stone out, then worrying about the rest. I'm feeling much better mentally, thank goodness, although I have to agree with Susan that the timing is just crappy.
DeleteI'm glad the meeting protocol may help some of you--I just got tired of being uncomfortable in meetings like that. GEW, I laughed out loud at your story--I know the "mom voice" very well.
I like this weeks metaphor! I feel like I'd been a bit in the doldrums, but finally caught a following wind this week and restarted some stuff. But of course, not all...
ReplyDelete1. Exercise. Some
2. Weed the damned garden Mostly done!
3. Write 5 pages Not. BUT, I did get work done on campus until the internet went down and I couldn't get at any of my notes or anything. UGH!
4. Practice Didn't do.
5. Plan trip out west! So much planning!
For this coming week:
1. Finalize some plans. Since this involves my Mom, it will take time (because she's communicating with five other people...)
2. Finish weeding. I need two hours before it gets hot. Hopefully tomorrow.
3. Exercise.
4. Pack.
5. Write enough that I feel like I've made progress.
This will probably be my last week responding. On the 21st, I'm heading out on a road trip.
Thanks again for including me! It's helped a lot more than it probably seems. Catch you all when I get back! If you start another session, please include me. I'll be back in mid-August.
Sounds like you'll be back in time for the end of session wrap-up - have a wonderful trip!
DeleteYes, have a good trip and check in when you come back!
DeleteHave a great trip! Let me know if you're here. And check the fires - we see the smoke from the Ferguson fire here.
DeleteSusan, I think we'll be going from the North, Sacto, and not sure that takes us through where you are. So, alas, I think I will miss seeing you.
DeleteYes, please do check in when you are back. I am sure we will have another session for the Fall/Spring as well.
DeleteEnjoy the trip!
I hope you have a wonderful trip! I will be eager to read your next check-in.
DeleteI did not get much done last week--I was away from Tuesday-Sunday. The conference was...more meh than I'd hoped. My own session was good for me and productive, and I got to spend time with loads of professional friends, but I don't feel that I got much out of it otherwise. And it was *long.* So now I'm hoping to take a longish break from conferencing and just do what I need to do, ignoring the issues in my field that are irritating me at the moment.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Read the work of one graduate student - Nearly done
2. Read half of one book - Done
3. Sit x 6 (traveling—will this work?) - MW
4. Wonder: Need a plan for revising. Part of the problem is that it's so cluttered with detail that I'm having a hard time seeing the argument. So how's this for goals: a) cut 1000 words; b) work out topic sentences for major subsections. - Cut a bit; did some scaffolding, if not exactly what I planned.
5. Enjoy the conference and seeing friends - Enjoyed seeing friends.
This week:
1. Finish grad student’s work; read another grad student’s work; check in on X’s exams.
2. Sit x 6
3. Finish reading book
4. Work on Wonder at least 30 minutes/day
5. File receipts for conference
6. Return to regular exercise
Ugh, I hate when conferences are "meh" - they take an awful lot of energy (and money and time). At least you got some good social time out of it and get to focus a bit more this week
DeleteI looked at the conference program and I think I would not have enjoyed it much, either, despite the presence of a lot of interesting speakers. I'm also avoiding most conferences and trying to focus on my main projects these days.
Delete"Meh" conferences are so disappointing; despite meeting friends, I always feel a bit down. I didn't notice at first reading that you gave a presentation, so that helps as well. I thought about going, but felt I needed to give conferences a miss this summer unless I had a committee obligation or were giving a paper.
DeleteRevising a paper with too much detail is hard, but it sounds like you made progress on that, as well.
Last week:
ReplyDelete1. Take stock of journal review project and email team - DONE. One issue with this project is that one of the team members never responds to emails. He is a student who is volunteering - and I hesitate to ask more things of him bc he has done outstanding work, but I really need him to respond to emails. Even when I ask for a response in an email just to him, he is unlikely to respond. This is a bit of an issue with an opportunity I gave him recently - he didn't respond to my email with the plan, and then emailed a week later going in a completely different direction - which will take a lot of work to course correct.
2. Take stock of where we are for august presentations and make a plan - DONE
3. Take stock of PTSD paper and make a plan - DONE
4. Take stock of YRBS paper and draft intro - SORT OF DONE. I made an outline.
5. Circle back with VA suicide team - - NOT DONE. I actually set a reminder to do that this week, so it will be one of this week's goals.
I'm feeling a bit aimless right now. I have no super tight deadlines and my mentor is out of the country, so I don't have our weekly meetings to use as deadlines. I have so many projects, I don't feel a press to complete any one of them, which results in me wanting to spend my day reading a new fiction book instead of working. I'm meeting with an EAP counselor today to talk about issues related to adjusting to my new university and how to be more productive. Since I got here, I have found it very very hard to get myself to write. I'm hoping the EAP person can help with that.
This week:
1. Circle back with VA suicide team
2. Figure out what to do for asthma analyses
3. Write up review
4. Intro for YRBS paper
I know that feeling all too well - too many things to do, so the new book feels like a good solution. It's a sort of overwhelm-burn-out thing - often resolved when one thing DOES become urgent, or when you get to a point where you can focus on ONE thing. Good on you for finding someone to talk to about this - it sounds like you have one heck of a lot of competing demands both intellectual and interpersonal, and not a lot of support around you what with your mentor travelling and being in a new place and all...
DeleteThanks, Jane - that's really nice of you to say and really helpful.
DeleteNon-emailing student team member reminds me of one of my students whose project I supervised for a research competition. She would come to class and ask me about something, then tell me she hadn't yet read her email. I finally suggested that I send her a text message, either with current important information or with a note to check her email and respond to me. This definitely made communication easier.
DeleteI will second Jane on the EAP counselor--sometimes I have to dig down to see what the real block is, since I am so good at finding something external/superficial to blame. Your being burnt out after all you've gone through (as Jane says) is no surprise, and I hope you find a good support system.
DeleteOn the prompt:
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between things that cannot be controlled and those that can, and also between things that carry an emotional punch versus those that are more annoying than hurtful.
I have gotten a lot better over the last ten years at a) shrugging off or working around things that are out of my control and b) being able to say to myself "this is emotionally hard because of X prior experience (a lot of recent stuff is around what I summarise as "I was the only person applying to InternationallyRenownedUniversity and its rival who was NOT made a prefect at school..." (it's a sort of FOMO and IAmNotInvisible and why would "management" (in that case heads of year etc.) make choices which suggest I'm less competent and which make my life a lot harder (the general common room was hell if you were nerdy and not popular/pretty, because all the bookish people were prefects with their own common room, different access to information etc. - so I lost my herd to hand on the edges of. Teenagers are real, real big on hanging with the herd or getting picked off. And staff don't police the 6th form common room, it's student space. Basically I sat on walls outside or walked around the fields between classes come wind snow rain or sun, and was convinced my teachers thought I had no chance of getting into my University of Choice - being a prefect was supposed to be an essential on your application at the time, along with near-perfect grades in end of school exams.) Anyway, personal details aside!
I struggle with the intermediate stuff, things which are a bit in my control but not entirely, and with vague structures and implied rules which one should "just know". The new structures are two years old this September, and I was just beginning to feel like I'd got a handle on what was and wasn't in my control and on HOW to deal with the intermediate stuff, who to contact, all that sort of thing. And so the thought of all that knowledge having to be reassessed, re-tested, rewritten, of it being reformed as the new organisation comes into being AGAIN, makes me very, very weary. A mix of angry and frustrated and what-is-the-point and why-SHOULD-I at the thought of the amount of invisible work that needs redoing, at the amount of extra energy it takes me to do the professional-and-positive-in-front-of-students-and-managers thing when I don't actually know how to do my job. Needless to say, the manual for faculty promised in the first month of the last reorg still doesn't exist. Someone's probably cursing the waste of all their work towards THAT, as well.
So once again I don't actually know what is and isn't in my control, and I find that very, very difficult. I want to have a giant toddler tantrum. But I can't even take a week off, because I have grad students and the like and meetings and obligations...
How do you cope when a storm sends you far off course or becalmed in the Doldrums? How do you find a balance between allowing some time to regain one’s sightings, and moving back into the ocean stream?
Not very maturely! I've learnt that actually at this stage in my personal development (which is probably way behind most people's) letting myself have a good Worsel Gummidge style Sulk (often involving the consumption of naps, novels and carbohydrates in splendid isolation, and the filling of a page or two of a notebook with Many Swears in my best handwriting) actually helps. Makes the inner toddler feel heard and cared for, I guess, which means the inner adult isn't quite so distracted by the abandonment and fear and confusion and anger of said inner toddler and can actually try and be rational. Or just carry on.
last week's goals:
Delete1) self-care: focusing this week on drinking enough water, on taking time to eat the food I choose, on moving a little extra each day (despite it being hot - I can still benefit from doing my back stretches, if nothing else!), and on starting "sitting" again. I did quite well at the water, a little better but not good at thoughtful eating, not much in the way of extra movement beyond the requirements of the day, and I did "sit" 3 days out of 7 (doing a 9 minute mindfulness meditation on a free app - I like the soundtrack options (I often use the ocean waves or rooftop rain options to go to sleep to - I used Forest Morning which is birdsong for the sitting) and it was a good length to start with).
2) going through all my notes from meetings about my new admin role a few months ago, and compling them into a single document did this, and got it checked by the admin person who has been most helpful. Also had to do year-end report in person to the Executive Board of my current organisational entity, which was interesting as I took over end of April...
3) going through all my notes from last week's meetings and taking small actions, planning/recording large ones, related to my various papers and grant application in progress. nope. Didn't get near this. The whole week just... filled up with stuff (and I was pretty firm about only being in the office for three days, as part of "making up" for the long week at the start of the month, even though that meant 10 hour days and stuff undone).
goals for this week:
1) self-care: focusing this week on drinking enough water, on taking time to eat the food I choose, on moving a little extra each day (at least back stretches), "sitting".
2) arranging times to vist parents and sister despite hot weather with no end in site :-( GRRRR
3) going through all my notes from meetings two weeks ago and taking small actions, planning/recording large ones, related to my various papers and grant applications in progress.
4) spending an hour or two on one of the papers
...no end in SIGHT. Sigh. my brain is melting, I tell you...
Delete"The whole week just. . .filled up with stuff" feels like my life.
DeleteJane, your comment on your teenage years makes me sad. It's a wonder any of us become helpful members of society given the horror of schooling in the teen years. (I also spent all of my breaks outside, alone--and I am also a very proud high-school dropout, which only caused me problems when I wanted a job at the Library of Congress, and I had to explain that I was too proud to get the equivalency certificate). Enough personal details from me!
DeleteGo forth with good heart on culling future plans from all the administrative meetings--those things turn my brain to aspic.
I thought that the rest of the summer (which, for me, is not long since classes begin August 13th) would involve a leisurely tour near shore in a sunny harbor. However, now it looks like I'll have to plot a new course that involves a fast trip into the chop. Although I'm not looking forward to that intensity (and the other things the new plan will impact), I am glad that I received an R & R and might have a chance at my first peer-reviewed publication.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm still on vacation with the family (going on week five? I think?), so my progress will be limited until I get home. Today we head to a little place right on Rio Grande to relax without extended family; then, later in the week, we visit friends deep in the Colorado mountains. So I'm still going to focus on relaxing, or, to extend the metaphor, just lounging in the harbor a bit longer before I have to really lift the sails and get underway.
This week:
1) Review the readers' reports more carefully. Take some planning/strategy notes for revision. Spend 2-3 hours on this. No more, not much less.
2) Read for pleasure. Sit by the river.
3) Get some exercise. Eat some healthy things.
4) Enjoy my last week of the family togetherness (even though we've had a LOT of togetherness. :)
5) Maybe 500 words of fiction?
Congratulations on your R&R! Well done!
DeleteYes, congratulations indeed! I hope the chop at least gets you closer to where you wanted to be.
DeleteEnjoy your family togetherness, too!
Whew...I am normally not very good when things throw me off track. I have some mental health issues that often make it difficult to cope with changes in plans or schedules, but I try to force myself to get back on track with academic stuff pretty as best I can. I am usually successful with that, but then it messes up my self-care routines.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1. Begin work on a book review I've forgotten I had to do. Read the book, wrote the review, submitted the review.
2. Review an essay. Did this.
3. Schedule necessary doctor's appointments prior to my move next month. Have so far managed all the doctor's stuff.
4. Edit book proposal. Edits are more or less complete?
Goals for this week:
1. Finalize all 3 syllabi for the fall.
2. Continue work on chapter.
3. Exercise regularly again / eat at home more.
4. Balance freelance work with academic work.
5. Try to enjoy summer and do something summer-y.
I wish I were better at sticking to a routine! Things go better when I do, but I'm easily thrown off course. It sounds like you got a lot done last week.
DeleteThe week sounds very productive! Kudos! Especially since you did the doctor stuff / self-care.
DeleteI sympathize with self-care routines getting disrupted,although you seem to be doing pretty well, as GEW said.
DeleteStrange week. I am almost finished with the second book to review. I did some research and organization for Tiny but did not write much. Curiously, I can’t find a digital copy of the Sweet paper. If I have a printed copy, it’s in my office on campus and I don’t especially want to go to campus. I will put off that project until I next go to campus, which will give me cause to focus on Tiny Project. And since my biggest session goal is to have something like a rough manuscript for Tiny, I should focus on that (really focus!) for the remaining six weeks of summer.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1 Finish reading and post two book reviews: one yes, one almost
2 Write and submit overdue film review: no
3 Write 1000 words for Tiny Project: no
4 Read though Sweet conference paper to determine next steps: no
This week:
1 Post book review
2 Write 1000 words for Tiny Project
3 Read old chapter for Tiny Project
4 Write to one person for Tiny Project
5 Reorganize summer goals
It sounds like you've found a way to help yourself focus on Tiny and put Sweet out of mind for now. I know it often feels like we should Do All The Things, but having just one goal can be very freeing.
DeleteDEH has a great point about concentrating on one goal. I try to write down all errant thoguhts about other projects and file them away "to think about tomorrow."
DeleteI'm way off course due to insomnia. My main goal this week is to address that problem.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
Keep up stretching, cardio, weights, and push-ups. YES (skipped two days each of stretching and cardio, but did something every day).
Finish the last set of revisions. NO.
Put in two hours of fall teaching prep. ONE?
Prep for real estate open house. YES. (It does not seem to have sparked any interest in the house.)
Do something fun or self-indulgent besides reading novels. YES: went on a house/garden tour in a nearby town, which made me wonder why I hadn't considered that town when I was first looking to buy a place in the mid-nineties, before I met Sir John. I'm glad I didn't, for various reasons, but I could easily imagine it as a path not taken.
This week is not off to a good start; my sleep patterns are really messed up, and I feel very foggy except for an hour or two when I first wake up, whether from a nap or "overnight." I'm experimenting with just sleeping when I'm sleepy, however peculiar the hours, since it's summer and I can. The hope is that by doing so, I'll eventually stop associating bed with anxiety about sleeping, and work around to whatever my natural rhythms are. Pain is also a component that needs to be addressed. I'm backing off weights and pushups this week, anything that might aggravate a sore neck, and instead doing a yoga routine for neck and shoulders, and taking a lot more ibuprofen than usual. With all this going on, this week's work goals are in the "would be nice" category; I'll work on things as I feel able, but I may just read a lot of novels and watch a lot of the Tour de France.
New goals:
Regular cardio and yoga; sleep when sleepy; buy new curtains for bedroom.
Finish revisions.
Some fall teaching prep.
Prep for and engage in final (?) consultation on translation project.
I am sorry to hear about the insomnia. I don’t know if this will seem helpful or healthful for you, but when I have trouble sleeping, I use a wireless earbud to listen to an audiobook or podcast. I set a sleep timer so it will automatically shut off after 30 or 60 minutes, and at some point during the night, I’m able to ditch the earbud without really rousing. Doing this cuts through my “I need to go to sleep” anxiety because what I’m listening to distracts my brain.
DeleteRegardless, I hope you have a good week of novels and the Tour, and that the sleeping starts to sort itself.
Insomnia is such an awful affliction. GEW's thought about audiobooks or podcasts has helped me in the past.
DeleteIf it is possible for you, you might find it helpful to give up the notion of a "regular" day or nighttime. My circadian rhythms are way off the 9-5 that I usually have to bend to, and this summer I am sleeping far better on my own weird schedule. I sleep for about 4-6 hours, wake for about the same, and so on. I know it won't work while you are teaching, but it might help you catch up if you can do it for a few weeks.
People are so different! Listening to rain noise sometimes helps, but a podcast would keep me awake either because I was interested or because it was irritating the &@*! out of me by talking when I wanted to go to sleep. The basic problem is pain, plus anxiety and frustration that have accumulated around the idea of sleep, with a side order of having a natural sunset-to-sunrise rhythm but living with a vampire.
DeleteWhat an interesting prompt. I'm trying to focus on where I have to weigh in, when I can just shut up. Ended up spending an hour today responding to someone who got offended by something I thought was uncontroversial. Things like that just take time... as JaneB said, ""The whole week just. . .filled up with stuff" Right now I'm tired of thinking about other people's feelings. But in general I try to give these things some space, and then find something I can do that feels constructive, even if it wasn't what I expected.
ReplyDeleteGoals from last week:
1. Finish book review YES, sent it off
2. Start work on Violence: 3x 2 hours figuring out what it needs for this new placement. (It was
originally written for a conference, revised for a potential journal issue, now part of a book from
another conference...) TWO TIMES, + a really good think on my walk
3. Teaching: 4x3 hours on syllabus for new Lower division course 2 x 2: but I feel like it's moving
4. Journals: 4x 1/2 hour on journals Yes, probably more -- I got rid of a big pile.
5. Clearing: 4 x 1/2 hour on desk mess -- maybe 2 x? And I completely cleared out a drawer and fixed it, so that's a win.
6. Walk or exercise x 5 Yes
7. Do something fun Not really
Well, I got proofs for one article (There goes a morning) and copyediting queries on another (there goes another morning). An extra trip to the dr. with my mother. I feel as if I've got a plan for violence that makes sense, and I'm making progress on the syllabus. So that's good. Clutter is disappearing slowly but surely. (Yesterday I discovered a box of journals that my husband had moved, determined that all existed online, and put them in the recycling.)
Goals for the next week:
1. Get through revisions of Violence
2. Get all secondary readings for syllabus set; meet with TAs.
3. Deal with the rest of the desk, put it on craigslist etc.
4. Walk or exercise x 5
5. Actually do some thing recreational . . .
Anyway, goals from last week:
Oh, worrying about how people will react to what I say is another bane of my existence. Of course, I tend to say the wrong thing to my bosses, and that never goes well.
DeleteBut it feels sometimes people seem to be looking for things to be offended by. A colleague of mine scolded (and that is the only term that fits) the Provost in an open meeting because he said that he was aware she was invested in maintaining diversity. How is that "dismissive" and "reductive"? Really? It is all so tiring.
Hurrah on your moving things along, especially the decluttering.
L'enfer, c'est les [emotions d']autres.
Delete