Welcome and welcome back to the four week tiny intersession. For many of us, these are liminal weeks between one season and another, one semester and another, or the summer (in the North) and the new academic year. With that in mind, these are good weeks to remember the small things to take good care of ourselves and to facilitate the transition from here to there.
Being intersession, and since most of us are familiar with this space (new folks are welcome tho!), let’s skip introductions and set goals for the intersession and for the coming week. Common themes include research, teaching, home stuff, family, self-care, crafts, exercise, writing, and gardening. Be as detailed or brief as is helpful to you. If you anticipate any challenges for the weeks ahead, you can note them too.
Looking forward.
Someone please tell me it is an excellent thing that I have written 1900 words this weekend. I should be preparing for classes, but some ILL books turned up, I was cross about spending Friday in meetings, I didn't feel like prepping, and I'm obsessing about some ideas, so off I went. Later in the term I don't think I'd worry about this, but I do think it's important to look prepared on the first day! Well, there are still some hours before tomorrow morning.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Humming42, for the thoughts about transitions. My mind is on some larger transitions, as friends retire or start preparing to do so, and while those are important thoughts, I also need the grounding of thinking about these next four weeks. By the end of that time, I should have figured out my "real schedule" for the semester (the one I can actually do, not the ideal one I hope for), graded a few early assignments, got to know my students a bit.
Let's formalize this to Intersession Goals:
*establish a working schedule;
*grade promptly and keep up with other prep;
*finish the albatross R&R;
*take care of my physical self through exercise, sleep, and cooking; make some medical appointments.
This week:
*complete prep for first week of teaching;
*daily exercise and stretching, adequate sleep;
*regular research, in whatever form (reading, note-taking, writing, planning) seems possible on a given day.
Good luck to everyone!
Yes, it is an excellent thing to write 1900 words, even (or perhaps, especially) if it was not on the list for today. There is no guarantee that those 1900 words would show up when you had slated time for them, and now you can revise and/or add to them when that slated time comes.
DeleteMore brava for 1900 words! Since you know well how to do the first of semester thing, I'm confident those words will help propel you forward instead of setting you back.
DeleteSo much yes for the schedule I can actually do, not the ideal one I hope for. That articulates my intent for the next couple of weeks as well.
Definitely! I think we can get so tied up in "ought" we ignore our research muse completely, and she will get stroppy if you do that too often!
DeleteI'm sure your first day of classes will go great anyway
Thank you all! I did eventually get the handouts etc prepped for the first day, and then I stopped feeling guilty for writing first.
DeleteSession goals are mostly projects to which I am already committed but want to complete with more grace and less urgency.
ReplyDelete1 Complete and submit two book reviews
2 Complete article review
3 Draft grant proposal
4 FInish lit review and outline for Perform
This week is the first week of classes for me, and I am keeping in mind that I will have little energy and need more breaks and more rest that I’ve had during the summer.
1 Complete and submit one book review
2 Complete article review
3 Submit one of two creative writing projects
"more grace and less urgency", I really like that, it encapsulates something important about what many of us wrestle with. And urgency is much more stressful than grace!
DeleteI like that too; it's a great attitude to strive for!
DeleteTopic: I am in a multi-layered transitional space right now, and very aware of pausing in many thresholds. Like Dame Eleanor, I have several colleagues and friends who are recently retired or counting the days until retirement, so that transition is also on my mind, although not on my horizon. The imminence of change does provide a good time to look at how I want to spend my time. The other day, I recalled my first dissertation director who told me three years into the seven-year time limit that my topic was something I should write after tenure. It struck me that I am now tenured, and I would like to pull out some pieces of that work for an article or two.
ReplyDeleteSession goals:
Box up one lateral file drawer.
Continue to move.
Keep up with class assignments.
Pull together a file of article ideas.
This week:
Move half an hour x 6.
Read first set of articles for class.
Find old dissertation file.
Pull/shred thirty files.
Autumn is in the air today in upstate NY, and campus is awash with the first day of classes. Float like mist, everyone.
Autumn is a very liminal time...
DeleteAutumn and mist go together so well (ask Thomas Hardy!).
DeleteSir John also is thinking of retiring from his job--not from the kind of work he does, but he is getting fed up with job BS, and at his age, it's not so easy to find a new job. So now the retirement thing is really personal. We're both thinking about what gives life meaning. I really like my job. I have no intention of giving up research whenever I retire, but in addition to enjoying teaching, I like being respected as a repository of institutional knowledge. I could do other kinds of teaching, but no one outside of LRU would care that I know stuff about How Things Work and Why at LRU. I can't decide if this is Sad or an indication of self-awareness.
I'm interested to hear more about how writing on your dissertation topic unfolds. I tend to forget that what I wrote about is something that I have some expertise in, even though I don't do a lot of work on that subject now. But I'm applying for a summer grant to some related research and feel excited to revisit the material.
DeleteI know this group is very diverse and some of us don't openly discuss areas of expertise to maintain anonymity, but I'm interested in your relationship to your dissertation research/topic/project now...for me, 11 years out.
Humming, I'd be delighted to talk more about it via email (lapidaryprose@gmail.com), and will absolutely preserve your anonymity, but we can also discuss it here if you prefer.
DeleteHi all,
ReplyDeleteWe're going to start the main session the weekend of 14-15 September so have three weeks of actually doing stuff in this intersession.
My semester starts 16th September, although the meetings and trainings and exhortions are already underway. This week is a bit of a mess because today is a bank holiday Monday, and I have personal morning appointments two days so will get into work late morning, and someone's leaving so going to their do will be a chunk of the third day, and I don't work Fridays (technically). So a bit short of work time this week. Then it's back to a far more normal schedule, and meetings really kick off (sigh).
So my goals for the intersession are mostly about transitions and tying up loose ends.
Session goals (three weeks)
1) get the house "back to baseline"
2) get my various teaching organisation systems as ready as possible (we have a new VLE template so that may have to wait until after the training, but I can sort out my own pc, my diary, my daybook, my folders...)
3) to tidy and organise my office somewhat
4) to make it really easy to start the bench-work I needed to do this summer (e.g. have all the samples ready, have the space clear and supplies all restocked)
5) to make solid progress on at least one of the grant ideas I started this summer
6) to sort some data for Ferrett and send it to FormerPDF
7) to not get drawn into long days, to eat in a way that is kind to my body and not just a "shut up you little brat" choice, and at least stretch if not get more active (depends on the weather, and on my mood...)
8) to arrange for some small handyperson chores to get done
9) to do a few end of summer things - have a fancy frozen drink from a coffee shop, spend a back to school money off voucher for a stationary store that I have, read some novels, do some handicrafts. There will ALWAYS BE MORE WORK.
10) start thinking about NaNoWriMo!
Next week's goals
1) clean the kitchen, catch up on laundry, make another appointment with the decluttering lady
2) every day in my office, make some progress with tidying
3) work on the followup to ProblemChild grant proposal in writing group
4) leave the office by 6 at the latest regardless of when I get there, do 45s all day when I'm there (set an alarm for 45 minutes. When it goes off, reset it, then do one of: run an errand/go to the bathroom, walk around my floor (the corridor is a single loop), do half a set of stretches, spend five minutes standing and actively moving stuff/decluttering, or put on some music and dance to one song. Go to bed before midnight. Do one small non-work thing every evening (can be fun or necessary)
5) go into town on Friday or Sunday (free parking) & do at least one of: get a fancy frozen drink, spend an hour in a cafe thinking about NaNo and starting notes, browsing the stationary shop and using the voucher.
I may borrow your 45s idea. Pomodoros are usually too short for me, while the 50-minute hour is a tad too long, but 45 minutes seems like it might be a sweet spot.
DeleteThe best stationary shop where I lives has super-annoying sales people who always pounce on customers to ask if they need help, advice, etc., to the point where I avoid even going in. I would spend far more money there if the staff would just leave.me.alone. to commune with the pretty things. Every now and then I hunch my shoulders and make a quick grab-and-dash, but it's a trial instead of fun. In big box stores at least I can browse to my heart's content, thanks to older-woman invisibility.
You've inspired me to begin getting organized in the many different ways that you include--in addition to clearing and tidying physical space,streamlining systems of organization too.
ReplyDeleteSo important to remember there will always be more work. Always, always.
Hi everyone, I dropped off for a bit as I was in oh my god, school is about to start terror mode. It is inspiring and instructional to hear everyone else's thoughts about this period. I like the idea of thinking of the first 4 weeks or so of the semester as a transition period, rather than the start of the end (of my book writing, balanced life, you name it). So here goes: pretty typical for me, my writing has picked up this week as a sort last gasp of inspiration before school starts. I, like DEH, feel a bit guilty about this, but also feel like its a smart use of my time. The better writing path I can get on now, the greater hopes that it will stick at least for the first half of the semester.
ReplyDeleteThis intersession's goals:
1) finish Ch 6 of book (its almost done!, outline Ch 7 and start number crunching etc)
2) stay on top of grading and student feedback
3) start working to redecorate my house/integrate things from my parents' place that arrived
4) keep up with healthyish eating, exercise
5) start Master Naturalist program and try to make some new friends
This week:
1) syllabi and readings up to BB
2) write on primary chiefly centers for Ch 6 each day if possible
3) work with postdoc, new grad student to push lab research forward
4) get MRI and take meds during it so do not get panic attack like last failed attempt
5) email press editor about deadline extension for book (already got one from series editor but need to notify the main editor)