(Sorry for being late!)
Last week we all shared the excitement that students bring
to campus along with the classes and meetings that serve as distractions. I’ve been thinking a lot about another set of
distractions: political ones. These
issues are acute in both the US and the UK right now, but this is a special
case of political drama. I had friends
who, after 9/11, read newspapers 24/7; others who were obsessive during
different presidential campaigns. (I’ve observed similar obsessiveness in
twitter friends from multiple countries, so it’s not just a US thing.) If you think globally, there issues like
global warming, the resurgence of nationalist populism in recent years, war, migration,
etc. How do you manage these
distractions? Are there times when they take over? Do you just hide? Maybe our different strategies will help all
of us!
Goals from last week:
Dame Eleanor Hull
*daily reading/writing (x5), OR a weekly total of 50 pages
read, 1250 words written;
*grade 1 set of student papers, put up a batch of new assignments, assign and grade a batch of in-class writing;
*daily exercise and stretching (x6);
*keep up with dead languages;
*make at least one more medical appointment.
*grade 1 set of student papers, put up a batch of new assignments, assign and grade a batch of in-class writing;
*daily exercise and stretching (x6);
*keep up with dead languages;
*make at least one more medical appointment.
Elizabeth Ann Mitchell
Write and send call for special issue.
Walk at least 2.5 miles x 5.
Take homemade lunch x 5.
Edit one page of Illuminated x 5.
Finish outlining the lit review of Aurelius.
Pull/shred fifteen files.
Destress, breathe, meditate x 7
Walk at least 2.5 miles x 5.
Take homemade lunch x 5.
Edit one page of Illuminated x 5.
Finish outlining the lit review of Aurelius.
Pull/shred fifteen files.
Destress, breathe, meditate x 7
Heu Mihi
1. 60
pages of proofs (to p. 195)
2. Sit x 5
3. Read one grad student's chapter
4. All prep for Mon & Tues done by the time I go home on Friday
5. Sort clothes for donation
6. Keep the grading moving along, without letting Feelings About Grading get in the way
7. Write and send a batch of non-work-related emails
2. Sit x 5
3. Read one grad student's chapter
4. All prep for Mon & Tues done by the time I go home on Friday
5. Sort clothes for donation
6. Keep the grading moving along, without letting Feelings About Grading get in the way
7. Write and send a batch of non-work-related emails
Humming42/Linda
1 Finish and submit next book review
2 Finish and submit 2 article reviews
3 Work on conference paper
4 Write every day
5 Breathe, breathe, breathe
2 Finish and submit 2 article reviews
3 Work on conference paper
4 Write every day
5 Breathe, breathe, breathe
JaneB
1)
maintain habits (bed before midnight, 45s to get
small regular movement in at work, keeping a food/mood diary, not eating
refined sugar, leaving work before 6, doing something non-work every workday
evening) and add a little more exercise once this week
2)
research things this week: finish the
FlatProject final step of analysis ready to start writing. If possible, also
drawing up a figure for the grant idea called PCfu (ProblemChild follow up) and
send the draft to FormerPDF. Sort out FavouriteIslands samples.
3)
prepare all teaching materials for following
week.
4)
read through last year's NaNoWriMo effort, look
into Preptober schemes people use for NaNo.
Oceangirl101/Jenny
1. Start writing second ed vol chapter
2. Prep to be away next week- grading, readings posted to BB etc.
3. Air ticket to Mom's memorial service
4. Exercise x 3
5. Figures to drafter for two ed vol chapters
2. Prep to be away next week- grading, readings posted to BB etc.
3. Air ticket to Mom's memorial service
4. Exercise x 3
5. Figures to drafter for two ed vol chapters
Susan
1. finish reading dissertation
2. Grade papers (TRQ now, must be done by Thursday)
3. Read at least one set of essays for conference
4. Get the walking going again
5. Return to healthy sleep patterns
2. Grade papers (TRQ now, must be done by Thursday)
3. Read at least one set of essays for conference
4. Get the walking going again
5. Return to healthy sleep patterns
Topic - very, very timely. I struggle with this - I barely have enough resource as things stand to care for myself and do my job, never mind take concrete actions like protest - I manage to sign petitions and write to my MP occasionally, and yet I waste a LOT of energy on feeling guilty about not doing more. I teach in a discipline which means that the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis are front and centre in everything I do, both in teaching and in research. It's hard. And of course universities tend to certain political opinions which can be very different from those of the wider populace in your area, so I often feel isolated and switch between "oh I must be missing something" and "no we really do know better!" (my counsellor turns out to be pro-Brexit, my parents are aggressively pro-Brexit and anti-European and whilst they are well aware of the climate crisis etc. and believe in it they seem to feel that protestors are stupid and that there is no point in the UK changing anything because India and China are most of the problem. This is hard...). I try to keep OFF twitter etc., but then on twitter etc. I actually hear from people who are in very different places and lines of work but have similar views, who share facts which support or modify my point of view from their own positions of expertise, and generally get evidence that I'm not alone or isolated in my opinions, so it's both good and bad. You can't pour from an empty cup. I hope that by teaching well I help my students develop confidence to think for themselves and speak out for what they see as truth, and empower them to act in the world, by being kind and believing in them I can spread kindness and self-belief in a very hateful, frightened, isolationist world. That by doing the research I do, I make some kind of contribution, however tiny, to the tapestry of understanding we need to have a chance of tackling the challenges we face.
ReplyDeletegoals from last week:
1)maintain habits (bed before midnight, 45s to get small regular movement in at work, keeping a food/mood diary, not eating refined sugar, leaving work before 6, doing something non-work every workday evening) and add a little more exercise once this week. 6 x yes, 1 x no for the last one although I DID do some physically demanding lab work this week (and my shoulders still hurt) and just spent the afternoon with the decluttering woman (moving a large number of boxes of books, going through and dusting and sorting every individual book, and restacking them at the other end of the room to make space for the next stage of installing a new bookcase. Sent two very large carrier bags of books and a few other things off to a charity shop with her, along with the cat tree Fluffball disdains and an old clothes airer. These things were both active, though not what I intended.
2) research things this week: finish the FlatProject final step of analysis ready to start writing. If possible, also drawing up a figure for the grant idea called PCfu (ProblemChild follow up) and send the draft to FormerPDF. Sort out FavouriteIslands samples. spent an hour on FlatProject - insufficient but not nothing - and otherwise no
3) prepare all teaching materials for following week.yes - finished late yesterday evening, and have grading to do, but yes
4) read through last year's NaNoWriMo effort, look into Preptober schemes people use for NaNo.about half way through the reread, have had a Lightbulb Moment which has led to a restructure of the entire sequence of protonovels and shown me what this year's writing is probably going to be. watched some youtube videos and begun a list of things to do - especially looking forward to "make map of the library at FantasyLandUniversity"!
the week:
Deletehas not been easy. I am scrambling, I'm not keeping my work to as little as 40 hours a week and I'm still not getting everything that I consider urgent done. I haven't had a great week physically - I think it was one of those middle-aged "you're not having a period but your hormones are going to make you hate everything anyway" weeks, but as the recurrence period of these is no longer completely predictable, it might just be the start of a long PMS spell. And everyone around me is variously stressed, afraid, annoyed, under-resourced and generally tired and unhappy, so whilst there are some people I can do an A-shaped lean on (as in, we lean on each other and both feel better for it), most people I need to NOT let out how I feel because it will make THEM worse, if you know what I mean. And I have to be kind, and it's hard work, but it's what we all need. Plus I'm struggling with some students who are either just annoying me by their neediness or worrying me by their apparent disinterest in their own success, and worried about others. So it's definitely semester time again! I didn't teach very well this week either. :-(
goals for next week: boringly repetitive
1) maintain habits (bed before midnight, 45s to get small regular movement in at work, keeping a food/mood diary, not eating refined sugar, leaving work before 6, doing something non-work every workday evening) and add a little more exercise once this week. Also scoop the kitty tray more regularly!
2) research things this week: finish the FlatProject final step of analysis ready to start writing. Referee an article (ugh). If possible, also drawing up a figure for the grant idea called PCfu (ProblemChild follow up) and send the draft to FormerPDF. Sort out FavouriteIslands samples.
3) prepare all teaching materials for following week. grade one thesis and 63 short essays (sigh).
4) finish reading through last year's NaNoWriMo effort, read selected bits of previous years, and build up my Preptober list.
Doing what you do---"I teach in a discipline which means that the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis are front and centre in everything I do, both in teaching and in research"---means that you are on the front lines and need to practice the sort of self-care that therapists and crisis workers practice. "You can't pour from an empty cup" are words you need to live by. Your work is important, it's enough in itself, and you don't have to make it your life. You need to be able to retreat and recover. And your admin is also making your workplace toxic, so that's another reason to compartmentalize work and politics as things that don't get to come home to your safe place with you.
DeleteEchoing Dame Eleanor. All my colleagues who work on environmental issues are super-stressed. And I know what you mean about the mixed bag of twitter. Sometimes it makes me feel less isolated and crazy, but sometimes it contributes. But hang on to the like minded folks!
DeleteAlso, that stage when your hormones are still active but erratically and with erratic effects is just not fun, so I'm sorry.
I love the idea of the map of the library at FantasyLandUniversity. I hope that Preptober & NaNoWriMo give you a bit of a break from a world that is hard.
Thank you both! It's hard to think of work as important in the "wider world is falling apart" sense because everything out there politically seems very urgent. But I need to keep telling myself that it matters too, and it's work I CAN mostly do. Where I would NOT be any good at much of the political stuff, or at least the likely cost in terms of energy, stress, emotional nonsense etc. would be far in excess of the impact I could have. SIGH.
DeleteI am SO looking forward to getting back into FantasyLandUniversity, and hanging out with my characters.
I hide. My husband updates me on the most urgent things, I figure. There were times when I was reading obsessively, but it didn't help AT ALL, and the 24-hour news cycle means that the essentials are more often in the long narratives than in today's outrage.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I feel guilty about this. But I also feel less anxious and more able to cope. And I try to do things to help (letter-writing, etc., although I've been pretty bad about it since the semester started), to donate to good organizations, etc.
Last week:
1. 60 pages of proofs (to p. 195) - DONE
2. Sit x 5 - DONE
3. Read one grad student's chapter - DONE
4. All prep for Mon & Tues done by the time I go home on Friday - PRETTY MUCH
5. Sort clothes for donation - DONE
6. Keep the grading moving along, without letting Feelings About Grading get in the way - MORE OR LESS
7. Write and send a batch of non-work-related emails - ALL BUT PIANO TEACHER EMAILS. Of course, now I also need to answer the emails that came all too swiftly in reply to my own!
This week:
1. Finish proofs and index
2. Sit x 5
3. Email piano teachers; respond to people who wrote back
4. Read journal submissions
5. Look at what I’m supposed to do for the collection proposal
look at all that done! go you!
DeleteI too feel guilty about hiding from the political nightmare. I found myself feeling so angry that I would have trouble sitting with that anger. So now I read as much as I can until I find myself having that negative response, then I redirect my attention.
ReplyDeleteMy life is so TRQ right now. I don’t know how I got here, other than saying yes to more things that I can reasonably manage. I’m hopeful it will get better by the end of October; definitely by the end of the year.
On the upside, we had our first tease of Fall weather today, and I had an abstract accepted for a book chapter I’m really excited about writing.
Last week:
1 Finish and submit next book review: yes
2 Finish and submit 2 article reviews: yes
3 Work on conference paper: no
4 Write every day: 6/7
5 Breathe, breathe, breathe: some days
This week:
1 Finish and submit next book review
2 Submit conference paper reviews
3 Work on summer funding proposal
4 Write every day
Wishing you a lot more Fall weather - we've had bits of it every day this week and it is helping my mood a LOT - even having to teach in the Business School (an annoying trek across campus AND the teaching rooms have lousy acoustics and a poor layout for my kind of teaching) is better when you get to enjoy some autumn colours and the air isn't muggy!
DeleteTopic: I hide, and I don't feel guilty about it. I consider that my first responsibility is to the people closest to me, so for the sake of my husband and students I need to be calm, sane, and focused. I read newspaper headlines; eventually I get around to skimming The Economist, for intelligent non-US based analysis; I listen to FranceInfo or CadenaSer, so I get a foreign-language, foreign-country filter on a lot of my news, which helps to keep things in perspective (not so much on the day that FranceInfo was all about the UN climate report, though). I'm not willing to give over my life, the only one I have, to outrage, depression, anxiety and frustration. I do some small things and let the rest go.
ReplyDeleteHOW I DID:
*daily reading/writing (x5), OR a weekly total of 50 pages read, 1250 words written; NO. I read maybe 10 pages.
*grade 1 set of student papers, put up a batch of new assignments, assign and grade a batch of in-class writing; YES, ONE, YES.
*daily exercise and stretching (x6); YES
*keep up with dead languages; ONE, sight-read the other, badly
*make at least one more medical appointment. NO.
Other things I did: booked a flight for mid-winter vacation with a friend; made a card to send another friend who is having a hard year; made a hotel reservation for a wedding next summer; took a mental health day on which in addition to work I went for a long walk outside and greatly enjoyed not driving on what would have been a commuting day.
NEW GOALS, very like the last:
*daily reading/writing (x5), OR a weekly total of 50 pages read, 1250 words written;
*grade 1 set of student papers, put up a batch of new assignments, prep for film-teaching;
*daily exercise and stretching (x6);
*keep up with dead languages;
*make at least one more medical appointment.
Oh mental health days sound like SUCH a nice option...
DeleteMental health days are a great thing. Also, reading the news in other languages. I like the idea of getting a different perspective.
DeleteI am holding out the possibility of a mental health day for myself....
DeleteWell, since it was my topic, obviously it's an issue I think about a lot. My campus (and town) has a significant group of undocumented students, an even larger group of students whose families are mixed, so immigration policies are a big deal. They affect those I care about. And my research engages issues of patriarchy, so all the #metoo stuff feels relevant. I do research in the UK, so I care about what happens there as well as in the US. I'm deeply aware of the harm the president has done to many I know and care about. My response -- sometimes I'm on the marches, sometimes I write my congresscritter, I show up at hearings, and I read the news and follow twitter. But when I get working I generally just shut those things down, so I'll tune in at the end of the day and have to catch up. (When truly awful things happen, I just hide for a few days before trying to confront reality.)
ReplyDeleteGoals from last week:
1. finish reading dissertation DONE, comments sent
2. Grade papers (TRQ now, must be done by Thursday) DONE (late, but done)
3. Read at least one set of essays for conference DONE
4. Get the walking going again NOT REALLY
5. Return to healthy sleep patterns NOT REALLY
The work stuff is more or less OK. I procrastinated far too long on the papers, and will try not to do that again! (I got another set this morning.) My great discovery was recording the comments for students instead of writing them out -- not only was it quicker, it allowed me to use intonation as part of my feedback. I'm a convert! The big challenge is exercise. Every year as autumn comes and the days close in, I move toward hibernation. I'm actively working against that, but that may come from walking late in the day instead of in the morning, which has been my preferred mode.
Goals for this week:
1. Letter of reference (due Thursday, so TRQ, but it's a significant letter so will take time)
2. Write up Trial assignment, get all related references
3. Draft comment for conference (which is next week, so...)
4. All the administrative stuff
5. Walk regularly
6. Get sleep schedule back, go to bed early and get enough sleep.
(One unknown about this week is that I'm getting a new roof this week and if I'm working at home, it will be noisy.)
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteChecking in from my working group on the NW coast. I am with DEH on this one- I tend to hide from all the news. I find it all a bit too much. I let myself look at CNN once a day and listen to NPR and read the NYT but otherwise I check out from most things political. I do go to an organized rally or event here and there, but this past year its felt too heavy in what already feels an already too heavy time.
Oceangirl101/Jenny
1. Start writing second ed vol chapter Yes
2. Prep to be away next week- grading, readings posted to BB etc. Yes
3. Air ticket to Mom's memorial service NO
4. Exercise x 3 no, x 2
5. Figures to drafter for two ed vol chapters Yes
This week:
1. work on usewebs papers
2. exercise- walk daily
3. finalize figures for chapter for ed vol #1