DEH here; pick your tune to which to sing "Let it go, let it go, let it go!" Judging by the number of replies lately, this session has been rough on many people, in various ways. We've had "triage" as a theme for a couple of weeks already, and I think we can still use the reminder to focus on what really needs to happen. What can you let go of, this week? If it's checking in, okay, but we'd love to hear from you and get some ideas!
How are you doing?
DEH
*Sleep, stretching, exercise.
*Grade final set of papers, grade two small assignments, write two exams.
*Two hours research, plus dead languages.
*Assorted Life Stuff including ordering presents.
EAM
Begin carefully organizing the new cubicle with writing space in mind.
Write my three statements for tenure and award meetings.
Edit Prudence 30 minutes a day.
Plan the timing of my research trip.
heu mihi
1. A billion teaching tasks, both big and little. Finish recommendation letter. Sit through undergrad conference thing that is taking up my whole free day. Attend tiresome but short event that I organized. Watch video of TA's guest lecture and write up comments.
2. Finish reviewing final proofs
3. Read/take notes 3 x 30 minutes
4. Draft syllabus for new spring class
5. Language x 3
Humming42 (held over)
1 Submit DQ, for real.
2 Write next book review
3 Submit old Perform abstract for new publication
4 Grade like a madwoman
JaneB (held over)
1) maintain habits (8 items)
2) research - flat project, do SOMETHING. MAYBE
3a) External examining - read a large, large pile of final projects and prepare for a trip to Crowded Capital on the 20th... this has to all be done by the 15th because of family stuff...
3b) prep everything for next week.
3c) Sit down and look seriously at what is to come, and possibly throw self on the mercy of timetabling to ask for a change of some sort, or the mercy of my colleagues, or just... I dunno, cut something. I just. Can't.
4) NaNo. Discuss family stuff with sister, try to finalise the plan for parents wedding anniversary weekend.
oceangirl101
1) finish grading semester based homework etc.
2) finish 9 reports for FP government publications
3) write letters of rec for two grad students and a colleague
4) write a small internal grant
5) gym x 2
Susan
1. Make committees and other stuff for org that is TRQ
2. Do expenses from last trip
3. Read 2 journals
4. Comments for students in Course A
5. Grade next set of papers in Course B (due Thursday)
6. Go through charity requests on desk and clear it
7. Get back into exercise
8. Catch up on sleep
Classes end on Wednesday. I think--*think*--that I can make it until then. (And then through next week, because there remains a Ph.D. defense and a bunch of meetings and grading between me and The End.)
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. A billion teaching tasks, both big and little. Finish recommendation letter. Sit through undergrad conference thing that is taking up my whole free day. Attend tiresome but short event that I organized. Watch video of TA's guest lecture and write up comments.
- Yes! This is all relatively under control. Or it was. Now this week's teaching-related tasks are populating my to-do list.
2. Finish reviewing final proofs - No! They're due tomorrow. I'm just trying to literally *look* at every page, not really reading anything.
3. Read/take notes 3 x 30 minutes - Yes!
4. Draft syllabus for new spring class - No!
5. Language x 3 - x1 is better than x0.
This week:
1. Read 30 minutes x3.
2. LANGUAGE x3, damn it.
3. Everything for classes except the final grading.
4. Design syllabus for new spring class.
5. Knit a bunch of the first sock for a Christmas gift.
Not putting my proofs on there because, one way or another, they'll be done by tomorrow!
I'm letting research go till I get my grades in. Then I'll draw a line under this not-great-for-writing semester and work out a plan to do better going forward. I've had good habits in the past, so I know I can do it. This term just had some sort of curse on it . . . hmmm, maybe we could bring back the fictionalized/fantasy universe for goals and achievements, and I could spin research as trying to remove the curse that prevents me from being my True Self, or something like that.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, How I Did:
*Sleep, stretching, exercise. Grade: C (Good exercise, so-so stretching, bad for sleep)
*Grade final set of papers, grade two small assignments, write two exams. Grade: C- (six papers to go, one small thing graded and one left unassigned, one exam written).
*Two hours research, plus dead languages. Grade: C (no writing, did lots of dead languages though, and scanned 3 essays so I could return an ILL book, skimmed those while I was scanning).
*Assorted Life Stuff including ordering presents. Grade: B- (ordered presents, paid some bills, got a dress altered, continued to avoid necessary phone call).
New goals:
Delete*sleep, stretch, exercise, dentist, haircut.
*write one exam, grade All The Things, post grades.
*make research plan, work on something, dead languages.
*pay bills, reserve car, pack, deal with family.
So many people have found this a hard semester...
DeleteTopic: I am letting go of research this week, and also of my worst habit, which is refusing to stop chopping trees to sharpen the saw. I am still surrounded by boxes in my new space, and I waste a lot of time looking for things when I should just Put Everything In Its Place. In fact, that is what I need to do with my home office space, where I suffer the same madness.
ReplyDeleteI am distracted by clutter, yet feel I am “wasting my time” to put things in order. I had an epiphany last night when I was trying to help the Philosopher learn baking. I am one of those fussy bakers who measure everything out ahead of time, and have the ingredients clearly arranged. He is used to cooking, where eyeballing works and timing is not critical, so he was not easily convinced of the value of my method. All of a sudden, I realized that the same method is true for research. I spend so much time looking for sources that I know I have, and have discovered, to my chagrin, that I have downloaded them more than once. It feels alien to do all the cleanup of files, but I have found that “setting the scene” helps me immensely.
Last week’s goals:
Begin carefully organizing the new cubicle with writing space in mind. Yes
Write my three statements for tenure and award meetings. Yes
Edit Prudence 30 minutes a day. 3 out of 7
Plan the timing of my research trip. Yes, partly.
Analysis: A pretty successful week, I’m happy to say. It was the first week in the new position; I knew everyone before, but it can be different to work with people in close quarters. So far, it has been lovely, and I have already had an opportunity to help with deciphering German handwriting. It looks like a great move for me.
Next week's goals:
Finish setting up the new space.
Recycle what I don’t need, and be brutal.
Call two doctors for appointments.
Go to one doctor’s appointment.
Finish tree skirt and put up tree.
Here’s to a smooth end of term/entry into holiday season. Float like mist, everyone!
I keep hitting "sign out" instead of "publish." There must be some other system I use where the important button is on the right rather than on the left.
DeleteI was trying to say to Elizabeth, congratulations on a successful week! And also thank you for the reminder that if the saw needs sharpening, you need to stop work to do that. ATM I think pre-trip anxiety is trying to keep me from focusing on anything; I'm grimly grading papers despite the jittery brain trying to remind me of other less-urgent things on the list. So I feel you on the time-wasting/not-wasting questions.
Now let's see if I can hit the blue button this time.
This is indeed a hard end of semester, end of year. I am not sure why. I’m letting go of reflecting on 2019. Although I risk not discovering something insightful about what went wrong, I just want to move on. I’ve been spending some time looking at what projects I want to undertake in 2020, including things to which I have already committed. Looking forward.
ReplyDeleteTwo weeks ago:
1 Submit DQ, for real, for real: no
2 Write next book review: yes
3 Try to finish 1 December article: no
4 Submit KR abstract: yes
This week:
1 Step up and ask for extensions
2 Grade, grade, grade.
3 Write a bit every day
Sometimes we need to just move on and quit looking for Deep Insight in everything. I'm with you.
DeleteJust been a hard hard semester. We've got to move on.
DeleteHello! Plot: 100% lost. Thanks DEH!
ReplyDeleteCheating students, general end of trimester chaos, and although my WORK computer is now NEARLY working, this weekend I had issues with my home set up and couldn't blog from my phone because I'm not very competent with it. Oh, and on the ONE hand I'm being lectured about how I have to hand over some teaching for next trimester because I am taking on more admin but on the OTHER whenever I say I would like to hand over something I'm told I can't. Life...
Sigh. Good to see you back, but sorry about the cheating students and computer snafus...
Delete[Ginger just erased my report, so...]
ReplyDeleteAnyway, what I have to let go of is anything other than teaching and work related activities until the end of hte semester.
Last week (now Wednesday...)
1. Make committees and other stuff for org that is TRQ PARTLY
2. Do expenses from last trip YES
3. Read 2 journals NO (why did I suggest that?)
4. Comments for students in Course A YES
5. Grade next set of papers in Course B (due Thursday) DONE (just)
6. Go through charity requests on desk and clear it NO
7. Get back into exercise YES
8. Catch up on sleep YES
Well, I'm so tired, and just keeping up . . . And then on Sunday I got an infection, so. (I'm not too sick, but I've been slow..)
For the week ahead:
Teach last class tomorrow
28 rough drafts back by Friday
Set up grades so final grades easy
Make committees
Use weekend to clear desk
Get tree
Next week I have three meetings, final projects due for both classes, and then I'm on leave.
I am with humming42 - I am letting go of reflecting. It felt like a year to get through and I did. Now I just have to get through Christmas without any of the patterns of spending it with my family. I am sure in future years it will be ok but this year will be hard. Right now I am also letting go of grading- I am going to do that at the last minute at New Years, so I can clean my plate now of all the little bits of page proofs and article reviews to get to the writing of my book. While grading in a few weeks might seem awful now, my hope is that it will seem more of a welcome respite after having written the book for a few weeks. And it means if I have no New Years plans that I can keep myself busy with grading, sad but true.
ReplyDeleteoceangirl101
1) finish grading semester based homework etc. NO, sort of
2) finish 9 reports for FP government publications NO, sort of
3) write letters of rec for two grad students and a colleague YES
4) write a small internal grant YES
5) gym x 2 YES
This week:
1) submit grant
2) page proof edits
3) 2 article reviews
4) comments to two collaborators
5) exercise x 2
6) make some social plans for the next 2 weeks