Intersession checkin in case anyone wants to check in

Hi!  The world continues very, very strange, but humans are adaptable, and I'm slowly finding some sort of balance.  And NOT thinking about next semester and what might happen then!

I thought I'd make a space here in case, as the title says, anyone wants to check in - say hi, set a goal, share news, whatever you might need.  Stay safe everyone!  Be kind - and start that kindness with self-kindness.

Cheers
Jane

Reflections on early 2020

This is the report-on-session-goals post that I promised back in week 1, and alluded to in my last post, the one for week 13.

One reason I wanted to wrap up the January-April 2020 session this week is that I expected to be away for about ten days, starting yesterday. In the Time Before, I planned to fly to Ireland last night, and spend today looking at a manuscript. Then over the weekend I'd move on to the UK for a conference.

So that didn't happen.

I expect we all have stories of what we planned and what happened instead. Some of you have been reflecting on session goals already in the comments to the last post, the one where we set goals for the week now ending, the one where Humming42 collected the session goals so we could see if there was anything we wanted to do this week in order to try to meet some session goal or other.

In my e-mail today, I did get notice of a request for short pieces about manuscript work, and I'm thinking about whether I might answer that CFP. It would be an homage to what I thought I'd be doing today, what I hope to do sometime in the next year (b/c airline voucher), what I wonder if I'll get to do at all before there's a vaccine.

Tell us what has changed, what matters now, what you did achieve before the Great Pause, what might have happened almost in spite of the Pause.

Also: who would like to host the next session, and what do you have in mind for start/end dates?

Week 14: Declaring what is enough

Hoping that I’m reading Dame Eleanor’s post correctly, I’m

posting last week’s goals and session goals below to give us an opportunity to think about what we want to do wrap up this session. The world has been transformed from that place back in January when we thought about what we might set out to do. Any sense of guilt, self-deprecation, or self-doubt is misplaced in this moment. But TLQ gives us an opportunity once again to reconsider what we’ve accomplished and what we might want to do next. Be kind to yourself in determining what is enough for you to do this coming week, and what you might set out to do in the next part of the year. Your goals for the coming week might be aligned with session goals but might also be about what you can set aside for the time being. This is especially the case as many projects requiring fieldwork and many conferences have been postponed.  

Daisy 

1) Finish reviewing co-authored paper and send off to journal 

2) Open bottle of wine with co-author for virtual celebration of paper, it has been incubating for ages… far too long! 

3) Keep neglected paper on front burner and work on figures 

4) Review student’s thesis draft, yay! 

5) Run at least 4 times 

6) Practice chosen pieces at least 4 times 

7) Try to vary kid activities more, one can only do the kitchen chemistry thing so many times... 

8) Get outside a few times 

Dame Eleanor Hull 

Daily stretching, walking, 8 hours sleep. 

Class plans for next week (definitely) and beyond (as I can); more grading; maintain virtual office hours. 

3-4 days: some language study and some reading/note-taking. 

Prep for 2 meetings. 

At least 2 items from my Life Stuff list. 

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell 

Submit to having picture taken for passport application. 

Do more grunt work (glossary, citations, and the like) on Illuminated or the dissertation, NOT the team paper. x 5. 

Get up and stretch every 45 minutes. 

Walk aroung the block 4 times a day. 

Meditate 3 times per day. 

Good Enough Woman (held over) 

Work: 

1. Get next week's Brit Lit reading done by Sunday. 

2. Do most of the prep for next week to clear the way for heavier grading. 

3. Find short stories for independent study student. Create first few assignments for her. 

4. Research/write for 1 hour. 

People: 

1. Send at least three cards/letters to people. 

2. Have lunch with my mom. 

3. Float like mist through all four of my son's 4-H activities this week. Support him. 

Wellness: 

1. Walk 4x 

2. Meditate 4x 

3. Skip late-night treat 3x. Fast at least 13 hours 2x. 

4. Reschedule appointment that got cancelled. 

heu mihi 

1. Read 30 pages of research-related book 

2. Exercise, homeschool, go outside 

3. Do one Domestic Challenge (so far, we've done the preliminary yard work and cleaned the windows) 

4. One bout of weeding 

humming42 

1 write every day 

2 continue to create content for classes that were moved online 

3 work on conference abstract 

4 review two journal articles 

5 and adopting Susan’s goal of being kind to myself and others 

JaneB (held over) 

1) Do one ACTUAL WORK THING, one CHORE THING and one FUN THING every day. 

2) aim for 5 fruit and veg a day, plenty of water, no bread, and small amounts of sugar. 

2a) start to work out what a realistic schedule might look like (we got the news of closure Monday, we still don't know how it will work, we had to write plans over the weekend which then need to be approved (but haven't been yet so I'm reluctant to make too much of a start on prep)). And I have to do as much as I can NOT to let my sleep schedule drift... 

3) spend an hour with my NaNo writing, because I enjoy it 

4) keep building that list of research obligations… 

  

Karen (held over) 

-clear 2 boxes (the ones next to the bookshelf) 

-start all course F draft documents 

-run x 2, yoga x 3. Wondering if I can fit in a weights session somewhere in my schedule because I realise I need to work on upper body strength, but can't see where. 

-order wind sock, book in 4 field recording days. 

-write up notes from this mornings library trip 

KJHaxton (held over) 

- collate sustainability paperwork for two organisational units 

- produce 2 lectures worth of distance learning for polymer chemistry course 

- carry out student meetings by phone 

- walk 10000 steps each day (we're doing this fitness tracker challenge thing at work) 

Anything beyond this is a bonus. 

Oceangirl101 (held over) 

1) write/work on book, but mostly Ch 7 3x a week, for 2 hrs each- will involve some number crunching, creation of figures, writing and some revision of Ch 3 

2) exercise x 3 

3) meet with undergrad students/grad that I am advising on lab projects/independent studies etc. 

4) finish syllabi, start BB sites for two courses 

Susan 

1. Get up by 7:30 every day. (I'm always awake, it's getting out of bed that's the issue) 

2. Finish polishing Intro on Famous Author, fill in examples. Keep moving forward. 

3. One chapter a day of book for review 

4. One year of each of two journals 

5. Clear off two more desk piles (I'm beginning to see the surface, and want to clear it all off, but I think two piles is do-able.) 

6. 5 minutes in the garden 

7. Finish going through cookbooks 

8 Keep walking 

9. Read for fun 

10. Be kind to myself and others 

Waffles 

1. Unmask intersectionality paper 

2. T32 bits (dues Wednesday) 

3. Tobacco paper (due tomorrow) 

4. Texas study measure 

5. COVID and MH - keep chipping away at online survey 

6. Asthma paper 

7. YRBS paper 

Session goals: 

Daisy 

1)Keep teaching in its place, do not let my 200 students take over every part of my week.. . . limit teaching (prep/lecture/admin/students) to two days of each week. I have my schedule set up to have two days completely devoted to teaching stuff, with one morning extra for overflow. 

2)Finish 2 papers as first author – those projects are completely mine and I need to get them done because they are holding up other projects. 

3)Prepare for possible sabbatical by thinking about long-term goals and projects and funding. One of those is easy, I have projects that will keep me busy from here to 2050, but need to think about strategically funding some of them, and I need to think about how I want my work to go over the next 10 years… Also think about sabbatical logistics and how to balance work and renewal? I heard that’s a thing… 

Dame Eleanor Hull 

Live with uncertainty and work the process w/r/t selling the house. 

Complete one conference paper; plan it as an article from the beginning. 

Send out another essay, about half done now. 

Make some progress on book. 

Manage teaching, grading, and admin efficiently. 

Get tax stuff taken care of in a timely way. 

Make arrangements for spring and summer travel. 

Regular exercise, daily stretching, good sleep hygiene, and cooking to accommodate dietary restrictions. 

Have some sort of social life. 

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell 

Move about for ten minutes of every hour. 

Continue to streamline the work office. I have less space in my far more congenial office, so it is time to be unsentimental. 

Draft Elzevier. 

Begin editing special issue. 

Edit the Illuminated project. 

Good Enough Woman 

Work: 

1. Write/Research 2 hours per week (in 30 or 60 min chunks) 

2. Work on hacks and strategies to avoid being crushed by grading 

People: 

3. Send 3-5 letters/notes/cards to people per week 

4. Meet my mom 1-2 times per month for breakfast or lunch 

5. Meet two friends per month for coffee/walk/meal 

6. Prioritize my son’s curricular/extra-curricular/college prep needs 

Wellness: 

7. Walk 4-5x per week (40-60 min per walk) 

8. Meditate at least three times per week (3-5 minutes each time) 

9. Get enough sleep (in bed by 11:00-11:30 most week nights) 

10. Schedule and keep necessary med appointments for the kids and myself 

heu mihi 

1. Daily writing/research. 30 minutes/day, M-F. 

2. Language work: maybe not 5x/week, but continue to make progress. 

3. Writing projects to complete: 1 conference paper, submit Wonder (which I've had kicking around forEVer). Ideally, draft Kzoo paper (which is for a pedagogy roundtable and so not too high-stress). 

4. Prepare preliminary materials for promotion--reference names and personal statement. 

5. Prioritize research and wellness over teaching and service. 

humming42 

1 complete and submit five book reviews 

2 prepare for and attend April conference 

3 write and submit abstracts for two (maybe three) conferences 

4 make steady progress on Squares paper 

5 work on developing a consistent writing practice 

JaneB 

A) get back into good self-care habits.... these centre around eating mindfully and sensibly for my current middle-aged body rather than my teenage, sleeping enough (at times that suit the wider world, not my body clock, which is totally messed up), moving/stretching so my joints only dislike me rather than hate me, not letting my environment become a chaotic mess, and making the time for guilt-free recreation. 

B) TRQ things. Main goals here are to do what is necessary without too much embellishment (I easily get drawn in to making classes the best they can possibly be, and that's just not realistic when carrying an overload and writing new material, so aiming for every session to be good enough is the priority (especially the topics in my own field where I could easily spend a week or two just reading around and getting up to date, I'm sooooo behind on literature). I'd also like to keep decent notes every time a task related to my new admin roles comes up, so that I have one source for "last time this is how it worked" - no guarantee it will be that way the next time I come to it, see "ongoing crisis state", but at least I'd have a concrete source for checking to see if I'm losing my mind when someone says I did things wrong... 

C) TLQ things - research, which divides into four areas, grant writing (we have high targets - of course the crisis, understaffing etc. does not excuse us from being held to those!), paper writing (main ones this session are likely to be FlatPaper1, ProblemChild1, LikesMath2), current projects where I am actually part of the group doing the research (key ones are FlatProject, FavouriteIslandsProject, one I've vaguely mentioned before which I will rename FluffyProject, and CommercialProject) current projects where I have a role in supervising others (I didn't actually officially win funding, but I got roped in to be part of a team delivering a very large multi-site project, and have a new post-doc arriving end of January (who I will be lead supervisor for) - BrownProject, a one year project including a part time RA to tend - EdgeProject - and a PhD student to recruit for September - who will get their own nickname in due course) 

D) A key goal for me this year is about kindness and being open, about building community in the face of adversity... So I will be setting goals around community building and collegiality. 

Karen 

-have 3 x course amendment, 1 x course development paperwork in to next level up committee 

-submit expression of interest for promotion 

-do text install of grass prelim work 

-write each day to Scrivener word target on might-be-book 

-have vege garden set for winter 

-build and maintain habits of run 3 x week, yoga 2x week 

KJHaxton 

finish and submit the sustainable chemistry manuscript 

Analyse data and draft a feedback project manuscript 

Write new lecture course, deliver, evaluate 

Modify sustainable chemistry lectures with decolonisation in mind 

Present at national STEM education conference 

Submit sustainability benchmark documents 

Complete SFHEA application 

Oceangirl101 

complete Ch 7 of the book, 

plan for summer fieldwork, 

remain balance in my personal life with exercise 3x a week and doing social things 1-2 x a week, 

continue healthy eating and weight loss. 

Susan 

1. By mid- April, have 20,000 words on Writer 

2. Revise Race/Patriarchy to give it in early March 

3. Write essay on weird and interesting plays for conference 

4. Get all contributors for the Big Book lined up 

5. Regular exercise 

6. Read books 

7. Aim for 7 hours of sleep 

Waffles 

1. Submit IRIE paper 

2. Resubmit intersectionality paper 

3. Resubmit PTSD paper 

4. Draft hate crimes paper 

5. Draft relationship identity paper 

6. Release Latinx survey into the wild 

7. Have reviewed all articles and have intro and methods written for MST review paper 

8. Have a funded NIH K!!! 

Week 13: nearly there

This session was scheduled to run 14 weeks, which makes week 13 the next-to-last, though when I look back at the first one, I said "on 17 or 18 April, one of your hosts (Dame Eleanor Hull and Humming42) will put up a post inviting you to report on how you did with session goals," which suggests that I imagined a summative post at the end of week 14, in which we would not post new goals but just reflect on the session.

To continue our theme from last week, about time and space, how are you shaping your days? Are you held to an external schedule by work meetings or the rhythms of people you work with, or are you finding a rhythm that works well for your own body clock, now that we're all working from home pretty much all the time?

Let us know how you're doing! I'd very much like to hear from people who seem to have been Overcome By Events, even if your goals have been swept away by the maelstrom of events both public and private.

Daisy
1) Finish one chapter of exam questions for course every day
2) Bonus reward (TBD) if I do more than one chapter a day…
3) Dust off (at this point more like excavate) neglected paper and work on figures
4) Check in with list of on-the-edge students
5) Run at least 4 times
6) Practice chosen pieces at least 4 times
7) Find a better chair for “office” and do regular stretches to recover from the various cricks caused by hard kitchen chairs…

Dame Eleanor Hull
Daily stretching, walking, 8 hours sleep (as health allows).
Class plans for next week (definitely) and beyond (as I can); more grading; maintain virtual office hours.
3-4 days: some language study and some reading/note-taking.
At least one service thing (of 3).
2-3 items from my Life Stuff list.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Clean off office desk and chair.
Finish passport application.
Do some grunt work (glossary, citations, and the like) for half an hour a day to get back into research.
Get up and stretch every 45 minutes.
Walk aroung the block 4 times a day.
Meditate 3 times per day.

Good Enough Woman (held over)
Work:
1. Get next week's Brit Lit reading done by Sunday.
2. Do most of the prep for next week to clear the way for heavier grading.
3. Find short stories for independent study student. Create first few assignments for her.
4. Research/write for 1 hour.
People:
1. Send at least three cards/letters to people.
2. Have lunch with my mom.
3. Float like mist through all four of my son's 4-H activities this week. Support him.
Wellness:
1. Walk 4x
2. Meditate 4x
3. Skip late-night treat 3x. Fast at least 13 hours 2x.
4. Reschedule appointment that got cancelled.

heu mihi
1. Tackle yard clean-up (a cheat, since we did this yesterday!)
2. Read 30 pages of a research-related book.
3. Exercise, homeschool, go outside, stay sane.

Humming42
1 continue to write content for online course I’m taking
2 continue to create content for classes that were moved online
3 submit article abstracts
4 look at DQ and decide whether to revise
5 review two journal articles
6 submit one book review

JaneB (held over)
1) Do one ACTUAL WORK THING, one CHORE THING and one FUN THING every day.
2) aim for 5 fruit and veg a day, plenty of water, no bread, and small amounts of sugar.
2a) start to work out what a realistic schedule might look like (we got the news of closure Monday, we still don't know how it will work, we had to write plans over the weekend which then need to be approved (but haven't been yet so I'm reluctant to make too much of a start on prep)). And I have to do as much as I can NOT to let my sleep schedule drift...
3) spend an hour with my NaNo writing, because I enjoy it
4) keep building that list of research obligations…
 
Karen (held over)
-clear 2 boxes (the ones next to the bookshelf)
-start all course F draft documents
-run x 2, yoga x 3. Wondering if I can fit in a weights session somewhere in my schedule because I realise I need to work on upper body strength, but can't see where.
-order wind sock, book in 4 field recording days.
-write up notes from this mornings library trip

KJHaxton
- collate sustainability paperwork for two organisational units
- produce 2 lectures worth of distance learning for polymer chemistry course
- carry out student meetings by phone
- walk 10000 steps each day (we're doing this fitness tracker challenge thing at work)
Anything beyond this is a bonus.

Oceangirl101 (held over)
1) write/work on book, but mostly Ch 7 3x a week, for 2 hrs each- will involve some number crunching, creation of figures, writing and some revision of Ch 3
2) exercise x 3
3) meet with undergrad students/grad that I am advising on lab projects/independent studies etc.
4) finish syllabi, start BB sites for two courses

Susan
1. Read MA thesis draft
2. Read book/write review
3. Do 1 year of at least 2 journals (this is less onerous than it sounds)
4. Read for fun
5. Keep walking
6. Keep up with virtual social life
7. 5 minutes clearing
8. 5 minutes gardening
9. Be kind to myself and others

Waffles
1. Unmask intersectionality paper
2. T32 bits (dues Wednesday)
3. Tobacco paper (due tomorrow)
4. Texas study measure
5. COVID and MH - keep chipping away at online survey
6. Asthma paper
7. YRBS paper