Hello everyone!
We’re hovering around our halfway point for this session (damn
that went fast!) so this would be an excellent week to check in with all of our
session goals! I’ve collected them below for the end of the post, and then as I
was doing that realized I had not been collecting the weekly goals in the front
end of the posts! Sorry about that! So they are here too now!
I was thinking about some of last week’s answers to Susan’s prompt
about bad days and getting through them. Many of mentioned that our coworkers
and colleagues are major sources of encouragement and inspiration. We all know
they are critical to one’s work success and can make or break a professional
environment. So my question (spurred by some hiring committee work that I’m
doing and will be on the other side of soon) is… “What is the one quality you
want in a prospective colleague?” Especially
given what we’ve all learned about work and crisis management etc. in the last few
months. With the follow-up question for the current times: “How would a
prospective colleague convey that quality in a virtual interview?” I’m very curious!
So, on to last week’s goals for everyone:
Daisy
1)
Two figures for neglected paper
2)
Make full draft of talk set up practice days
with trusted colleagues
3)
MORE data processing for favourite co-authors,
what can I say, I like being valuable to my co-authors…
4)
Daily stretching and injury rehab and test run
– must do better on this!!
5)
This week’s fun thing for child: at least two
outdoor visits with friends
6)
Bonus fun thing for child: giant ice cream
after online music exam
7)
Fun thing for me: backyard visits with friends
and beer
Mammoth-grooming
and cleaning up, not to mention a certain amount of paperwork (even for a live
mammoth, there's paperwork), but the big hurdle is over. And there's a bit of
time before the hippogriff is due!
Read
two articles on one of the presentation topics.
Edit 1 hour x 5.
Proofread 1 hour x 5.
Follow up with co-editor.
Contact Office of Research for extension of grant-funded travel.
Figure out what to work on in the two week writing course.
Edit 1 hour x 5.
Proofread 1 hour x 5.
Follow up with co-editor.
Contact Office of Research for extension of grant-funded travel.
Figure out what to work on in the two week writing course.
heu mihi
1.
Finish draft of Fairy Tales talk
2. Read rest of diss ch. 1, all of diss ch. 2
3. 2 Nunnery essays
4. Compile teaching section of promotion dossier
5. Write 30 minutes/day (x5)
6. Good Thing daily
2. Read rest of diss ch. 1, all of diss ch. 2
3. 2 Nunnery essays
4. Compile teaching section of promotion dossier
5. Write 30 minutes/day (x5)
6. Good Thing daily
humming42
1 present at online conference
2 submit two essay peer reviews
3 write 500 words for Tiny Project/online class
4 write 1000 words for Perform
1 present at online conference
2 submit two essay peer reviews
3 write 500 words for Tiny Project/online class
4 write 1000 words for Perform
JaneB
1) self care - going to bed before midnight (already failed twice...)
2) more setting up work for the theory workshop - finalise the web site and get the adverts out
2a) finish draft text from LikesMaths
3) make progress on big outline for the giant first year thing (sigh. Thinking about this causes the Mood Mammoth to get grumpy for university-politics reasons)
3a) do action points from last CollaborativeThing meeting
3b) spend a tiny chunk of time on Hated Paperwork, as I don't really have time - see external examining, I have about 110 long projects/reports/essays (3000-6000 words) to read for another uni and have to be done by next Monday
4) reply to an email from FormerPDF which will take an hour or so as I have to hunt down details from years ago... well, tell her I'm aware of its existence anyway
5) tick off another 5 things from the list of small but necessary jobs
6) have a two day weekend!
1) self care - going to bed before midnight (already failed twice...)
2) more setting up work for the theory workshop - finalise the web site and get the adverts out
2a) finish draft text from LikesMaths
3) make progress on big outline for the giant first year thing (sigh. Thinking about this causes the Mood Mammoth to get grumpy for university-politics reasons)
3a) do action points from last CollaborativeThing meeting
3b) spend a tiny chunk of time on Hated Paperwork, as I don't really have time - see external examining, I have about 110 long projects/reports/essays (3000-6000 words) to read for another uni and have to be done by next Monday
4) reply to an email from FormerPDF which will take an hour or so as I have to hunt down details from years ago... well, tell her I'm aware of its existence anyway
5) tick off another 5 things from the list of small but necessary jobs
6) have a two day weekend!
1.
Read essay for colleague
2. Read book proposal
3. Spend an hour three days on Famous Author, write something
4. Six more journals
5. Clear desk at weekend in preparation for the arrival of the new desk / reorganize books.
6. Keep walking
7. Try to turn out the light before 11 (this seems to be the magic divide between good nights and bad nights)
2. Read book proposal
3. Spend an hour three days on Famous Author, write something
4. Six more journals
5. Clear desk at weekend in preparation for the arrival of the new desk / reorganize books.
6. Keep walking
7. Try to turn out the light before 11 (this seems to be the magic divide between good nights and bad nights)
oceangirl101
1. Ch 7 x 4 days
2. Outline list for upcoming pubs with post doc and collaborator
3. Tax stuff, finalize
4. Medical appts
5. Exercise x 4 including some swimming
1. Ch 7 x 4 days
2. Outline list for upcoming pubs with post doc and collaborator
3. Tax stuff, finalize
4. Medical appts
5. Exercise x 4 including some swimming
SESSION GOALS!
Now for the Session Goals! This is a great time to think about what is going
well, and what needs to be labelled as excess baggage and dropped. Are there
things on this list that are being dragged along and slowing us down when other
things would be more important? Are there things we need to add? Remember a
good rule for picking up new things – it rarely works to just add things, you
have to put something down to make space…
How are the Magical Monster Fences holding up? How are your potion and elixir supplies doing? Can you restock any of those for the second half of the journey? With some extras just in case there are uphill bits that we did not anticipate in the beginning?
How are the Magical Monster Fences holding up? How are your potion and elixir supplies doing? Can you restock any of those for the second half of the journey? With some extras just in case there are uphill bits that we did not anticipate in the beginning?
Daisy
Session
Goals
1) Focus on paper writing – I have three in progress where I’m the main author, and two with students
2) Maintain healthy habits and keep moving
3) Focus on my child and make sure she has a fun, exciting summer even with restrictions and uncertainty
4) Do one fun/frivolous/new thing every week
1) Focus on paper writing – I have three in progress where I’m the main author, and two with students
2) Maintain healthy habits and keep moving
3) Focus on my child and make sure she has a fun, exciting summer even with restrictions and uncertainty
4) Do one fun/frivolous/new thing every week
Session
goals
1.
Health/self: exercise & stretch daily, eat safely, get sufficient sleep
& down time.
2. Moving/life stuff: Pack, move, unpack, other house-related tasks, as efficiently as possible.
3. Service: Evaluate promotion packet.
4. Teaching: prep fall courses thoroughly.
5. Research: brief but regular dead language review; read & take notes on 4-6 books; make plan for finishing my own book.
2. Moving/life stuff: Pack, move, unpack, other house-related tasks, as efficiently as possible.
3. Service: Evaluate promotion packet.
4. Teaching: prep fall courses thoroughly.
5. Research: brief but regular dead language review; read & take notes on 4-6 books; make plan for finishing my own book.
Session
goals: I will probably add specifics later in the week, but here is a first
shot.
Health:
Make mental and physical health strides by creating and maintaining habits--walking, meditating, eating better, contacting people.
Be kind to myself and others.
Maintain the contacts I have, and expand to some of the people I’ve neglected.
Scholarship:
Return scholarship to my schedule, rather than stuffing it around the edges.
Continue to organize and declutter paper and pixel files, keeping only what furthers my work or sparks joy.
Create an order of approach among the special issue, Illuminated, Perseverance, and North.
Health:
Make mental and physical health strides by creating and maintaining habits--walking, meditating, eating better, contacting people.
Be kind to myself and others.
Maintain the contacts I have, and expand to some of the people I’ve neglected.
Scholarship:
Return scholarship to my schedule, rather than stuffing it around the edges.
Continue to organize and declutter paper and pixel files, keeping only what furthers my work or sparks joy.
Create an order of approach among the special issue, Illuminated, Perseverance, and North.
heu mihi
Session
goals, as of now:
1. Reintroduce some of the good habits that I've neglected: any combination of sitting, journal-writing, waking up early, reducing alcohol/sweets, yoga
2. Required writing: -Fairy tale paper; -Nunnery paper; -Promotion statement
3. Read at a steady rate for New Project (NP), and take *sensible, ideally helpful* notes
4. Draft a grant proposal
5. Clean the workroom and figure out a better way to organize it
6. Make progress on the yard--I'm thinking that I need to pick a bucket of bishop's weed (which I've taken to calling My Episcopal Foe) a week
1. Reintroduce some of the good habits that I've neglected: any combination of sitting, journal-writing, waking up early, reducing alcohol/sweets, yoga
2. Required writing: -Fairy tale paper; -Nunnery paper; -Promotion statement
3. Read at a steady rate for New Project (NP), and take *sensible, ideally helpful* notes
4. Draft a grant proposal
5. Clean the workroom and figure out a better way to organize it
6. Make progress on the yard--I'm thinking that I need to pick a bucket of bishop's weed (which I've taken to calling My Episcopal Foe) a week
humming42
Session goals
1 Write and present at PH online conference
2 Write and submit four book reviews
3 Submit three conference abstracts
4 Write and submit Square
5 Revise and submit two online courses
6 Finish Perform
7 Write 20000 words for Tiny Project
Session goals
1 Write and present at PH online conference
2 Write and submit four book reviews
3 Submit three conference abstracts
4 Write and submit Square
5 Revise and submit two online courses
6 Finish Perform
7 Write 20000 words for Tiny Project
JaneB
Session goals:
Session goals:
1)
Self care: lose the few lb I put on in the first panic of the Pestilential
Pivot and get my diet back into a better balance, improve the amount of
movement I'm doing (let's say 5x a week I want to do a 25-30 minute online
workout - each one has 5 'tracks' and at the moment I'm doing 2-5 tracks spread
through most working days, so I think it's realistic to be doing it all in one
go in two and a half months!), and have done a few clear things to improve my
home environment ready for the new semester (when I expect to be working from
home quite a lot, regardless of the official decision...)
2) collaborative research/science: run a free course on the theory and software WeirdBugMan wrote years ago, since I'm getting more interest from ECRs (because if fieldwork and lab work are disrupted, modelling or synthesising published data suddenly seems like something worth investigating...), continue to work with SocietyThing to build community and progress at least three of the projects where I'm mostly supporting ECRs or helping out colleagues (I count 14 currently on my radar... some have been in abeyance for a long time, some are very early stage, some are at the sending manuscripts around stage. So progressing three seems like a realistic amount of work).
2) collaborative research/science: run a free course on the theory and software WeirdBugMan wrote years ago, since I'm getting more interest from ECRs (because if fieldwork and lab work are disrupted, modelling or synthesising published data suddenly seems like something worth investigating...), continue to work with SocietyThing to build community and progress at least three of the projects where I'm mostly supporting ECRs or helping out colleagues (I count 14 currently on my radar... some have been in abeyance for a long time, some are very early stage, some are at the sending manuscripts around stage. So progressing three seems like a realistic amount of work).
3)
teaching planning and preparation. This has to be a bigger chunk of the summer
than usual! Here I'd like to have a clear PLAN for who is teaching what and for
how we are rearranging the contents of the big first year class (which usually
starts with six weeks of outdoors and indoors very practical group work which
just cannot be relied on), have a session by session plan for all my own
teaching up until Christmas (team teaching, so I don't teach all the sessions
in any of my modules), and keep CommunityThing going effectively (as so often, someone
has to keep things moving, and apparently that's me in this group). CommunityThing
has a workshop in late August so that should be a solid achievement in this
summer.
4)
MY research. This has to take a back seat, but I'd like to do some thinking and
documentation of stuff before the new PhD student starts this autumn, I'll be
working with FormerPDF on a paper for a festschrift for someone who's been a
great support and inspiration to us both, and I have a smallish but useful idea
I want to start writing about to see if it wants to be a grant or a small paper
or a whatever.
Session
goals
1. Finish
book ms, writing 3000 words a week.
2. Redesign course for remote or semi-remote teaching
3. Maintain physical health by keeping up with walking
4. Maintain mental health 1: get regular sleep
5. Maintain mental health 2: read for fun
6. Maintain mental health 3: keep in touch with friends in whatever way possible.
2. Redesign course for remote or semi-remote teaching
3. Maintain physical health by keeping up with walking
4. Maintain mental health 1: get regular sleep
5. Maintain mental health 2: read for fun
6. Maintain mental health 3: keep in touch with friends in whatever way possible.
oceangirl101
Session goals
1. Finish Ch 7 and 8 of book and be done with it!
2. Advise two graduate students and undergrad in summer research
3. Maintain healthy habits- exercise 3x a week, cook and eat as well as I can
4. Work in the garden and make my own DIY compositng bin
5. Maybe try to learn Tahitian??? I have DVDs somewhere but no way to listen to them now. There might be online sources or someone I could Zoom with.
Session goals
1. Finish Ch 7 and 8 of book and be done with it!
2. Advise two graduate students and undergrad in summer research
3. Maintain healthy habits- exercise 3x a week, cook and eat as well as I can
4. Work in the garden and make my own DIY compositng bin
5. Maybe try to learn Tahitian??? I have DVDs somewhere but no way to listen to them now. There might be online sources or someone I could Zoom with.
That was a pretty good week! I'm pretty happy with the work I did on my upcoming talk, and I' making good progress on a few data tasks. The university training I signed up for remains pathetic, but this coming week there are no live sessions so I can ignore it. The Open University course JaneB recommended is way better. So much better…
ReplyDeleteChild made it through her online music exam and actually had fun with it, and is now officially on “vacation” (not that it looks any different from “normal”!). We’re allowed some more friend visits now, outside of the original household bubbles so that has been wonderful for her. Still keeping them one at a time, and mostly outside, but it is a huge relief for everyone. Funny – I looked at a random old post as I was putting things up this week and one of my goals that week (early pandemic) was “find entertainment for bored child who will be out of school for three weeks” and I laughed very hard! Three weeks, hahahaha… there was a bit of naïve optimism there! Now more like three months and counting!!
Last week’s goals:
1) Two figures for neglected paper NOPE
2) Make full draft of talk set up practice days with trusted colleagues ALMOST DONE
3) MORE data processing for favourite co-authors, what can I say, I like being valuable to my co-authors… ALMOST DONE
4) Daily stretching and injury rehab and test run – must do better on this!! BETTER
5) This week’s fun thing for child: at least two outdoor visits with friends YES!!! HEAVENLY!!!
6) Bonus fun thing for child: giant ice cream after online music exam YES
7) Fun thing for me: backyard visits with friends and beer ONE
This week’s goals:
1) Complete rescheduled talk and practice it with virtual people since it will be virtual delivery
2) Prepare new invited talk
3) Finish data processing
4) STRETCH!!!
5) Fun thing for child: at least two outdoor visits with friends
6) Fun thing for me: take-out of favourite local food
Session Goals
I’ve been doing pretty well on the session goals, mostly because for a change I actually remembered them by sticking them in a document where I keep the weekly ones, and actually looking at them once in a while… Funny how that works. I’ve been doing a lot of work for an association I’m in charge of now, so that has been satisfying. I will continue to do that, but as with the teaching prep will try to keep it to the equivalent of about 2 days a week so it does not take over completely. The teaching prep will have to ramp up towards the end of summer of course, but I refuse to let it wreck more than it absolutely has to.
1) Focus on paper writing – I have three in progress where I’m the main author, and two with students STUDENT ONE SUBMITTED, 2 CO-AUTHOR ONES SUBMITTED, MINE MAKING SLOW PROGRESS
2) Maintain healthy habits and keep moving PRETTY GOOD
3) Focus on my child and make sure she has a fun, exciting summer even with restrictions and uncertainty DOING OK, SHE’s FINE, GOING ON BIG CAMPING TRIP AGAIN IN JULY
4) Do one fun/frivolous/new thing every week MOSTLY GOOD
It's so strange to look back at what we were thinking at various points in March! I'm glad your child is doing well.
DeleteI'm realizing that in my head I got the pandemic adaptations all wrapped up with house-hunting and moving, so now I keep being surprised that the changes and restrictions are still in place, completely separate from the moving upheaval. It doesn't make sense, but brains are weird sometimes.
All the optimism of a month or two at most of shut down...but if I'd known in March it was probably closer to a year, I don't know how I'd have coped.
DeleteI think most people sensibly went for the "one day at a time" approach, and I think that is still the best one. We have no real end date, and it would almost be worse to have one and then have to move it repeatedly, so I'm keeping my blinders on right along with my mask and just taking very short looks into the future. Nothing long-term... Nothing to see there folks!
DeleteYour upbeat post sends out much happiness! I'm so grateful my child is an adult with a family of his own...I don't know how I would manage having child-him or teen-him stuck at home for months. I so admire you!
DeleteIn the five years that I've been in my new job (which isn't so new now, I guess! Wow! Five years!), I've had many occasions to compare my colleagues here to my colleagues at Tiny SLAC. On the whole, Tiny SLAC folks were vastly more collegial and easy-going. I like many of my colleagues here very much, but as a group, they can be *exhausting.* Somewhat caught in their own worlds and waaaay too good at protecting their time. Fortunately, we've had some new hires recently who are quite sensible people and willing team players (mostly youngish women, shocker) and actually focused on questions of pedagogy, rather than just how to get the highest possible enrollments.
ReplyDeleteSo what I want in a colleague is someone who is, first of all, sensible and sane, and secondly who understands that we all need to do things that we don't want to do once in a while (but who will draw the line when necessary). I'm not sure how that gets communicated in an interview! Sanity is especially crucial.
Session goals:
1. Reintroduce some of the good habits that I've neglected: any combination of sitting, journal-writing, waking up early, reducing alcohol/sweets, yoga
*Sort of, sometimes. Getting up early is easy when the sun is up before five. Yoga is not as regular as when classes are in person, but I'm doing at least one full class per week, with some other little bits squeezed in. Alcohol is back to pre-covid levels, more or less. Doing okay with the journal. Very little sitting has happened; I should try to add that back in.
2. Required writing: -Fairy tale paper; -Nunnery paper; -Promotion statement
*Fairy tale paper is drafted; promotion statement is written. Nunnery paper is now not due until September 2021, but I think I'll try to draft it this summer anyway.
3. Read at a steady rate for New Project (NP), and take *sensible, ideally helpful* notes
*Doing pretty well with this.
4. Draft a grant proposal
*Have made some notes. I'm not sure that I'll do this, though, because I've rescheduled my sabbatical and given myself another year to get organized, so it won't be due until fall '21.
5. Clean the workroom and figure out a better way to organize it
*Not yet. Need some shelves first. Neighbors may be getting rid of shelves so I'm waiting to hear from them.
6. Make progress on the yard--I'm thinking that I need to pick a bucket of bishop's weed (which I've taken to calling My Episcopal Foe) a week
*Progress made. Bishop's weed is sufficiently in remission (and covered up with taller plants) that I can mostly ignore it, so I'm not picking my bucket a week any longer.
Last week:
1. Finish draft of Fairy Tales talk - DONE
2. Read rest of diss ch. 1, all of diss ch. 2 - DONE
3. 2 Nunnery essays - DONE
4. Compile teaching section of promotion dossier - DONE (took like 30 minutes, maybe)
5. Write 30 minutes/day (x5) - DONE; this felt really good; I think that I need to keep it up for as long as I can think of things to write
6. Good Thing daily - 4 or 5?
This week:
1. Work on Nunnery paper for 30 minutes x 4 days; come up with a sensible outline + 1 paragraph of argument
2. Revise Fairy Tales for 30 minutes x 1 day
3. Read part 1 of 3rd chapter of diss
4. Read first half of Mary book
Five years! How time flies! Congratulations on a successful half-decade!
DeleteI'm tickled by your combining work on Nunnery and Fairy Tales. It makes me want to come up with titles for my projects that will amuse you all.
These are actually quite straightforwardly descriptive titles! I love my field.
DeleteThat looks like a lot of really great progress on your session goals.
DeleteYay for getting the dissertation chapters read! I find those take so much longer than a lot of other reading, it is definitely a different kind of task!
Love the garden pictures!!
I can't even imagine being able to hire for some time to come, but like heu mihi, I'd want someone sensible and sane. People have to be able to protect their time enough to do the research that will get them tenure, of course, but some stuff just needs to get done and people need to pitch in.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to getting back to work, and glad that I have some requirements and structure coming up, via the online course about teaching online that I signed up for, and the promotion review that has a deadline. The new house is still a mess, and I *still* have to get the tax documents sorted out and delivered to our accountant (and awareness of this is a huge energy suck; I'm going to feel so much better when I get that done). There's loads of Life Admin like notifying various companies of my change of address. Nonetheless, it's a huge relief to be here, in this house, which seems to be well-constructed; the huge yard is soothingly park-like; the neighborhood is pleasant to walk in. Sir John seems noticeably more relaxed here. The cats are settling down, partly thanks to tuna-flavored Prozac, but hey, better living through chemistry!
I'm supposed to be working a couple of hours a day this week, but I think taxes have to be my number one goal. I'm going to let myself ease back into work by doing any work thing that appeals and would be useful, never mind trying to prioritize work tasks for now. So, new goals:
Get tax docs sorted and taken to accountant.
Work 2 hours a day, three times (reading, teaching, service: whatever appeals).
Regular exercise, stretching, safe eating, fun things.
~2 hours a day unpacking and/or life admin.
Keep track of what I'm doing so I don't wonder where the day went.
So happy that the move is largely done and the new house feels right! What a relief.
DeleteEnjoy settling into your new house!
DeleteSo glad new house is feeling like a good place so far and that the kitties are settling in too.
DeleteJust prioritize whatever feels like the right thing for every day, something will get done!
I had a small epiphany about your wisdom there: I'm going to feel so much better when I get that done. So much truth!
Delete(By the way, if anyone is in fact interested in the pictures of my yard that I hinted at in a previous week, I've just resuscitated my blog with the intention of posting garden pics. Today I'm showcasing the progress of our front-yard wildflower jungle. Address is ageofperfection.blogspot.com.)
ReplyDeleteLove the pictures! It makes me miss my Connecticut garden...
DeleteYes, love the pictures, beautiful daisies.
DeleteWhat an interesting prompt: it's hard to argue with sensible and sane. I think the key is someone who has demonstrated an ability to put the needs of the whole above their own at times (and yes, of course, they need to get tenure, so...). There's something about understanding institutions and how to work in them that is crucial. How you can tell in a job interview (esp a virtual one) I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1. Read essay for colleague YES
2. Read book proposal DONE, REPORT ALMOST FINISHED
3. Spend an hour three days on Famous Author, write something NO
4. Six more journals Three?
5. Clear desk at weekend in preparation for the arrival of the new desk / reorganize books. SOME (delivery of desk was cancelled. Bummer.)
6. Keep walking YES
7. Try to turn out the light before 11 (this seems to be the magic divide between good nights and bad nights) 6 nights?
I think I did pretty well; I had a lot of people stuff to deal with too. And cooking -- we're in high fruit season, so I made mulled wine blueberry sauce & apricot jam this week. If I'm to write, I think I have to make it the first thing I do, and I haven't done that. I did get in touch with library people, so I feel as if I've made some progress. I've sorted through lots of piles of paper (still more to go). The bummer was that the large Scandinavian furniture behemoth cancelled my order, because it had taken them too long. Huh? As a result, next week I will go visit my brother, who lives near one of said behemoth's stores, and go into the store and pick up the desk I want. On the good side, the other new office stuff is arriving this week, so I can take things out of drawers and move them to the new places *before* I get the new desk. It'll be more chaotic than usual in my office, but I see my way forward. (My fantasy is always that furniture will make me an organized person. I'm old enough to know better, but it does change my existing patterns.)
Session goals
1. Finish book ms, writing 3000 words a week.
2. Redesign course for remote or semi-remote teaching
3. Maintain physical health by keeping up with walking
4. Maintain mental health 1: get regular sleep
5. Maintain mental health 2: read for fun
6. Maintain mental health 3: keep in touch with friends in whatever way possible.
I'm doing pretty well on these: I won't finish the book ms, but I think I'll have a good draft of three of the four chapters, and I hope a detailed outline of the fourth. Under the circumstances, I'm happy. I've done a lot of thinking about the teaching, and am ready to start putting a real syllabus together.
Goals for this week:
1. Finish ms review
2. An hour 4 days on Famous Author. Fill in three paragraphs/sections.
3. An hour 3 days on syllabus
4. Prep office for new desk -- 1/2 hour on paper piles, and when new furniture arrives, start moving stuff.
5. Keep walking
6. At least one call with a friend
7. Keep healthy sleep pattern
It is fascinating that the one thing we all want in a colleague is the type of thing that is very hard to assess in an interview... especially a virtual one! A candidate can deliberately build examples of that kind of approach into their answers or presentations, and try to demonstrate it I guess. And only some will try, others may not be thinking along those lines at all... Very interesting!
DeleteI'm glad your session goals are well on their way, the book will be very close to done and that is a huge thing for a summer session!
Enjoy the new desk! I always think new stationary and pens will be the thing to tip me over into being more organized, but I know better. But I love stationary anyway and enjoy it greatly!
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteI echo many of your sentiments. The best colleagues are both team players and self starters. And who have a broad view of people's worth and the ability to find their own role, whether its as a teacher, or mentor, of researcher.
Session goals
1. Finish Ch 7 and 8 of book and be done with it! I am almost done with Ch 7!!! and scheming to make Ch 8 short. My goal now is to have CH 8 1/2 done by the time of my surgery on July 21.
2. Advise two graduate students and undergrad in summer research. Yes, its been time consuming but rewarding
3. Maintain healthy habits- exercise 3x a week, cook and eat as well as I can. Exercise is slipping so trying to focus on that this week.
4. Work in the garden and make my own DIY composting bin. Change of plans as still too exhausted- ordered pre-fab bin online and set it up last week.
5. Maybe try to learn Tahitian??? Putting this aside until all my COVID related stuff is settled. I am too tired in the evenings for much other than stupid TV or listening to podcasts.
Last week:
oceangirl101
1. Ch 7 x 4 days Yes
2. Outline list for upcoming pubs with post doc and collaborator Yes
3. Tax stuff, finalize Yes
4. Medical appts Yes
5. Exercise x 4 including some swimming No, x 3
This week:
1. Finish one section (last section?!) of Ch 7
2. Medical appts
3. Finalize tax stuff, paperwork for Aunt to go into state system
4. Vit supplements daily, cooking healthy
5. start on DGS work (will officially take over July 15)
6. Fun x 2
Yay for all the things that got got done this week! It looks like you are making great progress on the session goals too, and the ones that are not working for you can be changed. We have to be ok with changing things when circumstances demand, we owe that to ourselves and our health!
DeleteThis week’s question is a difficult one for me, since I have difficult colleagues. After some reorganization and a handful of retirements awhile back, we hired two faculty members. One left after three years and the other left just after earning tenure. The usual dysfunction. I can’t imagine watching my colleagues tear down another young scholar, so if anything, I would wish for a colleague who would not back down.
ReplyDeleteI do have wonderful colleagues in other departments, and my chair has encouraged me to work with them. It’s not an ideal situation but I’m not sure what ideal would even look like. The good does outweigh the bad.
I think I’m making good progress on session goals, although not enough work on Tiny Project. Reality is that it’s questionable whether it would be considered academic work since it is more like creative nonfiction, so I don’t have job-related pressure related to it. And I’m enjoying the writing and don’t want to tarnish it by attaching unreasonable deadlines. So we’ll see how that goes.
Last week:
1 present at online conference: yes
2 submit two essay peer reviews: no
3 write 500 words for Tiny Project/online class: yes
4 write 1000 words for Perform: no
This week:
1submit two essay peer reviews
2 write 500 words for Tiny Project/online class
3 prep summer online classes to start Tuesday
4 spend 4 hours on Square
5 submit latest book review
Difficult colleagues are awful... And having new people leave so fast has to be so demoralizing. I think one of the upside of being in a small place is that it is much easier to find supportive like-minded people in other departments than it might be in a big place where departments are more separated. Keep working with people you like and respect, I'm glad you have a good chair that understands that and encourages it!
DeleteTiny project should stay fun!! Doesn't matter if it is academic work or not, if you are enjoying the work then it counts, and should definitely not be strangled with extra deadlines. We have enough of those...
How did the conference turn out? Hope it was satisfying even online!
I echo Daisy--let Tiny Project be fun. I find that creative endeavors help with the mainstream academic writing--give yourself permission to pursue it. Can you make it a break from the other projects rather than assigning deadlines?
DeleteI don't understand difficult colleagues--I suppose they are so insecure they have to tear down the new, bright, and hopeful. You have a good chair, like Daisy says, and your position at the intersection of fields helps you find colleagues, but I'm sorry it is discouraging.
Topic: I will echo everyone for a sane and steady colleague. I agree that it is hard to get a feel for that in the interviews, but I find that I trust my instincts far more than I used to do. CVs can help sometimes to show the “I’m the best in the universe, and I’ll remind you constantly if you forget” sort of folks, as well as the folks who will gladly be on the committees that do little to no work. I have found the true superstars to be incredibly kind and collegial, and had the amazing luck to take classes with several of them.
ReplyDeleteLast week was another difficult one, although being in a writing boot-camp helped. Since I am appallingly late in posting, I will only address my session goals, and forward the weekly ones to next week.
Session goals:
Health:
Make mental and physical health strides by creating and maintaining habits--walking, meditating, eating better, contacting people. Mixed bag.
Be kind to myself and others. Reasonably well.
Maintain the contacts I have, and expand to some of the people I’ve neglected. Good at maintaining, not so great at expanding.
Scholarship:
Return scholarship to my schedule, rather than stuffing it around the edges. Yes.
Continue to organize and declutter paper and pixel files, keeping only what furthers my work or sparks joy. Yes.
Create an order of approach among the special issue, Illuminated, Perseverance, and North. Small steps.
Analysis: I'm gobsmacked that I've done as much as I have--not that I'm perfect by a long shot, but I don't feel the need to change any goals. I need to work more on walking, but the oppressive weather here in the Hudson valley is not terribly inviting. I finally got a massive shipment from King Arthur Flour, so my baking can recommence with lower-sugar options and better flours. I have also scheduled several doctor’s appointments--most online, since all my specialists are in NYC--so I’m trying to take care of all my odd ailments and conditions.
I have not contacted the people I should reconnect with, but I think I will make a list and assign times to do that. Maybe that will help.
My success story is the scholarship. I work well in this “working from an alternate location” environment, although my family does complain about my disappearing into my garret. Being of a depressive bent (hey, I'm 78% Irish and 21% Welsh, so I have a lock on being lugubrious), I think about what my life might have been had I defended on my drop-dead date, when the Historian was nine days old. However, at least since last December, I'm in a job I love, working with a good group of people. Also, I was an adjunct 14 years ago, and well remember the not-so-great parts of that.
Plans for the fall semester continue to be as full of holes as fishing nets. Admin said yesterday that students from the most-affected states are expected to self-quarantine for two weeks before returning to New York State in August. Librarians are not due back in our offices until October, but if a researcher or class (of under 8--our reading room capacity under social distancing guidelines) wants to come in before then, I will have to go in. I’m really hoping that this remote work will help the Libraries’ administration realize academic faculty should not be held to a 40-hour week in a campus office, but I don’t have great hope from our dean. Actually, I’m going in this afternoon to take more pictures of 16th and 17th century books that are not in our catalog or on Worldcat, so no one knows we own them. The cold of the vault will help me tear myself away from all the pretties.
I have been successful at uncovering my desk, and very proud of collapsing several redundant electronic files. The lack of stress facing a clean, organized desk is well worth the struggle to keep it that way.
I envy the time in the vault with 16th & 17th c books. Goodness knows when the Huntington (my local rare books library) will reopen for more than about 3 people a day...
DeleteAh, the Huntington! In the early 90s, I worked with a librarian at the University of Washington who went to the Huntington.
DeleteI am grateful on a daily basis that I have access to the vault. It's not the Huntington, by far, but it is still full of glory.
And I can sympathize, Susan--I am emailing the poor reader services folks at the Morgan all the time. The best they could tell me two weeks ago was mid-September, and I couldn't spend a whole week there, as I had planned. I fear that may be pushed back, too.
Next week’s goals [held over]:
ReplyDeleteRead two articles on one of the presentation topics.
Edit 1 hour x 5.
Proofread 1 hour x 5.
Follow up with co-editor.
Contact Office of Research for extension of grant-funded travel.
Figure out what to work on in the two week writing course.
I hope everyone is staying sane and safe. I think of all of you who are in more affected areas--take care of yourselves! Float like mist, everyone.
How the flying monkey's naked backside is it Friday? This week flew. But not in a pleasant way.
ReplyDeleteEverything is crap. Which possibly means the Stupid Hormones are confusing the Mood Mammoth and it's just stomping around yelling and leaning heavily on the fences. Or it MIGHT just mean that my university, my colleagues and the government of the country I have the misfortune to live in (be a citizen of) are all being TOTAL RICHARD-HEADS. Or both.
I looked up reference images of boll weevils and cotton bolls, then drew a doodle of an ox surrounded by both, a BollOx, as an attempt to not completely lose my temper during a meeting on Wednesday. Hopefully it looked like I was reading the meeting documents on my second monitor and taking notes (camera on was required and I didn't care enough to turn it off, they can put up with me being childishly sullen or as I prefer to think of it "naturally expressive"). I quite like the drawing. The temper is not receeding. However, a small child ran in on another camera at one point and shouted "Daddy it's a mergency!" and when Daddy leapt up saying "what's happened?" the child said solemnly "there's a POO on the GRASS". And another colleague dropped his laptop which was quite amusing. And a third has a new laptop where the camera is cunningly inside one of the function keys so all images involved looking up her nose.
I've been re-reading the Murderbot sequence. I want energy weapons in my forearms, ample memory storage for replaying media, and to be really good at smashing things. Despite it's existential issues ('Murderbot' for those who don't know is a security robot, a created organic-inorganic sentient humanoid who works out how to override its internal controls, then carries on halfassing its job and pretending to still be fully controlled by the Bond Company which contracts out security units, whilst watching as many soap operas as it can get its memory chips on in order to try and understand humans, until it gets thrown into circumstances that force it to try and work out what it actually wants to do with its life. It's also written by the hugely talented Martha Wells and it's funny and poignant and fast paced and all round a Good Read for a Mammoth-Haunted Academic). My Mammoth, I suspect, is a hybrid with both teaching and research elements - a Mammogriff or Hippomoth. Both of those sound... er...
Anyway. Still alive!
Glad you're still alive! Your BollOx sounds brilliant.
DeleteAnd the only leader less competent than yours is ours, so . . . we're lucky to be alive.
Thank you for giving me something to laugh out loud about, Jane! The poo on the grass is classic. I also love the Murderbot series.
DeleteAnd I agree with Susan, given our federal leadership, we are indeed lucky to be alive.
We also have a decent reason to attend the next meeting - "Daddy" didn't return to the camera, so we have no idea if the poo was animal or human, and from an inhabitant of the house or not... It should probably be added to the agenda...
DeleteI only set my session goals a couple of weeks ago, so I won't bother to look at them. The Mammoth and the Hippogriff will drag them wherever they want anyway. ::pout::
ReplyDeletewhere I am now:
1) self care - going to bed before midnight (already failed twice...) continued to mostly fail. We had a hot spell at the end of last week and so I took afternoon naps because my desk area was too hot to work at, and then did more work in the late evening when it had cooled off. Have now bought a fan but it wasn't delivered until after the weather changed. This one is staying on the list
2) more setting up work for the theory workshop - finalise the web site and get the adverts out yes! 92 people registered already! We have to put a cap on it!
2a) finish draft text from LikesMaths no. I'm in the discussion part now though so I did SOME...
3) make progress on big outline for the giant first year thing (sigh. Thinking about this causes the Mood Mammoth to get grumpy for university-politics reasons) yes, and made quite a lot of progress because we heard that the full new timetable request for online and in person (in super small groups) teaching has to be in Monday morning which has suddenly galvanised people to talk to me about it. Which did lead to a major, major redesign when we ran into some issues, but, it's NEARLY done. Stage ONE is nearly done...
3a) do action points from last CollaborativeThing meeting most of them
3b) spend a tiny chunk of time on Hated Paperwork, as I don't really have time - see external examining, I have about 110 long projects/reports/essays (3000-6000 words) to read for another uni and have to be done by next Monday NOPE. Last week kept having Stuff come up, so I had to spend the weekend on the externalling, and then this week More Stuff - like the short notice timetable call, and the decision by the university that 50% of all teaching next trimester has to be synchronous (NOT what the training advised) and "as much as possible" must be requested to be on campus, and the university teaching teachers unit conference thing took up time (and made me very tired. They're all SO ENTHUSED about every new big word, and the implication that everything everyone who ISN'T a teaching-and-scholarship, teaching focused academic does is old fashioned and if it isn't done in full partnership with students from the design stage it must be patriarchal and inappropriate makes me sad, mad and tired. SOMETIMES I learn things...
4) reply to an email from FormerPDF which will take an hour or so as I have to hunt down details from years ago... well, tell her I'm aware of its existence anyway nope, not yet
5) tick off another 5 things from the list of small but necessary jobs managed 8 last week, 4 this week
6) have a two day weekend! nope, I was doing the examining. I don't have time but I am in such a bad mood I think I need to make the time anyway...
It's Friday evening (and I have cake and youtube) so my goals until the next check in are:
1) self care - going to bed before midnight (already failed twice...)
2) have a two day weekend!
3) tidy my home office area as it's NOT GOOD (I slipped on a crisp packet and nearly stood on the Idiot Fluffball earlier on, and all the decent coffeemugs have migrated up here). In fact it's pretty bad...