What does it say about my life that I initially titled this post, "Last Quarter, week 20"?
Not that I feel like I've spent too much time in your company. More like this is an unending semester....
...And yet! It is ending, for me, at least. Sort of. Slowly. Classes ended Friday. Final papers are due December 4. I have grading to do, and I'll have more, and there will be meetings ad infinitum, but at least we're moving into the winding-down period, if in a much-more-protracted-than-usual sort of way.
If you're in the US, then you have some days off this week whether or not your semester is ending--whether or not you're teaching at all. Of course, semester's end can bring all kinds of stress, too--stress under which our members outside of the States are also likely slogging along.
So, this week, consider how and whether you can create for yourself some kind of breathing room. If you're really into the architectural motif, you can imagine a real room for breathing! I'd be interested to hear what that looks like. Or you can just reflect on ways to open up a little space for peace and quiet in your week. Or you can ignore the prompt altogether and tell us what's going on. Judging from the few comments on last week's post, quite a few of us are suffering from the Overwhelm.
Last week's goals:
Daisy:
1) Paper off to co-authors
2) Giant pile of grading, now three times as high as when it started
3) Record ALL remaining lectures
4) My intentional thing for the week: sushi takeout with child and walking coffee with 2 colleagues
Dame Eleanor Hull:
*Health: daily cardio and stretching, weights x 3, try to eat carefully and sleep enough.
*Teaching: Grade discussion board posts (2 sets? 3? I've lost track), 1 set of papers, set up modules for next two weeks.
*Research: work on revisions; some time on both dead and live languages; some other reading.
*Service: set up drafts for some recommendation letters.
*House/life: do some responsible-adult things.
*Track time, at least roughly.
heu mihi:
1) Order, fetch, and organize gigantic batch of letters etc. related to a Get Out the Vote effort in Georgia. (I volunteered to organize this for anyone in my activist circle who was interested, and have been rather overwhelmed by the response.... It looks like I'll be organizing something like 1400 letters, for 27 people. So this will actually take up a good bit of time. I even had to attend a webinar last night.)
2) Try something to promote better sleep--such as evening journaling or meditation.
3) Draft journal CFP and read journal submissin.
4) Complete email catch-up. (I got through a lot last week, but there's more. Always more.)
5) Request blurbs for program website from majors.
6) Enjoy my husband's birthday on Thursday.
7) Read intro and chapter 1 of review book; type up notes.
humming42:
1 work on creative piece: this is the last week of the online class I’m taking. The assignment is to revise a previously submitted piece, so I’m ruminating.
2 grade every day: the heat is on.
3 write and submit current book review: ok, it’s a tiny bit TLQ but my editor is very forgiving
4 write and submit abstract for conference workshop: one of those opportunities from pandemic to virtually attend a conference that I normally don’t even consider because it’s adjacent to my discipline and there’s only so much money for travel in a given year
5 finish review of journal essay submission: that one just fell off my map.
oceangirl101:
1. Copy edits Ch 3-8
2. Review article, book series, and PhD
3. Walk/exercise x 4
4. Healthy meals
5. Vet for cat, set up Dr appts for me
Susan:
Teaching:
1. Get last week module up
2. Grade next batch of projects and create groups
3. Get book orders in
Service:
1. Get in touch with the press re. journal
2. Deal with any other stuff that comes up re Big Proposal that is terrible
3. Deal with Church stuff
Research:
Four hours on famous author
Fun:
Keep reading new book
Keep working out
At least one fun zoom
I'm sorry I wasn't more present in the comments last week. I know it's nice to get responses! If you're in the US, I hope you are able to enjoy the Thanksgiving break this week, whether that means taking a real break or using it to catch up and thus relieve the stress of piled-up work. I'm going to make a strawberry pie; I'm thankful for frozen fruit, since the seasonal pies don't agree with me. :-)
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
*Health: daily cardio and stretching, weights x 3, try to eat carefully and sleep enough. MOSTLY YES, though I had one spectacularly bad night (did not sleep till 3:30 a.m.) and another very bad one.
*Teaching: Grade discussion board posts (2 sets? 3? I've lost track), 1 set of papers, set up modules for next two weeks. YES: am temporarily ALL CAUGHT UP on grading. That will change tonight.
*Research: work on revisions; some time on both dead and live languages; some other reading. YES to all though in tiny quantities.
*Service: set up drafts for some recommendation letters. NO.
*House/life: do some responsible-adult things. YES, though these related to car, not to credit.
*Track time, at least roughly. SORTA . . . lackadaisical on this. Lack a couple-three days-ickle, at least.
New goals:
*Health: daily cardio and stretching, weights x 3, try to eat carefully and sleep enough.
*Teaching: Grade 1 set discussion board posts; comment on drafts from both classes.
*Research: work on revisions; some time on both dead and live languages; some other reading.
*Service: set up drafts for some recommendation letters; admissions; another small thing.
*House/life: do some responsible-adult things.
*Track time, at least roughly.
Move like water, float like mist!
Congratulations on being all caught up, if only temporarily! It's always only temporary, after all, so that's the best possible.
DeleteAnd I've adopted the tiny-quantities-counts model when it comes to things like research, writing, and language study. Because they do.
Also, I love the phrase/term "couple-three," which one of my most beloved colleagues from my previous institution used a lot, so thank you for that.
This was a great week for writing even with everything else falling apart around my ears. I am really enjoying the paper and I’m amazed at what my co-authors and I have been able to pull out of our collective hats in a short time. I think we all needed something satisfying to focus on, even though we’re all swamped and struggling with being overwhelmed. It is nice to have something that makes progress and will be an important piece of work for our area. I’m also appreciating the benefits of thinking about things for a while, this paper has been “percolating” for a couple of years and I never really found its focus, the moment we found that it all came together beautifully. And I got the nicest compliment – my co-author (very senior mentor and basically the one who literally wrote the book on every single thing we’re writing about) said the stuff I wrote was great. So I’ve been basking in that and enjoying the progress.
ReplyDeleteEverything else has been complete and total arse and teaching has reached some new and spectacular lows… But I just cannot worry about that right now. It is not going to get better now, we’re three weeks from the end of term so all we have to do is finish. Doesn’t have to be pretty…
Last week’s goals:
1) Paper off to co-authors WENT, CAME BACK, WENT AGAIN, NOW BACK WITH ME
2) Giant pile of grading, now three times as high as when it started DONE
3) Record ALL remaining lectures DONE
4) My intentional thing for the week: sushi takeout with child and walking coffee with 2 colleagues DONE!!
This week’s goals:
1) Paper off to journal
2) Set 30 take-home exams, each student gets a personalized one…
3) Grad seminar content and reading list for coming weeks
4) My intentional thing for the week: walking coffee with 2 colleagues
If I had a real room to make into a Breathing Room it would have a window seat that looked over water of some kind, a big fireplace, and a comfortable squashy chair or chesterfield... And a stash of single malt!
DeleteWonderful news about your paper! That must be so satisfying.
DeleteAlso, look at you zipping through (or at least finishing, if not zipping) all the teaching things! Grading, lectures recorded, etc. Personalized take-home exams sound like a nightmare, though.
I love your Breathing Room! And it's lovely to hear about some writing going well and getting done.
DeleteLast week was fine. I drove 3 hours round-trip to pick up the gigantic batch of letters; it was kind of fun to get out of the house alone like that, I confess, even though I-90 isn't much of a glorious drive. Classes ended, and the 16 students in my seminar were incredibly sweet--I complimented them on being such a great community and so supportive of each other, which they were; I started getting a little misty for some reason, and they all sat there with their cameras ON for a change, pressing their hands to their hearts in sympathy and activating the new heart emojis that Zoom has added. It was quite lovely. For Husband's birthday, we went out for dinner, stopping at an antique store to buy a hall tree that he's had his eye on (he's always wanted an antique hall tree). For a gift, I got him a trail camera to photograph the night wildlife that we know roams past our house. Haven't caught anything yet, though. Dinner was outdoors, under heat lamps, in 38-degree weather; there were a total of two other outdoor tables, so it was about as safe as it could get. We took a couple of funny pictures of us all bundled up at our table.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday, I spent an hour writing "with" a friend (we texted GO to each other and then chatted after we were done). It was the first time I'd touched my actual writing in a long time. And it felt kinda good. I think I need to do some more of that.
Last week:
1) Order, fetch, and organize gigantic batch of letters etc. related to a Get Out the Vote effort in Georgia. - DONE
2) Try something to promote better sleep--such as evening journaling or meditation. - TRIED. Some things worked. Or at least, I slept somewhat better, some of the time.
3) Draft journal CFP and read journal submission. - DRAFTED, READ
4) Complete email catch-up. (I got through a lot last week, but there's more. Always more.) - PARTIAL, and of course more emails keep coming.
5) Request blurbs for program website from majors. - DONE; that took 10 minutes, why did I put it off for literally like 2 years?
6) Enjoy my husband's birthday on Thursday. - ENJOYED
7) Read intro and chapter 1 of review book; type up notes. - INTRO YES, read about 1/2 of ch. 1
In terms of relaxation, rest, space: At my craft-loving 8-year-old son's request, we ordered a needle-felting kit, which arrived yesterday. He's already made a pumpkin, a teddy bear, and a two-dimensional scene of an insect flying to its nest (or carrying its nest, he hasn't decided). I made a gnome. He sold me on the idea of getting the kit when he learned basic needle-felting at farm camp a few weeks ago, and told me that it was both "cozy" (his favorite thing) and "engrossing." I don't know where he learned the word "engrossing," but he's right. So I think there will be more needle-felting in my holiday week.
This week:
1. Read and take notes on ch. 1 and ch. 2 of review book
2. Grade everything that I have in order to clear the way for future grading
3. 3 hours of writing
4. Journal proofs, to the extent possible (waiting on a couple of authors)
5. Two yoga classes (plus all the running)
I had not heard of needle-felting before, so looked it up. There are some really adorable little animals made that way! Unfortunately, in this house they would turn into cat toys and that would make me sad, so I won't take it up. But it sounds like a fun thing to do with your kid.
DeleteCongrats on being done with teaching, even if the grading continues.
I am very devoted to the “and yet!” in this week’s discussion intro, especially with the emphatic exclamation point. To my surprise, I find that just not worrying about getting email from students and dealing with Zoom meetings has given me some space to breathe. It’s a relief to get caught up a bit and to know that there is only one more week of class then exams. And only one more month of this year.
ReplyDeleteI started my “21 before 21” list today, much of which is utterly mundane things like depositing a check (I go to the bank about twice a year) and dropping off recycling. I earmarked 5 hours for office cleaning. I don’t know if it will be enough, but it will be time well spent no matter.
Last week:
1 work on creative piece: yes
2 grade every day: mostly.
3 write and submit current book review: due at the end of the week
4 write and submit abstract for conference workshop: yes
5 finish review of journal essay submission: yes
This week:
1 edit a creative piece to prepare for submission
2 write weekly blog post
3 grade every day
4 write and submit current book review
5 finish reading next review book
I like the "21 before 21" idea; maybe I'll adopt that. Thank you!
DeleteMy department keeps scheduling "fun" end-of-semester Zooms. People, Zoom is not "fun." Come to think about it, I think of the departmental party as work in normal times, so I guess this is just more of my introverted self being curmudgeonly. But it is lovely to have a few days with no video meetings.
I like parties, even departmental parties, but I'm really enjoying the prospect of 0 of them this year, to be honest.
DeleteZoom parties won't work because everyone has to listen to one person at a time. There's no ducking aside to catch up with a favorite colleague. Today I am thankful that my department hasn't tried to schedule any of these things.