I counted the weeks forward and backward because I didn’t want to believe we’re halfway through this session and therefore also halfway through summer. But so it is. Coincidentally, July 2 is the midpoint of the calendar year, so there’s that halfway as well.
I’ve attached session goals below last week’s goals below. If desired, feel welcome to check in at the halfway point, see where you are, if your plans have changed (as so frequently happens), and if you want to modify your plans for the remainder of the session.
Last week
Daisy
1) Finish up last bits of current field work, plan next batch
2) Make a real plan for July, including papers, field stuff, student stuff, and fun stuff
3) Send out letters for association stuff – three different sets now!
4) Celebrate end of school year with kid
5) Mark the start of my sabbatical with something fun!
Dame Eleanor Hull
Latin, Greek, Domestic, T-reading, Other Reading, all x4.
Work on daily plans for fall class.
File papers, move the rest of the books.
Find new doctor.
Exercise early, eat carefully, go to bed by 10.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Request meeting with co-editor.
Follow two tracked citations to two articles on Prudence, making notes, and tracking citations further.
Pull together everything needed for the return to campus. Digitize everything that I can; duplicate supplies and task lists.
Organize home desk 1 hour x 4.
Organize desk in campus office on Friday.
Good Enough Woman (carried over):
1. Clean out the medicine cabinet.
2. Clean out dresser drawers.
3. 2 20-minute creative writing brainstorming sessions.
4. Float like mist through daughter's movie night with her squad. (We are boarding the dog for the evening, which will help tremendously. We boarded him for the first time on Wed for my son's graduation, which meant my folks could come for dinner without us worrying about him knocking one of them over).
5. Eat some of the greens my friend brought from her garden.
heu mihi
1. Run x4 (once over 3 miles), yoga x2
2. Quick draft of last 2 lectures
3. Get through 2 journal articles and process them
4. 200 pages of work-related reading
5. "Finish" revising Death
6. Sit some amount, Latin some amount
7. Brew beer
humming42
1 Overdue poetry review
2 Road review
3 Submit revision for online course
4 Work on two other book reviews
Susan: (carried over)
1. Read last book for prize
2. 1 x 2 hours on Famous Author
3. 2 hours planning research
4. Finish packing
5. Write checks in advance
6. Church stuff
7. Write instructions for my sister etc.
8. Have fun with friends, sister
9. Eat, sleep, exercise
Session goals
Daisy
1) For research I have four papers in various stages, I would like to finish and submit at least three of them.
a) The Albatross - it has been far too long, but this one is the furthest from being finished so it is by far the scariest. It is also the most difficult of the lot, so will take serious effort.
b) Problematic local project - was submitted and pulled back last session, did more analysis, and the answer is exactly the same as before but with better documentation. The good part is that the paper is 90% written, so once the new analyses are complete it should be an easy win.
c) Fun new local project with new co-author - this one is a completely new one for me, and the co-author really needs it to be done so it will be a great chance to "do something nice to help an ECR" type submission. This one needs quite a bit of analytical work but will be the foundation of some future things so absolutely worth doing.
d) Cool very old thing - paper is written but has revisions to do and first author switched to a new job and will never have time for this. I am taking over the revise/resubmit job to get it going again.
2) For habits and health I want to:
a) keep exercising without injuries
b) add some consistent creative activities that will keep through the coming sabbatical year
3) Field Work - the best part of the year! If we're allowed... who knows when...
4) Vacation! As in take one and enjoy it!
Dame Eleanor Hull
*paint a couple of rooms, maybe even three;
*unpack a lot of boxes;
*revise Albatross & send out;
*achieve one polished chapter and the introduction for Book in Progress;
*work on other chapters as inspired;
*prep all four syllabuses that I'll need for next year;
*find new doctor;
*garden as needed/desired.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Mantra: Evaluate
Research: Finish a polished draft of Illuminated.
Begin the process of turning Prudence from a dissertation into a book.
Outline the last of the three translators to finish up Translators.
Contact Co-editor.
Health:
Make medical appointments, especially with those doctors with whom contact was lost during 2020.
Walk in the stacks 3 times daily as well as the early morning and evenings during the hot days.
Be more mindful about eating.
Meditate at least three times a day.
The way I interpret my mantra is "do not agree, without extremely careful thought, to do anything that will impact my research time."
By the end of the summer, I want to have a finished draft of Illuminated, and a rough draft of the early translators article. Finally, I have to reconnect with my co-editor, because we need to start pulling things together.
Good Enough Woman
Academic and Academic-Adjacent:
-Draft the Rambling essay
-Draft the Vampire paper
Creative work:
-Plan and begin DIY MFA
-Outline novel
-write 5,000 words of novel
-write at least one short story
Health:
-More veggies (2-3 servings per day)
-Exercise Daily (walking, stretching, dancing, swimming are all options)
-Try to fix feet (plantar fasciitis)
-Go to the dentist
House:
-Do 3-5 maintenance or decluttering tasks per week
-maintain sanity and marriage equilibrium during some home improvements (new flooring, etc.)
People:
-See my mom at least once per week
-soak up time with son before he goes to college
-keep training the dog and try not to let him drive me crazy (he's not a person, but he affects my relationship with people, so . . . )
-write a couple of letters/cards each week
heu mihi
1. Writing: Book review; Death article; plan for next big project; grant proposal; submit manuscript for edited collection. Ideally start on another piece of next big project.
2. Teaching: Prep lectures for two new books in fall course; read difficult stuff for spring graduate seminar.
3. Exercise: Stick with the exercise regime and run more than 3 miles at least 10 times.
4. Self-care: Eat two vegan meals per week; stretch most nights before bed; take periodic Forest Days.
5. Reading: as many books as I can.
humming42
Teaching
Clean up and add content to summer online class before mid-June
Finish edits and get approval for online class
Draft curriculum proposal for new academic minor
Research
Enjoy summer batch of book reviews: 4 for online journals, 2 for academic journals
Draft DQ book proposal
Create PowerPoint for virtual conference presentation
Creative
Write and submit gun violence piece
Submit to EK competition
Write enough of tiny project to send to manuscript editor before end of July
Organize existing drafts of poems and flash nonfiction
Create a submission plan
Domestic
Finish cleaning office
Build and fill bookcases
Clear all recycling from house and garage
Susan
1. I'm on a book prize committee for the major professional organization in my field, and I have about 80 books now sitting in my office which will have to be read over the summer. (And in answer to last week's questions, my guess is that I will in fact read seriously 10-20 books: in the first read, the only question is whether it's a serious contender, and that becomes clear pretty fast)
2. Get class prepared for fall. Still need to do book orders, and then get a syllabus done. (Classes start right after this session ends.)
3. Start working on the next (last big?) chapter of Famous Author, a book I'm envisioning as short but which is turning out to be much harder to write than I'd like. I finished chapter 2, the chapter which would not end, last week. I'm not going to set big goals, but I'd like to feel as if it's underway before the semester starts.
4. Draft part of the self-study for the program review of our graduate program. Why did I say I'd do that (I know - so that it didn't land on an assistant professor with a 2 y.o.) Most of the hard part will be done when school starts up again, but there's a lot that is formulaic and/or straightforward that I want to get done this summer.
5. Odds and ends: I have a book review to finish, and am - in addition to the book prize -- on an article prize committee (but it's only 8 articles, so not onerous)
6. Admin fragments for professional organization of which I am president, but that should be pretty manageable.
7. I have the fancy bike and its exercise programs, and I want to just keep working out so I stay healthy.
8. Read for fun
9. Get good sleep
Halfway through the year is what scares me the most! I'm enjoying summer. I feel like I'm getting things done and just relaxing. It helps not to be traveling. Usually I have 1-3 trips that break up the summer and leave me anxious about getting things done in the time I have at home. I miss travel, but the sense of space this year is very nice.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
Latin, Greek, Domestic, T-reading, Other Reading, all x4.
Latin x2, Greek x3, Tx3, ORx2. I'll take it.
Work on daily plans for fall class.
Yes (some).
File papers, move the rest of the books.
NO.
Find new doctor.
NO.
Exercise early, eat carefully, go to bed by 10.
YES (mostly), YES, EPIC FAIL.
OTHER:
*created and planted a flower bed in the front yard, in a spot where grass doesn't grow well. This was one of my goals for the summer (not listed specifically here at TLQ), so I'm pleased to get it done. We'll see what plants survive . . .
*Wrote 1600 words describing my book project (from scratch, as a way of getting back into it and thinking about it from where I am now, not from a document I wrote years ago for a fellowship I didn't get).
Observations: things went well for a couple of days, which was encouraging---it helps to start the week off well! Setting goals of doing tasks four times in the week is also good, as it allows for days that don't go well or go to something else entirely (ex. flower bed, which needed a cool day, so I used the one that turned up). Sleep & thus work both turned problematic later, but it is helpful to have evidence that chipping away regularly really does produce results. I mean, I know that, and yet I struggle with it: a couple of bad days can easily turn into a bad week or two, then guilt and "what's the use" negativity set in. I'm also struggling with the (perceived) gap between what I can do and what I (think I) need to do. It seems that I can write 400 words a day, four days a week, without much stress, so I think that's a good, realistic goal, which adds up to 6400 words a month (an article's worth) and 80,000 words over a 50-week year (most of a book). So fine . . . but I am also tangled in how long I've been working on this already (very much in fits and starts), and feel like I somehow ought to be producing more like 1000 words a day, which makes it hard to feel good about plodding steadily along. Good enough is good enough! (GEW, help me out here!)
Session goals:
*paint a couple of rooms, maybe even three---TWO so far, keep this goal;
*unpack a lot of boxes---at least TWO, plus some moving around of stuff, keep this one as well;
*revise Albatross & send out---YES!
*achieve one polished chapter and the introduction for Book in Progress, IN PROGRESS is the best I can say here;
*work on other chapters as inspired---I think the idea is that if I get stuck on one, I should work on another, so keep this too;
*prep all four syllabuses that I'll need for next year---I've set up TWO, still working on filling in, keep;
*find new doctor---keep, this is important, not urgent, and involves phone calls and faffing about so I keep stalling;
*garden as needed/desired---keep, since this is on-going, but so far I'm doing well with the veg and the new flower bed.
Ugh, sorry to keep writing novels here. I have a blog of my own, maybe I should use it, but it helps to have the sense of community here.
DeleteNew goals:
Latin, Greek, Domestic, T-reading, Other Reading, Write, all x4.
Work on daily plans for fall class.
File papers, move the rest of the books.
Find new doctor.
Exercise early, eat carefully, go to bed by 11.
Plan/take a day with visiting friend from college.
Long posts are most enjoyable! It's like a conversation in which is it a pleasure to hear from you (and all!). And I was dismayed that the post I put together for the week was super, super long.
DeleteI don't think I tossed up confetti and shouted my congratulations on Albatross last week, so, YAY!
Your thoughts on writing gave me serious food for thought about the goal setting --> missing a day or two --> giving up. I wish this were not such a struggle for me. How to keep myself from putting urgent things (or things I *think of* as urgent) instead of important things remains a challenge.
Thank you for both the reassurance and the congratulations! It's good to know that I'm not alone in the struggle to keep keeping on.
DeleteI love long posts and comments! It really is conversation so write away!
DeleteMissing days will happen, scheduling things 4X for most weeks really does help because it doesn't feel like a skipped day is such a block. Having space that's not assigned is important for renewal in summer and keeping going in the teaching terms...
Whoa… Halfway… That is a little terrifying! It feels like summer is just starting here so I’m going to close my eyes and pretend the whole thing is still ahead of me. Field work always makes time feel funny because it is so removed from regular routines, so when I feel like the whole summer has disappeared I can remind myself of that period!
ReplyDeleteI think I will keep all my summer goals, one of them (field work) is pretty much done, the vacation one will happen, and the others seem reasonable for now (exercise without injury, find something creative for sabbatical, and papers).
Last week’s goals
1) Finish up last bits of current field work, plan next batch DONE!
2) Make a real plan for July, including papers, field stuff, student stuff, and fun stuff DONE
3) Send out letters for association stuff – three different sets now! NOPE, URGENT NOW
4) Celebrate end of school year with kid DONE! SUSHI AND ICE CREAM
5) Mark the start of my sabbatical with something fun DONE! EXCELLENT OUTING WITH FRIEND AND WINE
It was a week with a holiday, and my second vaccine shot which kind of kicked me around for a day, so not a bad one for settling back into being home after field stuff. This week I really need to get working, July is going to be pretty short as it is!
This week’s goals
1) URGENT! Send out letters for association stuff – three different sets now!
2) Take photographs for local project, arrange analytical work, write up everything that is done already
3) Send field reports to student
4) Read through and list comments on review manuscript and start fixing them
5) Think about creative thing for sabbatical
I really want to regularly do something creative on my sabbatical. I’m thinking about some sort of 100-day project, not consecutively because that is a pain for travel, but 100 in total should be a kind of cool goal.
Informal poll, what would you do?
My options are: 1) focus on instrument I used to be fantastic at and see where 100 days of focussed practice gets me; 2) new instrument at which I’m pretty much a beginner but know enough to teach myself and have kid to correct the most egregious technical problems; 3) something non-musical like photography or drawing, both of which I’m useless at and know nothing about (might be hard without in-person instruction, I refuse to take an online class)…; or 4) something completely different?
I think my first choice would be #2 (something new but related to something I know, so likely to go well), and the second would be #1 (because it would probably have a really good payoff). If you could take an in-person class, maybe something very tactile/tangible like pottery?
DeleteI'd do 1 or 2. . . depends on where you'd like to go. If you'd like to be part of a group that plays, #1 would be more satisfying, I suspect; #2 might be more interesting just because it's new!
DeleteI would love to do something like pottery or a painting class, going to keep an eye out for our local ones restarting in the Fall. We have a lovely craft and design center that did classes in the before times...
DeleteI think I may flip a coin on whether to do 1 or 2 first, and if that goes well do the other as well? Decisions...
My first choice would also be #2. I once tried to do 100 days of mindmapping, which seemed easy, but my inner perfectionist self frustrated the whole process.
DeleteYour small celebrations are very happy markers for end of school and beginning sabbatical. I know we've had conversations here in the past about remembering to celebrate our wins (publications, presentations, promotions, just getting through the hard stuff) so a big yay for that. And you planned!
We need emojis for use here, I think.
So, I miss a week and we're half way through? I don't know if I can cope! So, how I did:
ReplyDelete1. Read last book for prize YES
2. 1 x 2 hours on Famous Author 1, I think
3. 2 hours planning research NO
4. Finish packing YES
5. Write checks in advance YES
6. Church stuff YES
7. Write instructions for my sister etc. YES
8. Have fun with friends, sister YES
9. Eat, sleep, exercise YES
So very successful with limited goals; but then went into probably the worst journey I've ever had. It started with my rented VRBO disappearing, but the company did nothing until the morning I left, when they told me to find something else. (There was probably 4 or 5 hours on the phone with customer non-support, not telling me that this was what would happen.) So mucho stress. I got to the airport without my passport, so drove across town VERY FAST, go it, and got on the plane. Then my flight to Chicago was delayed by mechanical issues, and I missed my flight to London and had to wait another day. In the meantime, I was able to book another place to stay, and extra tests to come to the right place. I'm now (today) out of quarantine so will begin to live a more normal life, not sneaking out to get food.
Goals for the week ahead:
- Use books in library
- Figure out plans for rest of trip
- Make progress on writing (not sure what that looks like, so this is vague)
- Get two more weeks of class planned.
- Do one more section of self-study
- Do fun stuff
- Get on regular sleep cycle (really wrecked by not being able to go out or get exercise)
Session Goals: I'm going to keep them -- I've done 5 and most of 6, and the rest are ongoing and will need to be done before the end of the session, so. . .
What a terribly stressful trip! I hope you like the place you're staying and that you'll be able to get some good work done and also have fun.
DeleteOff to a LIBRARY tomorrow. For the first time in over a year!!!!!
DeleteEnjoy the library!!! It will be wonderful to get to that after the nightmare trip! And definitely concentrate on some fun stuff too while you are away, it is so necessary!
DeleteMay all of the difficulties of your trip be behind you now! What a terrible series of events. I hope you have an incredible time at the library and then venture out for some delicious food...whatever that might be!
DeleteI must agree with Dame Eleanor, halfway through the year is more disturbing than halfway through the summer. Last year it seemed as though it took at least 10 months to get to halfway through the year. Ah well. Tempus fugit, as they say.
ReplyDeleteSo, for session goals:
I’m still liking the mantra, although I don’t always follow it. Well, I did sign up for the tenure and promotion review committee, but it was the first time I was eligible, and I felt a certain amount of civic duty. It is a boatload of work, but I have dropped other things, so…
Session goals: Mantra: Evaluate
Research: Finish a polished draft of Illuminated.
Begin the process of turning Prudence from a dissertation into a book. Will drop.
Outline the last of the three translators to finish up Translators.
Contact Co-editor.
As for Research, I’m dropping (for the moment) turning Prudence into a book. The paper that was accepted in May of 2020 has still not yet appeared, so I should concentrate on Illuminated so as not to appear I am resting on my laurels. That, with Translators and the double issue, should suffice.
Health:
Make medical appointments, especially with those doctors with whom contact was lost during 2020.
Walk in the stacks 3 times daily as well as the early morning and evenings during the hot days.
Be more mindful about eating.
Meditate at least three times a day.
I am keeping everything in Health. I am now in my office, so I have an air-conditioned space to walk in the middle of the day.
Last week's goals:
Request meeting with co-editor. No--I don’t know why I’m dragging my heels, but I need to stop delaying.
Follow two tracked citations to two articles on Prudence, making notes, and tracking citations further. Yes!!
Pull together everything needed for the return to campus. Digitize everything that I can; duplicate supplies and task lists. I realized I missed a few things, but for the most part, yes.
Organize home desk 1 hour x 4. More like 2.5, but I’ll keep at it.
Organize desk in campus office on Friday. Yes.
Off-list:
Continued proofreading the collection guide I’m writing.
Continued working on the t&p review coming up in the fall.
It wasn’t a bad week, but I am feeling somewhat depressed about the summer. I think I’m just not in the correct mental state to work on the double issue, so I have to confront that avoidance behavior. I also had big plans to get some things done around the house--painting and the like-- and can’t get traction among the other denizens to help out. I can do most of the walls, but not all the way up--ladders and I are no friends--so I do need buy-in. And finally, I was also not looking forward to coming back to campus, but so far, it seems that the anticipation was worse than actually doing it (although I’ve only been here a few hours so far).
On the bright side, I have been sleeping better, and have gotten over the hump of getting back into more exercise--the vintage body was not best pleased at first.
Next week’s goals:
Finish the search for t&p reviewers.
Put in ILL requests for the three articles we don’t own.
Finish clearing off the home desk.
Prepare for a return road trip to the Midwest.
Here’s to a productive second half of the summer, everyone! Float like mist.
"Vintage body"---LOL. What a great term! I'm glad to hear you're sleeping better. That makes such a difference to everything.
DeleteVintage body is brilliant! Think of it as a classic car that runs like a dream when treated well... Glad the exercise and sleep is working!
DeleteThe sense of evaluating is reflected in your post--consideration that leads to solid and strong decisions.
DeleteYou give me hope that returning to campus will not be as traumatic as I fear. It appears that some of the people I don't look forward to seeing will continue to teach mostly online, so that makes for an easier transition as well.
I too love "vintage body"! I couldn't help but look up how old a car needs to be in order to be considered an antique--a mere 45 years. I'd absolutely rather be vintage than antique. One only need be 20 to be "classic" so we can claim that too.
To borrow a term from EAM, I’m mostly working off-list this summer: things are going very well on the creative side but I am not tending to all of the other work I need to do. In my head, things are firmly divided into Want and Need. I must put the Need first but the Want is so enchanting...so I didn’t get any of my already-leftover things done. I will try once again.
ReplyDeleteThis week:
1 Overdue poetry review
2 Road review
3 Submit revision for online course
4 Work on two other book reviews
I’m late on some of my session goals but I will keep them all, still hoping I can make more time for tiny project and have a bigger piece of it together by the end of summer.
Hello! I'm late. Just got back from my in-laws' yesterday afternoon, and was exhausted. I think that this is going to be a low-productivity sort of week. Here are my three lists, though:
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Run x4 (once over 3 miles), yoga x2 - DONE
2. Quick draft of last 2 lectures - DONE
3. Get through 2 journal articles and process them - DONE
4. 200 pages of work-related reading - DONE
5. "Finish" revising Death - Waiting on response from final reader
6. Sit some amount, Latin some amount - x1, x3
7. Brew beer - DONE
Session:
1. Writing: Book review - DONE; Death article - CLOSE TO DONE; plan for next big project - COMING ALONG; grant proposal - IN PROGRESS; submit manuscript for edited collection - WILL WORK ON THIS IN AUGUST. Ideally start on another piece of next big project - MAYBE.
2. Teaching: Prep lectures for two new books in fall course; read difficult stuff for spring graduate seminar - ONE BOOK PREPPED; TWO DIFFICULT BOOKS READ
3. Exercise: Stick with the exercise regime (MOSTLY) and run more than 3 miles at least 10 times (I GUESS I'M ON TRACK, BECAUSE I'VE DONE 5 OF THESE).
4. Self-care: Eat two vegan meals per week - MIGHT BE AVERAGING TWO A WEEK?; stretch most nights before bed - SOME NIGHTS; take periodic Forest Days - THIS HAS BEEN MEDICINAL.
5. Reading: as many books as I can - GOAL INHERENTLY MET.
This week:
1. Yoga x2, run more than 3 miles once
2. Sit some amount, Latin some amount
3. Begin review of candidate's tenure docs
4. Journal catch-up
5. Read 100 pages for work
You have had an incredibly productive week and session so far! I hope you had a good visit with in-laws and get some time to recover.
ReplyDelete