First thought: Oh right! I was supposed to do something today!
Second thought: Week twelve????
So, um...how is everybody? Clearly I haven't prepared anything for this week. Let's hope it's not a harbinger of semesters to come. Judging from the number of people whose goals have been held over, though, I'm not the only one losing track of a thing or two!
Daisy (held over):
1) Get vacation organized
2) URGENT Finish last bits of photography, now possible thanks to tech fix
3) Keep reading about new area
4) Add content to paper section outlines
5) Fun lunch with friend
Dame Eleanor Hull: taking a week off from goals
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell (held over):
Start converting photocopies of articles to digital copies. 1 hour x 4.
Look for 3 new articles, then trace back through the footnotes for relevant articles.
Check citation indices--not as impressive as in the STEM fields, but often revelatory.
heu mihi:
1. Work through draft intro to edited collection; maybe check in with co-author
2. Read graduate student's chapter
3. Draft one lecture for fall course
4. Re-review an article
5. Exercise as possible and appropriate*; attend a gentle yoga class (virtually)
6. Do some other research/writing-related activity; perhaps try to get organized about what research/writing-related activities I ought to be doing???
humming42:
1 overdue academic book review
2 other (now) overdue academic book review
3 draft two modules for collectively authored online course
4 two creative submissions
Karen:
-build one week buffer of online content for new class
-finish postgrad feedback
-finish one pager, and take notes on two articles
-hit at least one day of 10 000 steps for team walking challenge, 2 x live or streamed yoga class
-force child to sit still enough to check sleeve length for knitting, and finish one sleeve
Susan (held over):
1. Get to at least 2500 words on this chapter (which is no longer chapter 3 but I don't know what it is)
2. Outline next two sections of self-study, and figure out what we need, maybe talk to colleague to figure out focus
3. Watch training session to prepare for grievance hearing when I get home. (It started at 11 PM my time, so I didn't go in person)
3. Go on vacation!!!
Also: Hello JaneB!! So very nice to see you last week. I'm just catching up now, so I figured I'd say it here rather than in the comments.
Hello everyone! My goals for the next week are all domestic, as I am on annual leave and my house is beyond messy. I also intend naps and D&D!
ReplyDeleteAll very worthy goals!
DeleteI hope that you get a great deal of relaxation!
DeleteThat sounds wise! Good to see you!
DeleteMy theory is that August is the tipping point from which the rest of the year just accelerates away.
ReplyDeleteI'm doing okay, I think, apart from the germ gifts of having children back at school. Still, the youngest was excited enough about being 'big kid sick' (ie, lie on the couch, watch the Olympics and don't bother me) that work didn't suffer too much. I'm experimenting with realistically estimating time for tasks and not overpromising, and making gradual improvements in that which are helping with mental health and work-life balance. Hope you are all doing well.
Last week:
-build one week buffer of online content for new class - yes, in the sense of having minimum requirements up online by the correct time.
-finish postgrad feedback- yes for one student, no for the other.
-finish one pager, and take notes on two articles - yes for one pager, found a good source, but no notes yet.
-hit at least one day of 10 000 steps for team walking challenge, 2 x live or streamed yoga class - yes
-force child to sit still enough to check sleeve length for knitting, and finish one sleeve - yes to capturing child - which resulted in reassigning the jumper to the smaller child, and started binding off the sleeve.
This week:
- get up all AT2 materials online and maintain one week buffer.
- clear all postgrad feedback
- SoTL notes on 3 articles/chapters and 1 pomodoro writing response
- walk 10 000 steps at least one day a week, 2 x yoga classes and 3 x online exercise program thingy
- transplant aquilegias etc into flower bed, prune berry/currant bushes
- cast on second sleeve of jumper, mend jeans and dishcloth
"[R]ealistically estimating time for tasks and not overpromising"...I wonder what that's like? Do report!
DeleteI'm having similar thoughts about trying to limit work time so I can do more Life Stuff rather than always robbing Peter to pay Paula. Realistic time estimates are very difficult for me, so I generally make a generous one and then double it.
DeleteLast week went pretty well, considering the post-procedure weariness/discomfort and a couple of rough days resulting from rough nights resulting from antibiotic-related stomach aches.
ReplyDelete1. Work through draft intro to edited collection; maybe check in with co-author - Yes, not yet (she's on vacation)
2. Read graduate student's chapter - Yes
3. Draft one lecture for fall course - Yes
4. Re-review an article - Yes
5. Exercise as possible and appropriate*; attend a gentle yoga class (virtually) - Yes (two swims, two runs, one yoga class)
6. Do some other research/writing-related activity; perhaps try to get organized about what research/writing-related activities I ought to be doing??? - Yes; I think I sort of know what I'm doing right now
This week:
1. Finish anniversary book (an annual project, due August 15)
2. Draft another lecture for Fall class
3. Car upkeep
4. Yard upkeep
5. Read/write for 5 hours, minimum
6. Exercise as appropriate
You are so very awesome! I hope this week is going well.
DeleteI didn't disappear, but I did go on vacation, and then I traveled home, a journey that was 24 hours door to door. I'm now mostly recovered from the combination of jet lag and exhaustion, and back to work. Classes start in two weeks, so any illusion about summer is soon to end.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
1. Get to at least 2500 words on this chapter (which is no longer chapter 3 but I don't know what it is) YES
2. Outline next two sections of self-study, and figure out what we need, maybe talk to colleague to figure out focus YES
3. Watch training session to prepare for grievance hearing when I get home. (It started at 11 PM my time, so I didn't go in person) YES (and then, to my relief, the hearing didn't take place, because I would have really struggled to focus for 8 hours with jet lag!)
3. Go on vacation!!! YES!
I'm really pleased with where I got on my writing while in London: it made such a difference to be working in a library. And I also managed to do most of the admin tasks I needed to do. When I got home, the cancellation of the grievance hearing (or suspension, technically) was a great gift, because I was going to have one day at home and then 3 days of 9-5 on zoom. I would have been so tired! Re-entry is mostly done, and the minor crisis of the hot water heater not working is resolved(it turned out to be a bad electrical plug, so nothing serious, but until my contractor suggested an extension cord, I had no hot water for 24+ hours).
Vacation was lovely, in a new area for me, but I also saw a family member who has ALS that is advancing, so I'm really pleased that worked out.
I'm trying now to set up patterns that I can follow through the semester to keep work from taking over.
Goals for next week:
1. Finish syllabi for fall classes
2. Two writing sessions of 2 hours on book
3. Make progress on self-study and survey
4. See friends
5. Resume exercise/healthy eating
6. Get regular sleep (big challenge is that the cats seem to think my wake up time is 4:30 AM. Somehow that's worse than 5.)
L o o n g travel days are so hard. My trip back from the west coast was 13 hours door to door, thanks to a delayed flight, and then I couldn't get to sleep till 4:00 a.m., so I'm now trying to re-set after being too worn out yesterday to do anything whatever. Today I'm more rested but still extremely cranky about the end of summer. :-( I need to hunt up my motivation. It's probably in a box in the garage.
DeleteI don't know what I did last week, but it didn't include the capacity to cross off anything on my list. Ah, now I remember the three day migraine that knocked me out. One day I slept through most of the day. It's been a while since I had a headache like that.
ReplyDeleteI know I made some progress on some things and finished grading summer classes today. So there is that. My goals remain the same.
This week:
1 overdue academic book review
2 other (now) overdue academic book review
3 draft two modules for collectively authored online course
4 two creative submissions
Ugh, three days! Horrible. At least you were able to sleep through some of it.
DeleteHello! Thursday late afternoon, well, that means there are still three days this week on which I might do something.
ReplyDeleteThe trip went well. Before I left, I harvested, cooked, and froze a lot of Swiss chard, and did a bunch of filing that I had been avoiding for months. I also strewed some lettuce and spinach seeds in the veg patch, so we'll see what comes of that. The chard stubs are producing more leaves; I seem to be the Czarina of Chard.
On the plane out, I did a teeny bit of work on a project I also haven't looked at in months, b/c it was the only thing I felt like working on. Apart from that and one morning of work-related meeting plus e-mailing, the whole trip including travel days was vacation. I thought I might work if my dad napped while I was visiting him, but he didn't so I didn't. I walked on the beach every day (sometimes twice), slept marvelously well, and enjoyed myself greatly. The friend known on my blog as Queen Joan came for an overnight visit, and it was great to see her. It may be the first time I've ever visited family and not wanted to come back! It's nice to see Sir John and the cats, but midwestern weather is horrible right now and I miss the sparkling blue salt water.
I've unpacked and done some laundry, cooked a bit, fulfilled a social engagement, and unpacked one box of Sir John's books (can't get at more of mine till we deal with his). That's about it. Syllaboi and class plans are now urgent, and I feel thoroughly sulky about that. If I have to work, I'd rather work on my book. My plan, such as it is, is to make a super-detailed list, breaking down the syllabus etc into little pieces so I can do useful things in short bursts and thus get over the activation-energy problem. Once I get going, it'll probably be fine, but the trick is precisely the getting going. So I haven't made that list yet! Probably persuading myself to just work for five minutes would have the same effect.
I have found that your idea of breaking things down into tiny pieces has worked well for me in the past. It also harkens to heu mihi's suggestion of writing everything down. I found it helped to strike something off the list, and often I was surprisingly interested in doing another step when I finished the first one.
DeleteWalking on the beach is the absolute dream R&R for me. I'm so glad your trip had loveliness, and that you will find you way into the pre-semester tedium without too much difficulty.
DeleteMuch as it may seem I have absconded from the group, I have been lurking the last few weeks. My life has gotten a bit more complicated in those few weeks, both on a work and life axis. Until the state announces a new telecommuting plan, all of us have to be on campus, just in time to see our campus have a spike in cases--the positive cases jumped from 3 in the mid-May to end of July period, to 9 last week. I am masked, and have ramped up my native introvert to defcon 1. On the life axis, I have come out of my enforced isolation chamber to begin seeing doctors again, so I have five appointments in August; I’ve had the skin biopsy on my nose (benign, thank goodness) and have foot surgery in about a week, among other fun visits, such as kidney stones, and the bariatric doctor. I often think it would be worthwhile to see if the 1930’s horror flick about transferring an older woman’s brain into a healthy young woman might work!
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, I am enjoying being back among the books. Going in on almost clandestine visits to take photos of the title pages just isn’t the same. I also have some colleagues whom I have only seen on Brady-Bunch style screens over the last year, so that is also nice.
Last two weeks goals:
Start converting photocopies of articles to digital copies. 1 hour x 4. Yes..
Look for new articles, then trace back through the footnotes for relevant articles. Yes..
Check citation indices--not as impressive as in the STEM fields, but often revelatory. No.
Off-list things:
Lots of calling for the transfer of medical records, lots of medical tests, and several drives downstate to get to the northernmost terminus of the Metro rail system, and the subsequent long train rides. Too bad they don’t offer reward miles like the airlines!
Ruthless culling of archival files of medical records, and photocopies of articles that I quoted in some article ten years ago; subsequent scanning and organizing of the remaining papers.
Outlining a marketing plan for the rare books collection for dog-and-pony shows for the teaching faculty.
Analysis:
Just continued to be a tough couple of weeks. I’m overwhelmed, and trying out the hints from everyone on handling overwhelm.
Next week’s goals:
Not setting any goals.
I apologize for being so late with reporting. Have a good weekend everyone. Float like mist!