Happy New year to everyone!
We have a brand new TLQ session starting this week! A clean slate for anything you want to do!
The world outside my window has a fresh coat of snow (and ice!) and it finally looks like real winter. I'm particularly enjoying the holiday lights that are still up on most of the neighbourhood houses, people tend to leave them for most of January because it is cold and dark and we need the sparkly lights! Quite possibly also because they are frozen solid and the excavation is too much trouble, but I prefer to think of it as a community-spirited decision to add sparkle to what is objectively a pretty dark month!
Shameless borrowing of text below from those who have been good enough to host here previously...
The format will be the same as ever. We will start setting goals for the session this week. Goals can be in any aspect of life although the key focus is often writing tasks that are personally and professionally important but that never quite tip over into important AND urgent. Urgent things sometimes find their way in here too, that is completely ok too, and process goals are also most welcome. Each week there will be a discussion topic or prompt to write about if you feel so inclined. We’ll remind everyone of their big session goals about midway through the session (first weekend of March), I for one always find those quite a surprise when they pop up… We’ll go for 16 weeks, with our last day on the weekend of May 1st which of course feels very far away!
Anyone new or old is welcome to join. I would love for people to consider inviting a friend or acquaintance or colleague to join in, we would be thrilled to welcome new guests and expand our circle.
And finally, don't worry if you miss a few check-ins. Life happens. This is a supportive, generous space with no intimidation factor so enjoy it!
So for this week:
2. Think and speculate and dream (out loud if you want!) about goals for this session, and post those (or if you want to do them next week put in a note so I remember to go and find them later!).
3. Post goals for this coming week, ideally they will kick-start the process of working towards the session goals.
4. Or just come say hello and tell us how you’ve been over the break and then come back next week for session goals and discussion.
Our dates are listed below because I usually forget the schedule a quarter of the way in, this will keep it handy for reference.
Jan 8/9 (official start)
March 5/6 (week 8, mid-term post)
Welcome back everyone! Have a lovely week!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI’m a physical science prof at a small undergraduate university. I’m currently in the second half of my first sabbatical and enjoying it greatly, and considering it appropriate reward for teaching last year which damn near ended me. This might be the healthiest and most relaxed I’ve been since halfway through my PhD… I really want to solidify the habits and approach that has gotten me to this state to be able to take it into my return to teaching. I have one pretty self-sufficient child and a partner who is working from home instead of commuting 4 time-zones away so that has reduced background stress levels considerably!
Session goals
1) Stretch goal: Finish my Albatross paper! This has been an ongoing goal for ages but the paper keeps changing and is constantly being shoved aside for more urgent things.
2) Analysis and paper on fun Local Project
3) Make progress on Small Book Project (delayed from old grant)
4) Get fancy new grant project started off well
5) Support students through thesis proposal and writing stages
6) Many conference abstracts for conference I’m organizing for association of which I’m in charge…
This week’s goals
1) Get and organize data for Local Project
2) Accounting paperwork for all of last term’s bills
3) Set up student money transfers
4) Inventory of all project accounts
5) Student feedback and problem-solving
And I should add that I am extremely aware of and insanely grateful for my luck in having a sabbatical this year, and more luck with all other logistics and having been in a relatively safe pandemic place for most of the way... I appreciate it every day and am focusing on using that luck for good things!
DeleteHooray for a break from stress! Enjoy!
DeleteI'm so glad that you're able to have (and are having) a sabbatical!
DeleteI'm Jane, I'm an academic at a regional university in the UK, mid-career and overloaded with teaching and admin at the moment. I'm not having a good pandemic, despite not having children to worry about.
ReplyDeleteIt's grey and rainy and cold and damp here, and I am enjoying the huge Christmas tree in the front window of the house across the street - I hope it stays up for a while, but I think they may just keep the Eastern Orthodox calendar so it might be due to come down on the 19th (or earlier if they don't do the decorations-stay-up-until-12th-night thing, I know plenty of western Christmas date users who take them down on Boxing Day or New Years Eve rather than waiting until the 5th of Jan.
Goals for this session are broadly survival-with-kindness - I have three weeks of "assessment period" from last Trimester without new classes, then 10 weeks of teaching, two weeks of Easter break, and we'll be still teaching as we wrap up this session. So very little research time, but I need to be ready to be productive on a teaching-related funded project in the summer. I'll call that the Teaching Toolkit for mild pseudonymity. I have some book contributions to write grumpily for one project (which should be NOT MY PROBLEM, but somehow has become my problem) and a paper to finish collecting data on and write which is also suddenly my problem to lead, rather than contribute to (we'll call it Why). And a research-related course to set up & run for a learned society in late May. Other research stuff may happen but it'll be due to other people needing stuff from me, not led or driven by me.
So session goals:
1) Survival-with-kindness in teaching
2) self-care - the big thing to deal with here is putting time for things I enjoy ahead of spending time on not-100%-essential-things for work (reusing some of last years recordings, not always fixing the auto-captions...)
3) be ready for Teaching Toolkit and Society Course by the end of this block
4) work steadily on Why and Annoying Chapter, & resist the urge to feel too responsible for any delays
Weekly goals:
1) set up VLE site for one more module
2) run support session for honours assignment
3) write references for final year students (sigh)
4) make time to read or do D&D prep 4 days
5) block out Why
6) go to meeting about Annoying Chapter
My backyard neighbors have put lights on the trampoline, this year, and I love them---they change from pink to purple to blue to green and back, and they look so pretty and not specially Christmassy, so I hope they'll stay till the nights are shorter. Maybe your neighbours will hang onto their tree for awhile for a similar boost.
DeleteHow about making a list of things you enjoy and a parallel list of non-essential work things, and you feel the urge to do a non-essential work thing especially after hours or when you've already done a ton of work, pick something random out of the fun self-care list? I sometimes put small annoying tasks on post-its and put them in a jar and when I'm spinning my wheels doing nothing I pick one at random and do whatever it says. That can definitely be adjusted for a swap of non-essential with fun items. It takes the indecision and thinking out of it and instead of debating with myself what to do I have the jar tell me!
DeleteTeaching Toolkit and Society Course sound like the sort of things that will be valuable to a lot of people, and satisfying to do!
Hello everyone,
ReplyDeleteIn case anyone is new: I'm a mid-career literature professor (a medievalist) at a research university in the Northeastern US; I have a nine-year-old (Bonaventure) and a husband (The Minister, or TM, although he's currently between churches, as it were). I'm scheduled to be on sabbatical next year, with a planned stay in France from August-December, so one of my current projects is getting organized for that trip.
Session goals:
1) Things that will happen, because they must:
a) Invited essay due in February
b) Kalamazoo paper due in early May
c) Stay on top of new graduate seminar
2) Research and write a series of vignettes (this is easier and less stressful to conceptualize than a chapter!) on relevant medieval theologians/philosophers. Make steady progress; work on this weekly.
3) Establish a good early-morning routine, with full awareness that this will change once it gets light enough to run in the mornings, and/or that it may not be identical every morning of the week. Build in flexibility, in other words.
4) Stretch and write in my journal at least every other night.
5) Keep the step-counter in perspective. It serves me; I do not serve it.
6) Sabbatical prep: Rent an apartment in France; rent out our house (I don't actually have control over this, but I'll do my best!); apply for visas; enroll Bonaventure in school or, if that's not possible, create a concrete plan for doing so.
There might be others; that's it for now.
This week:
1) 1 hour x 5 on February paper (at least)
2) Finish graduate seminar syllabus
3) Organize undergrad course website
4) Finish reading G of T book
OK, that book has to be the "gin and tonic" book.
DeleteAwareness that morning routines have to be seasonal, depending on light and heat, has been key for me, especially in the last couple of years, when exercise mainly happens outdoors rather than in the perpetually-lit gym. (I used to belong to a gym that was open 24 hours. I don't think I ever went in the middle of the night, but I did like knowing I had the option if sleep was impossible! How strange that seems now.)
I like the "vignette" idea---must think if that's something I can adapt to working on mine.
I thought the same thing! Making me want a G&T.... Sadly, no, it's a lengthy study of Gregory of Tours.
DeleteAn awareness of the seasonality of routines is a such a good practice, and a great reminder for others (well, me at least).
DeleteThe step counter! The fascination of gaming the stats means that there's been times when I've forced the kids to walk to/from activities just to get my steps up - which I can kind of justify as healthy for all of us, but do need to try not to get too caught up in.
I think Gregory would be fine with a good G&T and would not at all be offended at his book having that for a pseudonym!
DeleteSabbatical planning is pretty exciting! It is great that you will have the chance to travel a bit for that.
First, a huge THANK YOU to Daisy for volunteering to run this session! I always enjoy your enthusiasm and energy.
ReplyDeleteI'm a late-career medievalist, hence my nom de blogue, still working on my first book (I got tenure long ago on articles, which is or was more common for medievalists than for many other areas in "book fields"). Finishing it and getting a contract for it (not necessarily in that order) is my main goal lately, though I also have a conference paper on a different topic to finish, plus the usual teaching and other distractions. I live with Sir John and two cats in a 1970s split-level with a huge yard, which has been a boon in these keep-your-distance times, and which we like much better than the too-big, too-old, too-much house we sold coming up on two years ago.
Most urgently, this week, I have to work out syllabuses for my spring classes, write/revise assignments, and put a lot of stuff up on the VILE site (as I always mis-read JaneB's VLE abbreviation, I'm just going with it!). Most importantly, I'm also hammering away at the chapter that split off from another one and then grew tentacles (why does everything I ever work on grow tentacles? My whole career seems like a never-ending series of fights with giant squids). I'm mentally lumping everything else into an "other" category for now, though that means that cooking-reading-haircut-where did that library book get to-dentist visit-etc etc keep popping into my head and I keep telling them to go away while I do this other important thing.
My university has decided that our first week will be online, and I am very grumpy about this, even though that only means one day (for me) if it really *is* just the first week. But I fear it will get extended in some piecemeal fashion . . . since they've been reasonably good about making decisions and sticking to them, I probably shouldn't be so anxious about this, but I guess nearly two years of pandemic is getting to me. I taught in person in the fall and loved it, and I so want to be back in the classroom rather than spending more time onscreen at home.
I'm right with you on the not-wanting-to-be-online front.... Here's hoping!
DeleteWe're now "remote" for the first two weeks of class. Sigh. I want to see my students.
DeleteThe uncertainty is really getting to everyone, here too... We're all constantly checking for announcements about what is changing or getting delayed or moved.
DeleteGood luck with the first online week, I hope it is the only one you have to deal with!
Hi all, and thanks Daisy for hosting.
ReplyDeleteI'm karen, I working in a satellite campus/current building site of a regional university in the southern hemisphere, in the creative arts. I have two school-aged kids, chickens and a permaculture-influenced garden, and partner working full time.
This year will be yet another year of interesting. I expect, as we work through the implications of major national policy shifts on covid, and at a local level, no sign of the incessant change and uncertainty that has characterised my university (though I suspect that is all universities at the moment). Last year I had extended leave over winter which we used for a family road trip, and I'm taking the last bits of that leave now to give me January off work - and keep the kids out of childcare which has already shut down for a week due to plague. Like Daisy, the chance to reset away from the daily pressures of teaching has meant that I've started rebuilding some healthy habits and resilience after being pretty burnt out. So I do want to try to maintain some of the habits and boundaries that I've developed.
Goals for this session:
1. Submit co-authored KL article
2. Have VILE (also love and am adopting that misread acronym) ready for sem 2 unit
3. Have all marking for sem 1 turned around in two weeks
4. Have winter garden planted and cared for
5. Finish one making project per month
This week I'm officially on leave but am going to be checking in on a couple of time sensitive things.
1. Have lounge and library cleared/furniture rearranged for incoming piano and visitors to stay.
2. send back comments on postgrad thesis
3. Put in sem 1 reading list to library
4. started winter vege seeds round 1
5. order chilli seeds
Hope the last week of leave is calm and pleasant to set up for a good start back!
DeleteWhat kind of chilli did you pick? Love those, some are so decorative too!
Did I completely disappear at the end of the last session? I did...but I'm back.
ReplyDeleteI'm Susan, a senior humanities scholar at a newish university with aspirations to be more than it is, but without a budget to do that. I'm a widow, and live in a small city in California with two cats who like to wake me up early in the morning. My now 91 year old mother lives nearby in assisted living, and is gradually losing mobility. (I'm in the process of getting her a wheelchair.) So I'm deeply aware of her mortality. I'm currently recovering from a visit that included a few days with both my siblings, my SIL and 8 y.o. nibblings. We all get on, but it turns out that the needs of 8 year olds and those of 91 year olds are different (not to mention the 3 60 somethings of definite opinions with control issues). So I'm slowly digging out. Fortunately our classes don't start till next week, and we'll be remote for the first 2 weeks (at least that's the current story).
I'm currently writing a book I call famous author, and am almost done with a draft. I've got a long term project I'll call Persistence, which I think of as my "rest of my life" project. Right now I see a bunch of articles coming out of that rather than a book, but time will tell.
Goals for this session:
1. Finish first draft of famous author, begin revisions
2. Start drafting essay for June conference related to Persistence
3. Keep up with teaching, don't get overwhelmed.
4. Do stuff for professional organization
5. Do garden stuff so I can plant new tree
6. Spend time with my mother
7. Spend time with friends
8. Read for fun
Oh, and goals for the week:
Delete1. Work daily on THE LAST CHAPTER!!!
2. Start reading ms. from colleague
3. Get one week ahead on course website
4. Contact garden person
5. Do some business stuff for my church
6. Get my mother's wheelchair ordered
7. Keep getting exercise
8. Do something fun with friends (probably online, given our friend Omicron)
Thank you, Daisy!
Pretty exciting to have a LAST CHAPTER on a list anywhere, that feels like a big step!
DeleteGood luck with all the organizing things!
Woohoo LAST CHAPTER!
DeleteA quick introduction: I’m Elizabeth, a late-career rare books librarian at a R1 in upstate New York. I live with my philosopher husband and have recently rescued a puppy, who is doing a masterful job of finding everything that shouldn’t be available for a puppy to have. My current research interests revolve around 16th-century translators of classical works, as well as 16th- century views on educating women.
ReplyDeleteThinking generally about goals, I have several guides to write for work, which have varying degrees of research involved. I would like to resurrect my other research, even if only touching it every day.
Considering it is Saturday evening, at least in New York, there’s little point making goals until I check in a few days from now.
Thank you, Daisy, for hosting this session, and for putting the calendar in the first post—that is very handy!
It’s lovely to catch up with everyone.
Float like mist!