Week 8: Mid-session check-in time!

Hello!

Seeing everyone collect bonus points last week for contacting some lovely supportive people was great! As the session moves on and things get even busier and scarier we really need those connections. So, more bonus points on offer this week for each friendly, non-urgent, just-for-pleasure thing you do this week, anything from contacting a friend you’ve not spoken to in a while or doing something just for you or doing something just to make someone you care about a little bit happier.

This week is a session goals review one, so we’re leaving our constructions crews to do their thing. Next week they will likely start asking about indoor aspects of cabin building so feel free to fantasize while checking your session goals!

Last week’s goals

Daisy

FINISH paper edits
Finish 2 draft abstracts for next conference
Finish student feedback for thesis chapters
Do grant accounting
Set up purchases for new grant
Something fun with friends

Dame Eleanor Hull

Keep core work hours.
Health: cardio daily, stretch x6, track bedtime.
Research: 30 min x6 (various projects), dead languages x3 each.
Teaching: write more assignments, keep building VILE sites, grade another whole bunch of stuff.
Life stuff: collect tax stuff, do something fun.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Read and annotate one articles.
Write at least three pages of the guide.
Outline the remaining article.

 heu mihi

1) Respond to editor about accepted article
2) State taxes and start visa application
3) Two Gen Ed reviews
4) Grad class: Notes on next week's reading, at least read the new stuff for the following week (so I can decide if I need to ditch it)
5) Research: Last pass on vignette 1; very short vignette on JNST
6) EMAIL/TEXT R

Humming42

1 work on tiny project competition submission (or decide whether to do so)
2 grade all the things due this week
3 work on March conference presentation
4 latest book review
5 monitor fiction reading to avoid dangerous levels of distraction

JaneB

1) call GP about anxiety etc., go to dentist.
2) do teaching prep for week 5
3) make time to read or do D&D prep 4 days
4) Do some literature searching for Why (I have a write in for my final year students so have a bit of time!)
5) nag people about the May Training Course
6) do latest batch of marking (drafts)

Karen

1. End week with all VILE discussions cleared and week 2 and 3 checked and ready
2. Finish postgrad exegesis and sorting examiners
3. 3 x KL writing focus/500 words
4. Keep things ticking over with household, go to bed by 11.

Susan

4 days on Famous Author
start reading ms for friend
Yard stuff (contact another contractor)
Keep up with exercise, healthy eating
Do something fun
Talk with friend

 

Session Goals Check-in

Below are all the session goals we picked a long 8 weeks ago… You can report on how these are looking right now, chuck the ones that no longer serve you, replace with better ones, or add anything that will be satisfying!

Daisy

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.

Analysis and paper on fun Local Project

Make progress on Small Book Project (delayed from old grant)

Get fancy new grant project started off well

Support students through thesis proposal and writing stages

Dame Eleanor Hull

Stay healthy, sleep a lot.
Grade efficiently.
Finish WH chapter, work on FC chapter, work on introduction, write prospectus.
Write conference paper for April.
Do fun stuff!

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Mantra style goals: Connection, gratitude, and self-care…

heu mihi

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.

Humming42

1 write Boredom chapter
2 write Food chapter
3 write Roma conference presentation
4 organize all the Tiny Project drafts
5 submit DQ proposal

JaneB

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

Karen

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 

Susan

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

Week 7: Connecting with supports

 

Hello everyone!

I loved reading about all the gardens and non-gardens! I like the plans to not add anything complicated and to not fight against nature…

Next week we will be reviewing our session goals because it will be week 8… These always sneak up on me unpleasantly so just a heads up that it is coming!

The thoughts on external supports were also really interesting. What does come out clearly is that no one thing or one person can deliver all the supports we need, we have all cobbled together eclectic networks of support from various quarters. And we all want/need to do a better job of staying in touch with those support networks, so maybe that is this week’s prompt…

You can invite someone from your extended support network to view your cabin in progress and possibly give advice and encouragement and maybe even to help you shop for indoor plants or patio furniture... Who would you invite? Who do you need right now? What will you do together? What would your guest bring to the visit, metaphorically and physically?

(Bonus points for the week if you follow up this imaginary invitation with a real life catch-up with the visitor!)

Have a lovely week!

Last week’s goals

Daisy

FINISH paper edits
Write 2 draft abstracts for next conference
Something fun with kid
Something fun with friends

Dame Eleanor Hull

Keep core work hours.
Health: cardio daily, stretch x6, track bedtime.
Research: 30 min x6 (various projects), dead languages x3 each.
Teaching: write more assignments, keep building VILE sites, grade another whole bunch of stuff.
Life stuff: mail a present, do something fun.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Read three articles.
Write at least two pages of the guide.
Outline at least two articles.
File at least one banker’s box.
Scan at least one banker’s box.

heu mihi

1) Process journal article
2) Edit other journal article
3) Finish vignette--really--do work on it this week!
4) Prep next week's readings and read for the following week (this working-ahead thing in my grad seminar is really helping me so far, but it's a little hard to keep track of)
5) Effort with exercise, despite the weather
6) Contact R to arrange a get-together sometime.

Humming42 (carried over)

1 write content for symposium submission site
2 grade all the things due this week
3 work on March conference presentation
4 spend five hours on DQ

JaneB

1) call GP about anxiety etc., go to middle-aged-female check appointment (ugh)
2) do teaching prep for week 4
3) make time to read or do D&D prep 4 days
4) Do some literature searching for Why
5) nag people about the May Training Course
6) try to get ahead with the reading for the brand new unit I'm teaching in week 5

Karen

1. Finish all feedback on postgrad exegesis
2. Add 500 words to KL, check in with co-authors
3. (Pending admin decision) figure out tool for online delivery of next week's class, exemplar for interactive done
4. (Pending admin decision) Get all risk assessment and field trip paperwork done
5. Do 3 x couch to 5K, 2 x yoga
6. Bottle tomato and plum sauce

Susan

4 days on Famous Author
Finish interviews & Reports
Pull some weeds
Keep up with exercise
Do something fun

Week 6: External supports

Hello everyone!

Our construction crews are happily working away, and there seems to be a very minimal number of disruptions, except for when the tea ran out and there had to be an emergency shopping trip because nothing works without tea… This week the exteriors and major construction should be finished, so our crews want to know what they can do to set up the yard areas of the cabins while they still have the big diggers out…

What are you doing for gardening at your cabin/condo? This will be different for the “escape” vs. “living” cabins I think… What natural fauna do you have to work where you built your cabin? How will the outside help to support your vision for the whole thing?

IRL: What are the most helpful external supports that you have for your work? These can be completely outside of work, or of course those from managers/bosses/colleagues etc.  How can we leverage our external support systems to help us get things done while also providing support for others?

Happy writing!

 Last week’s goals

Daisy

Run/attend/chair/troubleshoot conference

Paper edits if possible

Student work for conference

Grad class

Check on data for local project

Something fun with kid

Dame Eleanor Hull

Keep core work hours.
Health: cardio daily, stretch x6, track bedtime.
Research: 30 min on book x5, dead languages x3 each.
Teaching: write more assignments, keep building VILE sites, plan class activities, grade a whole bunch of stuff.
Life stuff: tidy 2 shelves in my study, alter skirt waistband, some bank stuff, something fun.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell (carried over)

Plan for one hour x 5.
Write for one hour x 5.
Read for one hour x 5.
Life stuff: verification of COVID passport, call retirement folks at work

heu mihi

1) Two SHORT parts of Augustine vignette
2) Read thesis (again) and prep for Friday defense
3) Keep up with class stuff: prep Derrida, read for the following week, select readings for undergrad class
4) Make an effort with exercise

Humming42

1 write content for symposium submission site
2 grade all the things due this week
3 work on March conference presentation
4 spend five hours on DQ

JaneB

1) call GP about anxiety etc.
2) do teaching prep for week 3
3) make time to read or do D&D prep 4 days
4) block out Why in the Write-In I'm leading for final year project students this week (multi-tasking!) and give the seminar
5) progress with planning the May Training Course (because we have to plan and advertise etc.) - which now means nagging other people to read the stuff I wrote... sigh...

Karen

1. Use stress cycle completion to recover from department planning day
2. Finish ch 1 and intro of postgrad thesis and confirm meeting time
3. (Pending admin decisions), have syllabus up in VLE and exemplar of first interactive live.
4. Get through return to school for kids
5. Share revised abstracted and writing draft with face to face group.

Susan

4 days famous author
Meetings for church
Interview students applying for my ug university
More garden work
Throw out more stuff
Something fun
Exercise & health

Week 5: Back on the horse

 Hello everyone!

Our construction crews are back, and building has started! (This is my fantasy cabin, so my fantasy delay is only a week… We get enough realism, I’m going for escape here!)

However, as with things that were delayed it seems like the crews are having a bit of a slow start, there have been lots of little accidents and some confusion and aimless hammering… So in addition to making them lots of tea and biscuits to get them over the hump I’ve been thinking about strategies for getting going after an interruption. How do we get back into the swing of a project that had a delay? How do we pace our come-back when we’ve been off so we don’t flame out in the first week back? How do we tackle things that have been lurking in the back corners of our minds for too long?

The paint crew isn’t due for a few weeks, but they did send an urgent message that they are pre-ordering paint this week, so they need to know about colours. What are you doing for colour in your cabin, inside and out, to make it feel like yours?

Happy living/playing/writing/teaching to everyone for the week!

Last week’s goals

Daisy

Finish paper edits and get back to co-authors
Help students with posters
Organize and troubleshoot online poster session
Finish organizing/emailing/reading for two awards committees
Get booster shot, yay!

 Dame Eleanor Hull

Keep core work hours.
Health: cardio daily, stretch x6, track bedtime.
Research: 30 min on book x5, dead languages x3 each.
Teaching: write more assignments, keep building VILE sites, plan class activities, grade a whole bunch of stuff.
Life stuff: tidy 2 shelves in my study, alter skirt waistband, some bank stuff, something fun.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Plan for one hour x 5.
Write for one hour x 5.
Read for one hour x 5.
Life stuff: verification of COVID passport, call retirement folks at work.

heu mihi

1) Read Derrida.
2) Stay on top of personnel stuff: send out mid-tenure letter, review first lecturer promotion, take care of late faculty report.
3) Work on Augustine vignette (finish current section and start another one).
4) Sabbatical work: Contact possible apartments and figure out--definitively--what I need for visas.
5) Edit journal article.

Humming42

1 submit two conference abstracts (grateful for online international conferences with no registration fees!)
2 write content for symposium submission site
3 start outlining March conference presentation (I have three open tabs and realize I’m spending a lot of time thinking and reading but haven’t really taken stock of it)
4 spend five hours on DQ, since the acquisitions editor is waiting on the proposal!

JaneB

 1) finish and submit all grades (final year stuff, all the last minute submissions, moderating other peoples grades)
2) call GP about anxiety etc.
3) do teaching prep for week 2
4) make time to read or do D&D prep 4 days
5) block out Why in the Write-In I'm leading for final year project students this week (multi-tasking!)
6) transfer and triage monthly list (as its a new month)
7) start planning May Training Course (because we have to plan and advertise etc.)

Karen

1. Return comments on postgrad thesis revision
2. Vanquish VILE with last bits of missing content
3. Revise KL abstract, notes on three articles
4. Read book on research journals
5. Sow the last repeat of root vege, chop and drop the fence bed

Susan

Four days famous author
Get in touch with one more person re church stuff
Finish colleague book ms #1, print out #2 to start reading
Read 2 journals
THrow out more stuff
Work in yard
Eat well, keep exercising
Do something fun