Welcome back! I hope you had a productive and restorative week. We're already at our session mid-point, so this week you'll find your session goals as well as your goals for the past week. In keeping with last week's prompt about leaving things behind, maybe there's a session goal you want to dump. Or maybe you can report that you've already achieved one! I hope I haven't left anyone out. We're a small group this time around. Thank you for being here!
Once again, I'm going to combine our "preparing for the future" session theme with a bit of advice from Julia Cameron, who asks the question "Who will you take to the war?" If you don't like the war analogy, try journey, or camping or shopping trip! The point is that there are people who are good for us/our writing, and people who hinder us. Even if they're lovely at social gatherings, or they're family, or whatever, they wind up sapping the writing energy. So think about the people in your life: are there supportive, calming, helpful people you'd like to see more of? Are there people whose presence you need to limit? If you have to interact with them anyway, how could you plan to counteract their negative effect on you?
And at the risk of triggering Good-Girl-Itis, are there people whom you want to nurture? That is, are you or could you be someone else's Person You'll Take? You don't have to be. But maybe considering the question could be helpful. I try to be that person for my grad students.
Daisy
Session goals:
Pack up my entire life and office (ten years of rocks is a LOT!) and move…
Get child settled in new place…
Adopt cats
Finish one almost complete paper, preferably before the moving stuff really hits
the fan and I start field work again because then everything else is off the
table.
Do a decent job on new project paper with colleague I really want to help.
Finish conference finances and wrap-up reports for giant and totally awesome
conference that just finished.
Write conference how-to guide with all new hybrid meeting stuff.
Field work and all attached writing things with student.
Last week’s goals:
Do big batch of data processing for report
Anything on old paper will be a win
Deliver goodbye cards and gifts to office people
Migrate emails and documents
Write report for committee where chair bailed
Dame Eleanor Hull
Session goals:
- keep regular office hours for research/writing and teaching
prep
- keep moving forward, rotate projects, don't get stuck
- do one significant Life Stuff task per week
- plan weekly Fun Activities
Last week’s goals:
- some exercise daily (I'm having foot problems, so yoga etc
rather than walking), bed by 11
- read book, write book review
- reading and notes for my own book
- revise assignments for fall undergrad class
- finish cleaning closet, plant seedlings, 2 social events, read Bk 2 of Shadow
Campaigns & return to library, pay bills, get new phone, tend mental health
assiduously
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Session
goals:
Communicate
Cogitate
Coordinate
Create
carried-over goals
Finish up the loose ends of the training, moving into the revision phase of training.Get through a meeting-rich week.
Finish the “listen to me sing my own praises” report.
Read a few chapters on women translators.
heu mihi
Session goals:
Work:
1. Revise intro for WH and resubmit manuscript.
2. Messy zero draft of chapter 1.
3. Substantive notes regarding what might find its way into the other chapters.
4. Letter of recommendation; tenure letter.
Life:
5. ... all the things. Touch up paint here and there, paint counters, clean
garage, clean workroom, dispose of all recyclable/donate-able stuff, thoroughly
clean Bonaventure's room, wash windows and screens, make steps and path in the
garden, stack firewood, clean EVERYTHING, and pack stuff away to make it
hospitable to the renters.
6. Car inspections, wash cars, possibly get "Real" driver's license
(finally), move secondary car to mom's house.
Last week’s goals:
1. Tenure letter: Finish articles; read part (NOT ALL) of book;
draft letter.
2. House stuff: Finish going through my son's stuff (with his help; he's doing a
great job of purging); donation trip to thrift shop; wash windows; weed hill;
weed and mulch lilacs
3. Trip prep: Find out when friends might visit; contact departmental business
manager about setting up a meeting
4. Research!!: Return to my chapter; notes on super long book; read short book
5. Fun: Read novel; make a new diary
Humming42
Session goals
Teaching
1 edit summer online class
2 outline fall online class
3 complete spring online class
Research
1 submit abstract for lit-lit
2 finish food chapter
3 outline boredom
4 lit review for dark
5 draft cfp for mind
6 write proposal for DQ
7 write presentation for Life
carried-over goals:
1
stay current on writing classes
2
submit an overdue book review
3
sort out bookmarks for Tiny Project
4
continue working on media literacy class
5
a new one: drink more water
JaneB
Session goals:
1) Personal replenishment household rescue, reviewing my finances, thinking through some things, getting some counselling, moving more and eating better and working on my sleep schedule2) Reducing the pressures next year - I need to do as much teaching preparation as I can, in a more systematic way, especially for the heavy points in the trimester - whatever I can do to not have to work quite such long hours. If it happens, I will also be applying to be Teaching Tsar, which would come with a lot of work but also teaching reallocation. This one will also involve working on my campus space and on feeling safe and confident on campus, which is both about never having liked or enjoyed my current office which was never properly unpacked when I moved into it multiple years ago and the whole lack of COVID precautions and greater awareness of how unhealthy our indoor spaces on campus are (and worse anxiety about windowless teaching rooms).
3) Minimising my research expectations I'm part of two research grant applications which will hopefully get submitted this summer, and have one paper where I'm lead and need to do a last round of edits/comment incorporating before it is submitted. I'd also 'like' to write a PhD student project application for later summer but that's not essential.
4) Write for pleasure, read for pleasure, do something crafty, and play D&D.
Last week’s goals:
1) work no more than 20 hours
2) make some lists for smaller things that fit under the areas of personal
replenishment, reducing next year's pressures and fun/creative stuff.
3) replenishment: back to basics - keep it up! Eating plenty of fruit and veg,
drinking enough water, a small exercise habit (10 minutes a day of deliberate
exercise), a small chore habit (5 minutes of picking up or one of the recurring
chores like a load of laundry each day), journal daily.
4) pressure reduction: if I have room in the 20 hours, review my honours module
and decide what can stay from this year's iteration and what I can easily and
quickly refresh. Add no more meetings
5) fun/creative: write a letter to a friend/read for half an hour at least 3
days/do at least two crochet stripes on the "desert colours" blanket
project/play D&D AND write another job board game/play with watercolours a
couple of times.
Karen
Session goals:
- Complete first draft of KL article
- Grant application done
- Start semester 2 with VILE eight weeks ahead
- Keep attending to self-care
carried-over goals:
- Finish syllabi, get materials/tech requests in, make progress on first module VILE content
- Write on my own research each day (read for my own research each day)
- (if permitted by gatekeepers), get draft grant complete
- conference paper proposal in
- 2 x yoga (livestream classes from home)
How I'm doing on Session goals:
ReplyDelete- keep regular office hours for research/writing and teaching prep: YES, keep
- keep moving forward, rotate projects, don't get stuck: YES, keep
- do one significant Life Stuff task per week: SIGH, more in breach than observance, but KEEP and try to do better!
- plan weekly Fun Activities: YES, keep
How I did last week:
- some exercise daily (I'm having foot problems, so yoga etc rather than walking), bed by 11: NOT GREAT, esp on bedtime
- read book, write book review: YES, DONE!
- reading and notes for my own book: YES! More reading than notes, but it's progress.
- revise assignments for fall undergrad class: TWO.
- finish cleaning closet, plant seedlings, 2 social events, read Bk 2 of Shadow Campaigns & return to library, pay bills, get new phone, tend mental health assiduously: SOME. Seedlings, social things, fun reading done. Still need to move stuff back into closet, pay bills, get new phone.
New weekly goals:
Delete- Try again on daily exercise and bed by 11
- Two hours x 5 on research
- One hour x 4 on teaching prep
- Half hour x 4 on dead language
- Bills, closet, phone, other Life Stuff as possible
And the topic: I've been thinking about this because of the contrast of conference-going and daily life. Sir John is very supportive of my work, especially the book; he is also one of the very few people I can stand in high doses! I am grateful for him daily if not hourly. But apart from him, I don't think there's anyone I see regularly who really qualifies. My RL writing group is useful . . . mostly . . . sometimes . . . the thing is, they are not medievalists, and it often happens that they want me to explain in detail topics (like paleography) that are so basic to the field that no editor of a specialized journal would let me keep the explanation even if I wrote it out. They're good on general organizational points, and helping to identify my thesis. So I might take them to the war, but I wouldn't promote them past sergeant! Long ago I had a friend with whom I thought I'd be exchanging work for the rest of our lives, but she left the profession and [stuff happened, end of story]. The people from the most recent conference are great, but we are all so busy all the time. This group, the TLQers, are very important to me. Thank you all!
Deletere-entry from a conference can be thought provoking and make gaps in one's support locally feel large, even for introverts. None of my real life writing peeps work near my subject area - we support each other in the process of generating words and keeping going, but can't really act as readers for each other. My uni thinks it's a super idea if everyone gets their manuscripts read by at least one colleague in order to check that they are properly "REF-able" (will get maximum points under the somewhat narrow criteria of the UK Research Excellence Framework), which tends to produce exactly the kinds of "explain this super obvious thing" and "why not add a flamethrower?" comments you mention - fortunately it's not compulsory YET...
DeleteSummer bed time is really hard! It's light late, and we don't HAVE to actually go to work tomorrow, and if the day was hot the evening is often cooler so we feel like doing stuff...
DeleteHot weather and getting a bit of a boost in the cooler evenings definitely plays a role! Also I'm not getting enough exercise because of the feet, so I don't get as tired as would be useful.
DeleteHOW I'M DOING WITH SESSION GOALS
ReplyDelete1) Personal replenishment: household rescue (NO PROGRESS), reviewing my finances (NO PROGRESS), thinking through some things (A LITTLE PROGRESS), getting some counselling (STARTED!), moving more and eating better and working on my sleep schedule (erratic, but I haven't stopped trying, so...). All worth keeping.
2) Reducing the pressures next year - as much teaching preparation as I can (not really started, pressures of THIS year have continued, I will also be applying to be Teaching Tsar (we're waiting for the centre to decide when this will take place...) working on my campus space and on feeling safe and confident on campus (not done anything due to ongoing not really well-ness... KEEP ALL.
3) Minimising my research expectations I'm part of two research grant applications which will hopefully get submitted this summer (??I don't remember which these were! Dropping this one), and have one paper where I'm lead and need to do a last round of edits/comment incorporating before it is submitted (not touched, but worth keeping). I'd also 'like' to write a PhD student project application for later summer but that's not essential. keep
4) Write for pleasure (not yet, unless D&D planning counts), read for pleasure (off and on. My brain doesn't want to...), do something crafty (crochet progressing and I've started to dabble with watercolours badly), and play D&D (I've been running games most weeks, but I'd like to PLAY for a change. However, that involves finding a game, and I'm...bad at that sort of thing). KEEP ALL.
LAST WEEK:
Delete1) work no more than 20 hours 21:30, so not too bad
2) make some lists for smaller things that fit under the areas of personal replenishment, reducing next year's pressures and fun/creative stuff. lists and I still don't seem to be getting on
3) replenishment: back to basics - keep it up! Eating plenty of fruit and veg, drinking enough water, a small exercise habit (10 minutes a day of deliberate exercise), a small chore habit (5 minutes of picking up or one of the recurring chores like a load of laundry each day), journal daily. yes, yes, wobbly, no, yes
4) pressure reduction: if I have room in the 20 hours, review my honours module and decide what can stay from this year's iteration and what I can easily and quickly refresh. Add no more meetings did not have room, added a couple of project student meetings but one other cancelled so... not so bad
5) fun/creative: write a letter to a friend/read for half an hour at least 3 days/do at least two crochet stripes on the "desert colours" blanket project/play D&D AND write another job board game/play with watercolours a couple of times. no, one day (my brain doesn't want to), yes, played and started the new job board item, yes - which is why I didn't finish the job board game, Fluffball my cat tasted the dirty paint water, disliked it, and spilled the whole jarful over my desk, so all my D&D paperwork had to be spread out to dry...)
THIS WEEK'S GOALS:
I'm struggling with the phased return thing - my brain is not happy with me, my mood is poor, and the fatigue is lurking around. Plus hayfever... Technically I step my hours up this week, practically I... don't know. I have gone through and booked some annual leave formally including most of two weeks at the end of July/start of August and one day a week for the rest of August, and hope that that will let me tilt the balance a bit on some of the personal session goals. But it leaves me scarily short of time to do any prep or research.... and I'm so off. :-(
1) work no more than 25 hours
2) make some lists for smaller things that fit under the areas of personal replenishment, reducing next year's pressures and fun/creative stuff. This could be a brain dump of things to do on my leave days, maybe reframing it that way will make my brain more amenable?
3) replenishment: back to basics - keep it up! Eating plenty of fruit and veg, drinking enough water, a small exercise habit (10 minutes a day of deliberate exercise), a small chore habit (5 minutes of picking up or one of the recurring chores like a load of laundry each day), journal daily.
4) pressure reduction: if I have room in the 25 hours, review my honours module and decide what can stay from this year's iteration and what I can easily and quickly refresh. Add no more meetings (I just added one today, but it is for a little writing session with a colleague on something we've both been putting off, so it's not really a MEETING meeting - all people stuff is wearing me out right now, but I thought adding this would help progress something from my summer list so was worth the cost)
5) fun/creative: write a letter to a friend/read for half an hour at least 3 days/do at least two crochet stripes on the "desert colours" blanket project/play D&D, finish current job board game AND write another one or do some other prep/play with watercolours a couple of times.
Who is coming along on the journey? (not in the mood for war. Tired, fat, grumpy and in a no-focks-to-give mental place which means anyone who tries war nonsense is about to get a book-bag in the face or a complete meltdown & even I don't know which!).
DeleteI'm thinking here specifically about the creative/substantive ideas part of writing papers or fiction, not the technical stuff (referencing, copy editing) or grant writing. Some co-authors are positive, some neutral at least. I don't have a consistent long term writing partner who is actually good for this aspect of my writing, and maybe I don't actually need one - this is the part of writing I actually feel I have a natural affinity with, and once I get into the zone I just have fun with it. I have a life-long job of trying to get myself better at taking critiques, and nearly all kinds of social stuff distract from writing rather than enhancing it for me.
People who I want to nurture - well, there's an element of mutual nurturing in my long-term writing partnership with FormerPDF, who did their PhD with me (when they were very stubborn about not writing!), one postdoc with me (on project F), then went to a different post-doc position, came back as a teaching fellow at NorthernUni, and is now a lecturer at a different university - they struggle a lot with blank pages, idea generation and the points where you need to step back and shake the whole thing up vigorously, but they are very patient and competent at making some kinds of figures, getting referencing spot on, and formatting stuff for submission, and at managing me - I value their support and I'd like to think that I am helping them get better at the things they struggle with. I play the same role - getting the first draft together, coming up with ideas for introduction and discussion, doing reorganisations and restructuring, encouraging that kind of thinking - for several other ECRs who are current writing collaborators.
I also want to play that role for my grad students, and for anyone who comes into my orbit who wants support with their writing - I run writing retreats when I can (less than in the pre-COVID world, but still...) and I know others find them useful. I do find them productive, but they drain my energy because of being around people stuff, so I like them but don't really NEED them much of the time, if that makes sense?). But my current "do not WANT" mood might benefit from one. Whether I am anyone else's actual "Person To Take" I don't know...
It's not so much GoodGirlItis as just the desire to be useful in the world - I've read a lot about how to write more/better/more easily, and as soon as I learn something I NEED to share it with other people...
I recognize that desire to be useful in myself; being useful is a real satisfaction. Sorry about the "war" language. I think Cameron wrote that bit in the late 90s, when it wasn't so triggering. I'm also sorry the brain isn't wanting to read! That seems like a bad sign, but maybe that's just me, because I'd almost always rather read than do nearly anything else.
DeleteNot wanting to read is a bad sign for me too - reading is usually my top choice for what to do as well (especially if it comes with snacks and a nice drink and sitting down). I tend to lose capacity for reading complex/challenging stuff as a semester goes on, and move from history/classics/literary fiction to fantasy/detective to romance to old friends where I already know what will happen as I get more stressed and tired and in need of escapism, but not being interested in reading at ALL (I pick up a book, I start, I just... can't keep it up. My brain says NO THIS IS HARD NO or SHINY THING or YOU SHOULD BE DOING OTHER THINGS which it then won't let me do...). The work hours I am doing are using up nearly all of my capacity - I have had two new D&D rules/campaign setting/game instruction books waiting for attention since Christmas and normally those would keep me up all night trying to read them in one go. The "stress/burnout/mini breakdown" thing I have now (I don't have a specific diagnosis from my GP, my sick notes just say "stress", but this feels serious enough to have its own name if only I knew what that name was if that makes sense) has been brewing for a while...
DeleteI am only up for very particular kinds of romance/fantasy/detective lately (okay, for past 2+ years): have to be well-written and not too cozy/cutesy/unrealistic but also not too fraught/gritty/detailed about any bad things. Sharon Shinn and Rachel Neumeier are about my speed ATM.
DeleteWow, halfway already!!! That is terrifying…
ReplyDeleteWill think about goals first and come back for cool promt:
Session goals:
Pack up my entire life and office (ten years of rocks is a LOT!) and move…ONGOING RIGHT NOW
Get child settled in new place… STARTS NEXT WEEK
Adopt cats STILL COMING
Finish one almost complete paper, preferably before the moving stuff really hits the fan and I start field work again because then everything else is off the table. YEAH FAN’S BEEN HIT, NOTHING HAPPENING…
Do a decent job on new project paper with colleague I really want to help. NOT A SAUSAGE…
Finish conference finances and wrap-up reports for giant and totally awesome conference that just finished. ONGOING, ALMOST DONE
Write conference how-to guide with all new hybrid meeting stuff. LATER THIS MONTH
Field work and all attached writing things with student.WRITING ONGOING, FIELD STILL COMING
Hmmm session goals are actually ok… I can’t really drop any of them, they are less “goals” than “non-negotiable” tasks so they will all stay… Basically all of it will happen in the next six weeks…
Last week’s goals:
Do big batch of data processing for report TURNS OUT FORMER ME ALREADY DID MOST OF IT AND I ONLY HAD TO DO A LITTLE! THANK YOU FORMER ME!
Anything on old paper will be a win LOSE
Deliver goodbye cards and gifts to office people YES
Migrate emails and documents ONGOING
Write report for committee where chair bailed DONE
What a week… We’ve reached the chaotic stage of packing, where everything one person does pushes another’s buttons… I decided last night at every couple who manages to get through a move without killing each other should each receive an all expense paid tropical vacation, ON SEPARATE ISLANDS! So yeah, we’re all trying had to be patient… The silver lining is that this is time-limited and will end soon.
This week’s goals:
Pack
Move
Unpack
That’s it, that’s all…
Bon courage! The time-limited thing is very important. It will end, and when it's over you'll be very relieved and won't really remember the bad bits. Yay former you, congrats on all the DONE, and I am so impressed that you're managing to do any work at all while in the throes of moving.
DeleteThanks! Just a little wile longer and it will all be in the past...
DeletePrompt thoughts... I had a wonderful writing partner in my current town, we expanded to a small writing group over time. I will miss that! Several of my new colleagues are my writing crew, I would take them anywhere, and they are really the reason I have "writing" at all, so I cannot wait to be closer. They're not the sit down and write together types, more the talk about things, go away, write things for paper and then send around and we all edit. I work well that way.
For helping I know I try to do that for grad students, but there is a new colleague at new place who has to write some of the same grant applications as I do this year, and I've had a lot of success with those and she is just starting out, so we're going to be grant writing buddies. The process is long and miserable and stressful so we are planning to make it a little better with company and coffee!
Good luck with all the moving stresses - maybe the thought that they are all necessary steps on the road to kittens will help some?
DeleteFor the grant writing buddies I would add chocolate as a third c to your list of necessities! :-D
Chocolate and kittens! Yes! Goals I can completely get behind!
DeleteThis is a good prompt (they all are!), but I'm going to post about goals first, and may or may not get back to it.
ReplyDeleteSession goals:
Work:
1. Revise intro for WH and resubmit manuscript.
- In progress; waiting on contributors! The intro is pretty much done, thanks largely to my co-editor/-author.
2. Messy zero draft of chapter 1.
- Define "messy zero draft."
3. Substantive notes regarding what might find its way into the other chapters.
- UM, maybe? In progress? I don't know how much more work I'm going to get done this summer, realistically. But I'll say that I'm still working on it.
4. Letter of recommendation; tenure letter. - DONE
Life:
5. ... all the things. Touch up paint here and there, paint counters, clean garage, clean workroom, dispose of all recyclable/donate-able stuff, thoroughly clean Bonaventure's room, wash windows and screens, make steps and path in the garden, stack firewood, clean EVERYTHING, and pack stuff away to make it hospitable to the renters.
- In progress!
6. Car inspections, wash cars, possibly get "Real" driver's license (finally), move secondary car to mom's house.
- In progress!
I'll keep all of them...they're either done or on their way or, frankly, vague enough that I'll be able to say that I did them at summer's end, so okay.
Last week:
1. Tenure letter: Finish articles; read part (NOT ALL) of book; draft letter.
- Done; letter sent
2. House stuff: Finish going through my son's stuff (with his help; he's doing a great job of purging); donation trip to thrift shop; wash windows; weed hill; weed and mulch lilacs
- Done. Done!
3. Trip prep: Find out when friends might visit; contact departmental business manager about setting up a meeting
- Met with business manager; didn't contact friends.
4. Research!!: Return to my chapter; notes on super long book; read short book
- Yes, technically, but I didn't spend a whole lot of time with said chapter.
5. Fun: Read novel; make a new diary
- Yes; made one and started another!
Am I giving up on writing this summer? OK, I don't have to be absolute about it. I'm just feeling rather worn out with academic prose, both reading and writing it, and I really feel that I need to slow down and immerse myself in a particular PART of my argument (say, a close reading of one book) before I go back to barreling along with my writing-too-soon process.
One thing I could start to do is articulate connections between writers, just in some notes, so that I can think more clearly about the rationale how I'm organizing the chapters.
This week:
1. Think through (in note form) the links between writers.
2. Get both cars inspected.
3. Clean garage.
4. Run or walk every day (except Saturday, which is a travel day).
5. Sit every day through Friday.
6. Go to campus and take care of Campus Things: return books, scan needed books, maybe clean out a file drawer or two.
7. Read new primary text.
This summer is about getting ready for future writing, and getting all your ducks in a row to go to France is certainly that! So it's okay if you don't write a lot this summer; you have lots of other things that need to happen, and you're making good progress on them.
DeleteSometimes "writing" means "letting the brain do its thing in the background whilst you fight the visa office, sort the house, and get ready for an adventure" so that you are able to make the most of future writing time.
DeleteOne problem with the "always writing, write every day" model for me in mid-career is that as my responsibilities change and my contribution to the field starts to grow and expand (and send out tentacles in every direction...), I find that if I don't allow for fallow periods for the writing, the soil starts to be hardscrabble and acrid, and the crops are thin and resentful - if I can set it aside for blocks of time to rest (when I might be focusing on mentoring and editing work for others like grad students or collaborators, refereeing, teaching, data collecting, tackling administration roles), then I can come back to it joyfully and find it replenished.
Excellent point about fallow periods. Sometimes you just need to think, or not even actively think, but let ideas percolate while you work around them.
Delete