Whew! I'm glad that I left myself a reminder note to write the prompt this morning--I almost forgot!
I've been phoning it in on the prompts lately, so here's something maybe a little meatier. Of course, if that makes you not want to answer it, then that's fine! You can just tell us how things are going (or skip that, too--you all know the drill. I always like hearing your updates, though).
We're approaching the end of this session, somehow, so maybe it's time for a moment of reflection. What's been working for you? What routines have you adopted that have helped you through your weeks? What shortcuts? Are there things that you've been wise to ignore/neglect, even though they may have seemed important in the beginning?
Optional extra: What hasn't been working? For this one, I encourage you to think about self-care at least as much as work. So it's not an invitation to beat yourself up about writing too little, for example; rather, are you staying up checking email before bed, when you would be better off reading a few pages of a novel? Would treating yourself to a mid-morning cup of tea help you through the day? Or maybe there is a work routine that doesn't work for you (waiting until the morning to prep for class might make you feel rushed, for example). But self-flagellation is not the point here; I think we're all better off when we avoid that!
Last week's goals:
Daisy:
Finish data processing and make pretty figures for co-authored paper
End of fiscal year accounting (slightly different from regular accounting I guess?
Concert stuff
Read/comment/edit thesis chapters
Marking, marking, and marking
Volunteer tax stuff for community organization
Dame Eleanor Hull:
- set up more boards/assignments, at least one for each class
- further book-spreadsheet work
- take Reina to vet for teeth cleaning
- read at least 500 lines of Irrelevant Romance
- other scholarly reading
- sleep, walk, yoga in suitable amounts
heu mihi:
1. Resume all normal routines
2. Work on draft of chapter 1 x 5, even if I'm not doing really substantial work
3. Research: Try to fill in (provisionally) some of the question/problem/blank areas
4. Take kid to two trial martial arts lessons (putting this here so that I don't forget about them!!)
5. Contact a friend about getting together
6. Some amount of yard clean-up, however minimal--I don't want to rake the leaves before the bugs are done hibernating under them, or whatever
JaneB:
Three strike days, one working day which is nearly full of meetings.
* pick up the house before the decluttering woman comes on Wednesday (& have a productive day when she does come)
* do some D&D prep, play D&D
* finish reading a book, do a little crochet
* do the bare minimum to prepare for the following week's teaching (by workload I have 1.5 hours NOT in meetings in which to deal with three days emails and a full week's prep - at least it's a light teaching week?)
* buy and wrap Easter treats for family members ready to post out the following week.
Julie:
1. Finish first batch of marking (ha!)
2. Start second batch of marking
3. Watch c.20 video presentations of posters ahead of a meeting to judge poster session for a conference in two weeks (that I'm not attending).
4. Email archives for one research trip.
5. Exercise - run x 2, pilates x 1 class plus some practice, walk other days
6. Start getting ready for Italy trip
Susan (held over):
1. Read more of book to review
2. Re-read book by speaker
3. Keep up with the minimum admin stuff
4. Enjoy conference
5. Get back to walking/ exercising
So I'll start. A few things are working well. I've been getting up at 6:20 to have time to sit before the morning routine begins; this has also given me enough time to do my part to get our son out the door on time (7:50). It's astonishing how much work there is for the two of us--start the fire in the wood stove, feed the kittens and clean the litter boxes, empty the dishwasher, fix breakfast (easy), pack lunch, make the bed.... But mornings have been very smooth and unhectic, thanks also in part to planning lunch the night before.
ReplyDeleteWhat's not working? Well, I'm on sabbatical, so I have few complaints. I don't feel like I'm reading very much, though. That might change in the coming weeks as I start to plan a new chapter (which will require plenty of research). I'm also dawdling around too much on FB, due in part to my new obsession with the local Buy Nothing group. I've both received and donated some great stuff--but the serendipitous moments are too far apart to justify the frequency with which I read it!
Last week:
1. Resume all normal routines - Yes
2. Work on draft of chapter 1 x 5, even if I'm not doing really substantial work - Yes; definitely some non-substantial work happening, but some good stuff, too
3. Research: Try to fill in (provisionally) some of the question/problem/blank areas
?? Sort of? Not really. I don't know. The thing is that my problem areas include notes like "Who else thought this [in the 1300-year period in question]?", and I have no idea how to go about answering it, short of tracking down an expert in each little subarea and forcing them to read my draft and/or talk to me.
4. Take kid to two trial martial arts lessons (putting this here so that I don't forget about them!!)
YES--he liked both, and then got really upset about having to decide, in part because he doesn't want to disappoint the schools (which we told him was really not a consideration!). I'm afraid that my child suffers from the Not Wanting to Let Anyone Down syndrome, with which I'm all too familiar. We have made a choice for now, however; he's going to try a month at the school with the better-for-us schedule (and cheaper rates, but we didn't stress that).
5. Contact a friend about getting together
YES--set up for two weeks from now. And I have a friend coming over to hang out with me and the kittens tomorrow afternoon. Socializing!
6. Some amount of yard clean-up, however minimal--I don't want to rake the leaves before the bugs are done hibernating under them, or whatever
A LITTLE BIT--I decided to let the bugs keep sleeping, since it's still pretty cold, but I did hack down all the dead wildflowers in the front garden.
I've decided to go for a quick overnight at my mom's on Wednesday--just me--which will cut about two days out of my five-day work week (I've found that I just can't seem to work on the weekends this term, even when I try to! So why try, since I don't need to?). This will be a good thing to do, and I'm going to try to embrace the time away from my pesky boring chapter!
So, this week:
1. Enter edits to ch. 3
2. Work through last sections of ch. 1
3. Rewrite ch. 1 intro, using notes I made into my phone in the middle of a run
4. Clean up all of ch. 1 as much as possible
5. Research bitter style beers to decide what to brew next
You are so medieval: wood stove! Brewing beer! And also so modern: notes made on your phone during a run. I hope you enjoy your visit to your mom.
DeleteHa--I like this characterization! Thanks!
DeleteYay for friend meetings and martial arts enjoyment!
DeleteWhat's working? Very little feels like it's actually WORKING, to be honest. But accepting that and plodding on anyway has at least let me keep working, which I think is probably a good thing. Probably! Oh, my "job board" version of D&D planning is working well - it's a very busy season for all my players and for me, so it's hard to know who will turn up and what they'll be in the mood for, and I want to not have to plan too much. So we've agreed a conceit where whoever shows up can bring any character they like from past or current games (or try out new ones), their characters are staying in a traveller's inn near the city gate in a 'city located on major routes both road and river and they have a few days before they depart to carry on with their travels. There is a notice board in the inn where people can post all sorts of requests for help or offers of services which might appeal to adventurers with unusual skills - we started with simple stuff like "mystery hole appears in building site and workers want someone to check there's nothing dangerous in there", "monster hunter needs backup", and "potion maker will pay well for the following unusual ingredients" and have expanded into "student at wizards college needs subjects for experiment/has lost experimental subjects & needs to round them up", the library at the temple of wisdom (my table are nerds who are sometimes really happy just to play a character from an ongoing adventure trying to research a topic - they get a bit more information for that game, plus you never know what might happen in a magical, sacred library where curiosity and honesty are the most valued virtues, way above common sense), garden vegetables being dug up every night, and "trap and tame your own bagpipes - annoy your neighbours on the cheap!" along with contests and visiting fairs and kitchen help wanted... they pick according to who is there and their mood, when I feel up to a bit of creative escape I spend 1-2 hours writing 1 page of notes, pulling the stats for creatures/people they might encounter and adding any little details to the existing city map (I've been playing various games in this city for multiple years so it already has stuff to do) for a short adventure then post an appropriate new advert on the board, and take down old ones.
ReplyDeleteThe board is a powerpoint slide and I stick a screenshot of the latest version into the chat of the skype call every time we play. So SOMETHING is working!
NOT working - a lot of things. I keep thinking I'll do better when... I'm used to thinking that that is not a very useful thought pattern, but between promises of my workload being improved (I work 0.8.
I have 0.55 of named admin duties PLUS about a 0.4 of teaching PLUS active research commitments (grad students, funded bits of work) of about 0.25 PLUS expectations around publishing and grant applying etc. - plus a substantial backlog...), waiting for my hip problem to heal, waiting for appointments to see if what if any treatments might be available for ADHD symptoms, waiting for an appointment for autism screening, waiting to save money (not helped at all by the roof and windows and door expenses)... so, you know, maybe waiting is acceptable for a while!
LAST WEEK
DeleteThree strike days, one working day which is nearly full of meetings.
* pick up the house before the decluttering woman comes on Wednesday ish. and NINE grocery bags full of books went to charity shops with her - we turned out several book cases, dusted and cleaned, and have made some useful space to move stuff TO as part of the ongoing reorganising of stuff. So progress!
* do some D&D prep, play D&D yes and yes. Complete chaos, but by pure luck of the dice they successfully rescued a hostage and didn't QUITE set a mill on fire - one person did, but then someone else's frost spell misfired and shattered a water butt which put the fire out - I love the dice element of D&D, it makes story telling exciting for everyone!
* finish reading a book, do a little crochet yes, no
* do the bare minimum to prepare for the following week's teaching (by workload I have 1.5 hours NOT in meetings in which to deal with three days emails and a full week's prep - at least it's a light teaching week?) ended up doing about two days work to get through that minimum - but decided that I would take the whole day off this coming week when I have a dental appointment because I HATE going to the dentist and right now I crave lying around, napping, and reading comfort things. So decided the trade off would benefit future me (plus I just did not have time on the one day - meetings overran etc.).
* buy and wrap Easter treats for family members ready to post out the following week. bought, but I'm out of non-Christmas paper, so need to wrap some and send this week. That means that some of the treats got eaten. ooops!
THIS COMING WEEK:
Three working days, one dentist visit (ugh!), and then we have a break for Easter in which I plan a marking blitz so that I will at least be up to date if the Union calls the threatened marking and assessment boycott from mid-April. Sigh! I also have a report due on a piece of commercial work.
* do the everyday baseline chores when they need doing, not when I've run out of stuff (e.g. laundry when a load needs doing not when I have no undies)
* do some D&D prep, play D&D
* read another book, do a little crochet
* do the bare minimum to prepare for teaching after Easter, make progress on the commercial project, the big project I keep stressing about then not having time for, and the paper FormerPostDoc and I rashly agreed to write last year which is now coming due...
* wrap and post Easter treats for family members
The D&D job board sounds like a lot of fun. I fully support the idea of a day off when you have to see the dentist.
DeleteThat is a ridiculous workload. The D&D stuff sounds so elaborate and organised! I always assumed it was more like a board game - just turn up and play.
DeleteThe D&D sounds really fun! I'm thinking of trying to introduce my son to it.... I really wanted to play when I was a teenager, but didn't have anyone to play with, so I may be trying to live vicariously through it.
DeleteCongratulations on the excellent decluttering!
As a player, D&D can very much be turn up & play! You always need someone to be a Game Master (Dungeon Master, Narrator, whatever), and that person needs to have done more preparation & have some idea of the rules. You can buy some excellent resources which have all the preparation done, and all the GM needs to do is read over the next section before the game, but those assume that you have the same set of players for at least 4-8 hours of game time and usually quite a lot longer. When a player doesn't turn up it creates challenges for the rest of the group - last year people were better at planning ahead and deciding to play or not a couple of days ahead, so I could prepare accordingly (although it was a lot of work some weeks depending on where we were in the book we were playing through), but this year it's more unpredictable who can play (for multiple reasonable reasons) and I have less mental/emotional capacity for short notice stuff, this has been a great solution.
DeleteOne item on the board requires no extra prep from me at all (the potion shop will pay for particular ingredients - I have a document listing half a dozen things, where they might be found, and the basic "rules" I need to know to use the dice to add some interest to the ingredient hunt - and can just pull out that folder if they pick that advert. And there's always some character who wants to earn some money, so is interested in taking the job), and if I want to push them towards that one I just add a note to the notice offering a bonus for quick delivery, or an extra advert from someone wanting help with an ingredient (e.g. ingredient is rabbit fur plucked from a living rabbit, so an elderly gnome posts a notice saying he needs a hand putting up a fence to keep rabbits out of his cabbages). I am usually 2-3 adventures "ahead" of the players (as in, there are that many adventure hooks prepared and on the board ready to go) because when no-one can play I usually still spend 1-2 hours coming up with something because it's something I find creative and enjoyable - coming up with ideas for stuff that might happen in a cross-roads city with a rural hinterland which feeds the markets but isn't entirely tamed, magic, fantasy races, a wizards college, a major market, several craft guilds, a bard's guild, a temple complex including a temple of wisdom and a Wild Shrine with a "thin point" connecting to the realm of the Fey, ghosts of past cities that you can sometimes accidentally wander into on a foggy evening or similar, and a large graveyard which has been used since the city was a fort-and-camp-where-the-rivers-join is not a problem!
I kind of made my friends play with me a bit when I was a teen... and spent far more time with the books and planning systems on my own (I looooove being the game master)...
DeleteLove love love all your amazing D&D ideas! If you were in this area you'd seriously be booked solid every weekend for local games!
DeleteThat would be very fun!
DeleteWhat's working: extra sleep is wonderful. It doesn't always work; I've had a few awful nights, but by and large I'm better rested than I used to be, and I like that feeling a lot. What's not (probably related): I just don't get to any house projects, mainly because I am afraid of starting something that's too big for my available energy and winding up with a bigger mess than I started with.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
- set up more boards/assignments, at least one for each class: YES
- further book-spreadsheet work: YES (still not done)
- take Reina to vet for teeth cleaning: YES
- read at least 500 lines of Irrelevant Romance: YES (double?)
- other scholarly reading: YES
- sleep, walk, yoga in suitable amounts: YES
That was a good week, and much easier than the "break."
New goals:
- set up more boards/assignments, at least one for each class
- remember to show up for all student conferences
- clear a backlog of service tasks
- further book-spreadsheet work
- finish reading Irrelevant Romance
- other scholarly reading
- sleep, walk, yoga in suitable amounts
Recognising that you need to conserve energy is important too. The house projects will keep.
DeleteSleep is hugely important. Can most of the house stuff just wait until summer, when the days are longer and you'll be more recovered from your illness?
DeleteExtra sleep is far more important than house projects in term time!
DeleteHouse projects and garden weeds are similar - there will always be more where those came from... Sleep wins every time!
DeleteI'm feeling well enough to get irritated by messy shelves and cupboards . . . but definitely still spooked by the possibility of running out of energy, so thank you for the encouragement to put off the projects till after the term finishes!
DeleteGood prompt, if a difficult one.
ReplyDeleteWhat's working: a bit like Heu mihi, good daytime routines. I am bad in the mornings, but if I do manage to get a couple of chores done before work (emptying the dishwasher, clearing the recycling), it makes a big difference. I've had more success with getting home early and doing stuff before dinner, especially laundry. I've realised that days I can work at home are much better generally - I move around more, do useful stuff in breaks like tidying up for a few minutes, and eat lunch away from the computer. It all depends on next year's timetable as to how feasible it will be to have more than one day a week at home.
Like Jane, I feel a lot isn't working, and I'm trying to get myself into the mindset that it isn't working because there is too much to be done, not because I am a failure at organisation. What I think made this term particularly difficult was having teaching heavily concentrated on Mondays and Tuesdays. Before Christmas, I had a lot more free time on Mondays, and so could do teaching prep then. This term, I've ended up with it spilling into weekends, because I never seemed to manage to get it done on Fridays. The other thing that isn't working is getting to bed reasonable time. I really need to get better at this.
Last week:
1. Finish first batch of marking (ha!) - YES
2. Start second batch of marking - NO
3. Watch c.20 video presentations of posters ahead of a meeting to judge poster session for a conference in two weeks (that I'm not attending). - YES
4. Email archives for one research trip. - MOSTLY, one to go
5. Exercise - run x 2, pilates x 1 class plus some practice, walk other days - YES, YESish (not much practice), YES one day only, but it was a long walk!
6. Start getting ready for Italy trip - YES (made lists!)
This week:
This is my last week before Italy, yay! We leave Friday, so I won't be around for goal-setting next two Sundays. I am NOT taking my laptop! Hope everyone has a good Easter and gets some time off.
1. Mark second batch of essays.
2. Apply for small grant I didn't know existed.
3. Email final archive
4. Admin tidying up before holiday.
5. Exercise
6. Sleep!
7. Final washing, packing etc for Italy!
Teaching on Monday means you have to hit the ground running, so by the time Friday rolls around, you're tired, so it's much harder to do brain-intensive things like course prep. I'm very familiar with that one! I've rarely had a teaching schedule that started on Tuesday, but it really does change the shape of the week remarkably.
DeleteItaly! Hooray!!
DeleteI like having teaching-intensive Mondays because the rest of the week feels like a comfortable downhill slide--but then I typically end up sliding into the weekend without my prep for the next week done, which is unfortunate. I hope that you're able to find a way to avoid the extra weekend prep--or that the semester wraps up soon and you don't have this schedule again! (Time heals all teaching problems, after all.)
Have a wonderful time in La Bella Italia!
DeleteYay Italy!!! Have a fabulous time and eat everything that looks good! So basically everything!
DeleteHi there! I'm going to pass on check-in and goals and basically just call the week a loss. I just got a huge grant rejection - operating type grant so without it things are really bad financially. If it was a private failure it would be easier, but these are big public grants so it feels like everyone just sees the big "failure" sign on my head so I'm going to just be angry for a few days, and then start thinking about next year's version. But for this week I'm saying fuck it all and all I will do is student advising because that doesn't stop. But seriously, I really hate the system... Like really hate the system, the judgement, the arbitrary crap and everything that comes with it. But I will be fine, students will be fine, at least a bad week in my job is not like a doctor where a bad week means something very different.
ReplyDeleteMy kid is on their first big international trip, to a city with literally 30 times the population of our entire province so I'm not sleeping for a week! They are having a fabulous time so that is a plus at least!
Love the discussions and things going on, see you next week!
Oh, boo! I think you're allowed to feel disappointed and angry---nobody died, true, but grants are a huge time suck to apply for and so important to get in the sciences. Focusing on the things you can do something about, like advising students, probably helps. And here's my "thbbpppttt!" to the grant agency for failing to see your awesomeness.
DeleteOh, I'm so sorry! That is just a huge bummer. Feel your feelings and know that they, and this, and all of it will pass. I'm glad that the kid is having a great time, at least.
DeleteOh no! Much empathy - this is horrible and miserable and a huge bummer. Definitely a good time for feelings and chocolate. Sometimes you just need to sit and have a good wallow before getting up and getting on with what comes next!! I think wallowing for a day or a week is very under-rated as a restorative practice...
Delete(Also, do you have a "not-granted-reward" system? One colleague has a well-lit shelf near the window in her office which has a mini cacti garden on it, and she treats herself to a new cactus for every grant rejection she gets... she says that being able to think "oh well at least I get to pick and buy a new plant" has really helped her react professionally around other people when rejections happen!