Hello everyone! Another grey, damp week in this part of the North of England, and it really doesn't feel like August. This is definitely one of those years when I really wish we could add Augtember to the calendar, an extra month of actual summer (without meetings, work emails etc.) - a couple of weeks to deep-dive on work and a couple of weeks for serious relaxation... sadly I'm not in charge, and the days keep marching towards the new year regardless of weather or wishes. Next week is scheduled to be our final check in for this session!
I myself do have another few weeks before I'm really back into students-first mode, but I'm already looking to shifting my energy (such as it is) towards teaching preparation, so I thought that this week we could talk about strategies for "parking on a downhill slope"- using the last part of summer to set ourselves up for easy (easier) progress to continue in the teaching parts of the year. Do you plan out the coming semester or year? How do you transition from writing every day or so to writing in tiny bits of time, or once every week or two?
And it would also be useful to think about the next session - which would typically start in early-mid September and run until shortly before Christmas. Anyone want to host/co-host? Got a theme idea?
GOALS FROM LAST WEEK:
Daisy
- Keep it all together for the remaining week of field work
- Book campsites and activities for next week’s trip with kid
Dame Eleanor Hull
- finish reading/noting ILL book
- finish additions to Alms chapter
- keep working on Latin translation
- finish schedule for fall grad class
- also put some links on class website
- at least two tasks from Huge Summer List
heu mihi
- Write 2000 words (I so badly want to be done with this chapter draft)
- Format 1/2 of anniversary book pages
- Invite at least some panelists!
- Read two essays for class, finish reading AL (and LK, if possible)
- Weed back hill
- Various appointments, meetings, etc.
- Finish creating/writing community presentation on zero waste
JaneB
- Self-care: Plan what to do with decluttering time. Do at least seven small things to improve my environment. Do at least an hour in total on sorting out my financial paperwork chaos. Move intentionally 5-10 minutes a day (small goals...)
- Work. Check work email no more than once a workday outside of work day. Check in about the move, start last required training course.
- on the teaching side - meet remaining MSc project students and PhD students, chase up possible intern, tick off at least one thing from the teaching list, mark resits
- research: check what I need to do to prepare for next week's meetings, tick off one small list item.
- Fun. Play D&D AND do some D&D planning. Finish one fiction book, continue one non-fiction. Crochet some rows on the grounded blanket. Draw something. Add to summer wish list for non- work days. Maybe start watching a series.
Julie
- Plan and book research trip for September
- Order scans of documents
- Finish reading a book from last week.
- Catch up on email
- Do urgent life admin (insurance, doctor's appointment)
- Do less urgent admin (other appointments).
- Do some steps towards kitchen project.
Susan
- Try to finish first round revisions on Famous Author. I think I can...
- Keep up with stuff at work.
- Don't let email get out of control.
- Do nice things (several planned, this is certain)
Considering how little progress I've made this summer, I'm not sure that I can park on a downhill slope! I'm trying to think of my food experiments as brave attempts to improve my lot rather than as the means by which I wasted a couple of months in truly terrible sleep and brain fog. Dairy is the devil, even with enzymes. It's discouraging, but as the session nears its end, at least I can look forward to a new start. I plan to devise a syllabus for writing projects, alongside syllabuses for classes. Since I have very few students this fall, I hope less grading will mean more time for writing (though fewer students can mean more prep time in other ways). I think I'll be able to keep writing every day except Monday, my heaviest campus day.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
- finish reading/noting ILL book: YES. At least I did one thing!
- finish additions to Alms chapter. NO. Some progress, though.
- keep working on Latin translation. YES.
- finish schedule for fall grad class. NO.
- also put some links on class website. YES.
- at least two tasks from Huge Summer List. PARTIAL: visited another gym, pinned/basted another alteration project.
- - ALSO: read/commented on an essay I agreed to evaluate for a journal; went for a walk with a friend; got a foot massage; went to a semi-regular interest-group meeting, which was enjoyable.
So if next week is final check-in, we're still setting goals for one more week. If sleep stabilizes, I'll go back to "work hours" in the middle of the day and try to do some gardening early in the morning. Otherwise, I have worked out a routine that lets me get some work done without having to decide what comes first (Latin, Alms, teaching prep, then anything else I still have energy for) so will stick to that. So:
- continue Latin translation
- finish additions to Alms chapter
- finish planning grad reading schedule
- start planning undergrad classes
- do some Blackboard building
- visit at least one more gym; join one
- buy bookshelves
- do something with old friend who is due in town midweek
- read book for book group
Thank you to both Julie and JaneB for organizing the summer session! I'd be willing to share responsibility for session 3 of 2023.
Experiments and brave attempts are much needed! You still go things done last week... some summers are just slow.
DeleteHope the week was better with sleep and food!
DeleteI would be happy to share hosting for th Fall if that would be helpful!
It would be fun to work with you! (DEH: Blogger being squirrelly again.)
DeleteAlso starting to feel like the summer is slipping away from me. Wonderful though our travels earlier this year were, taking so many trips means we are home for more of August than last year, when we ended up spending almost a month away (that was partly down to getting Covid). The downside of being at home is that I am supposed to be working, but there are interruptions, and even when my kids are doing their own thing, I have the usual parental guilt that I'm neglecting them. Normally I would just make September as intensive a month as I can, but I've allocated two weeks to the archives. On the one hand, it's a good time of year to go, and hopefully will stop teaching prep eating up unnecessary amounts of time. On the other hand, it gives me much less of a buffer before term starts.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the reminder that this is our last week of this session has helped me decide that I will postpone teaching prep for a little while longer, expect for getting new purchase requests into the library, since that has a deadline. We are going away in two weeks' time for a week's holiday, so I can use that as a useful divider between this academic year and next.
I love the idea of parking on a downhill slope! That is something I really struggle with. One thing I am doing is leaving revisions for an article until term starts, as those will be easier to pick up and put down. Once term starts, I will in theory have one day a week free from teaching, but this year it's a Friday, so it will be a struggle to make it productive if I'm exhausted. My first term is lighter on teaching, so I should some weeks at least have another day that is teaching-free. I think one task for next session will be to work out smaller chunks of research/writing that I can fit into a single day or odd hours.
Last week:
Plan and book research trip for September - HALF (trains booked, itinerary worked out, need to book accommodation)
Order scans of documents - NO
Finish reading a book from last week. - YES
Catch up on email - MOSTLY
Do urgent life admin (insurance, doctor's appointment) - YES
Do less urgent admin (other appointments). - NO
Do some steps towards kitchen project. - YES (looked at some websites)
This week:
1. Order scans
2. Read a book for review
3. Look through some primary sources to find examples for article.
4. Book accommodation for research trip.
5. Submit purchase requests to library
6. Make appointments (hairdresser, optician's)
7. More kitchen project
8. Nephew's birthday present.
A holiday as a divider can be very useful - it creates a real break and a deadline. I hope that works for you!
DeleteLooks like last week was a decent week in terms of still getting things done!
A big part of parking on a downhill slope for me is making a list for each project of things that need doing, in small chunks of 1-2 hours, and I divide it into ones that need quality brain work (e.g. polish this argument, write a first draft of that section) and ones which just require patience/attention (check all these references, recolour and touch up this diagram, fill in this table), so that when I do have a couple of hours I don't waste much time deciding what to do or working out where I was up to, i just pick from the list (I need some choice or my brain squirrels tend to rebel - they hate "put your shoes on" but I can usually coax them along with "red shoes or blue shoes?"). It also helps with those exhausted end of the week days - because the things are 1-2 hours (even if that means putting the same task on the list as three items), it doesn't feel too daunting to "just do a bit of this one" and sometimes I keep going, other times I just stop after one and have a nap or make a stew or read a novel, but as long as there is something added to the done list I can feel that I am making progress as best I can.
Because it's worth remembering that UK grants etc. assume we only work 37.5 hours a week, 40 hours with half hour lunch breaks each day, and most academics easily sail past that 40 hours when you count over seven days. personally, I've taken to aiming to take a longer lunch or stop early on Friday and use an hour or two on Sunday afternoon for a "meeting with myself" when I go over the coming week, clean out any stray emails, check things off lists, make a rough plan and pick out the first thing I will do on Monday morning, etc. - which actually helps reduce the Sunday Scaries and makes Monday morning easier. Same principle as packing lunches and picking out outfits the night before!
Thanks - those are good tips. And it's good to be reminded about the 37.5 hour week. I do often do a Sunday check-in (this group is very useful for that). I probably also need to think more in terms of time spent well/things achieved than maximum hours worked i.e. if I only get an hour of solid writing done, that's nonetheless better than three hours staring out of the window trying to find some energy.
DeleteQuality over quantity! Very important - academia can have such a long hours/more is better culture...
DeleteSitting in the airport hotel (early flight tomorrow, and internet was out at my flat), I'd welcome Augtember. Things start getting real next week at work, so I have to start thinking seriously about teaching and the fall. Anyway, I'm terrible with transitions, and generally try to protect one day a week for writing. That will be hard this fall, as I teach Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday we have department meetings, and I have tons of weekend travel. So this will be a challenge. I may just block off the Fridays I'm at home and say I'm unavailable! I need blocks of time to concentrate, so . . .
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
Try to finish first round revisions on Famous Author. I think I can... ALMOST
Keep up with stuff at work. I THINK SO
Don't let email get out of control. SUCCESS
Do nice things (several planned, this is certain) Lovely exhibit of Berthe Morisot, dinner with my god-daughter, and then a somewhat crazy trip to a favorite place to see an old (i.e. 97 years old) friend.
Mostly a successful week. I needed one more day to finish the revisions, but I'm pretty happy with where I am. I've blocked out a trip later this month to My Favorite Library (TM) where I can finish the last bits. Otherwise, life is more or less under control. It's weird not to be worrying about my mother, and also strange not to be picking something up for her. Grief is so unpredictable.
Goals for this week:
1. Get home and re-settled
2. Draft syllabi, put welcome page up on course website etc.
3. Plan events for incoming grad students
4. For Famous Author, order needed books on Interlibrary Loan. (I love ILL. Just saying...)
5. Read what I've done so far, make sure style is consistent
6. Read article that is long overdue for journal.
7. See friends, do something nice
Hope you have a smooth journey home and re-entry isn't too jarring. Grief is such a strange thing - my grandad died 30 years ago and gift-getting times like Christmas are still times when I have a little moment of acute missing him - he had a great sense of humour and was really fun to buy for, so most years I see something and think "ooooh he'd love that" and then...
DeleteSounds like you had a good week with some real solid fun items in it! It sounds like a busy fall coming up, especially with travel on top of teaching and meetings - good luck protecting time!
The unpredictability of grief is one of the hardest aspects. You can be doing ok, and then something will blindside you, and it isn't always even obvious what it is. Safe travels. It sounds as if your trip has been productive and fun.
DeleteIf I can get a bunch of data organization done and manage to plan out some very specific tasks for the firs weeks of term I will feel good about my chance of doing something worthwhile with writing when classes start. I usually do a lot of prep the last week of August and first week of September when I teach a 2 week residential field course. The first few days I am in the woods, after an introduction the students are more on their own so I some blocks of time that are great for teaching prep. That whole class means I start the term tired but then it actually gets better so that is nice.
ReplyDeleteGoals:
Did ok with field work, made the executive decision to send students alone for next planned week, I just cannot take any more being away with people. And another student is in the midst of writing crisis before defense and I need time to really focus on that thesis so it is acceptable for defense. So I will do that instead of the field week. Still have two weeks of foeld teachong to go so not like I am slacking off...
Did in fact book week of camping and activities for me and kid so my only goal this week is:
Vacation for 5 days, no work and only very minimal email once a day! Yay!
Have a great week!
Daisy here, login issues...
Hi Daisy, and well done for saying no! It sounds like your students will cope fine after all the mentoring you've done and the one needing help with writing will benefit - plus you deserve some time to sleep in your own bed!
DeleteI guess one plus of the teaching field trip is that the blocks of work time you can squeeze in are like a mini writing retreat - not much else to do. I've added some writing afternoons to the schedule for my final year project students this year - and that will be multi-tasking for me!
Have a wonderful vacation, you've definitely earnt it!
Have a great week on vacation!
DeleteI hope you and your kid have a wonderful time!
DeleteI'm definitely doing rabbit-in-the-headlights about the oncoming trimester! I still have to move offices, and I don't even know where I'm going (I got told at the end of last week that I can't have the office I was assigned so need to pick somewhere else, but they don't have the list of options I can pick from yet. Sigh!). I started the process of informing the university about the ADHD, and my HoD sent me the form he has to complete to add parts to it - he'd put that I already had accommodations in place which were that "there are discussions in place to reduce her workload to closer to 80% FTE" which is, I remind you, my contracted hours - that's not an ACCOMMODATION, it's just, well, management? Grrrr. And the draft timetable came out today and I am allocated classes in rooms on the far side of campus which are not pleasant to teach in or well ventilated - for small group sessions. I get it if it's for a large or specialist room, but there are multiple rooms in every building on my side of campus which can fit these groups. GRRRR. Basically I'm already done and fed up with the lot of them and it's not even term time yet!! I finally get to start the ADHD meds trial next week, so maybe that will help...
ReplyDeleteThe return of the reading mojo also led to a couple of very late nights/early mornings when I hit an unexpectedly "sticky" story which I just had to finish, but y'know, it's nice to be back there regardless.
LAST WEEK'S GOALS
Self-care: Plan what to do with decluttering time. Do at least seven small things to improve my environment. Do at least an hour in total on sorting out my financial paperwork chaos. Move intentionally 5-10 minutes a day (small goals...) rescheduled decluttering (I ate something that disagreed with me, didn't sleep well for two nights running and was just not in the right space to make proper use of it - it's not easy even if the declutterer does most of the physically hard stuff!), YES to 7 things, YES to an hour and NO to moving intentionally every day
Work. Check work email no more than once a workday outside of work day. Check in about the move, start last required training course.YES, tried but no response until being told the news above, no but I did take a refresher course related to the lab area I work in so i did SOME learning
on the teaching side - meet remaining MSc project students and PhD students, chase up possible intern, tick off at least one thing from the teaching list, mark resits NOT QUITE - one MSc student is being elusive but is replying to emails at least, YES - interviewed & made an offer, just waiting to hear back, YES, PARTIALLY - lots of students have extensions but I marked all the work that came in on time
research: check what I need to do to prepare for next week's meetings, tick off one small list item.YES (but couldn't do them all as some depended on other people sending me things, which only happened yesterday, sigh), YES although it was teeny
Fun. Play D&D AND do some D&D planning. Finish one fiction book, continue one non-fiction. Crochet some rows on the grounded blanket. Draw something. Add to summer wish list for non- work days. Maybe start watching a series. YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, NO, NO
It was an up and down week, but that's good because there were more productive days between the "urghh stop the world I want to get off" ones.
GOALS FOR THE LAST WEEK OF THE SESSION (aarghhh):
Delete** Self-care: Do at least seven small things to improve my environment. Do at least an hour in total on sorting out my financial paperwork chaos. Move intentionally 5-10 minutes a day. Sort out Uncle's birthday mailing.
** Work. Check work email no more than once a workday outside of work day. Approve meeting minutes from last academic year. Check in about the move. Start last required training course. Send email to schedule meeting about conference next year.
**** Work - teaching - feed back to all MSc students on the text they've sent. Check timetable, and pencil in my diary (since my classes are different every week). Review August timetable and aim to assign one day per first semester module for prep work (five modules if I group the second and third year skills ones where I teach basically the same content with different case studies for different cohorts of students - all are team taught to some degree). Mark late resits.
**** work - research: go through draft supplementary information for Very Overdue Paper. Work on the draft for consultancy paper.
Make thing for Oddball Paper & send off.
** Fun. Play D&D AND do some D&D planning. Finish one fiction book, continue one non-fiction. Crochet some rows on the grounded blanket. Draw something. Add to summer wish list for non- work days. watch a movie.
Sympathy. I know it's hard to be confrontational and you shouldn't have to be, but I wonder if you perhaps need to get stroppy and point out that they have a legal duty to provide proper accommodations. Don't negotiate or explain, just send timetabling an email that says you can't teach in those rooms because they don't meet your recognised needs. Sometimes a flat refusal is what is needed. But it's hard and you shouldn't have to.
DeleteI got an email yesterday to say that I need to pack up my office this week ahead of a move that will be happening on the 18th, and that I will need to unpack all the crates by the 25th. I am away 19th-26th. I suspect I will have to spend the 18th unpacking crates as well as packing for the holiday. Like you, I am fed-up with my institution even before the year starts!
Oh for heaven's sake---that's lousy planning on the part of your university! As if no one ever traveled in August, or nailed down their plans more than a couple of weeks in advance! What happens if you don't unpack the crates? Are they just going to take them away again? Unpack for you and leave things randomly in the new office?
DeleteAnd I agree about just saying No. JaneB, I hope this isn't overstepping, but I wonder if you are as accommodating as you are because of autism making it hard to see when you can be firm and when not, so it has always been easier to "be nice" because then you know you aren't over some line of inappropriate behavior that other people see but you don't. I have a trace of this, due I think to having been raised by wolves (i.e. older brothers), so what I think is perfectly normal give-and-take is Horribly Aggressive to people who didn't have wolves for littermates, so it's hard to see where their lines are.
I meant to say, so the diagnosis might be useful in getting insight into this kind of interaction.
DeleteWhat IS it with universities and treating their staff so callously? If they tell me to pack everything in a day it just won't happen - I can't do it! I have a LOT of stuff, I can't reach some of the shelving, and my creaky hands and joint issues just... won't. They'll either have to help (in a previous set of moves they hired a removal company to pack, move, and unpack everyone's stuff (it was quite funny listening in on the removal team's complete confusion about "these effing books. Why do they all have so many books?") or give me the time to sort things out (and enlist help...). I know I have too much stuff in my office but a) I am a magpie/packrat type keeper of stuff, b) I TOLD them I needed to stay in a small office or my stuff would mushroom, c) I'm an academic - when I started this career everything was on paper, and I still like to work that way and d) I have not had TIME to purge or organise or scan or consolidate. There is never time...
DeleteI really hadn't thought of it that way, Dame Eleanor. I am definitely someone who is always on the wrong foot, feels I have to demonstrate my value and do more because I am not valued for myself and not doing enough. I'm still very much tiptoeing around the autism thing - it's not an identity on its own that had really occurred to me as applying before I learnt about joint diagnosis with autism and ADHD (AuDHD for typing convenience) - that DOES make sense. Because the combination of not knowing how social things work/how to read whether I really am annoying people or going overboard, along with being blindsided by too many social/professional negatives in the past and the "too dramatic, too needy, neurotic" feedback I've had from different people at various points in my career, along with ADHD's over-reaction to negative events/rejection - yes, that's a helpful way of looking at things!
And why I'm still pretty frustrated that the NHS have decided that psycho-social counselling is no longer an option for ADHD adults in my area (and the autism diagnosis waiting list is very long). Sigh!
It's also really hard to say no because my accommodations are not properly documented and nor are the reasons for them because no-one was ever keen on doing it (either head of department or Occupational Health staff) and because I don't have single tidy diagnoses - partly because GPs in the UK can be very reluctant to document in ways which the university will deign to accept - especially things like mental health, or joint problems which are obviously "just" because of my weight/peri-menopause, or fatigue. It's difficult! But I need to work on it...
Very late check-in so I'll be quick (we were at my in-laws' for several days, and I wasn't feeling terribly well--weird aches and fatigue; hope I don't have lyme disease!--so I did nothing).
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Write 2000 words - YES
2. Format 1/2 of anniversary book pages - YES
3. Invite at least some panelists! - YES, and they have all agreed
4. Read two essays for class, finish reading AL (and LK, if possible) - NOT REALLY; only finished AL, which was short
5. Weed back hill - NO
6. Various appointments, meetings, etc. - YES
7. Finish creating/writing community presentation on zero waste - NEARLY
This week (such as it is):
1. Finish content of proceedings essay (citation formatting to come later)
2. Start freezing tomato products (12 tartlets and at least one big batch of sauce)--we picked up about 100 pounds of tomatoes down in Pennsylvania
3. Finish formatting and print anniversary book pages
4. Move offices (Friday)
So sorry you weren't feeling well---are you doing better now? Getting checked for Lyme? Great news about the panelists; it's always a relief to get sessions filled without a lot of scrambling. That's a LOT of tomatoes! And this sure sounds like the summer of office-moving in this group!
Delete