Hello to all our stars!
Your mid-movie check-ins were all excellent, and it was great to see all the progress, it will be amazing footage. Even better, great to see the willingness to adjust expectations and goals to reflect circumstances, we all know that is necessary but sometimes it is hard to do.
Logistics for the week… After the extremely enthusiastic response to our massage therapist we’ve talked to finance and hired her company to be a permanent presence on set. The sign-up sheet will be on the information bulletin board, go wild!
The entire stock of red wine is finished, we do have another shipment coming so your patience is appreciated. While we are waiting we have a great shipment from the local cidery to try, there is a variety of alcohol-free ones too, the elderberry one is particularly good. We also found a few cases of whiskey in the gaffer’s trailer when we had to remove the raccoons, he’s sending a couple of those over to the big room with the fireplace in the central lodge, help yourself. Due to the enthusiastic response to the local red wine several artisanal cheese-makers have also sent over samples, and we even have a box from the local chocolatier. Please try all of them, we love supporting local businesses and have paid for all the merchandise already so enjoy!
Just a safety note, while it is getting colder there is definitely not enough ice on the lake for skating, ice-fishing, unicorn races, or sledding. The inflatable unicorn has been relocated to the indoor pool. We also bought a set of mini inflatable unicorns that can be used in the hot tub without losing their glitter. We’re holding a raffle contest to name them, put your suggestions in the jar at reception.
For this week we are talking character development. The director has asked me to collect some thoughts from everyone on how they would like see their character grow professionally over the course of our story. Everything changes, so do we, and we have a chance to reflect on how to direct those changes. This can be longer than one movie of course, don’t feel limited by the length of our time together. So for this week let us know in the comments if you feel like it… What is something that you would like to see change in your professional self? Is it something about how you work, how you write, how you do your research? And for a bonus… Is there any part of that change that you could incorporate into the second half of this session?
Goals from last week below, have a wonderful week everyone!
Dame Eleanor
Hull
- take care of car problem
- swim once, cross-trainer twice, weights at least once, walk at least once,
yoga more or less daily
- revise assignments for mini-class
- research 1 hour x 5, mainly Latin, conference paper project
- do some mending
- work with my husband on winter trip plans
Julie
1. Teaching
prep.
2. Review for PhD student
3. Prepare for visiting speaker URGENT
4. Meet with dissertation students.
5. Write for two hours (article revisions) - colleague is organising a writing
retreat, so will try to keep that slot free.
6. If kitchen finished, arrange cupboards etc.
JaneB (held over)
a) pace
myself, allow time and space for counselling/GP stuff and reacting to
counselling, morning pages
b) reinstate some key habits - move intentionally for at least 10 minutes a
day, 5 fruit & veg., picking up spaces that get messy, filling in my daily
log, taking vitamins. (keeping the last two because it's nice to have some easy
wins!)
c) basic environment stuff - catch up with bin emptying, dish washing, filing
financial papers. keep up with laundry!
d) do at least one thing from the non-basic environmental stuff list (little
jobs)
Work stuff, not divided into three categories for now:
e) do email triage on no more than two week days for no more than 2 hours total
f) write some coherent points for the Individual Risk Assessment/Reasonable
Adjustments requests I'll need to discuss on return to work
Fun: (I consider this medicinal in the current circumstances)
g) at least a couple of blocks of time reading, crochet, and playing or
preparing D&D. Do the next seven Inktober sketches, never mind which day.
h) make cards, wrap & send two packages - a birthday present for my Aunt
and a Hallowe'en care package for my nibling
heu mihi
1. Work on
ch. 2 loose ends
2. Reread, polish, submit Freiburg paper
3. Finish and submit teaching award nominations and hiring requests
4. Start planning ch. 6
5. Grad students: Read other student's exam essays; read 25 pp. of different
student's dissertation
6. Look over article for secondary journal
Susan (held over)
1. Finish at
least three more papers from Big Collaboration and send them back. If I'm doing
really well, I'll do more, but not going to pressure myself.
2. Get the next week of LMS stuff posted before I go.
3. Prepare for conference
4. Have fun at conference
5. Try not to worry too much about what's happening at home.
Contingent Cassandra
Professional:
--Grade as many as possible of the composition proposals
--Make some progress on grading lit process work
Household:
--Finish fall sowing in garden
--Measure and mark new location for compost pile and begin turning/moving
--Do at least one thing that gets something out of or better
organized/containerized in the apartment
Personal:
--2x some kind of movement: stretching, weight-lifting, long or short walk
--Initiate 2 key email exchanges for church committee work
--Get in touch with at least one young-adult niebling
Daisy
Another
trip, lab fun, for 4 days
Meet with coauthors and edit paper draft from post-doc
Do introductions for two papers
Do one figure for each paper
Brilliant! Thank you, Daisy, I LOL'd all over the place in this one. And a great prompt, too! I'll be back later to check in and respond to it, but I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading this post.
ReplyDeleteAwwww, thank you!!
DeleteFirst of all, I love the whole scenario right now--it's such a fun place to imagine myself! I especially enjoy imagining being so *spoiled.* It's a little hard to get used to, even in imagination, but what fun.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is a really good prompt for me right now. I had a rough week last week, although everything is ultimately fine. There was what appeared to be a complete scheduling melt-down for the spring; courses have been listed publicly, with registration starting tomorrow, and *most* of my program's courses were appearing as "closed." We were also asked to reschedule about 90% of our discussion sections (for TAs), which was utterly impossible. It turns out that this was all a convergence of a) typically room-scheduling delays, b) a new scheduling person who's still learning the ropes, and c) the loss of a couple of classrooms to construction. Everything has been solved.
Also (with apologies for making the story so long), a Highly Competent But Difficult Colleague was pretty pointedly frosty to me in meeting that I was running (and frosty to others, too, frankly), which sent me into a whole loop of self-doubt and consternation.
BUT! I went to a workshop on Thursday on dealing with difficult colleagues, and it was actually really helpful. When we were in small groups talking about Difficult Situations, I was venting (anonymously) about this person, and the woman sitting next to me said, "Can I ask you a pokey question? Why does it matter what she thinks?" --I *knew* that, but having someone else ask--it was very clarifying, about which parts of my issues with her have to do with ego (= not important) and which parts have to do with doing our jobs (= important).
So! I would like my character to grow in a certain kind of skin-thickness, of being able to remain calm and decisive even when other people consternate. That's what I need to learn.
Last week:
1. Work on ch. 2 loose ends - Yes, some
2. Reread, polish, submit Freiburg paper - Yes, mostly; waiting on an ILL before I can submit it (I need to check a note)
3. Finish and submit teaching award nominations and hiring requests - YES, this was such a pain
4. Start planning ch. 6 - Yes, a bit
5. Grad students: Read other student's exam essays; read 25 pp. of different student's dissertation - Yes, No
6. Look over article for secondary journal - Yes, there were TWO of them
This week:
1. Many many meetings, comprehensive exam session, coffee hour for program, more meetings, BLAH BLAH BLAH
2. Read 25 pp. of advisee's dissertation
3. Work on ch. 6 x 6
4. Ch. 2--more loose ends
5. Accompany kiddo on church youth retreat (I'm hoping that I'll get some work done??)
6. Now that it's lighter in the mornings, run at least a few times!
Lots of things done! Way to go keeping up with all the things!
DeleteI like the question about why it matters what some people think, I suspect we all have a core group whose opinions really matter and a larger group whose opinions should matter a whole lot less... Articulating who is in whcih group is a very interesting exercise!
There are different levels of "mattering." Some people can really affect outcomes; some can shift the mood of a meeting and so make it harder to get things done; some just get under our skin (because they remind us of someone else? because they're just irritating?). I have at least one colleague for whose opinion I don't give a rat's ass, but who can't be brushed aside, either. Sometimes it's less effort to do things his way than to fight the good fight, but the trick is to think of it in terms of what's the least work for me.
DeleteI hope you get out to run and enjoy it!
I LOVE this post, Daisy! I am going to look out for an inflatable unicorn, I feel like it should be a TLQ mascot. Preferably one with glitter.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about the prompt all day. Last week was full-on, but surprisingly productive, I think because I was very disciplined at keeping to a schedule and making use of what time I had. Today I had much less on and was less productive. So I would like to find ways of keeping discipline going regardless of how little or how much time I have. Last week I did a lot on Monday, which set me up for the week. Today, not so much, so try again tomorrow.
A thicker skin would also be nice. I'm not sure if it's grief, or menopause, or female socialisation or all three, but I waste a lot of emotional energy on difficult colleagues and students, and it would be nice not to give them so much bandwidth. I should get JaneB's 'Never let an 18 year-old spoil your day' as a tattoo. Or embroider it on a sampler to go with the unicorn.
Last week:
1. Teaching prep - YES
2. Review for PhD student - YES (and she was very interesting to talk to)
3. Prepare for visiting speaker URGENT - YES (exhausting, but she was lovely, her research is amazing, so definitely worth it)
4. Meet with dissertation students. - YES (all OK)
5. Write for two hours (article revisions) - colleague is organising a writing retreat, so will try to keep that slot free. - YES
6. If kitchen finished, arrange cupboards etc. - YES (not totally finished, but enough to arrange cupboards and actually cook in, yay!)
This week:
Timetabling patterns this term mean I get every other week relatively free, so overall goal is to make the most of this.
1. Teaching prep (one lecture)
2. 3 x meetings (1 difficult, 1 useful, 1 blah)
3. Article revisions
4. Conversation about work for research assistant.
5. Read PhD thesis for viva in 2 weeks time.
6. Find people to fix two house problems
7. Go to farm shop to stock up.
8. Take some stuff to charity
9. Exercise
10. Make soup, try some new recipes.
That was a great week of getting things done, and extra credit for doing the kitchen cupboards! Way to go!
DeleteI aslo found it is easier to be disciplined when everytbing is crazy busy, just because there is no wiggle room. The slightly more relaxed days can easily be sucked up by puttering and random things that get left out of the super busy ones. I like timetracking to help with that, even if it only helps to document the random stuff it still feels better than wondering what I did all day after the fact...
During perimenopause I was sometimes a rage machine and people got to me a lot, but post-menopause there are so many things I just don't care about anymore. It's lovely.
DeleteI'm glad to hear that your kitchen is done and you can cook! And a writing retreat, even just two hours, sounds fantastic.
The thing that frustrates me most about my working style is that I have historically been pretty bad at setting up good systems to track things consistently. I am really good at keeping track of stuff informally and 98% of the time I can find everything I need, so I can totally get away with not having systems... But it takes extra effort and I know it could be so much easier with good systems. Also, nobody else would have a clue how to find anything if I was indisposed so that is not great. I would really like to be better at using systems for tracking/organizing, and be better at keeping up with them – I set things up but do not follow them consistently, and then I think of better ways to do it, and then I change the set-up, and then don’t follow the system, and so on and so on. For this term my aim is a good workflow and sample tracking system with coherent rules that will grow with my lab and last for the next 30 years….
ReplyDeleteLast week’s goals
Another trip, lab fun, for 4 days DONE AND FABULOUS
Meet with coauthors and edit paper draft from post-doc NOPE BUT SCHEDULED
Do introductions for two papers ONE DONE
Do one figure for each paper ONE DONE
That was a great week, the trip was excellent and lab time was lots of fun. The last time I was there was only a week before the world started to shut down here, so it was great being back. I had forgotten what an escape the lab work was, nobody to worry about or offend when I work all night, can exist on beer and wings from the U-club, and fresh data every day! So the part after the trip where I am late on literally everything else is worth it… This week will have lots of admin and marking and catching up!
This week’s goals
Mark midterms
Mark reports and grad papers
Accounting for community organization
Thesis defense (as external reader)
Paper meeting and revised draft
Introductions for both new papers
I'm so glad you had a great week! Getting influxes of fresh data is very exciting. Tracking systems are such a struggle. I have no advice, but much sympathy.
DeleteSo glad you had a good trip. Sympathies on the tracking. I could also do with some systems: I read stuff and then forget I've read it.
DeleteCharacter development: there was a time, or maybe I mean there have been periods, when I had a really good daily writing habit. It was like brushing my teeth. I did *something* every day, even if it was just a hundred words of notes on a book I was reading. Some years I even kept a spreadsheet of scholarly activities (writing, reading, translating, "other"). It has been a long time since I've been so good about working every day, and years since I've done the productivity spreadsheet. I think the pandemic was the main thing that did me in, along with finishing a couple of large projects. Spending so much time learning to teach online, followed by the delight of getting back into the classroom, had a deleterious effect on the "write every day" habit. In some ways, I like feeling more relaxed about work. Writing still happens, and I enjoy it, and it's nice not to feel like I "have" to put some time in, when it gets to the end of the day and I'm tired. OTOH I also enjoyed the feeling of productivity, and knowing that however I felt, I was making progress, and that I had the data to prove it. The idea of going back to the spreadsheet makes me feel tired! But I think I would like to find a happy balance between relaxed and productive. Certainly I'd like to get that "write every day" habit back.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
- take care of car problem: YES
- swim once, cross-trainer twice, weights at least once, walk at least once, yoga more or less daily. YES to all; the day I got to the pool, I swam a whole mile.
- revise assignments for mini-class: YES!! Woot! Finally!
- research 1 hour x 5, mainly Latin, conference paper project. NO; the car took most of a couple of days, somehow, and teaching prep also ate a lot of time. Further, we had friends over for a Guy Fawkes celebration, which was lovely, but there went an afternoon plus evening. OTOH I've done well at my mini AcWriMo project, putting in ten minutes a day thinking about a chapter of my book that I've done very little work on, so far. So that's a step back toward the write-every-day habit.
- do some mending. NO
- work with my husband on winter trip plans. NO.
Huh. It felt like a good week, because of the ten-minutes-a-day, the mile swim, the assignment revisions, and the time with friends. I guess the last two noes are on things that aren't that important.
New goals:
- take care of new car problem (already done, actually)
- swim at least once, cross-trainer twice, weights twice, walk at least once, yoga more or less daily
- write another assignment for mini-class
- grade a set of papers
- research 1 hour x 5, mainly Latin, conference paper project; ten minutes a day on KW chapter
- look at some MS images (being consultant to another scholar)
- do some mending
- set up and use calendar pages in Moleskine
- work with my husband on winter trip plans
Way to go on the swimming! That is pretty impressive distance... and on the progress on the mini writing project, mini things can turn into all kinds of fun!
DeleteDaily writing seems such an amazing thing, but sometimes so far out of reach. Maybe next session? Something to aim for!
Hope trip plans come together!
Swimming a mile is impressive, as is writing every day!
ReplyDelete