Well! NEWSCOMI keeps sending out more and more announcements about end-of-term meetings, votes, award ceremonies, and on and on. If you haven't been running one of these, or on the speech-making or receiving end of an award, you've probably been deleting these messages and trying to get on with your work. But please keep in mind that next week (28 April) we will be having our own party here at the Ad Hoc Research Support Group of NEWSCOMI. Remember, we said back on 15 January, "We'll have fifteen goal-setting weeks, a mid-term check-in on session goals, and a final 'party' reporting on session goals on 28 April."
(In view of the limited support we get from the institution, it would be handy if we could get some volunteers to bring snacks and drinks next weekend, though I may be able to coax some lemon bars and tea out of the catering staff to get us started; our most helpful adminicritters don't like citrus flavors, so I think I can score their share of the lemon bars. Please add your food/drink offers to your comments.)
Nonetheless, we have one more week for setting goals and trying to meet them! And thanks to Dean Tabitha (may her tail grow ever fluffier), we have a limited number of Time-Turners available for checkout. Of course you may wish to offer her some treats in appreciation for the loan! Probably some flavor other than salmon would be desirable, as salmon tends to have, er, unfortunate results on digestion in the Dean's office.
So, what magic would you like to achieve this week? What magical assistance do you have or desire? Is there anyone for whom you can work magic? Let us know in the comments, along with how you did on last week's goals.
Last week's goals:
Daisy
Paper revisions, seriously…
Start other paper revisions
Planning meeting for new paper
Clean up all teaching samples
Mark exams and submit all grades
Exercise x5
Dame Eleanor Hull
Have fun
Get enough exercise without wearing myself out
Make it to the airport on time
Unpack, laundry, sort mail, take stock
heu mihi
OBE?
JaneB
** self care: Daily Journalling, physical care through
movement and food choices and Boring Stuff, care for my environment through
routine tasks, adding in a couple of less routine tasks and paperwork type
tasks like financial review and finding out about Access to Work scheme
** Fun - read a novel, start a non-fiction book,
knit/crochet, do some art, do some D&D prep, play D&D at least once.
** Work and boundaries - follow up from employment advisor
meeting, maintain boundaries and grey-rock the Interim Head of Dept check in
meeting, do limited work hours (I have three grad student meetings)
** work projects - nothing
Julie
1. Proofs for article - urgent.
2. Online meetings with dissertation students.
3. Finish marking.
4. Review revised journal article.
5. Work on grant application (have blocked out Friday
morning for online writing retreat).
6. Exercise
7. Healthy eating.
8. Important house job.
Susan
1. Really finish the introduction
2. Follow up with people who need to send bibliographies
3. Start looking at Famous Author again.
4. Work in Garden
5. Do something fun
6. Eat/ sleep / move
Woot! I finally managed to get the formatting to settle down. That seems like magic in and of itself. As to further refreshments for next week, since it seems like I'm always the one shouting "Champagne!" over at my blog and in various iterations of this one, I'll offer unlimited bubbly, which will taste delicious to you whatever your tastes are, and which will get you only as tiddly as you want to be (including the magical effect of Instant Sobriety if you suddenly need it). I'm sure we all deserve a drink at this point in the term!
ReplyDeleteI brought a cold back from Paris, and I would be most grateful if it would magically take itself off tomorrow, though given the usual wisdom of "seven days if you treat it and a week if you don't," I probably have another 2-3 days of sniffling to endure. As it is, I'm feeling rather low energy and doubtful that I will be a real go-getter this week.
How I did:
Have fun: YES. 2 museums, another dinner with a friend, lots of wandering around a beautiful city with my favorite person. AND I was reunited with my lovely cats for the weekend!
Get enough exercise without wearing myself out. YES and NO? Definitely enough exercise. Also rather worn out!
Make it to the airport on time. YES, all went smoothly.
Unpack, laundry, sort mail, take stock. YES to all but the last . . . feel a bit overwhelmed by re-entry!
New goals:
Well. Having looked back at my midterm check-in, there's not much point in trying to make a mad dash to try to meet even my modified session goals! So I'll keep this modest and process-based.
- Keep "working hours" of 9-12 plus a couple of hours in the afternoon, most days
- Exercise as energy allows
- Do some fun and/or restful things
Sorry you've come back with a cold (hopefully not Covid?). Every time I travel now, I find myself thinking about how poorly ventilated spaces are, and just how germ-ridden the atmosphere must me - legacy of the pandemic! But glad you had an amazing time in Paris.
DeleteI'm glad the trip went well, even if a bug is one of the souvenirs! Progress goals are very important...
DeleteGiven the timing, I probably caught it on a day that I spent almost entirely outdoors! And it's certainly behaving like a cold, rather than my one definite and one possible experience of Covid. One of the advantages of never going anywhere for a few years was that I was never ill---but I'm not sure that's a good exchange.
DeleteBoo hiss on the cold. We forgot how miserable those could be. I hope you feel better soon!
DeleteI'm so out of touch I didn't even know that you were going to Paris! I'm glad that you had fun, and I hope that the cold is out the door by now.
DeleteWell, I made blueberry and banana muffins this morning, if those would be acceptable for the party? What are Dean Tabitha's views on tuna, if salmon is no longer welcome?
ReplyDeleteThe magic I would like this week is (a) for my remaining essays to mark themselves, (b) for the committee that awarded me a grant last year that I haven't managed to spend to accept my request to spend it in alternative ways and (c) for the rules that are threatening to make hiring a post-doc from outside the UK unbelievably complicated to disappear. I suspect (c) requires particularly advanced magic as so far no one has actually been able to tell me what the rules are, just that there are rules.
Last week:
1. Proofs for article - urgent. - YES
2. Online meetings with dissertation students. - YES to one, others seem to be AWOL
3. Finish marking. - NO
4. Review revised journal article. - NO (turns out not due until 16th May, so postponed)
5. Work on grant application (have blocked out Friday morning for online writing retreat). - YES
6. Exercise - YES (run x 3 - only because no teaching)
7. Healthy eating. - ISH
8. Important house job - NO.
This week:
1. Finish marking!
2. Application to funding committee
3. Library requests
4. Read at least one library request
5. Work on grant application.
6. Read colleague's book introduction for workshop
7. Meet 2 PhD students
8 Two exam preparation sessions
9. Exercise
10. Life admin: eye test, orthodontist for son, look up flights for daughter's summer plans.
The muffins sound lovely, thank you! Congrats on getting the proofs done and some work on your grant application---but sorry to hear about the simultaneously existing yet unlisted rules regarding your post-doc hiring. They're probably caught in some sort of magical buffer that won't allow them either to manifest or to disappear.
DeleteMuffins sound awesome. I'm not sure about Dean Tabitha, but Assistant Associate Provost Ginger George will take tuna. Just not chicken, please.
DeleteHello everyone. As we've got a magical drink and some sweet food, I'd like to contribute some good old fashioned seasonal tea time savouries - tiny cheese and wild garlic scones, finger sandwiches with herby cream cheese or egg mayonnaise with cress, bite-sized feta and caramelised onion tartlets.
ReplyDeleteIt's been an up and down week, with something on every week day, and my brain is very much in "cannot do anything, WAITING" mode because next week I have a physio appointment about my hip/lower back problem (finally made one, and crossing everything in hopes of actual help not just a weight loss lecture) AND my first offical day back at work on campus (Occ Health said "half day", Interim Head said "that's just advice, I want you in for a 10am meeting and a 3pm meeting" which, given parking, means I'll be in at least 8am-4pm (unless I leave early. I may leave early, even though the 3pm is Vice Chancellor Tours Schools So Three Line Whip). Sigh! I'm doing better than I was at the end of last year, but I still hit a proper, brain-won't-brain, body-aches-and-doesn't-work-properly bouts of fatigue at least once or twice a day, and need to take an hour or more and if possible lie down to get past them, which is really worrying me about commuting and being at work where there is nowhere to lie down, I can't close my office door due to "issues", and I'm expecting to be quite over-socialised! But it has to be tried, at least. Still having substantial "FOMO" over not having taken the exit package... but that would have brought its own pain. And the UK HE system is in a real mess right now so probably there will be other opportunities...
The weather is very up and down at the moment, sometimes it's unseasonally warm, lots of wind, lots of general confusion. One of the reasons Spring is my LEAST favourite season!
LAST WEEK'S GOALS:
** self care: Daily Journalling, physical care through movement and food choices and Boring Stuff, care for my environment through routine tasks, adding in a couple of less routine tasks and paperwork type tasks like financial review and finding out about Access to Work scheme not really but I did write stuff on a discord group as well, ish, the decluttering person came so progress made there, APPLIED for the Access to Work scheme which took a while because of limited spaces on electronic forms
** Fun - read a novel, start a non-fiction book, knit/crochet, do some art, do some D&D prep, play D&D at least once. read part of a novel, did not start a new book, did some knitting, made a rather wonky bit of fan-art of a winged snake creature one of my D&D groups has kind of adopted, did some D&D prep and played twice.
** Work and boundaries - follow up from employment advisor meeting, maintain boundaries and grey-rock the Interim Head of Dept check in meeting, do limited work hours (I have three grad student meetings) no, ish - I managed to distract her to other matters, 11:30 - sigh.
** work projects - nothing just about!
NEXT WEEK:
** self care: Journalling, physical care through movement and food choices and Boring Stuff, care for my environment through routine tasks, adding in a couple of less routine tasks and paperwork type tasks like financial review, Physio appointment.
** Fun - read a novel, start a non-fiction book, knit/crochet, do some art, do some D&D prep, play D&D once (the game I play in rather than run is taking a week off).
** Work and boundaries - arrange next employment advisor meeting, advocate for myself and grey-rock the Interim Head of Dept check in meeting, do limited work hours (1 grad student meeting, three undergrads to meet, day on campus, feedback on a post-doc's grant application text, start marking dissertations, sort out timetabling requests for next year, try & get my computer sorted (my work computer is not working, has to go to the help desk in person so... colleague says this usually takes weeks to get sorted))
** work projects - nothing
Leave early! I give you permission! Really, I am longing to jump down the computer and do something nasty to your Interim Head. Thank you for the offer of savouries for our party next week; they sound lovely and also give me an idea for lunch today. Does having your work computer out of commission give you any leeway on the work you can/can't do, or are you trapped in some Kafka-esque situation where you don't have a computer yet are supposed to do things with the computer you don't have? I hope all the fun and self-care things get done, and wish you peace and strength for dealing with the work and paperwork stuff.
DeleteI second Dame Eleanor on the interim head. I'd come in late, to be present for the 3 line whip, but whatever. Your savory snacks sound delicious, and while I love to bake, I generally prefer savory to sweet snacks. And cheese and wild garlic scones sound to die for. Good luck with the week!
DeleteWell, I need to harvest the rest of the lemons on my lemon tree, and at least some of the grapefruit on my grapefruit tree. I know Dame Eleanor is trying to rescue lemon bars, but this winter I've discovered Mary Berry's lemon drizzle cake, which has had enthusiastic reviews from all who have tried it, so I'll make some more of that for our party. The rest of the lemons will make juice for the freezer, so I can make some home made lemonade.
ReplyDeleteI need magic right now: I've completely run out of steam. I think I'm mostly done with Big Collaboration for the time being (a few footnotes to fix, but otherwise nothing). But we've had 3 administrative searches, and I've gone to a session with every candidate so far. And I need to find a person to take over as interim chair for next year, and no one can do it.
1. Really finish the introduction YES (but now need to format notes as we agreed we should)
2. Follow up with people who need to send bibliographies YES
3. Start looking at Famous Author again. NO
4. Work in Garden YES
5. Do something fun YES
6. Eat/ sleep / move YES
I forgot that we had the campus open house on Saturday for admitted students, which meant a day in the sun, which wiped me out. (It's also fun, because lots of people, and you see folks from across campus, and talk to new students.) I also had a depressing meeting with our interim dean, who seemed confused about why I kept asking for the help I need. All I could think is, I've been saying this for 18 months, do I really have to explain it AGAIN? I did work in the garden, and I used a new tool I'd purchased, and managed to slice my thumb. The big challenge is picking up Famous Author again. I have a press that is interested in it, but they want it to be longer, so I have to really think. And I have no open days this week. I just have to sit and read what I have, and figure out where I'd expand. And I don't have the head space. I'm tired, not helped by Mr. Ginger George deciding I should get up at 4:30 AM.
So that's the moan.
Goals for this week:
1. Loose ends on Big Collaboration
2. Take time on Friday for Famous Author
3. All the adminology stuff (chair meeting, contact people, do ALL THE THINGS)
4. Do something fun (outdoor Shakespeare, other)
5. Garden: pick lemons, make juice, and maybe cake; pick grapefruit and start grapefruit-cello. Pull up weeds
6. Eat/ sleep/ move
(And I have stuff to finish up from the great work on the storage unit, mailing things to various people. It never ends.)
DeleteHave your interim dean and JaneB's interim head been seen in the same place at the same time? I mean, this is NEWSCOMI, they might well be letting the admincritters use time-turners instead of hiring enough critters to get the jobs done!
DeleteTo be fair to our interim dean, the number of fires she's had to put out because our previous dean was a Nice Man who left a lot of messes is staggering. And she finally got it. JUST SO TIRED.
DeleteOBE indeed! I am back! Barely! Remind me never to schedule travel for three consecutive weekends (+ Thursdays and Fridays) in a single month ever again.
ReplyDeleteThis week I am going to try to catch up--stay afloat--keep moving along.... We have three more weeks of classes (although I'm canceling my last one for Kalamazoo), and the workload is very much...present.
Goals:
1. Send out preliminary queries to publishers with whom I might meet at Kalamazoo
2. Host a visiting speaker on Wednesday, including multiple meals etc. and remembering to write an intro for her talk
3. Put notes from recent administrative-y conference into Teams file
4. Gen Ed review
5. Prepare for and attend abstract workshop on Thursday
6. Prepare/draft my part of a publishing workshop to take place next week (which will also shade over into my Kalamazoo roundtable)
7. Contact presenters on the panel I'm chairing with the usual reminders
8. Finish up provisional graduate student teaching schedule
Onward and upward, or sideways, or at least not falling down!
One foot in front of the other!
DeleteIt really is that time of the semester. Good luck.
DeleteOooh I would like a dose of motivation magic – some for me and some for students so we can all get through revisions and rewriting and editing and all those things that take forever but are hard but also totally worth it… The collective get-up-and-go got up and went so the revisions are quite a struggle…
ReplyDeleteLast week’s goals
Paper revisions, seriously… SOME
Start other paper revisions SOME
Planning meeting for new paper DONE
Clean up all teaching samples DONE
Mark exams and submit all grades DONE
Exercise x5 COUNTING FIELD TRIP, SO YES?
It is field school season and I’m leaving in a couple of days, so must pack and get ready for all of it. There will be minimal internet, which is good and bad. Hoping for good weather!
This week’s goals
PAPER REVISIONS x2
Pack/prepare for field school
Help student with revisions
And I will bring a big batch of chocolate brownies with lots of extra dark chocolate chips for the party!
DeleteYum! Thank you---will look forward to the brownies! It looks like you at least made progress on everything last week, with some DONE as well, so that is great, especially in the absence of get-up-and-go! Just keep moving forward! I hope you have loads of fun on your field school trips!
DeleteGood luck getting through everything so you're ready for field school! We can employ magic for good weather, right?
Delete