Prompt for this week is one we may have had before, so apologies if I'm duplicating, but sometimes reminders can be helpful. I'm thinking of this one as how do you get started when your batteries feel low? I got home this afternoon after a weekend away which was fun, but intense, and because of engineering works on the railway, the journey back today took six hours of trains and buses compared with the usual three to four hours. So I felt completely groggy and found myself sitting vacantly in a chair for a while not knowing where to start with unpacking bag, laundry, writing a shopping list, thinking about this post etc. In the end, I had a shower, read for twenty minutes and now still feel tired, but a bit more awake. Reading something, even if just for a few minutes, is often a way I can summon up a bit of energy. Going for a walk is another option. So what strategies or techniques do you have to get yourselves moving, literally or metaphorically, when you feel brain fogged?
Last week's goals:
Jane B
1) SELF-CARE (recovery and self-kindness)
* habits: something creative, D&D, read a novel, intentional movement 15
minutes x 3 days, a social thing
2) HOUSE-LIFE CARE
* 75% or more of the weekly minimal chores, tidy up the upstairs landing (one
day this WILL happen)
* a couple of small things off the list
3) TEACHING AND ADMIN
* prepare remainder of teaching for next week & do ViLE stuff
* write even more applicant letters
* meet with now-senior grad student to go through their technical terminology
(their phonetic spelling is amusing at times but science also needs
consistency...)
4) RESEARCH
* review article for journal
* if possible, spend an hour on reading/writing for vague grant idea
* if time, look at the Consultancy Paper that is back on my plate, sigh. I am
so fed up with this paper...
Heu mihi
1. Research: Edit (on paper) chapter 5 and conclusion. Take
a look at article due in April just to remember what I still have to do.
2. Grad students: Read intro and first chapter of a dissertation. Meet with
various people. Plan *and announce* memorial event for student who died in
December.
3. Teaching: Keep it going.
4. Exercise: Do what I can and forgive myself if I miss days.
Susan
1. Figure out the paper I'm giving in 2 weeks and write it.
(It's theme and variations with what I've done already, so not as daunting as
that sounds.)
2. Read next journal article for press, deal with the next version of "And
Also"
3. Figure out visit with old roommate who was recently widowed.
4. Make plans for conference in Boston the end of next week
5. Weights x 3, one good walk, one yoga
6. Keep up with the reading
7. Maybe do a few of the image permissions?
Dame Eleanor
- continue work on slides for at least one conference paper
- do some scholarly reading, take notes on whatever has stickies sticking out
- do some odds and ends of grading and ViLE stuff
- read/comment Thing for a friend
- fill in one set of forms that involves money
- yoga x5, trainer session if I'm healed up enough
- find & print some tax documents
- calls about an insurance bill
- more graduate applications (or maybe I'll leave them till after break!)
- sit outside on warm days
- 90-minute massage
- read something fun
- organize the linen closet; do some other tidying up
Daisy
ENDLESS student thesis stuff
Learn new music
Midterms, study guides, marking
Plan analytical work
Contingent Cassandra (carried over from last week)
--Continue work on site: figure out csv import; add
additional documents (both full documents & individual pages for
transcription); work on making site more easily navigable, especially from key
landing pages
--Draft call for transcribers and other helpers and run draft and site by
organizational leaders who need to okay distribution of the call via the
organization’s communication channels
--Finish signup directions and guidelines for transcribers, communicate with
people who have volunteered to test the directions/site
--Write department chair, program director, and scheduling coordinator re:
possible adjustments to fall schedule
--Write colleague who has recently dealt with HR/university’s medical leave
system for advice
--Continue movement, especially strength training of arms/shoulders (perhaps
begin using some of the recommended post-op stretches as warmups?)
--Do additional work in the garden (weeding, seed-sowing, mulching,
bed-building)
--Make progress on choosing/ordering refrigerator (and possibly stove), moving
over-fridge cabinet, other fridge-replacement-related moving around of things,
and/or packing/mailing returns.
--Plan/prioritize other household work
Julie
1. Finish the marking (due Thursday)
2. Somehow find time to work on grant application.
3. Final proper bit of teaching of term.
4. Finish booking train tickets, apply for daughter's provisional license,
optician's appointment, plan for weekend in London (son in a cross-country race
on Saturday).
Not something I'm great at - but stretching can be good, making a drink in a slightly fancy way (that might be using nice cup, loose leaf tea in a pot rather than a teabag, going to the trouble of making milk frothy for a coffee), making a list so things can be crossed off, starting with low hanging fruit tasks, or setting a timer (or starting a podcast with the sleep timer on) and saying I'll just do 10 minutes then I can have a nap - usually that turns into a longer phase of doing stuff. It depends a lot on my brain state, but sometimes I can also do quite well with one chapter of a book, one 5-10 minute task, one chapter...
ReplyDeleteBut honestly it feels hypocritical to suggest stuff like that when mostly I just get overwhelmed and don't do stuff at all (then worry about it in the small hours). it gets better soon...
LAST WEEK:
Was reading week, and I hoped for some time off, but Stuff Happened and I ended up nearly working my contract hours (which is noticeably less than a normal week, but more than I hoped). And the one day I went onto campus, the student I came in to meet cancelled, and the training I went to was utterly pointless (the slides had too small font, the lights were on above the board so the top part of the slide couldn't be seen, the entire session was academics being talked at - so at the LEAST it could have been on line, but it was In Person Only, Three Line Whip) and then they sent us all the slides and handouts by email AFTER the session - so too late to actually help with the cannot see the slides issue. So that was a giant annoyance. My hayfever is grumpy, so I keep getting headaches and sinus pressure and my skin is itching and the inside of my head and eye sockets is itching, and I'm also having a lot of joint pain (possibly because I'm not eating very well because, fed up!). And I spent a lot of the weekend in "anticipation mode" about the coming week, which is three long days on campus - the last "bad" teaching spell of the academic year - and there's frost forecast for mornings, which is just an extra ugh! On the plus side, the new Katherine Addison book arrived on Friday and was gobbled - not her best, but a satisfying read non-the-less and it's relatively rare these days I can properly fall into a book for a day, so that was nice!
1) SELF-CARE (recovery and self-kindness)
* habits: something creative, D&D, read a novel, intentional movement 15 minutes x 3 days, a social thing no, yes, several, yes 3 days, no
2) HOUSE-LIFE CARE
* 75% or more of the weekly minimal chores, tidy up the upstairs landing (one day this WILL happen) about 65%, no (and I tripped on one of the piles and made it worse, GRRR)
* a couple of small things off the list no
3) TEACHING AND ADMIN
* prepare remainder of teaching for next week & do ViLE stuff yes
* write even more applicant letters yes - DONE with all the ones which can remotely be comsidered mine...
* meet with now-senior grad student to go through their technical terminology (their phonetic spelling is amusing at times but science also needs consistency...) yes
4) RESEARCH
* review article for journal yes, surprisingly easy for a change
* if possible, spend an hour on reading/writing for vague grant idea no
* if time, look at the Consultancy Paper that is back on my plate, sigh. I am so fed up with this paper... no
Looks pretty productive, especially on the teaching/admin side (despite the training, which sounds frustrating/infuriating). And yes, falling into a book is wonderful, and often restorative. Good luck on the upcoming slog; at least it sounds like it's the last big hill in the term.
DeleteThat training is certainly one for the books. Why oh why are so many of them so bad? At least we can mostly do them online...
DeleteSeriously, that is unbelieveably bad. At LRU, we've had some remarkably bad online ones, featuring people nattering on for ages in either video or voice-over PowerPoint, when what we need is a simple set of written directions. I don't know what is wrong with people sometimes!
DeleteTHE COMING WEEK:
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be a slog of a week. I don't want to do it, but the only way out is through!
1) SELF-CARE (recovery and self-kindness)
* habits: something creative, D&D, read a novel, intentional movement 15 minutes x 3 days, a social thing
2) HOUSE-LIFE CARE
* 75% or more of the weekly minimal chores, tidy up the upstairs landing (one day this WILL happen)
3) TEACHING AND ADMIN
* prepare little bit of teaching for next week & do ViLE stuff
* mark first year essays
* mark late draft of final year project
4) RESEARCH
* write letter for potential academic visitor
* look at the Consultancy Paper that is back on my plate, sigh. I am so fed up with this paper... (but I have quite a lot of hours in the office this week when I don't have teaching prep to do and that's a good setting to do a task I don't want to do, using the "I already don't want to be here..." logic).
Bon courage! Do the crud and then have a reward, and repeat.
DeleteI have to admit that often when I find myself out of steam I try for an early night, in hopes that I’ll wake up feeling more energetic and focused. That sometimes works, though I sometimes also get a badly-timed second wind, and end up having trouble falling asleep at bedtime after having an unproductive afternoon/early evening.
ReplyDeletePhysical exercise is often a good option, if for no other reason than it increases the chances I’ll actually fall asleep on time. But it’s not always easy to get going on that, either. Otherwise, there’s always “productive procrastination”: doing anything that needs to be done and that I can get myself to do, on the theory that that’s better than doing nothing productive at all.
Goals for last week (actually, the last two weeks):
--Continue work on site: figure out csv import; add additional documents (both full documents & individual pages for transcription); work on making site more easily navigable, especially from key landing pages yes except for csv import (which probably isn’t urgent); navigation still something of a work in progress
--Draft call for transcribers and other helpers and run draft and site by organizational leaders who need to okay distribution of the call via the organization’s communication channelsyes
--Finish signup directions and guidelines for transcribers, communicate with people who have volunteered to test the directions/site
work in progress; have partial directions, still need full directions and guidelines; need to communicate with testers
--Write department chair, program director, and scheduling coordinator re: possible adjustments to fall schedule
no (realized it was spring break last week, and could wait)
--Write colleague who has recently dealt with HR/university’s medical leave system for advice
yes – well, actually, she wrote me and I replied
--Continue movement, especially strength training of arms/shoulders (perhaps begin using some of the recommended post-op stretches as warmups?)
yes, other than incorporating the post-op stretches in any systematic way; I did look at one version of them
--Do additional work in the garden (weeding, seed-sowing, mulching, bed-building)
yes to the first three; bed-building is less urgent
--Make progress on choosing/ordering refrigerator (and possibly stove), moving over-fridge cabinet, other fridge-replacement-related moving around of things, and/or packing/mailing returns.
yes on packing/mailing; no on fridge-related stuff, and I think I’ve decided not to try to squeeze in this whole project before surgery, though I might work on some preliminaries
--Plan/prioritize other household work
work in progress
Reflection:
Not bad (it helps to have two weeks, of course, but I’m still reasonably pleased with my progress, especially on the site)
Goals for the coming week:
Delete--Finish signup directions and guidelines for transcribers, communicate with people who have volunteered to test the directions/site
--Visit archive to collect additional documents for site
--Continue work on site: add additional documents as time allows; experiment with adding person, place, and/or event items as time allows
--Write department chair, program director, and scheduling coordinator re: possible adjustments to fall schedule
--Continue movement, especially strength training of arms/shoulders (perhaps begin using some of the recommended post-op stretches as warmups?)
--Continue work in the garden (weeding, seed-sowing, mulching, bed-building)
--Continue household work, especially packing/mailing returns, taking things to storage, and/or generally rediscovering/rearranging things.
--Begin taxes
Excellent progress! Yay!
DeleteHow do I get going? I'm not sure I always do. Or I take a nap, read a book, or something fun. I'm pretty good about unpacking, but the rest is just hit or miss.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
1. Figure out the paper I'm giving in 2 weeks and write it. (It's theme and variations with what I've done already, so not as daunting as that sounds.) YES, DRAFT WRITTEN
2. Read next journal article for press, deal with the next version of "And Also" NO/ YES (I've read proofs for "And Also")
3. Figure out visit with old roommate who was recently widowed. PARTLY
4. Make plans for conference in Boston the end of next week NO
5. Weights x 3, one good walk, one yoga YES YES NO
6. Keep up with the reading YES, finished one book
7. Maybe do a few of the image permissions? NO
It was a pretty good week, getting the draft done, along with multiple versions of "And Also". I also started digging around archive websites to figure out this summer's travels. Some stuff came up for Big Collaboration, so that took time. And I got the reader's report back on Famous Author, which makes clear I need another revision; I'm not really dealing until after the two weeks of conferences I have. (Also, my editor has promised more focused feedback, so that will be really helpful.) On the not so good side, I several not much sleep nights (waking up at 3 AM), so all of this was done in a fog of exhaustion.
This week I'm heading to a conference (taking a red eye on Tuesday night) and will see many people. I'm taking an extra day Sunday-Monday to visit with a recently widowed roommate and another roommate. So limited goals.
1. Read next article for journal
2. Keep digging for archives
3. One weights, 2 workouts of some kind while traveling
4. Keep reading for fun
Getting a draft written is worth celebrating! Sorry to hear about the sleeping problems. I hope that improves this week.
DeleteAlas, between a red-eye and a 3 hour time change, sleep will be a challenge!
DeleteI'm in favor of a nap followed by a cup of tea, if you can do that without keeping yourself up all night. Exercise is good. Or break things down into the smallest steps: just fill the kettle. Get out a tea bag. "Make the task smaller": you don't have to unpack, just get out your sponge bag and put it in the bathroom. I've been doing a lot of that lately; I managed to gather up some tax documents by pretending I was doing something else and "just" opening a file or logging into an account, and then while I was there I "might as well" do the next thing. I've been putting off doing a thing where I know that all the steps are going to lead to a huge cascade, however, so there certainly are tasks that aren't very amenable to doing in small increments.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
- continue work on slides for at least one conference paper: SORT OF: two hours of work in that direction has not led to a slide, and I probably need to see if the National Archives can photograph something for me.
- do some scholarly reading, take notes on whatever has stickies sticking out: NO and YES. No new reading, but I did take some teaching-related notes from last semester (I hope I really do teach that class again and this isn't wasted effort).
- do some odds and ends of grading and ViLE stuff: YES
- read/comment Thing for a friend: YES
- fill in one set of forms that involves money: YES
- yoga x5, trainer session if I'm healed up enough: NO, YES
- find & print some tax documents: YES
- calls about an insurance bill: YES
- more graduate applications (or maybe I'll leave them till after break!): LEFT THEM
- sit outside on warm days: NO: warmth was accompanied by high winds with unhealthy levels of particulates.
- 90-minute massage: YES (well, 75 minutes, b/c traffic was terrible and I was late)
- read something fun: YES, mystery for this week's book club meeting
- organize the linen closet; do some other tidying up: YES. Once I had cleaned the closet, I had space to move a couple of boxes into the linen closet from the landing, which seems like an improvement, though I'll have to deal with them at some future date.
ALSO: had dinner with some friends; had a catching-up phone call with a friend who had dropped out of sight for a decade or so; saw the lunar eclipse (at the cost of some lost sleep); accepted a new (temporary) service commitment (am I mad??).
The upcoming week looks a bit hectic, lots of slots already filled with meetings of one sort or another. I really want to get some big thing done and dusted, but I think it'll have to be a week of incremental progress.
New goals:
- read dissertation for said commitment
- review the next batch of grad applications
- half an hour of research a day
- review comments on Alms from a friendly reader
- yoga x5, cardio x5
- fill a form and book a hotel for a May thing
- show up for all the necessary meetings etc
I'd say that was a pretty good week. Things like the linen closet always seem overwhelming, so getting that done and insurance, and tax... that's the stuff that drives me nuts.
DeleteHow I did:
ReplyDelete1. Finish the marking (due Thursday) - YES
2. Somehow find time to work on grant application. - YES
3. Final proper bit of teaching of term. - YES
4. Finish booking train tickets, apply for daughter's provisional license, optician's appointment, plan for weekend in London (son in a cross-country race on Saturday). - YES
Also: remembered nephew's birthday, saw probably the best play I've ever seen in London on Friday night, had dinner out two nights running, including trying Ethiopian food.
This week (last week of term!):
1. Submit grant application (deadline Friday).
2. Review session for first-years.
3. Sign off two grant applications for other people.
4. Tedious bit of admin (ethics audit)
5. Final meetings of term.
6. Informal queries about PhD examiners for student.
An excellent week! Both work and Life Admin squared away.
Delete