This session went fast, even allowing for its being short! This should be our final week, checking in on session goals—but because it was shorter than our sessions often are, if you want to set goals for one more week (or just for a few days), and come back to the comments to report, you can have that extension.
We’ve already had a question about how you know you’re
finished, so I won’t do that again. Perhaps, instead, I’ll ask how you deal
with the inevitable messiness of not really being done, or not done enough. Are
you able to accept that sometimes writing projects get carried over, or that
you need to ask for help with them, or that waiting on co-authors is an inevitable
part of the process? What realizations, strategies, or mantras might make it
easier to deal with such situations?
Here are last week’s goals, and lower down, session goals
(which I’ve tried to modify as in mid-session, but if I missed anything, my apologies!).
How have you done? Congratulations to all of us—we got through A LOT in this session!
Daisy
More undergrad chapters
Data analysis with students
Two concerts and a few rehearsals
Copy-edit thesis
Sort out last few weeks of term for teaching
Book summer conference travel
Dame Eleanor Hull
--1-2 hours research on each of 3 days
--try to finish conference paper
--prep for language groups
--throw together two more sample syllabuses
--gym x4
--finalize plans for seeing friends on Saturday
--remember to look at calendar & lists every day
heu mihi
1. Revise (and present!) mini-talk #2
2. Work on taxes, ugh
3. Read a dissertation and prep for defense; read a student's pre-exam
documents and prep for defense (we have a complicated exam structure)
4. Finish grading lingering papers
5. Wrap up a few conference things
6. Give self permission to drop the ball on creative work, writing, and even
exercise, sometimes
JaneB
SELF-CARE: all process goals, for three term time months:
a) intentional movement 20x3 or 15x4
b) some kind of making (art or craft) x2 - I need to make four Easter cards for
family
c) something gently social x2
d) read at least one chapter (of fiction) every day this week
e) ask the decluttering person to help me take a digital photo suitable for
applying for passport renewal (we can do that from home so I want to at least
TRY and do it that way!)
IMPROVING MY ENVIRONMENT:
a) 75% of weekly list of chores
b) make a sketch for the new idea for the shelving in living space - and get
the nice decluttering person to help me measure up!
c) list for decluttering person (turning out all the kitchen cupboards is the
main job on the list)
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
a) do a good job of Tuesday's lab sessions
b) check over lists for after Spring Break (we have three teaching weeks left
before the assessment period)
RESEARCH.
a) continue to progress modelling work - we have a meeting this week. Hopefully
my collaborator will spot whatever is making the results from my old laptop be
peculiar!
b) Have a full near-complete version of the revise and resubmit paper
c) start working on lots-of-pages grant review (sigh. necessary, but oh, a
dispiriting prospect)
d) start methods training for applied thing
Julie
1. Research and writing - organise more material for Big
Article, finish review article (due 1st April), get close to finishing chapter.
2. Read article for post-doc mentee.
3. Grade posters for conference session next month.
4. House/life admin: book haircut, return library books, declutter dining room,
book June mini-break with daughter, book another chunk of summer trip.
5. Self-care/fun: read, journal, exercise, maybe plant stuff, make list of
birthday requests.
Susan
1. DO THE GRADES
2. Set up Interlibrary loan for two articles
3. Reject students we can't admit to grad program (the software has frozen on
me and I have given up until someone helps.)
4. Expenses for last two trips
5. Have fun on my last two days here
Session goals/mid-session modifications:
Daisy
One new paper as first author... seriously, just one, I can
surely do that???
Be effective and kind supervisor for two grads and two undergrads.
Do good job on massive important review committee.
Do something fun with friends once a week.
Exercise!!!!
Dame Eleanor Hull
I didn’t drop any goals, so I will take credit for anything
that was done at any point in the session:
*Research:
--abstract due end of this month for summer conference #2
--conference paper for April travel
--very overdue essay to finish ASAP (currently at 5005 words, so I have made
progress during break)
--regular scholarly reading and language study, a process goal
*Teaching:
--read two PhD exams, consult with student as necessary
--plan out all class prep for the term and keep on top of it
*Personal:
--collect paperwork for taxes
--clean the garage and de-mousify it
--plan/organize travel for April trip and three others (two conferences, one
purely fun)
--replace my ancient i-Pad
--In general, I'd like to do better at managing my time.
heu mihi
1) Finish messy, partial draft of article due in July (I'm
teaching the book that it's about in April, so there's no sense in getting too
far ahead of myself, since rereading it will be helpful)
2) Edit festschrift essays and draft at least part of the intro
3) Maintain exercise
4) Creative writing: average 2x/week, however drafty and silly it may be
5) Add occasional meditation to my weeks
6) Languages: Read one Italian novel7) 3+ good habits a day*
JaneB
(I think all of these were KEEP or IN PROGRESS at midterm):
SELF-CARE: all process goals, for three term time months:
a) intentional movement for at least 20 minutes three days a week or 15 for
four days a week (this can be stretching or more active exercising, but it
needs to be intentional and additional to just "doing life"),
b) some kind of making (art or craft) a couple of times a week,
c) doing something gently social (playing D&D online counts, or a
multi-text exchange with a non-work friend, or spending time on a forum a
couple times a week
d) keep up reading for pleasure and read at least one non-fiction book
IMPROVING MY ENVIRONMENT: goals carried over!
a) keep doing the weekly list of chores - aiming for 75% done every week to be
realistic.
b) sort out new shelving in my living space - and maybe a sofa
c) clothes storage solutions (currently all my actually-in-the-rotation clothes
are either in the laundry basket, on the airer, or piled on a chair or in the
clean undies basket. This is not ideal).
d) plus pay more attention to my finances. Not quite sure what that will look
like, but it got dropped last trimester, and I need to be less careless!
TEACHING AND ADMIN: This is a lighter semester, but the first month is full of
grading from the first semester whilst preparing for the second's teaching.
Process goals here for the session because the session doesn't line up with our
academic calendar (which is a mess...).
a) end each work week (Thursday) with everything set up ready to go for the
following week and, if possible, have a solid start on the week after that.
b) limit working on teaching and admin issues over the weekend (let's say no
more than 5 hours) and if possible ZERO
RESEARCH
I have a lot of balls in the air, but for this session I do have some very
concrete goals, very different for me!
a) revise and resubmit two papers by due dates in early April (one I'm a minor
author on, one I'm leading)
b) be on top of contributions to large project where I have a small part - by
the end of the session I would like a clear plan for the little part of the
project where I am the leading expert.
c) complete and submit a first-stage grant application
d) keep up with all the other pieces of research and writing as things come in
and go out (they're all collaborative, so what happens when isn't entirely in
my control).
c) make measurable progress with at least three other writing/data processing
projects (I'll make a list now of what I'm working on)
Julie
(I think you only jettisoned a grant application . . .)
1. Research/writing:
(i) Big article, which I am hoping to send to a top journal. Plan is to have a
full draft I can present at a seminar at the end of April.
(ii) Chapter for a local history: I have a 15,000 word draft, and the editor
likes it, but wants it to be twice as long (!) to fit with other chapters, so I
need to pad it out. (IMO this is ridiculous, but I am committed now. And I will
be paid for this.) Due April
(iii) Review article for anniversary edition of a journal, due 1st April.
Teaching
(i) Preparation for new first-year teaching next year (we are redesigning our
curriculum, so I have to participate in this): keep to the bare minimum.
(ii) PhD corrections for final PhD student.
Other academic stuff:
(i) Organising committee for big anniversary conference in April.
3. Life admin/house stuff
(i) Plan big summer trip to celebrate significant birthdays (the actual trip
will be self-care/fun, the planning is too stressful to be).
(ii) Finances: tax return, but also some big decisions to make
(iii) Small to medium jobs: decluttering, new lamps, get pictures framed and
hung, get a standing desk and new chair for study, new chair for spare room
(for reading in the morning sun), touch up paintwork in various rooms.
Kids:
(i) Ongoing parenting stuff, plus school work, final-year assignments,
daughter's driving test.
Self-care/fun:
(i) Meet-ups with friends, especially around significant birthdays.
(ii) Reading for pleasure
(iii) Journaling
(iv) Do more creative stuff.
(v) Exercise
Susan
Research: minimal.
Famous Author: On Sunday night at 8 PM I submitted the corrected proofs and
index for Famous Author, which will be published in March. There are going to
be events and publicity stuff around this. But it's DONE.
Rest of my life project: I have microfilms in the library and I need to scan
them. I have two now, and I'll get the rest.
Other: My department is planning a small conference in honor of my retirement,
but since the person who would have done all the work is now dealing with a
mother who has terminal cancer, I'll probably do most of the planning.
Teaching: I am inventing a new course, mostly because I wanted to teach stuff
that is relevant, so I'm mushing together parts of two different courses that I
think speak to our current moment. The title is stolen from the American
Historical Association's tagline, "Everything has a history". I want
to do a good job, stretch myself and my students, but not kill myself.
Admin: I'm chair of our graduate program, and budget cuts etc make life
challenging. I also need to identify someone to take over. Or maybe I don't.
But I'd like someone good (i.e. both efficient and kind) to do it.
Life: The plan is to sell my house and move at the end of the semester. So I
need to do SIGNIFICANT decluttering, getting rid of academic books that
supported teaching I won't do again, books I won't read, etc. It's a lot.
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