Welcome to September! This week we'll set session goals. What do you hope to achieve by mid-December, a bit over three months from now?
You can also set an intention for the session, if that's something you find helpful.
Goals for the week ahead are also welcome, but if you want to sit with your session goals this week and think about how to make them actionable in weekly increments, that's fine too.
And the creative part: You receive a fat envelope by registered mail, full of assorted documents and a cover letter from a lawyer informing you that you have inherited a house! This is quite unexpected, and indeed, overwhelming! You'll need awhile to absorb the implications. For now, just tell us a couple of things: (1) where is the house, and (2) who left it to you?
Some things you might consider: did you know the person well, a little, not at all? Are they related to you, or to someone else in your family (yes, the trope of leaving something to the daughter/ granddaughter/ niece of the beloved)? Have you ever been to the house, or the region where it is, and if so, when, and in what circumstances? What appeals to you about the region (or neighborhood, if you prefer a house that's closer to where you are now)?
Hi everyone! Prompt: I'm still not sure whether to go fantasy or allegory, but either way, I'm going for the traditional "previously unknown Great Aunt who lived a long, happy and productive life and passed away calmly and easily at a great age" as the donor, and the house is on the edge of a village somewhere in the north, with a view of hills and the sea (so I geuss we've gone fantasy because much as I like it the sea currently gives me Anxiety because, sea level rise and scary scary climate summer, so looking at seaside views leads to "how much will be drowned" images randomly popping into my over-active brain). In which case, I reckon the house is in the Working World (one of the three worlds I've established so far in the nascent fiction about a University Department of Applied Thaumatergy, which exists as a large pile of words which are probably the seeds of three incomplete novels = ours is the Making World), and requires a portal to get there which I'll find out about when I get there. And I left the envelope unopened for several days at least because, fat envelope in post looks like something that I need to do something about!
ReplyDeleteSESSION GOALS:
The usual four sections, and I want to carry kintsugi over as a word, I really like it:
SELF CARE:
* keeping up an intentional movement habit
* saying "let me think about it" whenever I want to say yes. Even for good things.
* doing non-work things every week - reading, 1-2 creative things, 1-2 social things which can be online/a call
LIFE ADMIN/ENVIRONMENT
* financial stuff - end session with a clear path to a decision about the next few years
* finish the Living Room Project, maybe start the Flooring Project
TEACHING/WORK ADMIN:
* be two weeks ahead of ViLE/teaching prep for as long as possible, and never less than one week.
* have the basics in place (e.g. ViLE, weekly outline) for next semester by the end of this session
* as part of new admin role, have the same sort of level of understanding of all the programmes in the School as I currently have for my home cluster
* get through all the new appraisal system nonsense (I now have more "devolved responsibilities", and the new online system is annoying, slow, and not really compatible with an academic's work - one size fits no-one in administrative software form).
RESEARCH:
* complete all the modelling and have a first draft for the modelling based project
* get the darn collaborative paper revised again and resubmitted (and I really hope accepted!)
* be realistic about what I can contribute to the policy reviews and to the big annoying project
* progress at least two other research related projects (I'll make a list for myself this week of where everything I have now is at for checking at the end of the session).
COMING WEEK:
DeleteNot sure if I mentioned last week that the back porch had begun to leak in the very heavy cloudbursts we had at the end of the last lot of heatwaves? Well it did, and Mr Shoutypants enjoyed playing in the drips (and knocked over the bucket of water caught from the worst drips in order to drink from it). So I had a lot of worker-chasing, and managed to get someone in to replace it on Friday (they fitted it in). Nice efficient workers, and so far all good although the finished look isn't as good as I'd hoped - they did leave the yard very tidy though, and I guess we'll find out in the next cloudburst if it's a good job! Work ate a lot of time and mostly felt unproductive. But the two papers that had the really annoying reviews were both accepted, so that was a win! So, for goals:
SELF CARE:
* 3x20 minutes of movement
* reading, 1-2 creative things, 1-2 social things
LIFE ADMIN/ENVIRONMENT
* the declutterer is booked for Friday to help me move everything around following the storage units being installed and start filling the shelves. Can't finish it because the electrician still needs to come to help me sort out the Extension Cord Chaos that was revealed when things were moved that I'd just forgotten about, she's booked for a week tomorrow to at least give advice/a quote. So I need to make a list for her visit and make the most of it.
* on the financial side, this month is going to be SPENDY - the porch roof repair is pearl-clutchingly expensive, then there's the decluttering and electrical work and some birthdays... I'll be OK, but I need to not do the thing I sometimes do where my brain is like "oh, I already spent SO much, might as well just get take out and buy three new novels in the expensive editions and whilst I'm at it, that looks like an exciting new craft, lets buy a beginners kit and some extra odds and ends and whilst I'm on the craft site, let's just look at the yarn... oooh and those special shoe inserts on facebook might be helpful" and then I turn around and I have lots more STUFF and its past the return date..
TEACHING/WORK ADMIN:
* sort out ViLE sites and assessments for first semester classes
* do all the follow ups to the resit programme results
* get details of new system and start to set up my objectives if I can work out how
RESEARCH:
* process model output and set next model running for modelling based project
* make list of all the other "ongoing stuff"
Congratulations on the acceptances! That is great news. Also you have "nice efficient workers" which is excellent (so much better than grumpy inefficient ones), and are making loads of progress on your house. I think you need some SMALL bit of shiny treasure that celebrates the new porch roof, something that will satisfy the squirrel brain but is not All The Fun Stuff all at once. (Not that I have any great ideas . . . new insulated mug? craft kit for something you already know how to do and know you like/wil do?)
DeleteHello, all!
ReplyDeleteI'm also going for a house in the north of England (I briefly thought Mediterranean, but summers are too hot etc). My house is on the north-east coast, in Northumberland, which is one of my favourite places. I haven't decided exactly where, but by the sea, not right on the beach, but close enough that I can be down there in a few minutes walk. It's also not right in a village, but again, a short enough walk that it won't be an inconvenience to fetch a pint of milk. I'm also going with the cliché of left to me by either an elderly female relative or maybe friend, but she wanted it to go to another woman and (borrowing an idea from a book I read) there's a clause that says I can't sell it straight away and only to another woman.
Intention: carrying focus over, as that is going to be important this session and something I need to work on. This term will be a heavy teaching term, with a lot of new stuff.
SESSION GOALS
1. Research
i) Big Article: finish draft (carried over from last session), get feedback, hopefully submit to journal.
ii) Paper for conference end of October: haven't started yet.
iii) Revisions/proof checking of other article and chapter as and when needed.
iv) Research leave report (due start of term)
2. Teaching
i) Big new first-year team-taught module, for which I am convenor: organise ViLE site, herd other tutors, finalise readings for my seminars, write two lectures this term.
ii) Small first-year module (one seminar group): teaching this after several years' break. Revise old version to fit new format, update readings, maybe rethink assessment.
iii) Second-year module: organise ViLE site, update reading list, remind myself of content.
iv) Plan seminars and submit reading suggestions for two other modules, for which I am giving one seminar on each next term.
v) Meet with dissertation students (nine so far and counting), read proposals, check in regularly.
3. Admin/citizenship
i) Mentoring for three colleagues, one new.
4. Life admin/house
i) Ongoing financial stuff
ii) Finish organising study (I just got a new height-adjustable desk, finally, and ergonomic chair): frame and hang pictures, organise papers.
iii) Ditto spare room: finish decluttering, get new chair.
iv) Clear more stuff from garage
5. Kids
i) Get daughter to university, adjust to not having her at home.
ii) Be present for son, who has an intense year with important exams at the end.
6. Self-care/fun
i) Read
ii) Journal
iii) Exercise: keep up running (maybe join a club), try to find weights or pilates class that works with schedule.
iv) TV: finish the Vuelta, watch new episodes of a couple of favourite series once released (works well with ironing/sorting laundry)
v) Really try to get to bed at reasonable times.
vi) More creative stuff: cook new recipes, bake, carry on with painting by numbers, cross-stitch.
Goodness, there's nothing like coming back from research leave to masses of teaching, is there? I am joining you on the study organisation and hoping your progress will inspire mine! I didn't even manage to list my financial thing but I need to change banks for my primary account . . . it'll make a lot of things easier in the long run but there are a lot of associated things to do! Also "really try to get to bed at reasonable times" resonates with me!
DeleteThis week's goals:
ReplyDelete1. Work on Big Article: aim for two days.
2. Teaching prep: contact all the tutors (mostly grad students) on big new module, finalise readings for at least one seminar, submit plan and readings for one of my two guest seminars, make lists of what needs to be done for everything.
3. Life admin/house: chase plumber to fix shower, get daughter ready for university, transfer some money to savings account, organise study.
4. Kids: book restaurant for daughter's last evening, help son with Latin revision and watch Vuelta highlights with him, take him to his annual running club event.
5. Self-care/fun: run x 4, finish reading novel, friends for dinner tomorrow, journal, try new recipe.
That sounds like a lot this week but you have some fun things in there, and it will feel so good to get some of those other things done!
DeleteOne problem with this theme is that it leads me to spend ridiculous amounts of time on Realtor.com looking at houses (because I have no imagination and have to have pictures, or use a real house that I have been in). I'm going to choose Portland, OR for my place (it's on a river, within a couple of hours drive of both ocean and significant mountains), and a Trollopian situation: the house was left me by someone I never heard of "as a gesture of reparation" toward my mother, whom the testator feels he once wronged! Most intriguing . . . my mother married at 21 and as far as I know led a completely innocent and blameless life up till that point.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to stick with my "divide and conquer" motto, since I found it very helpful over the summer (even though some of the summer's projects are on-going! at least it helped me make more progress than I might otherwise have managed).
Session goals:
Research:
- final revisions on W and get it gone
- draft of festschrift essay
- draft of handbook chapter
Teaching:
- stay on top of frequent small assignments for grad class
- devise reasonable final exam for that class
- have fun with other class
- read dissertators' chapters promptly
- write syllabuses for potential future classes
Admin:
- keep up with committee work but keep it in its place
Life Stuff:
- do something with friends/family at least once a month
- make my study habitable
- make some measurable progress on cleaning the garage
- hire other people to do at least 2 house-related projects
When I write things down these seem like more than enough! How do list-makers manage to feel motivated rather than overwhelmed by lists?
And this week's goals:
ReplyDelete- final revisions to W
- comment one set of grad assignments & devise a quiz
- prep discussion questions for other class
- re-do a travel voucher for the second time*
- swim twice, cardio/weights twice
- try to be more efficient in the mornings
*In theory the new all-online process is more efficient. Practice is another matter. The office admin person has the right version of my files in her possession but cannot attach/forward them FOR me, even though somehow I keep getting this wrong. Whose time is this saving??
The theme: My main struggle is figuring out how I'll have time to travel to and repair the house, so I'm going to situate it pretty close to me, maybe up in the Berkshires so that there are bigger mountains, and near a lake. It's quite remotely situated in the forest, at a high elevation, and from the top windows one can make out the lake in the valley below. It's a funny little house--tall and narrow, with little crooks and corners and a tower or two.
ReplyDeleteWho left it to me? A good question. I've decided that it was an old teacher/mentor, rather eccentric (obviously), whom I'd almost forgotten about but apparently remembered me well. Or didn't? The house might be a punishment. (There is no such person, of course.)
This session will be my first term as department chair, and I'm not teaching, nor do I have a big research project ongoing, so it's going to be kind of a strange one.
Session goals, in addition to staying afloat:
1. Work: Create a committee to brainstorm ways of keeping our department alive (I'm calling it Departmental Revitalization) and have something to show for it at the end of the semester.
2. Writing: Complete draft of messy novel, which means writing about 30,000 words (I just rounded the corner on 50k). That's roughly 2500-3000 words/week.
3. Survival and self-care: Exercise 4-5 times a week; sit more than 0 times; read and knit for fun
4. Submit TLQ responses on Monday at least 75% of the time!
That last goal is going to kill me.
This week:
1. Meet with a couple of folks about the committee.
2. Write 2500 words.
3. Exercise 4+ times, sit 1+ times
Would it help with your last goal if posts went up earlier on Sunday?
DeleteI'm sorry you have to be thinking about ways to stay afloat--er, revitalize. It would be nice if someone could just keep on doing what they've been doing!