The title of this post really just refers to the fact that I can't think of an interesting prompt (or a prompt of any kind), but it might also describe how I'm feeling about the endlessly cold weather, the return to classes (and meetings) this week, etc....
So as to stop my whining, however, I'll turn it around (and add the slash to the title) and ask you how you keep yourself going when the inspiration itself just seems to flag?
Bardiac:
1. Make some plans for spring break (including a guest dog and a friend coming to do a reading when classes begin again).
2. Start writing the section of my project that I worked so hard on at the British Library.
Dame Eleanor Hull:
Self: stretch twice daily, cardio or a walk 6x, weights 3x, do some fun reading.
Research: finish and upload a chunk of translation.
Teaching: give points to some in-class writing, do post-break planning including writing or finishing two assignments.
House/Life stuff: tax prep; final de-cluttering of house; call plumber and electrician (or delegate calls).
Good Enough Woman:
1) Grade a medium stack Wed-Sun (7-10 essays each day).
2) Walk 2x, Yoga 1x.
3) Write/brainstorm for novel 90 minutes.
4) Spend hour on article.
5) Pay bills.
6) Help son get oriented for PSAT.
7) Help daughter with costume.
8) Get mammo and ultrasounds done. (I'm cheating b/c I already did this today!! But I want credit.)
heu mihi:
1. Write 10 hours. (My major spring break task.)
2. Read a lot, mostly fun-teaching things.
3. Meditate more than last week.
4. Query a press for novel.
5. Start next batch of beer.
6. Misc. school stuff: grade 2 stragglers, rec letter, clean up email, evaluate proposal.
humming42:
1 grade like a madwoman
2 prep for conference organizing next week
3 write to Snow editor
4 work on Jewel article
5 check in with book editor
6 work on Happy Music abstract
the grid
Monday, 19 March 2018
Sunday, 11 March 2018
Week 10: Spreading the joy
I confess that I’m an RSS junky: I
probably spend far too much time looking at and reading posts from blogs and
various websites on Feedly. A recently follow is http://centuriespast.tumblr.com/,
where throughout the day I am treated to a marvelous array of museum artworks.
I also appreciate the pinned message from the pseudonymous hosts: “If you are
unsatisfied with your Centuries Past experience IN ANY WAY please see the guard
at the front desk for A COMPLETE REFUND of your admission fee.
Your hosts into collective
[un]consciousness of centuries pasts.”
So I thought I would paste here one of the
images from centuries past that really made my heart sing. You are invited to
offer up a favorite painting, photograph, object, etc. to spread the joy.
Happy change of seasons and change of time
for those of us in the US that are not in Arizona or Hawaii. I am grateful that
our spring break is the first week of Daylight Savings Time to have the opportunity
to properly adjust my natural rhythms to the manipulation of time.
Wishing you the sweet and the savory in
whatever proportions serve you best.
Last week’s goals:
Bardiac:
1 Prepare Thursday presentation
2 Set deadlines / create research plan
3 Grade as much as possible before spring break
Dame Eleanor Hull:
Self: stretch twice daily, cardio or a walk 6x, weights 3x, find
something fun to read over spring break.
Research: finish and upload a chunk; possibly toy with something else.
Teaching: grade a set of papers, finish an assignment, do some
post-break planning.
House/Life stuff: clear necessary areas for more repairs that are
happening this week; tax prep; final de-cluttering of house.
Good Enough Woman:
1) Don't stress about being away from the kids while husband and I are
at a weekend faculty retreat. They are big kids and will be fine.
2) Write 90 minutes, one way or another.
3) Walk 2x. Yoga 1x.
4) Tidy campus office, 30 minutes.
5) Read three SF stories.
heu mihi:
1. Exercise as much as I reasonably can given state of health;
don't feel guilty if I can't make my prepaid yoga quotient for the month.
2. Prep query materials for novel
3. Write 30 mins x 5: 1) polish and send off conference paper;
2) plan Wonder
4. Meditate some amount
5. Grade the rest of the things; other misc. pre-break teaching
prep (get together a prompt and two readings)
6. Read something to do with Time & Space
humming 42:
1 Prepare Thursday presentation
2 Set deadlines / create research plan
3 Grade as much as possible before spring break
JaneB:
1) spend 20 minutes a day on housework
2) read a novel
3) stop constantly checking my work email on strike days as I'm not
answering it so there is no point checking…
Susan:
1. Start working on images to go with keynote
2. Do at least one read/edit of keynote, now that I know how it ends.
3. Keep reading
4. Try to catch up on sleep (from being VERY jet-lagged)
Sunday, 4 March 2018
Week 9: How's It Going?
Egads! Week 9? We're well over halfway through this iteration (which ends, I think, on April 1--is that right, humming42?). Anyway, it seems like a good time just to ask how things are going this time around.
If you want to go back and check on your session goals, here's the link to that post: Week 0. Goals are in the comments. I'm not going to post them all here because we'll be doing that anyway for the final check-in, and perhaps you don't want to go back to your goals--maybe you've changed your goals (in which case, feel free to talk about it!), or would prefer to just reflect on how you're feeling about this session so far. Have you learned anything about your own work habits? Are you sick of your projects? Dreaming about something new? Muse, vent, rant, reflect away!
Last week's goals:
Daisy:
1) Prep next 3 weeks of teaching
2) Spend time planning and doing accounting for grants
Dame Eleanor Hull:
1. Self: the usual stretching, exercise, safe eating; get a massage.
2. Teaching: grade one set of papers; finish a writing assignment; prep something interesting for lower-div class.
3. Research: languages; upload a translation chunk; finish last MMP revisions and send that off.
4. Life Stuff: collect tax docs and list deductions; paint back stairs; do one other house thing.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell:
1. Two hours x 5 on the sabbatical.
2. Walk 2.0 miles a day.
3. Three hours x 4 on the grant.
4. One hour x 4 on the novel.
5. Some craft project for one hour per day.
Good Enough Woman:
1) Make mammogram and ultrasound appointments.
2) Make oil change appointment (thanks for the reminder DEH!).
3) Pay taxes?
4) Read 2 SF stories.
5) Write 15 minutes, 5x. (Any kind of writing)
6) Walk 2x, Yoga 1x.
7) Do minor tailoring for daughter's dress for the dance (by Thursday at the latest!)
heu mihi:
1. Finish revising novel
2. 30 minutes of writing x 5. Tasks, in order of priority: (1) finish conference paper, (2) revise Silence, (3) plan for Wonder
3. Misc: Read grad document and prepare for meeting; apply for teaching thing; CC proposals; follow up on admin tasks
4. Meditate some amount
5. Grade all the things
6. Yoga x 2 and running x 3
humming42:
1 LRP abstract on Thursday
2 Presentation on Friday
3 Daily recherche
4 Set actual deadlines for March (so I don’t spend spring break just reading novels)
Susan:
1. Finish a good draft of keynote
2. Read dissertation draft chapter
3. Walk twice?
4. Work on 7 hours of sleep
If you want to go back and check on your session goals, here's the link to that post: Week 0. Goals are in the comments. I'm not going to post them all here because we'll be doing that anyway for the final check-in, and perhaps you don't want to go back to your goals--maybe you've changed your goals (in which case, feel free to talk about it!), or would prefer to just reflect on how you're feeling about this session so far. Have you learned anything about your own work habits? Are you sick of your projects? Dreaming about something new? Muse, vent, rant, reflect away!
Last week's goals:
Daisy:
1) Prep next 3 weeks of teaching
2) Spend time planning and doing accounting for grants
Dame Eleanor Hull:
1. Self: the usual stretching, exercise, safe eating; get a massage.
2. Teaching: grade one set of papers; finish a writing assignment; prep something interesting for lower-div class.
3. Research: languages; upload a translation chunk; finish last MMP revisions and send that off.
4. Life Stuff: collect tax docs and list deductions; paint back stairs; do one other house thing.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell:
1. Two hours x 5 on the sabbatical.
2. Walk 2.0 miles a day.
3. Three hours x 4 on the grant.
4. One hour x 4 on the novel.
5. Some craft project for one hour per day.
Good Enough Woman:
1) Make mammogram and ultrasound appointments.
2) Make oil change appointment (thanks for the reminder DEH!).
3) Pay taxes?
4) Read 2 SF stories.
5) Write 15 minutes, 5x. (Any kind of writing)
6) Walk 2x, Yoga 1x.
7) Do minor tailoring for daughter's dress for the dance (by Thursday at the latest!)
heu mihi:
1. Finish revising novel
2. 30 minutes of writing x 5. Tasks, in order of priority: (1) finish conference paper, (2) revise Silence, (3) plan for Wonder
3. Misc: Read grad document and prepare for meeting; apply for teaching thing; CC proposals; follow up on admin tasks
4. Meditate some amount
5. Grade all the things
6. Yoga x 2 and running x 3
humming42:
1 LRP abstract on Thursday
2 Presentation on Friday
3 Daily recherche
4 Set actual deadlines for March (so I don’t spend spring break just reading novels)
Susan:
1. Finish a good draft of keynote
2. Read dissertation draft chapter
3. Walk twice?
4. Work on 7 hours of sleep
Sunday, 25 February 2018
Week 8: Secret mighty super power identity
Rereading last week’s
posts to compile this week’s list, I was delighted again by GEW’s son’s Lord of
the Awesome! screen name. And since things have been particularly heavy and
difficult in the world of late, I thought I would invite you to engage in some
whimsy. If you had a secret mighty super power identity, what would it be? Or
if there was a mighty super power hero/ine that you would call upon to be of
help, who might that be? Existing superheroes, made-up ones, and Lords of the
Awesome are all welcome. And, you are also welcome to pass the prompt to focus
on goals and tasks instead.
From last week:
Bardiac (carry over)
1. Organize the damned British Library notes.
2. Read the piece I realized I need to read. Take good
notes!
3. Go pick up a botany book for the project.
4. Taxes.
5. Violin
6. Get some exercise!
7. The usual teaching gig!
Daisy
1) Paper text
2) Extra sleep
3) More thesis chapter commenting
Dame Eleanor Hull
1. Self: the usual stretching, exercise, safe eating; make
the damned appointments.
2. Teaching: catch up on the online stuff and award
points; class prep.
3. Research: languages; upload a translation chunk; focus
on the last MMP revisions and permissions.
4. Life Stuff: collect tax docs and list deductions; oil
change; routine vet appointment; re-org kitchen cabinets or paint back stairs.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Two hours x 5 on the sabbatical.
Walk 2.0 miles a day.
Four hours x 5 on the grant.
One hour x 7 on the novel.
Complete heels on first pair of socks.
Good Enough Woman
1) Call to make appointments for mammogram and a couple of
ultrasounds. Bleck.
2) Walk 2x. Yoga 1x.
3) Read one SF story.
4) Morning/evening pages 3x.
5) Spend an hour on fiction writing and an hour on article
writing. C/C how I feel about each.
heu mihi
1. Read two grad documents (getting down to the wire)
2. 30 minutes of writing x 5
3. Get together a very rough bibliography for Time/Space
project
4. Meditate some amount
5. Revise ch. 9-11 of novel
humming42
1 Start work on presentation at the beginning of March
2 Write three more paragraphs for Jewels
3 Continue working on LRP abstract
4 3x recherche
KJHaxton
1. tackle the emails
2. finish organising the assessment activities for next
week
3. go to the writing retreat and work on paper draft and
application thingy
4. try to survive in the current climate of industrial
action
Susan
1. Make significant progress on Keynote, getting through
the next section
2. Read next diss chapter from grad student
3. Do taxes
4. Walk twice (maybe fewer goals will be more successful?)
Sunday, 18 February 2018
Week 7: Choose Your Own Adventure?
"For my part I can assure you that she had no idea which way to turn upon leaving the courtyard. Yet instead of inquiring, she took the first path she found. She rode swiftly along, uncertain of her destination, guided by chance, without servant or knightly escort. She sought far and wide in her eagerness to reach her goal, but her search was not destined to be brief."
I chanced upon that passage as I was reading for class last night and simultaneously (tell me I'm not the only person who does this) thinking about something completely different. In this case, I was reflecting on how I needed some guidance in picking out what aspects of my career to focus on in the coming year(s), which opportunities to pursue, etc.
My thoughts were stirred in this direction when I was tempted by a year-long teaching workshop that you can apply for here, which I've heard is very good, and which does interest me (and comes with a little stipend in the form of professional development money). But I'm also on a mess of committees, both service and graduate, and was planning to make a little extra cash teaching my first-year seminar again, and may be mired in book revisions next year for all I know, and ought to publish an article a year if I want to go up for full soon, and my fantasy life involves spending a year where my focus is really just beefing up a few languages, and and and....
And it dawned on me that I need to actually think about what I want my career to look like, which is something that I've never really done. I'm used to taking every opportunity that I can because a) I'm afraid to say no, and b) I--I just feel like I should, because doing more is better than doing less. Right?
So. This week's prompt, if you're inclined to comment, is about how/when/whether you've found yourself consciously crafting your own career, rather than being (as I have largely been) reactive. And, if you're like me, what might you do to start shaping your academic future, instead of leaving it up to the universe?
Last week:
Bardiac:
1. Organize the damned British Library notes.
2. Read the piece I realized I need to read. Take good notes!
3. Go pick up a botany book for the project.
4. Taxes.
5. Violin
6. Get some exercise!
7. The usual teaching gig!
Daisy:
1) More commenting on thesis chapters
2) Finish paper text
3) Send paper to all coauthors for comments
4) Do some planning for future lab work
Dame Eleanor Hull:
1. Self: the usual stretching, exercise, safe eating; make a couple of other appointments.
2. Teaching: catch up on the online stuff and award points; grade a set of papers; class prep.
3. Research: languages; upload a translation chunk; another round of MMP revisions.
4. Life Stuff: collect tax docs and list deductions; oil change; re-org kitchen cabinets.
Good Enough Woman:
1) Morning and evening pages 4x.
2) At least one SF short story.
3) Move like water on the Saturday theater-kids' field trip that starts at 4:30am and ends around midnight and involves a lot of driving.
4) Help son with his weird Greek god costume.
5) Walk 3x.
6) One 20-minute at-home yoga session.
7) Keep doctor's appointment.
heu mihi:
1. Write 30 minutes x 5
2. Meditate some amount
3. Revise chapters 6-8
4. Read/skim book for Silence
5. Read honors thesis section!!!
6. Read 1 grad exam document
7. Crafting: Either make some real progress on sweater for husband or buy supplies for another batch of beer.
humming42:
1 Work on pitch paragraph
2 Read reference materials for Jewels
3 Make a schedule for planned research projects
4 3x recherche
KJHaxton;
1. tackle the emails
2. do the small new semester marking task
3. prepare the teaching materials for next week
4. decide what to do for a writing retreat next week and prepare
5. work through the paper draft (assuming this isn't done as part of 4)
-Chrétien de Troyes, "The Knight of the Cart"
I chanced upon that passage as I was reading for class last night and simultaneously (tell me I'm not the only person who does this) thinking about something completely different. In this case, I was reflecting on how I needed some guidance in picking out what aspects of my career to focus on in the coming year(s), which opportunities to pursue, etc.
My thoughts were stirred in this direction when I was tempted by a year-long teaching workshop that you can apply for here, which I've heard is very good, and which does interest me (and comes with a little stipend in the form of professional development money). But I'm also on a mess of committees, both service and graduate, and was planning to make a little extra cash teaching my first-year seminar again, and may be mired in book revisions next year for all I know, and ought to publish an article a year if I want to go up for full soon, and my fantasy life involves spending a year where my focus is really just beefing up a few languages, and and and....
And it dawned on me that I need to actually think about what I want my career to look like, which is something that I've never really done. I'm used to taking every opportunity that I can because a) I'm afraid to say no, and b) I--I just feel like I should, because doing more is better than doing less. Right?
So. This week's prompt, if you're inclined to comment, is about how/when/whether you've found yourself consciously crafting your own career, rather than being (as I have largely been) reactive. And, if you're like me, what might you do to start shaping your academic future, instead of leaving it up to the universe?
Last week:
Bardiac:
1. Organize the damned British Library notes.
2. Read the piece I realized I need to read. Take good notes!
3. Go pick up a botany book for the project.
4. Taxes.
5. Violin
6. Get some exercise!
7. The usual teaching gig!
Daisy:
1) More commenting on thesis chapters
2) Finish paper text
3) Send paper to all coauthors for comments
4) Do some planning for future lab work
Dame Eleanor Hull:
1. Self: the usual stretching, exercise, safe eating; make a couple of other appointments.
2. Teaching: catch up on the online stuff and award points; grade a set of papers; class prep.
3. Research: languages; upload a translation chunk; another round of MMP revisions.
4. Life Stuff: collect tax docs and list deductions; oil change; re-org kitchen cabinets.
Good Enough Woman:
1) Morning and evening pages 4x.
2) At least one SF short story.
3) Move like water on the Saturday theater-kids' field trip that starts at 4:30am and ends around midnight and involves a lot of driving.
4) Help son with his weird Greek god costume.
5) Walk 3x.
6) One 20-minute at-home yoga session.
7) Keep doctor's appointment.
heu mihi:
1. Write 30 minutes x 5
2. Meditate some amount
3. Revise chapters 6-8
4. Read/skim book for Silence
5. Read honors thesis section!!!
6. Read 1 grad exam document
7. Crafting: Either make some real progress on sweater for husband or buy supplies for another batch of beer.
humming42:
1 Work on pitch paragraph
2 Read reference materials for Jewels
3 Make a schedule for planned research projects
4 3x recherche
KJHaxton;
1. tackle the emails
2. do the small new semester marking task
3. prepare the teaching materials for next week
4. decide what to do for a writing retreat next week and prepare
5. work through the paper draft (assuming this isn't done as part of 4)
Sunday, 11 February 2018
Week 6: Touching the Letters
Earlier
in the week, cartoonist Chris Hallbeck Tweeted:
I
was doing an activity with my 5-year-old and then told him I had to go back to
work and he said “Okay, go touch your letters daddy.” which is such an amazing
burn. “Must be exhausting touching that keyboard all day. Did you hit all the
letters yet? You’ve had all day.”
I found this amazing too, and charming. It
reminds me of how we sometimes talk about “touching” our projects as a way to
describe spending time in the research mode but not “actually” writing. Here at
TLQ, I’ve used the word “recherche” (which is rich in meaning in French) as a
way to refer to that time that is vital to the process but often neglected as
valuable when we look at productivity via word count or time spent actually
“touching the letters.”
This
week’s topic, if interested, is to consider the terms or metaphors used to
refer to these projects of research/writing/papers/presentations we do and how
the ways we refer to this work can have a positive (or negative) impact on our
perceptions and our work.
Following
up from last week:
Bardiac
1.
Catch up on union work (I'm treasurer now).
2.
Find 2 really good Hamlet articles for my senior seminar
3.
Organize the calendar for the works my senior seminar folks decided to read
4.
Prep the project for our student researchers meeting (Wednesday) and help run
the meeting
5.
Practice my new violin piece, and start incorporating vibrato practice
6. Do
taxes
7.
Organize British Library notes
8.
Apply for grad student research help.
9. Do
all the usual teaching and grading!
Daisy
1)
Read student work and comment
2)
Put all the cool conference discussions right into paper before forgetting
them!
3)
Finish paper text
Dame
Eleanor Hull
1.
Self: the usual stretching, exercise, safe eating; make a couple of other
appointments.
2.
Teaching: catch up on the online stuff and award points; grade a set of papers;
class prep.
3.
Research: languages; upload a translation chunk; another round of MMP
revisions.*
4.
Life Stuff: collect tax docs and list deductions; oil change; re-org kitchen
cabinets.
Elizabeth
Anne Mitchell
Two
hours x 4 on the sabbatical.
Walk
2.0 miles a day.
Three
hours x 4 on the grant.
One
hour x 7 on the novel.
Complete
heels on first pair of socks
Good Enough Woman
1) Do prep work for Poetry Out Loud
judging on Friday.
2) Article search (one hour)
3) Read one theory chapter
4) One hour editing article
5) 2-3 SF short stories
6) Finish "Dawn" by Octavia
Butler
7) Walk 3x.
8) Morning/Evening pages 4x
9) Pay bills and make phone call.
10) Schedule mammogram
heu
mihi
1.
Read 4 essays/chapters for Silence
2.
Novel: Revise chapters 5-7 (100-162)
3.
Finish reading diss chapter
4.
Read Honors draft
5.
Meditate some amount
6.
Run x 3, yoga x 2
7. 30
minutes of writing x 5
humming42
1
Actually set some deadlines
2
Work on pitch paragraph
3
Submit current book review
4
Read reference materials for Jewels
JaneB
I
might squeeze out about three hours this week for TLQ, and it all needs to go
on those horrible PRoblemChildPaper3 revisions which I had to get another extension
for. Cough cough sulk.
KJHaxton
1.
finish working through the paper draft
2.
finish a hat
3.
tackle the emails
4.
submit ethics application
Susan
1.
Really finish Way Outside
2.
Finish dissertation chapter
3.
Write self-statement for review, do bureaucratic stuff connected to it.
4.
Identify secondary and primary sources for keynote
5.
Walk three times
6.
Work on 7 hours of sleep.
Sunday, 4 February 2018
Week 5: Expectation, Meet Reality
This week, I tried keeping track of how much time I spent working. Of course, observation changes the phenomenon, so I found myself getting up an hour early (four days out of five) to write, and was much more carefully disciplined during my working hours than usual. And yet, as of Saturday--day 6 of the week, much as I hate counting weekends--I was only up to 35.25 hours.
Now we all know that different kinds of academic labor take different amounts of energy. Lying in bed and rereading a novel that I like and have taught four times before is much easier, and can be sustained for much longer, than drafting a conference paper, and teaching a low-level gen-ed class is (usually) much less mentally exhausting than a graduate seminar.
Still, though, I had hoped that I could put in 40 hours of work. I did leave town mid-day on Friday for an overnight at my mom's (she had a gallery opening on Saturday, for her first solo show), but I was surprised by just how difficult it was--what with attending to my child, doing the laundry, meals and clean-up, etc.--to put in an 8-hour day.
So I'm thinking about the clash between expectation, or maybe hope, and reality, and what can be done to soften that crash. Getting up an hour early every day (but one) made a huge difference in how much writing I did this week, but trying to finish up my workday in the evening sometimes meant that I wasn't very attentive to my son--and that's no good. In that case, my expectation for work done needs to be reduced in order to accommodate parenting. And I need to neither beat myself up for, nor resent, that reality.
How do expectation and reality come together (or not) for you? What can you do to move closer to meeting your expected, hoped-for goals, and where would it be freeing to release expectation in favor of reality? --And how many hours a week do you work? Because man do I feel like a slacker.
Check-in time:
Daisy:
1: Polish the 2 science talks
2: Try out keynote talk on patient friends
3: Work on figures and paper text, co-authors will be at conference so they need to see some graphs over beers...
Dame Eleanor Hull:
1. Self: the usual stretching, exercise, safe eating; plus another dentist appointment; make a couple of other appointments.
2. Teaching: catch up on the online stuff and award points; grade a set of papers; class prep.
3. Research: languages; upload a translation chunk; another round of MMP revisions.*
4. Life Stuff: bills and some other financial stuff; oil change.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell:
Two hours x 7 on the sabbatical.
Walk 2.0 miles a day.
Three hours x 4 on the grant.
Complete heels on first pair of socks.
Good Enough Woman:
1) Pay bills and make that one phone call I need to make.
2) Maybe even do taxes?
3) Walk 3x.
4) Morning/evening pages 4x.
5) Read intro of theory book and skim the rest.
6) Read SF novella (Binti) and two SF short stories.
7) Prep for husband's b-day.
8) Schedule mammogram (heavy resistance to this one)
heu mihi:
1. Meditate some amount
2. Run x 3, yoga x 2
3. Catch up on thesis reading (1 diss chapter, 1 Honors draft)
4. 30 minutes of writing x 5
5. Chapters 2-4 of novel (pp. 25-100).
6. Write up contest books.
7. Read Silence
humming42:
1 Figure out how to regain health
2 Submit Buildings, now TRQ
3 Work on pitch paragraph more
4 Set some writing and research goals for the year
KJHaxton:
1. catch up on emails about outreach
2. plan teaching for next few weeks to free up time
3. finish the Good Wife before it is removed from Netflix on 1/2/18
4. work through one of the paper drafts created in the writing retreat
5. look at the data for another paper to find the gaps
Susan:
1. Do the last footnotes and a last read of Way Outside
2. Write formal request for permissions if I get a contact.
3. Read diss chapter from grad student
4. Clean campus desk
5. Identify secondary sources for keynote, maybe write a bit more.
6. Make marmalade, start limoncello to use up citrus
7. Walk three times
8. Get at least 6 hours of sleep.
Now we all know that different kinds of academic labor take different amounts of energy. Lying in bed and rereading a novel that I like and have taught four times before is much easier, and can be sustained for much longer, than drafting a conference paper, and teaching a low-level gen-ed class is (usually) much less mentally exhausting than a graduate seminar.
Still, though, I had hoped that I could put in 40 hours of work. I did leave town mid-day on Friday for an overnight at my mom's (she had a gallery opening on Saturday, for her first solo show), but I was surprised by just how difficult it was--what with attending to my child, doing the laundry, meals and clean-up, etc.--to put in an 8-hour day.
So I'm thinking about the clash between expectation, or maybe hope, and reality, and what can be done to soften that crash. Getting up an hour early every day (but one) made a huge difference in how much writing I did this week, but trying to finish up my workday in the evening sometimes meant that I wasn't very attentive to my son--and that's no good. In that case, my expectation for work done needs to be reduced in order to accommodate parenting. And I need to neither beat myself up for, nor resent, that reality.
How do expectation and reality come together (or not) for you? What can you do to move closer to meeting your expected, hoped-for goals, and where would it be freeing to release expectation in favor of reality? --And how many hours a week do you work? Because man do I feel like a slacker.
Check-in time:
Daisy:
1: Polish the 2 science talks
2: Try out keynote talk on patient friends
3: Work on figures and paper text, co-authors will be at conference so they need to see some graphs over beers...
Dame Eleanor Hull:
1. Self: the usual stretching, exercise, safe eating; plus another dentist appointment; make a couple of other appointments.
2. Teaching: catch up on the online stuff and award points; grade a set of papers; class prep.
3. Research: languages; upload a translation chunk; another round of MMP revisions.*
4. Life Stuff: bills and some other financial stuff; oil change.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell:
Two hours x 7 on the sabbatical.
Walk 2.0 miles a day.
Three hours x 4 on the grant.
Complete heels on first pair of socks.
Good Enough Woman:
1) Pay bills and make that one phone call I need to make.
2) Maybe even do taxes?
3) Walk 3x.
4) Morning/evening pages 4x.
5) Read intro of theory book and skim the rest.
6) Read SF novella (Binti) and two SF short stories.
7) Prep for husband's b-day.
8) Schedule mammogram (heavy resistance to this one)
heu mihi:
1. Meditate some amount
2. Run x 3, yoga x 2
3. Catch up on thesis reading (1 diss chapter, 1 Honors draft)
4. 30 minutes of writing x 5
5. Chapters 2-4 of novel (pp. 25-100).
6. Write up contest books.
7. Read Silence
humming42:
1 Figure out how to regain health
2 Submit Buildings, now TRQ
3 Work on pitch paragraph more
4 Set some writing and research goals for the year
KJHaxton:
1. catch up on emails about outreach
2. plan teaching for next few weeks to free up time
3. finish the Good Wife before it is removed from Netflix on 1/2/18
4. work through one of the paper drafts created in the writing retreat
5. look at the data for another paper to find the gaps
Susan:
1. Do the last footnotes and a last read of Way Outside
2. Write formal request for permissions if I get a contact.
3. Read diss chapter from grad student
4. Clean campus desk
5. Identify secondary sources for keynote, maybe write a bit more.
6. Make marmalade, start limoncello to use up citrus
7. Walk three times
8. Get at least 6 hours of sleep.
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