Week 15: Winding down or racing to finish?

 If my math is right, next week (week 16) is the last week of this session, though I think we're always confused about whether we actually set goals in week 16, or just report!  Anyway, this morning I got on my bike and saw my sister-in-law was doing the same ride; she was way ahead of me, but by the end I saw I might catch up to her and really pushed.  It occurred to me that there are two ways of ending the session, the semester, or even a bike ride: you can do what I did this morning, racing to the finish, getting as much done as possible; or you can slowly glide to the end gradually letting go of pressure. I've been both in life. Which are you this year? 

Also, feel free to opine on whether we should do final check-ins next week, or set goals next week (December 10) with a final check-in after December 17.  

Goals from last week or the week before:

Daisy

1) Catch up with literally everything
2) Continue with revisions for paper related to poster. Still FOREVER
3) Fun dinner out with kid

Dame Eleanor

Health: yoga x6, weights x3, medium walks, bed by 10:30 at least 5x.
Research: topic sentence outline to RL writing group; continue plugging quotes/citations into outline; Greek and T reading at least 3x each.
Teaching: Grade the stuff that comes in this week.
Life Stuff: renew car registration, finish joint account admin, finish pockets and replace buttons on a cardigan.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

More medical appointments.
Run P&T meeting, and write all the resulting reports..
Spend one hour on at least three days planning the AYU article.

heu mihi

1) Touch research daily and start to make some kind of clear progress on paper due in February.
2) Journal catch-up--mostly prodding late reviewers.
3) Personnel committee work: 1 promotion letter, review materials for a mini-tenure, update annual review guidelines.
4) Keep going with teaching; maybe even start grading this weekend? (Classes end on the 8th!)

humming42 (carried over)

1 submit three book reviews

2 submit article review

3 work on mentoring program application

4 catch up on grading

5 as noted, draft some lines every day

JaneB (carried over) 

Once my grading arrives, do a little grading every day. Be KIND - to students, to myself. Drink more water, move some more, take time to breath. try to work out what is going on with the grant we actually got, but can't start due to paperwork issues.

Karen

Research: present small SOTL paper and celebrate no further work travel this year.
Teaching: get up to week 4 of next unit online prepped
Self and Home: have all seedlings in pots, garden or tubestock; get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Susan (carried over)

1. Enjoy family time

2. Finish Book for blurb

3. Grade next batch of papers

4. Eat well

5. Sleep

Embodying gratitude (week 14)

 It always feels strange to be posting around the time of Thanksgiving when it isn't my celebration, and yet is so ubiquitous in the virtual world (and can I briefly complain about non-US companies jumping on the whole Black Friday sales thing - why do we need yet more marketing spam in the world?).

Nonetheless, coming closer to the end of the year is a good time to reflect on all those who  have accompanied, carried or otherwise supported us. To consider what it means to be in connection and in community, and how we can still hold that close even when in disrupted and difficult times. What gratitude are you carrying, and how do you feel it? How might you embody gratitude?

Daisy

1) Continue with revisions for paper related to poster. FOREVER apparently…

2) Catch up from being away with life stuff and doctors and vets and things

3) Go through Albatross paper material and send things to coauthor for help

4) Plan grad classes for rest of term and early January

5) Catch up with Baby Albatross coauthors and talk about plans

6) Do something fun with friends

Dame Eleanor Hull

Health: yoga x6, weights x3, medium walks, bed by 10:30 at least 5x.

Research: start putting together chapter; study both dead languages; read a book.

Teaching: do some spring prep.

Life Stuff: renew car registration, finish joint account admin, finish pockets and replace buttons on a cardigan.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Enjoy the drive as much as possible.

Eat better than I’m tempted to do, sleep more, relax, and enjoy the family time.

If there is down time, continue the list of next steps for the AYU (as-yet-unnamed) article.

heu mihi

1) Conference paper

2) Submit WH manuscript!!

3) Review 2 Gen Ed proposals

4) Record lecture for next week

5) Read 2 articles

6) Exercise

7) Celebrate husband's birthday!

humming42 (carried over)

1 submit three book reviews

2 submit article review

3 work on mentoring program application

4 catch up on grading

5 as noted, draft some lines every day

JaneB

Once my grading arrives, do a little grading every day. Be KIND - to students, to myself. Drink more water, move some more, take time to breath. try to work out what is going on with the grant we actually got, but can't start due to paperwork issues.

Karen

Teaching - get exemplar page prepared for review

Research - get 2 postgrads through milestones and celebrate!

Self and Home - yoga x 3, music practice, keep up good sleep habits.

Susan

1. Enjoy family time

2. Finish Book for blurb

3. Grade next batch of papers

4. Eat well

5. Sleep

AND/OR

1. Finish blurb book

2. Grade new set of papers (paper #3)

3. Have fun with family

4. Eat well

5. Relax

Working with the seasons (week 13)

We have artificial light, temperature control measures to warm or cool our indoor spaces (and even, sometimes, our outdoor areas), and office/classroom jobs with their own termly rhythms and deadlines. We don't have to take much notice of changing seasons, except insofar as they offer more or different work (plant, weed, rake, shovel, put up or take down decorations) that gets added on to our 'real jobs.' And yet most of us do notice and respond to the length of days, the weather, the flora and fauna that bloom and reproduce, or die back and re-focus activity. 

What is your energy like, this November? How would you organize your time if you could go with the flow, adjust your life to the changing season? 

Here are your last goals; let us know how you did, and what you'll tackle in the coming week.

Daisy
1) Continue with revisions for paper related to poster.
2) Road trip to go see co-authors and grad students, 4 days away in total
3) Association meetings and letters
4) Small online conference
5) Enormous pile of grad student feedback

Dame Eleanor Hull
Health: yoga x6, weights x3, very short walks, bed by 10:30 at least 5x.
Research: finish topic sentence outline of chapter; study both dead languages; read a book; scan some essays.
Teaching: grade undergrad papers.
Admin: find a piece of paper I need to claim some $.
Life Stuff: write to my dad, renew car registration, joint account admin, Scotchguard suede boots, finish pockets.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Pack for the trip.
Make a list of what we will need to get for the puppy, both for the drive home, and the first couple of days at home.
Pull together a list of next steps for the AYU (as-yet-unnamed) article.

heu mihi
1) Conference paper
2) Submit WH manuscript!!
3) Review 2 Gen Ed proposals
4) Record lecture for next week
5) Read 2 articles
6) Exercise
7) Celebrate husband's birthday!

Humming 42 (carried over)

1 submit three book reviews
2 submit article review
3 work on mentoring program application
4 catch up on grading
5 as noted, draft some lines every day

JaneB
prep for as much of the next two weeks of teaching as possible

Karen
Teaching - get exemplar page prepared for review
Research - get 2 postgrads through milestones and celebrate!
Self and Home - yoga x 3, music practice, keep up good sleep habits.

Susan
1. Read ms for blurb
2. Read material for promotion case
3. Grade papers (batch #2)
4. Submit Program Review
5. Start planning Thanksgiving
6. Reorganize bedrooms for visitors
7. Work on things for symphony fundraiser
8. Enjoy concert on Sunday

Week 12: Change

 For the last few weeks, we've been thinking about change.  Those of us in the northern hemisphere are watching the daylight fade, while Karen is preparing for a new garden and summer.  I'm re-entering the world after a (very mild) case of COVID.  In the US we've just gone through twice yearly agony of the time change, so the evenings are closing in ever earlier. The month or so before the solstice is a time when change outside seems faster. What changes are you observing? How does the world outside affect you, or your students?  How can we make friends with the changes that are hard? 

(Maybe one sign of all the change is how quiet things were here last week!) 

Goals from last week:

Daisy

1) Continue with revisions for paper related to poster
2) Send samples out, do office organizing session
3) Keep doing modelling work for new paper
4) Accounting for all Fall trips
5) Write several association documents and official letters
6) Something fun with friends!

Dame Eleanor

Health: yoga x6, weights x3, very short walks, bed by 10:30 at least 5x.
Research: keep working on chapter organization; study both dead languages; read a book; scan some essays.
Teaching: grade grad papers.
Admin: find a piece of paper I need to claim some $. Meeting prep.
Life Stuff: write to my dad, renew car registration, joint account admin, Scotchguard suede boots, finish pockets.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

More vaccines, including COVID booster.
Work on NaNo project at least three times a week.
Write at least 250 words a day on the as-yet-unnamed article that I reverse outlined a few weeks back.
Finish reading about the 18th century Belgian collector.

heu mihi

1) Complete article revisions??
2) Do what I can with co-authored introduction (WH intro)
3) Read two articles
4) Review/revise/whatever upcoming conference paper, which I basically sort of already gave and simply do not care about anymore
5) Exercise

Humming 42 (carried over)

1 submit three book reviews

2 submit article review

3 work on mentoring program application

4 catch up on grading, since there are assignments due this week

5 as noted, draft some lines every day

JaneB (carried over)

Goal this week - do my job well enough, and rest in between

Karen (carried over)

Teaching - finish off current unit by releasing feedback and submitting results; finish scaffolding map and start revisions to unit outline

Research - set up writing group (outcome from a lovely cross-discipline event hosted by nearby-department), 1 pomodoro on documentation

Self and home - yoga x 3, go bushwalking this weekend.

Susan (carried over)

1. Actually finish the grading!

2. Get draft of fellowship proposal done, sent to letter writers

3. Revisions of self-study as I get comments from others (Probably Friday, maybe Thursday)

4. Try to keep some mild exercise up while recovering

5. Visit Mom, try to help her get better

6. Sleep

7. Do fun something 

  

Remaking the space (week 111

One of the more visible ways I've been welcoming the light in through the shift to spring and outside has been the final tackling of the decade-deferred front garden, which has just turned into a wild ramble of the darwinian survivors from occasional attempts at planting. Enlisting a chainsaw, a large box to deliver uprooted plants to a friend, many wheelbarrow-loads for the compost, and reclaimed railways sleepers in search of a new home, I now have a space that will get some light and is ready for new plantings to take shape. This bed is going to be a native garden, creating habitat for birds and insects and hopefully geckos finging safe spots to bask in the sun.

Change in light is change in mood is change in space. This week, I'm inviting you to reflect on how the changes many of your reflected on might be aided by a change in space (real or metaphorical). Is it time to nest in, to clear out, to set a place at the table for the ones we want to welcome in?

Daisy

1) Finish with revisions for paper related to poster

2) Get analytical time booked and organized, for me and for grad students

3) Finish last left-over bit of grad student feedback

4) Attend enough of conference to feel useful, do required talking at fancy events (remotely!)

5) Do modelling work for new paper

6) Get sleeping back on proper schedule!

Dame Eleanor Hull

Health: yoga x6, weights x3, very short walks, bed by 10:30 at least 5x.

Research: keep working on chapter organization; study both dead languages; read a book; scan some essays.

Teaching: grade undergrad papers.

Admin: whatever comes up.

Life Stuff: write to my dad, renew car registration, joint account admin.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

More medical appointments--one this week, and pneumonia and flu vaccines.

Work on NaNo project at least every other day.

Read up on the Belgian collector for the other collection--possible article?

heu mihi

1) Rough in article revisions


2) Read two essays


3) Read & comment on grad student's prospectus


4) Exercise more than last week


5) Grade most of the latest batch of essays

humming42

1 submit three book reviews

2 submit article review

3 work on mentoring program application

4 catch up on grading, since there are assignments due this week

5 as noted, draft some lines every day

JaneB

Goal this week - do my job well enough, and rest in between

karen (carried over)

Teaching - finish off current unit by releasing feedback and submitting results; finish scaffolding map and start revisions to unit outline

Research - set up writing group (outcome from a lovely cross-discipline event hosted by nearby-department), 1 pomodoro on documentation

Self and home - yoga x 3, go bushwalking this weekend.

Susan

1. Actually finish the grading!

2. Get draft of fellowship proposal done, sent to letter writers

3. Revisions of self-study as I get comments from others (Probably Friday, maybe Thursday)

4. Try to keep some mild exercise up while recovering

5. Visit Mom, try to help her get better

6. Sleep

7. Do fun something 

How the light gets in (week 10)

Today is Halloween, and Friday is Guy Fawkes Day, both holidays that I associate with light of some kind: flickering candles inside Jack-o-lanterns, bonfires, fireworks. In the Northern Hemisphere, we're beginning the Season of the Dark, which some people love (JaneB): it can be a time of hygge, cozy relaxing indoor activities, long nights of sleep, or for invigorating outdoor activities like cross-country skiing (Bardiac) followed by hot drinks. It makes me sleepy and sulky; for most of the Northern Hemisphere winter, I want to be an iguana in a heated, lighted box, with food delivered (please can I just join the Southern Hemisphere people and get spring and summer over again?). Autumn has its points. I do like the colored trees, and even enjoy cloudy, rainy days, though they don't make me energetic. They make me want to curl up with a book, a cat, and a pot of tea, and read a little, nap a little, sip a little. Down Under, however, plans are underway for new gardens and summer escapes (Karen), so it's a time of change, wherever we are.

What do you like to do at this time of year? What holidays do you look forward to, and how do you plan for them? What is the literal light doing, where you are, and what cracks let in the light, metaphorically?

Here are last week's goals. Let us know how you're doing, and what you plan to tackle in the coming week. 

Daisy

1) Finish enormously giant pile of grad student feedback
2) Finish conference poster and upload all required things for conference
3) Continue with paper revisions for paper related to poster
4) Fun work visit with colleagues coming to town
5) Do modelling during long meetings (it is quiet and only needs periodic input from me so the ideal meeting task)
6) Finish Halloween costume (dragon this year, technically challenging!)

Dame Eleanor

Health: yoga x6, weights x3, very short walks, keep trying w/r/t sleep.
Research: topic sentence outline of chapter to writing group; dead language study; read a book; scan some essays.
Teaching: grade grads' Blackboard submissions.
Admin: meeting prep, deal with four sets of forms from my department.
Life Stuff: write to my dad, drop off a shoe for repair, renew car registration. 

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Goals are now three weeks past, so I'm not going to post them, just hope that you're all right and will come start fresh!

heu mihi

1) Address two of the reviewer's comments (which involves reading, thinking, and writing)
2) Prepare my presentation for Italian class
3) Finish my part of journal proofs
4) Compose a bibliography on monasticism and death (???)
5) Bottle beer
6) Continue with the business of muddling through somehow

Humming42

1 best behavior for a week with meetings on zoom and in person
2 complete and submit two article reviews
3 car wash! (a free bonus with recent oil change)
4 late book review, of course
5 submit creative work to journal

JaneB

1) self-care: do 3 songs worth of exercise each day, check in again on fruit and veg and protein, clean out the flipping "basket swap", clear off the reading chair in my work area, prepare and run Halloween D&D
2) teaching: get week 6 materials prepared and start on week 8, including sorting out rescheduled trip, fix the second half of the "list items" for my VLE sites (6 sites)
3) admin: get caught up on last stupid CPD thing
4) research: read over what we said we'd do for the grant that got funded, and finish the notes. start on pedagogical paper which is somehow now my problem.

Karen

Teaching - finish off current unit by releasing feedback and submitting results; finish scaffolding map and start revisions to unit outline
Research - set up writing group (outcome from a lovely cross-discipline event hosted by nearby-department), 1 pomodoro on documentation
Self and home - yoga x 3, go bushwalking this weekend.

Susan

1. Do the grading!
2. Get writing prompt for next week up
3. Read manuscript for blurb
4. Contact landscaper, follow up with painter
5. Have fun with friends
6. be kind to myself

Good morning!

 What a lovely day we had yesterday: conversation, a little walk, exploring the conservatory and gardens, then a lovely evening with hors d'oeuvres, delicious dinner, dessert, fruit, and ending with a light conversation.  We were so fortunate!  And today is a new day, so as we start the day, what is it you need today?  Exercise? Rest? More conversation?  Maybe just sitting in the conservatory with a pleasant book would help you.  Whatever it is, what's your plan for today, at this magic place where if you need it, it can happen!

Taking this over into our work and writing lives, since we're into the second half of the session, how do you plan the next phase?  Any new starts? A push in the right direction? What's the plan?

Goals from last week: 

Daisy

1) Start every day with a research task first, no service before that is done!
2) Finish conference poster – urgent because I forgot about it…
3) Paper revisions for paper related to poster, an excellent excuse to get this prioritized!
4) More modelling work for new local paper, write it down!
5) Don’t schedule any meetings this week!
6) Run some more in nice Fall sunshine and do at least one fun friend thing

Dame Eleanor

Health: yoga x6, weights x3, very short walks, keep trying w/r/t sleep.
Research: topic sentence outline of chapter to writing group; dead language study; read a book; scan some essays.
Teaching: grade submissions from both classes.
Admin: prep for meeting next Monday; take one online training.
Life Stuff: call the bank, write to my dad, take Glendower to the vet again.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell (from 2 weeks ago)

Medical appointments: go to two; make appointments for three more.
10 entries a day on the French drama guide.
Finish the class handout; print out the handout.
1 square foot of desk clearing x three.
Read one article to get back into a long-neglected project.

Heu Mihi

1) Process last two WH essays
2) Proofs of one essay for next issue
3) Article work: Write up notes/draft paragraph on book read last week; start reading another book/read another article for revisions.
4) Run at least 3 times; yoga at least once. (That's about where I've been lately.) Sit, knit, read, muddle through somehow.

Humming42 (from 2 weeks ago)

1 work daily on upcoming conference presentation
2 make progress on grading (would like to get caught up but it’s unlikely)
3 submit most recent last book review
4 do daily creative writing prompts, every day
5 as DEH reminds me, complete overdue training

JaneB

1) self-care: do 3 songs worth of exercise each day, check in again on fruit and veg and protein, clean out the flipping "basket swap", clear off the reading chair in my work area, do something on Halloween D&D
2) teaching: get week 5 materials prepared and start on week 6, fix the second half of the "list items" for my VLE sites (6 sites)
3) admin: get caught up on last stupid CPD thing
4) research: read over what we said we'd do for the grant that got funded, and finish the notes. schedule meetings for grads.

Karen

Teaching - map out scaffolding in prior units for my sem 1 unit
Research - update profile for uni website, return all student writing received by end of Thursday
Self and home - 3 x yoga, clear one box in home office, write and finish garden maintenance list over the weekend.

Susan

1. Finish self-study DRAFT and send it out
2. Grade student papers
3. Draft proposal for sabbatical
4. Make two calls about house stuff (painter and landscaper)
5. Do something not work related
6. Keep up with exercise, healthy eating, decent sleep