Welcome back! Goal setting post for Summer/Winter 2016

Welcome to the Top Left Quadrant session for Summer/Winter 2016!

Your hosts are myself, JaneB, and Humming42, and this session will run for 17 weeks, until the weekend of 27-28 August. The basic ground rules are posted here. We will put up weekly prompts for discussion and check in each Friday, which allows participants the chance to reflect on the previous week and get ready to start the next week with goals in mind at whatever point over the weekend they prefer.  

Welcome to both old hands and newcomers - if you are interested in joining us and want to know more, read back through the last few weeks of check-ins.  We are a comfortable group, and that reading will give you a good idea who we are. To officially join in, just leave a comment below following the prompts. Please feel free to share and promote through your own blogs and social media.

As usual, for this first week, please briefly introduce yourself, where you are in your career, at what sort of university or school, and anything else you may want to share about your life and your summer/winter plans.

Then set your key, overall goals for the session. KJHaxton commented recently on her goal-setting strategy:

I will think about sitting down with a cup of tea on the first day of semester in September: what do I want to think back on and feel really satisfied that I did this summer? What would I regret spending time on? And what must I do to find more time during semester for TLQ?

Although the original emphasis of TLQ (important but not urgent) was research and writing, many participants have added goals for creativity, self-care and other things that are important in our lives - and finding time and space for these can be particularly important in the summer, which most northern hemisphere academics hope every year will be a magical, rejuvenating space, despite prior experiences to the contrary...

Then set your weekly goals, which you will report back on through the check-in post going up on Friday, 13th May. Weekly goals are a great way to break down the overall goals into smaller, manageable steps, and you might want to think about goals that could be set for each day or a couple of times over the week as well as single action goals. Goals can be set in whatever units work for you - for example, writing goals can be set as number of words added or pages edited or read, or number of writing sessions, or an amount of time (1000 words/edit 50 pages/read 1 book/write 3 times/work in paper Y for 2 hours).

Welcome again and all the best with your goals; please join in by commenting on each others posts, since the interactions within this community make it a fun, social and productive space - and the world needs more of those!

Intermission: we'll be back soon!

Humming42 and I are hosting the 'mid year' iteration of TLQ, and it's a bumper edition: it will begin on the weekend of 7-8th May and end on the last weekend in August, 27-28th.

All welcome, for part or all of the period - whether you've done this before or are new, whether you had a great run in the last iteration or quietly disappeared after a few weeks, whether your summer goal is an entire thesis or a complete draft of a conference paper or just a tidy house and a relaxed mind for the following academic semester... and feel free to use the comments here to relieve your TLQ group withdrawal symptoms - suggested topic, if anyone wants one, how do you set session goals that are both achievable and appealing?

Week 15 -- Wrap Up and Assessment

I'm amazed that we are now at the end of this 15-week session.  We do have some housekeeping to discuss--when we do want to start the summer/winter session, and who is interested in hosting or co-hosting? Please let us know in the comments. I will post in the break about the new session (co-)host(s) and timing.

It has been a good session for me--I got more done than I thought I would accomplish.  I appreciate everyone's participation, and especially thank Daisy for being a great co-host.

We've listed both the past week's goals and session goals for everyone. Daisy had a mid-session review a few weeks' back, so feel free to concentrate on session goals after that point.  Thank you all!

allan wilson
This week's goals:
1) do some reading around the next TLQ project, which I have scheduled to work on with my collaborator for two weeks from the end of next week, so I can see logical progression in data analysis
2) have all the data cleaned up and ready to go by the middle of next week for the above TLQ project 
3) cook for a special event next week to remember some of the people we have lost over the last year

Session goals:

1) spend two hours on average each work day writing
2) work on a novel I want to start writing once a week
3) exercise at least three times a week

Contingent Cassandra
This week's goals: (from Week 13)

1. Increase exercise (walks and weight-lifting and perhaps some gardening, but especially walks)
2. Try to get sleep schedule better coordinated w/ DST and keep up decent eating
3. Make a substantial start on taxes

Session Goals:

--Do whatever I can to support my family members (father, brother, stepmother, nieces and nephews, and sister-in law) during my father's dying process, while also taking care of myself, and keeping up with my basic professional and other commitments.
--Take care of myself, including working exercise and regular sleep into my schedule whenever circumstances allow (and perhaps sometimes when it seems like they don't), and keeping the pantry/freezer stocked with healthy and easy-to-prepare food (for myself and any family members who may end up crashing at my place).
--making continued progress on the most vital TLQ financial/household tasks (taxes et al. and boxes still sums this area up pretty well).

Daisy
This week's goals:
1) Mail out samples and make lab visit schedule
2) Outline 2 projects with fancy pretty posters! This will involve a fun trip to the office supply store, something I enjoy way more than most people!
3) Work on revise/resubmit paper (RR for short now)
4) Work on literature review for new projects
5) make up good names for projects so they have cool code names like KJ and JaneB :)
Session goals:

1) The three papers in revision right now have to go away, and go away forever...'nuff said...
2) Write the first two papers on new field area.
3) Read more papers - will break this down each week.
4) Get exercise back into my schedule - I'm signed up for a very long race in May to help with inspiration.

Danne: 

This week's goals: (from Week 10)

-Touch thesis daily

-Write daily

Session goals: (unstated)

Earnest English
This week's goals:
1a. Research: 3x
1b. Research: engage with incredible ILL info: 1/6 at least!
1c. Research: send out at least one scary thing this week regarding Little Project
1d. Research: work on sabbatical application
2. Health: eat well, supplements, etc.; get good sleep as often as possible
3. Family: my big thing here is staying on top of Spirited's therapy; he's really into his own things right now, teaching himself all sorts of things, so it's less important for me to really drive the homeschooling right now. Thank goodness. (I am so tired.)
4. Gardening: next weekend: start tomato seeds which hopefully will have come by then
5. Work: Work on Big Report in small bits in order to get it done this week; moderate emotions so it's possible to get anything done when what I really want to have a small tantrum and then slam my office door with my keys in it, tell off some people who really need it, and never darken that door again! (I'm reading Cynthia Kuhn's The Semester of Our Discontent and this is really really helping my morale!!!)
Session goals

1. Research: In general, I'd like to have gotten my research world back in order. Specifically, by the end of March, I'd like to have gotten my sabbatical application ready. (Ooh, it makes me nervous just to write that.) Send out unpublished Olive Tree branches. And by the end I'd better have long since addressed galleys of Forsythia, which are currently staring reproachfully at me.
2. Health: I'd like to work on getting some movement, centering (meditating, coloring, whatever), and relaxation into my life on a regular joyous (hopefully) basis. This has to be broken up into steps. And vegetables are to be sought out, even if under a blanket of cheese. Salads at Panera are worth the cost (though maybe not the perils of the snowy drive). I also want to maintain a sense of purposeness and centeredness instead of getting so stressed or anxious quite so often. This is all of a piece (peace!) to me. Must move like water more often. It's all good.
3. Reading: I want to read more books. I want to also stop beating myself up about this. I think this means I need to blog the absurdity out of my system. Sometimes one needs to be humiliated out of one's idiocies. I have a blog for this purpose; I need to use it.
4. Family: There are loads of things I want in here so I know that I have to be careful here because that means there's the possibility of making all this into sticks to beat myself with. I want to prepare more meals than I did in Fall. I want to keep up on gardening, when that comes back up. I want to spend more time working with Absurdist Spirited Son on his education, etc. I want to get a babysitter occasionally.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
This week's goals:
1) Return to work ½ hour a day on footnote revisions. If met, reward myself with ½ hour on researching the sabbatical topic. 
2) Begin the decluttering and packing for the move. One hour per week day and three hours on weekend days.
3) Plan for 15 minutes--coffee shop or in the car, if necessary.
4) Move like water, float like mist.
Session goals:

I want to make substantial progress on my critical edition. It has been hanging around for more than a decade, and I just have the commentary and footnotes to finish.
I want to finish a short story for submission at the end of April.
I want to get in better shape, once I’m cleared for exercise. I need to resume walking, and may have to hit the recumbent bike in the gym as well.

Good Enough Woman
This week's Goals:
1) Read two chapters of criticism from the interesting book.
2) Write 500 words for intro.
3) Accept a very low standard of teaching this week.
4) Try to move like water during all of the TLQ grading.
5) Be a kind and gracious host to my mother-in-law this weekend even if I am stressed about work.
6) Take care of that financial thing for my daughter.
Session goals:

1) Write a solid draft of the introduction for thesis
2) Revise Chapter 1 (I'll call it Spy)
3) Revise Chapter 2 (I'll call it Magic)
4) Revise Chapter 3 (I'll call it Authority)
5) Submit at least one article for publication (probably one based on Spy)
6) Maintain exercise (5x per week of at least 20-40 minutes)
7) Eat more veggies
8) At least two special activities with kids per month (outdoor adventures, craft projects, etc.)

heu mihi
This week's Goals:
1) Finish skimming LT; should take about 3 hours
2) Read one J article/chapter
3) Read and comment on two essays for conference
4) Class stuff: grade papers (at least half of them), read O, read CdP
5) Read another J article/chapter (I really need to move on this)
6) Reread/revise last 1/3 of ch. 3
Session goals:

1) Finish drafting ch. 3
2) Write/prepare a talk that I'm giving on March 8
3) Write Kalamazoo paper (for mid-May)
4) Get research for ch. 6 underway

Humming42
This week's goals:
1 Write and submit abstract for book chapter
2 Type up marginalia and notes from six articles
3 Write to Important Contact with update on paper #1
Session goals:
1 Make consistent progress on manuscript revision (setting and meeting weekly goals)
2 Write and submit short contracted biography piece
3 Write two thoughtful and well-researched conference presentations
4 Make sound decisions about other writing projects (learning how to say no to myself)

JaneB
This week's goals: (from Week 13)
1) 2 hours on Dr Visit paper
2) block out Ferretty paper (I get a week off Picky Paper because that has some momentum now and is better suited to working on around grading and the like (and for now on my office PC which has a faster processer)).
3) daily at least half hours on chaos reduction
4) make 3 phone calls I keep putting off (cattery and two self-care appointments I need to make)
5) search 3 piles for the damn passport
Session Goals:

1) plan my conference-going for the year, including abstract submission dates, topics etc.
2) either find and renew my lost and expired passport or just apply for a new one from scratch
3) set up and launch a web page for the project I nickname Gallimaufry
4) make some substantial progress on the paper nicknamed Picky Paper and on either Ferret or Fancy (which are from team projects so not entirely under my control)
5) take small steps every week to make my domestic environment and self-care more of a priority

Karen
This week's goals: (from Week 7)
1. Exercise x3
2. No crazy late nights
3. Hold Friday afternoon writing time
4. Move like water and calmly get all the pieces in place for beginning of semester.

Session Goals:
1. Submit co-authored paper (let's call it Earth)
2. Revisit older conference paper (call it Body) and have a complete draft of an expanded paper for journal submission.
3. Find an exercise routine that works for me
4. Be prepared for major research fieldwork in late March-early April. 

KJHaxton
This week's goals: (from Week 13)

Acronym report needs some serious time and effort.

And tidying a bit more.

Session Goals:

1. Write scary paper 2 and scary paper 1
2. Develop research tools for Loop and Kermit
3. 25 hand crafted items.

Kris
This week's goals: (from Week 5)

1. Finish the paper and send to group for comments

2. Pitch a short piece to the media

3. Sort out commitments to grant I don't like.

4. Keep up to date with my admin & leadership responsibilities.

Session goal: 
I want to revise, commit to, and work my research plan for the year (tight plan) and the following two years (looser plan), and to put that plan first in my decisions to say 'yes' or 'no' to 'opportunities' that arise.

Matilda
This week's goals: (from Week 2)

1) Finish the paper.

2) Start to write the short article.

3) Write documents for my sabbatical 2017.

4) Have less snacks at night.

5) Exercise for 5 minutes three times a day

Session goals:

1) Write chapter 2 of my planned book.
2) Revise chapter 1 of my book.
3) Write two short articles.
4) Live a healthier life.

scottishwinter
This Week's goals: (from Week 2)

1) Finalise last Semester’s grades and get through exam boards

2) Hand over one big admin role to colleague

3) Draft of one grant application

4) 2x 1 hour article writing sessions

5) 2x 1 hour translation sessions

6) No work at the weekend.

Session Goals:

1) Only check emails at my desk, never before work and maybe twice at weekends
2) Yoga and exercise every week
3) Apply for several grants to buy me out for research leave
4) Say no to all conference / talk invitations
5) Finish two articles that have been nearly finished for ages
6) Finish translation of book for children (fun!)

Susan
This week's goals:
1. File expenses from foreign travel
2. Look at article that needs revision, make plan
3. Clear out garage for town "clean-up days" and get rid of rusty old bookcase and junk I don't want.
4. Pull three weeds (well, I'll pull more, but if my goal is three, it feels manageable
5. Gym three times, walk twice
Session Goals:

1. Finish book ms. (I have maybe 2 days of work before I can send it to a press.)
2. Work on Conference Paper revision, due probably some time in April.
3. Keep up with regular exercise, and add in at least one walking morning a week.
4. Stop checking email on Sunday.
5. Strive to keep up with 7 hours sleep nightly

Week 14 - Out of the comfort zone...

Hello everyone!

(I couldn't remember if this was my week, apologies Elizabeth if I jumped in on plans!)

I really enjoyed all the conference comments last week, there is definitely a general feeling that small conferences with lots of opportunities for interaction and fun are more rewarding and generally easier to manage, and we learn more stuff. Big ones can be awesome but generally inspire more ambivalence. I enjoy the small ones the most, but I really love all kinds and sizes because I get to travel and talk to people and learn new stuff. And a bonus if the big ones are in places where one can buy nice shoes J

This week I had lots of fun with my attempt at making an inspiration type poster after my conference. I’ve actually enjoyed it so much that I’m going to expand the exercise and actually make four posters, one for each of the projects I’m currently working on. I’m finding that it is really fun and creative, and that it is actually focusing my thinking quite nicely. The conference-related one has now morphed into the “dream sabbatical project” which won’t be for a number of years, but it doesn’t hurt to have something in mind! As scientists we often do posters only at the end of a project, and mostly under protest, but this is very different. It is low tech, fun, creative, (bonus that it involves my new colourful Sharpies I got for finishing the zombie papers!), and can be anything I want. So, project planning method that focuses on the fun and inspiration, and adds the planning almost as a side-effect... I may be onto something here! Actually, in reality people have probably been doing this sort of thing forever and I’m late to the party, but it is new to me, so I’m doing it now!

This made me think of things that we sometimes want to do, but never get to for many reasons. One big reason often is that I don’t want to think too big, or take on something that has a high probability of failure etc. etc...

For discussion, can you think of something research/TLQ-related you have never tried, something completely off the wall, something that you’ve always avoided, but secretly wanted to attempt? What would it take to get you to do it? What would you get out of it?

Possibilities? Anything, like contact and correspond with a “superstar” in your field, start something ambitious, form a research group, announce that you have written a novel? Anything big that normally would be either scary or feel impossible...

The challenge is “Think BIG” and the best past is that you get to define your own version of BIG. We are constantly being told what to do and how to do it, what do you WANT to do?

THIS WEEK:

allan Wilson  (from 12)

1)write my conference talk (currently partially done). Not exactly TLQ as I have to give it the day after tomorrow, but I have been wildly putting it off, and I'd really like to do a good job.
2) Try and chill out at conference, and not feel like I have to be with people all the time.
3) send ms that I need to resubmit to collaborator so he can write the final sentence prior to submission
4) do some reading around next TLQ project so I can see logical progression in data analysis

Contingent Cassandra

1. Increase exercise (walks and weight-lifting and perhaps some gardening, but especially walks)
2. Continue work on a more regular sleep schedule; keep eating reasonably well
3. Take at least one day fully off and read a book (try to spend at least 1/2 day in garden as well)
4. Continue tax work

Daisy

1) Do copy-edits on paper about to be published, yay! (TRQ, but since it has been a TLQ paper forever it can go here)
2) Make a plan and start on the revise/resubmit paper
3) Read up on new analytical methods and make step-by-step lists for procedures
4) Go through critical samples for new project and decide what I need to do with each one to start major work on them
5) Make the inspiration poster and try not to laugh too hard at myself :)

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

1) Return to work ½ hour a day on footnote revisions. If met, reward myself with ½ hour on researching the sabbatical topic.
2) Keep up with this community. All of you have been so supportive that I want to fight my impulse to crawl in the cave and hide when I’m wounded.
3) Plan for 15 minutes--coffee shop or in the car, if necessary.

Earnest English

1. ResearchSFP: 3x ResearchGR: send out 3
2. Health: get x-ray on Monday; get plenty of sleep; work without going nuts; epsom salt baths 3 times this week; consider joyful attention when possible
3. Family: keep on Family Projects and homeschooling as best I can
4. Gardening: get basement ready for starting seeds
5. Work: moderate emotions while 1) working on syllabi; 2) starting big report this week; 3) getting right on reading responses.

Good Enough Woman

1) Write 5,000 words for the intro!
2) Read 1 or 2 primary texts.
3) Read 4 articles/chapters.
4) Get started on taxes before the retreat.
5) Carve out time to grade 50 essays by Monday, April 7. They're TLQ now but will turn into TRQ really quickly if left untouched over break. I'll aim for 10 on Monday, then 5 per day after that. I'll still have 35 essays from another class, but it will help a lot to get these 50 done. These all came in this past week, and more will be coming in after break, so I need to make a dent!

heu mihi

1) Proofs for encyclopedia article
2) Finish BMK
3) Finish R&R
4) Read all 6 M-S papers
5) Sketch out ideas for Kzoo, before reading: What am I looking for?
6) Start in on LT for Kzoo
7) Kzoo bibliography

Humming42 (from 13)

1 Solid draft of paper #1
2 Complete draft of paper #2
3 Organize notes and prepare outline for roundtable discussion

JaneB

1) keep the two appointments I made for me (no excuses!)
2) stop work early and go to bed early if you want, or otherwise relax, even if there is still lots to do. There is ALWAYS lots to do.
3) do one small decluttering type thing, even if it's just an empty/put dishes away/refill the magic cupboard kind of thing, every day til Friday.
4) enjoy the weekend.
5) one hour with the website book and some blank paper and some coloured pens, planning for Gallimaaufry

KJ Haxton

1. Mark lab reports, tests and compile presentation marks
2. prep 2 x 2 hour lectures for kermit course, 2 x 2 hour lectures for 1st year course, sort out all the remaining admin bits.
3. prepare course information for 1st and 2nd years making choices for next year
4. tackle acronym - at least 3 half days of effort, possibly aiming to get sent out to helpful person
5. respond to invite to write thing on Borg stuff.
6. respond to invite to do project on Saurkraut
[I know, more project names, I've had to start a list in my diary of what's what because I started naming computer folders with the project names. It sounds so much more exciting. I blame JaneB with her 'crunchier' really... I've got Gemstone, Kermit, Acronym, House, Scary, and now Borg and Saurkraut]
7. start seriously planning outreach activities in May and June, consider request to participate in some in August.

Susan
1. Walk twice
2. Really touch that essay that needs doing
3. Do a little weeding

Week 13 - Inspiration and enthusiasm

Hello everyone!

I’m back from my two-week excursion to a fabulous conference and field trip, and as promised it was absolutely amazing. Everything that had to go right went perfectly, my talk was one of the better ones I’ve ever done, and I met an amazing group of researchers. There will definitely be some future work and collaborations coming from this meeting. I also loved discovering a part of the world I had never visited before and I now have a new sabbatical fantasy involving running away to a particular set of islands to contemplate in dark moments!

Conferences (and field trips for us outdoor-study types) serve as one of the most inspirational parts of our jobs. I think this is true in all disciplines to different extents. I have always come back from conferences with renewed enthusiasm and inspiration for my own work. This one was no exception, and probably produced even more of that than most others!

Now the tricky question is: how do I hold on to that sense of renewal and wonder and joy? How do I keep that feeling alive next week when I uncover all the monsters lurking in the in-box, or jump right back into the politics of grading and admin and all of the other things? Never mind those, even just the whole business of cleaning my house and keeping other people alive? I wish I knew...

For discussion, what are the things that help you hold on to the inspiration gained from a trip or conference? What are things you would like to try to make the inspiration and enthusiasm stick around instead of sublimating like snow in April?

THIS WEEK:

allan Wilson  (from 12)

1) resubmit whk paper

2)do a bit of the mapping stuff

3) take my daughter out once on her own

4) do a bit of relaxing and refocusing my brain. Rest, chocolate, and contacting an old friend.

Contingent Cassandra

1. Increase exercise (walks and weight-lifting and perhaps some gardening, but especially walks)
2. Try to get sleep schedule better coordinated w/ DST and keep up decent eating
3. Make a substantial start on taxes

Daisy (from 12)

Enjoy conference, trip, and give a great talk.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

1) Return to work ½ hour a day on footnote revisions. If met, reward myself with ½ hour on researching the sabbatical topic.
2) File 15 minutes twice a day. If met, reward with reading a frivolous novel for ½ hour.
3) Plan for 15 minutes--coffee shop or in the car, if necessary.

Earnest English

1. Research: 3x.
2. Health: go get x-ray; put leg up; de-stress while grading somehow.
3. Family: spend some time with Spirited! go out to dinner a couple times this week.
4. Gardening: zero goals on this right now.
5. Grading: I must grade. I have a ton. I've got to moderate my emotions about it and just get it done. Not get frustrated. Not freak out on my family. Just plod along and get it done.

Good Enough Woman (from  12)

1) write 500 words for intro

2) read one article or chapter

3) read 50 pages of a primary source

4) Pay attention to recent minor health complaints of children. Evaluate whether to not I need to take them in.

heu mihi

1) Read 4 seminar papers
2) Read/skim first half of J's LT
3) Notes on relevant passages/ideas for Kzoo paper
4) BMK part 1
5) Finish C
6) Bibliography for Kzoo paper
7) Grade undergrad papers

Humming42

1 Solid draft of paper #1
2 Complete draft of paper #2
3 Organize notes and prepare outline for roundtable discussion

JaneB

1) 2 hours on Dr Visit paper
2) block out Ferretty paper (I get a week off Picky Paper because that has some momentum now and is better suited to working on around grading and the like (and for now on my office PC which has a faster processer)).
3) daily at least half hours on chaos reduction
4) make 3 phone calls I keep putting off (cattery and two self-care appointments I need to make)
5) search 3 piles for the damn passport

KJ Haxton

Acronym report needs some serious time and effort.

And tidying a bit more.

Susan (from 12)
1. Remarks for conference next week (it's a roundtable, so 10 minutes of think piece, not a paper)

2. Organize last bit of summer vacation

3. Begin work on paper revisions that keep getting pushed to the bottom of the pile

4. Keep up with exercise. Walk once

5. Finish weeding the garden! For 10 seconds, I want NO WEEDS!