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Saturday 18 July 2015

Week 9 Check-In: productivity habits

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a productive week with some good self-care and fun fitting in as well, and that everyone's crises are settling down.  Last week we mostly talked about what happens to TLQ when the Big Stuff of life comes along, so for this week, let's follow Cassandra's suggestion and talk about where we're up to and how we're going to adjust things for the rest of the summer.  Amstr pointed us to this article on productivity, which listed seven ways to improve the amount you get done in the time you have, which gave these seven points

1. Use active verbs in your to-do list
2. Say no to multitasking 
3. Paint your workspace green 
4. Add leisure time to your calendar5. Don’t plan a big project — plan a series of small tasks
6. Overestimate the time you need
7. Begin first, correct later
 
We have 6 weeks to go in this group, which is enough time to achieve things, but probably also short enough to give most of us a "not enough time!" twitchy feeling, so it's probably a good point to both review our goals for the summer (especially given last week's topic) and to think about whether we want to try any new productivity habits - something from the list, some kind of self-care, having a dedicated writing time etc. - in the remaining time, or if you have an effective productivity habit to share with the rest of us! 

Suggested check-in structure:
1) summer goal review
2) topic
3) last week's goals: reporting progress
4) analysis of last week and planning for next week

5) next week's goals

The rest of this post is summer goals (in summer colours so I hope you can read them) then last week's goals (in black).


SUMMER GOALS

allan wilson maintain exercising every week, preferably four times. that's the goal that skips most easily for me. submit three papers.

Amstr:  1) develop a strong writing habit, 2) start submitting to agents, 3) learn (again) to eat well, 4) finish job apps, 5) get prepped for freelancing to start in the fall.
 
Contingent Cassandra: make substantial progress on getting household & financial matters in better order, maintain and improve self-care: exercise (especially taking advantage of the pool while it's open), sleep, and good meals. maintain better connections/reconnect with friends and family.

 Daisy:
ALL research, ALL the time!!! And READING. designate one day or afternoon each week to deal with all other stuff - admin, teaching, programme development etc. and try to keep it contained.  I have at least 6 weeks of field work to do, so my summer weeks at home are fairly restricted anyway, I really want to make the most of the time I'm around.
1) Get rid of last 2 lingering thesis papers - either submit them or pull plugs on them (L1 and L2)
2) Write up almost finished new area project and submit (N1)
3) Write up preliminary report for huge project (H1)
4) Design and start next phase of huge project (H2)
5) Design student part of huge project (H3)
On the personal and reading front I'm going to designate a few habit-forming plans for the summer.
1) Read one new research paper every day
2) Do one fun adventure or new activity with child every weekend I'm home
3) Run or do something active every day
4) Cut most sugar and processed junk out of eating plans


Elizabeth:1) to move forward on the dissertation, which needs an updated literature review, and a rewritten introduction and first chapter, 2) to walk more, and 3) to eat better food mindfully.

GEW: 
1) Do work necessary for NEH Summer Institute that will be held in July (related to sabbatical project)
2) Draft introduction to PhD thesis (by July 1)
3) Revise two chapters of thesis (also by July 1)
4) Prepare article for journal submission (by August 28th)
5) Exercise (walks with dog, visits to fancy athletic club)

humming42 (amended week 4): Two book proposals and one article based on the third book topic (Em, Ala and Fem), and pay attention to falling-down-house
 
iwantzcatbocl: On a book deadline that I must finish it by June 30—I’ve blown through several deadlines for this project over the past year, so it is time for me to finally wrap it up. After that, I have two long languishing articles that need revision that I would like to complete for the end of August. I have a little bit of fieldwork to complete later this month. I also I have a mini-goal of actually planning each day (making a list in my special notebook), which always makes me feel like I have more time, but somehow I don’t do it! Would like to exercise daily (realistically—five days a week). Also would like to meditate for ten minutes a day

 JaneB:  Do All The Things!!! Progress goals of: one grant application (to make my head of department shut up, not in actual expectation of success), one paper's worth of progress with writing (might not be all on one paper), redesign of both Difficult Team Taught Second Year modules - and all of these things to be underpinned by a habit goal of reading research, working on figures or writing for a minimum of 1 hour a day, every "normal day", with the internet OFF.   Self-care: to be in a better position for the new academic year which involves domestic decluttering, better sleep, eating and exercise patterns, plenty of 'mental health strategies' to hand, and something of a five year plan/exit plan so I have more of an anchor against the surges of AllTheRhetoricAndCrapola...

karenh: Key goals for the research/writing side are: for Project One (curatorial) to be prepared for the exhibition and a separate publication; Project Two is to get one of my old conference papers revised for submission as an article. On the self-care side, regular exercise and more reasonable bedtimes.

kjhaxton: 1. papers: gem stone paper, acronym paper
2. projects: ethics and research tool for scary project
3. planning: to work on papers and projects for 1 hour per day (week days), to spend 1/2 day a week getting next year's teaching in order, to restrict email to two 1/2 hour periods per week day.
4. personal: paint several rooms in the house, make curtains for dining room, print various pictures for competitions and our walls.

Let'sDoThis: My writing goals for this summer including finishing the article by June 8th (totally achievable) and finishing both books before my fall term begins (ummm ... maybe less achievable). Enjoy every minute with my long-awaited wee baby, and trying to get the house in order once and for all.
 
Matilda:1) to write two chapters of the book. 2) to write for 15 minutes everyday. 3) to exercise for 5 minutes everyday. 4) to eat better, less sweets.

Mercy:
1) get back to LC paper and submit it!
2) write a complete draft of HA paper for my real-life writing group, revise based on their comments, and submit also
3) wrap up teaching-related stuff asap (last class this coming Thursday) and be done with teaching until next semester
4) fit in premininary field work project

Susan: 
1. The book. I am completing a book ms. I have a draft of all the chapters, which are now almost fully revised at least a first time, for flow and repetition and overall argument. My goal is to send a ms. to a publisher for review by the end of the summer.
2. Other project: for my administrative role, I'm editing a collection of essays, and I have to get the proposal for that written, send invitations, and get in touch with the press.
3. House: I'm slowly decluttering and redecorating. I've got a plan for new furniture and a new seating arrangement in my living room, and I want to begin work on that.
4. Self care: one of the goals of the sabbatical was to get into good sleep and exercise patterns. I am now mostly getting 7 hours of sleep a night (my goal) and eating well. But my exercise life is erratic, and I always seem to have other things to do if a friend who is in town occasionally isn't around. So it's exercise that needs to be the new goal.
5. In the middle of the summer I have a 3 1/2 week trip to the UK, which is partly work (I must check footnotes) but also fun. I need to plan at least one week of real vacation. I've got a bunch of possibilities that I need to work out, including family visits to lovely places, visits to cities I've never visited, and time at the beach.

LAST WEEK'S GOALS

allan wilson (from week 7)1. drink lots of water (I loved this one - I think I feel better)
2. finish conference talk post colleague critique
3. enjoy my life
4. do wildly overdue ethics app- added because of my comments below!!

Amstr
1) exercise 4x
2) plan food
3) examine job possibilities and feeeelings about them
4) work out help from other people to have writing time during the day
5) plan a writing retreat and plan anniversary weekend

Contingent Cassandra
1) Set phone-carrier switch in motion; check on other financial/household projects in progress; tackle other small financial/household matters as possible in between student communications & grading
2) Get at least a bit of exercise most days (walking, mulch-moving, and/or swimming; try to step this up a bit)
3) tough base w/ at least one family member (and maybe a couple of others; once I get the phone working, I intend to use my niece/nephews for texting practice, since one of the purposes of switching to a smart phone is being able to communicate with them in their native idiom, whatever it is this week)
5) work on tying up odds and ends of communications w/ members of my department, plans for the fall semester, etc., well enough to allow me to go incommunicado for a week or so after grades are in.
6) work on getting class DH site ready to go public/be presented if time (but if not, don't worry; this *will* become TRQ-er by late August, and I will find time to do it).


Daisy
1) Field report
2) Revise Discussion and Methods for neglected paper that has been languishing on back-burner
3) Reading project
4) Run outside 4 times this week

Elizabeth (from week 7)
1) Back to the dissertation. Three days for an hour a day.
2) Take care of myself, both physically, and by allowing myself to mourn. I have the first two of four doctors’ appointments in the month of July this Wednesday.

GEW
1) Walk to and from institute location whenever it's safe enough to do so (i.e., not dark).
2) Write for at least 30 minutes per day on chapter draft.
3) Say no to socializing if I really don't want to do it.
4) Be a good listener during the training. Don't raise hands to make too many comments or questions.
5) Each evening, write lists of "intentions" for the following day so that I'm not just spinning wheels during any open times.
6) Enjoy and be grateful for this week of time during which I get to work on things that interest me. 

humming42 (two week goals set week 7)
1) continue work on Upcoming Article
2) write book review
3) write proposal
4) finish revise & resubmit
5) submit old article to new journal (if coauthor agrees)

iwantzcatbocl (from week 7)
1. Serious book progress. Deadline is July 15. I don’t feel like breaking it down more than this at the moment.
2. Seems the only thing I can really do is to promise to go to Favorite Café daily and keep working.
3. Keep up exercise.
4. Sublet apartment?

JaneB
1. get the poster finished and the talk cancelled for cancelled conference.
2. go back to the gym twice and Bugge Spray the 'you should do more!' voice firmly when it tries to make you do more than you plan - regularity is more important than the overall amount of exercise this week.
3. survive the various parties and trainings and being in the offices. Do not lean too heavily on chocolate or succumb to too many fatty-but-delicious university catering snacks, and follow GEWs example and don't talk too much!
4. look at Smart Paper and rough out the results section; don't fret about whether it needs more info yet.
5. write a blog post for Shared Professional Blog about the very very late paper that finally came out (25 years after the samples were collected...)
6. Bed before midnight without electronics!


Karenh (goals from week 7)
1) Knock off 2 tasks from P1 admin list
2) 30 min writing x3
3) read/note 2x article for P2; order in book that looks directly on topic
4)reinstate bedtime alarm, 4 x physic exercises.

kjhaxton (goals from week 7)
(a) Scary project: start re-analysing data for maybe conference presentation and read new literature on project.
(b) Gemstone Paper: play around with data and start planning the figures
(c) continue list making and cross off some small items from the various lists. 

Let's Do This (goals from week 7)
1. Finish the article that I wanted to finish last week. Email it before I leave town for the holiday weekend. This gives me three days, ACK!.
2.Do the dreaded bills.
3. Fix the captioning and the video summaries on the two videos that have been uploaded thus far. This will ease me into finishing, uploading, and captioning the remaining videos next week, so I can get started on that article before my parents arrive on the 10th.
4. Pack for the weekend trip. Something I love to put on the list because then I can cross it off later!
5. Enjoy extra time with my daughter, who has a break from the gym this week. 
 
Matilda (goals from week 7)
1) To revise Chapter 1 on the articles I have read recently.
2) To exercise for 3 minutes at least three times a day.
3) To have good sleep, and do not think that I should have worked instead. Sleep is important. 

Mercy
a. Read 1 more MA thesis for final grade
b. Read 5 HA-related articles
c. Freewrite about the article for 15 mins/day
d. Do some form of excercise each day (taking kids to park will count, too)
e. Start gratitude journal 

Susan 
1. Finish proposal for publisher
2. ILL stuff
3. Finish bibliography work.
4. Exercise or work in garden four days

35 comments:

  1. 1. Review of summer goals: thanks, JaneB for being so organized as to know our overall summer goals!! Seriously, I completely forgot that I had set the outlandish (for me) goal to finish and submit two articles this summer--what was I thinking!? This was beyond crazy considering thtat I knew I would be moving, jetlagged, single-parenting etc, So, in my mind the main summer goal has long since been scaled back to "only" finishing 1 article--and even that sounds daunting at the moment.I also scrapped "fit in fieldwork project even if I don't see how that's possible" as a summer goal. Lesson here: if I have to add "even if I don't see how this would be humanly possible" to any goal, it's probably not going to work out, and I should either let that particular goal go (for that particular time frame) or swap out some other goal.

    Anyways, here's the current status of my goals:
    a) get back to LC paper and submit it! NOPE
    b) write a complete draft of HA paper and submit also THIS ONE STAYS
    c) wrap up teaching-related stuff asap and be done with teaching until next semester TOOK TOO LONG, but almost met this goal (except I also did start to prep some for next semester)
    d) fit in premininary field work project POSTPONED till November

    2. Topic: Productivity Habits. Yes, I feel I actually do most of the things on the list, especially not multi-tasking and breaking things down in smaller steps. Does things are definitely helpful for me, but don't seem the help much with the bigger issue, which is that writing just scares me a whole lot, and I need lots of "bug spray" for my inner critic. Also, most importantly, I always have plenty of other stuff to do that is not writing (therefore, not scary to me) that is legitimately important too, so I can easily rationalize doing those things instead (things like: seeing friends after having been gone for a year; do 1 fun thing--like going to the park or playing a board game--with the kids now that they're all at home; excercise, or household tasks.

    I'm not sure that I have productivity habits that you all would want to steal from me, although I have used toodledo for a long time, and it works well for me for all tasks except writing.

    3. last week's goals:
    a. Read 1 more MA thesis for final grade--> DONE
    b. Read 5 HA-related articles --> did 3, only on the first 2 days of the week
    c. Freewrite about the article for 15 mins/day --> NOOO
    d. Do some form of excercise each day (taking kids to park will count, too) --> YES
    e. Start gratitude journal --> YES

    4. Well, I started out okay with the article reading, but fell of the bandwagon when I had friends come over in the mornings on Thu and Fri. (Should ask friends to come over in the afternoons instead: if I do that, I think I can get on that particular band wagon again pretty easily).

    Writing--any writing--is still hard and scary, but if I make the time required short enough "only 15 minutes--I can stand anything for 15 minutes" then I should be able to get on the writing bandwagon again, too (after a much longer time away from it)

    I don't have big things planned for next week, except that I'm still catching up with old friends, single-parenting 3 kids who are not in camp, and unpacking/cleaning/reorganizing/working on the yard. So again, modest goals are all that I'll aim for.

    5. Next week's goals
    a. read 1 HA-related article per day every workday
    b. freewrite for 15 minutes each day
    c. 1 fun/excercise thing w/kids each day
    d. 1 home/yard task each day (kids can help)

    Best wishes for the week ahead of you all!

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    1. The great thing about modest goals is that they accumulate - both in helping you feel you can achieve what you set out to do AND in terms of slowly turning into a critical mass of work which looks like an article...

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  2. Oh, my. Summer goals remind me of how far my plans have been derailed:
    1. The book. I am completing a book ms. I have a draft of all the chapters, which are now almost fully revised at least a first time, for flow and repetition and overall argument. My goal is to send a ms. to a publisher for review by the end of the summer.
    - In my head I had two dates, Aug 31 and Sept. 26, and I think I'll make the second, or close.
    2. Other project: for my administrative role, I'm editing a collection of essays, and I have to get the proposal for that written, send invitations, and get in touch with the press.
    -- Well, because of work related bad news, this is not my task, at least for the time being.
    3. House: I'm slowly decluttering and redecorating. I've got a plan for new furniture and a new seating arrangement in my living room, and I want to begin work on that.
    - Have done new bookcases, but sofa is on hold. I have to spend time looking at furniture.
    4. Self care: one of the goals of the sabbatical was to get into good sleep and exercise patterns. I am now mostly getting 7 hours of sleep a night (my goal) and eating well. But my exercise life is erratic, and I always seem to have other things to do if a friend who is in town occasionally isn't around. So it's exercise that needs to be the new goal.
    - maybe a little progress in the last few days
    5. In the middle of the summer I have a 3 1/2 week trip to the UK, which is partly work (I must check footnotes) but also fun. I need to plan at least one week of real vacation. I've got a bunch of possibilities that I need to work out, including family visits to lovely places, visits to cities I've never visited, and time at the beach.
    -- that whole, and another vacation, have been cancelled due to my mother's stroke. Bad news: no vacation; good news: time to work

    Topic: I'm not sure I have productivity tips to share. I've been trying to schedule leisure, but clearly life has intervened on that one. On the other hand, I've been very careful about setting up evenings with friends since my mother's been ill. It's been good to have time when I'm not worrying.

    Last week's goals:
    1. Finish proposal for publisher NO
    2. ILL stuff - SOME
    3. Finish bibliography work. -Done a little, but not done.
    4. Exercise or work in garden four days : three, if you count today.

    Analysis: well, my mother's move to rehab was delayed a day, which led to more worry for one day, and another day of sitting in the hospital watching/waiting, since they didn't move her until late afternoon. I managed to clear out a lot of email while sitting, but still... Then there were a bunch of TRQ things to do with bad stuff at work, for which I have now submitted a formal appeal, but that took a fair bit of time and intellectual energy to write. I am just about to sit down and work on the book. .. I've now got a pattern where during the week, I can work till mid-afternoon, then visit my mother, then come back for more work. I hope this structure will help me.

    Goals for this week:
    1. Book: revise introduction and first three chapters following advice from awesome editor; read other chapters to know what she's thinking. (Intro is a fair bit of work, so may not be finished, other three are in fairly decent shape.)
    2. Finish book proposal
    3. Exercise in some way daily.
    4. Do bibliography stuff

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    1. Oh, and it helps that my mother is making good progress . . . but it will be a long journey.

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    2. Glad to hear that your mother is doing well, and that you are setting up a pattern that will hopefully allow you to look after yourself as well through the ongoing process of recovering to a new normal.

      Karenh

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    3. What karen said - but what a difficult summer this is shaping up to be... wishing you lots of nice relaxing leisure time AND work time with 'flow'!

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    4. Glad things are, at least, settling down a bit, and that your mother is making progress.

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  3. 1) summer goal review: I am rather satisfied with progress thus far, especially since I have lately been trying to enjoy not-doing. I am trying to learn how to spend time just being and not working myself into a frothy panic of guilt about my failure to do this or that. The Em book proposal is done, and Fem is underway. That’s an edited collection, and after getting abstracts from interested authors I need to tweak the proposal. I like the direction that project is taking. Without explicitly asking for one particular kind of thing, I had several abstracts about Cool Topic Thread. The Ala proposal has transformed into Upcoming Article, which needs way more attention. I have six weeks to finish it, and that should be good.

    2) topic: I have had a hard time with productivity tips this summer. I tried todoist.com and am about ready to scrap it. I have, as usual, spent far more time trying to figure out what, how, and when to do things than is truly necessary. I’m working on that too--trying to not procrastinate too long before I say oh hell, I really just need to do this thing, finally. Once I commit to writing/research, I can engage it well. It’s getting started that vexes me. So I am definitely open to suggestions.

    3) last week's goals: After a wonderful weekend with family and flight delay, I came home with a headache that lasted three days. Because of that, I only finished the revise and resubmit, after it had entered the TRQ zone. No work on Upcoming Article or book review. I couldn’t make the submission deadline for old article, but coauthor and I have decided to continue revising and submit old article elsewhere in its own good time.

    4) analysis of last week and planning for next week: It was not the most productive week ever. I am teaching for the next five weeks and hope that will be beneficial because it forces me to structure my time a bit more.

    5) goals for the coming week:
    1. stay relatively current with grading and comments on student assignments
    2. write book review
    3. make progress on Upcoming Article
    In the interest of clear and specific goals, I will limit myself to three.
    Happy week to all!

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    Replies
    1. Ah yes, getting started... I have to find ways to sidle up on my work, not looking at it directly, and have all sorts of different versions of this depending on the task. The one thing I am sure of is that declaring "today I will do X!" and sitting down in front of a blank page very, very, very rarely works. Maybe the sidling is about getting my brain into gear, maybe it's about sneaking past Watchful Bugges, maybe it's just a bad habit - but it works a lot more often than the head-on assault for me.

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    2. That's it exactly! I feel better knowing I'm not the only one who ends up sneaking up on her work.

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  4. Last week’s topic:
    I was involved in finishing up an article last week, and so did not manage to check in. I would like to address last week’s topic briefly before moving on to this week’s.

    I have found in the last couple of years that I have had to employ a combination of approaches when life has flattened me. I tend to hold onto the TLQ activities as a port in a storm, in many ways, but I have to be careful about drowning in them. It is easy for me to let myself get exhausted, ill, or generally just not take care of myself, so I need to make myself stop for self-care.

    This week’s topic: I am going to try a few of the productivity goals listed, especially "Add leisure time to your calendar." I am very, very bad about scheduling leisure time.

    "Don’t plan a big project — plan a series of small tasks." I used to do this pretty well when I was in graduate school. I’d like to resurrect the practice.

    "Overestimate the time you need." Another practice I’ve stopped doing.

    Summer goals:
    1) to move forward on the dissertation, which needs an updated literature review, and a rewritten introduction and first chapter.
    I actually read an article for the literature review on Friday. It’s a small step, but it’s something.

    2) to walk more.
    On the whole, I have been walking more than I used to do. It’s not a habit yet, but I’m getting there.

    3) to eat better food mindfully.
    Ah, there is a story behind this one. For the past month, I’ve been suffering from very difficult GI symptoms. I’ve not been able to get in to see a gastroenterologist yet, but the betting is even on whether it is stomach ulcers or gallstones. I suppose eating only non-fat foods, and very few of those, means I am meeting this goal.

    Two Week’s Ago Goals:
    Back to the dissertation. Three days for an hour a day.
    Only two days, but a start.

    Take care of myself, both physically, and by allowing myself to mourn. I have the first two of four doctors’ appointments in the month of July this Wednesday. Actually, I have three doctors’ appointments, and I have been to two of them. A good start here, too.

    Next week’s goals:
    Read one more article for the literature review.
    Schedule one more doctor’s appointment and a trip to the dentist.

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    1. small steps sound promising, but ugh, enforced 'healthy eating' sounds pretty unpleasant, especially on top of all the other things that have happened - it doesn't seem fair that you are denied the small consolation of say an ice cream or a portion of fries or whatever your preferred vice is. Hope the doctors' appointments go well and garner you a nice, fixable diagnosis! look after yourself!

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    2. I spent several months last year on the FODMAP diet because of GI problems. I realized that I could manage it - and while very boring, if it had solved my problems, I would have been more than willing to put up with it. Good luck - it's truly miserable, so I hope the dietary changes help.

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  5. Summer goals: I've been making progress in all areas. Slower than I'd like, but good progress. I think I'm making peace with the fact that full-scale employment is not in my future--by choice. Dipping my toes back into teaching with an 8-week online class in the fall feels just about right. And a building up toward freelancing on a longer timeline (starting after the class is over) is probably wisest. Writing--the most important thing on my list--has been a bit squashed by other things that feel (and are) more urgent. So in addition to my list, I need to figure out how to make my writing a priority.

    I feel like yet again I've gotten myself to a place where I love so many things, I don't want to give any of them up! But I wrote a list of all the areas/projects I have going on, and it's actually physically impossible to do all of them. No wonder I feel overwhelmed!

    I did have a great talk with my husband about all the job-related feeelings, and about my current writing projects, and just like during dissertation days, talking about it all got me unstuck. The life of a verbal process who does solitary work. :)

    For productivity: I'm going to try some version of Getting Things Done (http://gettingthingsdone.com/fivesteps/). I have so many moving pieces right now and so many things I'm in charge of that I'm starting (continuing?) to lose track of too much.

    This week's goals: 1) exercise 4x--yes! even though my trainer quit this week. I'm starting with a new trainer tomorrow. 2) plan food--I did plan dinners for the week, but not my eating for the days. 3) job feeeelings--yes. 4) writing time during the day--sort of communicated with a neighbor about childcare trades; and I let screens babysit this afternoon. 5) writing retreat + anniversary weekend--yes to writing retreat, and just booked a hotel for anniversary weekend.

    As usual, I petered out by the end of the week. This summer has been really full! One more week of the kids' swim team. And I'm trying to plan more playdates so they're entertained and I can work. I'm going to get up early to write, even if it's just 20-30 minutes.

    Goals:
    1) plan food and exercise (and do it!)
    2) send queries to writing group
    3) write in the mornings
    4) declutter 4x30min
    5) spend time writing down to-do lists (GTD strategy)

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    1. Yay for progress, and for facing up to the feelings about employment - everything you say sounds very sensible (and maybe if weeks peter out, declare Fridays as non-work-days at least until the kids go back to school? Having a 'planned peter' is much better for the sense of control than always kicking yourself...)

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    2. Great idea to take Fridays off! Why didn't I think of that?!?

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  7. I disappeared again. Lots of TRQ stuff for the past two weeks and a few bits of BRQ/BLQ (like supervising work experience students, bit of outreach). Today feels like the official start of my summer. Thanks for posting the summer goals, I needed the reminder.

    Summer goals:
    kjhaxton: 1. papers: gem stone paper, acronym paper
    2. projects: ethics and research tool for scary project
    3. planning: to work on papers and projects for 1 hour per day (week days), to spend 1/2 day a week getting next year's teaching in order, to restrict email to two 1/2 hour periods per week day.
    4. personal: paint several rooms in the house, make curtains for dining room, print various pictures for competitions and our walls.

    Update - 1: work in progress, 2: doing a conference presentation on scary project in a few weeks so analysing student results and planning the next step, 3: epic failure generally but have been limited to around 1 hour of emailing most days for the past fortnight simply due to being out of my office (there's a new strategy) and 4: yay progress! Guest bedroom nearly done, dining room nearly done (with a purple wall!), kitchen finally done, and new pictures framed but not any more printed.

    Week 7 goals:
    (a) Scary project: start re-analysing data for maybe conference presentation and read new literature on project.
    Yes, have made some progress on the re-analysing thanks to several long train journeys and the data are really really interesting!

    (b) Gemstone Paper: play around with data and start planning the figures
    Yes, have done some of this and wrote the first 1000 words (rough cut needs editing)

    (c) continue list making and cross off some small items from the various lists.
    Am excelling at this, particularly the art of writing a list at 9am and just getting it all done before lunch. My new academic year diary is full of crossing outs and it feels really good.

    From this point in the summer onwards, admin roles are minimal (couple of hours a week), teaching prep needs doing and I need to do more of the at home stuff but I think i can start making progress on the list.

    This week:
    kjhaxton
    (a) Scary project: continue re-analysing data for conference presentation and read new literature on project. Draft presentation and research tool for phase 2.

    (b) Gemstone Paper: play around with data, write the next 1000 words and finish the figures

    (c) continue list making and cross off some small items from the various lists.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what you mean! 'Summer' seems to start later and later in the calendar for UK academics, and that sense that everyone else is already well into summer goals is one of the (very few) downsides of the internet allowing us to be so closely aware of the rhythm of the North American academic year - I know they go back earlier than we do, but I do envy the cleanness of their division between semester and summer... (a blog reader tells me that at their Russell Group University there is a similarly clear division, but most UK people I know have the same long, slow drag of leftovers and admin... there again, I mostly know "ordinary" academics well enough to know such details, not Russell Group stars!)

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  8. I also disappeared, managing not just getting ill in a way that basically wiped me out for a couple of weeks, but doing so when the husband and children were away with family and leaving me what was supposed to be the perfect time to make TLQ progress. Ahhhh! If nothing else, this is showing me the importance of selfcare so it isn't one sickness after another. I've also started semester, so have survived the week one flurry.

    My productivity habits beyond the general break it down stuff are about creating productive routines (I do like repetitive patterns of behaviour, but the knack is to make it about doing things that are useful instead of tea breaks etc), and having very concrete goals that can be broken into tiny components (set 500 words as a writing goal for a day, list it as 50, 100, 150 etc and cross off each as I get there.

    I'm not even going to talk about the previous list of goals because they didn't even go near reality. For the next week:

    1. Make a planned routine of work time for the semester that gives realistic space for teaching and supervision, but also dedicated TLQ slots.
    2. Read/notetake one article for Embodied article.
    3. Make contact about P1 site permissions
    4. Set up meeting with P1 collaborators.

    Karenh


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  9. Oh, what bad timing! :-( Sometimes I think it's a bad idea to have any kind of slow-down or change, because your body takes it as a chance to over-react (well, mine does)... I hope you at least enjoyed being sick without having to take care of anyone else?

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  10. summer goals: these were really vaguely stated, so now is probably a good time to restate them:
    1) complete draft of grant application for smaller call, and some text towards bigger call [I have so far worked out which idea and which call to focus on, so that's a start!]
    2) a paper's worth of writing [I've done some finishing-up for submission on Crunchier and Crunchier's Little Brother, plus started work on Smart Student Paper - reckon I'm about half way there on this one]
    3) redesign Difficult Team Taught Second Year modules A and B [not much on paper but I have a great idea for A and know what I want to do for B. This is complicated by me not knowing how much of A I am actually teaching - my Head of Department is still working on teaching allocations. GRRR]
    4) A habit goal of reading research, working on figures or writing for a minimum of 1 hour a day, every "normal day", with the internet OFF. [Hah I always have such ambitious naive ideas...]
    5) Self-care: to be in a better position for the new academic year which involves domestic decluttering, better sleep, eating and exercise patterns, plenty of 'mental health strategies' to hand, and something of a five year plan/exit plan so I have more of an anchor against the surges of AllTheRhetoricAndCrapola... [decluttering: negligible progress, sleep: variable, eating: erratic. exercise: did OK for about 4 weeks then fell off the wagon, or rather the treadmill, so... strategies: meh. Five Year Plan: I have some ideas now, but would like to get them into written form somewhere before the end of the summer].

    Topic: I don't really have great methods. I like my 'done' lists, as they help me avoid the 'beating myself up' and the work-equivalent of the "Oh dear I ate a biscuit therefore I already broke my diet therefore I might as well have a pizza and start again tomorrow" cycle. They don't always work - having spent the whole weekend reading fiction and blowing up brickies on the computer, I am now rather frenetically working on a conference talk which has to be with PDF who will present it tomorrow, and I had forgotten we still have lots of data analysis to do. or rather I do because PDF is madly trying to finish off the lab work for HER talk about her current project...

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    Replies
    1. last week's goals:1. get the poster finished and the talk cancelled for cancelled conference. poster finished and printed. Talk not cancelled - PDF is allowed to give it and as it's on project F that's good for her, so... now I have to write the beggar. Finish writing talk by Tuesday, so she has time to practice!
      2. go back to the gym twice and Bugge Spray the 'you should do more!' voice firmly when it tries to make you do more than you plan - regularity is more important than the overall amount of exercise this week. nope. Various reasons such as an upset stomach, moving labs, and being DONE WITH PEOPLE. probably these are excuses.
      3. survive the various parties and trainings and being in the offices. Do not lean too heavily on chocolate or succumb to too many fatty-but-delicious university catering snacks, and follow GEWs example and don't talk too much! survived. Probably did talk too much but could have talked MORE. Was doing not so bad with the snacks until it was all over, over the weekend I had a 'fresh bread and bakery goods on special offer accident', they just leapt into my basket and then into my mouth without any actual intention, honest...
      4. look at Smart Paper and rough out the results section; don't fret about whether it needs more info yet.did lots of data pulling together and table-compiling, and made some notes on the results so far.
      5. write a blog post for Shared Professional Blog about the very very late paper that finally came out (25 years after the samples were collected...) yes

      analysis and planning It's been another difficult and unproductive week chez JaneB, but I need to just accept that these happen. And small things still get done... plus the various disruptions of the summer are now known - we know which labs and research facilities have to close for a few months and which spaces will stay open, we have packed everything up, the technicians and I have discussed contingency plans in case the work over-runs and the new spaces don't open in time for the new semester, we've moved the one facility that isn't getting a proper revamp. Some things were as expected, some worse, some better, but the important thing is that they are now all known. It's a big load off my mind. I'm now not going into the office at all for a few weeks - I'd like to pitch into doing All The Things but that's unlikely, I've a low key re-visit of end of term itis going on both mentally and physically, and know that sometimes it's better just to give in and let these things work themselves out!

      next/this week's goals
      1. Finish writing talk for cancelled conference by Tuesday, send to PDF
      2. go back to the gym at least twice and Bugge Spray the 'you should do more!' voice firmly when it tries to make you do more than you plan - regularity is more important than the overall amount of exercise this week.
      3. do a pile of proofreading for one of my admin roles
      4. continue with Smart Paper - rough out discussion points and figures
      5. make a plan for grant writing
      6. Bed before midnight without electronics! some nights

      Delete
  11. Thanks for the reminder of our overall summer goals!
    I was actually pleasantly surprised that most of mine seem to be progressing well. Except for the New Project which has been postponed due to extra complicated data set that wasn't supposed to be hard. And the exercise and eat well plans.. Those are massive fails which I will deal with later (she says a
    as she types around the chip crumbs on the keyboard...)

    For the rest of the summer I will be doing mostly what I had been. The best thing I did this year was to limit admin/teaching/extra stuff to one day a week instead of letting it infect everything else. I've still done a good amount of those sorts of things, but it is better contained. I may try to find a way to extend that into the next term.

    This week's goals:
    1) Field report NOT DONE - postponed for when back in the field
    2) Revise Discussion and Methods for neglected paper that has been languishing on back-burner STARTED, more complicated than expected
    3) Reading project YES
    4) Run outside 4 times this week HAHAHAHA, see chip comment above, this has been a disastrous fail all round...

    Next week's goals:
    1) Start grant application and do electronic prep on CV system
    2) Finish neglected paper's methods and discussion and figures
    3) Reading project
    4) Project report, doubles as outline for paper

    In the ongoing saga of the hostage papers, had a long phone call with ex-supervisor, who is now, for the first time in two years of me nagging, actually reading the damn things... I'm not excited yet, but I will call again this week as a reminder. Fingers crossed... Again... and again... and again....

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    Replies
    1. Good luck with ex-supervisor. Grrr.

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    2. Hope the field report will come together well when in the field! and good luck working on the ex-supervisor...

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  12. 1. Summer goal review.
    1.1 Book. Well the most important goal, GOAL NUMBER 1, was to submit the book manuscript and I am happy to say that I did it!! I have been working on this book for two and a half years and the manuscript still needs lots of work, but I am proud to say that it is in good enough shape to send it my editor and out for review! Can’t emphasize enough how good it feels to have met this goal, even with all of the broken dreadlines.
    1.2 Two languishing articles. After the book deadline, I don’t much mind that I have done nothing on these articles and I probably won’t!
    1.3 Fieldwork. Yes, did that.
    1.4. Planning each day. This is something that I did sometimes. I have had all kinds of planning techniques through this bust-my-ass phase of work, some more successful than others.
    1.5. Exercise. I have done it with regularity sporadically! How’s that for an oxymoron.
    1.6 Meditation. Completely forgot about it. Though I have used some breathing techniques for stress reduction so I will give myself some credit here.

    2. Topic. Productivity. One of the things that I have realized in trying to track my plans and then track what I actually get done is that I am more productive than I think I am, but I don’t give myself credit for all of the things that I do. So, in tracking where I “lose time” I see that I have actually mostly used time to do other things. I do like the idea of having “procrastination projects.”

    I also use various modes of self-trickery for producitivity, mostly in the way of apps that limit my access to the internet. I use Freedom to set up blocks of uninterrupted work time.
    https://macfreedom.com/

    I also use stay focused, which limits the amount of time you spend on a site, or on a set of sites. This one completely helped me avoid that feeling of “how much time did I actually waste on FB, twitter, etc.”
    http://www.stayfocusd.com/

    3. Last week.
    1. Serious book progress. Deadline is July 15. I don’t feel like breaking it down more than this at the moment.
    FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    2. Seems the only thing I can really do is to promise to go to Favorite Café daily and keep working.
    Did it! Like many major projects, this thing finally completely took over my life over the last seven days of its life. I kept waiting and waiting for the project to take on that all-consuming-ness, and it just took awhile for this one to become that needy. It wasn’t hard at that point to be completely focused and to be in semi-constant panic mode. Panic makes me insanely efficient (emphasis on insane).

    3. Keep up exercise.
    Nope. Free pass for me on this one.

    4. Sublet apartment?
    Yes. This was difficult and time consuming and involved lots of appointments and negotiations with spouse. But it is done.

    This week.
    I am giving myself a writing break, and now am turning to preparations for fall research leave/international teaching excursion. I am looking forward to it now! This week, planning for that. Most of this stuff is now TRQ, but there is a lot of it.

    Concrete goals:
    1. Exercise daily.
    2. Make list of things to do.
    3. Don’t dawdle with household chores.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Congratulations on getting the book ms out!

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    2. Congratulations! Book out, apartment sublet - do you find yourself wondering why your to-do list is a bit lighter at the moment? Getting those two big things off must feel great!

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  13. This is a real cheat: setting down last week's goals so I can include them in next week's check-in! I'll come back and do a check-in on summer goals before I sign off for a brief staycation, but right now I'm still wrestling with final grades.

    So, goals for week 9:

    1) Set phone-carrier switch in motion; check on other financial/household projects in progress; tackle other small financial/household matters as possible in between student communications & grading
    2) Get at least a bit of exercise most days (walking, mulch-moving, and/or swimming; try to step this up a bit)
    3) tough base w/ at least one family member (and maybe a couple of others; once I get the phone working, I intend to use my niece/nephews for texting practice, since one of the purposes of switching to a smart phone is being able to communicate with them in their native idiom, whatever it is this week)
    5) work on tying up odds and ends of communications w/ members of my department, plans for the fall semester, etc., well enough to allow me to go incommunicado for a week or so after grades are in.
    6) work on getting class DH site ready to go public/be presented if time (but if not, don't worry; this *will* become TRQ-er by late August, and I will find time to do it).

    Accomplished: (1) some; (2) not much; (3)one; (4)??? was there a 4? (5) a bit; (6) no

    Goals for this week:

    Overall, get grades done and other activities at a stopping-point to allow for a week or so's vacation, including:
    (1) get basics working on new phone
    (2) make sure necessary bills are paid
    (3) move (exercise/garden) at least a bit
    (4) plan rest of summer

    ReplyDelete
  14. I also disappeared, managing not just getting ill in a way that basically wiped me out for a couple of weeks, but doing so when the husband and children were away with family and leaving me what was supposed to be the perfect time to make TLQ progress. Ahhhh! If nothing else, this is showing me the importance of selfcare so it isn't one sickness after another. I've also started semester, so have survived the week one flurry.
    habits hours

    ReplyDelete
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