Here's the skinny: I'm not back on duty until January 26th, but once it hits, it's going to be a killer.
- I am teaching four classes: one senior seminar (with major papers & portfolios), one graduate seminar (underenrolled, so not sure what will happen there), one survey course (old lectures, but new readings), and one upper-division course (for which I'd like to revisit the first 1/3 of the lectures). None of these are new preps, but I'm going to be substantially tinkering with all of them.
- I'm going to two conferences, one in April, and the other in May. No papers to present, but I'll be chairing panels at both. The main hassle here is the travel.
- With any luck, I'll be doing pre-publication revisions on the book -- though I still haven't heard from reader #2.
- Trying to write a conference paper that I hope will be the foundation of a chapter for Shiny New Project. Conference is not until October, but I want it off and running. In any case, I need to get at least 2,500 words (conference paper), and would like to get 8,000 (mini-chapter).
- Organizing a plan of action for a research trip this summer -- even doing some preliminary reading.
- Possibly working on edited volume.
So, the New Semester's Resolutions are as follows:
- Write every day. And do it first. If this means dragging my lazy ass out of bed at what I would normally consider an ungodly hour, then so be it. 500 words (bearing in mind that they don't have to be good words) should be a nice, attainable goal. I can allow myself exceptions on travel days, though.
- Take a picture every day. I really like my hobby, but I've gone off the rails here, and I'm in danger of losing that "whole person" thing that I'd been trying to cultivate.
- Move more. Take a walk, get on the bike, whatever. I need this now, more than ever. I do have time -- if I have time to sit around reading stuff online, I can spare half an hour for this.
- Read a book a week. I've spent so long focused on The Book that I've developed a bit of tunnel vision. If I could read a book a week per course in grad school and still get my writing churned out while teaching, I can do it now.
4 comments:
Egad, your resolutions are more or less identical to mine, though I'd add a fifth: reserve half an hour each day to clear my desk and to do all the record-keeping and filing that I tend to put off.
Good luck!
I'm finding the organisation of other stuff always soaks into the reading time. There's only really one way that can end so I shall take your resolve as an example to buck up a bit! Good luck to you also.
Is there less time consumed as a professor than there was as a Grad. student?
Ambitious, yes, but if anyone can do it, you can. Good luck and Happy New Year!
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