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Welcome to the first PNP Writing Circle week!
Today is a holiday in the United States, so if you are taking the day off to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., please check in tomorrow instead!
Did you miss the post that introduced the PNP Writing Circle? You can read it here:
The check-in format for the Writing Circle is straightforward.
On Mondays, you will set your goals, share them with us, and respond to any additional questions.
Throughout the week, you can use the thread to chat with folks as much or as little as you’d like.
On Fridays, you’ll let us know how your goals went and anything you might have learned along the way.
Win a paid PNP subscription!
Remember that this week is open to all PNP subscribers, and that by checking in both days this week, you can enter a drawing for one of two PNP paid subscriptions!
Please respond to the following prompts in the thread:
Monday Check-In:
Tell us about yourself in a few sentences, and be sure to include at least one non-academic thing about yourself.
Tell us what project you are working on this week using the SMART goal format or any structure you find most useful for focusing your time and energy.
Respond to another person’s post.
You’ll come back to this thread on Friday to check in again.
Friday Check-In:
How did your writing goals go this week?
What do you need to adjust or do differently next week?
What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is?
Please respond to at least one other person’s post.
Have a wonderful week, dear writers!
Extra Credit:
Not sure you have enough time to write this week? Check out these posts for some inspiration:
Hi Everyone! Thanks for joining us today. I set this thread to publish at 1 a.m. my time so that folks in later timezones could get started. It was really motivating to wake up to all your messages this morning about your goals for the week! Thank you for that.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Jenn, and I'm the curator of this newsletter. My day job is being an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Texas at Austin. As of last week, I started writing a book inspired by some of my writing in Publish Not Perish and I think I've told my partner and only one other person about this, so it feels much more real to say it to all of you!
My non-academic fun fact is that I've got really poor taste in films. I like action films, slapstick comedies, cheesy romances, and not-well-thought-out sci-fi films. I'd much rather be watching something like that than most of the things that win Oscars. I have a strong aversion to anything with sad or depressing endings or people I can't cheer for.
I'm inspired by Erin and Catherine to do good-better-best smart goals this week. Here's my main writing goal this week:
By Friday at noon, I will have added X number of words to Chapter 3 of my book manuscript.
I actually have a post coming out sometime soon about good, better, and best goals, which I originally learned from Erin. I love how Catherine adds it to the SMART goal format. If anyone else uses this and/or modifies it in some helpful way, let me know! I'll add it to the post.
Good luck, ya'll! (I live in Texas, am from the Southern US, and I love having a plural you in the English language.)
Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a good week. Here's my check-in:
1. My writing went really well this week. I was probably somewhere between my better and best goals for the week on word count, but I don't know for sure because I copied over a lot of things I had already written for PNP and revised them, so I'm not sure where it exactly shakes out. Writing was also easier because I have a lot of drafts of these ideas in PNP posts.
2. There were a lot of things working in my favor for writing this week. Even though it was the first week of classes, my grad class didn't meet because of the holiday, and my undergrad class is an asynchronous online class that I built a few semesters ago, so it's not a lot of work to teach now. I somehow didn't have a lot of meetings either, which is atypical. And my partner was out of town the first part of the week too, which meant focused time (she works from home as well). All of this to say, it was a unicorn week for me! Next week, I'll have to be a bit more tempered about my goals because I'm a lot busier.
3. The thing I'm celebrating is the ability to do deep work this week. I know it's going to be a lot harder in the coming weeks, so I'm thankful I had it when I did.
You know this makes me so excited! You are constantly working to make academia a better and more kind place, and now more people will be able to see that and apply it to their own careers. I love this for you, and for the rest of us!
Hi All! I'm an independent scholar (PhD in Rhetoric & Composition; MFA in Poetry) and I've decided that I'd like to use the PNP writing accountability to help me return to a big goal I set when I graduated: transitioning my PhD research into a free, public website without academic jargon. My PhD was on Lisa Ben--the woman who wrote the first lesbian magazine in the US in 1947-1948--and my website is LisaBenography.com. This week my goal is to review my website so far, write up a plan for copy I'd like to create, and spend 1 hour working on it. Slowly but surely returning to it.
Non-academic thing about me: I'm excited to learn how to cook this year. I recently learned I'm allergic to whey and casein and am trying to figure out tasty food that's gluten free + now dairy free. Last night I made a curry falafel recipe with a kale salad and it was pretty good! I'd love to hear any dairy free/gluten free cookbooks you might suggest!
I'm circling back to my post to share my Friday Update!
-How did your writing goals go this week? --> I was really motivated to dive right in on Monday and got more done on my website than I have in months. I took time to review materials and update links, etc.
-What do you need to adjust or do differently next week? --> Next week I'm planning to time block an hour into my calendar instead of just writing it as a task on my to-do list to ensure I don't reschedule it.
-What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is? --> I'm celebrating diving back in!
Great news, Kate! I bet it feels really good to dig back into that work and imagine what it will look like in its new form. Can't wait to see it one day!
wahoo! So glad you're here, Kate! I love that this is what you're doing with your research. I wish the academy was so forward-thinking to actually allow dissertations like this. Best of luck, and thanks for joining in the fun. I'm happy to have your energy, positivity, and compassion in the mix!
Hi-- I'm a finishing my dissertation at George Washington and teaching composition at Shepherd University in West Virginia. I’m new to WV and temporary, but I love being out of the city (D.C.) for a bit as I finish up the diss. Being around trees and rivers is good for my soul (even if I’m mainly reading in the vicinity, not hiking or rafting or outdoor-adventuring.)
I have about 2 weeks to finish a chapter and write the introduction if I am going to defend this semester, so that is my primary focus for this week and the near future.
I am finishing a chapter on textile work in Gaskell’s North and South in order to send it to my committee by Saturday. (I think that statement hits the SMART guidelines.) I’ve written and received feedback on about three quarters of it, but it hibernated over the holiday as I tried to think through some scale problems, and shockingly, it didn't fix itself during that time.
Circling back around. Didn't quite hit my goals, but got a lot done. (Ended up with no classes this week due to a few snowstorms, so the extra time certainly didn't hurt!)
Communicated with committee about drafts I'd received and a potential defense schedule. (Had been putting this off for A WHILE so that was very useful.
Restructured final chapter (North and South), moving back to my original plan. Got some clarity on the structure, was given some good references to thicken keywords.
My goal is (still) full draft minus out by the end of this month, so 10 days left.
Hi Elizabeth! I used to live around the D.C. area (first Mt. Rainier, then Annapolis), and so I know what you mean about wanting to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city! I hope that your week went well!
I’m in literature, but it has required an unimaginable amount of history to interpret the context of the Condition of England novels. What’s your period/focus?
Elizabeth, my specialization is in late 19th/early 20th century southern women and myth and memory. But I won a travel grant to do research/write on Irish women who emigrated to the Americas 1760 to 1820. I find history a part of all the disciplines, which is fun for me.
Hi Elizabeth! I did my MA at GW, but at the Elliott School. As a textile worker (ok, fiend) myself, your chapter sounds fascinating. The very best of luck to you.
These days, I'm largely a knitter (after quilting, embroidery, spinning, and similar eras). I'm about a foot short of finishing a king-sized bedspread I've named Siberia--it's huge, white, and once you get into it you'll be stuck for years to come.
Hi, I'm Natasha. I'm an independent scholar -Theology and The Arts. Doing this work with a Masters, but hope to start a practice based PhD in the Autumn (2024).
Hoping to present a paper at a conference in April. Deadline for Abstract this Wednesday 17th- 5pm. Deciding what I'm going to present is my immediate goal this week.
I have secured a book contract and managed to do NO work on it at all last year. Need to change that. So that's a main goal this year.
Non academic: Used to be an actress, was discerning for Ordination, until it became clear this was the path for me. I get to combine creativity and interest in theology and social justice. I love the gym, and running (once my back get's better), I say that I like to read, yet getting through a novel takes a while due to attention span and dyslexia!!
Hello folks, checking in with an update. I got my abstract in and have been playing around with a loose draft for my book- (which is a relief) just need to build momentum and remove all distraction- so that i/e washing up and doing laundry don't suddenly appear on my 'to do' list in the middle of a sentence. What am I afraid of?. Reading all the activity here, does make me feel as though I need to up the anti and not take for granted that I do have a little space for deep thinking to reflect. But hey it's Friday, I showed up - I got done what I needed to and I'm not funded or supported by an institutional infrastructure, so I ought to cut myself some slack- whilst I juggle with the rest of life.
Yesssss to all of this self-compassion. I'm so glad you're modeling it for us here. We are all on our journeys, and our work time looks really different in different contexts. Granting yourself that grace to forge your own path at the pace that is doable for you is so key. Congrats on your wins too!
Thank you, so much Jenn! Yes we have to go at the pace of our soul for sure. The pressures of academia can be brutal as I am coming to understand. I just heard news of black woman (professor) taking her life because of the bullying she experienced. Another collapsed on stage at a conference. It's happening too frequently. Whilst I anticipate starting a PhD in the Autumn-and I am excited about it- as a woman writing from the margin- I am not doing so naively. I am aware of the structural realities- so respecting my boundaries and taking care of well being, has to be priority. Luckily I do have a friend that reminds me. I am learning to get better at it. We could all do with being a little kinder with ourselves. Thanks for the affirmation. Much appreciated :)
Absolutely on all of this, Natasha! Have you heard of the organization, Cohort Sistas? One of our readers founded it, and it especially serves Black women and nonbinary scholars. I've listened to their podcast, and there's really great content. They also have mentoring and lots of professional development workshops. https://www.cohortsistas.org/
Sorry I didn't even ask about your discipline, but I have just been reading your response to another thread. Sounds interesting. So good that you get to travel to do research too!
The overall theme of the conference is Prayer. But there are options to present on fringe seminars. I'll go for either Womanist Theology or that and the Arts as I use creative writing and auto-ethography in my approach.
I'm Liz, an assistant prof in urban/environmental studies at UCLA with a background in media studies. My major project is my first book, an ethnography of "managed retreat" from the coast in Staten Island, NY, after Hurricane Sandy. Non-work-wise, I'm from upstate NY but am learning to love LA (2024 goal: practice driving) - I love walking in the hills/canyons and am excited to get back to indoor climbing, which I stopped doing regularly when the pandemic hit and I had a baby (who is now 3.5).
This week, my main goal is to prioritize book writing by 1) sending really rough/unwieldy but existent chapter 2 draft to a friendly reader and 2) touching my chapter 3 draft every day, incorporating the notes I've drafted so far into the doc. My other research/writing goals for the week are to do one next step on a coauthored paper draft that's been languishing and to start brainstorming an upcoming talk connected to a new project. Lots to juggle but I'm hoping I can move things along bit by bit.
welcome back to the fun, Liz! Haha, I remember your practice driving goal from the last sprint. Cheering for your 2024 life goal! Glad to have you here. Good luck with your book writing this week!
Checking in for the week! My main goal was to prioritize book writing, and I did that. I spent the majority of my writing & research time (6/11.5 hours) on book stuff, sent my rough chapter 2 draft to a friend for feedback, and ended the week strong at an on-campus writing retreat today where I was able to do deep thinking on chapter 3, how my existing diss material might fit into the remaining chapters, and what work these chapters might be doing in the context of the book structure and argument.
I adjusted my goal of touching the chapter 3 draft every day because I realized that a whole-day writing retreat on Friday - a day I usually reserve for clutter-clearing admin/email, meetings, and planning the following week - necessitated dedicating more time to that stuff mid-week (as well as to my goals of small incremental steps to move other projects along). I also hit my initial goal of incorporating my ch 3 notes into the draft more quickly than I thought I would, and the next steps required a bigger chunk of time.
I am celebrating getting into flow mode with the book-thinking/writing on a Friday, since I usually feel like my brain is utterly worn out by then (which is how I felt this morning, but the writing-retreat structure was in place to energize/inspire me). A good reminder that it's possible to make real progress on a Friday even if the rest of the week has been a wash!
Hi Kelly, thanks for asking! It's a planning term that means moving away from places exposed to flooding, sea level rise, etc. (for instance, demolishing homes in a floodplain and converting the land back to wetlands). I put it in quotes both because it's jargony and because my work aims to critique/reconceptualize the term itself (the "managed" part as well as the "retreat" part)
In the case I'm writing about, yes, which was contrary to my initial expectations. Explaining what retreat meant in this context, and how and why some disaster-affected residents organized to advocate for it, is a core part of the book I'm working on.
Hi all, I'm Erin (she/her) and I'm a PhD Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, aiming to defend my dissertation in late March/early April. A lot to juggle this week, between winter storm (always the threat of a grid failure in Texas), first week back teaching (if classes don't get cancelled), prepping for a job interview, and–of course–the dissertation.
My main writing goal is revisions! I've been trying to get a revised chapter out to my committee co-chairs at the beginning of each week, but due to some hiccups last week I have fallen a little bit behind. I'm hoping to get the chapter I'm currently working on up to 80% ideally by the end of the day today, but no later than end of day tomorrow. By Friday, I'd really just like to have spent 1-2 hours a day pushing my next chapter's revisions forward, and staying focused on what needs to get done rather than what I would like to get done in an ideal world.
Non-academic: it will shock no one that I like to read, especially as someone studying literature, but I have been reading and enjoying a book that is not related to my research – Sophie Lewis's Abolish the Family.
Hi Erin! Here's to us both surviving the storm. Good luck on all these goals! Having seen your progress during the sprints, I believe you're going to do it. (assuming the power stays on, of course!)
Erin, I'm in TX, too, and didn't sleep last night because I was having horrible nightmares about the electricity going out. I was waking up about every 45 minutes to check to see. Sigh. I think I'm traumatized from that one winter storm in 2021. We had no electricity for a week and sustained a lot of damage.
Hope you managed to get that 1-2 hours a day in after your Monday post. Focusing on what needs to get done is an important lens on something that can feel overwhelming. Hope you can enjoy the weekend.
Welcome Erin! Sounds like lots of balls to juggle (I am right there with you on the power outages and grid failures . . .). Is there a way to break the revisions down into smaller bite-size chunks to make it more manageable? It seems as if 1-2 hours per day could result in very little getting done as you debate with yourself about individual words or sentences or still not result in a feeling of accomplishment. Could it be something more like this Monday--make grammatical and mechanical changes to this subheading or two or Tuesday--outline additional arguments that need to be made in this subheading.
Thanks, Michelle! I do have more "chunked" goals for myself (but flexible, given the unpredictability of this week), as well as anti-goals(?) of things not to do – notably, research and, actually, focusing on grammatical and mechanical changes because that tends to be a productive procrastination strategy for me. Top priorities are actually drafting a couple of new, small, specific pieces (framing paragraphs, signposting, etc.), and past me left some crumbs for current me so think I'll be able to jump into them relatively easily. Good luck this week!
Hi, I'm Michelle. I'm an associate professor of history at Michigan State University. I wrote a book that came out almost 10 years ago, and since then, I've written lots of articles, book chapters, and other things. But the next book is nowhere in sight.
My non-academic thing is that I had a military career before I became an academic.
This week, I would like to take a step in the direction of the book. I will dedicate 30 minutes minimum each day to locating the various fragments of the book in one place so that I can assess what I have and what needs doing.
Thanks for this space, and I look forward to working with you!
Not well, for a variety of reasons. I didn't get any time in on gathering the book particles into one place. I had more personal and family health appointments to get too than usual this week, so things got away from me. Will try again next week.
What do you need to adjust or do differently next week?
I need to put some non-negotiable times in my calendar and hold myself to them.
What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is?
I took care of some overdue health needs for myself and my daughter. I also set up *Motion*, which I subscribed to a few months ago and never got set up. I am hopeful that it will help me with scheduling things in the open spaces on my calendar.
Hi, I'm Kim and I'm a Clinical Professor living in NYC. I'm working on an article based on a conference presentation from last summer (the original plan was to finish it before fall semester began...). My goal for this week is to get this draft in shape to share with a writing group--if I can find anyone with time to read it before the semester really gets going. Hope all in the freezing zone are doing okay! Thanks
Hi Kim! Oh no! Sorry to hear that. Substack will email you when someone replies to your comment, but not with all the other comments other folks make on my original thread.
But you should have gotten an email from me at 1 a.m. CST to check in again on this thread. Let me know if you got that or not. If you didn't, check your spam folder. If it's still a mystery, let me know, and I'll see if I can figure it out. In any case, I'm sorry to hear you've not been in the loop! I'm confident we'll figure it out.
Hi all! I teach multicultural and postcolonial literature at UIndy, where we're now entering week 1 of the semester. Currently attempting to type with a cat on my lap in the middle of this winter-pocalypse. I was, as usual, overly ambitious for winter break goals. My goals for this week are to spend at least two hours on my current project, focusing on very very contemporary (2023-2024!!!) BIPOC literary works about publishing.
Welcome, Leah! I'm sitting in a recliner with one of my dogs curled up on my legs, trying to stay warm! He's such a good little research assistant. Good luck with your project!
Here's my Friday update! I started out pretty strong, keeping up with the reading I had in mind and even adding to my research notes. And then it all went downhill from there due to week 1 of the semester stuff. Womp womp womp. But I did probably manage to cobble together two hours of work so I'm glad I kept my goals light this week.
Next week I may try to set aside time - maybe on Monday or Friday - to just write. I might set it as a meeting on my Google Calendar. Other than that, I'm going to celebrate finishing out week 1, and kinda sorta getting where I wanted to in terms of research. Celebrations will likely include a cozy video game and maybe finishing up this latest season of Fargo.
Way to go, Leah! Two hours of work on your project during the beginning of the term is huge! During heavier semesters or when I'm teaching new classes, I usually don't do any research work the first two weeks of classes. Have a great weekend!
Posting here on Monday really helped keep me accountable! Of course, we're still in what I call the honeymoon period of the semester. Things are already starting to feel more overwhelming!
I agree with Jenn, Leah. Celebrate the small steps of progress for it is how we keep moving forward. I find the scheduling in my calendar useful as well so others don't book in appointments during my productive writing time from 8-9am.
All the very best with your goals for next week. Keep it up!
Hi Leah! Good to see you here and your current project is quite intriguing. Please post more if you feel like it. I read The Other Black Girl last year and thought that it was going to be a good book for academic analysis.
Also, my lap cat does not approve of typing and really hates zoom
I read TOBG too! I have been trying to get through the Hulu adaptation but I find it really almost physically painful for me to watch anything too cringey. :) I did just watch the adaptation of Percival Everett's Erasure - the movie American Fiction. It was SO GOOD. At this point I have too much material for the amount of pages (!) but I'm also considering Chou's Disorientation among others.
Greetings from a former resident of Indiana! I was at IU Bloomington for 14 years before moving to MSU in summer 2022. Good luck with your goals for the week--sounds like an exciting and necessary project!
Hi all, my name is Elaine and I am a mid-career researcher and academic. Publishing in academia has always felt like having a sword of Damocles- either you publish or perish! But I am slowly learning to unlearn previously unproductive habits in my writing. Great to have a group to work with. I've just started learning the ukelele as a creativity outlet for me and for others around me to enjoy.
I am currently drafting an academic article, rushing to finish (it constantly feels like being on a spinning wheel) to pass on to my co-authors to refine. My goal by the end of this week is to restructure and refine the current Methods and Findings section so I can get a better grip of the Discussion section.
I managed to get part of my writing done. I did refine my methods section and part of my findings section. I ran into a snag realising I did go back to re-check/redo some earlier analysis that I thought was already completed. Good to be tidying up those loose ends.
I am currently writing this week while on holiday with my family so my writing schedule is a bit topsy turvy but great to have the community to bolster morale. I will be back to a more regular writing schedule next week and to finish refining the analyses.
I can celebrate taking baby steps amidst the pressure to publish or perish.
I applaud your engagement with music! I will be back with a choir from 1 February. Great therapy.
My dad taught me the tuning for ukelele when I was about 7yo - singing the four pitches (starting on the g string) to the words "my dog has fleas"! I have never known if this practice is widespread 😁
Hi, I am Gill, an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick. This week is busy with my doctoral graduation and with teaching, but I do want to plan out a short article I am writing on signature pedagogies in my field for a mid-range journal read by a lot of practitioners as well as researchers. my goal will be to have shared an overview of the article with some key collaborators for comment by the end of the week. My non work thing is that I am hosting a little drinks gathering post graduation tomorrow evening.
Hi Gill, that would be great. Not sure if there's a way to DM on Substack? Or if you don't mind sharing your work email address here I could touch base that way in the first instance? Look forward to hearing from you.
I'm Elaine, thanks for sharing your post. Writing about signature pedagogies sounds like a very useful article for practitioners and even early career folks in the field. All the best with working on it this week amidst graduation. Enjoy the post-graduation drinks. Very well deserved for all who have achieved this grand milestone!
Mary Durfee I did absolutely nothing other than attempt to stay warm. Power went off on Saturday, reappeared briefly for 2 hours on Sunday (Eugene, Springfield, OR). Then zip. It came on (we hope for real) about an hour ago (Friday). The first couple of nights lows were in the low 20s or high teens F. Then nights warmed into the 40F range. I have thrown everything out of the freezers and the veggies in the frig. Am debating various sauces/bottles, but am inclined to take this rather unnpleasant event as a sign to just start over with all clean, all empty ones (we have 2.5 of them). The pleasant side was that neighbors who did have power gave us hot water for coffee, or soup, or their outlets to keep phones charged, or just conversation. We had conversation out on the street even if we didn't have power. It was a very good local society experience. Heck, when the local cafe opened (I noticed late yesterday and went early this morning), it gave free coffee to anyone without power. We have a gas fireplace--partly for just this kind of problem and were ever so glad we had it. We still had running water. It could have been worse, far worse--like if we had been souls facing winter and often without utilities while being bombed or invaded. We now know what was missing or could be improved with our supplies for "disasters"....even a small one like this. We are also going to suggest to the city that they need to find ways to communicate with the public that doesn't involve computer access. A radio station would give a short report, but then refer us to the website.
Oh my goodness, Mary! This is wild! We've had a few of these in Texas over the past few years where we've lost power and sometimes water during snow and ice events. I hope things are warming and that life gets back to normal soon. Take good care of yourself!
Good grief. From those of us on the other side of the Atlantic, where one degree Celsius and a strong wind elicits national weather warnings, I think you and the coffee-supplying cafe are heroes! Keep saying warm and fighting the good fight with the city! For now, that’s your job and it sounds like you’re doing it brilliantly. Xb
With those conditions, staying warm **can** be all-consuming. You have my respect for plugging on through it all, succeeding at some massive problem-solving, and even making some great new connections. May the rest of your spring be so very much easier.
There will be more--it's partly due to climate change brought on by the weakening of the polar vortex. That circulation kept cold air from running off to disturb the warmer air below.
I believe it. I lived in Portland for several years and my sister was a Duck, both back in the early 80s. We can remember non-stop rain and rare dustings of snow but nothing like the extremes you've all been facing over the past couple years.
It's (after) 5:00 on Friday, which might say more about my chaotic life than anything else. In some ways, this was the perfect week for a writing and accountability challenge because we have been stuck in the house since 1/12; in other ways, it exponentially revealed just how quickly good planning can go out the window.
How did your writing goals go this week?
The writing goals I set on Monday went fine as far as they went. I accomplished the first one without a problem. Apparently, my co-authors all came out of hibernation because I got three articles back for final review and submission (all have been submitted) and I got back the final outline for two new data collections (IRBs completed).
What do you need to adjust or do differently next week?
Leave myself more space for the unexpected to crop up (maybe not set any daily goals for Friday or set optional goals if time and space allow). Also need to remember that going back to classes impacts my writing productivity more than I anticipate.
What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is?
There are three previously rejected articles back in submission at new journals and we have corrected some of the concerns in one of them to do a new study with better data collection and planned analyses.
Hi Michelle! It sounds like things are moving with several of your projects! One of the things that I often do with my planning is have blocks of time spattered throughout my schedule for "make-up work." If something unexpected comes up and I can't get some work done when I planned, then I have the make-up time blocked in my calendar to account for it. Something always comes up and I am usually using those blocks!
Happy Friday, everyone! Here's my check-in to wrap up the week.
How did your writing goals go this week? I met my goal of preparing a slide deck + script for a presentation of my dissertation, complete with theoretical framework, argument abstract, and individual chapter summaries. It helped to have a clear deadline, external accountability, and time to devote specifically to this project every day. I'm not thrilled with how the presentation went, but the slide deck + script have given me a great foundation for my writing, so I'm counting it as a win!
What do you need to adjust or do differently next week? Next week I'll have less time available for dissertation work, and I won't have any external deadlines for the foreseeable future. So, I'll need to work on breaking down my long-term project into smaller tasks so that I can set deadlines for myself. I'll also need to find accountability elsewhere -- whether that's in this PNP group or in my on-campus writing group.
Academic celebration: I've found a group of students who are eager to meet for co-writing sessions, and I'm excited to incorporate some human contact into my work life! Non-academic celebration: I'm doing Dry January (actually, I'm working toward long-term sobriety), and I made it through some long, tough days this week without a drink :)
Great work this week, Devon! I always find that presentations help give my work in progress more clarity because I have to present it in a different way. I'm glad to hear the presentation was productive! It's also nice to see you seeking out accountability and support. Dissertation writing can be so isolating, and you're smart to find your people to help push you over that finish line!
Well, I'm glad I kept things modest, because I haven't yet touched my ch 3 revisions (but Friday's not over yet!). Finishing up my ch 2 revisions took longer than expected due to some flare-ups of a health condition, and I'm not happy with where that chapter is at right now but am just accepting "good enough for now," knowing that I'll need to come back to them before they're "final," and forging ahead.
What do you need to adjust or do differently next week?
After I sent off my revisions and taught yesterday, I was exhausted from the writing push, health stuff, and the anxiety that comes with just existing in Texas during cold weather–as Kelly expressed well at the beginning of the week. Building lots of buffer time into my schedule to allow myself to just be a human is something that I am continually working on, and I'm going to make an extra effort to do so next week. Relatedly, I'm going to try to use my weekends strategically for writing time especially before the wave of grading starts to hit, since I find teaching sucks up so much of my energy as an introvert that I have to set verrrry modest writing goals for teaching days during the week.
What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is?
I accepted my ch 2 for what it is right now, and sent it off! Through a routine self-Google, while prepping for a job interview, I also discovered that one of my articles has officially been published–which is scary because now people can read it!! But overall exciting in the grand scheme of things, especially since it's been a looooong road (more so with another article I have forthcoming, but with this one too) with pandemic-related delays and journal backlogs.
I love that you are demonstrating so much self-compassion here too, Erin. (I was commenting on Natasha's post about this too.) You have A LOT going on this week and are in this stage of finishing up and being on the job market. Teaching, dissertating, and job market navigation could all be full-time jobs, but somehow you've got to do all three at once. It's a lot. I hope you saw Briana's post this week. https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/tips-to-finish-your-dissertation She shares your "good enough for now" and flexible approaches and has other good tips as well. Congrats on the publication! That's amazing news, and it sounds like it was hard won too.
Congrats on sending your chapter revisions! I understand that the chapter isn't exactly where you want it to be, but you are moving forward, and that's absolutely something to be proud of. Congrats on the job interview, too! I hope it goes well!
I’m Bernadette and I’m joining at the end of the week, which just goes to show how rubbish I am at getting things done in a timely way. I teach at Goldsmiths (London), which is currently falling apart (£20m deficit), meaning we’re now facing another ‘transformation’ agenda (code for redundancies); it’s week 2 of term and I have a load of essays to mark for next week but also a week FULL of meetings, student interviews and PhD supervisions. Had I joined on time, my goal for this week would have been to do the minor revisions for a journal essay submitted last year. It’s been accepted for publication in principle and will be published as soon as I make these v minor errors. However I am struggling even to keep pace with the start of term. Yesterday I worked from 8-8, without lunch or breakfast, and still didn’t get through everything. Weekend may have to be marking. If I don’t get to the corrections, that will be next week’s goal. Hope everyone else is having a saner start to the new year! Despite the dire tone, I’m very happy to be here and look forward to hearing more about your work and progress !
Oh my goodness! Bernadette! That sounds like a wild start to the year. As Leah says, take good care of yourself. I'm glad you checked in and hope that things calm down for you soon.
Hi Everyone! I'm a Professor of Communication at the University of Washington. I'm on sabbatical for this quarter and would dearly love to make some forward movement on my book - which has already changed in focus twice since I started it.
However, for this week I'm focusing on a nearer term goal of working on an article due next month. My plan is to have a full list of reference articles and to have read through a few issues of the journal that solicited the article.
Non-academic thing: Last year I went on a backpacking trip for the first time in 7 or 8 years. I am hoping to go again this summer and have picked out a route that is more challenging than last year. This quarter is also my quarter to do some winter hiking - which both gets me in better shape and makes me very happy,
Hi everyone! I am post doc researcher working on finishing two manuscripts from my PhD thesis.
Currently, it is a little bit difficult to find time for writing the manuscripts, while also doing research activities and looking for other jobs. I am glad to have found the PNP community and I am soo looking forward to this week accountability with all of you!
Non-academic: I enjoy reading about ways to improve communication and relationships. Recently I found out about NVC (non-violent communication) and trying to put it into practice with myself and with other people. I also love walking in nature everyday and expressing my feelings through dance :)
welcome, Marly! It's lovely to have you join us. You know, I did a workshop on NVC ages ago and haven't thought about it in years. It was really impactful at the time and your comment makes me think that I should return to it!
Hi Jenn! Thanks for your reply. I am glad to know you are familiar with NVC! Recently I am trying to integrate self-empathy and connecting with my needs on a moment by moment basis, which has been also helpful with work-related tasks.
Regarding my goals for that week, I was able to define the protocols for 2 experiments and progressed ~ 30% on the storyline for my manuscript.
Thanks for opening the first week of the writing circle with everyone!
Hello everyone. I'm Kelly McMichael. I'm an Associate Professor of History with the American Public University (and adjunct other places to make more money). I live in Texas about 3 hours northwest of Austin, though I "share" an apartment with my daughter in Santa Fe, NM, meaning I pay half the rent on it because she can't afford to pay the full amount on what she makes.
I submitted an article to a distance education journal yesterday, and I'm celebrating having that off my plate.
As for this year, I've got too many projects going on but I can't drop any of them. Two are academic--I've got a presentation on formerly enslaved women in Tennessee who divorced between 1865-1900 that I'd also like to get a publication, won a research travel grant to go to Ireland and England this summer to work on Irish women who emigrated to the Americas between 1760 and 1820, and finally I'm writing a book for a former assistant to the artist Jasper Johns who stole some of John's artwork and served 18 months in prison for this crime. He's not told his story but wants to do so in book form.
I'm still in the research phase for all of these projects, and I need to process primary source materials and get to writing. For the book project, I also need to be thinking about getting a proposal together to find an agent. I hope to be doing that by mid-February.
My non-academic fun? I read a lot--fiction and non-fiction. I like to travel. I turned 55 on Saturday and spent the day in the hospital because my father-in-law had emergency gallbladder surgery. I seem to be in that period of life where I'm still dealing with my adult children but also starting to deal with my parent's health issues (and have had to deal with my in-laws health issues for several years). I had so many plans for work this week, but my daughter is sick with Flu A and needs help. I'll be driving to Santa Fe tomorrow and carrying a load of work with me. Please send good wishes that I can feed/care for her and NOT get the flu. Haha!
Main goal for this week:
1. to begin processing the court records of divorce petitions I gathered last week on a research trip to Nashville, inputting data into a spreadsheet.
2. to read the book on Jasper Johns that's been on my desk for a month.
3. to finish reading a huge secondary source on Irish history
With all the family stuff, that's likely all I'll manage this week. IF I manage to read the two books and take notes, I'll be thrilled. Setting up the spreadsheet by going through at least a few of the divorce records would be excellent.
Happy to meet you all and have some accountability on these projects.
Welcome, Kelly! Happy belated birthday, first and foremost. It sounds like you have lots of facilitating research to keep you busy this week and beyond. (I think my family immigrated to the TN/KY area from Ireland around that time, or so Ancestry DNA tells me.). Have a great week!
Hi! I'm a health services researcher with a focus on chronic illness care delivery. I love to grow flowers and garden when I'm not working! I'm excited for all the flower shopping that will begin in the coming spring.
My writing aim for this week is to draft one outline for a manuscript and prepare a conference abstract.
I look forward to writing virtually with everyone!
Here's my Friday check in! This week I was able to work on the outline for the manuscript! I didn't do the conference abstract which is ok. I really got into the writing process for the outline!
I'm Coree (she/her), a lecturer in Politics in Scotland. Non-research related - 2024 is my year of art and I'm aiming for 12 exhibitions.
A colleague and I agreed to write a contribution to a special issue, but haven't quite figured out how to shoehorn our research interests into the special issue, so the goal is to agree a topic, develop a research question, and start the data collection by the end of the week. It sounds a bit ambitious but we work really well together, and are good at focusing on small but mighty datasets (a set of 20 speeches, editorials etc).
I started today by searching Hansard (record of Parliamentary debates) and am feeling like I'm coming back empty. And now I wonder about a focus on editorials in a Conservative-leaning paper, as a decently discreet dataset.
Hi Everyone! I'm Nicole. I am an assistant prof in public safety and justice at MacEwan university (Alberta Canada). I'm also working on my PhD at University of Alberta (nice to have that "if you don't finish we fire you" threat). It's COLD, so I think most of my meetings today have moved online. My goals for this week for writing/research are:
-final edits a co-authored piece that I want to have out this week or next
-write a proposal for a conference to present my PhD data (that I haven't gathered yet... but will have by the conference in Oct).
-catch up on lesson planning (we started the term 3 weeks ago and I have 3 new preps)
-(stretch goal) Write an abstract for a coauthored manuscript
Oof, my sister lives in Edmonton (and, coincidentally, adjuncts at MacEwan and did her MFA at U of A) and "COLD" is an understatement for what you all have been experiencing! Stay warm!!
Checking back in! I did not get everything done, mostly for 2 reasons: I'm learning that for an hour after I teach a 3 hr class (2x per week), I need to rest a bit and do mindless work. Second, I had an institutional tour this week for my students, and it was longer than I thought. So now I know for the rest of the tours. And I'll try to build in admin/rest time after classes.
I will hopefully work on that coauthored piece this weekend, I drafted a proposal but I need help because I'm still relatively knew to writing these. I got some lesson planning done but not all. The stretch goal is now next week's stretch goal.
I would be the one who started in the wrong place. My name is Michelle, but I go by Snoopy if there are too many Michelles around! I am an associate professor of communication studies at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I study organizational and instructional communication at work and enjoy knitting/crocheting and scrapbooking outside of work. I am working on two projects: one related to methodological validity in qualitative and quantitative published research and one related to oral communication general education requirements. Goals for this week:
1. Add last three articles to literature review to finish argument
2. Update methods to include journals and descriptive statistics
3. Outline introduction and rationale for SofTL article on oral communication requirements
Glad you found the right spot, Snoopy (love that BTW). I grew up in middle TN and still have family there. I miss the greenness. I love seeing these specific goals here! Best of luck!
I’m an Associate Professor at the U of Minnesota, where we’re entering the first week of classes. So I’m trying to keep my goal manageable, even if I have anxiety about being able to make time for writing while teaching. I’m going to work on the introduction to my chapter on injuries, disability, and modernity in Walter Scott.
Hi Matthew! I feel you! I usually keep my writing goals small for the first couple weeks of classes. My approach would be to make a very modest goal that I was fairly certain I could meet so that I felt like I had made some progress and I could help quell that anxiety. Good luck with the first week of classes!
Hi Matthew! I hope the first week of classes went well. It's often such a whirlwind, but come on back if you achieved the writing goals or not. We all have those weeks where we just can't squeeze it in!
Hi. Catherine here. I have a co-authored paper that I need to have worked on before our next meeting on Friday. About 5 hours should do it. First week back after the summer break (writing from Australia) and there are many competing priorities. So this is my commitment now to the 4 x 1-1.5 hour blocks I have put in my diary over the next four days to enable me to reach the deadline. I am an early career academic with a tendency to take on too much in order to feel more competitive in a crappy job market. Hooray for Pilates, home cooked meals, time with friends and early nights to try and calm myself down! But it's a constant struggle to balance. All the best for a great week.
Hi Catherine! I am currently writing a chapter about how the neoliberal university and its scarcity model for the job market make us feel like we have to do it all to get a job, to keep our jobs, or to move jobs. I remember these feelings quite well. I love that you have strategies to help manage those anxieties, because that's so important!
It's definately a work in progress. I think it's a bit like the saying 'you can't out-run a bad diet'... Is it possible to do enough of the good stuff to compensate for the stress etc?? I hope so 🤞🤞
Catherine! I hope you had a good week working this week and that your Pilates, home-cooked meals, and times with friends soothed your soul away from the chaos. Also, watch out for Tuesday's PNP post. I'm going to be talking about the pressure to take on a lot in the competitive job market. Warning: It's not super uplifting, but I think it's a step towards taking back some agency.
Hi Catherine – I'm cheering you on with regards to balance! I definitely know what you mean about taking too much on to be competitive, even when sending out job applications feels more like buying lottery tickets than anything else these days, and I have just gotten through a week of trying to push through some of those things that past me ill-advisedly took on. The slow and deliberate movements that pilates requires seem like a great strategy for winding down at the end of the day – I might have to try that out!
Not sure if I am putting this in the right place but I did my article summary and got good feedback but not as detailed as I had hoped for. So now I need to find space to develop the draft next week. A friend is visiting me all week and knows I have meetings when he needs to entertain himself but i feel awkward about telling him I am writing. So need to be assertive about that.
It sounds like you did make some progress, Gill! And yes, isn't it interesting that meetings or teaching don't seem like odd commitments to tell our friends we have to do, but writing is? Cheering you and your assertiveness on!
Meh. Not a great week for me, though honestly, I did not expect to get a ton of writing done, since the semester starts on Monday. Still, I did accomplish my small goal of working on one methods-related part of my revise and resubmit. I purposely set a pretty small goal, knowing that most of my time would be spent on class prep and meetings. And I suppose that I did accomplish it, though it was a relatively minor task in a long, long list of tasks.
2. What do you need to adjust or do differently next week?
I plan on getting back into a regular work routine. Assuming that there are no illnesses in the family or other unforeseen events, I should be able to get back into a regular writing/research schedule. My goal is to devote about 2 hours toward the revise and resubmit next week. Of course, weeks like this one will happen again (things will come up and research time will need to be adjusted), so what I really need is a plan for how to get back on track when weeks like this happen.
3. What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is?
I can celebrate accomplishing my minor task, while also prepping for classes and attending meetings. And even though I was lacking childcare for some days, it was nice to have a belated birthday playdate for my older daughter and a (not belated) birthday playdate for my younger daughter. They were both really happy that they could have these special afternoons with their friends, so that was a nice non-work/academic win!
Great work, Agatha! I don't think it matters that it was a minor task; you moved the project forward as you planned to do. The key here is that you assessed your commitments for the week, made an achievable goal, and met it!
Hi Everyone! I know I'm a couple of days late but thought to dive in anyway. I'm in Australia so there's a bit of a time zone difference. It's still the middle of the summer school holiday break and sadly, we're on the tail end of a COVID breakout which means I've got the attention span of a goldfish at the moment.
I'm a part time PhD candidate with Western Sydney University investigating primary music education - elementary school in the US - and the self efficacy of generalist primary teachers for teaching music. I'm also a full time secondary Music and Religious Education teacher in the gorgeous Blue Mountains of NSW.
Goals for this week are simply to work in small chunks on my research methods chapter and have something ready to send off to my supervisors. Data collection hasn't started yet so it has a "this is what I'm planning to do" kind of vibe about it which will shift as data comes in.
Danielle! it's probably already Saturday in Australia so I hope you're off doing something fun now and no longer thinking about work. Hope you come back and update us when you can!
Hi everyone! My name is Briana, and I'm an assistant professor in Communication at the University of Maryland. This week my big goal is finishing teaching my winter course and getting my spring course up and ready to go. This week (and honestly all of winter break) has been filled with sickness, cold weather and my family climbing all over each other and annoying each other, which means that very little work has gotten done. Case in point--yesterday was MLK holiday, today was a snow day and I'm assuming there will be a delay if not closure tomorrow because of freezing temperatures. So I'm trying to extend much grace this week!
Before the end of this week, I do want to have a draft of my semester plan done. I have lots of writing projects that I need to get done and ready to submit for publication this year, so I need to be focused and really set those SMART goals.
For this week, I am completing my final lecture (and recording it), finishing up grading, introducing their final assignment. I also need to map out the syllabus for my spring course. The good thing is that these are both the same classes (and I'll be teaching this course for the 3rd time in the spring), so mainly it's just tweaking and finalizing guest speakers.
It's nice to see a fellow Terp on here! I did my PhD at UMD in the Government and Politics department (finished in 2019). The weather sounds tough! I remember how the Maryland/DC/VA area just shuts down at the slightest hint of snow and bad weather. Hopefully, this week went well for you!
I loved your guest post for PNP today! Wise words. I appreciated it as a junior faculty member with caregiving responsibilities who is also trying to not compare myself to others when it comes to writing my book!
Hello all! I am the Chair of Theater and this week is the last week before classes and auditions. . . so there are a lot of meetings, documents, logistics, etc. My goal is to spend at least one hour on my monograph T, W, Th, F this week. I have some note taking and think-writing to do in response to a couple articles and book chapters I have read that will directly inform the chapter I am writing. (My goal for the semester is to draft the chapter, which is all new. My full ms is due April 2025 and I have set goals for the chapters and rewriting, indexing, etc. One brand new chapter this semester would be great! So I am also working on remembering to write when short on time per Jenn's helpful linked post about those pesky 15 minutes one spends emailing.). I love baking, cross country skiing and oil painting.
Welcome, Lisa! So glad to have you here. I'm also happy to hear the short on time post was a good reminder. Good luck this week with your busy schedule!
1. I did not work on my book daily, but I made up the hours--so is a "went well" item and also an "i can do better" item! I can do better by not spending an initial 20 mins faffinf about on the interwebs.:) Though I found a super cute embroidered portrait of frida kahlo with sequins and purchased it as birthday present to me. :)
2. I did a lot of reading and discovered a handful of fantastic pieces (by following a newer thread of thinking) which have me very excited for my work this week--despite classes beginning! I also refined the argument and discovered how a few pieces could fit together in the chapter--great!
Hi, I'm Diana. I'm a Public Policy scholar in the University of Texas (UT) system. My main project is a book manuscript currently out for initial peer review but, for the near term, I'm focusing on pulling together a conference paper that extends my work to a new region. My goal for the week is to spend at least 10 hours (averaging 2 hours per day) doing basic research on U.S. Cold War era policy towards the Horn of Africa and coding the documents I've collected to date.
As for non-academics, I'm a textile and ceramic artist who doesn't spend nearly as much time making things as I would wish.
Success! As of 5 minutes ago (literally), I've met my goal of 10 hours coding. More than that, my review gave me a much stronger understanding of the dynamics of US-Ethiopian interactions during the era and the outlines of my argument. I'll be taking the weekend off, but my next step on Monday will be to pull my thoughts together to begin to outline the section on Ethiopia.
Once again, thank you so very much for offering us this structure and accountability. It makes a difference!
I'm rather late to posting, but still wanted to participate in this week. Our semester starts next week, so it's been an especially busy time with meetings and class prep, plus no childcare for two out of the five days. I'm an Assistant Professor in political science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. My focus is on the international-side of political science (e.g., political violence, nonviolence, identity politics, state repression, and authoritarian regimes). Outside of academia, I like hiking and being outdoors (a bit harder to do with the frigid temperatures this week, but that's what good winter gear is for), am an avid listener of podcasts, and have been enjoying playing Just Dance with my kiddos lately.
This week, my focus has been on figuring out how to address one of the methods-related comments from a reviewer on a revise and resubmit.
Welcome to the group, even if it is a little late. Methods can be tough comments to address because we can rarely go back and change what we did. Hang in there with the kids, class, prep, and winter weather.
I can commiserate with you Agatha. We have not been out of our house since last Friday (1/12) when a wind storm, followed by 9 inches of snow, ice and freezing rain came. On Monday (1/22), we are supposed to get above freezing for the first time. The university closed for an unprecedented five days of classes. This might seem commonplace in WI, but I live in TN.
Yikes! That sounds bad, even for WI-weather standards. I lived in Maryland when the university closed for five days because of a huge snowstorm. It's definitely different in the midwest than the mid-atlantic and south!
There are so many! I listen to some about academic writing, parenting, news, politics, the Middle East, and other random stuff. In no particular order, some that I've been listening to lately are Academic Writing Amplified, Empire (about the British Empire, Ottoman Empire,etc.), Good Authority (really good for easy to understand poli sci research), Good Inside and Ask Lisa (both parenting), Lecture Breakers, POMEPS Middle East Political Science Podcast, The Ezra Klein Show, The Happiness Lab, and Your Words Unleashed (another great academic writing podcast). Whew! That is a lot when I write it out.
Hi there, I'm Devon. I'm a PhD student aiming to complete three dissertation chapters in 2024. I'm currently enrolled in three seminar courses and I meet with a writing group every other week, but otherwise my time is flexible. I'm continually working on establishing healthy boundaries between work time and not-work time.
At the end of this week, I need to present a big-picture overview of my dissertation. I like to use the good, better, best method for goal-setting. So my good SMART goal: By Friday afternoon, I will have a complete slide deck for a 40-minute talk. Better: I will have a complete slide deck with a script for a 40-minute talk. Best: I will have a complete slide deck and script, plus specific questions for feedback and discussion. My *hope* is that I can use the script of this talk as a foundation for my introduction.
Non-academic: I have two book clubs going at the moment, so I'm reading Fern Brady's Strong Female Character and Proust's Swann's Way. I'm also joining my team for trivia night on Thursday, and I'll try and do some yoga or get some runs in this week.
Go Devon Go! I love this good, better, best smart goal approach! I have a post coming out in the near future about good, better, and best goals that I learned from Erin Yanota during one of the writing sprints. I love that you have pointed out that you can apply it to the smart goal format! Good luck this week!
Good/Better/Best will be useful in my composition classes as well! Thanks for sharing-- trying to help students set individual targets, but they need to understand where (generally) those targets should be. Thanks for sharing!
(And yay bookclubs! I'm in two online this year, and we just finished a read of The Secret History for my in-person. So much fun.)
Hi, I am an early-career scholar trying to write my first monograph based on one (!) of my dissertation chapters so the process has been quite daunting but also super exciting. I am a yoga practitioner and someone who likes to work from home. My weekdays during term time (short but extremely intense and without breaks at my eccentric institution) are filled head to toe with teaching, supervising and admin, so I usually use weekends for my own research because I do find that I prefer large block of time to get into the state of flow. This week I plan to finish reading an important book for my research that I anticipate to potentially help restructure some of the thinking that I already drafted. So I will be taking notes and possibly revise and write.
I hope everything went well for everyone. I am happy to have done some good writing work, mostly in the times I pre-allocated, and met my Friday deadline for the co-authored paper.
Hello all--this group really did help me this week to stay on track because I kept thinking about having to update my progress. So yay for that! I did make progress on all three of my projects, including a sort of timeline for myself for the year. Since I have a conference presentation in May, I'll focus most heavily on that project in the coming weeks. I did read the 500 plus page book on Irish History I had hoped to read and since it is an overview, I now have a bibliography of sources to track down. I had the first interview with the artist I'm working with to write his memoir and it was juicy. I'm now thinking his life event would make a good "true crime" podcast, and I'll be looking into that. I did some background reading on him, which meant goal 2 was met. Finally, I started my spreadsheet to code info on formerly enslaved women in TN after the Civil War and began looking through census records to track them down. Little things but definitely a successful week.
Also, I really like this idea of good, better, best and will be using that for weekly goal-making moving forward.
Emily! I'm so sorry, but I somehow deleted your comment! eeek. I feel terrible. So sorry about that. I was actually trying to edit my own comment. I was saying that it's amazing that you wrote an acquisitions editor. That's a huge step forward! And you did this in a week that was really busy for you, so good on you!
Your comment was still in my email, so I'm posting it again here:
Hi all, So this is my check-in AND check-out because life. Me: I'm a Renaissance dance historian. These days I'm mostly an independent scholar, but I also teach one course a semester in Dance History at Point Park University in lovely Pittsburgh, PA. Most of my non-academic activities are also dance-related (Lindy hop, Argentine tango, blues), but I do attempt a bit of gardening in the summer. The project I'll be working on is finally turning my over-ten-years-dormant dissertation into a proper, publishable book. As for my progress this week, thanks to kiddo not having school for two of these five days, and the whole family driving to another country, I got zero writing done. However, I did email an acquisitions editor about scheduling a chat about my book project, I made a spreadsheet of all the components needed for a book proposal for my top three possible publishers, and I found and watched some "how to turn your dissertation into a book" talks on YouTube, so that's something, right? And I submitted an abstract for a chapter to be published in a collection, so I'll be writing that at some point, too. I'll be back at my back at my desk next Monday ... and kiddo has a normal school week, so that should help my writing productivity immensely ... I hope!
Emily, you're taking some excellent concrete steps toward your book project. I'm impressed that you've been able to do so much, given the week you've had!
Hi Everyone! Thanks for joining us today. I set this thread to publish at 1 a.m. my time so that folks in later timezones could get started. It was really motivating to wake up to all your messages this morning about your goals for the week! Thank you for that.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Jenn, and I'm the curator of this newsletter. My day job is being an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Texas at Austin. As of last week, I started writing a book inspired by some of my writing in Publish Not Perish and I think I've told my partner and only one other person about this, so it feels much more real to say it to all of you!
My non-academic fun fact is that I've got really poor taste in films. I like action films, slapstick comedies, cheesy romances, and not-well-thought-out sci-fi films. I'd much rather be watching something like that than most of the things that win Oscars. I have a strong aversion to anything with sad or depressing endings or people I can't cheer for.
I'm inspired by Erin and Catherine to do good-better-best smart goals this week. Here's my main writing goal this week:
By Friday at noon, I will have added X number of words to Chapter 3 of my book manuscript.
X = Good: 1000 words; Better: 1500 words; Best: 2000 words.
I actually have a post coming out sometime soon about good, better, and best goals, which I originally learned from Erin. I love how Catherine adds it to the SMART goal format. If anyone else uses this and/or modifies it in some helpful way, let me know! I'll add it to the post.
Good luck, ya'll! (I live in Texas, am from the Southern US, and I love having a plural you in the English language.)
Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a good week. Here's my check-in:
1. My writing went really well this week. I was probably somewhere between my better and best goals for the week on word count, but I don't know for sure because I copied over a lot of things I had already written for PNP and revised them, so I'm not sure where it exactly shakes out. Writing was also easier because I have a lot of drafts of these ideas in PNP posts.
2. There were a lot of things working in my favor for writing this week. Even though it was the first week of classes, my grad class didn't meet because of the holiday, and my undergrad class is an asynchronous online class that I built a few semesters ago, so it's not a lot of work to teach now. I somehow didn't have a lot of meetings either, which is atypical. And my partner was out of town the first part of the week too, which meant focused time (she works from home as well). All of this to say, it was a unicorn week for me! Next week, I'll have to be a bit more tempered about my goals because I'm a lot busier.
3. The thing I'm celebrating is the ability to do deep work this week. I know it's going to be a lot harder in the coming weeks, so I'm thankful I had it when I did.
You know this makes me so excited! You are constantly working to make academia a better and more kind place, and now more people will be able to see that and apply it to their own careers. I love this for you, and for the rest of us!
Bawww thank you, Briana. That means a lot and I appreciate you.
I think it's fabulous that you're turning all your work here into a book, Jenn. I promise, you have a ready audience.
thanks for the kind words and encouragement, Diana! It's always nice to know I'm not writing into a void. I appreciate you!
Hi All! I'm an independent scholar (PhD in Rhetoric & Composition; MFA in Poetry) and I've decided that I'd like to use the PNP writing accountability to help me return to a big goal I set when I graduated: transitioning my PhD research into a free, public website without academic jargon. My PhD was on Lisa Ben--the woman who wrote the first lesbian magazine in the US in 1947-1948--and my website is LisaBenography.com. This week my goal is to review my website so far, write up a plan for copy I'd like to create, and spend 1 hour working on it. Slowly but surely returning to it.
Non-academic thing about me: I'm excited to learn how to cook this year. I recently learned I'm allergic to whey and casein and am trying to figure out tasty food that's gluten free + now dairy free. Last night I made a curry falafel recipe with a kale salad and it was pretty good! I'd love to hear any dairy free/gluten free cookbooks you might suggest!
I'm circling back to my post to share my Friday Update!
-How did your writing goals go this week? --> I was really motivated to dive right in on Monday and got more done on my website than I have in months. I took time to review materials and update links, etc.
-What do you need to adjust or do differently next week? --> Next week I'm planning to time block an hour into my calendar instead of just writing it as a task on my to-do list to ensure I don't reschedule it.
-What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is? --> I'm celebrating diving back in!
Great news, Kate! I bet it feels really good to dig back into that work and imagine what it will look like in its new form. Can't wait to see it one day!
wahoo! So glad you're here, Kate! I love that this is what you're doing with your research. I wish the academy was so forward-thinking to actually allow dissertations like this. Best of luck, and thanks for joining in the fun. I'm happy to have your energy, positivity, and compassion in the mix!
Hi-- I'm a finishing my dissertation at George Washington and teaching composition at Shepherd University in West Virginia. I’m new to WV and temporary, but I love being out of the city (D.C.) for a bit as I finish up the diss. Being around trees and rivers is good for my soul (even if I’m mainly reading in the vicinity, not hiking or rafting or outdoor-adventuring.)
I have about 2 weeks to finish a chapter and write the introduction if I am going to defend this semester, so that is my primary focus for this week and the near future.
I am finishing a chapter on textile work in Gaskell’s North and South in order to send it to my committee by Saturday. (I think that statement hits the SMART guidelines.) I’ve written and received feedback on about three quarters of it, but it hibernated over the holiday as I tried to think through some scale problems, and shockingly, it didn't fix itself during that time.
Welcome, Elizabeth! WV is so beautiful! And here's to getting those diss goals done in the next two weeks. You can do it! If you need some structure advice on intros, I like Laura's book introduction template. It works for dissertations, too. https://newsletter.manuscriptworks.com/p/my-standard-template-for-book-introduction?utm_source=%2Fsearch%2Fbook%2520introduction&utm_medium=reader2
I hope your week went well, Elizabeth!
I'm always surprised when my drafts don't write themselves while I'm away!
Congrats on getting this far in the dissertation process. I hope the nature helps you with this last big push.
Thank you! Hope yours goes well too!
Circling back around. Didn't quite hit my goals, but got a lot done. (Ended up with no classes this week due to a few snowstorms, so the extra time certainly didn't hurt!)
Communicated with committee about drafts I'd received and a potential defense schedule. (Had been putting this off for A WHILE so that was very useful.
Restructured final chapter (North and South), moving back to my original plan. Got some clarity on the structure, was given some good references to thicken keywords.
My goal is (still) full draft minus out by the end of this month, so 10 days left.
Hi Elizabeth! I used to live around the D.C. area (first Mt. Rainier, then Annapolis), and so I know what you mean about wanting to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city! I hope that your week went well!
Elizabeth, what program are you in? English? Your chapter sounds more like history? I'm in history.
kelly
I’m in literature, but it has required an unimaginable amount of history to interpret the context of the Condition of England novels. What’s your period/focus?
Elizabeth, my specialization is in late 19th/early 20th century southern women and myth and memory. But I won a travel grant to do research/write on Irish women who emigrated to the Americas 1760 to 1820. I find history a part of all the disciplines, which is fun for me.
Hi Elizabeth! I did my MA at GW, but at the Elliott School. As a textile worker (ok, fiend) myself, your chapter sounds fascinating. The very best of luck to you.
Oh, I’m a textile fiend too, but I call it crafty like a witch :) what’s your string and stick of choice? And thanks :)
These days, I'm largely a knitter (after quilting, embroidery, spinning, and similar eras). I'm about a foot short of finishing a king-sized bedspread I've named Siberia--it's huge, white, and once you get into it you'll be stuck for years to come.
And you?
Hi, I'm Natasha. I'm an independent scholar -Theology and The Arts. Doing this work with a Masters, but hope to start a practice based PhD in the Autumn (2024).
Hoping to present a paper at a conference in April. Deadline for Abstract this Wednesday 17th- 5pm. Deciding what I'm going to present is my immediate goal this week.
I have secured a book contract and managed to do NO work on it at all last year. Need to change that. So that's a main goal this year.
Non academic: Used to be an actress, was discerning for Ordination, until it became clear this was the path for me. I get to combine creativity and interest in theology and social justice. I love the gym, and running (once my back get's better), I say that I like to read, yet getting through a novel takes a while due to attention span and dyslexia!!
Hello folks, checking in with an update. I got my abstract in and have been playing around with a loose draft for my book- (which is a relief) just need to build momentum and remove all distraction- so that i/e washing up and doing laundry don't suddenly appear on my 'to do' list in the middle of a sentence. What am I afraid of?. Reading all the activity here, does make me feel as though I need to up the anti and not take for granted that I do have a little space for deep thinking to reflect. But hey it's Friday, I showed up - I got done what I needed to and I'm not funded or supported by an institutional infrastructure, so I ought to cut myself some slack- whilst I juggle with the rest of life.
Just been reminded by a friend to 'cloak yourself with compassion...liberally'. I do have support. The best kind.
Yesssss to all of this self-compassion. I'm so glad you're modeling it for us here. We are all on our journeys, and our work time looks really different in different contexts. Granting yourself that grace to forge your own path at the pace that is doable for you is so key. Congrats on your wins too!
Thank you, so much Jenn! Yes we have to go at the pace of our soul for sure. The pressures of academia can be brutal as I am coming to understand. I just heard news of black woman (professor) taking her life because of the bullying she experienced. Another collapsed on stage at a conference. It's happening too frequently. Whilst I anticipate starting a PhD in the Autumn-and I am excited about it- as a woman writing from the margin- I am not doing so naively. I am aware of the structural realities- so respecting my boundaries and taking care of well being, has to be priority. Luckily I do have a friend that reminds me. I am learning to get better at it. We could all do with being a little kinder with ourselves. Thanks for the affirmation. Much appreciated :)
Absolutely on all of this, Natasha! Have you heard of the organization, Cohort Sistas? One of our readers founded it, and it especially serves Black women and nonbinary scholars. I've listened to their podcast, and there's really great content. They also have mentoring and lots of professional development workshops. https://www.cohortsistas.org/
Not heard of them. Will check this out! Thank you. With gratitude.
Welcome, Natasha! Cheering that book work on!
Thank you! I need all the encouragement I can get.
Natasha, What is your April conference on?
Kelly
Hi Kelly,
Sorry I didn't even ask about your discipline, but I have just been reading your response to another thread. Sounds interesting. So good that you get to travel to do research too!
Hi Kelly,
The overall theme of the conference is Prayer. But there are options to present on fringe seminars. I'll go for either Womanist Theology or that and the Arts as I use creative writing and auto-ethography in my approach.
Hi, everyone! Thanks for doing this, Jenn :)
I'm Liz, an assistant prof in urban/environmental studies at UCLA with a background in media studies. My major project is my first book, an ethnography of "managed retreat" from the coast in Staten Island, NY, after Hurricane Sandy. Non-work-wise, I'm from upstate NY but am learning to love LA (2024 goal: practice driving) - I love walking in the hills/canyons and am excited to get back to indoor climbing, which I stopped doing regularly when the pandemic hit and I had a baby (who is now 3.5).
This week, my main goal is to prioritize book writing by 1) sending really rough/unwieldy but existent chapter 2 draft to a friendly reader and 2) touching my chapter 3 draft every day, incorporating the notes I've drafted so far into the doc. My other research/writing goals for the week are to do one next step on a coauthored paper draft that's been languishing and to start brainstorming an upcoming talk connected to a new project. Lots to juggle but I'm hoping I can move things along bit by bit.
welcome back to the fun, Liz! Haha, I remember your practice driving goal from the last sprint. Cheering for your 2024 life goal! Glad to have you here. Good luck with your book writing this week!
I hope you had a good week, Liz!
Hi, Liz!
I've done some indoor and outdoor climbing in the past (especially when I lived in Colorado), but it's been a while. Hopefully, you had a great week!
Checking in for the week! My main goal was to prioritize book writing, and I did that. I spent the majority of my writing & research time (6/11.5 hours) on book stuff, sent my rough chapter 2 draft to a friend for feedback, and ended the week strong at an on-campus writing retreat today where I was able to do deep thinking on chapter 3, how my existing diss material might fit into the remaining chapters, and what work these chapters might be doing in the context of the book structure and argument.
I adjusted my goal of touching the chapter 3 draft every day because I realized that a whole-day writing retreat on Friday - a day I usually reserve for clutter-clearing admin/email, meetings, and planning the following week - necessitated dedicating more time to that stuff mid-week (as well as to my goals of small incremental steps to move other projects along). I also hit my initial goal of incorporating my ch 3 notes into the draft more quickly than I thought I would, and the next steps required a bigger chunk of time.
I am celebrating getting into flow mode with the book-thinking/writing on a Friday, since I usually feel like my brain is utterly worn out by then (which is how I felt this morning, but the writing-retreat structure was in place to energize/inspire me). A good reminder that it's possible to make real progress on a Friday even if the rest of the week has been a wash!
Hi Liz, what do you mean by "managed retreat?" Just curious!
Kelly
Hi Kelly, thanks for asking! It's a planning term that means moving away from places exposed to flooding, sea level rise, etc. (for instance, demolishing homes in a floodplain and converting the land back to wetlands). I put it in quotes both because it's jargony and because my work aims to critique/reconceptualize the term itself (the "managed" part as well as the "retreat" part)
Liz, that's so interesting. Are people willing to engage in this "managed retreat," especially if they've endured a traumatic environmental event?
In the case I'm writing about, yes, which was contrary to my initial expectations. Explaining what retreat meant in this context, and how and why some disaster-affected residents organized to advocate for it, is a core part of the book I'm working on.
Hi all, I'm Erin (she/her) and I'm a PhD Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, aiming to defend my dissertation in late March/early April. A lot to juggle this week, between winter storm (always the threat of a grid failure in Texas), first week back teaching (if classes don't get cancelled), prepping for a job interview, and–of course–the dissertation.
My main writing goal is revisions! I've been trying to get a revised chapter out to my committee co-chairs at the beginning of each week, but due to some hiccups last week I have fallen a little bit behind. I'm hoping to get the chapter I'm currently working on up to 80% ideally by the end of the day today, but no later than end of day tomorrow. By Friday, I'd really just like to have spent 1-2 hours a day pushing my next chapter's revisions forward, and staying focused on what needs to get done rather than what I would like to get done in an ideal world.
Non-academic: it will shock no one that I like to read, especially as someone studying literature, but I have been reading and enjoying a book that is not related to my research – Sophie Lewis's Abolish the Family.
Hi Erin! Here's to us both surviving the storm. Good luck on all these goals! Having seen your progress during the sprints, I believe you're going to do it. (assuming the power stays on, of course!)
Erin, I'm in TX, too, and didn't sleep last night because I was having horrible nightmares about the electricity going out. I was waking up about every 45 minutes to check to see. Sigh. I think I'm traumatized from that one winter storm in 2021. We had no electricity for a week and sustained a lot of damage.
Cheering you on with your revisions this week, Erin!
Hope you managed to get that 1-2 hours a day in after your Monday post. Focusing on what needs to get done is an important lens on something that can feel overwhelming. Hope you can enjoy the weekend.
Hi Erin! I did my PhD at UT-A, too. The best of luck to you--it really is worth all the work in the end.
Welcome Erin! Sounds like lots of balls to juggle (I am right there with you on the power outages and grid failures . . .). Is there a way to break the revisions down into smaller bite-size chunks to make it more manageable? It seems as if 1-2 hours per day could result in very little getting done as you debate with yourself about individual words or sentences or still not result in a feeling of accomplishment. Could it be something more like this Monday--make grammatical and mechanical changes to this subheading or two or Tuesday--outline additional arguments that need to be made in this subheading.
Thanks, Michelle! I do have more "chunked" goals for myself (but flexible, given the unpredictability of this week), as well as anti-goals(?) of things not to do – notably, research and, actually, focusing on grammatical and mechanical changes because that tends to be a productive procrastination strategy for me. Top priorities are actually drafting a couple of new, small, specific pieces (framing paragraphs, signposting, etc.), and past me left some crumbs for current me so think I'll be able to jump into them relatively easily. Good luck this week!
I love the concept of "anti-goals"! Good luck with the revisions!
Hi, I'm Michelle. I'm an associate professor of history at Michigan State University. I wrote a book that came out almost 10 years ago, and since then, I've written lots of articles, book chapters, and other things. But the next book is nowhere in sight.
My non-academic thing is that I had a military career before I became an academic.
This week, I would like to take a step in the direction of the book. I will dedicate 30 minutes minimum each day to locating the various fragments of the book in one place so that I can assess what I have and what needs doing.
Thanks for this space, and I look forward to working with you!
Michelle
Welcome, Michelle! That's exciting that you are starting a book as well. Me too!
How did your writing goals go this week?
Not well, for a variety of reasons. I didn't get any time in on gathering the book particles into one place. I had more personal and family health appointments to get too than usual this week, so things got away from me. Will try again next week.
What do you need to adjust or do differently next week?
I need to put some non-negotiable times in my calendar and hold myself to them.
What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is?
I took care of some overdue health needs for myself and my daughter. I also set up *Motion*, which I subscribed to a few months ago and never got set up. I am hopeful that it will help me with scheduling things in the open spaces on my calendar.
Hi, I'm Kim and I'm a Clinical Professor living in NYC. I'm working on an article based on a conference presentation from last summer (the original plan was to finish it before fall semester began...). My goal for this week is to get this draft in shape to share with a writing group--if I can find anyone with time to read it before the semester really gets going. Hope all in the freezing zone are doing okay! Thanks
welcome, Kim! Glad you're here. Good luck this week!
Hi Jenn, I haven't received any messages since the first day. Should I have gotten some reminders or something?
Thanks, Kim
Hi Kim! Oh no! Sorry to hear that. Substack will email you when someone replies to your comment, but not with all the other comments other folks make on my original thread.
But you should have gotten an email from me at 1 a.m. CST to check in again on this thread. Let me know if you got that or not. If you didn't, check your spam folder. If it's still a mystery, let me know, and I'll see if I can figure it out. In any case, I'm sorry to hear you've not been in the loop! I'm confident we'll figure it out.
Hi all! I teach multicultural and postcolonial literature at UIndy, where we're now entering week 1 of the semester. Currently attempting to type with a cat on my lap in the middle of this winter-pocalypse. I was, as usual, overly ambitious for winter break goals. My goals for this week are to spend at least two hours on my current project, focusing on very very contemporary (2023-2024!!!) BIPOC literary works about publishing.
Welcome, Leah! I'm sitting in a recliner with one of my dogs curled up on my legs, trying to stay warm! He's such a good little research assistant. Good luck with your project!
Here's my Friday update! I started out pretty strong, keeping up with the reading I had in mind and even adding to my research notes. And then it all went downhill from there due to week 1 of the semester stuff. Womp womp womp. But I did probably manage to cobble together two hours of work so I'm glad I kept my goals light this week.
Next week I may try to set aside time - maybe on Monday or Friday - to just write. I might set it as a meeting on my Google Calendar. Other than that, I'm going to celebrate finishing out week 1, and kinda sorta getting where I wanted to in terms of research. Celebrations will likely include a cozy video game and maybe finishing up this latest season of Fargo.
Way to go, Leah! Two hours of work on your project during the beginning of the term is huge! During heavier semesters or when I'm teaching new classes, I usually don't do any research work the first two weeks of classes. Have a great weekend!
Posting here on Monday really helped keep me accountable! Of course, we're still in what I call the honeymoon period of the semester. Things are already starting to feel more overwhelming!
I found the Monday posts motivating, for sure. And, lol, honeymoon period. It's also the best time to start new habits.
I agree with Jenn, Leah. Celebrate the small steps of progress for it is how we keep moving forward. I find the scheduling in my calendar useful as well so others don't book in appointments during my productive writing time from 8-9am.
All the very best with your goals for next week. Keep it up!
Elaine
Hi Leah! Good to see you here and your current project is quite intriguing. Please post more if you feel like it. I read The Other Black Girl last year and thought that it was going to be a good book for academic analysis.
Also, my lap cat does not approve of typing and really hates zoom
Also, LeiLani, I was trying to post a cat pic but I don't know how so here's one of my favorite round fluff photos of Sophie: https://twitter.com/DrMLovesLit/status/1638221275356078080/photo/1
I read TOBG too! I have been trying to get through the Hulu adaptation but I find it really almost physically painful for me to watch anything too cringey. :) I did just watch the adaptation of Percival Everett's Erasure - the movie American Fiction. It was SO GOOD. At this point I have too much material for the amount of pages (!) but I'm also considering Chou's Disorientation among others.
Greetings from a former resident of Indiana! I was at IU Bloomington for 14 years before moving to MSU in summer 2022. Good luck with your goals for the week--sounds like an exciting and necessary project!
Michelle! Hope MSU is treating you well. I really want to head down to Bloomington to peruse the Lilly Library sometime.
The Lilly is amazing. One of my favorite places ever.
Hi all, my name is Elaine and I am a mid-career researcher and academic. Publishing in academia has always felt like having a sword of Damocles- either you publish or perish! But I am slowly learning to unlearn previously unproductive habits in my writing. Great to have a group to work with. I've just started learning the ukelele as a creativity outlet for me and for others around me to enjoy.
I am currently drafting an academic article, rushing to finish (it constantly feels like being on a spinning wheel) to pass on to my co-authors to refine. My goal by the end of this week is to restructure and refine the current Methods and Findings section so I can get a better grip of the Discussion section.
Welcome, Elaine! Here's to the unlearning! Good luck this week.
I hope you had a good week with your writing goals! Even if you didn't get the writing done you hope, I still hope it was good!
Hi Jenn and all
I'm just checking in after the week.
I managed to get part of my writing done. I did refine my methods section and part of my findings section. I ran into a snag realising I did go back to re-check/redo some earlier analysis that I thought was already completed. Good to be tidying up those loose ends.
I am currently writing this week while on holiday with my family so my writing schedule is a bit topsy turvy but great to have the community to bolster morale. I will be back to a more regular writing schedule next week and to finish refining the analyses.
I can celebrate taking baby steps amidst the pressure to publish or perish.
Have a great weekend all.
Elaine
wonderful, Elaine! Enjoy the family time!
I applaud your engagement with music! I will be back with a choir from 1 February. Great therapy.
My dad taught me the tuning for ukelele when I was about 7yo - singing the four pitches (starting on the g string) to the words "my dog has fleas"! I have never known if this practice is widespread 😁
Thanks Catherine, I have not heard about this tip but will give it a go! :-)
Hi, I am Gill, an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick. This week is busy with my doctoral graduation and with teaching, but I do want to plan out a short article I am writing on signature pedagogies in my field for a mid-range journal read by a lot of practitioners as well as researchers. my goal will be to have shared an overview of the article with some key collaborators for comment by the end of the week. My non work thing is that I am hosting a little drinks gathering post graduation tomorrow evening.
Hi, Gill! Welcome to the fun. Good luck with your article!
Gill, I hope your busy week was good to you and you enjoyed graduation festivities!
Hi Gill, I love Warwick Uni. I'm in West Midlands too.
Hi Natasha, would be good to connect somehow, I am interested in feminist and womanist theology too
Hi Gill, that would be great. Not sure if there's a way to DM on Substack? Or if you don't mind sharing your work email address here I could touch base that way in the first instance? Look forward to hearing from you.
Hi Gill,
I'm Elaine, thanks for sharing your post. Writing about signature pedagogies sounds like a very useful article for practitioners and even early career folks in the field. All the best with working on it this week amidst graduation. Enjoy the post-graduation drinks. Very well deserved for all who have achieved this grand milestone!
Mary Durfee I did absolutely nothing other than attempt to stay warm. Power went off on Saturday, reappeared briefly for 2 hours on Sunday (Eugene, Springfield, OR). Then zip. It came on (we hope for real) about an hour ago (Friday). The first couple of nights lows were in the low 20s or high teens F. Then nights warmed into the 40F range. I have thrown everything out of the freezers and the veggies in the frig. Am debating various sauces/bottles, but am inclined to take this rather unnpleasant event as a sign to just start over with all clean, all empty ones (we have 2.5 of them). The pleasant side was that neighbors who did have power gave us hot water for coffee, or soup, or their outlets to keep phones charged, or just conversation. We had conversation out on the street even if we didn't have power. It was a very good local society experience. Heck, when the local cafe opened (I noticed late yesterday and went early this morning), it gave free coffee to anyone without power. We have a gas fireplace--partly for just this kind of problem and were ever so glad we had it. We still had running water. It could have been worse, far worse--like if we had been souls facing winter and often without utilities while being bombed or invaded. We now know what was missing or could be improved with our supplies for "disasters"....even a small one like this. We are also going to suggest to the city that they need to find ways to communicate with the public that doesn't involve computer access. A radio station would give a short report, but then refer us to the website.
Oh my goodness, Mary! This is wild! We've had a few of these in Texas over the past few years where we've lost power and sometimes water during snow and ice events. I hope things are warming and that life gets back to normal soon. Take good care of yourself!
Good grief. From those of us on the other side of the Atlantic, where one degree Celsius and a strong wind elicits national weather warnings, I think you and the coffee-supplying cafe are heroes! Keep saying warm and fighting the good fight with the city! For now, that’s your job and it sounds like you’re doing it brilliantly. Xb
Thanks! It was unusual, for sure.
With those conditions, staying warm **can** be all-consuming. You have my respect for plugging on through it all, succeeding at some massive problem-solving, and even making some great new connections. May the rest of your spring be so very much easier.
There will be more--it's partly due to climate change brought on by the weakening of the polar vortex. That circulation kept cold air from running off to disturb the warmer air below.
I believe it. I lived in Portland for several years and my sister was a Duck, both back in the early 80s. We can remember non-stop rain and rare dustings of snow but nothing like the extremes you've all been facing over the past couple years.
It's (after) 5:00 on Friday, which might say more about my chaotic life than anything else. In some ways, this was the perfect week for a writing and accountability challenge because we have been stuck in the house since 1/12; in other ways, it exponentially revealed just how quickly good planning can go out the window.
How did your writing goals go this week?
The writing goals I set on Monday went fine as far as they went. I accomplished the first one without a problem. Apparently, my co-authors all came out of hibernation because I got three articles back for final review and submission (all have been submitted) and I got back the final outline for two new data collections (IRBs completed).
What do you need to adjust or do differently next week?
Leave myself more space for the unexpected to crop up (maybe not set any daily goals for Friday or set optional goals if time and space allow). Also need to remember that going back to classes impacts my writing productivity more than I anticipate.
What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is?
There are three previously rejected articles back in submission at new journals and we have corrected some of the concerns in one of them to do a new study with better data collection and planned analyses.
Hi Michelle! It sounds like things are moving with several of your projects! One of the things that I often do with my planning is have blocks of time spattered throughout my schedule for "make-up work." If something unexpected comes up and I can't get some work done when I planned, then I have the make-up time blocked in my calendar to account for it. Something always comes up and I am usually using those blocks!
Thanks for the good advice. I am still working on dedicated writing blocks on the calendar.
Happy Friday, everyone! Here's my check-in to wrap up the week.
How did your writing goals go this week? I met my goal of preparing a slide deck + script for a presentation of my dissertation, complete with theoretical framework, argument abstract, and individual chapter summaries. It helped to have a clear deadline, external accountability, and time to devote specifically to this project every day. I'm not thrilled with how the presentation went, but the slide deck + script have given me a great foundation for my writing, so I'm counting it as a win!
What do you need to adjust or do differently next week? Next week I'll have less time available for dissertation work, and I won't have any external deadlines for the foreseeable future. So, I'll need to work on breaking down my long-term project into smaller tasks so that I can set deadlines for myself. I'll also need to find accountability elsewhere -- whether that's in this PNP group or in my on-campus writing group.
Academic celebration: I've found a group of students who are eager to meet for co-writing sessions, and I'm excited to incorporate some human contact into my work life! Non-academic celebration: I'm doing Dry January (actually, I'm working toward long-term sobriety), and I made it through some long, tough days this week without a drink :)
Great work this week, Devon! I always find that presentations help give my work in progress more clarity because I have to present it in a different way. I'm glad to hear the presentation was productive! It's also nice to see you seeking out accountability and support. Dissertation writing can be so isolating, and you're smart to find your people to help push you over that finish line!
Friday Check-In:
How did your writing goals go this week?
Well, I'm glad I kept things modest, because I haven't yet touched my ch 3 revisions (but Friday's not over yet!). Finishing up my ch 2 revisions took longer than expected due to some flare-ups of a health condition, and I'm not happy with where that chapter is at right now but am just accepting "good enough for now," knowing that I'll need to come back to them before they're "final," and forging ahead.
What do you need to adjust or do differently next week?
After I sent off my revisions and taught yesterday, I was exhausted from the writing push, health stuff, and the anxiety that comes with just existing in Texas during cold weather–as Kelly expressed well at the beginning of the week. Building lots of buffer time into my schedule to allow myself to just be a human is something that I am continually working on, and I'm going to make an extra effort to do so next week. Relatedly, I'm going to try to use my weekends strategically for writing time especially before the wave of grading starts to hit, since I find teaching sucks up so much of my energy as an introvert that I have to set verrrry modest writing goals for teaching days during the week.
What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is?
I accepted my ch 2 for what it is right now, and sent it off! Through a routine self-Google, while prepping for a job interview, I also discovered that one of my articles has officially been published–which is scary because now people can read it!! But overall exciting in the grand scheme of things, especially since it's been a looooong road (more so with another article I have forthcoming, but with this one too) with pandemic-related delays and journal backlogs.
I love that you are demonstrating so much self-compassion here too, Erin. (I was commenting on Natasha's post about this too.) You have A LOT going on this week and are in this stage of finishing up and being on the job market. Teaching, dissertating, and job market navigation could all be full-time jobs, but somehow you've got to do all three at once. It's a lot. I hope you saw Briana's post this week. https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/tips-to-finish-your-dissertation She shares your "good enough for now" and flexible approaches and has other good tips as well. Congrats on the publication! That's amazing news, and it sounds like it was hard won too.
Congrats on sending your chapter revisions! I understand that the chapter isn't exactly where you want it to be, but you are moving forward, and that's absolutely something to be proud of. Congrats on the job interview, too! I hope it goes well!
Hi Everyone
I’m Bernadette and I’m joining at the end of the week, which just goes to show how rubbish I am at getting things done in a timely way. I teach at Goldsmiths (London), which is currently falling apart (£20m deficit), meaning we’re now facing another ‘transformation’ agenda (code for redundancies); it’s week 2 of term and I have a load of essays to mark for next week but also a week FULL of meetings, student interviews and PhD supervisions. Had I joined on time, my goal for this week would have been to do the minor revisions for a journal essay submitted last year. It’s been accepted for publication in principle and will be published as soon as I make these v minor errors. However I am struggling even to keep pace with the start of term. Yesterday I worked from 8-8, without lunch or breakfast, and still didn’t get through everything. Weekend may have to be marking. If I don’t get to the corrections, that will be next week’s goal. Hope everyone else is having a saner start to the new year! Despite the dire tone, I’m very happy to be here and look forward to hearing more about your work and progress !
Oh my goodness! Bernadette! That sounds like a wild start to the year. As Leah says, take good care of yourself. I'm glad you checked in and hope that things calm down for you soon.
So sorry to hear about the struggles at Goldsmiths. You're definitely not alone. Be kind to yourself!
Hi Everyone! I'm a Professor of Communication at the University of Washington. I'm on sabbatical for this quarter and would dearly love to make some forward movement on my book - which has already changed in focus twice since I started it.
However, for this week I'm focusing on a nearer term goal of working on an article due next month. My plan is to have a full list of reference articles and to have read through a few issues of the journal that solicited the article.
Non-academic thing: Last year I went on a backpacking trip for the first time in 7 or 8 years. I am hoping to go again this summer and have picked out a route that is more challenging than last year. This quarter is also my quarter to do some winter hiking - which both gets me in better shape and makes me very happy,
Glad you could join us, LeiLani! What's the new book about?
I hope your week went well, LL!
Hi everyone! I am post doc researcher working on finishing two manuscripts from my PhD thesis.
Currently, it is a little bit difficult to find time for writing the manuscripts, while also doing research activities and looking for other jobs. I am glad to have found the PNP community and I am soo looking forward to this week accountability with all of you!
Non-academic: I enjoy reading about ways to improve communication and relationships. Recently I found out about NVC (non-violent communication) and trying to put it into practice with myself and with other people. I also love walking in nature everyday and expressing my feelings through dance :)
Goals for this week:
- Prepare the protocols for 2 experiments.
- Define the storyline of a manuscript
Best of luck to all of you!
welcome, Marly! It's lovely to have you join us. You know, I did a workshop on NVC ages ago and haven't thought about it in years. It was really impactful at the time and your comment makes me think that I should return to it!
Marly, I hope your research and writing dreams came true this week! Even if they didn't, we're here for you
Hi Jenn! Thanks for your reply. I am glad to know you are familiar with NVC! Recently I am trying to integrate self-empathy and connecting with my needs on a moment by moment basis, which has been also helpful with work-related tasks.
Regarding my goals for that week, I was able to define the protocols for 2 experiments and progressed ~ 30% on the storyline for my manuscript.
Thanks for opening the first week of the writing circle with everyone!
Hello everyone. I'm Kelly McMichael. I'm an Associate Professor of History with the American Public University (and adjunct other places to make more money). I live in Texas about 3 hours northwest of Austin, though I "share" an apartment with my daughter in Santa Fe, NM, meaning I pay half the rent on it because she can't afford to pay the full amount on what she makes.
I submitted an article to a distance education journal yesterday, and I'm celebrating having that off my plate.
As for this year, I've got too many projects going on but I can't drop any of them. Two are academic--I've got a presentation on formerly enslaved women in Tennessee who divorced between 1865-1900 that I'd also like to get a publication, won a research travel grant to go to Ireland and England this summer to work on Irish women who emigrated to the Americas between 1760 and 1820, and finally I'm writing a book for a former assistant to the artist Jasper Johns who stole some of John's artwork and served 18 months in prison for this crime. He's not told his story but wants to do so in book form.
I'm still in the research phase for all of these projects, and I need to process primary source materials and get to writing. For the book project, I also need to be thinking about getting a proposal together to find an agent. I hope to be doing that by mid-February.
My non-academic fun? I read a lot--fiction and non-fiction. I like to travel. I turned 55 on Saturday and spent the day in the hospital because my father-in-law had emergency gallbladder surgery. I seem to be in that period of life where I'm still dealing with my adult children but also starting to deal with my parent's health issues (and have had to deal with my in-laws health issues for several years). I had so many plans for work this week, but my daughter is sick with Flu A and needs help. I'll be driving to Santa Fe tomorrow and carrying a load of work with me. Please send good wishes that I can feed/care for her and NOT get the flu. Haha!
Main goal for this week:
1. to begin processing the court records of divorce petitions I gathered last week on a research trip to Nashville, inputting data into a spreadsheet.
2. to read the book on Jasper Johns that's been on my desk for a month.
3. to finish reading a huge secondary source on Irish history
With all the family stuff, that's likely all I'll manage this week. IF I manage to read the two books and take notes, I'll be thrilled. Setting up the spreadsheet by going through at least a few of the divorce records would be excellent.
Happy to meet you all and have some accountability on these projects.
Kelly
Welcome, Kelly! Happy belated birthday, first and foremost. It sounds like you have lots of facilitating research to keep you busy this week and beyond. (I think my family immigrated to the TN/KY area from Ireland around that time, or so Ancestry DNA tells me.). Have a great week!
Hi! I'm a health services researcher with a focus on chronic illness care delivery. I love to grow flowers and garden when I'm not working! I'm excited for all the flower shopping that will begin in the coming spring.
My writing aim for this week is to draft one outline for a manuscript and prepare a conference abstract.
I look forward to writing virtually with everyone!
Welcome, Allison! Good luck on your projects this week.
Hi Allison! I'm excited to hear you share more about your research and focus on chronic illness care delivery! How did outlining go this week?
Here's my Friday check in! This week I was able to work on the outline for the manuscript! I didn't do the conference abstract which is ok. I really got into the writing process for the outline!
I'm Coree (she/her), a lecturer in Politics in Scotland. Non-research related - 2024 is my year of art and I'm aiming for 12 exhibitions.
A colleague and I agreed to write a contribution to a special issue, but haven't quite figured out how to shoehorn our research interests into the special issue, so the goal is to agree a topic, develop a research question, and start the data collection by the end of the week. It sounds a bit ambitious but we work really well together, and are good at focusing on small but mighty datasets (a set of 20 speeches, editorials etc).
I started today by searching Hansard (record of Parliamentary debates) and am feeling like I'm coming back empty. And now I wonder about a focus on editorials in a Conservative-leaning paper, as a decently discreet dataset.
welcome, Coree! Lovely to have you here. Best of luck working on your project this week.
Coree, I hope you had a good week this week!
Hi Everyone! I'm Nicole. I am an assistant prof in public safety and justice at MacEwan university (Alberta Canada). I'm also working on my PhD at University of Alberta (nice to have that "if you don't finish we fire you" threat). It's COLD, so I think most of my meetings today have moved online. My goals for this week for writing/research are:
-final edits a co-authored piece that I want to have out this week or next
-write a proposal for a conference to present my PhD data (that I haven't gathered yet... but will have by the conference in Oct).
-catch up on lesson planning (we started the term 3 weeks ago and I have 3 new preps)
-(stretch goal) Write an abstract for a coauthored manuscript
Welcome, Nicole! Yes, it's amazing how having to finish to keep one's job is so motivating. :) Good luck this week and stay warm!
Hope things went well for you this week, Nicole! We'd love to hear if it did or didn't--we've got space for both and for somewhere in between.
Oof, my sister lives in Edmonton (and, coincidentally, adjuncts at MacEwan and did her MFA at U of A) and "COLD" is an understatement for what you all have been experiencing! Stay warm!!
Cool! It's a small world :)
Checking back in! I did not get everything done, mostly for 2 reasons: I'm learning that for an hour after I teach a 3 hr class (2x per week), I need to rest a bit and do mindless work. Second, I had an institutional tour this week for my students, and it was longer than I thought. So now I know for the rest of the tours. And I'll try to build in admin/rest time after classes.
I will hopefully work on that coauthored piece this weekend, I drafted a proposal but I need help because I'm still relatively knew to writing these. I got some lesson planning done but not all. The stretch goal is now next week's stretch goal.
Thanks for opening this space!
I would be the one who started in the wrong place. My name is Michelle, but I go by Snoopy if there are too many Michelles around! I am an associate professor of communication studies at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I study organizational and instructional communication at work and enjoy knitting/crocheting and scrapbooking outside of work. I am working on two projects: one related to methodological validity in qualitative and quantitative published research and one related to oral communication general education requirements. Goals for this week:
1. Add last three articles to literature review to finish argument
2. Update methods to include journals and descriptive statistics
3. Outline introduction and rationale for SofTL article on oral communication requirements
Glad you found the right spot, Snoopy (love that BTW). I grew up in middle TN and still have family there. I miss the greenness. I love seeing these specific goals here! Best of luck!
Hi Michelle - good luck on your writing projects. The validity work sounds interesting.
Snoopy! I hope you had a great week writing and/or doing all the other things you were up to!
I’m an Associate Professor at the U of Minnesota, where we’re entering the first week of classes. So I’m trying to keep my goal manageable, even if I have anxiety about being able to make time for writing while teaching. I’m going to work on the introduction to my chapter on injuries, disability, and modernity in Walter Scott.
Hi Matthew! I feel you! I usually keep my writing goals small for the first couple weeks of classes. My approach would be to make a very modest goal that I was fairly certain I could meet so that I felt like I had made some progress and I could help quell that anxiety. Good luck with the first week of classes!
Hi Matthew! I hope the first week of classes went well. It's often such a whirlwind, but come on back if you achieved the writing goals or not. We all have those weeks where we just can't squeeze it in!
I got the intro done but then hit a snag in the next section.
Hi. Catherine here. I have a co-authored paper that I need to have worked on before our next meeting on Friday. About 5 hours should do it. First week back after the summer break (writing from Australia) and there are many competing priorities. So this is my commitment now to the 4 x 1-1.5 hour blocks I have put in my diary over the next four days to enable me to reach the deadline. I am an early career academic with a tendency to take on too much in order to feel more competitive in a crappy job market. Hooray for Pilates, home cooked meals, time with friends and early nights to try and calm myself down! But it's a constant struggle to balance. All the best for a great week.
Hi Catherine! I am currently writing a chapter about how the neoliberal university and its scarcity model for the job market make us feel like we have to do it all to get a job, to keep our jobs, or to move jobs. I remember these feelings quite well. I love that you have strategies to help manage those anxieties, because that's so important!
It's definately a work in progress. I think it's a bit like the saying 'you can't out-run a bad diet'... Is it possible to do enough of the good stuff to compensate for the stress etc?? I hope so 🤞🤞
Catherine! I hope you had a good week working this week and that your Pilates, home-cooked meals, and times with friends soothed your soul away from the chaos. Also, watch out for Tuesday's PNP post. I'm going to be talking about the pressure to take on a lot in the competitive job market. Warning: It's not super uplifting, but I think it's a step towards taking back some agency.
Hi Catherine – I'm cheering you on with regards to balance! I definitely know what you mean about taking too much on to be competitive, even when sending out job applications feels more like buying lottery tickets than anything else these days, and I have just gotten through a week of trying to push through some of those things that past me ill-advisedly took on. The slow and deliberate movements that pilates requires seem like a great strategy for winding down at the end of the day – I might have to try that out!
Not sure if I am putting this in the right place but I did my article summary and got good feedback but not as detailed as I had hoped for. So now I need to find space to develop the draft next week. A friend is visiting me all week and knows I have meetings when he needs to entertain himself but i feel awkward about telling him I am writing. So need to be assertive about that.
It sounds like you did make some progress, Gill! And yes, isn't it interesting that meetings or teaching don't seem like odd commitments to tell our friends we have to do, but writing is? Cheering you and your assertiveness on!
Hi, everyone,
Here's my Friday recap.
1. How did your writing goals go this week?
Meh. Not a great week for me, though honestly, I did not expect to get a ton of writing done, since the semester starts on Monday. Still, I did accomplish my small goal of working on one methods-related part of my revise and resubmit. I purposely set a pretty small goal, knowing that most of my time would be spent on class prep and meetings. And I suppose that I did accomplish it, though it was a relatively minor task in a long, long list of tasks.
2. What do you need to adjust or do differently next week?
I plan on getting back into a regular work routine. Assuming that there are no illnesses in the family or other unforeseen events, I should be able to get back into a regular writing/research schedule. My goal is to devote about 2 hours toward the revise and resubmit next week. Of course, weeks like this one will happen again (things will come up and research time will need to be adjusted), so what I really need is a plan for how to get back on track when weeks like this happen.
3. What can you celebrate about the week, no matter how small or large it is?
I can celebrate accomplishing my minor task, while also prepping for classes and attending meetings. And even though I was lacking childcare for some days, it was nice to have a belated birthday playdate for my older daughter and a (not belated) birthday playdate for my younger daughter. They were both really happy that they could have these special afternoons with their friends, so that was a nice non-work/academic win!
Great work, Agatha! I don't think it matters that it was a minor task; you moved the project forward as you planned to do. The key here is that you assessed your commitments for the week, made an achievable goal, and met it!
Hi Everyone! I know I'm a couple of days late but thought to dive in anyway. I'm in Australia so there's a bit of a time zone difference. It's still the middle of the summer school holiday break and sadly, we're on the tail end of a COVID breakout which means I've got the attention span of a goldfish at the moment.
I'm a part time PhD candidate with Western Sydney University investigating primary music education - elementary school in the US - and the self efficacy of generalist primary teachers for teaching music. I'm also a full time secondary Music and Religious Education teacher in the gorgeous Blue Mountains of NSW.
Goals for this week are simply to work in small chunks on my research methods chapter and have something ready to send off to my supervisors. Data collection hasn't started yet so it has a "this is what I'm planning to do" kind of vibe about it which will shift as data comes in.
Glad you’re joined us, Danielle! Ugh sorry to hear about COVID. I hope you start feeling normal again soon.
Danielle! it's probably already Saturday in Australia so I hope you're off doing something fun now and no longer thinking about work. Hope you come back and update us when you can!
Hi everyone! My name is Briana, and I'm an assistant professor in Communication at the University of Maryland. This week my big goal is finishing teaching my winter course and getting my spring course up and ready to go. This week (and honestly all of winter break) has been filled with sickness, cold weather and my family climbing all over each other and annoying each other, which means that very little work has gotten done. Case in point--yesterday was MLK holiday, today was a snow day and I'm assuming there will be a delay if not closure tomorrow because of freezing temperatures. So I'm trying to extend much grace this week!
Before the end of this week, I do want to have a draft of my semester plan done. I have lots of writing projects that I need to get done and ready to submit for publication this year, so I need to be focused and really set those SMART goals.
For this week, I am completing my final lecture (and recording it), finishing up grading, introducing their final assignment. I also need to map out the syllabus for my spring course. The good thing is that these are both the same classes (and I'll be teaching this course for the 3rd time in the spring), so mainly it's just tweaking and finalizing guest speakers.
Excited to be part of this community!
Yay!!! Glad to have you here, B.
For those of you who didn't catch it, Dr. Barner wrote today's guest post for PNP! Tips to Finish Your Dissertation. https://www.publishnotperish.net/p/tips-to-finish-your-dissertation
I think the advice applies beyond dissertations too so check it out!
Hope you got all the things done this week, B! Even if you didn't, there's plenty of us here to commiserate so come on back to us!
Hi, Briana!
It's nice to see a fellow Terp on here! I did my PhD at UMD in the Government and Politics department (finished in 2019). The weather sounds tough! I remember how the Maryland/DC/VA area just shuts down at the slightest hint of snow and bad weather. Hopefully, this week went well for you!
I loved your guest post for PNP today! Wise words. I appreciated it as a junior faculty member with caregiving responsibilities who is also trying to not compare myself to others when it comes to writing my book!
Hello all! I am the Chair of Theater and this week is the last week before classes and auditions. . . so there are a lot of meetings, documents, logistics, etc. My goal is to spend at least one hour on my monograph T, W, Th, F this week. I have some note taking and think-writing to do in response to a couple articles and book chapters I have read that will directly inform the chapter I am writing. (My goal for the semester is to draft the chapter, which is all new. My full ms is due April 2025 and I have set goals for the chapters and rewriting, indexing, etc. One brand new chapter this semester would be great! So I am also working on remembering to write when short on time per Jenn's helpful linked post about those pesky 15 minutes one spends emailing.). I love baking, cross country skiing and oil painting.
Welcome, Lisa! So glad to have you here. I'm also happy to hear the short on time post was a good reminder. Good luck this week with your busy schedule!
Hope your week of writing and doing all-the-things went well, Lisa! We'd love to hear the update!
I am late with my update, but here I am!
1. I did not work on my book daily, but I made up the hours--so is a "went well" item and also an "i can do better" item! I can do better by not spending an initial 20 mins faffinf about on the interwebs.:) Though I found a super cute embroidered portrait of frida kahlo with sequins and purchased it as birthday present to me. :)
2. I did a lot of reading and discovered a handful of fantastic pieces (by following a newer thread of thinking) which have me very excited for my work this week--despite classes beginning! I also refined the argument and discovered how a few pieces could fit together in the chapter--great!
Hi, I'm Diana. I'm a Public Policy scholar in the University of Texas (UT) system. My main project is a book manuscript currently out for initial peer review but, for the near term, I'm focusing on pulling together a conference paper that extends my work to a new region. My goal for the week is to spend at least 10 hours (averaging 2 hours per day) doing basic research on U.S. Cold War era policy towards the Horn of Africa and coding the documents I've collected to date.
As for non-academics, I'm a textile and ceramic artist who doesn't spend nearly as much time making things as I would wish.
Welcome back, Diana! I'm glad you're joining us. And that's exciting that your book is under review! wahooo!
I hope your writing week went well, Diana! Come back and update us when you can!
Success! As of 5 minutes ago (literally), I've met my goal of 10 hours coding. More than that, my review gave me a much stronger understanding of the dynamics of US-Ethiopian interactions during the era and the outlines of my argument. I'll be taking the weekend off, but my next step on Monday will be to pull my thoughts together to begin to outline the section on Ethiopia.
Once again, thank you so very much for offering us this structure and accountability. It makes a difference!
Hi, everyone,
I'm rather late to posting, but still wanted to participate in this week. Our semester starts next week, so it's been an especially busy time with meetings and class prep, plus no childcare for two out of the five days. I'm an Assistant Professor in political science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. My focus is on the international-side of political science (e.g., political violence, nonviolence, identity politics, state repression, and authoritarian regimes). Outside of academia, I like hiking and being outdoors (a bit harder to do with the frigid temperatures this week, but that's what good winter gear is for), am an avid listener of podcasts, and have been enjoying playing Just Dance with my kiddos lately.
This week, my focus has been on figuring out how to address one of the methods-related comments from a reviewer on a revise and resubmit.
Welcome to the group, even if it is a little late. Methods can be tough comments to address because we can rarely go back and change what we did. Hang in there with the kids, class, prep, and winter weather.
I can commiserate with you Agatha. We have not been out of our house since last Friday (1/12) when a wind storm, followed by 9 inches of snow, ice and freezing rain came. On Monday (1/22), we are supposed to get above freezing for the first time. The university closed for an unprecedented five days of classes. This might seem commonplace in WI, but I live in TN.
Yikes! That sounds bad, even for WI-weather standards. I lived in Maryland when the university closed for five days because of a huge snowstorm. It's definitely different in the midwest than the mid-atlantic and south!
Hang in there, Agatha! I hear we in the midwest are supposed to get warmer temperatures next week! What are your favorite podcasts?
You're always welcome whenever you can check in, Agatha. I hope the busy week has gone well for you.
There are so many! I listen to some about academic writing, parenting, news, politics, the Middle East, and other random stuff. In no particular order, some that I've been listening to lately are Academic Writing Amplified, Empire (about the British Empire, Ottoman Empire,etc.), Good Authority (really good for easy to understand poli sci research), Good Inside and Ask Lisa (both parenting), Lecture Breakers, POMEPS Middle East Political Science Podcast, The Ezra Klein Show, The Happiness Lab, and Your Words Unleashed (another great academic writing podcast). Whew! That is a lot when I write it out.
Oooh a lot to add to my queue!!! Thank you!
I've only listened to Ezra Klein and Academic Writing
I love Your Words Unleashed!
Hi there, I'm Devon. I'm a PhD student aiming to complete three dissertation chapters in 2024. I'm currently enrolled in three seminar courses and I meet with a writing group every other week, but otherwise my time is flexible. I'm continually working on establishing healthy boundaries between work time and not-work time.
At the end of this week, I need to present a big-picture overview of my dissertation. I like to use the good, better, best method for goal-setting. So my good SMART goal: By Friday afternoon, I will have a complete slide deck for a 40-minute talk. Better: I will have a complete slide deck with a script for a 40-minute talk. Best: I will have a complete slide deck and script, plus specific questions for feedback and discussion. My *hope* is that I can use the script of this talk as a foundation for my introduction.
Non-academic: I have two book clubs going at the moment, so I'm reading Fern Brady's Strong Female Character and Proust's Swann's Way. I'm also joining my team for trivia night on Thursday, and I'll try and do some yoga or get some runs in this week.
Go Devon Go! I love this good, better, best smart goal approach! I have a post coming out in the near future about good, better, and best goals that I learned from Erin Yanota during one of the writing sprints. I love that you have pointed out that you can apply it to the smart goal format! Good luck this week!
I hope your week has gone well, Devon! Let us know!
Good/Better/Best will be useful in my composition classes as well! Thanks for sharing-- trying to help students set individual targets, but they need to understand where (generally) those targets should be. Thanks for sharing!
(And yay bookclubs! I'm in two online this year, and we just finished a read of The Secret History for my in-person. So much fun.)
Hi Devon, I love this approach to SMART goals. I must try that. Thanks for sharing.
Hi, I am an early-career scholar trying to write my first monograph based on one (!) of my dissertation chapters so the process has been quite daunting but also super exciting. I am a yoga practitioner and someone who likes to work from home. My weekdays during term time (short but extremely intense and without breaks at my eccentric institution) are filled head to toe with teaching, supervising and admin, so I usually use weekends for my own research because I do find that I prefer large block of time to get into the state of flow. This week I plan to finish reading an important book for my research that I anticipate to potentially help restructure some of the thinking that I already drafted. So I will be taking notes and possibly revise and write.
Welcome back, Xin! Glad you've joined in the fun. Best of luck this week!
Hope you had a productive week, Xin! Be sure to update us!
Hello, Xin! I love this goal of reading an important book and taking notes! And I agree that turning a chapter into a book is very exciting.
Good luck, Xin! Pretty exciting to expand one chapter out to a book - I hope it goes well!
I hope everything went well for everyone. I am happy to have done some good writing work, mostly in the times I pre-allocated, and met my Friday deadline for the co-authored paper.
Hello all--this group really did help me this week to stay on track because I kept thinking about having to update my progress. So yay for that! I did make progress on all three of my projects, including a sort of timeline for myself for the year. Since I have a conference presentation in May, I'll focus most heavily on that project in the coming weeks. I did read the 500 plus page book on Irish History I had hoped to read and since it is an overview, I now have a bibliography of sources to track down. I had the first interview with the artist I'm working with to write his memoir and it was juicy. I'm now thinking his life event would make a good "true crime" podcast, and I'll be looking into that. I did some background reading on him, which meant goal 2 was met. Finally, I started my spreadsheet to code info on formerly enslaved women in TN after the Civil War and began looking through census records to track them down. Little things but definitely a successful week.
Also, I really like this idea of good, better, best and will be using that for weekly goal-making moving forward.
Cheers to you all,
Kelly
Emily! I'm so sorry, but I somehow deleted your comment! eeek. I feel terrible. So sorry about that. I was actually trying to edit my own comment. I was saying that it's amazing that you wrote an acquisitions editor. That's a huge step forward! And you did this in a week that was really busy for you, so good on you!
Your comment was still in my email, so I'm posting it again here:
Hi all, So this is my check-in AND check-out because life. Me: I'm a Renaissance dance historian. These days I'm mostly an independent scholar, but I also teach one course a semester in Dance History at Point Park University in lovely Pittsburgh, PA. Most of my non-academic activities are also dance-related (Lindy hop, Argentine tango, blues), but I do attempt a bit of gardening in the summer. The project I'll be working on is finally turning my over-ten-years-dormant dissertation into a proper, publishable book. As for my progress this week, thanks to kiddo not having school for two of these five days, and the whole family driving to another country, I got zero writing done. However, I did email an acquisitions editor about scheduling a chat about my book project, I made a spreadsheet of all the components needed for a book proposal for my top three possible publishers, and I found and watched some "how to turn your dissertation into a book" talks on YouTube, so that's something, right? And I submitted an abstract for a chapter to be published in a collection, so I'll be writing that at some point, too. I'll be back at my back at my desk next Monday ... and kiddo has a normal school week, so that should help my writing productivity immensely ... I hope!
Emily, you're taking some excellent concrete steps toward your book project. I'm impressed that you've been able to do so much, given the week you've had!