Weekly Update: 10/14 - 10/20
The sun peeking out from behind the clouds, Cannon Beach
reflection
We took a trip to the Columbia River at the end of August and it was lovely. It also made us realize how much we love the ocean. We had some money in our travel savings fund, so we figured, it’s there, let’s use it instead of just having it sit there. So, we went to Cannon Beach this weekend, a place that we’ve been for day trips before but never to stay the night. October is when the off season starts, which means prices become a bit more manageable. We found a place with a full kitchen for $80/night and decided to give it a whirl. Yes, it was gray and rainy most of the time, but I’d rather be in gray and rainy weather at the beach than gray and rainy weather at our house. This week marks the end of our “big” plans until next spring/summer. No more out of town guests (that we know of) or trips lined up for the rest of the school year.
In tenure track life, this is the first term where I feel like I have space to breathe. My ability to focus, be thoughtful, and not feel rushed with research and course prep feels like a luxury (I’m not teaching this term, plus I don’t have any advising responsibilities due to buyouts). At the same time I feel like I’m holding my breath and waiting for someone to say, “you don’t seem stressed enough, you should be doing more, here you go!” I’m trying to figure out how I can hold on to this spaciousness during winter and spring terms, when I’m back in the classroom (virtually).
Here are my goals for the past week…
research
Paper 2: Goal(s): incorporate paper feedback from our last meeting into the introduction section of the draft. Goal(s) met? Pretty much… I got through a first pass of the intro, but there are a few things that need to be added that will take some additional time. I made notes on where to add what but didn’t actually add those things in yet.
Systematic review: Goal(s): Pull remaining abstracts for our review session this week and start reviewing abstracts. Goal(s) met? Yup.
Funding application: Goal(s): Do a quick literature search and pull articles that are relevant to see what’s recently been done, find specific funding announcement and make a list of what’s needed. Goal(s) met? Pulled articles and started to read through them (which I didn’t set as a goal, but I was curious). I also identified a few funding announcements that seemed relevant, of course the additional site I was hoping to look at wasn’t working for me. Not sure if it was my computer/internet connection or what, but I tried it multiple times with different browsers on different computers and I couldn’t get NICHD to load, so… I’ll try again next week. So, 2/3s of this got done.
Article review: Goal(s): Finish review and submit. Goal(s) met? Nope. I had this planned for one afternoon, after I was re-doing some videos for my online course. The video-ing went well over the time I blocked off, so I pushed this off until next week. I agreed to review this “article” which actually isn’t article, but educational materials, before fully understanding what it was. Given that I’ve never reviewed something like this before it’s been a bit more of a learning curve for me and it’s taking more time than what I’ve actually blocked off. Lesson learned to carefully read through the review request!
Fellowship program: Just a few logistical things that included sending off a photo of myself and writing a quick summary of my research focus.
teaching
Online research methods course prep: Goal(s): Re-do 2 weekly course videos that had some content specific to the previous year, add in logistical info to the syllabus. Goal(s) met? Yes. The course videos took longer than expected, mainly because I discovered my new computer can edit videos way more easily than my last one. I did a bunch of different takes and then put them together (and removed all the stuff I didn’t need)… which is awesome, and I spent a lot of time editing because I’m still learning how it all works.
service + admin
Planning: Goal(s): Plan for the week. Goal(s) met? Yup.
meetings, appointments, + events
✓PT appt
✓biannual date night (because we had family in town!)
✓collaborator check in
✓multiracial staff lunch
✓lead instructors meeting
✓PD call
✓faculty meeting
✓beach!
personal
Toddler on the Tenure Track: Goal(s): write and post weekly update, double check monthly post is ready to go, plus some logistical stuff given that I’m coming up on a year with the blog at the end of November. Goal(s) met? Yes.
plan(it)*: Goal(s): Update/create scripts for 3 videos. Goal(s) met? Yes.
Meditation: Goal(s): 10 minutes of meditation every day. Goal(s) met? Yes!
Budget: Goal(s): Update budget for the week. Goal(s) met? Yup.