Things I learned this summer : See Jane Compute

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Jane is an assistant professor in a computing field, and a new mother. Join her as she navigates the tenure track, deals with gender issues, figures out how to be a parent, and tries to have some semblance of a life.

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Blogging about teaching: the miniseries
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Things I learned this summer

Category: work-life balance
Posted on: August 25, 2008 3:22 PM, by Jane

If I feel like I need to take a day or 2 off, I should just take a day or 2 off, stress-free, and not try to "work through it".
I need a couple of weeks to decompress after all of the end-of-the-year stuff before I can really get down to doing serious work. (A vacation would be a really good idea at this point.)
Having new undergrads start work in my lab during this 2-week cushion (see previous point) is not a good idea, for my mental health or for their education in the ways of undergraduate research.
Baby Jane definitely inherited her mama's love of the water. Yay!
It's a good idea to go into the summer with a plan. But it's also a good idea to revisit that plan partway through the summer and make adjustments as needed. (That project, the one that seemed so vitally important to complete at the start of the summer, may not seem that way after a few weeks of intense time in the lab.)
That article doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be DONE.
No matter what I say at the start of the summer, or how committed I am to "focusing on teaching stuff" over the summer, no teaching prep is actually attempted prior to August.
Summer is about a month too short.

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