goal setting

Oddly enough, I've just come from my annual review this week, which, in my department, is a little interview one has with the department head to help him determine merit pay. Even though I prodded my academic family members for advice on how to go in to this, I found myself unprepared. So I started this post to let me share some thoughts for other newbies heading in to their review, and solicit advice from the more senior folks on other ways to prepare and strategize. And then ScienceWoman requested this post. :-) So now I had better finish it and share. About two weeks before our…
Last week was a bear with 2.5 days at my university's Multicultural Forum, a day of meetings, and meeting with the geothermal people on Friday, finally making it back home (the other home) about 5:00 pm Friday afternoon. However, now I'm on spring break! So while my blogging has been light over the last week, and ScienceWoman has been more prolific because of her break, things are likely to change this week. The nice thing is that my husband and I have different spring breaks, with his the week after this one. So we can be in the same place for two whole weeks! And boy, do I have a list of…
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday at this time, I was frustrated by my lack of getting things done during my spring break. This afternoon, I'm feeling much better. It's not that I've suddenly gotten a bunch of stuff taken off the plate, it's just that I've resolved to be OK with how this spring break is shaking out. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon in my office at school. When I opened the door of the building, I felt a physical revulsion and had to fight the urge to turn around and leave. It's not that my office is horrible - I just really didn't want to be there. So today I am home…
It's Wednesday afternoon of my spring break week, and it's time to take stock of my progress. If you recall, my goals were threefold: * I want to make the weeks ahead easier. * I want to come out of the week feeling like I accomplished something. * I want to spend some time outside. What I have been doing? * Working on taxes (almost done) * Grading papers (half done) * Course related housekeeping (never ending) * Taking more neighborhood walks (I know I wanted to get out the neighborhood, but something is better than nothing) * Getting a physical * Taking all y'…
It's the end of another teaching week. My mom has left town. My head is filled with mucous. And my motivation to do anything substantive has entirely left the building. It's taking a huge amount of effort just to write this blog post. I blame the cold, but I also blame being burnt out by the pace of my life. Fortunately, next week is spring break at Mystery U. Ah, a chance to wind down, catch up, grade papers, write a paper, take care of some service obligations, do some lab work, plan a field trip, go the doctor, get a haircut, do my taxes, play with Minnow, take long walks with the dog,…
The Scientiae theme for the anniversary edition is "renewal." I've been in a crabby mood for a couple of days, and haven't wanted to write anything about it because it would be crabby. But as the clock has ticked down, I realized that renewal is perhaps what I need to write about to help pull me out of my crabbiness. The crabbiness arrived from a frustrating morning yesterday of wasting time trying to convince various folks that it was worth bothering to figure out who is on what listserv (our postdocs are regularly left out of the loop because they're not on any listserv, and our grad…
Scene: In mid to late December, in a nearly deserted building on a nearly deserted campus (finals over, grades in), a young assistant professor and a department chair pass in the hallway. Chair asks something generic along the lines of "How's it going?". Young assistant professor replies "I'm hanging in there." Chair gives the young assistant professor a quizzical look, but decides to let it pass. Young assistant professor suddenly realizes that "hanging in there" was not the standard acceptable response in that situation. She contemplates a moment more and decides that it really does…
Out the door - meaning one I just submitted a revised version of a paper. Yay! Too bad that doesn't actually mean anything for my CV. But maybe I'll get an acceptance before I have to turn in my CV update for our annual review. This also means that I'll eventually take down my InaDWriMo badge. I need to decide what to put in its place. Any suggestions? Out the door - meaning two I'm going to be in the field tomorrow, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm excited about getting to see some new sites and get some collaborations going. Minnow is coming along on the first trip, so she adds a lot of hassle,…
Despite determination and actual effort, I didn't meet my InaDWriMo goal, but I suspect that I am a lot farther along than I would have been without the embarrasment of the little ticker over to the left. As for my other goals, while effort was exerted on those fronts as well, I can't honestly say that anything could be counted as completed. So I've been strongly tempted to restate my November goals again this month. But instead I think I'll recast them. Maybe it is profgrrrl's post on how she picks a theme for the year rather than setting resolutions. Maybe it was the reflective (and…