MDC Academic/Professional Writing Club 2013

[esinedeggplant]

I'm taking the liberty of starting a new thread like this for 2013. A few people have expressed interest. This is for anyone whose work/career requires maintaining a daily writing and reading practice or habit. Here we'll post daily goals, progress, and accomplishments in order to stay motivated and on track.

The original thread said:

Quote:

Dissertation writers, postdocs, profs with those pesky writing tasks that have no deadline, and yet your career depends upon getting them done.  Post daily your goals and accomplishments for making daily writing a habit with the backdrop of other demands for our time, be them teaching, lab work, administrative work, job searches, parenting, etc.

The point is to make daily writing a habit.  Keep the daily requirements small and manageable.  This keeps from overwhelming your day with the need to write, but keeps the essence of the writing project in your head.

Post who you are, make a code for dealing with the papers/chapters to keep notes, then make a day's reasonable goal (15-20 minutes or a paragraph, or editing a 2 page section...) then update when done.  Mini rewards help some people keep the motivation going.

[esinedeggplant]

Brief intro: I co-teach a class for the honors college of a large university, manage a library archive part-time, and am working on a book of short fiction. I need to start reading strategically again and also start sending work out for publication again. I have a 10 month old baby girl.

Today I will

- Finish first pass of full revisions for OWD, type, and send to TG

- Work on notes for CAT presentation Thursday - 15 minutes

- Write new synopsis and email to co-prof tonight

[Realrellim]

Yay for a shiny new 2013 thread.

About me: I'm a part-time musicology adjunct at a local university with two girls, ages 8 and 2-1/2. Besides my academic writing, I'm also doing some education-related journalism (for the Examiner, which more or less qualifies as journalism) on the side.

Goals for the week: write conference proposal, read through Cresset article, start on CMS paper, write school grades Examiner article.

Goals for tonight: start conference proposal.

[esinedeggplant]

yesterday

- Finish first pass of full revisions for OWD, type, and send to TG mostly

- Work on notes for CAT presentation Thursday - 15 minutes Will do today

- Write new synopsis and email to co-prof tonight Did this morning

TODAY

Requested notes from past CAT to help shape students' final project

Outline presentation on zines/final project

20 minutes reading & breaking down class prep into list

20 minutes of updating Duotrope

20 minutes of revisions

TOMORROW

Gather zines to bring Thursday

[kaybee]

Thanks for starting a new thread!

About me: I'm a TT professor (going through tenure now!) at a regional university.  This spring I am on a research leave and actually relocating to Europe for the semester.  I leave next week - yikes!  I have a lot of projects I'm hoping to get done and will need a lot of internal motivation to get them done.  I have 2 boys: 5 and 9 years old.  

Goals for the week:

1. Finish going through reviews for Terrace paper.  Get text updated pending feedback from colleagues (sent requests today).

2. Write and submit abstract due tomorrow.

3. Work on updating figures for Terrace paper.

Goals for this afternoon (Tuesday):

#2 from above - DONE and submitted

Goals for the long term: TBD

Goals for Wed/and Thurs

Finish minor edits from reviewers 2 and 3  done on Thursday

Make a list of major edits - incomplete done on Thursday

Pick off one of them - not done done on Thursday

Edit one figure - I finished 2

Additional Goals for Friday:

Write response for reviewers

Tackle major edit list; Do a sweep through for style issues

Send off to co-authors

Edited by kaybee - 1/10/13 at 2:37pm

[namaste_mom]

About me: I'm a tenured professor at a large university that requires both teaching (30%) and research (50%) service (10%) and I have a 10% administrative position (graduate program director). I have 4 children (10,8,4,2) and have difficulty with the work/life balance. Last year, I was on sabbatical at a different university so I am still mourning the loss of all of my reseach time.

Daily Goals:

1/10 Work on CN Paper all day, detemine what is left to finishDONE

1/11 Work on CN Paper (add specific sections here)

1/14-1/18 Weekly Goals:

Submit session proposal

Syllabus for Class

Second draft of CN Paper sent to coauthor by 1/18

Long Term goals:

submit CN Paper by Jan. 31

Rough drafts of SM and SK papers by Jan. 31

Revisions on RMT IJES paper due Feb. 15

Revisions on 2nd IJES paper due Feb. ?

Edited by namaste_mom - 1/10/13 at 2:58pm

[esinedeggplant]

Namaste_mom, with 4 children under 10 no wonder you struggle with work/life balance! Puts things in perspective...

I'm having a really distracted week this week.

Finished

Outline presentation on zines/final project

Requested loan video from gallery

Half revisions

I'm not feeling well today so I'm going to keep my goals extremely simple.

- Write/draft for 15 min & post to G

- Check planner

[kaybee]

Friday didn't work out so well - kids were home from school, and I'm not so productive when that happens.  Monday looks like I will be besieged by grad students with questions.  

It's Sunday.  I have 90 minutes while kid #1 is at a playdate and kid #2 is with Gma.  I snuck into the office. 

My goal is to sweep through my entire ms, making edits to tighten it up and make the style consistent throughout.  3 - 2 - 1 - GO!

And I only made it about 2/3 of the way through, but that's better than nothing. 

Goal tomorrow:

Finish this sweep.

Send off ms to co-authors

Email colleague about CR project, deadlines, and goals with that

Monday:

I made it through the ms and sent it off.  Tomorrow is my last day in the office before moving for the semester.  I'm spending most of it on phone conferences.  Other goals include making sure I have all the data I need while overseas on my hard drive.

Edited by kaybee - 1/14/13 at 2:44pm

[esinedeggplant]

I did the writing I said I would do, but forgot to check planner. Ugh. Does anyone else here have ADD?

[namaste_mom]

Eggplant - mostly my kids want me around more but I have to tell them I have to work so that we can do the fun stuff in the summer. I never used to suffer from ADD but I think my most recent responsiblities require me to switch tasks more and it makes me ADD. It also makes me want to work on the stuff that is not so important but easy.

kaybee - have fun overseas, are you going to continue to check in here? Is the whole family going?

Daily Goals:

1/15 Submit session proposal DONE

1/16  work on class syllabus

1/18  evaluate work needed on RMT paper

1/18  write one section of CN paper

1/14-1/18 Weekly Goals:

Work on RMT paper

Work on CN paper

Medium Term goals:

Second draft of CN Paper sent to coauthor by 1/31

Rough drafts of SM and SK papers by Jan. 31

Revisions on RMT IJES paper due Jan. 31

Revisions on 2nd IJES paper due Feb. ?

Prepare invited talk for Feb. 8

submit CN Paper by Feb. 15

Long Term goals:

Edited by namaste_mom - 1/18/13 at 9:39am

[kaybee]

I will certainly check in from Spain, but it will probably take me a week or so to get things rolling on that end.  The whole family is going.  My dh is already there, so that we'll have an apt when we arrive.  The boys and I fly out on Thursday.  Kid#2 is currently enrolled in an intl school and Kid#1 is on the waitlist.  Important task of the moment is to figure out how to get Kid1 into the school, too.  

I do have long term goals and one of my short term goals is to formulate them better.  Here are the medium term goals:

1. Submit LST ms by Jan 31.  Waiting for feedback from coauthors right now.

2. Get up to speed on P-veg paper (first week in Feb).

3. Finish data collection for CR paper (second week in Feb). 

4. Write up draft report for CR paper (4th week in Feb)

[namaste_mom]

Daily Goals:

1/22 work on 2nd IJES paper

1/23 evaluate work needed on RMT paper

1/23 write one section of CN paper

1/21-1/25 Weekly Goals:

Work on RMT paper

Work on CN paper

Work on 2nd IJES paper

Medium Term goals:

Second draft of CN Paper sent to coauthor by 1/31

Rough drafts of SM and SK papers by Jan. 31

Revisions on RMT IJES paper due Jan. 31

Revisions on 2nd IJES paper due Feb. ?

Prepare invited talk for Feb. 8

submit CN Paper by Feb. 15

[kaybee]

I'm back in action, sort of (i.e. home office in Spain is up and running; 9-yr-old is still not in school...)

Today's goals:

My goal today is to fully integrate penultimate co-author comments into Terr manuscript

Sort out figures

This week's goals:

Finish response to reviewers

Integrate final co-author comments

Submit ms by Friday

(& Get kid#1 to finish his Gaudi project so we can go on a field trip)

Edited by kaybee - 1/23/13 at 9:33am

[Cynthia Mosher]

Have you guys considered opening up a Group here at Mothering? It would give you the organization of a forum and have everything in organized thread topics. If you're interested, send me a PM. 

[namaste_mom]

Cynthia - I know for a fact that I can not organize one more thing in my life. If someone wanted to organize a group. I would participate but I'm too swamped to keep up with anything

Kaybee - glad to see you are up and running. I was getting lonely with my tiny goals. :)    How is Spain?

This week has been such a challenge for me. Meeting back to back all day and trying to prepare for class. I'm mystified as to when i am actually supposed to get writing done. I've come to the conclusion that it is going to have to be late at night. Unfortunately, that is bad for my beauty sleep.

Daily Goals:

1/22 work on 2nd IJES paper

1/23 evaluate work needed on RMT paper

1/23 write one section of CN paper this was an epic fail

Daily Goals

1/28 Finish 2nd IJES paper DONE

1/28 Write CS letterDONE

2/1 Write responses for RMT paper in progress

2/1 Write one paragraph for CN Paper again, epic fail, the priority is low so I never get there

1/29  Edit SK cover letter and figuresDONE

2/1 Write GPD letters drafts done

Weekly Goals

Be close to finishing RMT paper send to coauthor by 1/31 not close enough

Work on CN paper not done

Next Month goals:

Rough drafts of SM and SK papers by Feb 15

Revisions on RMT IJES paper due Feb. 15

Prepare talk for Feb. 8

submit CN Paper by Feb. 28

Long Term goals:

Make reservations for Field camp

Field work in April- planning

SM and SK papers submitted by beginning of April

Edited by namaste_mom - 2/2/13 at 11:13am

[Realrellim]

Egads--gotta love when I join a writing thread and can't even get it together enough to post.

So.

This week:
- finish conference proposal and send it off by the deadline
- write grad rates article
- (not writing but important): make video for DD's class to use for their writing; make videos for online class
- start March conf. paper

[kaybee]

Originally Posted by kaybee 

I'm back in action, sort of (i.e. home office in Spain is up and running; 9-yr-old is still not in school...)

Today's goals:

My goal today is to fully integrate penultimate co-author comments into Terr manuscript

Sort out figures

This week's goals:

Finish response to reviewers

Integrate final co-author comments

Submit ms by Friday

(& Get kid#1 to finish his Gaudi project so we can go on a field trip)

Spain is great so far!  And we just started kid #1 in school today, so I can be productive again.  

I finished "This week's goals" yesterday, which was actually a week longer than I had planned, but oh well.

Paper is submitted.  Yay!

Goals today:

1. Get up to speed on E's code

2. Write 2 paragraphs on CR

3. Finish seminar for next week

Visiting a colleague all next week - goals for next week are thus still up in the air.

[chiedza]

Great idea for a thread! I'm a single mom to two boys, aged 10 years and 8 months. I'm recently tenured at a large research U and being recruited to another, going soon for a campus interview.  I'm working on a co-edited book with a colleague, and writing a few articles when the naps. I'm was on sabbatical last quarter and am still not teaching, but go back full time in April.  I am a member of Academic Ladder, where I post my goals and daily writing accomplishments, but I'll try to remember to post here in addition.

[namaste_mom]

Daily Goals

2/6 Write responses for RMT paper

2/6 Finish Writing GPD

2/6 Edit intros of Sk and SM

2/5 Prepare Talk for T DONE

2/6 Grade HW 1

Weekly Goals

Be close to finishing RMT paper send to coauthor

Work on CN paper

Month goals:

Rough drafts of SM and SK papers by Mar 1

Revisions on RMT IJES paper due Feb. 15

submit CN Paper by Feb. 28

Long Term goals:

Make reservations for Field camp

Field work in April- planning

SM and SK papers submitted by beginning of April

Edited by namaste_mom - 2/5/13 at 6:05pm

[kaybee]

Back in action, sort of.  Trip to Marseilles to meet with my colleague was a breath of fresh air.  I wish I could spend all day talking science more often. 

Daily Goals

2/11: Clean up and submit proposal

2/12: Write up 2 paragraphs of CR background + Research time on CR

2/13: CR framework + 2 paragraphs

2/14: CR details + 2 paragraphs

2/15: Finish draft of CR summary

Kid #1 home on 2/14 and 2/15, so we'll see what actually happens then.

On to that proposal...

Update: It's now Thursday and I'm done with my goals for Tuesday.  Oh well.  We slowly tick them off, right?

Edited by kaybee - 2/14/13 at 10:38am