list of lists meme

Sisyphus decided to use Profgrrl's list of lists as the basis of a procrastination-meme, and I thought, yay, procrastination sounds like a good reason for indulging in a little list-making. Oi Likes Lists, oi does.

The lists are all about things to do in the summer, so, first, before I get too ambitious, let's look at my summer. If I summarise what I'm doing between now and the start of the next academic year (last week of September - before readers on a different calendar get jealous, notice how many weeks of THIS year I still have to get through!), that will show me how many weeks are 'summer' in the sense of 'available for me to schedule'.

• This week: 'easter vacation'.


• Then there are two weeks of teaching left.


• Then four weeks of exams (actually one week of workshopping - the rescheduled meeting that was upset by the volcanic ash cloud last spring, for which I have a lot ot prepare - and three of invigilating, grading etc.)


• Then one week of field teaching


• Then a week which is largely free apart from the all-day torture-fest known as the Board of Examiners meeting.


• Then I leave for fieldwork on Project F for 2.5 weeks,


• then have a day of turnaround before going to a rather huge conference (once every four years, only in Europe once every 16-20 years, a Big Deal - for which I need to write an invited paper and a poster etc. etc.)


• That takes us to the start of August.


• I then have four weeks of work (I have summer students, on a scheme which brings enthusiastic high-school students into universities to do science experience projects).


• Then... well, maybe FavouriteIslands as one of us is supposed to be contributing to a public outreach event there. Maybe ProjectF fieldwork (PostDocF is sulking enough about going on the August leg without me - and the September destination is one I've not been to AND rather want to go to). Maybe one of several conferences I should ideally be at.


• A couple of weeks off will be essential, I think.

Help! Can I have the weeks off first???

So, lists.

1. books I want to read this summer I have a young mountain of books to read. Maybe I should pick half a dozen that appeal, and list them? That could be fun...

2. manuscripts I want to submit this summer an ongoing list of things I need to progress. By the end of the summer, I want to have submitted the DataCrunchingBigPaper, the first PowerHouseProject paper, the LastMay'sProjectFWorkshop paper and a couple of others from the ongoing list...

2.b. conference presentations this is my modification of Sisyphus' addition. I need to prepare two lectures, a talk and two practical sessions for the workshop in May (and oversee PostDocF's talk, which is on ProjectF so is a joint talk), a public outreach event for May, a talk and poster for the conference in July (and oversee PostDocF's talk and poster too) and perhaps something for whichever meeting I go to in September. If I do.

3. other writing tasks I must complete this summer Sisyphus said "Clearly Profgrrl is a whirlwind of research productivity in comparison to me" - I think it's partly field differences and partly career stage differences! For example, nearly all the papers I'll work on this year are joint ones with collaborators outside my institution... For me, this will include at least two and probably four grant applications, two applications for teaching-related stuff, probably an annual report (appraisals are already a month late...), an interim report on ProjectF, two more newsletters for InformalWorkingGroup. Maybe some preparation of teaching materials, especially new practical exercises.

4. review tasks I must complete this summer Well, right now I have three papers to referee... does that count? I also have two 'revise your text' tasks to do for one of those huge encyclopedic reference volumes, which is being updated.

5. all research in progress (because I need an updated tracking sheet) Oh yeah, I need to review this stuff. But it depresses me. Because I am depressable... anyway, some key points for this summer are keeping ProjectF going, recruiting a one-year junior research position for ProjectF and doing two major sets of simulations. Maybe three. Because right now I seem to be the only person in the group who both can and will run this stuff who will be around in the summer... (wonder if I could persuade WierdBugMan to help, if I present it right?).

6. summer fitness goals I'll revise this to summer health goals. Because keeping myself in balance, avoiding allergens, eating well - these will all be challenges.

7. household projects to tackle this summer sigh. Never ending. Maybe I can arrange to get the bathroom done whilst I'm away; my parents offered to come and supervise if I pay for them to stay in the B&B around the corner whilst the bathroom is out of action, which sounds like a good deal to me!

8. annoying tasks I need to take care of I'm sure there are some. Oh yeah, filing paperwork! And exam stuff. And all sorts of little bureaucratic things.

9. people I am somehow coordinating this summer those summer high-school students. My lab will actually be pretty quiet. KeenStudent is taking a few months off to earn some money as a consultant in his old profession, so he'll be gone from the end of May until the new academic year, and much as I like him it will be a relief because he's a needy student. PostDocF will be doing loads of fieldwork, so will not be in full time even when she's in the country. The current batch of DissStuds will all be done by June, I have only two MSc students doing projects over the summer (and one of those will be working in the computer lab not my lab), and the one-year person will probably not officially join us until September, and there will be some DissStuds coming in for a few days to drop samples off and do quick analyses. Hopefully I can do some training of the person who's supposed to be doing our technical support... maybe. In my spare time! And then there's OverseasStudent and the work with DrVisit, which should be in full swing then.

10. travel plans hmmm. Yeah, I can make lists here! And check cattery bookings, which are Very Important!

As Sisyphus wants this to turn into a meme, I tag... anyone looking for a reason to procrastinate right now!