A year of New Years': part 2 (end of January block)

See here for my explanation and mini-review two weeks ago.  This block has been less productive and less positive, but it has been and is now gone and this process is about recording, not castigating.


Current block: January last month of semester 1: meetings and grading

Theme: Foundations

• clearing ground and preparing resources ready to go forward
• getting rid of debris and clutter
• finding something which was there all along but has gotten hidden
• making sure that the place you are already standing on is solid, before you try to go further

Block goals:

• a 'Seinfeld chain' of domestic tasks in addition to the bare minimum; as little as 5 minutes of tidying or hoovering or sink-wiping will count.  The idea is to create a habit...
• completing the grading (sigh) and administrivial reports so far as I can for semester 1
• making progress with rewriting the manuscript of the paper I christened Crunchier, and returning it to co-authors within the month
• submitting abstracts for consideration for a major summer conference (deadline moved from just before Christmas).
• (added at mini new year 1) begin working on reorganising the text of my NaNo effort into actual plot order

What I did:
This was a worse couple of weeks - I keep thinking things are getting better then getting knocked back then sitting around feeling sorry for myself (metaphorically.  In practice, over-eating, sleeping badly, engaging in obsessive squirrel-in-cage thinking, over-analysing, then spending far too long in bed or on the internet until I get my equilibrium back). This also completely messed up my list making, list keeping habits, so the list of what I did is fuzzier, which also makes me feel like I did less than I probably did.

There was just too much interpersonal stuff at work, and it's hard and scary and obsessively attention-grabbing but also boring all at once, and it makes good thinking and work really, really hard.  So probably a good thing it was marking season so I could do things which didn't require 100% brain power.  I know that I:

• Graded 1 late report 
• Continued to support students until deadlines for essays (sigh)
• Graded 35 portfolios of lab, field and data analysis report things
• Graded 35 medium-sized (8-10 page) essays
• Graded 9 large essays (20+ page)
• Graded about 30 exam scripts (short, but oh the handwriting, some of it burns my eyes (and some of it has little hearts above all the 'i's which is a whole other kind of 'ouch'))
• Organised and attended a training session related to my minor admin role
• Exchanged multiple emails with a possible PhD student in ExoticCountry, helped them refine their ideas, and commented on a couple of drafts of the detailed project proposal they need to write to apply for funding to work with me (yes, they write the proposal before they start the PhD programme or even arrive here.  yes, it is a little frustrating...).
• Met with some project students and my friend/colleague to get the students started on working up some samples from Summer Project
• Progressed the yard project: top layer of soil and existing paving removed, new paving in a heap, cat much angsted by the changes
• Typed up notes from meeting about new module
• Wrote proposal for the section of the curriculum 'refreshment' on which I am nominal lead, circulated it
• Wrote many many emails about various matters, most requiring a lot of thought and taking a stupid amount of time given how short they were...
• Read an upgrade report for a PhD student, conducted the viva, wrote the report on the report...
• Attended 4 committee meetings and an Away Day
• Met with a couple of possible project students for next year.
• Inducted a grad student from Stationary Studies into one of my shared lab spaces and got them started using our equipment
• Went to writing group once
•  Missed the training session on the new computer system - oops
• Met a former MSc student who is now settled in their new job and wants to write a paper on their research project with me (which will be good)
• managed precisely no sessions of 5 minute declutter/reorganise and 5 minute exercise
• finished crocheting my 'meeting scarf' (in fact I ripped back and redid the last bit just because I couldn't stand not having anything to do in the last meeting...) so I need a new, simple handicraft project for the office
• Did one 1 hour session on my NaNoNovel.

 Observations:

• I need to work on processing knockbacks and getting up more quickly, because those knocks sure aren't stopping any time soon... 
• Marking will expand into any space you give it, and just a leetle more...
• my list system needs a little more priority, especially the bit where I jot down what I actually DID on particular days - that really helps me remember I do achieve things as well as NOT achieving things, and gives evidence for countering low moods.
• Using the colour coding makes it pretty clear that this was not a good couple of weeks in terms of research, but a lot of grading got done, at least.

And I also had several days of pretty inconveniencing anxiety/gloom/not wanting to do anything/tiredness which may be physical, mental or emotional but which I gave in to; but I'm definitely feeling healthier overall than I was at the start of the month which is a Good THing.  Just not well or even really okay.

Block goals:

• a 'Seinfeld chain' of domestic tasks in addition to the bare minimum; as little as 5 minutes of tidying or hoovering or sink-wiping will count.  The idea is to create a habit... Three days at best, and it fell completely off this last couple of weeks, but worth continuing to try, I think.  I don't feel like I failed, just that I need to practice more, which is a really positive change for me!
• completing the grading (sigh) and administrivial reports so far as I can for semester 1 DONE!
• making progress with rewriting the manuscript of the paper I christened Crunchier, and returning it to co-authors within the month One session only.  This is bad.
• submitting abstracts for consideration for a major summer conference (deadline moved from just before Christmas). DONE!
• begin working on reorganising the text of my NaNo effort into actual plot order BEGUN (today, but that counts, right?)

I will take a second post to think about the next block...