Working in the Small

I can sometimes trick myself into doing things I don't want to do--and getting more done--by working in the small bits of time.  Like, doing my dishes in the two minutes during which I am also heating water for tea.  Or, commenting on two student poems in the moments before LG's orchestra concert.  Commenting on all my students work takes a fair amount of time (two hours, if I'm going at a really fast clip and focused and narrowed on what I want to say, but usually more than that) but if I can do two here and two there, well, eventually they get done without me really ever sitting down to do them.  Sometimes I remind myself of this "strategy."

These are the bits of time, otherwise, 'wasted,' that Brigid Schulte calls "time confetti" that some time management folks argue could be captured for 'leisure,' but anything that happens that fast isn't really relaxing in any meaningful way.  Which isn't to say there's no value in taking a five-minute break to feed ducks, or pet a cat, or read a poem, or whatever.  I do that, too.  But I'd rather schedule my leisure in big gulps.

All the Plans

I'm interested in all these planning posts, up at SHU's and Xykademiqz's and Undine's.  I could probably write half a book on this, but I'm limiting my comments to what I can write in five minutes.  Because. Overwhelmed. Overworked. Yeah.

One of the issues that's been raised is the connection between one's personality type and one's planning tendencies.  Interesting, to be sure.  (For the record, I'm an INFJ.  Extreme on the I, heavy on N, middling on the F, J has varied over my life.)  I like writing things down.  A lot.  But I also have to do items that I carry over from week to week to week (and sometimes months and months); these are always the home items, or the career items (like, you know, promoting books I have written that are now languishing in my closet.  I was supposed to do something with those postcards?!  Ahem.)

I keep a Moleskine planner currently that has four pages for a week (one blank, one with a goals/to do sheet, two for daily schedule).  I'm finding I really like this.  I use the blank one to keep notes and reflect on what's happened in a week, the to do list for my overview, and the daily for hourly things, including meals, fun stuff, work meetings, writing projects, etc.  Other than meetings and things that MUST happen, I tend to pencil things in, knowing it will change, but I want the basic architecture of the week written out.  Like, I know that tomorrow I have a lunch date with a friend who has moved back to the state after three years away (yay!!).  That has a time attached.  Morning will be writing on my big semester project and drafting a conference abstract.  Afternoon will involve making a midterm exam (ugh), commenting on more student writing.  I'd like to get to the gym, or take a walk.  These are fluid but need to happen at some point before Wednesday.

I cannot bring myself to track my time again.  I did this back during the hellscape of 2009-2011 when I was tracking every aspect of my life.  Boy did infertility suck.  But you know, it was sort of easier (ahem) having one kid who slept like 12 hrs per night as opposed to my current set up which compresses my time on all ends.  (Yes, it's now 10:01 and LG is still awake and I'd like to go to bed now).

[Well, that's all I had time for in 5 minutes.  I want to say more.  Maybe tomorrow.]

Keep Your Hands to Yourself

So....I just received (another) email from Tiny Boy's teacher about his difficulty keeping his hands to himself.  From what I can tell, this is not aggressive, or even necessarily not wanted by the other party.  Just inappropriately timed.

On the one hand, he's *six* and I'm sort of irritated that the best strategy the teacher can come up with is "can you talk to him?"  Sure, but if she doesn't redirect (give him something appropriate to do with his hands!) it's just going to keep happening. 

On the other hand, I'm like there is a sexual predator in the Oval Office and my kid needs to learn now that NO IS NO IS NO IS NO KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF.  We talk a lot about this in general terms.  (I also have the same gut reaction when Tiny starts spinning a ridiculous tale.)

Oy.

The Insanity

• INSANE situation at work has resulted in numerous urgent meetings at which people say INSANE things and send INSANE emails, yes, in all caps.  And then there are the requisite post-meeting debriefs with sane people confirming that yes, that person really said that and yes, that's really insane.
• This is a real question for my academic peeps:  do those of you in the sciences, social sciences, or even general humanities types get requests from random people you don't know who want you to read their work?  This happens so frequently to me that I really should keep a log.  I have started a FAQ/template reply so I can just dump something in an email when I get a random request, without having to reinvent the wheel.  But it is annoying as fuck.  (I mean, I don't even comment on my own students' work over email--they need to sit down with me if they want feedback.)
• This morning I am going to combat the insanity by reading, writing, and submitting.  And then catch up on a week's worth of grading and backlog of emails that are actually worthy of my time.

Things I Can't Do Right Now

(or at least shouldn't, if I want to respect other humans in my household)

• Drink coffee, because that would require grinding coffee beans, which is loud, and there are three teenagers crashed out in my living room;
• Eat a large slab of chocolate cake for breakfast, yes, because mostly I don't eat wheat, but this looks so tasty that I would, but it's not really nice to eat someone's birthday gift without asking;
• Go to the gym and take a class, which could happen I suppose if I (a) got dressed, (b) got Tiny Boy dressed, (c) found the car underneath another mound of snow, and (d) convinced Tiny Boy not only to get in it but also to go to childcare room, so all of this is highly unlikely.
• So really that leaves me with a stack of papers to comment on without coffee?  That really doesn't seem fair to those students, whose grades would undoubtedly be higher under the influence of caffeine.  I'll sit here for a while not doing much of anything.

February already

So....January happened.  I did manage to finish everything on my work list, having asked my dept chair for an extension on annual review materials.  I just don't have it in me to make word docs into PDFs and photocopy a bunch of stuff and write a letter putting all my publications in context and explaining why it is that my course evals from the class with constant tardiness are not great.  I mean, good lord.  There needs to be an easier way than this.

My home list?  Well, not so much.  I did exactly nothing on it.  I did many domestic things not on the list, such as playing with my pressure cooker, and taking Tiny Boy to the doctor's, and dealing with snow days.  And judging by what is happening outside my window, that's tomorrow too.  To quote my Tiny:  I can't handle it.

And personally:  I've managed to lose two of the five to seven pounds that I've been trying to lose for the past year or so.  This, by trying a modified version of the "potato diet" that did the rounds a while back.  In my world, this amounts to eating a lot of potatoes for breakfast and lunch on the days that I'm home (not the days I'm at work) and eating a normal (mostly grain-free) dinner and dessert and/or glass of wine if I want it.  This is working for me, I think, because if I had to eat one food for the rest of my life it probably would be potatoes anyway, and it turns out eating a baked potato for breakfast is satisfying in a way that eating oatmeal, or even eggs, is not.  Anyway, we'll see how long this lasts.

I have not been reading for "pleasure" because I'm reading so much for work that there is no time for the consumption of any other words.  Last week I reviewed a bunch of manuscripts for a journal I read for; submissions of various contests are trickling in; I read a colleague's book in order to do her introduction at an event...yadda yadda yadda.  And oh, yes, I'm on another f-ing search committee.  This is my fourth (?!) in three years.  I am so tired.

And that's just the usual sort of campus drama in early February...  Please let our new babysitter be something resembling competent so I can get two hours of work done this afternoon!