And That's What It's All About!

Don't be disappointed. This post isn't about the Hokey Pokey. It's about teaching. I can tell you're sad. Sorry to disappoint!

Anyway, I was on campus yesterday to pick up my printed syllabus because the print shop lady doesn't get to campus until 7:45 a.m. and I have an 8:00 a.m. class on Monday and am far too obsessive to even consider waiting until then to get pick up my syllabus. Anyway, I ran into a few of my former students, football players who were already on campus for practice, and they seemed genuinely excited to see me. We chatted for a bit about the upcoming semester and their season and it was nice. It's why I decided to go back after all.

Then today I checked my class rosters and noticed that one of my students in World Civ last year signed up for a class with me this semester. A repeater! My first repeater! How cool is that? I'm so excited! I can't wait to get back in the classroom!

It's goal time!

I'm watching the Steelers game, which, for now, they are winning. It's an end-of-year miracle!






As I've watched them score a couple of touchdowns, it did make me think about hitting my own goals for the year. (Sorry for the very lame tie-in - I'm sure there's a dreadful goalpost pun in there somewhere, but I'm too tired to make one. It took all I had to even realize I should write something about this!)

Of course, this means that I have to have goals and they should probably be more specific than just "finish my blasted dissertation!" That's obviously my main goal, but I do have others, such as finding a job or a post-doc for when I actually am post-doc, and also taking better care of myself, partly by getting back to yoga to help reduce my sky-high stress level. I normally dread making resolutions and don't do it anymore because I rarely succeed in keeping them, but this time I'm going in with a game plan, inspired in part by my previous organization efforts, some twitter friends, and also by this post by The Research Whisperer.

I took a break from all work this past week to refresh and rejuvenate. I wasn't doing any good trying to relax and still do a few hours of work a day all at the same time. Someone on a productivity chat on twitter reminded me that sometimes giving yourself time off completely actually means more for your productivity in the end. So, I ignored that little voice in my head screaming at me to put down Pride and Prejudice and read something for my dissertation. I persevered in my forced relaxation (sounds silly, doesn't it?) and did not get back to work and you know what? I feel SO much better! I'm actually ready to get back to work.

Today I broke out my giant dry-erase 4-month calendar and started setting startlines and deadlines for chapters and revisions. I love the planning stages of a project or regrouping for a project. Calendars are fun! Lists are amazing! Next step is gathering all those deadlines for fellowships. I'm even using Evernote to keep things moving along in an orderly manner, but more on that later.

All of this is all going to help with my biggest goal (aside from the dissertation, that is), the one that seems the most unattainable, which is to give myself one day off a week -  one full day with no work, no email, no facebook, and no twitter, which is somewhat ironic, since the same productivity chat on twitter reminded me of this Profhacker post on giving yourself a day of rest each week. My day of rest might not have the religious connotations that most of those contributors mention, but it does tie into my taking better care of myself/reducing my stress level goal, too. I want the glory of a day devoted strictly to me...and probably my dog. He's hard to resist.

Now that I think about it, pretty much all of my goals are all wrapped up together. Finishing my dissertation, finding a job or post-doc, taking better care of myself all tie into and result from each other. I will be so much better off mentally when the diss is done; ditto if I find a post-doc or (please, please, please) a job; and taking care of myself will help finish the diss and hunt for a job or post-doc. I do like nice, tidy loops like that.

But, back to the Steelers - they won! I'm hoping this bodes well for my goals for 2013!

Overwhelmed by options

I was inspired by a recent gradhacker post to use this break between semesters to reorganize my work space, including my computer. My files are a disaster somehow. I have a million folders, but files never seem to be where I expect them to be on my computer.

I need a better workflow. I have all these tools - like Dropbox, Evernote, Devonthink, Orchestra, Zotero, Wunderlist, and I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting - but, for some reason, I can't seem to incorporate them into my daily workflow. I spent the weekend rewriting a book review because I couldn't find the final draft. I lost so much time because of this and I am furious. If I'm going to finish my dissertation this year (and I am), I need to do something (well, probably lots of somethings) to increase my productivity and efficiency.

I'm feeling overwhelmed by all this technology, though, which, as a digital humanist and even just as a human being, is not a good thing. I'm at the point where technology might be hindering rather than helping. I think I need to spend a few hours going through all my tools and focusing on learning them better and learning how to incorporate them into my everyday use, too. Everyone goes on and on about how great Evernote is, but I just don't see it. What am I missing? I feel like it does the same thing as all the other things I have and don't use. It must be me. I need to play around more and familiarize myself with the programs I don't use as much. Maybe I'll use them more or I can get rid of duplicates. Either way, streamlining will help. That's my goal for this week. Streamline, streamline, streamline.