Almost done...

6 May 2025: A couple of days ago, I titled my post "Almost there..." I want to argue that today's post, titled "Almost done..." sounds the same, but it actually means something different in my head. In the first post, I was talking about an idea--almost having it down. I (think I) finally got it--yesterday.

Today "Almost done..." refers to a decent complete draft of the paper. I have a couple of places where I need to write another sentence or two, but I think I can knock them out on Sunday. (Tomorrow is booked from start to finish with other stuff.)

If I can knock those sentences out, that'll be the last item on my weekly "to do" list: a complete draft. (Yes, those lists are back, and that's okay.) 

It does feel a bit weird to be pressuring myself to have a solid, polished draft of this thing done in the next week or so. The conference is in November and I don't know yet if I'll have 15 or 20 minutes. But the one thing I know is that if I can get things done ahead of time--before the semester starts--I'll be happier. 

Three emails...

29 July 2024: Needed to send three long and sort of complicated emails today to get the ball rolling (well, three balls on three different paths). It felt good to sit down and work on each of them (and some other work that was connected to each). It also felt good to check each off of my list and to get some quick and positive feedback on each. And, as is often the case, each was easier to take care of than I thought it would be. 

(Boring, nerdy post, I know, but it's what stood out to me most when thinking about today.) 

"...life is always undoing for us..."

25 February 2024: Thinking this evening about this passage from The Gates Ajar, spoken by Dr. Bland right before he throws his sermon on his old view of heaven into the fireplace: "It seems to me that life is always undoing for us something that we have just laboriously done” (Phelps 127). It's a small moment in the novel, but seems to me to be profound view about how life helps/forces us to change our beliefs and ideas--and it can be a blessing. 

Also, at 9:19 p.m. on the Sunday of an almost entirely work-filled* weekend, I have just finished my last (I hope?) set of notes for my Phelps entry--and the last item on my weekly "book goals" list. This week: composing, revising, etc.

*One non-work thing: helping Chuck and Bill run the Flagship Trivia tournament today--back at the Clarion for the first time since the pandemic. The other non-work thing: a really lovely Zoom book club meeting earlier this evening. 

Work Cited

Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart. The Gates Ajar. 1868. Edited by Elizabeth Duquette and Claudia Stokes, Penguin, 2019.

Location, location, location?

4 February 2024: I had such an (on paper) intimidatingly long to-do list for this weekend. I approached it like the formidable enemy I thought it was. And I have been up here, in my office at home, most of the weekend, working away. 

And...I've got it all done? With time to spare. And after taking last night off. And over an hour until book club starts! 

Trying to figure out what that means...and trying for the love of all that is good to not think "Well, maybe I should have had more on it..." 

I am also increasingly convinced that the home office--where I am typing this very post--is perhaps the reason I've been so efficient lately. After not using it very much for in a long time, I am up here all the time now. And somehow it has been working. I am less distracted somehow. And just more "in the zone." If I go downstairs to get a snack or more water or to get a chore or two done to get some steps in, I know I have to get back up here and back to work. It just works. 

My wallet might be paying a price, as I am doing more looking around and seeing places for upgrades, but that's perhaps a small price to pay. 

"Your Baby Never Looked Good in Blue"

17 October 2023: After a meeting on campus, I stayed up there, working in my office until I got my entry on E. Pauline Hopkins done. Felt great to check that off the list(s). That's two entries in October already, so I am ahead of pace for getting that third one done this month. Since it isn't one that will require as much reading/reseach (it's on gothicism, not a specific writer or book), I hope I can use the "extra" October time to get a head-start on a couple entries that will be more demanding as I move into November. 

Anyway, thought I'd use this post to highlight one of the 80's tunes that powered me through that writing session. 

Bring on Bob's Burgers!

1 October 2023: Pushed and pushed myself through a boring task that I should never have had to do this evening, but it is done. Better be done for good, but we'll see.

What a nice surprise to see that a new Bob's Burgers episode tonight. Feels like a reward for getting my weekly "Book/Year's Work" list done, trimming the front bushes, and knocking off just about everything else on my daily list. 

Compromising with myself...

24 September 2023: Finished my weekly "Book Work/"Year's Work" Work" to-do list this morning. Most of my other chores, too. In a burst of optimism, I added a few more items to my daily list--things I really don't want to do, but will feel once they're done. Then went and had lunch and saw A Haunting in Venice with Amy (it was pretty good!). Came home and took a long walk. Did some evening chores. Made myself do just one of the three extra items. Feels pretty good. Probably won't get to all three--and that feels okay, too. A little compromise with myself, I guess. 

(Boring post, but it's what I've got...)

10:56 p.m.

29 August 2023: Just finished the last "work" item on my daily "to do" list, an entry for the "Year's Work" essay. (Down to just nineteen to go...) The past few nights I have really pushed myself to finish everything on my increasingly ambitious lists as I face down a couple of deadlines (one self-imposed, one external). 

Feels good to cross off that final item, especially because it gets me that much closer to "done."

Spring Break grading laugh...

15 March 2022: Working through two kind of ambitious (and boring and slightly depressing) Spring Break to-do lists. (Yes: there are two lists.) But making steady progress. And I found myself laughing out loud at this phrase from a paper by one of my seminar students: "intelligent ladies using occult knowledge to outwit death." "Sounds like a cool club," I wrote in my comments. 

Dreamy...

15 January 2022: In my dream last night/early this morning, I slept in and was furious at myself for not getting through the to-do list I had made for today. And feeling rushed and anxious. So…that subconscious seems to be working just fine. Nothing to see here! 

In reality, I ended up getting out of bed the same time as usual because I was awake and not because of guilt or anxiety and, so far, I am getting through the list just fine. And a weekend list is designed to get stuff done in a leisurely way and then I can basically take the late afternoon/evening off. (That last sentence is totally something a well-adjusted person would say, right?)

Burst of progress...

3 January 2022: Had a huge burst of progress today with my Poe seminar syllabus. I last taught this class in 2010--and on a TR schedule--so I didn't want to just do what I did last time. Plus, I've grown and learned some things about teaching since then. Anyway, still some more pieces to hammer out, but if all goes as planned, I might finish that "Winter Break To-Do List" in the next couple of days. 

Started the day, by the way, with an on-campus rapid COVID test, a requirement of everyone when they return to campus. (I kind of never left. Ha.) Negative, thank goodness. (Also took one on the morning Hannah and I painted...) Something about seeing all these Shepherd folks (staff, mostly) coming together to run this big operation gets to me, just like it always does. I want to cry, it's so lovely. This is a very special place. 

Winter Break Goal List: DONE!

9 January 2020: Just checked off the last item on my "Winter Break Goal List." These were all work-related: course prep, etc. But it feels good to have it all done with a day or so to spare.

Chair-dancing? Why not?

My kind of list...

24 June 2019: This weird piece of paper won't mean anything to anyone else. Just lines of crossed-out text. But at the beginning of the semester break, these thirteen lines listed thirteen deadlines of all sorts: for letters of recommendation, for reports, etc. The last one--June 30--was for a conference abstract. Got that done and submitted today.

Still lots to get done this summer, including a research trip up to Massachusetts and two more syllabi to write and revise, but right now? Feeling pretty good.

So long, Winter Break!

Last semester, while students in one of my classes were completing their final exam, I typed out a pretty ambitious goal list for the break. It included revising and resubmitting one article, starting to sketch out another, reading four books, and prepping for all my classes. This evening, I checked off the final item on that list and I gotta say, it feels good.

What felt best, though, was sending off those article revisions on Friday. And I kid you not, "Feeling Good" was playing on Pandora when I clicked "send." Perfect. 

Bonus reason to feel good: I found out today that another article has been accepted for publication. More chair-dancing commencing...

Productivity

10 January 2016: Today's good thing is one of my favorite ordinary objects--one of my many to-do lists with everything crossed-off. This one is the list I made in mid-December, an ambitious plan of stuff to get done over the break. You can't tell now because, duh, the items are crossed off, but included on here were task ranging from syllabi and course prep to assessment to research projects to reading three books for Common Reading consideration to SSAWW matters. And, as of about 6:00 tonight, they are all done.

The new semester starts tomorrow, which means all kinds of new lists. Off we go!

Spring Break at Age 35

What's the craziest thing I did today, on the last weekday of Spring Break 2013? I checked off the last item on my (typed) "Spring Cleaning To-Do List" after cleaning every inch of the refrigerator while proudly and loudly and singing Wham's "Freedom." That's how you celebrate Spring Break at 35.

Also, please appreciate Bing helping by sitting in a vegetable drawer.

It's much too early in the summer...

...to feel this stressed. Seriously. Yesterday it was almost overwhelming. The problem is that I am trying to tackle a half dozen projects, all with several phases/steps. The solution, I realized last night, is to go back to my "Goals for the Week" lists. Most of my friends know I  make daily (and very detailed) to-do lists, but I tend to only break out the weekly lists over breaks and summers. So here we go!

A couple of lists...

1) This one is fun, sweet, and interesting: 1001 rules for my unborn son. I love the brevity of some of the entries.

2) Every once in a while, when I need a mental break (perhaps on a day like today, where I've spent 4 straight hours conferencing with ENGL 102 students), I stop by this list and work my way through a couple of its entries...even the ones I've seen before. Then it's back to work...