Second semester (?) goals:
✅1. Make a Disney decision: NOT GOING. (we were supposed to go with Ben who has a quick conference at the Beach Club (our favorite Disney hotel) BUT. Jack could not go (finals) and Harry also could not stay with him (obligations in Eau Claire). SO, that was complicating. Then Cooper made the school spelling bee and didn't want to miss. And Dorothy had a dance practice added to the calendar that she also did not want to miss. And! The dates overlapped with my first week of classes (again, not impossible, but complicating for sure). So. We decided not to tag along. **whomp whomp**)
2. Big sticky process goal: writing creatively-- what will this look like? I just read A Long Game by Elizabeth McCracken, and it was AMAZNG and helpful in thinking about my own process/practice. I am still thinking about this and what success in this category even looks like.
3. Professional development/apply for new jobs? A big one for sure.
4. Find a second semester race. This is tough because our weekends get gobbled up by dance and dive starting in February.
5. Holidays: V-day (my faaavorite) Ben's 47th; Dorothy's 13th; Jack's 18th; Easter/Passover
6. Visit Eau Claire (complicated for the same reason race weekend is complicated)
7. Blog design: begin this project
8. Blogger meet ups (some in the works; some to be planned)
9. 10K training planning/joining a gym with Coop/ subscribing to some runner content
Ongoing things that will be sort of running in the background all year:
New systems for tracking content, books, movement, etc
Hitting macros and workout routine
Cookie baking
Looking at real estate
Noticing sugar intake
Keeping my eyes peeled for stocking stuffers
January, specifically:
Apply for 2 jobs
Join a gym
Run up hills (seek out hills; pick up the pace on the way up)
Buy Vday gifts for the kids and stuff to send to Harry
Explore more blogs to find designs I really like
Open my book project and decide if it is still alive
Decide on dates for Ben and Dorothy's bday celebrations
Look for Apple Watch sales for Ben (ongoing until March) (He has a first gen Apple Watch that is finally starting to be glitchy after a decade of constant wear).
Become a mini-expert on the AI academic landscape. I want to know what's out there in terms of tools, how people across many disciplines are using them, and what kind of consensus (if any-- not really expecting any) exists among people who teach writing. I also want to see what's going on in terms of policy-- both larger institutional policy and personal syllabus-level policy. I think this goal will transcend the month of January because I don't anticipate having a ton of free time to devote to it, but I can see what the heck is out there and get a better idea of scope with just a few hours of work, I am pretty sure.
Questions:
Is "second semester" a good label for this season?
When does the second semester end? For me, it's MAY FIRST! I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. But the kids don't get out until JUNE TENTH. SO that's a month and 10 days when they have school and I am on break.
So is May-August summer? Or is May its own little epoch? With June-August being summer break?
I guess I want to follow my schedule since the kids are still technically in their first semester of school (they break in February), but I am for sure in spring semester mode right now. SO I am already following my schedule and not theirs.
How do you break up your seasons? Quintiles? Quarters? Something more specific to you? For me it would be
January: Fresh start/ everyone's schedule is effed/ I don't even know what day it is most of the month
Feb-April: Dance and dive regional season; baseball tourney season; spring semester
May-second week of June: End of kid year/ schedules changing/ I don't even know what day it is most of the month
Third week of June-July: Summer break, baseball, summer dive league, dance nationals and tryouts, and dive nationals season
August: Dregs of summer/schedules upended/dance, dive, and baseball on break/I don't even know what day it is most of the month
September-October: Back to school
November-December: Holiday season
OR I could do the less insane
Spring Semester
Summer break
Fall Semester
Winter break
and just recognize that there will be anomalous months in each season...
I have never though about things by season before (except to realize when I am in one that sucks), so I am not sure how I want to think about it... Help!
I struggle with this too with my partner working in college athletics (I'm in corp). This year I'm trying thirds/arcs: Jan-April (winter/spring), May-Aug (summer) and Sept-Dec (fall). Like you mentioned, May, August, and December are all kind of their own things but I'm hoping this generally encompasses the vibes/amount of free time and responsibilities.
ReplyDeletelove the idea of arcs... like, what a good framing device-- thanks for this!
DeleteWow, this is a big list of goals! Good luck Sarah! My current "seasons" are gardening season, non-gardening season, and Christmas.
ReplyDeleteMy seasons would be winter break ( mid Dec to mid Jan) , Spring term ( mid Jan to mid May), end of school year ( few weeks in May - things get crazy), summer ( Jun into july) , back to school ( late July into August because of #@!* band camp), fall term.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot on your plate- I hope you make professional on all your goals!
Hmm! This is tricky. I guess I go by quintiles, which correspond with my daughter's school schedule. Down here we have the Extremely Early Start (early-mid August) but the good thing about it is, they finish the semester before Christmas, and start a new one in January. So they're pretty much on the same schedule as college kids. It definitely helps to have everyone on the same page- I can see why you would struggle with this.
ReplyDeleteI like how you're breaking down your goals into seasonal, and then monthly. I'm realizing that's the path to success (as opposed to making a list of goals for the year and then forgetting all about them by February).
You've got a lot of holidays coming up! I'm envious that you love Valentine's Day- it's never been my favorite, sigh.
Working in corporate America, with none of us in school, I don’t really break the year up. I do think breaking it up a bit can help prevent procrastination and forgetting our goals entirely, as Jenny said. I have some goals that need to be done this month, and it’s helpful to have that (self imposed) deadline.
ReplyDeleteI do not think of the year in seasons for the same reason as J - there aren't really big changes in the year because I work 52 weeks of the year (aside from PTO) and the kids have childcare about 50 weeks of the year. So our daily rhythms are basically identical whether it's January 12 or June 25th (too lazy to see if that is even a week day, but you know what I mean). I know others that work in more corporate or non-seasonal jobs do break up their year into seasons, like SHU. Maybe after I read her book, she'll convince me to consider quartiles or quintiles or something along those lines.
ReplyDeleteWow, looking for a new job. That is big. I'm going to guess you are considering moving to IL so you and Ben don't spend a good chunk of every week apart?
Hi, I know this one blogger you could totally meet. ;)
ReplyDeleteYES LET'S DO IT!!!!
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