Sunday, April 22, 2012

Mid-April Update

Here's what is on tap for me.  I am not holding myself accountable for daily 15 min. writing sessions until after I return from Belgium in May.  I am using my time now to prepare for my presentation, which doesn't require any writing.  That's what I did yesterday, and it is also what I intend to do with my scheduled research sessions through Wed. morning.  We leave for Belgium on Wednesday so I probably won't post again until after we return in May!


Thanks for your support!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Today's log

Okay, so I did not have a session yesterday (Thanks, Aunt Lynn, for holding me accountable!)


Today's log:


7:59 am started
8:44 am finished creating presentation outline, powerpoint slides, and handout; started creating backup plan in case powerpoint or laptop fails . . .
8:58 am wrapped up


Got a lot done today!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Log for today

7:53 am started
8:54 am finished


Accomplished: fleshed out about half of my outline for the presentation; revised a few slides; added a new slide

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Log for today

10:48 am started
11:17 am stopped


Here's what I accomplished today:

  • one new powerpoint slide
  • added some extra information on my handout that I won't have time to convey orally in my presentation
  • revised references listed on handout
Next up (tomorrow): My plan will be to flesh out my outline for the presentation.  More or less I have the order of what I will do figured out (having made the slide show), but I want to have a detailed outline so I don't forget to include certain things.


Thanks, everyone, for your support and comments!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Log for today

7:58 am started
8:18 am coffee break
8:20 am resumed work
9:00 am stopped


Results: created 7 more powerpoint slides (nearly done with this now); completed several revisions to handout and slides

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Log for today

8:58 pm: started
9:34 pm: now up to 15 slides (but I don't remember how many I had when I started this evening).  I think I created a couple of new ones and revised formatting and content on some ones I made earlier this week.


Still plenty to do.  Looking forward to my research hour tomorrow morning.  I like the idea of working for just 15–30 minutes, but I do get a lot more done in an hour.


Goal for this week: Get the presentation done (handout, powerpoint, outline) so that I can practice it this weekend.  I'm off for Belgium in just 10 days!


Thanks, everyone,* for your support and encouragement.


(* = everyone = Mom, Aunt Lynn, and Kate)

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Log for today

7:24 pm got started; didn't accomplish much--just one slide and started a second
7:42 pm stopped


A little is better than nothing.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Log for today

8:00 am started, created seven more slides (now at 11 total)
9:04 am stopped


Gotta go teach!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Log for today

10:02 am started; prepared four slides
10:25 am finished


Not the most productive session today.  I actually "started" at 9:44, but then got distracted by email.  (Note to self: never open email during research time even if you need to find something related to said research.)


I was going to write an outline for my talk today, but decided that I will use a powerpoint presentation for my talk.  Once I have created my slides, I'll write an outline and practice the talk with that.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Log for today

7:58 am: started research (listening to songs to find additional examples); found three more examples and incorporated them into my paper
8:42 am: switched gears to revising handout for presentation
8:54 am: stopped; handout is basically ready, but I need to adjust my "Works Cited" section because I don't know yet what works I am going to cite!


Goal for tomorrow/Friday: to begin writing my outline for the presentation.  This seems to be the next logical step.  Normally in my discipline when presentations ar given, people read a paper they have written.  I know this sounds dreadfully dull (and sometimes it is!), but I am going to be deviating from this norm at my presentation in Antwerp.  I will be giving a hands-on demonstration of teaching techniques that I discuss in my paper so it will be more like I am teaching a class than reading from a script.  Benefits: this is what I do every day for a living & hopefully it will be more engaging than reading a paper.  Limitations: no script to read & I have to make sure I can get in everything I need to in the 60 minutes I will have.  I envision working mostly from an outline, as I would when I am teaching.  I may write up nice prose to read as a means of introduction and conclusion, but I don't know yet.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Log for today

10:01 am: opened document
10:18 am: paused to take phone call
10:25 am: resumed work
10:54 am: stopped work for today


Today's total productivity: revised 10 pages of prose and examples for conference presentation handout

Monday, April 9, 2012

Log for today

7:57 am: listened to ten songs and generated four new, good examples; integrated examples into my paper
8:38 am: completed revisions to paper with style guidelines in mind for journal I will be submitting it to (revised all 42 pages for formatting and style)
8:56 am: finished


Tomorrow I think I am going to focus on getting my handout prepared for the conference presentation at the end of the month.  

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Work log for the weekend

This will be a quick blog post to chart my progress this weekend:


Sat. 4/7
8:01 pm opened document & revised eight pages of prose
8:17 pm finished


Sat. 4/8
5:02 pm opened doc & revised eighteen pages of prose (actually got through the entire document I started revising on Thursday)
5:31 pm


Now that I have revised the prose of the entire essay, I am not quite sure what I will spend my remaining 15-minute writing sessions on each day until the rest of my research for this project is done.  I do need to revise the handout with examples for the talk I am giving at the end of the month in Belgium.  I wonder if that counts as writing?  (Part of me thinks it doesn't.)  I guess I can keep revising what I have already revised?!  It is too soon to switch gears to another project altogether (though I am eager to wrap this up and move on!)

Friday, April 6, 2012

Updates for April

While Kate has been away on her three-week journey to the Southwest, I have been getting quite a bit done on the academia front.  I worked every day this week on my current project (this is the one I will be presenting on at the end of the month in Belgium!).  The paper is very close to finished.  I am now going through the 100+ songs that are the subject of the paper to catch any additional helpful examples before finishing up.


I started reading this nifty little book called Publish & Flourish by Tara Gray.  It is intended for academics who want to be more prolific writers, but I think it could be helpful to anyone who writes for a living or for fun.  One of her basic premises is that you need to write (or revise) for 15–30 minutes every day.  (And this time is spent only on writing or revision, not reading, gathering data, non-writing research tasks, etc.)  If you do this, you will already be more prolific than others who wait for those prized blocks of time that never come (I definitely used to be one of those people!).  So this is my new strategy. In addition to the research hours I have allocated on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I am taking at least 15 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays to write, and I am also making sure that at least 15 minutes of my allocated hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is spent writing or revising.  My plan is to start posting my progress (time spent, number of pages written/revised) regularly to hold myself accountable.  


To this end, here is a recap of what I did for the week:

  • Monday: worked 8–9 am mostly on listening and gathering some additional examples, made a few minor revisions to existing prose
  • Tuesday: worked for several hours in the morning, continuation of what I started Monday
  • Wednesday: worked 8–9 am, continuation of previous work
  • Thursday: 9:29–9:36 freewriting in my research journal; 9:36–10:00 revised the first six pages of my essay
  • Friday, today: 8:13 (late start!)–8:45 continued work (listening and gathering examples); 8:45–9:00 revised the next six pages of prose
The next step for me is getting a sponsor.  Like a twelve-step program, Gray recommends you find an individual who you are responsible to for reporting your progress.  Anybody want to volunteer for this?  I plan to post my progress on my blog so it would just require checking in to make sure I am writing/revising every day.  


I am still trying to decide if I want to write on the weekends, too.  I usually try to keep as much of the weekend free of work (but that only works for maybe one week out of the term!).  


In other news . . . I've stopped doing the Artist's Way, for now, because I found it counterproductive.  I kept thinking as I would do all these tasks and exercises that I could be using that time to actually create something.  So I put the book and its tasks aside and just started playing more music and even writing a new song!  The song is still in progress, but I have two verses and a chorus and a basic guitar pattern to accompany myself with.