I feel like I'm always dropping one ball, you know?
And the ball I drop too often is the one that matters to me, but isn't teaching or service related. So I get the service done, I prep and teach classes, grade, I advise, and then, yeah, that other ball gets dropped.
I need to stop dropping that ball.
I recommend Velcro.
ReplyDeleteSuperglue?
Cut yourself a break.
ReplyDeleteI mean this literally. Find something you can cut, and cut it. Maybe give your classes a reading day, or cut a committee meeting, or don't grade something (just put check marks on it LIKE you've graded it). Half of what we think has to be done, you know, really doesn't.
Find something that really doesn't have to be done and cut that thing. Refuse to feel guilty about it. This will leave you time for playing ball.
Pay attention to del agar. I'm at a conference for chairs, and half the advice I've heard is 'take care of yourself,' 'be patient with yourself', 'give yourself a break.' Excellent advice. All we have to do is pay attention.
ReplyDeleteIs this about SAA? It was a major, major struggle to get my paper done. I pretty much had to half ass my teaching this week.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there will ever be enough hours in the day.
I am feeling less and less guilty about phoning in my teaching as less and less research goes well.
ReplyDeleteYep, I've got the same feeling. In part, it's because the other areas are places where I'm accountable to someone else (the students, the rest of the committee). Being accountable only to myself means it's hard to get it off the back burner.
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling the same, except some of the teaching balls are in danger of going astray, too (overly-complex set of preps this semester, more in clerical -- different schedules -- than in substantive ways, which means too much of my energy is going into "when do I need to launch that ball and when will that other one be coming down?" rather than into the real purpose of the exercise). And on top of that, there are some non-teaching (non-professional, in fact) things that really, really need attention. I'm trying to convince myself that "the beginning of the semester" is ready to be wrapped up, and give way to a "middle of the semester" that includes some time for the rest of my life, before the always frantic "end of the semester" hits. Wish me luck (and I send the same to you).
ReplyDelete