I spent a couple days in Pacific Grove, near Monterey, to wrap up my end-of-semester reflection.
If you’re interested—and I’m not saying you should be!—here’s most of what came out of the review (I say “most” because a couple of the issues involve other people, and I want to respect their privacy):
The effective 20%
- Fully setting up the online class before the semester started. Automating the day-to-day business of my online class frees up time for the meaningful interactions with students, whether it be in the discussion forum or in comments on their papers.
- Launching and sustaining this blog. I settled into a pretty solid rhythm, with a blog post each Monday and a fictionary term each Wednesday. I have more I want to do; I’m in the middle of a video essay about the Black Panther movie [Update: here it is!], for example, but I set this minimum standard and stuck with it. At the same time—and this was one of the main purposes of the blog—I’ve started writing and reading more.
- Supporting The Younger in his wrestling. I’m not a huge sports fan, but I totally get the value of sports in kids’ lives. Wrestling’s an interesting one because the athletes wrestle individually, but are also a part of a team. And their coaches were great—demanding but supportive, highly skilled but focused on the right things.
- Meeting with friends. I’m not the most social animal, and it’s easy for me to lose touch with friends through simple inertia. Accepting, and even seeking out, invitations with old friends and/or colleagues reminded me why these people have been my friends.
- Cooking with the Instant Pot. Sometimes it’s the simple things.
The ineffective 20%
- Parenting. This is an example of something I can’t talk about without impinging on others’ privacy. I’ll just note that when I say I feel largely ineffective as a parent, I’m focused on my behavior, not theirs. This is self-criticism, not disguised criticism of the kids.
- Grading. As I mentioned above, I’m way too slow to return papers to my students. Part of this comes from the level of engagement; my comments on their papers are pretty extensive. But part of it is a result of procrastination and distraction.
- Wasted time. This could be its own blog entry, but the short version is this: when I feel overwhelmed, I lose a lot of focus. This semester was pretty stressful in a lot of ways, and I developed, or maybe reinforced, some bad habits involving how I use my time. Lots of staring into space waiting for quiet in the house, and lots of YouTube rabbit holes.
- Sleep/diet/exercise. I tried to get up extra early (for awhile, that was 4:30), to give myself more time to write, but it ended up being counterproductive. The more tired I am, the more likely I am to make bad decisions around food, to avoid exercise, and to need naps. Early is good; too early is bad.
- Reading (or the lack thereof). I have always defined myself as a reader, but I read hardly anything last semester. It’s a symptom of wasting time, but it also feels much deeper because it’s such an important part of my identity.
So: more of the former, less of the latter. I’m still getting up early, but 6:00 (not 4:30 or 5:00) seems to be the sweet spot.
I’ve started the Couch to 5K program. I finished my first book of the summer, Megan Abbott’s Queenpin, which I highly recommend if you like noir.
I’ve started writing my first short story in I don’t know how many years.
And so on.
Here’s to a productive summer….
A note on the video: I’ve been a fan of Casey Neistat, a filmmaker and YouTuber, for some time. (He’s one of the go-to distractions when I’m wasting time, unfortunately). He did a daily vlog—pretty much every day—for almost 500 days. I’m not a YouTube scholar, but I suspect that he invented many of the conventions we recognize as “daily vlogging.” I’ve really enjoyed his work, but now that I put together the video about my weekend away, I’ve got an even deeper respect for the guy.
My video is a rank beginner’s version of a Casey Neistat vlog. I’m going to try to incorporate more video in my blog, but it certainly won’t be daily (or even weekly). I’m no Casey Neistat.
Check out his YouTube channel. (Or start here: I put together a short playlist of four of my favorites.)
And a couple other resources:
- Michael Hyatt on the Personal Quarterly Review. I do it “trimesterly” because it fits the rhythm of my teaching job better.
- Tim Ferriss on the 80/20 Analysis. [Update: I replaced this video with another, as the original seems to have been labeled “private” for some reason.]