Sunday, July 26, 2009

Kiki: the week before, and the week ahead

Hello SWIMmers!  Reading your posts and comments has absolutely been the highlight of my week. It's so fantastic to see everyone achieving so much, and to know that the camaraderie is helping.

Here's my check-in for the last week: thanks to YOUR help and inspiration, I managed to complete the draft revision of this month's chapter and sent it to my advisor before the end of Thursday - a day earlier than planned, and more than a week earlier than I "budgeted" for drafting this chapter. The first episode of the Beijing Memoir went up as my midweek SWIM post, and I managed to keep posting to TPL every day as well (except Saturdays, that seems to be my day off). I've also kept up my daily yoga practice as well, even though Friday's session was only eight minutes of tiny yoga.

This week is going to be a big mish-mash of professional writing in an effort to get a variety of smaller projects off my desk and being brainstorming overarching concepts for the concluding chapter draft. In a bit of exciting news, I've been accepted to write a book review for a journal! There's no money involved, but if it works out it would be my first publication credit, which is very cool indeed. Because of all the different academic writing goals for this week, I've broken them down day by day below, to give myself some structure and also hold myself a little more accountable to completing them.

Goals: 27 July - 2 August
Professional Writing:
*Monday: 1) Write new conference abstract; 2) Begin drafting September conference paper
*Tuesday: 1) Complete draft of September conference paper
*Wednesday: 1) Begin drafting book review; 2) sort/edit sections of October conference paper
*Thursday: 1) Spend two hours organizing new chapter concepts; 2) Revise September paper
*Friday: 1) Complete September revisions; 2) Revise October paper; 3) Complete final chapter plan

Personal Writing:
*Draft another episode of the Beijing Memoir
*Daily morning pages 
*Post midweek at SWIM
*Continue posting daily
*Continue daily yoga practice

Rewards: a slice of Lush soap, and my meditation scarf should be delivered this week!
Artist Date: a special preview showing of Coco Avant Chanel followed by a Q&A with the director

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations, congratulations and congratulations! You are MY HERO!!! I can't believe you've managed to achieve soooo much. Keep going, girl!
    Your professional and creative life (if we can establish this separation) seem so in tune with each other!
    I have enjoyed very much reading your blog. By the way, are you blogging in both TPL and Yogademia? I've realised some posts were the same. Is it only a transition point or are you going to keep both?
    When are we reading the continuation of the Beijing story?

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  2. Good question about the blogs: I have officially moved it all over to Yogademia, and imported the entire year of posts from TPL into the new format.

    It's funny to me that my professional and creative lives seem so in tune to you; to me, they are universes apart and utterly incompatible. The only connection between them is my laptop, which writes long high-falutin' sentences ending with footnotes as well as creative posts and the Beijing Memoir. What I'm working on is officially and formally meshing the two.

    Theoretically you'll be reading another episode of the Beijing story by the end of the week...

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  3. First off, I am dying for another epi of the Beijing story. It reads like fiction (ie thrilling, anxious to see what happens next, vibrant, vibrant details). Awaiting the next piece makes me feel like a Victorian reader awaiting the next installment of Bleak House or Vanity Fair. :)

    Hope your academic writing goals are going well. It's taken me 8+ years of getting demoralized and then frantic to finally figure out to expect a lowkey week after a super successful poppy week. So, if this week's feeling a little off, just roll with it and celebrate all that you DO get done!

    So wish I could see that Coco movie. Goodness when/if it'll ever get to my corner of the world.

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