Revisionista: Update & Goals Sept 14-20

Bonjour mes amies!

So, the one thing I can't seem to keep up with now that the semester is in full effect is tweeting and blogging. I'll have to figure out a way to make more time for this. I think one problem might be that the fun silly stuff going in "real" life is connected to my uni job & friends, and since I'm trying to keep my blogging/noveling habit in the closet (for now), I've become a bit paranoid about what I post.

Anyways, I'm making progress on my research & creative writing. Let's see how I did last week:

YES! (4 hrs) *60 min of writing practice (10min/day)
YES! (9:30 hrs & 4.5pp) *3 hrs of research book (aim for freewriting 5pp single spaced of intro)
YES! (made mix cd + cover art for peep's dance party)*Artist Date: cozy evening in my reading corner with candles, tea, journal, & a stack of books
Not Enough *Play in my garden (this could include anything from planning my Italy/Paris adventure next summer, listening to Italian podcasts, and reading for fun to journaling, collaging, blogging)

This week I'd like to focus on doing a few more things for moi, such as blogging, reading, book bath, Artist Date, etc.

*60 min of writing practice (10min/day) + 3hrs on Sat & Sun
*5 hrs of research book (aim for freewriting 5pp single spaced of intro)
*Revise article & return to editors
*Artist Date: ???? (need to plan something yummy!)
*Play in my garden (try for: 2 blog posts, 2 Italian podcasts, & a book bath)

Hope everyone else is having a good week!

Alison - week 2 check in and goal setting

My two weeks holiday has flown by and I am back checking in with my goals for the next week. I now have 12 weeks until I return to work (SOB!) and have just received my work-load for my return (which has doubled) and I can already feel the stress in my shoulders, my head is pounding and a knot forming in my stomach. This group and its support will take on an even greater significance in the next few months as I go through this transition period.

Right then.... goals for the week..

• 3 posts regarding my trip to France (which was fantastic).
• Sign up for this travel writing workshop. I know that I will never be able to give up my full time job to pursue this ambition but it would be fun to develop this on the side.
• Purchase and read a digital photography magazine as I am getting a digital SLR for my birthday this month (birthday money and additional money from my savings).
• Meeting with a friend/work colleague to work on a professional article which has already been accepted in a peer reviewed journal (based on some previous work that we have done).
• Writing an abstract (with same person) for a conference in October 2010 in San Antonio, TX. Am having a total undecided moment about this application as the twins will be 18 months then and unsure about leaving them (so unlike my "old" self that would travel alone with no issues). My hubbie would be looking after them and has been on a business trip to Geneva since they have been born and no-one seemed to think that odd but have mentioned my opportunity and have had that "bad mother" look from a few people so totally unsure on what to do - HELP!
• Catch up on google reader which is about to explode after holiday trip away from the computer.
• Pick up a copy of the book which I have 2 chapters in (launched on Friday) and show to any-one who will look (ha ha - I am joking at this part).

REWARD:- uni friends are visiting at the week-end so quality girl-friend time (couple of meals out whilst hubbie baby-sits. Possibly with a few glasses of sparkly stuff).

Sorry if I have gone a little off topic but I am trying to give you some background as to where I am!

This was initially posted in Locker Room - have now deleted from there (sorry) and reposted here....

Driftwood: Week 1 Update

Hi all!

Thank you for the wonderful welcome.

This is going to be a short post as I am running slightly behind on my last week's goals.

Last week's Update

Academic Writing:

1. Rewrite the Results sections, with updated figures - Yes!
2. Add the Discussion/Conclusion section- Almost but not quite..:(
3. Read a couple more papers which will contribute to the building up of the discussion section- Sort of! have been re-reading parts of some papers

I am not thaat pleased with the progress as I wanted to finish most of the paper over the labor day weekend, but I wasn't feeling too well on one of those days (Excuses! Excuses!) so that ate up a little bit of my time.

Creative Writing:

1. Morning Pages- Yes! Everyday- though not always in the morning. Sometimes in the afternoon/evening, but mostly before I start my academic writing. It works really great as a focusing tool-almost like meditation
2. Work on the novel- Nope! But that was inevitable as I needed to finish the academic paper first
3.Post on the blog, once or twice- Yes! Twice!

Also, I had several artist dates last weekend- went to several Barnes and Noble stores-leafed through books. Quite enjoyable. Also decorated a composition notebook to use as my 'morning pages' book and had a lot of fun doing that as well.

This week's goals

Academic:

1. Finish the paper today and submit it to my advisor. Today! (I am at Barnes and Nobles trying to finish it. That way, I don't have to wander too far if I want a fun artist date-like break..:)
2. Resume working on my other experiment. Analyze data and collect some more.
3. Start outlining the dissertation proposal (related to 2)

Creative
1. Continue with Morning pages. I've decided to also use it for my academic work- to allow it to let me look at my research from different points of view and also think of my research creatively and not as if it was just 'work'.
2. Work a bit on the novel as outlined last week.
3. Post on the blog once or twice.

Other:

1. Incorporate exercise into my regular routine
2. Start yoga again

Artist Date ideas: I am trying to carry out a lot of my 'house duties' positively. An example is to turn cooking into an artist's date. This isn't difficult as I enjoy cooking, but it is easy for anything to become a chore. To make things interesting and to also ensure I get my veggies, I have been trying to buy a new-to-me veggie every week from the farmer's market.

Rewards: Not sure I really deserve one- but I plan on getting a blank moleskine book and a book on green cleaning that I've wanted for a while

This didn't end up being a short post after all..:)

Good luck to every one in the coming week.

gussying up week 4

hello lovely swimmers!

week 4 was good for me. i got a lot accomplished and got a lot of rewards along the way :) cue the recap...
-did paperwork for my massage therapy program - check!
-doctors appointment - check!
-regular blogging - check!
-morning pages - check!
-regular reiki practice - fail!
-read massage therapy text - check!
fun stuff:
-seeing wheeling symphony orchestra - check!
-thai massage - chiggity check!
-celebrate 4 years with ryan - chiggity check!

rainbow over the hills of morgantown. photo by moi

week 5 goals:

it feels like my goals are the same week after week. so this week i'm gonna cut them a little short:

• i am going through a bit of processing some negativity out of my life at the moment so morning pages/journaling is key here. i thought about posting on the locker room but haven't committed. i'm still torn.

• since the tea trading fun is almost here, i plan on sending everyone who joined snail mail thank yous.
  

• seriously getting back into a regular reiki practice (and i mean it this time!!)

Vienna: almost drowning and learning to SWIM again.

Hey, everyone!

It's been one week since I came back home and it has been a pretty intense (and not too good) week. To start with, my laptop CRASHED with loads of data in (I had backed up some but not everything), including my portfolio + MA application form + most of my summer writing+ my Spain pictures. Well, you know exactly how I felt. Anyway, there have been other things that I'm going to write about in the SWIMmer's Locker Room. Please, join me there.

For several reasons my goals for this week have been tiny and basic. They are:

1. Give myself time to re-adapt at work and prepare for the new academic year.

2. Yoga every day, twice.

3. Breathing exercises.

4. Journal writing + gratitude lists

5. Reading 'The Self on the Page', by Celia Hunt (A Creative Writing book for Personal Development).

6. Slowly get back into 'The Artist's Way' and both, MPs and Artist's Date.

7. Re-assess my overall situation (financial, emotional, professional, artistic) through my Journal writing and re-plan the academic year in an accepting and self-supportive way.

And that's all for now. I'm determined to SWIM again and overcome these unexpected difficulties in the journey. I leave you with another picture I took in Nakpaktós, in Greece.

See you all at the end of the week!

Besos,

V.

Tomato: Week 12

Bonjour, fellow SWIMers! I hope you had a lovely long weekend. As for moi, I had a divine time in Canada and got some much-needed quiet and rest. Needless to say, I did not get any work work done while I was there. But it was kind of nice to just say, "It's okay. I'll get to it when I return to Austin." And that's just what I've done. As such, this week and this weekend in particular are going to be very work-intensive. I've already scheduled my 90-minute deep tissue massage (despite not meeting my SWIM goals from last week..)!

Speaking of last week's goals, I had 3:

1. Journal daily with gratitude lists - FAIL. I did journal, but failed to make any gratitude lists... oops!

2. Turn trip to Vancouver into one giant Artist Date. Take oodles of pics, write a lot, enjoy the scenery, and enjoy yourself even while working (I'm going to try and find a fun coffeeshop w/ free wifi so I can work AND indulge!) - Success! My trip was a huge artist date indeed, and despite the rainy weather, I had a great time exploring the city. Look out for a big post all about it on my blog later this week.

3. Respond to reader questions on blog - Check!


As for my Week 12 Goals, I'm keeping them to trois as well.

1) Journal daily with gratitude lists (FOR REAL this time!)

2) Complete Pink Heels homework by Saturday (my hw this week is kinda hard and tiresome, and i kinda want to put it off until forever...)

3) Finish reading The Guernsay Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (it's my book club book, and i started it in Vancouver and just adore it!).

REWARD: None b/c I already gave myself a somewhat undeserved reward this weekend. ;-)

Revisionista: Update & Goals Sept 7-13

Bonjour Mes Amies!

Welcome to our new swimmer, Driftwood! And welcome back to Kiki!! (Missed you!)

Before I dive into my update, I wanted to check on some of our other SWIMmers who I haven't seen too much of lately. Just want to make sure no one's lost or stranded ;)

I can't believe we're already in the second week of September. Overall, things are going pretty well at school. I'm really liking my job this year. In addition to getting to know my students, there have been all sorts of happy, silly distractions like agreeing to lead a book club discussion on the zombified adaptation of Pride & Prejudice for the undergrads, snarking at the annual welcome back parade with dept peeps, & making a mix cd for a dance party to celebrate the publication of a peep's new book. That said, I must make research the priority this week so I can finish this book and keep my job.

I feel like the fiction writing is coming along pretty well, especially since I picked up a few helpful hints from Driftwood's recent comments on my blog. But I'm definitely beginning to tread water with the Research Book Introduction.

So, let's see how I did last week:

YES! (6 hrs) *60 min of writing practice (10min/day)
YES! (5 hrs)*3 hrs of research book (let's see if counting hours will lead to increase in pages written)
YES! (looked but didn't find any shoes I liked)*Artist Date: might go shoe shopping later today if it's not raining when I get out of class; need to make a list of some other artist dates that don't cost any money (must start saving for European adventure next summer!)
YES! (blog post, made vision page for week, read for fun, book bath) *Play in my garden (this could include anything from planning my Italy/Paris adventure next summer, listening to Italian podcasts, and reading for fun to journaling, collaging, blogging)

Here's what I'm hoping to do this week:

*60 min of writing practice (10min/day)
*3 hrs of research book (aim for freewriting 5pp single spaced of intro)
*Artist Date: cozy evening in my reading corner with candles, tea, journal, & a stack of books
*Play in my garden (this could include anything from planning my Italy/Paris adventure next summer, listening to Italian podcasts, and reading for fun to journaling, collaging, blogging)

Overall I think my TINY goals are working, especially for the fiction writing. But I might need to amp up the research goals so I actually feel like I'm making progress.

Hope y'all have a lovely week. I'm about to clear off my desk and dive back into this intro for Le Rsch Book!