Productivity
ADM over at Blogenspiel notes that the beginning of the academic year is a time for reflecting on how productive we've been--over the summer, over the past year--and to set new goals for ourselves. I read her post as I am finishing up the last touches on my "Reynolds report," the annual behemoth which asks for a narrative and documentation of everything we've accomplished in research, teaching, and service in the past year. These are tied to raises and tenure, so I've been giving it plenty of time, thought and energy. So some stock-taking ensues herein:
So I had these lofty goals for the summer, and in May I was doing great. June I did well, and July, I was on track until about the 10th, when I went to GW for the Symposium. In that span I:
*Revised and resubmitted an article that I'm waiting to hear about.
*Submitted an abstract for an already written article that got accepted
*Wrote and submitted a performance review that got accepted
*Wrote and presented a paper that will likely be published as is, and expanded into something longer for the Anti-Disciplinarity collection.
*Read a bunch of new plays and designed my first graduate syllabus
*Read the primary texts for the PhD qualifying exam that I'll be a reader for (Well, except Jane Eyre, but I've read it a bunch of times already).
OK, not bad. Here's what I didn't do that I had hoped to do on top of these things:
*Write a book review that is due September 30.
*Expand a conference paper presented in February into a draft of a book chapter.
*Begin work on rewriting the book intro (that one was a pipe dream, but still)
*Start a second book review.
Sounds unrealistic even as I"m typing it, but still, I knew it was unrealistic back then, and so I think I can cut myself the slack.
The kicker is this fall. Forunately, I'm only teaching 2 classes: Brit II and the Postwar Brit Drama seminar. But I've got to write:
September 30: First Book review Due. Also the abstract due date for the anti-disciplinarity collection, which will reqire attention.
October 31: Revision of Parody article (the one accepted back in May) due
December 1: MLA paper due to organizer
December 28: At MLA, I was hoping to shop around a book proposal, so that's on the table. There's also a grant I want to apply for, which requires the application this fall, I think. egads!
So my writing has to be pretty constant over the semester. Now add to that the service requirements, since i'm on the Committee that reads those behemoth files, and I've just been asked to be on a search committee (which may nullify my ability to shop my book proposal around...)I have also volunteered for a Dean's Committee, but I may not get chosen to do that. Now that I've volunteered, I hope I get passed over...
So 2006 has been a busy year, and it looks like the fall will be the busiest time yet. Here's hoping that 2007 is just a little less packed, so that maybe, just maybe, I can do some work on that book...