sleep — Blog — Toddler on the Tenure Track

Planning When the World is Falling Apart

If you're a regular reader of my blog you know that my dad passed away in November, and then we had another family emergency come up in December that was also really difficult.

While my days and weeks are usually very structured, rigidity has not been what I’ve needed these past few months. From November through mid-January my schedule and planning processes shifted dramatically, mainly because I didn't do any planning (at least not the level of planning that I usually do). Once winter term started in early January I did need some sort of structure to help balance all the things, so I slowly started to incorporate more structure planning back into my regular routine.

Work-Life BalanceJillMarch 13, 2020planning for the day, planning, planning for the week, meditation, sleepComment

Back to Basics: What I Learned From My Month Focused on Nutrition

I have officially made it through my 4 month back to basics “challenge” 🎉🎉🎉 where I was making an effort to focus on the things that make me feel like a whole person. Which means… it’s time to do an update on my month of focusing on nutrition! If you’re curious, you can check out my other posts in this series. My initial post is here. May was all about sleep, June was all about meditation, July was all about movement, and August was all about nutrition.

Work-Life BalanceJillSeptember 13, 2019back to basics, nutrition, august 2019, august, meditation, movement, sleepComment

Back to Basics: What I Learned From My Month Focused on Sleep

Well, I made it through a month of focusing on sleep… not sure if I actually feel more rested than I was before, but I will say that I am 1,000 times more consistent with my sleep routine, and interestingly enough, my workout routine. So that’s a win. On the other hand, Ellie isn’t sleeping through the night and I’m in the process of figuring out some iron related health issues, so those two things probably have something to do with my energy levels.

Work-Life BalanceJillJune 6, 2019goals, goal setting, sleepComment

Weekly Update: 5/27 - 6/2

Most weeks I try to reserve weekends and evenings (and holidays… like Monday) for non-work related activities. When the work week includes a holiday and a day long workshop, mixed with meetings and other events, it makes it hard to do much else. This week I had about 12 hours (not even 2 full work days) to get all of my non-meeting work done, which wasn’t enough time… so work crept into personal time.

Weekly Update: 5/20 - 5/26

With the long weekend and our birthday extravaganza on Sunday I’m a day late with my weekly update. As the end of the school year gets closer and closer my brain is feeling increasingly fried. Summer can’t come soon enough! Even writing these short little reflections is proving to be a mental feat. One of the things I worked on this week was writing the first draft of an introduction section for an article and I encountered all sorts of resistance to writing. It was subtle, so I didn’t even realize I was doing it at first, until I noticed that I kept searching for anything else to do besides write (it’s not often that I can convince myself I should be grading instead!).

Tenure and Life UpdatesJillMay 27, 2019weekly update, course prep, working out, meditation, goals, reflection, paper writing, may, sleep, birthdayComment

Weekly Update: 5/13 - 5/19

Well, I started off the week with the best intentions, and then I caught Ellie’s cold and pretty much just managed to get things ready for my two classes. Although, as I was putting this post together I realized that I did some sort of workout every day except one this week, which is huge! So, I was able to keep momentum going with working out, despite getting sick (it was a head cold, so nothing too intense, just annoying).

Tenure and Life UpdatesJillMay 19, 2019weekly update, course prep, working out, meditation, goals, reflection, paper writing, may, sleepComment

Weekly Update: 5/6 - 5/12

Continuing my trend of finding a workable balance between research, teaching, and service this week… with a heavy emphasis on research and teaching, and less so on service. Had a fair amount of meetings, mainly scheduled for Monday/Tuesday, which seems to work well for my working rhythm. I had a workshop scheduled for Friday afternoon that was cancelled and it happened to be a day when Ellie skipped a nap, so I texted Mike and they met me downtown and we walked along the waterfront, just like old times. No profound work related thoughts this week (maybe I’m tired… and I’m also attempting to write this while Ellie is talking, stream of consciousness style, in the background, so it’s hard to separate my thoughts from her talking!)

Tenure and Life UpdatesJillMay 12, 2019weekly update, course prep, working out, meditation, goals, reflection, paper writing, may, sleepComment

Weekly Update: 4/29 - 5/5

Like last week, I was able to get work in on 4 different research projects (that are all at the paper writing stage) this week, even amidst meetings and teaching and emails. I’m waiting on a response to an R+R (for a special issue) that we resubmitted back in December (…I think?!… has it really been that long?!). I checked in earlier this month for an update and they said to send another message at the end of the month if I hadn’t heard. April 30th came and went and still no notification. With lots of other things going on last week, I didn’t want to email, have them respond about another R+R and start the countdown clock on that (and not be able to spend any time on it)… so I’ll check in next week and see what they say.

Tenure and Life UpdatesJillMay 5, 2019weekly update, course prep, working out, meditation, goals, reflection, april, paper writing, may, R&R, sleepComment

Back to Basics: Four Months of Sleep, Meditation, Movement, and Nutrition

The month of May kicks off a flurry of activity in our lives. We’ve got Ellie’s birthday, our anniversary, my birthday, and Mike’s birthday. In addition to all of these important milestones there’s also the end of the school year and travel to see family (and/or visitors who come to see us). Knowing that the next few months are going to be filled to the brim, I’m making an effort to focus on the “basics.” By basics I mean the things that make me feel like a whole person, but always seem to come last (if at all).

Work-Life BalanceJillMay 1, 2019sleep, meditation, movement, exercise, working out, nutritionComment

A Day in the Life of an Assistant Professor (January 2019)

It’s time for another edition of “a day in the life” of a tenure track faculty with a young kid! If you follow me on instagram you may have seen my post in January with a quote from Ellie where she asked, “Mama, are you still sad?” Given the “fun” that day started off with, I decided to track my time. It was my first day back to work after taking one official week off for winter break (which is always rough), plus working from home the week before that. Mixed with a really early wake-up call from Ellie, we had a bit of a rough day. Here’s how it went…

Academic LifeJillFebruary 2, 2019behind the scenes, a day in the life, sleepComment