During the first three weeks of the Wednesday Group, you'll set up tools and complete an inventory of the work you have in mind. An important goal for our work is for you to learn to name reasonable goals, learn to assess the time availalbe to complete them, and to map tasks onto time.
Review Your Calendar
In this part of the process, the goal is to situate your project, and yourself, in time. I urge you to think of this as a reflective process, as a means to understanding your project and your relationship to it as it unfolds.
Whether you use paper versions or online versions, review your project in the context of your time. As academics, we find our schedules change sharply every three months or so. While you’re available time may not be consistent, you can use the process of reflection as a way to create continuity. Below is a suggestion.
Instructions:
Use two calendars, a monthly calendar and a weekly/daily calendar time grid. Templates can be found on this site under "Tools for Planning and Reflection".
Monthly calendar: Choose a sequence of months. For example, May through August-- when the Spring semester ends to its beginning in Fall. Go through the months, entering hard deadlines and commitments, including travel and birthdates.
Weekly/Daily calendar: Choose a week. Block in the times you know that you can’t write. If you’re on a short time deadlines, certain things might get sacrificed, like gym time. But consider this a fairly routine week, to start. (You can create a template online that you print out for each week).
As part of a routine weekly reflection, check your monthly calendars against your “Next Action Lists” and “Project Lists”. As part of your daily reflection, look over the week ahead and make decisions about when you will work on your project and what you hope to accomplish.