.
Crazy Week.... What Now?
The week has been crazy for me. Crazy in such a way that my neurons feel akin to the image above. I am not seeming to find any long term way out of the enormous pile of work that has befallen me, and I seem to be "going" non-stop from the moment I get here to the moment I leave. I know in my heart and mind that this is not right, and it is not how it is supposed to be.
What I need to do is to execute a plan to reign in all the insane, unnecessary, and unproductive paper shuffling b*llsh*t I have fallen into "having" to do, and to get back to what my role is in life (as a professor). I am supposed to:
1. Teach (primarily via oratory lectures) my students with my heart and soul about the knowledge and passion I have about my fields of expertise.
2. Research in my "quest" to discover new knowledge. While that was really a highfalutin way to state it along with a purposeful dash of unnecessary hubris, the reality is... research is fun and enjoyable. It is peaceful to mess around with critters and to devise new things to attempt to learn from them. I very much enjoy being in the lab, working with my rats and mice, and find it soothing. I also really do get awfully damn excited if and when I discover something novel.... especially when I can show statistical relevance.
3. Write and publish my research and research theories/ideas. This is what I really should be focusing on a helluva lot more than I have been of late. But, in some ways, this is an easier avenue of work for me to avoid.... because I can often develop a case of "writer's block"... but that is not exactly what I mean... I really mean more that I can often fall into "stage fright" in terms of my scientific writing. I enjoy writing a great deal, as my almost 8 years on this blog may attest, but when I get into a professional writing mode, I can easily slip into a downward spiral where I can become almost obsessed with minutiae of how I phrase something.... in ways that are very typically unimportant at best.
4. Service to my U and my community (local, regional, and national). Service can and is very rewarding.... BUT B*LLSH*T PAPER PUSHING IS NOT SERVICE NO MATTER HOW MUCH SOME BOZOS THINK IT IS.
So, with that, I am planning and trying to figure out how to implement my goal of severely reducing the b*llsh*t paper-pushing, paperwork nonsense I have emotionally started to drown in, and instead get back to what and who I really am: A teacher, a researcher, a technical writer, and a man of service.
* * * * *
So, I think as soon as I can break free of these paperwork shackles, I am going to try to smooth out and dissipate the crazy patterns in my head with a few gentle libations and pipes with my elderly father-in-law. Perhaps I will ask him for some guidance on ways to keep my work life more in keeping with how it should be. Or maybe we will simply joke around and talk about other things.
PipeTobacco
4 Comments:
>but when I get into a professional writing mode<
I don't know your method of writing, but why not insert a point where you just picture an interested colleague and give him a run-down of your experiment in the general outline that the final paper would have.
You drop in at a bar and order a beer. Fred asks what you have been doing. You give him a (sloppy) abstract.
Fred lights a cigar and says he's a bit cold on the subject, so you add background (introduction)
He starts firing questions on how you set up the experiment and you give them.
He then asks about the results and, after discuss them the bartender leans over and gives a summary. Put all your passion into it and DO NOT pretend the guy you are talking with is a peer reviewer or editor!
You can next go back and write the article in a desiccator.
Then sell your original story as science fiction.
.
Perhaps I will ask him for some guidance on ways to keep my work life more in keeping with how it should be.
Learn to say, "No."
I've been doing better since spending about half of my time out in the country and not watching the news so damn much, and not giving a shit about a lot of things I can't change anyway.
I agree with BBC...saying no or just throwing it all in the trash as it comes in. I have think a little bit of ego comes into play here...as in "isn't it great everyone values my opinion" or something like that.
.as in "isn't it great everyone values my opinion" or something like that.
I don't give a shit if everyone values my opinion, I just collect those that do.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home