I started writing this while sitting at my kitchen table, supervising the 7-year-old’s homework. It is due today. He normally does this earlier in the week but many of our systems are off. So it goes. We’ve been figuring out how many 3, 4, and 5-letter words you can make out of the letters of “Phillies.”
(Or a 6-letter word? I will keep pondering this all day most likely.)
In any case, it is November, so I decided to start my modified version of NaNoWriMo. Instead of writing 1667 words in a novel every day, I am writing 1000 words of musings, each weekday, on how I am going to revise an existing novel. I’m only 3 days in so far but I’ve already solved some major problems just by forcing my brain to think about it during the time I’m typing. I have increased the chances that I will actually revise this novel in the future as I ponder it. There were characters and plot elements I liked, so we shall see where this leads.
Speaking of existing manuscripts… I was interested to see a press release from Moneyzine about the career trajectories of start-up founders. Apparently, even founders of failed start-ups gain the equivalent of 2.4 years of seniority compared with their non-founder peers in future endeavors. Many, many years ago, like in my mid-20s, I wrote a book called Grindhopping, making the case for self-employment early in one’s career. You could learn a variety of business skills that might allow you to enter the grind higher on the ladder later if you wanted. Cool to see that a study bears this out.
We have family photos this weekend. I have yet to choose/approve outfits, but that’s on the list for the next two days. The 7-year-old has a new pair of ice skates, since he decided to join the 11-year-old for ice skating lessons. Flag football ends and a new set of swimming lessons starts. Theoretically there will be time for a long run, a date night dinner, and I will sing Faure’s Requiem with my choir. So it should be a good few days. Hope everyone has an adventurous weekend planned!
In other news: I wanted to highlight a few podcasts/places I’ve been on recently as I’ve been promoting Tranquility by Tuesday!
I love the ladies of What Fresh Hell, so I was thrilled to be a guest on the show talking all things Tranquility by Tuesday.
I was on Amy Bushatz’s Humans Outside podcast, talking about getting outside as a modified version of Rule #3: Move by 3 p.m.
You can read a Q&A with me that ran at City Journal, talking about the rules and my reading projects.
I was on Kansas Public Radio talking about the book, and on Viewpoints Radio too!
And in case you missed it, here’s Tilt Parenting from a few weeks ago.
LILIES is the obvious 6 letter but that’s no fun given that it’s a rhyme. Can’t see any others right now… but will keep puzzling on it! Let us know if you find one?
Homework enforcement is one of my least fun tasks. I need to find a way to body double my 7yo while she does hers so she doesn’t feel lonely/left out.
I’m doing NaBloPoMo (blogging daily in November) with about a dozen other bloggers in my little corner of the internet and I think that’s the right amount of writing for me! But I do think it would be fun to do NaNoWriMo some year…just not this one!
My husband and I started two small business right out of graduate school. Only now, over a decade later, can I start to fully appreciate how much we learned and continue to learn (one of the businesses became part of an aqui-hire with a US company, and I still manage the basic operations of our other small business). My husband’s career has leapfrogged significantly because of his entrepreneurial experience; it opens a lot of doors that simply aren’t available via conventional “ladder-climbing” routes. He just accepted a senior executive position with a European company and so much of this feeds into being willing to grind it out for 8ish years with our small businesses – and it was a GRIND. But those sacrifices are paying off and I have a huge appreciation for the experience. It’s not for everyone and I think I might have run the opposite direction if I had a crystal ball…but I wouldn’t change a thing now that I have the perspective on how much we learned and the valuable connections/experiences entrepreneurship provided for our family. Phew. Long comment, but I have a LOT to say on this topic because it has been such a pivotal part of our lives/career.
I’m doing a modified version of AcWriMo, where my goal is not to write tons but to dedicate time each working day to clear projects off my desk – all of which are close enough to completion to just need between 1-2 days.
7 days in (with a mini break away with my husband in there), I’ve gotten 3/7 done – proofs for an article and all the author agreements signed, a book review submitted and approved, and a short update piece I owed an organisation.
4 projects left – 3 are co-authored so basically the goal is to get them off my plate and onto someone elses’ (with a trip to an archive to take a picture of something in there – but that’s quite a fun job), and one is just a solid day of brainstorming. My most important work as an academic is writing but it always gets pushed to the bottom of the to do list, so this is my effort to push it towards the top.
@Cb – I do find it so interesting that so many academics struggle with making time to write when it is, as you point out, the core of the job. The dual focus of teaching + research is no doubt tricky from a time perspective.
Well, my clinical job takes up 30-35 hours of my time per week (counted at 50%), I sleep about 8-9 hours per night unless I am on call, and I have been trying to take care of myself lately, so exercise and spending time with my family take time too. Then you also have to move projects along when they are at the before-writing phase, and have meetings to keep your primary data collection efforts afloat. So, that’s why.