Roll up roll up Autumn Writing Challenge!

[bigkidsdidit]

Welcome everyone to Autumn Writing. Post your targets to be done before Christmas. Small or large!

[Yogafire]

No ethics needed here. Baby is sick so only half day to work. Have probably got more done today than a full day though. Makes me think I should drop all the after school care and finish at 3 every day instead of ploughing on til 5

[Yogafire]

I'm going to finish this section of chapter and review first three chapters of book by fri. It's down here now so it will happen...

[worstofbothworlds]

Lots of niggly changes suggested by Reviewer 1 but nothing major - I always find that making them is a lot less effort than thinking about them!

I really should have put more about grants up there - grant 1 is complete but grant 2 is one of those outline-then-full grants and we have to do the full application by Dec 1st I think.

[bigkidsdidit]

Yoga that's what I do! I finish at 2.30 three days a week and collect the dc from school. I swear productivity has gone up, not down, since I started

[worstofbothworlds]

That's good to hear bigkids. I'm currently on 4 days a week and I think I'm going to switch to 3 full days and 2 mornings once DC2 starts school - I do find that the nursery pickup deadline concentrates my mind so maybe the lunchtime deadline will do the same!

My DC are too loud and hyperactive for me to WFH so I'll officially be part time.

[NeverEverAnythingEver]

I work 3 days a week and when the kids were in primary school I spread the hours over 5 days, just school hours. I still managed to have a decent publication rate. Now that they are in secondary I'm thinking whether I should change my working pattern ...

[worstofbothworlds]

Ah now DH is going to make a major downshift before ours reach secondary, so I may well go back to full time then. But for the moment I'd like some flexibility.
What does 3 days over 5 equate to?

[worstofbothworlds]

But back on topic, I'm on a train with the endless manual. Just time for one pomodoro before arrival.

[NeverEverAnythingEver]

"What does 3 days over 5 equate to?"

Hah. Nobody knows. So I look in my contract which says something like 40 hours a week, take 60%, which gives 24 hours a week, spread over 5 days, that means under 5 hours a day, which fits neatly within 9-3.

[bigkidsdidit]

I am struggling on. Averaging two hours a day on the paper and I am going to submit this Friday or it will kill me. The end is so nearly in sight!

Have a seminar tomorrow for the HEA fellowship and on the train home I'll map out a piece of work based on that.

[worstofbothworlds]

Confusing!
Ok so I was supposed to be going to a meeting on the train.
First train broke down, fortunately everyone else at the meeting (large) just carried on without me (they couldn't wait), I got v little done on that train because I couldn't sit down.

Then I had to wait for a train back (basically I was almost there but was on a broken down train for about 45 mins, but it's quite a trek from the station to the meeting so it wasn't worth me going).
That was cancelled.
At least I did a bit of work on the train back. But what a waste of a morning.

Now at home and have nearly finished this chapter of the manual.
It only has about 5 chapters:
1 and 2 are currently with co-authors (but I think I want to add stuff - and I suspect they have done nothing with them ).
4 is the most niggly one and I've just FINISHED going through all the niggly comments.
I should probably reformat references/table numbers but I want to get it off my desk.

Tomorrow: sort out who's working on grant 1 and what they are doing.

Also: hang my head in despair at the proliferation of useless/half finished/sent-to-5-journals-and-no-success-yet articles that are paralysing me.
I've tried showing them to colleagues but they generally just say "ooh that's an interesting article, you should definitely resubmit it" which is of course NOT what the reviewers think!

And of course: intro week stuff.

[worstofbothworlds]

(that was to neverever)

[bigkidsdidit]

Well done on finishing chapter four!

[allegretto]

Can I join you? My goal is to complete boook proposal based on thesis for 20 Oct. There is very little chance of it being accepted but I decided to do it in order to get my arse into gear and open the damn thing!

[CocoaIsGone]

Hi there, I am writing a book chapter on quite a personal topic, and then an article by Christmas. I have been struggling to write and so I have cleared as much as possible from my commitments to focus on it.

[worstofbothworlds]

Well it was kind of finished for the second time but I am pleased!

[bigkidsdidit]

Welcome everyone!

[JustAnotherManicUsername]

Another belated joiner please!

My Christmas targets are:

• major revisions on journal article (by end of Oct)
  
• second draft of co-authored chapter (also end Oct)
  
• minor rewrites and submission to a new journal of rejected paper.
  

I am mostly failing to actually do the first one because I have got The Fear and care about this article too much. I'm much less invested in the other pubs so they'll be much easier (I hope).

[worstofbothworlds]

Right, quick Skype with colleague and we are all set for dividing up what we will do on the grant application. I have the niggly bits to start with.

So today - 2 x 1/2 hour on that.
Still dithering on my three (count them three) fully completed and submitted multiple times and rejected articles.

My back is hurting today so I am trying not to sit still for too long. May do some tidying in the office instead.

[purplepandas]

Late joiner:

One MS finished and submitted (teaching is killing me)
Another ready to submit.

Both are in process.

[CocoaIsGone]

I work school hours, with 4 hours a week extra childcare, and it has affected my productivity. but I have had a lot of personal stuff to deal with, which has not helped.

Today I have done another 2000 words on the chapter. I am going to write one more section and then do admin tonight once DC are in bed. It is all over the place though, I have an outline and then I am filling in bits, rather than writing from beginning to end. I am sort of hoping it will come together.

however, I am glad to be writing again.

[worstofbothworlds]

Aargh, my back is doing my head in (so to speak) and I can only really sit down for about 10 mins at a time. But I got an hour on Grant #1 done.
I have registration to do this afternoon so that's going to be fun.

[JustAnotherManicUsername]

I'd be really pleased with myself, Cocoals, if I'd managed 2k words by early afternoon, even if they were a bit random! But I'm a very slow writer.

So slow that I've done nothing on my revisions except change one of the keywords. And write a sentence and then delete it. Ah well, I'll try again tomorrow. I'm trying to keep the first hour of work clear for writing whenever possible, so I don't get distracted by other stuff and also because my brain's best in the mornings. By this time of day I'm no good for anything but admin.

[Yogafire]

My brain is best in the morning too and I aim for early starts, but then fart around for the first hour. It's become like a ritual warm up I'd like to dispense with

2k words is good!

[worstofbothworlds]

Oh yes the ritual faffing around! Aargh!
I also have a ritual post-lunch-faff I think.