Academic Pursuits and the Need for a Brown Paper Bag
Life in Bloomington is speeding ahead, full throttle. After an absolutely insane trip to L.A. from last Thursday - Monday (involving me...traveling alone with Saya...who got really sick...separate story) for Maryn's fabulous bridal shower and bachelorette party, I'm back in the saddle and trying to cope with my new life as an Assistant Professor.
I remember just a few months ago when we were in Carlsbad with Erin, Dave and Marsha. I was asking Erin, "Oh, but being an Assistant Professor can't be that stressful, right?!"...while Erin just kind of stared back at me with these traumatized eyes and explained that even though she worked as much as humanly possible every single day, she still couldn't get everything done.
Well, Erin: As of today, I. GET. IT. I'm freaked out. I feel like I need to start hyperventilating into a brown paper bag. Ahhhhh!
The upside of all the panic is that I finally feel like my career is in full swing. I'm out of post-doc limbo, I love my new department, and I love being able to choose my own projects and having complete control over what I choose to research and how I spend my days. And, I won't lie. Having the status of a professor ROCKS. Even though I'm far from being tenured, I'm in an environment that values the work I'm doing, and makes me feel very validated professionally. On my first day of work, my new admin (who is totally amazing) asked me whether I prefer aisle or window seats when I fly. I have to say it was a fabulous moment for me.
I'm also on a little high from a few recent successes:
First, a paper I've been working on for a long time was just accepted at the Summer Institute for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), for the workshop on Market Institutions and Financial Market Risk. Our paper was released publicly today (finally!) and can be viewed and downloaded here. I'm really excited to attend in July (my first two nights sans bebe!).
Second, I won a small research seed grant for $20,000, which will pay for some data purchase and a research assistant for several months. It's not a huge amount of money, but it is so helpful, and it's my first award as a Principal Investigator.
But today, the reality set in. Oh. My. God. I realize I'm facing a huge mountain of work, and that there just aren't enough hours in the day to do it. How can I manage all this? Can I stick to a schedule and be productive? Ahhhhh!!!
Here's what I have to do by August 31st:
Also: we're moving at the beginning of August, and we'll be gone for a good ten days to celebrate Maryn's wedding. Meaning I basically only have 8 weeks to do all this stuff.
Kill me. Kill me now.
Please, I would really appreciate a note/comment providing tips for how to get all this DONE!
I remember just a few months ago when we were in Carlsbad with Erin, Dave and Marsha. I was asking Erin, "Oh, but being an Assistant Professor can't be that stressful, right?!"...while Erin just kind of stared back at me with these traumatized eyes and explained that even though she worked as much as humanly possible every single day, she still couldn't get everything done.
Well, Erin: As of today, I. GET. IT. I'm freaked out. I feel like I need to start hyperventilating into a brown paper bag. Ahhhhh!
The upside of all the panic is that I finally feel like my career is in full swing. I'm out of post-doc limbo, I love my new department, and I love being able to choose my own projects and having complete control over what I choose to research and how I spend my days. And, I won't lie. Having the status of a professor ROCKS. Even though I'm far from being tenured, I'm in an environment that values the work I'm doing, and makes me feel very validated professionally. On my first day of work, my new admin (who is totally amazing) asked me whether I prefer aisle or window seats when I fly. I have to say it was a fabulous moment for me.
I'm also on a little high from a few recent successes:
First, a paper I've been working on for a long time was just accepted at the Summer Institute for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), for the workshop on Market Institutions and Financial Market Risk. Our paper was released publicly today (finally!) and can be viewed and downloaded here. I'm really excited to attend in July (my first two nights sans bebe!).
Second, I won a small research seed grant for $20,000, which will pay for some data purchase and a research assistant for several months. It's not a huge amount of money, but it is so helpful, and it's my first award as a Principal Investigator.
But today, the reality set in. Oh. My. God. I realize I'm facing a huge mountain of work, and that there just aren't enough hours in the day to do it. How can I manage all this? Can I stick to a schedule and be productive? Ahhhhh!!!
Here's what I have to do by August 31st:
- Write and submit a 40-page-ish career grant proposal to the W.T. Grant Foundation by July 6th (which, by the way, I haven't even fully conceptualized yet).
- Attend the NBER Summer Institute, July 7-9.
- If accepted to move forward from the pre-proposal stage, write and submit a 40-page-ish grant proposal to the MacArthur Foundation by mid-August.
- Collaborate with the Indiana University School of Education on a 40-page-ish grant proposal to IES, due in late July.
- Oh yeah, NSF is paying my summer salary. Guess that means I should, like, work on something for it. Here comes paper #2...
- Continue administering a giant survey, finalize contract payments, and finish collecting data from 26 schools of education in California for the project I'm supposed to be leaving behind at Stanford.
- Finish my JPAM revise and resubmit (which I've been procrastinating on since OCTOBER)
- Finish writing up a draft of a school finance paper I started a few months ago (and which is SO CLOSE to being finished), and SUBMIT THE DARN THING.
- I'm responsible for fully developing a complete online course in statistics for the Master's in Public Policy students, and turning it in by August 31. Heh.
- Prep two courses I'll be teaching in fall.
Also: we're moving at the beginning of August, and we'll be gone for a good ten days to celebrate Maryn's wedding. Meaning I basically only have 8 weeks to do all this stuff.
Kill me. Kill me now.
Please, I would really appreciate a note/comment providing tips for how to get all this DONE!
Ummm... I have nothing helpful to say, besides "that list of work makes me want to curl up into the fetal position." Good luck!
Posted by
Nicole |
June 18, 2009 at 8:51 PM
prioritize and drink a lot of wine to get through those rough nights...that's all I've got! and you'll get it all done b/c you're an all-star!!!!
Posted by
Mishy |
June 18, 2009 at 10:01 PM
I'm tempted to make a smart-ass comment about not over-committing but you know that so... Do you HAVE to do the W.T.Grant proposal this year (i.e., is this the last year you are eligible)? If not, do it next year. If you have to do it now, how much overlap is there with your IES proposal? And who are you collaborating with for the IES proposal? If it's senior faculty, ask them if they'd be willing to do more of the writing. About #5, is there a deliverable for NSF? If not, don't worry about it now. Your R&R (#7) takes precedence over a first submission (#8) - unless the referees asked you to write a whole new paper, you CANNOT take a year for a revision and expect a positive response. For the fall courses, get syllabi from people who have taught the courses before so you can choose a textbook and figure out an outline of topics - the rest you can fill in as you've got time later.
And for god sake's woman, stop blogging!
Posted by
Jennifer Imazeki |
June 19, 2009 at 9:43 AM
ashlyn, i'm sorry to say that me (or maryn) are the wrong two people to solicit studious tips from. maryn's physically in class, but mentally checked out. and i'm well, i wasn't even physically in class during the nba finals. and i was baking cookies right before midterms. since basketball is no more, i suggest you bake cookies to assuage the stress. peanut butter chocolate chip sound good?
Posted by
claricespieces |
June 20, 2009 at 1:01 AM