What are the three best parts of being a professor? June, July, and August.
It’s an old saw, but it is true. To a point. If you don’t really organize yourself, that time can fly by and you return to the classroom in September with the queasy feeling of wasted time.
I submitted grades four weeks ago. I needed two weeks to recover my mental health. Then I needed two weeks to catch up on the housewifey stuff that piles up during the semester – scheduling doctor’s appointments, sorting through clothes, scrubbing the bathroom. Still, I have two months until my next lecture. What’s happening with that time?
It’s very simple. I have a five/five plan. Five pages of writing and
five miles at the gym. The kids will be in camp and summer school for
the next four week. Every morning, I’m showering, driving to my broom closet
office and writing five pages of genius. Then I’m doing kid stuff. When
Steve walks in the door at 7, I am going to the gym for the treadmill
and trashy TV. By the end of July, I want a good rough draft and a six
pack.
All work and no play… We also made a list of all the fun things we
want to do this summer. In the past, I would have said that a list is
the opposite of fun. Fun must be spontaneous. But if we don’t put
things on the calendar, the weekend gets booked up with other stuff
pretty quickly. So, I’ve written done all the things that we’ve said
that we want to do, but haven’t actually done yet – Yankee game, Great
Adventure, Camping, MOMA (without the boys) — and they’ve been fit into a box on the master calendar.
June, July, and August involve a lot of self discipline. Everybody
says that they want want to work at home and be in control of their own
schedules, but it’s tough. Without these lists and plans and forced
showers at 6am, I could very easily blow the entire day parked in front
of my computer. I could easily fill my day with blogging, tinkering
around the house, and online solitaire. For the next two months, there
will be an ongoing battle between lazy me and productive me. Sometimes
I think that a 9 to 5 job would be easier.
Apt. 11d 
I love your plan. I am very undisciplined and that is why I really need an office and the structure of a job with actual hours or at least expectations of attendance. I know this is a character flaw, but I prefer to separate work from home more.
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January and May are pretty damn nice too, at least on the calendar at my institution!
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Your self-discipline is inspiring. All I have is a to-do list. OK, I have about 3 to-do lists despite my best efforts to keep it all in one place. See? No self-discipline here.
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We actually took D to the Elliason exhibit at MoMA this weekend, and he was fairly interested in it.
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Maybe set a resolution of no beer until I write five pages (or at least send my sister a thank-you note for the toy she sent).
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