Three things no. 4

Well, this is my first Three Things since October 2024. So much for a more sustainable format for regular blogging! Last October things really did pick up for me at work: I presented at the Patristic, Medieval, & Renaissance Studies conference in November so I was spending the last couple months rushing to finish up my paper. & the back half of the semester always seems like it’s nonstop, especially when I’m teaching new classes as I was in the fall. (Well, I’ve taught The Way of Francis & Clare before, but I was teaching an almost entirely new version of it.) It’s not hard, I’ve found, for teaching & research & service to consume almost everything.

So to avoid being consumed, I’m trying, as a rule this semester, not to work on the weekends. I just want to have a life outside of teaching & research. This spring semester I’m teaching two courses I’ve taught before—The Way of Francis & Clare, & Catholic Theology—& I’ve made no major changes to either since the last time I taught them, which helps me keep this rule. Many of my lessons are already planned & so I can use the time I would have used lesson planning to keep up with grading, research, & my service responsibilities. I’m still sometimes tempted to “get ahead” on things for next week over the weekend. But I’ve come to think that many of my tasks will take as long as I give them.

Of course, I say that as I’m currently taking a break/procrastinating from the grading I’m doing today. I have a stack of papers I want to return to students on Tuesday before they take off for break & I’m anticipating a lot of absences on Thursday (the last Tuesday/Thursday class before midterm break).I know I can’t leave all of the remaining papers to Monday, so I know some grading has to happen this weekend. But all the same, I am breaking my rule.