Several years back, I began to write monthly to-do lists to help me keep track of what’s on my plate on a different time scale than days or weeks. I share these lists here, and report back each month on what I was able to accomplish.
My February list focused on making progress in a number of different areas! Here’s what I was able to get done in the last month:
- Welcomed our new chancellor and interim provost. Our incoming chancellor (the equivalent of other institutions’ president) started the first week of February. We had already prepared a lot of onboarding materials, but there were several meetings to help get him up to speed on all of our projects and initiatives. Our provost also announced his departure in January, so I was also involved in onboarding a new interim provost in February as well.
- Participated in a search process for a new leader. In February, we completed the search for the person who will be hired to take over the interim leadership role that I’ve held for a little over a year. (As much as I’ve loved learning in this role, I chose not to apply to the permanent position.) I’m looking forward to helping transition them into their new role later this year.
- Trained my own GPT. I’ve been researching more about AI and in February I tried my hand at training my own GPT. I purchased a couple of courses to help me figure this out, and it was actually easier (and cheaper) than I expected it to be.
- Continued making progress on my edited collection project. My co-editors and I have our book deadline coming up in early May so I spent February getting my three chapters wrapped up and submitted. I also worked with several contributors on final edits to their chapters. It’s very satisfying to see the volume coming together!
February saw me plodding along with several different projects and now it’s time to plan for a new month of to-do items! I’m ready to launch into March and see what this third month of the year will bring.
Here are some of the items on my March to-do list:
- Create my spring bucket list. I like to have a bucket list as I transition between seasons, so I’ll be putting together my list for spring that will run March through May. It’s so fun to think ahead to lighter and warmer days as we get further into the year.
- Attend a local conference. The UPCEA conference is happening in Denver this month and I’ll be attending that and helping out with some logistics since I was on the conference planning committee. I’m not presenting anything, but will be around and attending sessions (if you happen to be going, let me know!).
- Take a couple of vacation days. Work has been pretty full-on in the first part of this year, so I’m looking forward to a couple days out of the office toward the end of March. I usually take our spring break off, but this year that may not be possible, so my goal is at least two days in a row of vacation time. I’m not sure how I’ll spend it yet, but it will be fun to anticipate that time for rest or creativity.
- Prepare to read Onyx Storm. The latest book in the Fourth Wing series came out in January and I want to re-read the first two books in the series before diving into the latest one. I have them all on audio and ebook and I’ve been saving them for when I have a little more open time on my plate. Hopefully, I can get the first two re-read in March and then dive into book 3 in April.
It’s going to be a busy month! What are you looking forward to in the month of March?
