August Plans

August is here. This means two-thirds of the summer has gone by for me. I was traveling for much of the first half of summer, both domestically and internationally. None of these were work trips, so I was spending time with friends and family, and putting on some pounds eating great food! The only downside was that I had the slowest recovery to date for jet lag when I returned to the U.S. It’s annoying to feel fatigued most of the day and not be clear-headed.

I did get a little work accomplished in June and July. I finished writing up a paper and was able to submit it before my international trip. Reviewer reports came back just after I recovered from jet lag so I was able to send off my edits and responses. Yesterday I heard from the journal editor that the manuscript was accepted, so I expect to be working on the proofs when I receive them sometime this month.

My grand plans for this month are to work on some new research projects and prepare for Fall semester classes. I’m going to try and devote mornings to research, and afternoons will be for class prep and some reading. There will likely be bits of admin work squeezed in here and there. Earlier this week I prepared for some new research projects by downloading the latest version of my computational software and running a few tests. I also did a lot of office cleaning last week, recycling and shredding lots of old stuff. Now I have more open desk space and I’m ready for new work!

It has only been one day in August but I’m off to a good start. This morning I perused my folder of near-future projects. I have three new students starting at the end of August (to replace the three students who graduated in May) so I’m looking for what might spark their interest but also something I’m excited about. Today I started some preliminary calculations on what might be an interesting project. I was so excited to work on it that I kept at it after lunch for another hour and a half. Then I switched over to start working on the syllabus for my Quantum Chemistry class. I looked through my syllabus and notes from two years ago (the last time I taught it) and started to plan where the exams would fall in the Fall (pun intended).

Using the new version of the software also means making some minor changes to my “student crib sheets”. New versions often mean minor changes to the graphical user interface, which means that the step-by-step protocols change slightly. Once a student is familiar with the software, this isn’t a problem. But in the early stages, having a detailed step-by-step really helps. My students have committed to my standard two full days of onboarding – learning some Linux, the VI text editor, and the computational chemistry software proper. So they’re coming by the week before classes begin. That week will also be busy with administrative meetings as I will have a new class of first-year academic advisees.

We’ll see if I can keep up my enthusiasm for these August plans. I have built in some half or full-day Fridays off to keep me in a good summer mood!