7 days out

I am trying to segue into a routine and some self-discipline, after a summer of doing what I wanted, pretty much when I wanted. (Even the online course offered quite a bit of flexibility, at least on an hourly basis.)

That means: going to bed earlier and toughing out insomnia instead of succumbing to the lure of laptop video. It means getting up early, in prep for the 6 am alarms. It means staying on top of household chores so they don't get out of control (Laundry Mountain, anyone?).

Also, this term, it's gonna be really important to keep up an active research and writing program, not just on my "research day" but consistently, every day. So today I resisted the urge to fiddle around with my syllabi, and instead conference-called with my co-author on the chapter of our book on traditional cities (still have to make an outline out of the notes), and read, cover to cover,
Edgar M. Hoover's scintillating 1937 Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries for a research project I intend to present at a conference in November.

Oh, and I read Sunday's NY Times and the local papers. I urge my students to keep up with events, so I have to walk the walk.

It's 7 pm, so I think I'll "take the rest of the day off," which is what my boss used to recommend at 6 pm when he stopped in my office on his way out of the building. Ah, those were the days!