A Little Overwhelmed

Do you ever have one of those days when you feel like you have everything under control until the day starts and so many other things pop up that you have to do?

So I've got a paper to finish by Wednesday to send to an NCA respondent, and I need to get pretty close to finishing an external grant application so that I can get feedback on it before it's due. I've got grading to finish by Thursday, and I'm about 25% of the way done after piddling around on it over the weekend. But with all of that, I felt ok about things.

When I get to my office, I see a stack of complementary review copies of books--I need to select a book(s) for a class next semester that I'm teaching for the first time. (So excited about a new prep!) It's tough to do that because I haven't really thought about the syllabus yet. More support for Weick's ready-fire-aim approach to decision-making--seems to guide my course planning decisions. I also have an email from a student that needs advising (registration is this week) and from a student who is my advisee who needs my permission for two substitutions on her degree program because of schedule conflicts between classes. I have already been working with this student, but when I look at the schedule myself, I see that she only needs one substitution but will have to take an evening class. And one of the organizations that has been helping me with data collection is asking about results--I've written up the academic results but haven't put it together in a format that's ready to be sent out yet.

Very frustrating to have your day planned and have that disrupted. And it's just Monday. I hope that the week improves.