Welcome to 2023

Today was peak academia. I did some writing. I did some admin. I got some good news, and I got some not-so-good news. I had a brief disagreement with the department photocopier. Over the winter break the South Face of the Parthenon Frieze half fell off the top of my bookshelf. 

I am a person who sets goals, emblazons those goals about my environment, and tries incredibly hard to stick to those plans. I know I've spoken about my goals for this year before - but my main goal is this: to not, under any circumstances, say 'yes' to any more writing projects until all my current writing projects are off my desk. I feel like that's a goal that many academics will be able to empathise with, perhaps you have even set the same goal for yourself. If so: we can do this.

I think endlessly about the things on my plate - having stopped for the winter break I find I cannot quite start again. And so... I shall write a list, starting with replacing the print out of the South Face of the Parthenon Frieze. I'm working on some revisions to an article about the Frieze, teaching the Frieze in week 1 of this term, and will be returning to the Frieze for a paper on touch and movement in religious art I am planning for this summer. The perfect thing to kick start my year, and my productivity. 
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So I hope that you also have come into work and discovered whatever the equivalent is for you: an easy task that relates directly and specifically to other, more cognitively demanding, tasks that are on your to-do list. Happy New Year.