*I have graders for some classes, but I prefer to grade homework for certain classes myself out of some ill-conceived virtuosity.

Do you mean virtuousness, or great skill in some artistic pursuit i.e. like a virtuoso, or is this a reference I'm not getting to the 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe?

I did mean virtuousness, ha. I am not a savant of grading.

Just wanted to say, and be the first to do so, that I enjoyed reading this post, and am glad you put it up. I don't have much to say about it beyond that, but I didn't want the dearth of comments to lead you to doubt your posting virtuosity.

Grading is hard because if you give everyone a C on the grounds you would probably find something about them that really sucks if you took the time to get to know them, they complain to the department and suddenly you're the problem.

Piles of stuff are a motivational structure for many people- you can always find what you worked on.

Alternately, build a nice structure for them, here's where Caslon worked: https://images.app.goo.gl/dtbYMDauLbfPfFxRA

For added motivation, think of the clouds on Mars
https://twitter.com/marscuriosity/status/1376917200942952449?s=21

Whoops, Plantin not Caslon, wrong type carver.

"It's working, but I resent it" sounds like pure success. My Dad was a grade school teacher, and he would fall further and further behind in grading throughout the quarter, then go on a 36 hour grading marathon the weekend before report cards were due.

I think grading is repetitive enough that you'll never trick yourself into enjoying it, so keeping ahead of it so it never overwhelms you is the win. Don't give up on it semester's end, then evaluate it in context -- it was an annoyance throughout the semester, but headed off the waves of shame and panic in last minute grading, and gave the students timely feedback throughout. A week after the semester's over, you can decide whether the weekly annoyance overwhelmed the benefit, or whether you'd rather suffer once than 17 times.