Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Of Many Minds: An interview with Lee Skallerup Bessette When I saw that Rebecca Pope-Ruark and Lee Skallerup Bessette had a new book out that focused on the experience of neurodiversity and mental illness as faculty and staff in higher education, I knew I wanted to talk to them. […]
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Make Your Manuscript Work: An Interview with Laura Portwood-Stacer
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Make Your Manuscript Work: An Interview with Laura Portwood-Stacer Jo VanEvery 0:00 It was my great pleasure to talk to Laura Portwood-Stacer recently about her new book: Make Your Manuscript Work. I’ve been subscribed to Laura’s newsletter for years and often recommend her earlier book The Book Proposal Book, […]
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Hyperfocus and intensive writing styles
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Hyperfocus and intensive writing styles Short writing periods regularly don’t work for everybody. @jovanevery thank god. Every time I see someone tweet that I think why doesn’t it work for me. I write 6 hours straight. Can’t do short. — M.M. (@ProfessMoravec) March 7, 2013 Or Tony’s comment on […]
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End of summer writing panic
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · End of summer writing panic At the beginning of summer or a sabbatical, you probably had 2 goals: This is an ideal time to make substantial progress on your writing projects. And, you need to rest and recharge so you are less tired when you go back to teaching […]
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Spotlight On: The Power of 15 Minutes
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Spotlight On: The Power of 15 Minutes When it comes to writing the primary challenge most scholars face is how to find and protect time for this work. I use 15-minutes as a short hand for any amount of time less than 30 minutes, or so short it feels […]
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Treating each day as a new opportunity
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Treating each day as a new opportunity “My challenge is treating each day like a new opportunity to get things done without letting the perceived inefficiencies of the previous cast a dark cloud over a new working day.” – Planning Class participant (2023) If this is also your challenge, […]
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Reflections on 20 years of self-employment
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Reflections on 20 years of self-employment In April 2005, I found myself unemployed. April 2025 marks 20 years of self-employment. My approach (and my advice) is often to take stock of the context, look at the opportunities available, and pick something to try. As I said in a post […]
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Is it perfectionism? Or impatience?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Is it perfectionism? Or is it impatience One of my coaching clients mentioned that their reluctance to allow themself to write a “shitty first draft” may not be perfectionism but rather impatience. Re-reading Jeanette Hannaford’s review of The Perfectionists Guide to Losing Control in the light of this conversation […]
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Pulling a thread from your tangled mess
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Pulling a thread from your tangled mess In Untangling Your Thoughts As You Write, I outlined a way to get started that leans into divergent thinking in the early stages of writing about your research. In it I said Yes, the published version will need a clear central point. […]
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Untangling your thoughts as you write
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Untangling your thoughts as you write One of the strengths of ADHD and other types of neurodivergence is ‘divergent thinking’: the ability to see connections that others don’t see. As a neurodivergent academic, this can be a real benefit for generating original contributions to knowledge. However, it can also […]
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Conferences as motivation to write
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Conferences as motivation to write When I talk to clients or potential clients about specific writing projects, I often ask them what they have already. It is not uncommon for them to reply that they have partial drafts of chapters or articles which are currently in the form of […]
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Making travel less stressful
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Making Travel Less Stressful This post was written just after returning from a fall trip back to Canada, to see friends and care for loved ones. We realised that the thoughts I was having about travel might help you too… I (Jo) have just got back from my holiday. […]
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