Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · The frustrations of being a dedicated teacher You are a dedicated teacher. You want your students to learn. When you take that ethical obligation seriously, and work hard to make it possible for students to learn and do well, it can be frustrating when students seem not to make […]
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When your writing project needs to be left alone
Sometimes what your project needs to move forward is to be left alone so the ideas can mull, ferment, or percolate in the back of your mind. This stage will feel painful, unproductive, and like you are procrastinating. Strategies for the mulling phase Physical work is a good option. Our brains work better when we are […]
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The dangers of counting words
A lot of people count words as a way of measuring their writing progress. Although there are stages of the writing process where this is helpful, there are also points in the process where counting words could actually be damaging. What you measure, affects your process If you measure the number of words, you are going […]
Read More »Dorothy E. Smith on the purpose of publishing
I’ve been pulling together my thoughts on the writing process and publishing to form Short Guides on popular ebook platforms. In doing so I remembered an early influence on my thinking around validation and communication: Dorothy E. Smith. My copy of The Everyday World as Problematic was published in 1988, the year before I began […]
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Do you suffer from Imposter Syndrome?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Do you suffer from impostor syndrome? That’s one of those faux-medical terms for a Very Real Thing. You feel like you don’t really belong, you aren’t really qualified, and at any moment someone is going to find out and your whole life will come crashing down. It’s related to […]
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One thing at a time?
This post is part of a series on Optimizing Focus. Finding it hard to focus is normal. Self-flagellation does not work to improve your focus. Furthermore it takes time and energy that takes you away from your writing; it is another distraction. I firmly believe that you can approach your work compassionately rather than violently. […]
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It’s not too late to adjust your plans
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · It’s not too late to adjust your plans As I write this I am thinking of one person who has shared her feeling that she’s overcommitted this term, and didn’t manage to get any rest over the break, and is Never Doing This Again. I’m writing it to everyone […]
Read More »The 15-minute practice, 1 year later
I’ve been preaching the value of establishing a regular writing practice. If you are writing regularly, you will produce journal articles, books, and whatever else you need to produce. Establishing a regular practice is hard, but research shows that as little as 15 minutes per day can be effective. You can find 15 minutes. I’ve […]
Read More »Slack: the key to successful plans
Note: This post is not about the messaging app. It’s about slack as in not tightening the rope too much, leaving a buffer or white-space, etc. During late December and early January the number of posts in my Facebook feed about planning grew considerably. And then there were the inevitable cries of frustration that something […]
Read More »Have you come down with something?
Universities bring together people from a wide range of places, each with their own strains of common viruses, and put them in close quarters. Students are perhaps not eating as well as they should, sleeping as much as they need, and partying a bit too much. You letting your own basic self-care practices slide in […]
Read More »Breathe
In the spirit of my Learned from Yoga posts, I want to draw your attention to a recent post by Aimée Morrison, Let it breathe. An excerpt gives you a flavour of the problem she addresses: When I began teaching, and for some time after, I used to try to assuage such anxieties by crowding […]
Read More »End of term chaos
My clients and participants in A Meeting With Your Writing, not to mention various people’s posts on social media, remind me that there is such a thing as End of Term Chaos. Just like Beginning of Term Chaos, this is temporary. It will pass. Is this you? Are you overwhelmed? Tired? Having difficulty focusing? Were you […]
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