Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Life is like a video game Caveat: I am not a gamer but friends who are have confirmed that what I’m going to say here makes sense. One of my posts for the Careers Cafe at University Affairs compared life to a video game. Video game developers write stories […]
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Maybe sitting at your desk to work is the problem
Do you struggle with research because you think you need to be sitting at your desk to do it? I know that schools are really big on sitting still and being quiet as the necessary precursor to doing academic work. You did well in school. But just because that’s how school trained you, doesn’t mean […]
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There will always be things you don’t know
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · There will always be things you don’t know You are an intelligent person. You have successfully completed an advanced degree, secured a position, maybe even already have tenure. You may have won competitive scholarships along the way. (If you are still doing your PhD, you have still accomplished much. […]
Read More »Taking responsibility for your career
Every week or so we see another article in the mainstream or Higher Education press telling smart young people that going to graduate school in the humanities is a waste of time and money. We seem to be coming to the point qualitative researchers would call “saturation”, where new data doesn’t really add anything knew […]
Read More »“Cutting” words
A participant in A Meeting With Your Writing admitted that she was discouraged. She needs to cut 2000 words from a paper. She thought it would be easy but it turned out to be really hard. This is one place where counting words works against you. You wrote all those words for a reason, dammit. […]
Read More »Stop diminishing your accomplishments
Whether it is in the weekly e-mail that clients send me, in tweets, or in casual conversations I’ve been noticing that academics seem to diminish their accomplishments. “I’ve had a slow week.” “I only marked 2 essays.” “I only wrote [insert number here] words today.” “I only read 10 articles this week.” Negative talk demotivates By […]
Read More »Start thinking about your post-doc early
Are you within 12 – 18 months of finishing your dissertation? I know that’s a hard question. And you can’t really know with any certainty. Do you feel like you are approaching the end of this process? Have you considered a post-doctoral fellowship? Even if you are closer to finished or have already defended your dissertation, […]
Read More »You always have time for yoga, mama
When you’re busy, it’s easy to forget to look after yourself. You feel like you don’t have time to go to the gym, to go for a run, for yoga, for meditation, for sleep, to eat properly … If you’re lucky, your kids or someone else who loves you will remind you that you always have time. […]
Read More »Break time
One of the principles about focus that I really like is the value of breaks. Whether you take them every 25 minutes, every 90 minutes or something in between, taking breaks actually improves your focus. Breaks create containers for your focus. Breaks also shift how you view the inability to focus for long stretches of […]
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What would your Fairy Godmother help you do?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · What would your Fairy Godmother help you do? Cinderella didn’t think she was good enough to marry a prince. She certainly couldn’t have asked for all the things she needed to go to the ball. Her fairy godmother just knew she was more amazing than her current circumstances suggested. […]
Read More »Be careful how you use the term “binge writing”
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 my Pomodoro technique post in which he indicated he liked 2 […]
Read More »Why I don’t recommend the Pomodoro technique
This little Italian tomato has been popping up in my tweet-stream, blog comments, blog posts I read, and other places around the Internet. It looks like a really cool technique. (There is a video on that site that explains the basics.) Lots of people are using it and getting good results. So why do I […]
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