Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Meaningfulness Matters: A Spotlight I have been supporting academics with research and writing in some way since 2005. It took several years for my business to evolve into what it is today, but one thing that has remained consistent is my belief that focusing on what matters to you […]
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A category for all posts that have an audio recording of the text available in podcast format. Most blog posts will have the Soundcloud player embedded into the post, or will have a link to the Soundcloud track.
This is *not* your new year, new start
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · This is *not* your new year, new start The beginning of the calendar year is accompanied by a lot of cultural pressure to reflect on the year just ended and make some big decisions about the year ahead. Reflection and planning are both practices I encourage. However, if you […]
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Spotlight On: Grading Season
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Spotlight On: Grading Season Grading is one of those things that many academics struggle to find meaningful or enjoyable, but is required by your employer. Grading is often constrained by policies you have little influence over and deadlines you don’t control. My work is focused on helping academics find […]
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Making decisions: peer review
This post was originally written in February 2021 as a follow up to Planning Your Winter Semester and was shared in the Academic Writing Studio. It has been edited and divided into a series of shorter posts for ease of reading. The general principles—habits, routines, and default responses—are explained in the first post in the […]
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Overcommitted? Declaring a moratorium
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Overcommitted? Declaring a moratorium It’s easy to get overcommitted. In addition to all the things you have to do, there are a lot of things you would like to do. You don’t want to manage your workload by dropping everything that makes your work meaningful. In fact, I encourage […]
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Managing the energy you use to make decisions
This post was originally written in February 2021 as a follow up to Planning Your Winter Semester and was shared in the Academic Writing Studio. It has been edited and divided into a series of shorter posts for ease of reading. The others are available at the end of this post. Jo VanEvery, Academic Career […]
Read More »![A flatlay photo of a white desk surface displaying a few items. A black rope noticeboard with walnut frame reads: "Things to do: 1. own today. 2. [empty space] 3. [empty space]. A pair of bright neon turquoise wired headphones, a laptop, turquoise notebook, black coffee in white mug and grey cable knit jumper sleeve decorate the image edges.](https://jovanevery.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/emma-matthews-digital-content-production-p6g6S_kXkFc-unsplash-900x600.jpg)
Motivation and accomplishment in your writing practice
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Motivation & accomplishment in your writing practice Given how hard it is for most academics to find time to work on their writing, and how difficult it is to know how long some stages of the process will take, I advocate establishing a regular writing practice and trusting […]
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Priorities and boundaries in the face of job insecurity
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Priorities & boundaries in the face of job losses A friend (not an academic) has recently lost their job and noted that one of the most frustrating things about it is: “nobody ever looked at our performance, a decision was made several levels up and eliminated the department wholesale.” […]
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What is your plan to rest?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · What is your plan to rest? I’ve asked this question of two of my Guide for the Journey clients this week and now, I’m going to ask you. What is your plan for getting more rest? The beginning of a new academic year is a crunch time. It is […]
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Asynchronous teaching and setting boundaries
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Asynchronous teaching and setting boundaries I’ve noticed in various conversations on Twitter that there are some issues with setting boundaries in the context of pandemic teaching conditions. In this post I address a particular issue with asynchronous teaching. Never in class and never not in class When you taught […]
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Juggling, jigsaws, and navigating by the stars: making reasonable plans
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Juggling, jigsaws, and navigating by the stars I’ve written before about juggling as a metaphor for planning out your workload. Consider all of the things you want and need to do, at work and outside of work, as the box of things a juggler could be juggling. Identify […]
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Dealing with the loss of a physical boundary between work and home
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Dealing with the loss of a physical boundary between work and home The pandemic has made us all hyper-aware of how much of what we’d come to tolerate as “just how things are” is actually deeply unacceptable. The pandemic has not created an impossible to resolve conflict between your […]
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