Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Valuing Intellectual Engagement Burnout and stress are not just about the quantity of work you have to do. Lack of control and a sense of meaninglessness are major contributors to burnout. It has become very clear that your difficulty managing your workload is not a personal failing. You are […]
Read More »Ethos & Influences
There is lots of advice out there about academic writing and academic careers. Posts in this category elaborate on some of the things mentioned on the about page to give you a better sense of how I approach academic work and the relationship between academic work and other parts of your life. Subcategories include:
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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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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You are not broken. You don’t need fixing.
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · You are not broken. You don’t need fixing. One of the comments I got from my editor when working on the Short Guides was “What do you want them to do with this information?” She was really not happy with a prompt that asked the reader to notice something […]
Read More »Optimism in the face of uncertainty
There is a difference between optimism and positivity, or at least the kind of positivity that tries to pretend that bad things never happen, or never happen to good people. I am an optimist. I read something recently that helped me clarify what that looks like for me. It’s a bit like “It’ll be okay […]
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Resting & recharging is preparation for the new academic year
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Resting & recharging is preparing for the new academic year I wrote this just before taking a 2 week holiday and mentioned how important it is to prioritize rest at this time of year. Fatigue impairs cognitive function. This is a fact. There is lots of research to back […]
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How do you think about meetings when you are planning your day/week/month?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · How do you think about meetings when you are planning your day/week/month? When you are planning your week (or your day or your month) and you look over what’s already in your calendar what is your reaction to scheduled meetings? When someone contacts you to organize a meeting, how […]
Read More »Are meetings really a waste of time?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Are meetings really a waste of time? One of the core practices of my work with clients, and my engagement with academics on social media, is to remind you to notice what they’ve done. I wrote about this practice several years ago: You get a lot done. I send […]
Read More »Your home office setup during the pandemic
I start and finish A Meeting With Your Writing with some gentle stretching. During the current circumstances it has occurred to me that you might be more tense and also that your office space may not be set up as well as would be ideal. While academics like to think of their work as mental […]
Read More »Time perception and how long things actually take
Another issue that came up in Office Hours recently was this feeling that things that should take 15 minutes are taking 3 hours, or just a general feeling that you aren’t really accomplishing anything. (Office Hours is a group coaching session I do with members of the Academic Writing Studio. We talk about what’s going […]
Read More »Autonomy in pandemic conditions
One of the things you value about an academic career is the considerable autonomy it affords you. This autonomy is not absolute and always involves making difficult decisions to manage your workload. (see Flexibility, autonomy, and boundaries and Unpacking “busy” the importance of being proactive instead of reactive) The radical reorganisation of your work life in response to […]
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The case for getting dressed for work
I’ve been working from home for over 10 years now and the question of pyjamas versus getting dressed properly is a pretty standard one amongst the work at home crowd. Academics often work at home at least some of the time. At least, those in the humanities and social sciences whose research does not involve […]
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