Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Burnout is real! As the Covid19 pandemic and related adjustments extended over months and years, conversations about burnout seemed to increase. The additional pressure of the pandemic seems to have pushed several people over the edge. A client who was already working with me to move a book project […]
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Spotlight On: Meaningfulness Matters
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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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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The value of intellectual engagement
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 […]
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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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Prioritising meaningful work when you are feeling overwhelmed and powerless
This is a follow up to the post about being an academic in dystopian times in which I encouraged you to : “Double down on the work that is meaningful to you. What makes your teaching meaningful to you? What makes your research meaningful to you? What makes your writing and publishing meaningful to you? How […]
Read More »On not being competitive
I have not a competitive bone in my body. When I play (recreational) sports, I don’t even know the score most of the time. People who are competitive find this odd. They wonder how I get motivated to play well if I don’t care about winning. I go out there to have a good time and […]
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The importance of your vision.
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · The importance of your vision One reason I started doing what I’m doing, is that I could see all of these brilliant, interesting people not really enjoying their academic jobs. For various reasons you were discouraged, frustrated, or just plain overworked. As I’ve worked with clients, I have noticed […]
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Risking doing the work you find meaningful
A longstanding imaginary-friend-on-the-Internet, who now runs a very successful online business, once said that something I’d said to him years ago had been pivotal to his success. I had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently, back when we were both still trying to figure out what and how to do our things, I […]
Read More »Reconnecting with the desire to write
I was talking with a client about writing and motivation recently. We started with “It’s really hard to write with a gun to your head.” which strikes me as a pretty widespread problem. Whether that metaphorical gun is the REF, the tenure process, or something else, external pressure often triggers resistance. At the very least […]
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Do you suffer from Imposter Syndrome?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Do you suffer from imposter 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 perfectionism […]
Read More »Thoughts on accountability, deadlines, goals and so on.
You want to write more. You want to finish and submit more of your writing. You may think that the only way to do that is to do one or more of the following: set concrete (product-oriented) goals give yourself deadlines for achieving those goals make yourself accountable to someone else for those goals and/or […]
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