I’m not sure when I learned that being indispensable was a bad career strategy or who I learned it from. I just know that I did learn it. If you are indispensable it is hard to take vacations and work reasonable hours. If you are indispensable then you cannot be promoted. (Think about it. Who would […]
Read More »Love Your Work
Be an amateur.
I’ve been thinking about the term amateur. I’m particularly drawn to the origin — “French, from Italian amatore from Latin amator lover”. I note that prior to the 19th century, usage is merely: “A person who is fond of something; a person who has a taste for something”. If you think about how you got […]
Read More »Being part of a collective is part of your work
Just like eating, sleeping, and exercise, the work required to build and maintain relationships and to work collectively with colleagues has to be a priority. Those relationships are the foundation that makes a lot of other things possible. You cannot leave it to whatever time remains. Nor is it helpful to enter every collective situation […]
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Process vs Product
I have an ambivalent relationship with goals. I know they are important but I find setting specific goals with an output and a deadline stalls my work rather than motivating it. I see that a lot of you struggle with similar issues in your writing. This post uses a long analogy to my own process […]
Read More »Jumping off cliffs
Making decisions about your career and your next best steps is like standing on top of a cliff. It seems really scary. It’s a long way down. You can’t really see what’s at the bottom but you suspect there are rocks. You’d really like to avoid the rocks. Other people confirm your fears. They tell […]
Read More »Priorities or, why being a straight A student isn’t necessarily a good thing
I bet you were a straight A student. You got lots of praise for being a straight A student. You’ve lived your life thinking being a straight A student is a good thing. It’s not. It encourages all or nothing thinking: If you aren’t going to get an A, it’s not worth doing at all. It […]
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When another project is distracting you from this one
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. […]
Read More »Doing what you want to do
At the beginning of every session of A Meeting With Your Writing I used to ask participants to make a list of all the writing/research projects that they consider active. I then asked them which one of those they most want to work on during the next 90 minutes. It might be the one that would be most […]
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When your work doesn’t look like work
You’re tired of the popular misconception that academics get the whole summer off. Are you letting that public perception affect how you work? Are you working indoors at your desk? Are you working during “normal working hours”? Are you avoiding the hammock? The patio? The dock? Are you saving gardening, long walks in the woods, and […]
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When you start to hate what you loved.
You started on your academic path because you loved your work. You were excited and interested in a particular area of scholarship. But somewhere along the line you lost that connection, temporarily or permanently. It may have started to feel like a liability. Mark Silver captures the tension between loving your work and coming to […]
Read More »Boundaries, balance and the whole you
The term “work-life balance” is out of favour. I’m not sure why. Perhaps because everyone is working so hard it seems like an impossible dream. I came across a recent piece in Harvard Business Review arguing for the importance of boundaries. They are not talking about academics but this definition of the problem definitely resonates: Success is […]
Read More »Enjoyment and hard work
My friend Norma Miller posted this picture with a jokey comment her friend made: “A friend told me that if I was smiling, I wasn’t trying hard enough.” That kind of joke is not a joke That kind of joke causes injuries. That kind of joke makes you doubt yourself. You push yourself harder. You stop trusting your own […]
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