When I moved back upstairs at the end of the summer, I decided to experiment with a standing desk.
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:
Why finding time for writing is hard
Recognize this little fella? Research day? Is that what you call it? You’re just staying home in your pyjamas taking a day off. You’ve got more important things to do like plan classes, and prepare for that committee meeting, meet with students … I certainly do. In fact, back when I was still an academic […]
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 […]
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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Take guilt off your to-do list
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Take guilt off your to do list This is the third post in a short series about guilt. You may also be interested in Stop feeling guilty, and More about guilt. As I was writing the post on making difficult choices another important aspect of this discussion about guilt […]
Read More »The Spectre of Professionalism: Field, discipline, interdisciplinary
Chances are you were not attracted to academia by the professional identity of “Historian” or “Literary Scholar” or “Sociologist” or whatever they call people in your field. You were attracted by the possibilities of particular research questions. You selected a program that would enable you to explore those questions. That may have been in a […]
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Changing your relationship to planning
Did my post on planning make you think about changing how much planning you do? Did a gremlin (or six) turn up to tell you what a big risk that would be? This is not surprising. After all writing is an important part of your work. A lot is riding on it. Maybe no one […]
Read More »All or Nothing thinking
How do you react if someone suggests you put less time and effort into your teaching preparation? Or, be stricter about office hours? What about the phrase “good enough”? What does that say to you? Confusing excellence with perfection As Kerry Ann Rocquemore pointed out in her excellent blog series on perfectionism. Many times people […]
Read More »On hearing of the death of Mary McIntosh
This is a very personal reflection. I did not know Mary well, nor have I been in contact with her in over 20 years. Our relationship was always a professional one. Hearing of her death has brought back good memories. Small things that remind me of the influence she had on my intellectual and career […]
Read More »The Spectre of Professionalism
As I was writing about how your office is organized, I realized that many of us are haunted by the Spectre of Professionalism. Luckily I have a cartoonist on speed-dial. This Spectre might haunt your office set-up, your writing style, your manner of dress, your interactions with students, your interactions with colleagues, your decisions about […]
Read More »Do you recognize this gremlin?
I’ve noticed this little fella hanging around lately. I’m not sure that they’re hanging around more. I think maybe I’m noticing them more. I think what happens is that someone suggests a way of approaching something that I’m stuck on and it makes visible a whole set of rules I thought I needed to follow […]
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