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 […]
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:
Shame, vulnerability, and academic work
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Shame, vulnerability, and academic work I am somewhat allergic to celebrity. I will admit that my tendency is to avoid things that everyone is reading and talking about. However, as I was writing about peer review for my Short Guide, I realized I needed to do some reading with […]
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Don’t do your best!
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Don’t Do Your Best! You know all about perfectionism and why it isn’t equivalent to “striving for excellence” but is actually a psychological problem that seriously hampers your work. (If you don’t, read the pieces linked here, and maybe talk to a mental health professional.) But I bet you […]
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Write every day?
This is a question that comes up a lot in advice about academic writing, or any kind of writing really. And it came up during the December 2018 Planning Your Winter Semester class in the Academic Writing Studio. A lot of people encourage you to write every day. You may think that because I have […]
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Meditation as practice & metaphor for focus
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. […]
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What is the point of publishing peer-reviewed articles if you care about changing things out there in the world?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Peer-reviewed articles and changing things out there in the world I want to write more about some of the practical applications of the general point I made in Communication vs Validation: Why are you publishing?. In particular, I want to connect my approach to writing and publishing with the […]
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How to use advice to develop your own practice
This post is part of an occasional series about how yoga influences how I work with clients. I don’t expect you to do yoga. Ever. In your whole life. The point of this series is that yoga has taught me some interesting things about how to approach other things. I have a daily yoga practice. […]
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How much teaching preparation is enough?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · How much teaching preparation is enough? Teaching is an important part of your job. You are committed to doing it well. At the same time, you may often resent how much time it takes. You really wish you had more time for research than you do right now. Content […]
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Where does confidence come from? Part 2: Security
This is part 2 of a series about confidence. In Part 1 of this series, I talked about meaningfulness. Part 3 is about support. The introductory section is repeated so you don’t have to read them in any particular order. Or, listen to the whole series in one track here: Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · […]
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Where does confidence come from? Part 1: Meaningfulness
This is part 1 of a series about confidence. In Part 2 of this series, I talk about security. Part 3 is about support. The introductory section is repeated so you don’t have to read them in any particular order. Or, listen to the whole series in one track, here: Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Where […]
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Recent additions vs good starting points
This page uses the standard blog layout: posts in reverse chronological order of publication date with this “sticky post” at the top to explain how things work. I’ve also created a list of good places to start for those unfamiliar with my approach. The things I write are often not time sensitive, except in the […]
Read More »Managing long term projects
Academic work involves long projects. Of the five Lesser known lessons from academia Daniel McCormack discusses, three are about the difficulties of long projects. (He goes into some detail about each of these. I encourage you to read what he has to say in addition to my thoughts.) I want to focus on the aspects of academia that […]
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