Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Treating each day as a new opportunity “My challenge is treating each day like a new opportunity to get things done without letting the perceived inefficiencies of the previous cast a dark cloud over a new working day.” – Planning Class participant (2023) If this is also your challenge, […]
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Reflections on 20 years of self-employment
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Reflections on 20 years of self-employment In April 2005, I found myself unemployed. April 2025 marks 20 years of self-employment. My approach (and my advice) is often to take stock of the context, look at the opportunities available, and pick something to try. As I said in a post […]
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Making travel less stressful
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Making Travel Less Stressful This post was written just after returning from a fall trip back to Canada, to see friends and care for loved ones. We realised that the thoughts I was having about travel might help you too… I (Jo) have just got back from my holiday. […]
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Creating A Satisfying Academic Career – Part 2
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Creating A Satisfying Academic Career This post is Part 2 of a series on Creating a Satisfying Academic Career. In Part 1, I introduced the idea of “creating” a career based on the opportunities available and provided some reflection prompts to help you figure out what is important to […]
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Creating A Satisfying Academic Career – Part 1
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Creating A Satisfying Academic Career It is not an exaggeration to describe the current context in higher education as dystopian. Whether you are already employed in academia, permanently or precariously, or whether you are seeking academic employment, the situation is distressing. Is it possible to have a satisfying […]
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Do you struggle with planning?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Do you struggle with planning? The Anti-Planner is the brain-child of Dani Donovan, an artist who’s been working on support materials for ADHD and other neurodivergent types for a while. It’s designed principally for people with ADHD, but it seems to be useful regardless of what brain type you […]
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Making Decisions: Applying for Funding
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Making Decisions: Applying for research funding Funding can often feel like an externally imposed mandate that has more to do with institutional underfunding than your own research needs. Conversely, if you do lab based research, securing funding may be fundamental to your ability to pursue an academic career at […]
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Making Decisions about your writing
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Making decisions about writing This is a belated addition to the Making Decisions series that begins with Managing the energy you use to make decisions, published in August 2021. You might want to read the introductory post first. You can also find links to other posts in the series […]
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Making Decisions: peer review
This post was originally written in February 2021 as a follow up to Planning Your Winter Semester and was shared in the Academic Writing Studio. It has been edited and divided into a series of shorter posts for ease of reading. The general principles—habits, routines, and default responses—are explained in the first post in the […]
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Making Decisions: meetings
This post was originally written in February 2021 as a follow up to Planning Your Winter Semester and was shared in the Academic Writing Studio. It has been edited and divided into a series of shorter posts for ease of reading. The general principles—habits, routines, and default responses—are explained in the first post in the […]
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Making Decisions: planning & scheduling
This post was originally written in February 2021 as a follow up to Planning Your Winter Semester and was shared in the Academic Writing Studio. It has been edited and divided into a series of shorter posts for ease of reading. The general principles—habits, routines, and default responses—are explained in the first post in the […]
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Managing the energy you use to make decisions
This post was originally written in February 2021 as a follow up to Planning Your Winter Semester and was shared in the Academic Writing Studio. It has been edited and divided into a series of shorter posts for ease of reading. The others are available at the end of this post. Jo VanEvery, Academic Career […]
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