One of my academic FB friends shared a blog post she’d published with the caveat that these were thoughts she hadn’t quite straightened out yet. One of her other friends said this: I’m grateful this piece is not neat – it’s just staring at me as a reminder for me to write, regardless of whether […]
Read More »Developing a Practice
Your academic life is more than a string of articles published, classes taught, and meetings attended. You write because this is how you articulate and develop your ideas. You publish to communicate those ideas to others. Posts in this category help you develop the practices you need to do the work you love well without burning out or compromising your values.
You Need a Writing Practice is a good place to start to investigate the Writing subcategory.
Juggling 101: Elements of a good plan is a good place to start investigating the Planning subcategory.
Taking on a leadership role
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Taking on a leadership role Taking on a management/leadership role, even at the department level is a big deal. You might be really excited about the possibilities and have all kinds of plans for how you can make things better (for some value of “better”). But you also know […]
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Finding your way back to writing
I had a query via the contact form on my website that said, in response to the prompt “What’s on your mind?”, not much, need help to figure out! If that isn’t the tip of an iceberg I don’t know what is. Both for the person who sent the email and in the sense that […]
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How does teaching make you feel?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · How does teaching make you feel? Seriously. Do you look forward to it? Or do you dread it? Or something in between? Be honest with yourself, even if that’s hard. You can’t change anything until you look the problem (if there is one) squarely in the face. A lot […]
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4 years of A Meeting With Your Writing
A long term participant in A Meeting With Your Writing recently mentioned that it has been 4 years. Wow, where does the time go? I remember when I came up with this idea. I wondered what I would do if no one signed up. Or, worse, if only 3 people signed up and then I […]
Read More »Being available, with limits
There are all kinds of reasons why you need to be available to students outside the classroom. You have various means of enabling those students to ask questions outside of class time: Fixed hours when you are available in your office for this purpose An e-mail address where they can contact you A space in […]
Read More »New Academic Year roundup
The spiral-like nature of your academic life is particularly evident at the beginning of the academic year. No matter how experienced you are, it is always a bit chaotic. It offers the possibility of doing things better, or at least differently, this year. It is easy to approach a new year with your eyes on […]
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Managing your workload by creating containers
One way to get some control over how much time and energy you give to certain kinds of legitimate requests is to create a container for that kind of work.
Just as it is easier to store flour if you pour it into something with firm sides and a lid (so it doesn’t just flow all over the counter), some tasks can benefit from being contained in particular time periods or particular spaces.
Read More »Decisions take energy
making decisions is one of the most energy-intensive things we do as humans. Making a decision just plain takes a lot of calories. With a complex life, our brains are exhausted most days, too exhausted to make good decisions. Mark Silver A common scenario You have a sense that you should be writing regularly. You […]
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The benefits of working small
In another post, I asked: “How could you experiment with working in a relaxed state?” — Is working at or just beyond your limits really effective? I proposed that the ways in which my yoga teacher has been encouraging us to work within the comfortable range of movement and not stretch our muscles to their limits, […]
Read More »Is working at or just beyond your limits really effective?
We live in a culture in which we are often demanded to do more. How much writing can you do in a year/semester/week/hour? How many students can you teach effectively? This constant striving for more leaves many of us feeling inadequate a lot of the time. It also privileges an approach to work that is […]
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Thoughts on accountability, deadlines & goals
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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