• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Coaching
  • Academic Writing Studio
  • Library
  • About
  • Contact
  • Books

Jo VanEvery

You are here: Home / Archives for Writing

Developing a Practice

Image of person at a desk writingYour 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.

A photo of a person in red jumper and black leggings doing a kind of forward lunge pose in yoga on a green yoga mat.

The benefits of working small

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · 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 […]

Read More »

Is working at or just beyond your limits really effective?

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

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 […]

Read More »
On a bright cyan green background, a circular wooden block displays the numbers of a clockface in black with tiny movable clock hands. To the right there is a mini white printed calendar with a red pencil resting lightly above it.

Thoughts on accountability, deadlines & goals

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

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 […]

Read More »
A Person holds a clear lightbulb upside down in their palms but the glass bulb is filled with tiny yellow fairy lights instead being cradled and looked after by the person.

On valuing your work

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Jo VanEvery 1 Comment

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · On valuing your work I came across a blog post by an artist that resonated with things I know academics also experience. I’d like to share it with you. The post is Artist’s Statement — Part Two at The Pale Rook. In it, the author talks about her own […]

Read More »

You don’t need accountability

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Jo VanEvery 1 Comment

Why do you want an accountability partner/coach/whatever for writing? The things you most dislike about your job, and that you would not do if an external body did not require them, have accountability to that external body built in. You do your grading. You do it by the institutional deadline. You set aside important work […]

Read More »
A white cup full of tea and saucer sits next to an open ring-bound notebook with a silver pen on top. Lay across the notebook is some pink flower cuttings with stems and leaves.

“Write all the things” is not a summer plan

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Write All The Things! is not a summer plan As the semester got busier, chances are you started saying “I’ll get to that in the summer” about a lot of things, especially writing. At this point you’ve probably got a list that is roughly “Write all the things.” Of […]

Read More »

How to take the weekend off

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · How to take the weekend off Academic life is demanding. During term time you are juggling teaching, administrative and service work, graduate supervision, and your own research and writing. During the summer and your sabbatical, you feel like you need to devote as much time as possible to your […]

Read More »
A phone is turned face down on a circular marble table with a small child playing with colourful bricks in the background

Distraction: not the usual suspects

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Distraction: not the usual suspects Distraction is the enemy of productivity. There’s all kinds of time management and productivity advice telling you to track what you are doing and get rid of all the meaningless tasks that don’t contribute to moving your project forward. There are apps and strategies […]

Read More »
an anatomical model of the human brain sliced in half in selective-focus photography

Fatigue impairs cognitive function

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Jo VanEvery 1 Comment

There is lots of research showing that fatigue impairs cognitive function. This is why the military has “boot camp” to make certain behaviours and decisions almost instinctual so they can be done even when fatigued, because war means you sometimes have to work when you are under-functioning cognitively. You are not fighting a war. You […]

Read More »

On not being indispensable

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

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 »

When does Reading count as Writing?

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Jo VanEvery 1 Comment

In the intro to A Meeting With Your Writing I ask participants to list everything that comes to mind when they ask this question: “What does this writing project need to move forward?” I give them 30 – 60 seconds to write. Then I ask them to select the thing on that list that they […]

Read More »
A photo of a cylindrical tower of books piled on top of each other like bricks. Some of the height has been mirrored to seem taller than it actually is.

What it means to make a contribution to knowledge

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Jo VanEvery 1 Comment

The primary purpose of academic publishing is to communicate with other scholars. This form of communication is rather formal. The bar for acceptance into the conversation is high. This conversation is asynchronous and takes place over very long time periods. What happens once you’ve published your article? By publishing your article in a scholarly journal […]

Read More »
Newer Posts
Older Posts
  • Home
  • Coaching
  • Academic Writing Studio
  • Library
  • About
  • Contact
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy

Footer

Find this helpful?

You can support the work that makes this free content possible on Ko-Fi

Search the site

15 minute writing challenge logo image with title and sand timer

© 2025 Jo VanEvery | Privacy Policy

Proudly powered by WordPress