One of the reasons people have trouble getting writing done is because if feels like “not work”. You know it’s real work and even the work that is going to be most valued when it comes to hiring, promotion, and whatnot. But even knowing that it feels like it’s not really work. You do it […]
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.
Thoughts on the emotional toll of grading.
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · The emotional toll of grading Marking student’s work is hard for many people. Emotionally hard. This example captures how that emotion affects your work process: Grading is a very unpleasant activity; even for those of us who enjoy coming to class and engaging our students in lively discussions about the […]
Read More »Transitions in your work day
Occasionally my yoga teacher focuses on transitions. While the poses themselves are important, how we move from one pose to another is also worthy of attention. Academic work is complex. You do a lot of different things in a day. In addition to thinking about how you do the specific tasks — email, teaching, writing, […]
Read More »Attending to correspondence
I love serendipity. Shortly after I talked to a client about email in her relationship with research collaborators, this appeared in my TweetStream from a Romantic literature scholar I follow: “Attending to correspondence” sounds so much more pleasant than “answering e-mails,” so that’s what I’m gonna call it. #passthescones — tricia matthew (@triciamatthew) March 11, […]
Read More »How to make it easy for YOU
This post complements others about establishing a writing practice. I’ve been using my yoga practice as an analogy. One of the key questions I asked myself when establishing a home yoga practice was “How do I make this easy?”. Some of the elements of my answer: The smallest possible amount (10 minutes to start) No extra […]
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Developing A New Practice: An Update
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Developing A New Practice: An Update In my Planning Classes, I talk about how you learn to juggle by tossing one beanbag from one hand to the other. Your goal is form and consistency. Once you have that, you can add more beanbags, change from beanbags to something else, […]
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Beginning of term chaos is temporary
It doesn’t matter if this is your first year in the job or your 20th. The beginning of term is chaos. This is temporary. It will only last a week or two. Then you will settle into the normal rhythm of term time. Adjust your priorities During beginning of term chaos you can temporarily suspend some […]
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How much writing can you do in term time?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · How much writing can you do in term time When I say “You can write during term time”, I don’t mean you can write for an hour or more a day. A privileged few have the teaching and service load that makes that possible. Most people would find that […]
Read More »What does Reading Week mean for you?
Many universities now have a Reading Week or mid-semester break in one or both semesters. (It may or may not be called Spring Break.) This means no (undergraduate) teaching. Students tend to disappear so probably little or no advising either. It is a break from the usual term-time routine. So what can you do in this week? […]
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It IS possible to write during term time
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · it is possible to write in term time The academic year has cycles. There are periods, like the summer, when there are more opportunities to make writing your priority, even dedicating full days to intensively work on a writing project. Most academics look forward to those parts of the […]
Read More »End of summer panic
As the long summer break nears an end and the beginning of the academic year looms larger on the horizon, you may have a tendency to panic about your writing and research. You wonder whether you’ve done enough over the summer. You fear that you won’t get to it at all once teaching, student advising, […]
Read More »Writing summaries and abstracts
In my last post I talked about writing an abstract as a way to begin a project. In this post I’m going to talk about writing an abstract or summary after you’ve completed a project. Remember: An abstract is like maple syrup It takes 30-40 litres of sap to make 1 litre of maple syrup. When […]
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