Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Boundaries, Balance, and the Whole You The term “work-life balance” is out of favour. I’m not sure why. Perhaps because everyone is working so hard it seems like an impossible dream. I came across a recent piece in Harvard Business Review arguing for the importance of boundaries. They are not […]
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.
Beware the long list and wide expanse of time…
As tough as this semester has been and as happy as you are for it to end, the transition from a heavily scheduled term to an unscheduled break is tough. You’ve probably got a long list of things too do. Too long, I suspect. A long list + an open stretch of time = procrastination […]
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You can ignore the grading.
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · You can ignore the grading This post refers to the break between the first and second semesters of an academic year, which in the Northern Hemisphere tends to incorporate the Christmas holidays. Often the exams and assignments that come in at the end of the semester need to be […]
Read More »Making progress on projects
There are two basic ways to approach a writing project. You figure out what the final product will look like and make a plan to achieve it. You start writing. I am reminded of a passage in Alice in Wonderland: “Cheshire Puss,’ she began, rather timidly, […] ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I […]
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Writing for the people who will like your work
It strikes me that many academics spend a lot of time and energy worrying about the people who will hate their work. Even before you’ve written the article, you are imagining someone criticizing it, probably in a particularly mean and hurtful way. No wonder you have trouble writing. Write for the people who are eager […]
Read More »Writing makes you feel better
Think of a time when you weren’t finding time to write. How did that feel? I’ve heard enough academics complain about how little time they have for writing during term time to know that whatever specific feelings that brought up for you, they weren’t good. Now, think about a time when you were writing regularly. […]
Read More »Is your mind always racing?
I heard an interesting interview on my local CBC Saturday morning show* recently. The interviewee was a news anchor who had decided not to be plugged in and available 24/7, but rather to limit his smart phone and other device use to 16/6. Yes, he decided to not be connected to the internet, phone and […]
Read More »Writing is the social currency of academic life
In high school things like fashionable clothes, knowing the latest hit from a popular band, and being good at sports were the keys to popularity. Getting good grades might have endeared you to teachers and parents but it wasn’t really the currency of peer approval. The world you are in now is like an upside […]
Read More »Are deadlines helping or hurting?
“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” ― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt In a coaching session, a client mentioned how she’d missed a bunch of deadlines for a co-authored paper and needed to set new ones. I sensed that the whooshing noise was not comforting for her so […]
Read More »An experiment: Standing desk
When I moved back upstairs at the end of the summer, I decided to experiment with a standing desk.
Read More »Why finding time for writing is hard
Recognize this little fella? Research day? Is that what you call it? You’re just staying home in your pyjamas taking a day off. You’ve got more important things to do like plan classes, and prepare for that committee meeting, meet with students … I certainly do. In fact, back when I was still an academic […]
Read More »Is writing even on your to do list?
Do you get to the end of the day and wonder if spending that last 30 minutes writing will be worth it? Would that happen even if you had a deadline next week and a big chunk of writing to do to meet it? How come you aren’t getting to that writing until the last […]
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