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 »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.
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 […]
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Are deadlines helping or hurting?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · 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 […]
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.
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Why finding time for writing is hard
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Why finding time to write 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 […]
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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From Conference Presentation to Journal Article
In an earlier post, I suggested that conference presentations make great first drafts of journal articles. The hard part is actually sitting down to turn that excellent first draft into something good enough to submit to a journal. Dealing with criticism. Maybe someone in your conference session asked some awkward questions. Or made some suggestions […]
Read More »Maybe sitting at your desk to work is the problem
Do you struggle with research because you think you need to be sitting at your desk to do it? I know that schools are really big on sitting still and being quiet as the necessary precursor to doing academic work. You did well in school. But just because that’s how school trained you, doesn’t mean […]
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There will always be things you don’t know
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · There will always be things you don’t know You are an intelligent person. You have successfully completed an advanced degree, secured a position, maybe even already have tenure. You may have won competitive scholarships along the way. (If you are still doing your PhD, you have still accomplished much. […]
Read More »“Cutting” words
A participant in A Meeting With Your Writing admitted that she was discouraged. She needs to cut 2000 words from a paper. She thought it would be easy but it turned out to be really hard. This is one place where counting words works against you. You wrote all those words for a reason, dammit. […]
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