Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Survivor guilt & imposter syndrome: When you are one of the lucky few If there is one thing most of my clients, newsletter readers, and social media followers are familiar with, it’s gremlins shouting “Imposter!” at unhelpful moments. I use the term “gremlins” to personify the voices in your […]
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Resting when you can’t stop working completely
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Resting when you can’t stop working completely I seem to be having a lot of conversations about rest lately. It came up in Office Hours in the Academic Writing Studio. It’s come up in more than one Guide for the Journey session. If you are tired, you need to […]
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Beyond accountability: co-working as support
When I started A Meeting With Your Writing, co-working groups for academics were practically unheard of Shut Up and Write didn’t exist yet. The most popular “accountability group” for academic writers, The Academic Ladder, didn’t include co-working. There is now a proliferation of options, both specifically for academics, and more generally. It is common to describe […]
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Radical alternative ways to approach productivity in the PhD
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Radical alternative ways to approach productivity in the PhD This month’s article is by a guest author, Jamie Pei. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that I try to follow my own advice and take a proper vacation. I’m on annual leave for the first […]
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Making Decisions: Applying for Funding
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Making Decisions: Applying for research funding Funding can often feel like an externally imposed mandate that has more to do with institutional underfunding than your own research needs. Conversely, if you do lab based research, securing funding may be fundamental to your ability to pursue an academic career at […]
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Making time blocking work for you
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Making time blocking work for you One of the strategies I encourage people to use when planning is time-blocking. It is what I am thinking of when I talk about boundaries as one of the principle elements of a good plan. Over the years I’ve realized that there are […]
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Spotlight On: Dystopia, Uncertainty & Disruption
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Spotlight On: Dystopia, Uncertainty & Disruption As I write (in the first half of 2023), there are a lot of conversations about how awful everything is right now. This is not new but perhaps the weight of it seems particularly heavy. Or maybe this is the point where we […]
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Tracking “streaks” to establish & maintain habits
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Tracking “streaks” to establish & maintain habits Note: Although I might provide some specific examples, what I say here applies to any habit you want to establish or maintain. That might be a work habit, like writing regularly. Or it might be self-care habits, like not working on weekends, […]
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Who are you writing for?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide | Who are you writing for? One thing that’s difficult about writing a book is its scope. There is a lot of material to organize. It’s too big to hold in your head. It’s hard to maintain your motivation when you won’t see a finished product for a long time. […]
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You don’t have to find a “gap” in the literature
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · You don’t need to find a “gap” in the literature Your research, and the publications based on that research, need to make an original contribution to knowledge. Over the past 20 years, I’ve seen a lot of ways academics, at every career stage, get in a bit of a […]
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Moving your own goal posts
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · It’s okay to move your goal posts I don’t know about you, but my plans for January are already off the rails…. I did have a restful and enjoyable break. But I really struggled to come up with an idea for this month’s long post, or the time and […]
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Remembering my dad, John B VanEvery
My father, John Byron VanEvery, died on Christmas Day. He was 92. He died at home in his own bed, as he wished. Several years ago, I started writing about things I’d learned from him and created a category for those posts. I also want to share an edited version of what I wrote on […]
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