I just finished the first week of the semester and I’m already falling into patterns of trying to do things that I know don’t work for me in time management practices. It’s been easy for this to happen because what works for me is not aligned with the common advice that is dispensed about how …
Working in a job where the most important component (at least according to most research institutions’ tenure standards) is also the least regulated by deadlines presents a challenge for creating balance. Teaching responsibilities come with a clear schedule for preparing lectures, grading assignments, and submitting final grades. Service assignments can also have hard deadlines even …
Summer is a precious time for academics and graduate students. Even if we have some teaching load over the course of summer, we often have a longer period of time with fewer obligations than during the semester. But with the grading done and final grades submitted, it is also a time with no schedule imposed …
There’s a common refrain that academics should write every day, which you all already know I don’t do. But many folks, myself included, reframe this to that we should be touching our research every day. Yet, even touching your research every day isn’t always possible. During the semester, the demands of teaching can make it …
As the fall semester was getting going, #AcademicTwitter was full of people sharing about organizing and planning for the semester. It was really helpful for me to see the different ways that folks organize their planning from lists on a white board to to dos on a calendar to detailed spreadsheets. I got new ideas …
It took me years to come up with a time management system that worked for me. YEARS. It has only been through trying different approaches that I figured out what works for me. In fact, at different times in my education and career, different systems have worked. Making adjustments was necessary to find what works …
practical phd 