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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...
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Focus and Distraction: self-flagellation not required
What if every time you sat down to write you were not fighting distraction and procrastination? What if you could approach your writing confidently, knowing you would be able to focus and you would...
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Managing your workload by creating containers
One way to get some control over how much time and energy you give to certain kinds of legitimate requests is to create a container for that kind of work. Just as it is easier to store flour if you...
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Finding your way back to writing
I had a query via the contact form on my website that said, in response to the prompt “What’s on your mind?”, not much need help to figure out! If that isn’t the tip of an iceberg I don’t know what is....
View ArticleAutonomy & asking for help
You are smart and competent. You work in an environment that values autonomy. You value autonomy. You feel like you should be able to do things yourself. However, you are also part of a complex...
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Writing is NOT a reward for getting your grading done
Grading is dispiriting at the best of times. There is too much of it to do to a very tight deadline. And despite the occasional brilliant paper or clear demonstration that students are getting it,...
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Focus and Distraction: self-flagellation not required
What if every time you sat down to write you were not fighting distraction and procrastination? What if you could approach your writing confidently, knowing you would be able to focus and you would...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Managing your workload by creating containers
One way to get some control over how much time and energy you give to certain kinds of legitimate requests is to create a container for that kind of work. Just as it is easier to store flour if you...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finding your way back to writing
I had a query via the contact form on my website that said, in response to the prompt “What’s on your mind?”, not much need help to figure out! If that isn’t the tip of an iceberg I don’t know what is....
View ArticleAutonomy & asking for help
You are smart and competent. You work in an environment that values autonomy. You value autonomy. You feel like you should be able to do things yourself. However, you are also part of a complex...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Writing is NOT a reward for getting your grading done
Grading is dispiriting at the best of times. There is too much of it to do to a very tight deadline. And despite the occasional brilliant paper or clear demonstration that students are getting it,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A strategy to overcome resistance to write
Sometimes you sit down and try to write and you just can’t. Resistance may show up as procrastination, or writer’s block, or gremlins shouting louder than usual about how you are not qualified to do...
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Are you treating writing as real work?
The title is a rhetorical question. I know writing is real work, otherwise I wouldn’t be running a business supporting academic writers. You know it’s real work. Not only is that, you know it is the...
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Managing long term projects
Image CC0 Academic work involves long projects. Of the five Lesser known lessons from academia Daniel McCormack discusses, three are about the difficulties of long projects. (He goes into some detail...
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Write every day?
This is a question that comes up a lot in advice about academic writing, or any kind of writing really. And it came up during the December 2018 Planning Your Winter Semester class in the Academic...
View ArticleRecent additions vs good starting points
This page uses the standard blog layout: posts in reverse chronological order of publication date with this “sticky post” at the top to explain how things work. I’ve also created a list of good places...
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The case for getting dressed for work
photo by Zui Hoang via Unsplash I’ve been working from home for over 10 years now and the question of pyjamas versus getting dressed properly is a pretty standard one amongst the work at home crowd....
View ArticleAre meetings really a waste of time?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Are meetings really a waste of time? One of the core practices of my work with clients, and my engagement with academics on social media, is to remind you to...
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Dealing with the loss of a physical boundary between work and home
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Dealing with the loss of a physical boundary between work and home The pandemic has made us all hyper-aware of how much of what we’d come to tolerate as “just how...
View ArticleMotivation and accomplishment in your writing practice
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Motivation & accomplishment in your writing practice Given how hard it is for most academics to find time to work on their writing, and how difficult it is to...
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