Two Years of Toddler on The Tenure Track + Some Big News

Hi there! It’s been awhile (about 2 months to be exact) since I last posted on the blog. As I move back into posting a bit more regularly I have a few things to share with you. First, as of December 1, Toddler on the Tenure Track has officially been around for 2 whole years. Which is amazing to me. In honor of another year of Toddler on the Tenure Track I'm posting 2020’s top 10 most visited posts below.

Second, the reason I’ve been quiet these past few months is because… baby number two is on the way!! The first trimester was rough (nausea, vomiting, exhaustion… fun!) and although things have improved a bit in the second trimester, I’m still not feeling much like myself. I’m constantly readjusting daily and weekly routines and trying to figure out how to make it through the day in one piece. For the most part, this has meant setting aside anything extra outside of family and work (so this site has taken a backseat). I do have lots of ideas for pregnancy/tenure track specific posts (and if you have any requests, send me a note), so look out for those in the coming months. Until then… here are the top 10 most visited posts from 2020!

Toddler on the Tenure Track’s 10 Most Visited Posts: 2020 Edition

number 10. How I Plan My Quarter

During my yearly planning process I outline when I’d like to achieve each of the goals that I set for the year. This gives me a rough timeline for the term, which makes planning pretty straightforward. My university is on the quarter system, so I have fall, winter, spring, and summer to plan for. I usually create my fall term plan a week or so before the term starts. Then, I’ll create my winter and spring plans during winter break. Because we don’t have a ton of time between winter and spring terms, it ends up being easier to plan everything right before winter term starts. Because I’m technically off contract during the summer, I make my plan once summer has started and I’ve given myself a little bit of a breather from the end of the school year.

number 9. 11 Tips for Creating a Schedule that Works for You

Today I thought I’d share some basic principles that I try to keep in the forefront of my mind when I’m thinking about how the work day/week will play out. This list is certainly not exhaustive, but it does serve as a nice foundation on which my work schedule (and to some extent our personal schedule) is created.

number 8. My Goals for Year One on the Tenure Track

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a recap of my first and second years on the tenure track, along with some reflections about what I learned each year. Once summer is done (for me, that’s in September), I’ll share insights from my third year (still got a few more months to work on those goals!).

number 7. How I Organize My Research and Writing Pipeline

The ability to juggle multiple projects with an infinite number of moving pieces is (I think) an essential skill for reducing the overwhelm that can come with academic life. In an ideal world, it would be lovely if this wasn’t a necessary skill for survival, but we live in the real world, with ever increasing workloads and expectations, where advanced project management skills are essential. Between research, teaching, service, and all the things that don’t fall within the bounds of these three pieces (…setting up your office?), there is always something to do. Project management should be a key component of all doctoral programs... instead of expecting everyone to learn through osmosis (which doesn’t always work out so well).

number 6. What It’s Like to Have a Toddler on the Tenure Track

Back in February I got an email from Leigh of Teaching Academia. Teaching Academia is a wonderful resource that’s dedicated to helping people navigate and succeed in academia. Leigh asked if I’d write a guest post about being on the tenure track with a kid and I (of course!) said yes! Given a few other recent scheduling posts on the Teaching Academia blog (here and here), we decided my post would focus on a week in my life. On my own blog I’ve done 2 day in the life posts (I and II), and I’m due for another one! This time around I’m detailing an entire week! After we decided on the weekly schedule post, I tracked my time during a week in February during winter term (I was due for a time audit anyway). The screenshot above is what that week looked like. Just as an FYI, I usually don’t keep my calendar looking quite so hectic, this was just for illustration purposes. Although, being able to see all these details in one place can be really helpful… so if you’ve never tracked every single thing you’re doing, I encourage you to give it a whirl!

number 5. Advice to My Past Self: First Year on the Tenure Track

Last week I shared what my first year looked like. This week I’m sharing some thoughts about what helped during the first year. Kind of like advice I’d give to my past self. In no particular order, here are some of the main things I’d remind myself of on a daily basis if I had to do it all over again.

number 4. Pregnancy + the Academic Job Search

Oh. My. Gosh. People love to give advice about the academic job market in general. Add in the fact that you’re also pregnant and the desire to impart wisdom goes through the roof! And of course if you don’t follow their advice there are dire consequences (i.e., you won’t get the job). That being said, I got a whole lot of advice, and to the best of my memory, only one of those people had been pregnant while searching.

number 3. How I'm Using Notion in My Professional and Personal Life

If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen that I've been playing around with Notion as an alternative to my current task management system. And if you're a newsletter subscriber you also know that I was exploring ClickUp and Asana as alternatives back in September... what can I say, I love this kind of stuff 😄.

number 2. Living far from family: 6 questions to ask yourself before making a big move

Academic life often means following the opportunities, which may or may not match up with where your family has roots (which may or may not be where you want to live too!).

If you’re interested in being close to extended family you can certainly seek out positions that are located in the same area/nearby but it’s not always a guarantee that you’ll find an opening that’s specific to your area of expertise.

number 1. 12 Things I Learned After Having a Baby During the Final Year of my PhD

I started graduate school in 2011, right after Mike and I got married. We knew kids were in our future and we knew that grad school and our geographic location were temporary. We figured the next place would be for the long haul so it made sense to wait until after our next move to have a kid. The original plan was that I’d finish school in 4 years, but life happened and I tacked on an additional year.