breaks — Blog — Toddler on the Tenure Track

Summer! That magical time of year when people who work in the field of education get to take a nice, relaxing ~3 month vacation… ha! In reality, yes, summer is a slower pace, but in my experience there is still a significant amount of work that goes on (and it’s often unpaid). I hear others talk about how wonderful summer is, because they finally get to work on all the things (usually research) that got pushed to the side during the school year. I guess I get that to some extent, but a huge part of me really balks at that mentality. If universities are paying us for 9-months of work, shouldn’t we, theoretically, be able to get everything done in those 9-months, or at least be in a position to pause for 3 months?

Academic LifeJillJune 20, 2019summer, planning, reflection, breaks, summer breakComment

Weekly Update: 12/31 - 1/6

Back to reality and hello to 2019! I was still on break on Monday and Tuesday of this week, so it was a short work week for me. While I love that academic life has built in “breaks,” it takes so much of my energy to get back into work mode that sometimes I wonder if it’d be easier to do a little bit of work each day during the break so that I’m not as drained during the first week back. This could also have something to do with Ellie’s sleep lately.

Weekly Update: 12/24 - 12/30

I graduated from my PhD program ~2.5 years ago and am still reveling in the fact that breaks actually mean I take some sort of break (even if it’s not for the entire break), instead of using breaks to play catch up or try to get “more” done. If there’s anything I’ve learned from grad school and also as an assistant professor it’s that working all the time does not lead to better results, personally or professionally (at least not for me!). All that to say, taking this week off from work has been wonderful!