This academic year has been a perfect example of embracing fluidity in the planning process. Although structure is one of the reasons why I plan, structure doesn't necessarily mean rigidity. I want my plans to work for me, not against me! In this post I'm sharing how my plans shifted (and how things stayed the same) across research, teaching, service, and personal life.
Read MoreIt’s been a week since plan(it)* and my brain is buzzing with what’s next for the retreat. First, a big THANK YOU 😍 to those who participated. I couldn’t have done without you! Thanks for taking a chance on me! On my end, I thought things went really well (minus the instance where I forgot I had my headphones plugged in and didn’t realize people were talking, oops!). The time flew by and Slack seemed to be a good way to communicate with the group. As we were meeting I was thinking about how I could make the retreat more accessible (and still provide live support), instead of having to choose 2 random days during the week for hosting. It’s so hard to find something that works for everyone’s schedules, and having 5 hours blocked off, 2 days in a row, is a huge commitment.
Read MoreI have been busy behind the scenes and have two big updates for you!
First… I have a mailing list! Which feels like a huge deal to me… not really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it makes this space feel so much more official. You can sign up for it on the main page: www.toddleronthetenuretrack.com. As a thank you for signing up, you’ll also get a 7 step guide that I put together for planning a tantrum free (ha!) academic year.
Read MoreDuring 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.
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