Whether you're in the first year of your PhD program or you're a tenured faculty member, chances are you've come across (and most likely engaged in) weekly planning. For me, my weekly planning process is the glue that holds everything together. In this post I'm highlighting 6 reasons why weekly planning is super important for people in academic spaces, from grad students to tenured faculty and everywhere in between.
Read MoreLast year I wrote a post all about summertime in academia, when there are unspoken (and spoken!) expectations that you'll be working even though you're "off." I feel really resistant to unpaid summer work and at the same time I don't know that I could feasibly remain on track for the next year without it. Like most things in life, there's no easy answer. In last year's post I shared what my summers, up to that point, had looked like, as well as the strategies I was planning to use to set boundaries around work.
Read MoreThis 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 MoreWhenever I hit a roadblock with a project, whether its writing the discussion section of an article or figuring out how to move across the country, it usually means that my next steps aren't crystal clear. The one thing that I've consistently found that helps with forward momentum after feeling stuck is the brain dump.
Read MoreIn academia (and in life), productivity is often synonymous with getting sh*t done. How many publications do you have? How much funding do you have? How much writing did you get done? How many lines are on your CV? How many things did you cross off your list today before crashing into bed at night? I don't know about you, but to me… that’s exhausting
Read MoreIf 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 😄.
Read MoreWay back in April 2019 (which feels like ages ago), I wrote a post about the things that were working (and not working) for my brain. I thought I’d do an update to that post about what worked for my brain during the summer months, aka the current productivity tips I’m trying out. Summer has such a different feel to it, that it really seems like there’s an adjustment period once it’s in full swing (which is July for me). Which might be why, during August, I felt the need to adjust some things in my/our daily routine. This summer, my days were spent working on a few papers and a systematic review, course prep, 4th year tenure review prep, and building a relationship with a new collaborator. In non-tenure track related life I was working on the blog, plan(it)*, helping out someone in the personal finance realm with her online community, spending time with Mike and Ellie, and also trying to take it easy (ha!). I hadn’t really planned on the summer being filled to the brim... I just kept adding things on and here I am (I’m noticing a pattern 😒). Despite being packed, it was fun! Here’s what’s worked, along with where I’ve struggled.
Read MoreWe traveled back east in June and followed that up with a 5 day camping trip at the beginning of July. While all of those things were wonderful, they were terrible for our daily routine. We came back refreshed from camping but couldn’t get ourselves back on a schedule. Mike and I were in bed late (between 12:30 - 1:00a most nights for no reason in particular) and Ellie wasn’t sleeping well (at night or napping). During the day we all felt like zombies. To add to that, I always felt like I was rushing around but never getting much accomplished. After a particularly hectic week in early August, I thought to myself... I can’t do this anymore, something has got to shift.
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 am gearing up for the very first plan(it)* retreat this Friday and Saturday!! Although in all honesty, I’ve done so much prep work on the front end that right now there’s actually not that much to do to get ready! One of the things I’ve been doing to get the word out about the retreat is connecting with all the people I know who are doing similar/related work (i.e., supporting academics!). One of the people I reached out to was Cristi Cooke, who was so excited about the work I’ve been doing that she asked if we could do an interview! Here’s a brief overview of how Cristi and I met...
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