In 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 MoreHere’s what I worked on during the month of March. If you missed February’s update, I’m moving my reflections to the monthly newsletter, which you can sign up for here!
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 MoreIf you're a regular reader of my blog you know that my dad passed away in November, and then we had another family emergency come up in December that was also really difficult.
While my days and weeks are usually very structured, rigidity has not been what I’ve needed these past few months. From November through mid-January my schedule and planning processes shifted dramatically, mainly because I didn't do any planning (at least not the level of planning that I usually do). Once winter term started in early January I did need some sort of structure to help balance all the things, so I slowly started to incorporate more structure planning back into my regular routine.
Read MoreFirst of all, I can. not. believe. that March is here. Which means soon it will be April and then May and then summer (I feel like my life revolves around how far away summer is). If I can make it through February, I can usually trick myself into thinking that spring is right around the corner (even though March is pretty much the same thing… granted flowers are blooming outside right now and it’s been sunny so apparently spring has arrived).
What’s been going on for us this month in the Toddler on the Tenure Track household? Work, preschool, playgrounds, the occasional dinner or brunch with friends, nothing too out of the ordinary. Ellie has been having some serious tantrums lately. We're in a weird "no nap but needs a nap" phase, which makes emotions run high.
Read MoreA while back I received a comment from a reader asking about my postpartum experiences while finishing up my PhD. One of the things this person asked about was how I managed my schedule during that time… so this post is all about what I did to manage my schedule while I was finishing up my PhD during the early postpartum period.
Read MoreI’ll be switching from weekly updates to monthly updates. Between no more naps for Ellie (unless we want her staying up until 10:30pm or later), serving as the administrator on my dad’s estate, a steady stream of doctor’s appointments, and just work and general life stuff, weekend time is precious. I’d rather spend the hour (plus) that was previously dedicated to weekly updates on other things! I’ll structure these monthly updates the same way, with a bit of a reflection from the month and also what I’ve been working on in terms of research, teaching, service, and personal life. I don’t set monthly goals, so I won’t structure the update around them… I’ll play around with what feels good. Since I’m not a monthly planner I’m curious to see how taking time to review the past month alters the flow of my work.
Read MoreAcademic 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.
Read MoreWay back in December 2018 I shared my first budget post, laying out where our money goes each month. While a lot in life has changed since then, our finances have remained steady. They’re on autopilot. In terms of finances, this month was pretty ordinary, we went a little over in a few categories and were under in others, so it all balanced out. As I mentioned last month, we’re focused on rebuilding savings right now, extra student loan payments are on hold for the time being.
Read MoreGrades were turned in this week which means that fall quarter is officially over. Of course, I wasn't teaching this term so there was no end of term chaos for me (thank goodness)... just general life chaos. The end of fall means that winter quarter is right around the corner, which means I'll be teaching again. During last year’s online winter course I had students write a short reflection about their learning. One of the prompts that they could respond to was, "what advice would you give to future students in this course?" As a gift to this year's class, I'm compiling and organizing last year's responses and posting them to our course page.
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