Dear Dr. Noelle: Time! Help!

By Dr. Noelle Sterne

Q: As a tenure-track professor, I’m looking up, and the year is ending. I sign up for the TAA programs and schedule writing into my calendar. But during my reflection, I allow other “things” to take precedence, and I don’t attend the programs I sign up for, and the writing time I’ve planned slips away. Can you offer words of encouragement that my time management skills will continue to improve and that protecting writing time is possible?

— Passionate About Academic Growth

A: Dear Professor Passionate—

We all fight time. especially as we continue to accomplish in our chosen specialties.
Maybe you’re self-judging too harshly and expecting too much of yourself.

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Dear Dr. Noelle: Reciprocal Relationships of Advisors With Students

By Dr. Noelle Sterne

Q: How much about yourself should you divulge to create a reciprocal relationship?

–Approachable Advisor

A: The benchmark is boundaries. For your poor suffering student, you want to be approachable, supportive, encouraging, and all the other wonderful adjectives of a sterling advisor. BUT—you don’t want to be over-open or fall into a sinkhole of too much sharing.

What’s appropriate for you to share:

How you struggled in graduate school, the nightmare of your defense.

What’s not appropriate for you to share:

Your latest root canal agony, your septic system failure.

!–more–>

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Welcome to TAA’s Newest Column: Dear Dr. Noelle

By Noelle Sterne, PhD

Welcome to Dear Dr. Noelle!

Unashamedly, I have modeled this column on the popular “Dear Abby” advice column but aimed at us more evolved intellectuals. The column is for you graduate students, new academic doctors, and professors who have questions that burn in your minds even when you’re binging on a Netflix series.

Fair game: anything pertaining to a dissertation, article, monograph, or book: intellectual, expressional, procedural, psychological, emotional, relational, maddening.

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