Dear Dr. Noelle: Vanquish That Self-Imposed Guilt

By Dr. Noelle Sterne

Q: What do you do if you missed a deadline you created for yourself? How do you get through the feelings of guilt and set another deadline in a way that you can hold yourself to it?

              — M. Culpa

A: I empathize with you! It’s hard to miss your self-imposed deadline. As a fellow deadline-misser, I’ve arrived at several methods that make myself easier to live with.

1. Face it. 

What did you decide to do instead? Maybe play time was irresistible when your kid begged you to build a Lego city together. Maybe you didn’t need to see the last 90-minute episode of “Greatest Scholarly Acknowledgments.” Whatever choice you made, face it. You made it. 

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Writing Groups for Academics (Faculty and ABDs)

By Mary Beth Averill

For the past few months, I have been attending a writing group that grew out of a TAA writing retreat. I would categorize our group, which started out meeting weekly and now has meetings three times a week, as a “shut up and write” group. We start with a brief check in on Zoom, saying what we each want to accomplish in the coming hour. At the end of the hour, we meet again briefly to say what progress we made. Group members who want to keep going that day state their goals for the next hour.

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Dear Dr. Noelle: Are You Dragging Your Dissertation Feet?

By Dr. Nolle Sterne

Q: Maybe it’s the new year, but I can’t seem to get going on my dissertation.

—Word Dawdler

A: Sounds like you’re dragging your dissertation manuscript in sorry tow behind you like an annoying younger brother. You’re probably doing the impossible already—on campus or online, like many other graduate students—juggling family, work, and school. Your academic struggles are intensified by the stresses of such multiple responsibilities and too often you’re slowed down to stop.

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That First Page (or Word)

By John Bond

To many people, the blank screen or page is daunting. It blinks at you. Or calls to you. Or it might even laugh at you, daring you to commit to a thought or an idea. It may seem as if you are etching something in stone that can’t be sandblasted out. Not true. Typing or writing that first line can be a challenge, though it need not be.

I’m not a big believer in “Writer’s Block.” It is not to say I don’t have real empathy for people that feel that they’re at a creative impasse or are paralyzed by the process or where their work is going. But I do think that the most common way to address this condition is tried and true. It all just comes down to writing something. Anything.

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How to Set Effective Goals

By Angelica Ribeiro, PhD

The other day, I considered setting a goal to help me write more. This made me reflect on my time as a graduate student, when I was especially productive with my writing. Besides completing course assignments and publishing academic articles, I wrote a book (“Running into Happiness”) while working on my dissertation. How did I manage to accomplish all that? Have you ever looked back at a success and wondered how you achieved it? If so, you’re already using a key principle for setting effective goals. Here’s why.

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Relaxed Productivity: A Kinder Way to Work Well

By Alison Miller, PhD, The Academic Writers’ Space

Many academic writers experience writing as pressured and effortful. It can feel like a constant push to stay focused, stay on top of deadlines, and demonstrate that you are moving forward. Over time, this pressure can become a default setting, making it harder to feel connected to the work itself. Relaxed productivity offers a different experience. It is a way of working that supports focus, consistency, and well-being by creating the internal and external conditions that help you stay present with your work. In this approach, you are not working from reactivity or urgency. You are working with clarity, rhythm, and intentional effort.  Clarity means knowing what matters right now. Rhythm comes from creating a steady way to begin and return to your work. Intentional effort means choosing tasks that match your real capacity and focusing on one step at a time. These elements create the conditions for focus, steadiness, and connection.

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