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.
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.
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.
By Angelica Ribeiro, PhD
Recently, a member of my writing group complimented me on my dedication to my writing goals. She said, “You’re so good at staying focused on the goals you set for yourself.”
“I think it has a lot to do with grit,” I responded. Let me explain.
Angela Duckworth (2016) defines grit as “passion and perseverance for long-term goals.” Based on her book Grit, here are some key actions to build grit:
By John Bond
Early in one’s career, academics and researchers focus on individual wins (read: getting published). Long term, however, they are better served by developing a personalized Publishing Strategy. This may sound highfalutin, but it is simpler than it sounds and easier to develop and curate over time than most people think.
First, what is a Publishing Strategy? A Publishing Strategy is a long-term, intentional plan for when, where, and how you publish your research, aligned with your academic goals, research agenda, and career stage. Most people only start to think about this after achieving their first position in academia. They’re anxious to get their first publication under their belt. It is gratifying, invalidating. This first publication might enable them to fulfill a requirement for employment or for a research grant. These first few wins are important, but I suggest you quickly move past them to develop a wider plan.
By Sierra Pawlak
During the November 27, 2024 TAA Conversation Circle, Janet Salmons, co-moderator and qualitative methodologist, shared an analogy of what she meant by the term “content curation” in the context of her work:
“If you go to an Art Museum, the curator doesn’t just hang all the stuff. They make sense of it. Like, ‘Oh, okay, here’s these George O’keefe paintings, and here are the Kachinas that were depicted in the painting,’ the artifacts and the history and the social context. So, I’m not just walking through a whole bunch of different pieces, but I’ve got something that’s making sense of it and looking for themes and pulling in other context that would help to build more meaning around it. That was the inspiration I had for using that term.”
