Holiday tactics to honor your all-important academic project

The holidays can be wonderful times for reconnecting with family and friends; taking breathers from the daily-weekly-yearly chase of accomplishment; kindling or rekindling feelings of love, warmth, and generosity even to those who’ve published much more than you; and indulging in delectable seasonal goodies. But we academics often feel conflicted about how much time to “take off.”

Maybe we’re feeling the pressure of having to participate in holiday events. Maybe we’re worried about being grilled by well-intentioned family or friends about the progress of our dissertation, article, or book. Maybe we’re very aware of the dangerous loss of momentum from our work. Maybe we just don’t like all those jolly gatherings.

Here, from clients who have suffered through such “maybes,” I suggest three holiday strategies you can apply, depending on the severity of your “maybes” and your fortitude.

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Advice: Do nothing

How is your schedule?

If you are like the rest of the people I know, you either:

  • Rolled your eyes,
  • Snorted,
  • Laughed,
  • Said, “Don’t ask,”
  • Had a dark cloud come over your face,
  • Or took a deep breath.

Feeling pushed to the max is the number one response I get nowadays when I ask someone about where they are with their writing and work.

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Feed your research agenda with Feedly

With the amount of information published daily, it can seem nearly impossible to “stay current” in your field of study and find the time to write, teach, or conduct research. Periodic Internet searches, Google alerts, and scholarly databases make the process a bit easier, but the massive result sets on a single search phrase can be overwhelming.

What if there were a way to stay current on the topics you’re most interested in, from sources you trust and others you hadn’t yet heard of, without the time and effort of endless searching?

The good news is, there is! It’s the Artificial-Intelligence(AI)-driven tool, Feedly.

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Finding time to write: Important, yes! Impossible, no! Reviewing your student assignment practices

The best insurance policy for success in academe is to write (and publish) your work. Yet, you say, where or where do I find the time to write, especially with all the feedback and grading I have to do?

This article is the first in a four-part series focused on finding hidden pockets of time for your own writing. This article will reflect on one aspect of your teaching practice: the assignments you have students complete.

What happens when you hand out your syllabus in that first face-to-face class? The students breeze past your well-crafted course description, clearly written objectives, and inspiring teaching philosophy to one place in the syllabus—the assignments.

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UPS, FedEx, and You: Goal setting by deliverables

The beginning of a new academic year is a great time to set intentions and think about goals. Goal setting can seem arbitrary or ambiguous, particularly for large projects that take months or years to complete. What if you thought about your goals in terms of the final product of a semester? Deliverables. Deliverables are the concrete items you will deliver to yourself or others at the end of a period.

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New TAA eBook Download: Writing Accountability – Productivity Through Partnership

Download this 17-page eBook, packed with helpful information for textbook and academic authors on how to be more productive through writing accountability, including:

  • How a Personal Writing Team Can Increase Your Productivity Through Accountability
  • How to Be an Effective Writing Accountability Partner
  • Writing Groups: When, Why, How, and Best Practices
  • Developing Healthy Collaborative Relationships: Why and How

Download

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