By Angelica Ribeiro, PhD
“Should you listen to music more often?” The answer is yes, and here’s why: to create moments of joy. Kelly McGonigal, author of The Joy of Movement, says, “Listening to music that you love is one of the simplest ways to produce joy.” What’s impressive is that the benefits of joy go beyond making you feel good. According to McGonigal, “Joy also affects things like your motivation.
TAA member Angelica Ribeiro, Ph.D. recently authored a new nonfiction book, How to Create Happiness at Work: Seven Evidence-Based Strategies to Enjoy Your Day (Kindle Direct Publishing, March 2024).
Based on scientific evidence and her own journey toward happiness in the workplace, Ribeiro shows how to create happiness at work, especially if we have experiences such as too much sitting; too little movement; too much time stuck in traffic; too little time building positive habits; too many tasks to do; too few hours of sleep; too much computer work; and too few social interactions.
Combining storytelling and science, Ribeiro shares how we can transform such experiences into happiness strategies, including making time to move, building positive habits during traffic, and creating social connections at work.
Being Lazy and Slowing Down, a service provider for academics’ wellbeing led by Kimine Mayuzumi, was recently added to TAA’s Professional Directory in the Academic Writing and Productivity Coaching category.
Being Lazy and Slowing Down offers a globally acclaimed blog emphasizing the significance of speed bumps and holistic perspectives for academics. Their services assist overwhelmed academics in transitioning from anxiety and burnout to ease, focus, and fulfillment while maintaining productivity on their terms.
This piece follows directly from last month’s on taking time off. The author explores why taking a day off is so hard and describes her attempt.
Finally, I decided to take a day off. I work at home and, as anyone knows who does, that means all the time. No boundaries, no borders, no warning bell blaring at 9:00 at night or security guard barking “Closing!” When you quit is dictated only by hunger, exhaustion, or an occasional family emergency.
Ironically, I’ve often published advice to others to stop work and smell the rest of life. And yet, the doctor can’t comply with her own prescription.
Especially as holidays approach, instead of editing your manuscript, you may be dreaming of sitting on the sofa with your feet up, watching the leaves swirling outside (or your current tv binge). Do you feel on the edge of burnout? Are you sighing, staring into the distance, wishing you could let yourself just stop?
Maybe, like companies that close temporarily for renovation or universities that close for a holiday break, you need to shut down your writing shop for some needed renewal.
In our age of doing, doing (and overdoing), and the pressures, expectations, and inexplicable righteousness to keep doing, it’s hard to think of quitting, much less do it. A mountain of “reasons” loom.
As you probably already know, writing a dissertation is different from anything you’ve ever done. This undertaking requires you to adjust, if not radically change, your lifestyle. If you ever really want to complete the dissertation, and in a timely manner (if that isn’t an oxymoron), you need to rethink your priorities.
You may have been used to putting family first (possibly after your full-time job). But rethink this priority. Heartless and psychologically suspect as this statement may sound, you can make it up to your family in many other ways—later (that’s another article). Or you may say “yes” to all kinds of non-school activities. Learn to say “not now” (also another article).
At this point in your graduate school life, you’re supposed to make the dissertation your major priority. In my longtime dissertation coaching of struggling doctoral candidates and dissertation writers, I’ve learned several techniques and related perspectives that will nudge you into making your dissertation a priority.
