Head Space helps busy academics build sustainable routines to create space for meaningful work, without sacrificing their well-being.
I only write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes at nine every morning.
William Faulkner
Workshops
For academic teams looking for principles and strategies for creating a calm yet productive working environment.
Coaching
For academics who need guidance and support to change their practices around moving high-value projects forward.
Courses
For academics who are stressed, under pressure, and working extended hours just to get through a normal workload.
Library
A catalogue of resources for busy academics who want to build habits and routines to support calm productivity.
Identify areas for growth and development through structured reflection and feedback, discover which parts of your academic workflow need the most attention
Build new habits and routines around high-value projects by replacing reactive busyness with intentional systems that protect time for your most meaningful work.
Create meaningful outputs that build career capital by focusing your energy on producing work that advances your expertise and reputation in areas that matter to you.
Experiment with new systems and processes to drive change by testing and refining different approaches until you find what works best for your unique context and goals.
Michael Rowe
Michael is an academic, teacher, and researcher with a track record of high-quality scholarly outputs and achievements. He has mentored colleagues, peers, and students at all levels of higher education, helping them to develop their own systems for calm productivity. His approach builds on 15 years spent developing his own system for improving scholarly practice, constantly adapting and refining his workflow.
“I love academia and am fascinated with the idea of people spending their working lives trying to better understand how the world works. I want scholarship to be a space for calm and thoughtful engagement with the big ideas that move society forward. And Head Space is my attempt to share what I’ve learned to bring some of that ethos back into higher education.”
Testimonials
“If you are looking for a first dive into AI in an educational context, this course is for you. Through clear information and very good examples, Michael explains and discusses the impact and use of AI in different aspects of our roles as academics.”
Antonio Lopes (Escola Superior de Saúde de Alcoitão, Portugal)
“I learnt so much. Based on the course I made significant changes to my workflow and I feel these will make my life and work much easier in the long term. And for the first time in my life, I have a clean desktop and an empty inbox!!!”
Roisin Kelly (University College Cork, Ireland)
“Lovely short course that succinctly presents useful and relevant information. The content is well organized and presented in an easy to read manner. I appreciate that I can immediately apply the ideas. Thank you!”
Sharon Jernigan (Dallas, United States)
“Being a superfan of self-awareness, self- actualisation, productivity and all things related, I naturally consume a lot of information in this domain. Consequently, I experience a lot of information saturation, where I often come across the same type of advice and recommendations from different sources. However, the Head space courses are unique and I learnt so many new things. I’d definitely recommend the these courses to anyone!”
Benita Olivier (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
“The course was well-organized, with clear, step-by-step instructions that made it easy to follow. I found the content highly practical, and I was able to apply what I learned immediately in my work… For the price, this course has incredible value, and I highly recommend it to anyone in higher education”
Jeroen Alessie (Avans University of Applied Science, Netherlands)
“THANK you for the amazing course. I learned so much and making small changes to my daily practice and decisions really makes a difference.”
Yolande Heymans (North-West University, South Africa)
Why this? Why now?
Cultural problem
Academics are under pressure to excel across a wide range of contexts, including increased administrative demands, higher teaching loads, professional communities, managerial distractions, and service commitments, all while maintaining a competitive research portfolio.
Impact on you
Do you feel overworked and undervalued? Are you always reacting and feel under pressure? Always in crisis-response mode? Do you work unhealthy hours, nights, and weekends, but never feel closer to finishing anything worthwhile?
A first step
Maybe you need to reset what it means to be an academic, and to reclaim the joy and delight of being an academic. Making these changes is simple, but not easy. Head space provides the support and motivation you need to restore your workflow to a set of sane defaults.
Emergent Scholarship
What might a different kind of scholarship look and feel like?
Watch this space.
Newsletter
For January 2025, Head Space is offering a 25% discount on all courses to new newsletter subscribers. Sign up below for your discount coupon.
Get bi-weekly insights on creating calm, productive academic workflows delivered to your inbox.