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A guide to accountability partnerships for academics
When it comes to academic career development, the journey doesn’t have to be a solitary one. Accountability partnerships are powerful tools for maintaining momentum and achieving goals in academic life, transforming personal ambitions into shared commitments through regular checkpoints that honour both visible progress and the invisible work of scholarly development. Key takeaways Practical steps…
Focus on meaningful core work with AI
New research shows how AI tools might transform academic productivity by enabling knowledge workers to focus more on core intellectual work while reducing administrative burden. Like software developers using GitHub Copilot, academics can leverage AI to streamline workflows, work more autonomously, and explore new research directions – particularly benefiting early-career researchers.
Something sustainable and humane
“I want to rescue knowledge work from its increasingly untenable freneticism and rebuild it into something more sustainable and humane, enabling you to create things you’re proud of without requiring you to grind yourself down along the way.” – Cal Newport
Strategic scholarly retreats
Strategic scholarly retreats offer academics a chance to step back from daily pressures and focus on career planning. These retreats, whether a full day or a few hours, provide time for reflection on research goals, teaching methods, and professional development. Regular retreats can lead to more impactful research, effective teaching, and a fulfilling academic career.
Publish, perish, or speak to someone
This post explores the challenges of balancing academic success with personal well-being. Redefining productivity, embracing vulnerability, and prioritising mental health can lead to a more fulfilling academic career. Explore strategies for speaking up and seeking support in the high-pressure world of academia.
Tony Fadell (2022) Build
Build, by Tony Fadell, combines career insights and product innovation advice from the creator of the iPod and Nest thermostat. His book provides a blueprint for high-impact career choices, iterative development, and leadership, making it valuable for anyone interested in innovative design or who is looking for a radical perspective on academic career development.
Just say ‘No’ to new projects
Avoid the temptation to accept every invitation to work on something interesting. Just say no (or, at least, not yet). Academia thrives on a spirit of collaboration and contribution. We’re constantly invited to participate in presentations, grant proposals, committees, service activities, and so on. While saying yes fosters connection and advancement, the incessant pressure to contribute…
Cal Newport (2016) Deep Work
Deep Work by Cal Newport explores how focused, undistracted work boosts productivity and fulfillment in a world filled with digital distractions. Through strategies and routines, Newport shows how cultivating deep work can lead to higher quality output, helping professionals, especially busy academics, achieve more meaningful results in their work.
Goal-driven motivation: Writing when you don’t feel like it
Goal-driven motivation is the incentive to do something I know is valuable when I don’t feel like doing it at all.
Use constraints to boost creativity
Limited time, resources, and information can sometimes represent opportunities to use constraints to boost creativity
Use research projects to build academic skills
Design small research projects, structured around the features of deliberate practice, to help build academic skills.
Strategy drives outcomes
If you want your productivity output to change, then your habits, routines, and workflow need to change. Strategy drives outcomes.