Your basket is currently empty!
From balance to harmony
Work-life harmony suggests that different parts of our lives work together, creating something more complete, rather than cancelling each other out.
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.
When time management was easy
https://calnewport.com/when-time-management-was-easy/ “…in my own work on these topics, I describe more complicated time management strategies with reluctance. My bigger wish is to help reform office work to the point that they’re no longer needed…” The goal is to design different systems of work, not engage in more complicated time management strategies.
Fostering a culture of guilt-free time off
Feeling guilty about taking time off work is common in academia. This guilt often stems from organisational culture where everyone is expected to work during leave. To break free from this guilt trap, we need a strong culture that values time off, starting with leadership and permeating the entire organisation.
Support work-life balance with a daily shutdown ritual
A daily shutdown ritual is crucial for academics to maintain work-life balance. This post explores the importance of setting boundaries and offers practical suggestions for creating your own shutdown routine. Learn how to transition from work mode to personal time effectively, enhancing your well-being and professional contributions in academia.
Time for doing nothing
In academia’s high-pressure environment, the “always-on” mentality often leaves little room for rest. But academics deserve downtime without justification. Here are a few practical strategies for unplugging and making time to do nothing.
Accelerating impact by decelerating output
In academia’s ‘publish or perish’ culture, quality often suffers for quantity. This post advocates for slow scholarship, emphasising how prioritising quality over quantity in academic publishing can lead to more impactful research and greater personal satisfaction. Learn practical strategies to integrate this approach into your daily academic practice for meaningful contributions to your field.
Always busy but no progress
In academia, it’s common to feel perpetually busy while at the same time, not making any meaningful progress. True productivity comes from establishing a steady rhythm of shipping important work, not just completing a high volume of tasks. Building and maintaining positive momentum is key to sustained progress.
Leverage your peak productivity hours
You only have 3-4 hours of peak cognitive productivity per day. Identify when you feel most focused and protect that time for demanding tasks. Batch easier activities during lower energy periods. Tracking energy levels, prioritising tasks, creating routines, taking breaks, and guarding peak times can help maximise your limited productive hours.
What if good scholarship looks like laziness?
How many of us accept requests for our time knowing full well that what we’re being asked to do isn’t going to move the needle on the high-value work we know is important?
You are not your output: Overcoming productivity debt
Productivity debt – the notion that we start each day in deficit, struggling to meet an imagined standard of bare-minimum acceptability – can be damaging to our well-being and self-worth. But what if, instead of seeing ourselves as perpetually behind, we started with the notion that we are enough, exactly as we are?
Judging by speed, instead of by quality
“We find ourselves adapting to machines and hold ourselves to their standards: People are judged by the speed with which they respond, not the quality of their response.” – Robert Poynton. Do pause: You are not a to do list.