Head Space

Calm productivity for academics

Tag: scholarship

  • Rethinking your week: The case for a scholarship day

    Dedicating one day a week to scholarship can transform your academic productivity. Drawing inspiration from Iceland’s successful shorter work week experiment and Google’s 20% time policy, explore how protected time for deep scholarly work can help you produce better outputs without working longer hours.

  • Beyond productivity: Why academic mental health support matters

    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.

  • Slower scholarship for greater impact

    In academia’s ‘publish or perish’ culture, quality often suffers for quantity. This post advocates for slower 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.

  • [Note] What if good scholarship looks like laziness?

    “To put it another way: become hard to reach, avoid new tech tools, be slow to answer e-mails, become blissfully ignorant of memes, turn down coffee requests, refuse to “hop on” calls, and spend whole days outside working in a single idea—these are exactly the type of lazy behaviors that can change the world.” -…

  • Cal Newport: So good they can’t ignore you

    In So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Cal Newport argues that true career satisfaction comes from building rare, valuable skills rather than “following your passion.” For academics, focusing on skill development rather than elusive passions fosters control, mission, and fulfillment in higher education careers, where impact and autonomy matter most.