Week of January 22

Congratulations Akosua and Soojin for accomplishing your goals last week. Keep up the good work. You are an inspiration to me.

Words of the week:

Five Steps to Realistic Balance

While it's great to know that balance is possible, what can you do TODAY to start better managing your heavy workload and make sure your core needs are getting met?

1. Sharpen Your Focus

The more you have going on in your life off-campus, the sharper your focus must be during the time you spend on-campus. If you have limited time each day, make sure a significant amount of that time is spent on activities (such as research and writing) that contribute to your long-term success as a scholar. Likewise, if you find yourself working long hours and having little time for anything else, make sure that the things that are important to your relationships and your health receive attention.

2. Stop Thinking You Are Selfish

I often hear tenure-track faculty (especially women) describe the act of setting aside time for writing every day as "selfish." These same people describe long days of putting everyone else's needs first and "hoping" they will have the time and energy to write at the end of the day. If you’re in a similar situation, release yourself from the idea that taking care of your own needs (not to mention making time to tend to the primary criteria in your promotion and/or tenure decision) is "selfish." It is not selfish to prioritize your writing. In fact, it's your job.

3. Identify ONE Problem Area That You Need To Resolve In Order To Be More Productive

This week, try to identify the primary problem standing in the way of your productivity. If there are lots of them, then pick the biggest one. If you need some help identifying your problem, take a look back at the list entitled "What's Holding You Back?” If you still can't figure it out, try talking with one of your mentors and/or check in with others in the NCFDD Discussion Forum.

4. Take One Small Step Forward To Make A Change

Whatever problem you identify, come up with one concrete step forward you can take to resolve it this week. It doesn't matter how small that step is, just figure it out and commit to it. Maybe this is the week you are going to start writing every day for 30 minutes, saying "no" to any additional service requests for a month, developing a rubric instead of giving in-depth written comments, delegating non-essential tasks to someone else, and/or hiring someone to do your taxes, clean your house, or shovel your snow. Making just one concrete change will create positive momentum, help you to begin surfacing the deeper problems, and motivate you to take another step forward next week.

5. Be Gentle, Loving, And Patient With Yourself

Learning to manage your workload and maximize your productivity takes time. Several years ago, I decided I was going to start running for exercise and stress reduction. At first, all I could do was walk around the track while other people flew by me. I told myself, "Don't compare yourself. You're just getting started, and you're doing the best you can for right now." After two weeks of walking the track, I was power-walking so fast that I passed several slow joggers, and it occurred to me: "I can do that!” Each week I jogged one lap further than the previous week, and before I knew it, I could run three miles, three days a week.

I could tell the exact same story about learning to work efficiently. When I finally understood that I could no longer physically work 80 hours a week, I started to make the changes that my mentors suggested. Once again, I told myself, "Don't compare yourself. You're just getting started, and you're doing the best you can for right now." I took small steps forward, one week at a time, and pretty soon I was writing every morning, completing drafts, publishing my research, and feeling confident. I wasn't perfectly balanced, but I was confident that I could publish and flourish without sacrificing my health, relationships, and sanity. And that was a good start.

The Weekly Challenge

 This week I challenge you to:

• Acknowledge that there will always be more work to do than time to do it.
• Release yourself from whatever negative self-judgments and criticism are keeping you from aligning your time with your priorities.
• If you’re unhappy with your productivity, gently ask yourself, what's holding me back?
• Identify one CONCRETE step forward, and commit to executing that change this week.
• If you need support in making writing a daily priority, consider joining the January Writing Challenges in the NCFDD Discussion Forum.
• If you haven't created a Strategic Plan for the term yet, it's not too late!
• If you want to learn the skill of aligning your time and priorities each week, sign up for our next core curriculum webinar today.
• If you missed our multi-week course, How to Balance Parenting and Productivity, access the video recordings here and register for the last session here.

For myself, I have a hard time getting balanced at the beginning of the semester, but I'm going to give it a shot this week. Primary job: East Lansing presentation materials; secondary job: OKC Historical presentation.

Happy writing!

Week of January 15

It's so nice to have you all aboard and to hear about your progress. Today is the day to plan your week. Here is the Weekly Challenge from FacultyDiversity.org. Happy writing!

The Weekly Challenge

 This week, I challenge each of you to:

• Create a Strategic Plan for your quarter, term, or semester.
• Set aside 30 minutes at the beginning of this week to plan how you will spend your time.
• Estimate what percentage of your work time this week would align with your institution’s evaluation criteria.
• Gently ask yourself if the way you are currently spending your work time is likely to result in your meeting the standards for promotion at your institution.
• Write out your to-do items for the week, being sure to categorize your to-do list by Research, Service, and Teaching.
• Map that list onto specific blocks of time in your calendar and proactively decide what to do with the items that don't fit.
• Try working just one week with your time (literally) aligned with your priorities.
• If you still need more convincing about aligning time and priorities, read The New Faculty Member by Rebecca Brendt and Richard Felder (2-minute read).
• To learn more about aligning your time and your priorities, join us for our next core curriculum webinar, Align Your Time With Your Priorities.

Invitation to Participate

As a doctoral student or faculty member in music education, I would like to invite you to join this blog to hold ourselves accountable for scholarly writing. The guidelines below (from facultydiversity.org) will help you get started. Let's keep it simple.

1. Post once a week about your progress, challenges, or triumphs. Post more often if you like.
2. Check in and respond to at least one other post. Affirmations are especially useful!
3. Write 30 minutes every weekday.

Here are some guidelines to get you started.

Three Steps to Spring Success:

Step #1: Develop A Clear And Realistic Strategic Plan

Before the term gets into full swing, set aside 30 minutes to develop a strategic plan for the next 15 weeks (or however long your term, quarter, or semester lasts). Creating a strategic plan is easy and enjoyable -- just start by listing your writing goals for the term and the projects that are necessary to meet them. Then map the projects onto your calendar so that you know which blocks of time you will devote to each one. There's a finite number of weeks in the term, so it's critical to determine what specific weeks you will devote to each project on your list. A strategic plan will help you to clarify WHAT needs to be done and WHEN you will do it.

Step #2: Commit Yourself To At Least 30 Minutes Of Writing EVERY DAY

I know I sound like a broken record on this point, but I have seen so many academic writers experience explosive breakthroughs in research productivity by simply committing to daily writing, blocking that time out of their calendars, and showing up every day. If you haven't tried it, all I can say is that daily writing will not only consistently move you towards the completion of your writing goals, but it will also reduce your anxiety by aligning your daily schedule with your institution's promotion and tenure criteria.

Step #3: Connect With A Community Of Support That Will Keep You MOTIVATED And ACCOUNTABLE

While it is critical to have a clear strategic plan and execute it by writing every day, the most important factor for success during a busy term is connecting with a community of support and accountability. Too many of us try to do everything alone and expect ourselves to be perfectly motivated and disciplined at all times. This is not only unrealistic, but it's also a recipe for isolation, alienation, and frustration. To be honest, sometimes I feel like writing, but most of the time I don't! That's because writing is not an enjoyable activity for me. I also know myself well enough to realize that I thrive in a community where I'm motivated daily by others and where people care enough about me to hold me accountable to my goals. There are lots of different ways to create accountability structures for your writing and research, but since you've already invested in an NCFDD membership, why not take a peek at the Writing Challenges in the NCFDD discussion forums? It's a quick and easy place to make daily connections and experience peer support for productivity.