academic coach

Tuesday Tidbit: Practice Stopping

PRACTICE STOPPING

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"All the best work is done the way the ants do things - by tiny but untiring and regular additions."

                                                             -- Lafcadio Hearn

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All the procrastinators I know (myself included!) nag ourselves relentlessly about our difficulty starting.

"I should begin RIGHT NOW!" we tell ourselves.

"But I don't want to!" counters our inner whiner.

And so the cycle goes....

We are painfully conscious of our difficiulty getting started. 

However, few of the procrastinators I work with realize that they also have difficulty STOPPING.

Whenever we finally manage to get ourselves to begin writing, or any other anxiety-producing task, we don't dare stop.  We try to take advantage of our momentum and push ourselves to continue as long as possible.  We end our binges only when stuck, depleted, or burnt ot a crisp.

There's a reason we don't stop until we can't go on: We don't trust ourselves to begin again.

In the long run, however, our tendency to binge fuels our procrastination.  Because we associate work periods with fatigue and frustration, we feel greater dread about beginning tasks.  Once we finally get ourselves to sit down and start, we know that we're in for a protracted haul.

It may be counter-intuitive, but to tackle the habit of procrastination, we need to practice stopping.

This is why I recommend regular, short periods of work.  Sure, some days you will be on a roll and find it gratifying to extend a planned work session in order to reach a specific goal.  But most of the time, it is important to stop while the ideas are still flowing, and before you're tired or discouraged, so that you'll remember the work session as rewarding rather than grueling.  If your work sessions are less painful, you'll be more likely to begin again.

You want to be able to say to yourself: "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Then you'll be able to answer: "Guess I can handle it again tomorrow."

So... start stopping today!

The nature of Blog conversations

I think that this article, by Alan Jacobs, an English professor at Wheaton College, does a nice job of capturing the limitations of discussions in comment trains of blogs.

He claims that "(R)ight now, and for the foreseeable future, the blogosphere is the friend of information but the enemy of thought."  This hyperbolic phrase is meant to describe the way blog discussions peter out after readers have posted their reactions.  It is just too hard to come back, review previous comments and responses, and continue a conversation.

Monday Motivator: Focus on Finishing

Monday Motivator: Focus on Finishing

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When you put your hand to the plow, you can't put

it down until you get to the end of the row.

                           -Alice Paul

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Most faculty and graduate students contact me because they are having trouble finishing projects. Incomplete tasks keep faculty from getting tenure and graduate students from getting their degrees.

Academics who seek coaching often have several journal papers in process, can’t get themselves to complete a book proposal, have course ‘incompletes’ remaining from past semesters, or have been unable to finish their dissertation – often for years.

To become a successful academic you must learn how to

persist on a project until you complete it. The ability

to finish projects is a key ingredient to effectiveness

in your career and your life.

Becoming a finisher requires practice.  One of the ways to

develop the habit of completing projects is to break large

tasks into small goals and finish something every day. 

In a given work session, instead of trying to finish a

dissertation chapter, you could first aim to write three

paragraphs of your literature review covering a discrete

theoretical topic. 

Instead of trying to revise a paper for resubmission, you

could first try to address two reviewer criticisms. 

Instead of trying to send out your entire book proposal

to publishing houses, you could first aim to write one

chapter summary.

You’ll find that finishing a task creates a burst of

energy.  When you accomplish your achievable daily goal,

you’ll feel a mild surge of satisfaction and an increase

in motivation.  When you cross an item off your “to do”

list, you’ll experience satisfaction.

Finishing small tasks can also mitigate discouragement

about how long the large, complex projects take.

For example, today I had that common experience of

Tackling a project that seemed to become larger and more

complicated the more I worked on it.  After a few hours,

I felt frustrated and disheartened.  I thought that I’d be

able to finish, but instead I discovered new blocks to

completion.  When I noticed how cranky I was becoming, I

decided to switch gears and work on something I knew that

I could complete: writing a Monday Motivator. 

I find that these weekly emails are both manageable and

satisfying to send out (in part because some of you let

me know that you find my tips helpful.)

So, now that I’ve written this draft, I feel much better

about my day.  And I’m ready to return to the discouraging

morass that prompted me to write about this topic!

Let me know what you finish this week.

Until next Monday,

Mary

P.S. A graduate student sent me the opening quotation because

she had found a previous Monday Motivator particularly relevant.

I always appreciate finding great quotations to add to my

burgeoning file, and in this case I had the added benefit of

learning that Alice Paul was an important suffragist. 

Mary McKinney, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychologist and Academic Coach

Successful Academic Consulting

Visit http://www.SuccessfulAcademic.com

for more tenure track tips.

Visit http://successfulacademic.typepad.com

to read Mary's blog

Wednesday Wisdom: Daily Discipline

Ah, once again, I forgot to post my "Monday Motivator."  Instead I'll call it "Wednesday Wisdom."

Monday Motivator aka Wednesday Wisdom: Daily Discipline

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“My life as a writer consists of 1/8 talent and 7/8 discipline.”

               -- John Irving

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*** Are you setting priorities and tackling important items first?

*** Are you making reasonable "to do" lists and then following through?

*** Are you writing, for at least a short amount of time, on a near-daily basis?

*** Are you avoiding long email meanderings and web surf sessions that are periods of procrastination disguised as research?

Any large, long-term project -- whether it is a dissertation, book manuscript, article or grant -- is better accomplished with steady, consistent work than with intense, exhausting binges.

Marathons, not sprints, are the key to becoming a successful academic.

This week aim for productive, disciplined days and focus on the process of building up good work habits.

I'll be curious to hear how it goes.

Until next week,

Mary

After the Storm

It is always gratifying to get emails like this:

"Thank you for your weekly tips and your web page. I successfully defended my dissertation a week ago and am done! Everything I could find, including your info, helped me make it through."

Kudos and Congrats!

(Anyone else want to celebrate finishing here?)

Write Regularly

I keep forgetting to post my Monday Motivator for those of you who don't subscribe to my newsletter.  So... here's today's quote and quip.

Monday Motivator: Write Regularly

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'Write even when you don't want to,

don't much like what you are writing,

and aren't writing particularly well.'

                           

                   --  Agatha Christie

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Most of the academics I work with have big plans for the summer.  With the end of classes, they hope to finally find the time to write.

What about you?

To get those papers submitted, or those dissertation chapters drafted, this summer I recommend that you begin each workday with a short writing session.  It can be a warm-up bout of focused freewriting - my term for choosing a specific topic and then freely allowing yourself to jot or type down whatever comes to mind on the subject.

Your daily writing session can also begin with a brief period of revising the previous day's work: But please don't forget to plunge back into rough drafting after 10 or 15 minutes.

Writing as a response to scholarly reading can be a useful component of your daily habit:  But be sure to write your notes in full sentences, rather than cryptic phrases.

What you choose to write is less important than the act of writing itself. Your goal should be to establish a habit of regular, predictable writing sessions.

The point is to sit down, begin writing, and keep at it even when your rough draft feels jagged and ugly rather than merely bumpy.

What are your summer writing plans?  Is this your chance to finish those manuscripts that have languished this spring?

It's a Great Job

Money Magazine rated being a professor the 2nd best job around.

I think that the first must be an academic coach.

I can't think of anything I'd rather do than what I do. 

Martin Seligman, father of the growing movement of positive psychology, and author of books like "Learned Optimism" and "Authentic Happiness," differentiates between having a job, a career and a mission.  I know a few academics who feel that they are fulfilling a mission when they teach or conduct research (even though it may feel like they are doing a mere job when they attend department meetings or write a grant.)  It is these fortunate, dedicated folks who find the greatest fulfillment and meaning in their work.

Interested in assessing your happiness and work/life satisfaction?  There are many self-tests available on Marty's web site.  I highly recommend taking some of the measures you'll find there and becoming more familiar with his work and the work of his colleagues.  It is a view of psychology based on strengths rather than deficits.