Dear friends,
Does it feel like spring yet? I’m writing this on yet another cold and rainy day, cheering myself up with a cup of tea and wildflower daydreams. I hope April brings sunshine to all of us!
Understanding that we as humans have seasonal rhythms, and taking these into account, has made me both happier and more productive. The pace of work slows down in summer to accommodate vacations, social gatherings, and weather that lures us away from our desks. Instead of setting goals that don’t match this reality, I suggest a work retreat.
How are you? It’s been a long, hard pandemic slog, but June- Pride month- is great time to find our optimism. As a Gen Xer, I’ve seen a revolution in my lifetime in how we think about our LGBTQIA friends, neighbors, and colleagues, and it gives me hope that we can make progress towards racial and gender justice. I’m starting to feel like I can see my way through the fog of the past 15 months, and it’s a good time to take stock.
This month’s topic was inspired by a mentee question about managing simultaneous deadlines. What do you do when you have multiple papers and a grant to push out the door? How do you efficiently work on more than one writing project? The more senior you become, the more critical it is to master this way of working. I don’t have a perfect solution, but I can share a few strategies.
March was a tough month, wasn’t it? This month I want to talk about time away from work. Whether it’s for parental leave or sudden family needs of a less joyful nature, time away can cause stress for the person who taking time off, their colleagues, staff, and mentors. My underlying assumptions: (1) People experience life events in very different ways; (2) It is not a job requirement to have exemplary coping skills/ resilience in the face of life challenges, let alone personal tragedy.
Dear friends,
We made it through another month! Between dealing with the heat dome and daylight savings-related sleep disturbance, I’m not sad to see March go! And can we agree that 2026 has been quite enough without adding April Fool’s Day into the mix? Life is enough of a roller-coaster without pranks- I propose compliments and/or hugs instead!
Dear friends,
I bet you’re reading the subject line of this email or the title of this blog and wondering whether I’ve been replaced this month by my evil twin! Why would I, a person who opposes overwork and believes in rest, be telling you to say yes to the stress?! I recently made a last-minute decision that has wrecked my careful planning, and I want to share why I think it is important to sometimes choose stress.
Dear friends,
I’m writing this on a rainy cold afternoon, and I can’t say I am looking forward to the gray days and long nights ahead. Just as I typed that last sentence, a hummingbird visited the feeder outside my window and reminded me that there is color and liveliness in every season. So, onward with optimism!
Dear friends,
In San Francisco, it’s officially Fogust, continuing the coldest, wettest, gray-est summer we have had in the more than 20 years I’ve lived here. I’ve looked out my window many times and thought about how the surroundings mirror my mood. This summer it has taken intentional time and effort to seek the sun, literally and figuratively!
Dear friends,
Summer is right around the corner, and I can’t wait for life to slow down just for a little while. Somehow we are still here, five months into a very challenging year. I’ve alluded several times to a grant that has loomed too large over this entire academic year, and I am glad to say it has finally been submitted.
Dear friends,
Somehow, it’s May. It is hard to overstate how difficult these times are, and I’m glad you’re still with me! The only way we will get through this is together. Many of you know that I am having an exceptionally challenging grant-writing experience right now. Given that my non-work life is always eventful, I have been overworked and tired. My solution- schedule time for fun!
Dear friends,
It has been a tough month, hasn’t it? At this time of year, I am usually enjoying the longer days and coming out of my winter hibernation. Since I last wrote you, though, I have been caught up in the chaos of our federal government. Even though I know it is their strategy to throw us off balance, I have still been affected by all of their terrifying and disheartening actions.
Dear friends,
I am writing this message on January 29th, and it will post as my February blog. I am sure there will be more executive orders and directives in the next few days, and I expect our stress and uncertainty will continue to be in high gear. It’s hard to know what to say, so I will start simple: you are not alone. Seek out your people and be in community.
Dear friends,
We are closing in on the end of a rollercoaster year, and I hope you have some rest ahead. I know the future seems very uncertain right now, and I have been alternating between distracting myself and feeling paralyzed by existential dread. The best comfort I have found is in community, focusing on what matters. We are lucky to be doing work that can make the world better, which is its own form of resistance.
Dear friends,
Happy summer! Even in San Francisco we are enjoying some lovely sunshine, and I hope you are too. How is your work pace? I was looking forward to a summer lull, but it hasn’t happened yet. My days seem more packed than ever, and my usual planning strategies are not keeping me from falling behind. So let’s talk about coping with, if not exactly embracing, work chaos. I’m talking about that feeling of having multiple demands come at you unexpectedly, going from meeting to meeting without surfacing long enough to think through a logical plan, and burning through the work time set aside on your calendar without getting the important stuff done.
Dear friends,
It’s rainy, cold, and gray as I look out the window of my home office, and I find myself searching vainly for some inner sunshine. I expect I am not the only one looking forward to longer, warmer days! I hope this March finds you thriving, or at least getting by. The title of this month’s post comes from a saying in Bengali, my first language, which translates to, “If you do people favors, you’ll be eaten by tigers.” Let me tell you the story that brought this colorful expression to mind.
May is upon us, and it’s still raining in San Francisco! The weather is reflecting my mood as I am still trying to shake off the cold, dark, long winter. I hope all of you are embracing spring and seeing some wildflowers. My recent travel to the American College of Physicians meeting last week inspired this post. At the meeting, I had informal and impromptu discussions with two midcareer physicians who are interested in working at UCSF.
Here we are, February 2023. I am sending solidarity to all of you as we contemplate mass shootings, anti-Asian hate, and the terrible police-perpetrated murder of Tyre Nichols, among other injustices and crises. There are no words- just remember that you are not alone. Reach out to me anytime, be kind to each other, and be patient with yourself. Everything going on in the world continues to make it hard to focus on work.
I hope all of you had an opportunity to take a break at the end of 2022 and are as well as possible. This time of year, with cold weather and short days, can feel challenging. For me, it is not a natural time to make resolutions or feel motivated. I feel out of sync with the culture- everyone is packing the gym or setting out to maintain their daily meditation streak, and I just want to read in bed with a cup of tea.
It’s December, and if your workplace is anything like mine, everyone is scrambling to meet year-end deadlines and hand over work to colleagues before heading out to winter break. In past years I have tried to manage this increased workload and stress by asking mentees to send me work earlier in December, by blocking off meeting-free time, and by planning way ahead for time-consuming holiday tasks like addressing Christmas cards. This year, I am opting out. I recently read Rest is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey, and it has given me a new understanding about incessant work demands.
Happy September! Every fall feels like the start of the new year for me. We are still in tough times, and I hope you’re finding optimism in some corner of your life. In August I shared that I did not realize until I went on an extended vacation how much my workload was affecting my brain and body. I've been experimenting with reduced working hours for the last month, and I will report back to you in a future post about whether I can keep it up.
