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,
Goodbye, summer! Usually I am excited for the back-to-school return to routine that fall brings. This year I just feel like I am holding my breath. With all the harm we’ve witnessed and experienced over the last few months, there is dread about what is coming next. I’m still wrestling with the question of how to move our work forward at such a challenging moment.
Dear friends,
I hope this message finds you rested and recharged! For me, the turning of a new year sparks a confusing and contradictory mix of feelings. The opportunity for a fresh start appeals to the optimist in me, and at the same time, my inner critic reminds me that I have inevitably fallen short of my ambitious goals for the year before. I feel the urge to make resolutions, even though I always aim to resist the relentless, burnout-inducing cultural push to do more and be better.
Dear friends,
We made it through the crazy month of May! I hope you are looking ahead to some downtime this summer. An early-career faculty member with young kids recently asked me a great question: how do you decide how much to travel? Is there a magic number of trips per year or nights away from home?
Dear friends,
Hope this message finds you being kind to yourself amid all the tumult in the world right now. Can you believe 2023 is half over? I find myself thinking that time is too short to spend on trivialities. Let’s keep committing to the work we are called to do, every day, in the second half of 2023.
Dear friends,
Summertime is here! Can you believe it? For a minute there I wasn't sure I would make it through the always-hectic month of May. I hope all of you have time away planned this summer. I've written before about how important it is to pay attention to, and align our work plans with, seasonal rhythms that affect our body and mind.
I hope spring is bringing you some peace and optimism as our challenging times continue. This month I want to share some advice that I gave a colleague who is going on sabbatical. Like many of you, this person excels in their work and loathes the idea of self-promotion. We have talked about bragging effectively and using peer amplification to get the word out. I thought of another strategy for staying top of mind that felt acceptable and feasible: the AWARE Share. And yes, it's an acronym (Awareness of Work and Achievements through Relevant Emails). Consider sending quarterly updates to key stakeholders who should be aware of you but are not in your immediate mentoring circle. Here are my tips.
Hope this message finds all of you safe and healthy. I won’t entreat all of you to vote - I know many of you already have, and if you haven’t, I am confident you have a plan! This month I want to talk about that most sticky of subjects, money! We know that women and people of color are paid less in academia compared to white men, and of course, this is a huge intersectional problem for women of color. (I am purposely stating this as a fact and not using space to cite supporting data. I want to talk strategies.)
Dear friends,
It’s July and we are still trudging down a long dark tunnel. It’s a good time to revel in small victories and appreciate positive moments amidst all the sadness and uncertainty. Reach out for the support you need!
Recently several friends have had what I’ve been calling “COVID epiphanies” in which they decide on a major life change.
I am writing to all of you before my next planned update because these are such challenging times, and I feel the need to connect. How are you? Are you working from home? Pulling extra clinical time in preparation for a patient surge? Both? I am sending my best to you and your loved ones, especially the vulnerable people in your circle. At this moment I don’t feel like I have advice or answers; I hope my thoughts help you feel seen/ validated.
Today’s question: Has anyone told you to “focus” or “find your niche” or “narrow down your interests?” This is extremely common advice for early-career academics, and I think it is 100% wrong. I am a generalist by training and inclination, and I like following my interests where they lead. However, I find this advice wrong-headed for reasons that have more to do with external factors than with me.
It’s that spooky time of year when you start to think, “Can I really get all of this done before the holidays?” Don’t worry, you’ve totally got it! Remember that saying no is a wonderful way to shorten your to-do list, and put your tasks on your calendar right away so that you can see how committed your time is already.
Here we are, gearing up for another fast-paced fall! Lately I have had a number of conversations about how to manage transitions. For the parents on this list, our kids are entering a new grade and perhaps a new school this year, and many of us have new roles ramping up at work as well. Here at ZSFG, we’ve had a massively disruptive innovation - implementation of a new electronic health record, EPIC. At this time of year, change is in the air, and it can test our resilience.
Hope this message finds you thriving! I’m looking out the window at the rain and wondering when it will start to feel like spring. This month’s theme is inspired by two recent meetings with mid-career faculty, who are in the position of being asked to do many more things- mentor a junior person, give a talk, teach a class, take on a new project or role- than are humanly possible. Talking with them forced me to crystallize my framework for deciding whether to add something new to my plate. I’ll walk you through questions in the picture, with a recent example from my own career decision-making.
