Hope this message finds you well, perhaps emerging from the winter tunnel. This month I want to share some recent thoughts about how to manage the unexpected things that collide with your best-laid plans. Sometimes an unexpected opportunity comes along- it could be a funding opportunity with a short turn-around, an invitation to give a talk, or a special issue in a high-impact journal that fits with your work. At other times, your bandwidth shrinks, because you or someone in your family is sick or needs you, or maybe a collaborator or staffer leaves and you have to figure out how to get the work done. I struggle with this myself, and have made lots of mistakes in trying to reconcile plans with reality. I’ve organized these ideas by timing- what you can do to prevent surprises from breaking your plans, what you can do in the moment, and then how to look ahead when you see that a disruption will be ongoing. I would love to hear more strategies from all of you!
Productivity
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!
Productivity
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.
Resilience, Productivity
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.
Productivity
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.
Resilience
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.