Today's issue of The Chronicle has a great column by Ms. Mentor on shortening to-do lists for academics. If you're interested in reading this, and you don't have to be in academe to do so, please check it out here.
An excerpt of some of the ideas from this piece that struck a chord with me or had me laughing while nodding my head vigorously: "Too many academics are riddled with guilt, Ms. Mentor knows. Most of you have been fueled by it all your lives. ... Academics start the summer with a fresh slate, the way the rest of the world starts a new year: gasping with exhaustion, but brimming with nervous energy and wildly ambitious plans. You'll learn Old Norse or study genetics. You'll clean up all those moldering books and papers. You'll alphabetize and synthesize and categorize. ... You've worked intensely through the academic year, and some part of you yearns to be the beach bum or bummette -- the lazy loafer the civilians think you are -- after you've put in nine months smoothly molding young minds. (Civilians also think teaching restless teenagers is easy. Ms. Mentor wishes that stingy legislators were required to take a turn teaching and grading first-year composition at a community college. They just might appreciate the performance anxiety, the classroom radar, and the standup comedy aspects of the job -- and how deeply, deeply draining it can be.) Your To-Do list can include some beach-bunny activity for every day. It can be swimming or volleyball, or cooking something tasty, or getting together with your fellow graduate students or colleagues to whine, conspire, brag, and cheer one another on. ... Summer can be a most serious time for academics. For dissertation and book writers, it's the up-close, concentrated wrestling with ideas and phrasing. For scientists, it means full days in the lab; for botanists and archaeologists, full days in the field. Summer can be the most intense, focused, and exhilarating time -- leading to some bittersweet moments of decision."
Moral of the story? Rather, what's the resolution as the title of this post suggests*?
Instead of binge dissertating and delaying all gratification, I'm going to try to be disciplined about writing a decent amount everyday (which I do have specified on a meticulously drawn calendar). Every time I get done with a chapter draft I'm going to reward myself. And I have plans for vacationing at the half-way mark and grander ones for when I submit The Whole Dissertation. When will that be? Sooner than you think :-).
Here's to a productive and fun summer! Brace yourselves and get ready to call me Dr. B-W (Inshallah! Fingers crossed. Throwing salt over shoulder and knocking on wood.
*[N: I think you should join me in this resolution].
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realized yesterday that i have ahead of me a lifetime of deadlines and stress. when it isnt the phd (or even while it is) it'll be the job. when it isnt that, it'll be that incomplete article. when it isnt that, it'll be that conference i have yet to submit an abstract for and once thats done, it'll be the paper i have to write for the damn conference. its kids and schools and rents and mortgages, and antibiotic or no antibiotic debates and hungry husbands and kids who refuse to eat. it'll be about greying prematurely and my little cuz who is growing up too quickly with my wisdoom and experience (read:watchful eye) too far away to be of any use to her. ANYWAY point is - chalti ka naam gari and zindagi ka naam tension. personally, i'm trying to learn to lap it up, love it, and - like you - take the time to purr each time i catch a mouse (or a cockroach) :)
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