Academic Writing Amplified

What does the early career, pre-tenure period usually feel like for academic womxn? What should it feel like? With intention, we can steer ourselves toward a better experience.    The early career period of proving yourself to gain that stamp of approval, whether you call it permanence or tenure, is a pivotal time in our careers. What does this pre-tenure period often feel like? What should it feel like? And perhaps most importantly, what do you believe it can be like for you? What the Pre-Tenure Process Feels Like   1. Scary It can feel like your whole career is on the line, and the pressure is enormous. You might worry that if you don’t do enough, or if you aren’t fast enough, you’ll fail.    2. Insecure It might feel like you're walking on eggshells, afraid to say no, or to say the wrong thing and upset someone on your tenure review team.    3. Exhausting There’s so much to learn when you start a tenure-track position! Course preps, service, admin duties, department politics, and unspoken expectations can all be piled on top of your actual tenure requirements. Maybe you’ve moved to a new town, or had to change family schedules as well.   “A lot of our actions pre-tenure are, understandably, motivated by fear.” -Cathy Mazak What the Pre-Tenure Process Should Feel Like   1. Fulfilling You are in the developmental process of becoming who you want to be as a scholar. This should be a time of figuring out your next steps for your best career and finding out what lights you up as you contribute to your field.   2. Exciting It’s a time of huge growth! You are meeting new people in your field, and creating knowledge. You are creating something new and stepping into your potential. That should be exciting!   “I would love for everyone to feel excited pre-tenure...excited about what they are going to create.” -Cathy Mazak   3. Strategic During this period you are working to align your teaching, research and service to your academic mission. It’s a time to make connections, meet people in your field, and get strategic about what you are creating and what path you are taking to success.   4. Spacious and Easeful  Let me be clear: pre-tenure is not easy. You are solving scholarly problems that do not have easy solutions. However, I truly believe it can be easeful. You can and should have spaciousness and ease in the process. You should not be obligated to work 60 hour work weeks or nights and weekends to stay afloat. You should have room to think. Your whole job is about thinking, so it’s important!    This is the hardest idea for many to wrap their brains around, and I admit, it’s revolutionary...the best kind of rebellious. And I believe it can change knowledge-making in the best possible way. It’s time for academia to change, and it can start with us!   “I really believe that pre-tenure should and can feel spacious and easeful.”   Getting Intentional With Amplify Giving you the tools to plan your career with intentionality is what we do! It’s my jam, and I am always thinking about ways to help you shift your mindset, get strategic, and have the career you want. In our 6 month Amplify program, we use a combination of coaching, training and community to help you make your pre-tenure experience feel more like it should.   Enrollment is open now, so head to cathymazak.com/amplify for more information and to apply. Our 3 cohorts will be running September through February, but once you’re approved, you’ll get access to our first event, an invite-only training in August to give you a taste of what the program is like. Don’t wait, spots are filling fast! Click here to apply.   Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Follow me on Clubhouse: @cathymazak  This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode84.

I’m joined on this episode by Dr. Anatu Mahama, founder and editor-in-chief of The Academic Woman magazine. She shares her journey through academia as an ambitious and determined woman, always looking for ways to increase her knowledge and increase her reach. She launched The Academic Woman magazine about a year ago to share stories of women who are contributing to the world and not always being seen. Her vision is to create a community of like-minded women who inspire one another, share knowledge, and bring their varied knowledge and experiences to bear on the issues they all face.  Key points discussed: Growing up in Ghana as a chatty, ambitious little girl who loved to read, and going on to study publishing, information and knowledge management  Working at an NGO in the water and sanitation sector, and utilizing her knowledge management skills on each project. Getting pregnant, moving to a more forgiving schedule, lecturing, and going for a PhD with 2 small children  Realizing there were many women doing great things that no one had heard of, and being inspired to share their stories in a magazine Creating The Academic Woman magazine to celebrate women’s contributions to knowledge, what they go through, and how they handle challenges they face. Who writes for the magazine, how they balance the busy lives of academics with running features and finding content Organizing and growing an editorial team Who the magazine is for and a future vision of community, in-person events, and larger and more frequent circulation   Key Quotes: “I always wanted to know more, and always wanted to see myself excel at whatever I do.” -Anatu Mahama “I think that word, ambition, is one we need to claim.” -Cathy Mazak “There’s always that need for progression.” -Anatu Mahama “We’ve got all these women at the forefront, who are doing great jobs, but nobody hears of them.” -Anatu Mahama “If we tell our stories, then we are able to inspire one another.”  -Anatu Mahama “I’m so grateful for all the women who have told their stories...incredible stories, incredible journeys.” -Anatu Mahama “Getting people to write is a challenge because academics are busy.” -Anatu Mahama “I don’t believe in spending too much time in planning; I believe in getting on with it.” -Anatu Mahama To contribute or subscribe to The Academic Woman magazine, visit: https://theacademicwoman.co.uk/   Is your writing project languishing, mired in the messy middle, or stuck on revise and resubmit? For just $27, grab my Writing Sprint Blueprint, a powerful productivity tool to help stalled out publications get through the pipeline and into the world. As a bonus, you’ll also gain access to my private podcast feed “Stick to the Plan”, a 10 episode series of short, inspirational messages to keep you going. Click here to get the Writing Sprint Blueprint and “Stick to the Plan” podcast series for just $27! Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Follow me on Clubhouse: @cathymazak This episode was first published at https://www.cathymazak.com/episode83.

The bros and dudes--you know, the archetype that academia was built for? Here are 5 things about academia they don’t want you to know. When I talk about bros and dudes, I’m hoping you got a little giggle, but I also hope you understand who I mean. This is the stereotypical model professor that the academic system was built for and based on. This is the reason that academia needs to change. So I’m sharing 5 things they don’t want you to know, so you can shift your mindset, choose your own path, and design a career you love. 1. There is more than one way to be successful. You don’t have to accept the ‘traditional’ path to success that the patriarchal, racist, ableist system has laid out. You get to define what success means to you, and then design your career to take your own path in getting there. The way we go about this in my programs is through putting your writing at the center.   “There are multiple paths to success, and you get to choose the one that you take.”   2. You have more power to change your career than you think. We are conditioned to believe that we should just shut up and be grateful for the job we have. But, you have power! Consider sharing your needs, your wants and your intentions. You might be surprised at how much you are able to influence your career just by stepping into your power and speaking up.   3. They rely on community too. The stereotypical image of the lone wolf professor is a fallacy, friends. Those bros and dudes have community...whether it’s someone at home feeding them, or child care supports, or like-minded colleagues and students, they rely on community too. Leaning into supports and learning from others isn’t weakness, it’s the best way to move forward in your career! 4. People will respect you when you make boss moves in your career. When you are designing your career, aligning things to your own priorities, setting and keeping boundaries, people will respect you. You’ll be teaching people how to treat you and what your expectations are. And you will be influencing the next generation of academics by giving your students a model of what academia can and should look like.   There will be some people who won’t respect you for your boss moves...who might feel threatened or think you are “too ambitious” or not selfless enough. Those people are not a part of what you’re building and they’ll get left behind! 5. You don’t have to figure out everything on your own...there are programs and knowledge out there to help you. You can learn and grow. You don’t have to have it all figured out, and you aren’t alone! Asking for help, sharing our knowledge, and looking for ways to develop as scholars are the things that will build a better career, and a better academic culture. There are programs (like my Amplify program!) and books that can help you with building a career you love.  Amplify is coming soon! This is a 6 month training and coaching program for early career, tenure track people identifying as women who want to do academia differently and learn to design a career they love. Join me on June 23, 2021 at noon EST for an info session to learn all about the program, and the 3 main things to focus on to improve your tenure experience. Sign up for the info session here.    Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Follow me on Clubhouse: @cathymazak  This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode82. 

Did you know writing can serve as a tool to help you organize your whole career? If you need a way to organize your thoughts, your time, and your career, it all starts with writing!   Writing is so much more than “currency” in academia. Writing and publishing does help you get, keep and develop your career, but it has lots of other benefits too. One of the ways writing helps you as an academic is by acting as an “organizer” in three main areas.    Writing Is An Organizer For Your Thoughts I’ve created a lot of content over the years as an academic writing coach. Before that I wrote and published academic articles as a tenured, full professor. And yet, the long form writing I’m doing for my book has taught me so much about my own best practices, and helped me clarify my thoughts and ideas around this topic I’ve been working on for years!    A poem by Antonio Machado puts it beautifully: “...wanderer, there is no road. The road is made by walking.” And through the process of writing we discover and develop our thoughts. Writing acts as an organizer for ideas, thoughts, and processes in your scholarly work.    “You write your way to revelations about your work.” -Cathy Mazak   Writing Is An Organizer For Your Time When you prioritize your writing on your calendar, it helps you organize your time. As much as you possibly can, put your writing sessions on your calendar first, then fill everything else in around them. To find the best times to write, remember, here are my 3 recommendations: Use your Soar States. Those are the times of day where you naturally have the most motivation, energy and drive.  Use co-writing times. Join us in our Momentum program,  grab a friend and head to the coffee shop, or hop on Zoom with a small group. Set your separate goals at the beginning, write quietly, then check in at the end... you’ll multiply each other’s energy and focus. Write first thing. If the other options don’t work, put your writing times at the very beginning of your workday. When you get to the office, don’t check email, shut the door and write for an hour.    Don’t worry about trying to write every day, just make sure you are consistent, and writing gets your priority spots. This isn’t always easy to do, I get that! But if you have this idea in mind, you can advocate when it comes time for class assignments, or talk to your department chair about your schedule. It’s all part of the process of making your writing (and thus your career) the priority.   “The key to you having the kind of career and the life that you want is thinking of writing as the driver of your time...as the organizer of your time.”   Writing Is An Organizer For Your Career When you put your writing at the center, all your other career “activities” are pulled toward it. Creating an academic mission statement that outlines what your career goals are, what you want your career to do, is key.    Once you’ve prioritized your writing and created your mission statement, you’ll gain the clarity and focus to ask yourself, “does this fit? Is this helping me reach my goals?” Writing as a driving force in your career makes you a more effective scholar!   If you’re an early career faculty member (pre-tenure here in the U.S.), I’m inviting you to join me for a behind the scenes look at my Amplify Faculty Accelerator program! I’m hosting an info session called Writing and Publishing Strategically: How to Go Up for Tenure With Confidence on June 23 at 12pm Eastern. Click here to get signed up for the free info session and see if this 6 month coaching program is right for you!   Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Follow me on Clubhouse: @cathymazak  This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode81. 

Do you feel anxious and overwhelmed in your life as an academic? Are you on the tenure track but feel stuck or like something is wrong but you can’t put your finger on it? My guest on this episode is Dr. Danielle De La Mare, academic life coach and podcaster, and she has been there and back. She is sharing about her journey from cancer diagnosis and the clarity that gave her, her life pre and post tenure, and how she got to where she is now.    Key points discussed: Danielle’s cancer diagnosis and the clarity it gave her in realizing what she truly needed in life. [2:30] Anxiety, overwork, and never feeling good enough. [6:00] Being a HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) on the tenure track [9:30] Realizing she wanted to coach and feeling like a “coach posing as a professor”. [15:30] What coaching means, and how Danielle got there. [22:00] Danielle’s coaching focus and bringing out your inner wisdom [24:00] Danielle’s podcast and having more self-compassion [35:00] Key Quotes: “I was not living the life I wanted to be living.” -Danielle De La Mare “I was very much in need of human connection.” -Danielle De La Mare “I need a job that works for me.” -Danielle De La Mare “I was a coach posing as a professor.” -Danielle De La Mare “One of the things I want people to understand...is the difference between teaching and consulting and coaching...and therapy.” -Cathy Mazak “You don’t have to listen to your inner critic.” -Danielle De La Mare “My job as a coach is to say, ‘wait a minute, is that really what you want?’” -Danielle De La Mare “For me, I knew that getting out was the right decision.” -Cathy Mazak “We need to be more self-compassionate.” -Danielle De La Mare Connect with Danielle De La Mare: https://danielledelamare.com/ Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Follow me on Clubhouse: @cathymazak This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode80.

Are you clear on what your own unique writing process is? Have you ever gathered data on your own practices? I’ve learned a lot during the process of drafting my book.   I shared a little bit about my journey of writing a book on a previous episode. I’m bringing you up to date on my progress, and continuing to share the insights and takeaways I’ve gained through the process, including pivoting my strategy, and a couple of ah-ha moments.   Changing Strategy & Finding a Press When I last checked in on my process, I was still navigating rejections and trying to decide if continuing to pursue academic presses for publication was the best course. Based on some of the very nice rejection feedback I got and some advice from the group I participate in, I decided to pursue independent presses. That slight change in direction produced results, and I’m happy to announce my book will be published by Morgan James Press!   Pinning Down Structure & Tackling Fear My big fear about writing a book, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is whether I will really be able to carry the load of writing solo. I want my book to have 30-40,000 words, and have always been apprehensive about being able to pull it off.   Enter Dr. Jane Jones, academic book writing coach and a colleague of mine. When I showed her some of my proposal, she gleaned the structure right away. Pinning down this problem-solution-stories structure for my book has made all the difference in being able to write with confidence, and the word count issue immediately became less daunting.    I decided that enrolling in Jane’s Elevate program (yup, we both have writing coaching plans called Elevate!) was the best next step for me. The program includes coaching, training on book writing techniques, and developmental editing. Not to mention a community that is made up of my ideal audience! Knowing I will get feedback directly from my audience has also helped ease my fears around getting the words down on paper. (If you think an academic book writing coach would be helpful for you, I highly recommend Jane’s program! Learn more here: https://www.upinconsulting.com.)   “I knew that being part of a book coaching program was going to be good for me.”   Collecting Data & Creating a Plan “In the process of writing this book I discovered my book-writing process.”   Now that the book has a publisher, it also has a deadline. To be able to create a reliable writing project plan, I needed to know how to plan my time. Jane’s coaching helped me come up with an outline to work from, but I decided to collect some data to figure out what my writing pace actually is so I could get really clear on how to fit the writing into my schedule. I love a good spreadsheet! So I started to track my writing sessions and how many words I wrote each time. Once I had an idea of my general speed, I could accurately add writing sessions (during soaring sessions of course!) to my calendar that will get me where I need to go when I need to get there.   Takeaway to Apply to Your Writing Projects Confidence comes from knowing your practice! Get in there and get some data on yourself. Do some self reflection and analyze how you work best. Don’t get lost in the weeds of “shoulds” or comparisons to other people. There are so many things that affect how people work.. figure out how you work best, and lean into it!   “There’s a myriad of factors that affect how a person can get their work done.”   If you need a little help capturing that data, or coming up with your writing plan, or sticking to your writing sessions, join us in our Momentum co-writing community! We keep a monthly goals spreadsheet to give you structure for starting to observe your practice, as well as 6 daily scheduled writing sessions and an always-open link for you to gather with others anytime. Momentum is $27/month, cancel anytime. Click here to learn more: https://www.cathymazak.com/momentum. Pulled in a thousand directions and can’t seem to carve out time to write? Download my 10 Ways to Make Time to Write cheat sheet for ideas to implement today!   Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Follow me on Clubhouse: @cathymazak  This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode79.

What is a writing sprint, and how can it help you move an article from almost done to out the door and submitted? In this episode, I’m chatting with my two coaches, Gina Robinson and Rocío Caballero-Gill, all about writing sprints. We also share about my Writing Sprint Blueprint tool, which will help you move your article out the door in the next 2 weeks. As you near the end of the semester, each coach has some advice for you as you manage this moment and look forward to the summer!   Key Points Discussed: What is a writing sprint is, how to do it, and the value of a community moving towards the same goal [4:15] The logistics of a sprint, the commitment, and the community aspect [5:35] The reason writing sprints work and what not to do [9:35] Stories of client wins, and how they used the sprint to achieve their goals [13:15] The Momentum program, and what happens in a co-writing session [19:15] Mindset for academics and why it's important for implementing changes [22:00] Advice about this particular moment in the semester and expectations about the summer [28:45]   Key Quotes: “I like thinking of sprints as a little bit of pain medication.” - Gina Robinson “I call [a sprint] a bag of tricks… you want to have a bunch of ways and techniques that you are going to use strategically at different times.” - Cathy Mazak “The process of sprinting teaches you about creating a plan, setting goals, and how fast you do things.” - Cathy Mazak “It’s not just for the writing… people can use it to learn about their own writing process.” - Rocío Caballero-Gill “I love the fact that there are actual tangible wins, but a lot of it is about the change of mindset that people have towards writing.” - Gina Robinson “Sprints give you hope for the next time you sit down to write.” - Rocío Caballero-Gill “You don't have to write amazing stuff the first time… and you can feel okay with that imperfection.” - Gina Robinson “Recognize that you are not going to be able to do everything in the same day, and then choose what to do, and what not to do.” - Gina Robinson Part of the process is learning how to be flexible… without letting it get you down.” - Rocío Caballero-Gill Writing Sprint Blueprint is the perfect program to enroll in to kick off your summer. It is an accessible little bite of a program that will deliver BIG in terms of your writing process.  Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Follow me on Clubhouse: @cathymazak  This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode78.

If you’ve been on the fence about joining this cohort of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap, you’ll want to listen closely to these experiences from two real-life Navigate alums.   Enrollment is open for just a few more days for the Radical Change Cohort of my Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap program. To help you decide if the program is right for you, I’m interviewing two past participants to find out how Navigate impacted their careers and made a difference in their academic lives.    Participant #1: Nicole Why did she join? Nicole was in her first year of a tenure track position when she joined Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap. She found balancing all the demands of a heavy teaching load while keeping her research and writing robust was a big challenge, and she wanted some support.   What part of the program was most impactful for her? Going through the exercise of breaking down her time and collecting the data of where the time went each day empowered her to advocate for herself with her department, say no when she needed to and create protected writing times in her schedule.   “I’ve become much more comfortable with saying, ‘no, this doesn’t match up with...my vision for going forward.’” What is something she learned in the program that she uses on a regular basis? The Ideal Week exercise has helped her find a structure that supports her needs and stick to a schedule. Also, learning how to put boundaries around email and other tasks so her time is protected and others know what to expect.   “50-70% of my battle with ‘finding time to write’ is actually taming all of the other lions.”   How did the program change her writing and publishing process? It helped her feel empowered in the process, helping her realize that just because things are coming at you doesn’t mean you need to catch them all!    Who does she think should join? Everyone! Anyone who feels overwhelmed by writing and finds it keeps sinking to the bottom of the pile. She felt like she was losing her edge on research, writing, and thinking, and Navigate helped her get back onto the patch she wanted to follow.  Participant #2: Kimberly  Why did she join? Kimberly is a tenured faculty member who realized she was in a rut and felt like she has lost the purpose in her career. She felt like she wasn’t doing anything important. After some reflection, she decided she did want to remain a faculty member, but needed to jumpstart her career.   What part of the program was most impactful for her? Crafting an academic mission statement and aligning all of her activities to it was impactful. It helped her refine her vision, and feel better about some of the work she was already doing. Even though that task was taking time, it aligned with her mission which made it valuable and helped her feel at peace with it.  What is something she learned in the program that she uses on a regular basis? She has incorporated templates into her work, in emails, feedback and anywhere it’s helpful. This has saved her time, and ensured feedback given when she has less time and energy is as valuable as any other feedback. How did the program change her writing and publishing process? The program helped her manage her pipeline better, and use her time wisely. She now has a pipeline with a variety of projects she can move between to maintain her motivation, and she feels empowered to cull projects that are no longer useful. Who does she think should join? Anyone who needs to be reinvigorated after tenure or if they feel stuck, as well as those who are in the beginning stages and need help figuring out how to get things done.   “You don’t know what you don’t know that first year.”   If you’re ready to radically change your career, your outlook, and academia as a whole, join us in Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap. You’ll be glad you did! Enrollment is only open for a few more days, so don’t wait, enroll here. Pulled in a thousand directions and can’t seem to carve out time to write? Download my 10 Ways to Make Time to Write cheat sheet for ideas to implement today!   Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Follow me on Clubhouse: @cathymazak  This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/bonus-navigate

What do I mean by radical change, and how does it happen? I am sharing 10 systems for enacting radical change for your writing, your career, and academic culture as a whole.     Womxn prioritizing their chosen career activities, their own needs and their own writing practices over the demands of others is radical. I’ve talked about the radical change and what it can mean for us as individuals and as a community on the last few episodes of the podcast. On this episode I’m sharing the 10 systems you need in place to help you accomplish those changes.    #1: Mission Method To enact change, you need to be able to set intentions, and use tools and strategies to follow through on them. The first system you need helps you get clear on your mission in order to set those intentions.   Think purposefully about what you want out of your writing and your career. Draft an academic mission statement that will guide you in keeping the things that are most important at the center of your career. This statement will change over time as you grow as a scholar, but it’s the first building block to making any needed change in your career.   “The academic mission statement is something that you write and then you continually revise and touch back on… it’s not a static thing.”   #2: Activities Alignment Once you have your mission statement in place, you need to have a system for analyzing your activities to make sure they are aligned. This is a system that helps you filter new opportunities and set up boundaries to make sure you are staying on mission.   #3: Freeing Time This is how I refer to time management systems. I look at them in terms of freeing time to use on the most important aspects of your career. In our Navigate program, we use tools like the Ideal Week exercise to help you envision where you can save time and what needs more of your attention. We also make sure you are using systems and repeatable processes to streamline tasks that are taking up more than their fair share of your time.   As scholars and thinkers, we need spaciousness in our days and our minds in order to create. Time systems are incredibly important to creating change in your career and preventing burnout.    #4: Soaring Systems  Soaring systems are my framework for writing systems. When you’re soaring during your writing, you are gliding along, supported, upheld, propelled. It feels energized and positive. When you’re slogging during your writing, you are dragging, struggling and feel stuck in the mud.    I use a combination of soaring sessions, achieved through natural times of energy and focus or co-writing, along with writing springs and retreats to create a comprehensive and vital writing system.    Whichever way you set your writing systems up, be sure you are using techniques that are: Consistent: they happen at some kind of regular interval. Sustainable: they are able to be dialed up and dialed down to support the changing demands of your year. Relational: foster a positive relationship between you and your writing rather than dread.    #5: The Right Goals Method  This is what I call my goal setting system. In order to set meaningful, achievable goals, I urge you to practice regular self reflection so you know what works well for you. We are all different, and the way we set and accomplish goals should reflect that!   The things I teach about goal setting involve recognizing the need for different types of goals, setting goals of the correct size and timeline for you, and tracking.   #6: Mindset Mastery This might be #6 on this list, but systems for mindset management are incredibly important. Everything else flows from this point. When we talk about mindset in Navigate, we take on the opinions of others that are stuck in your head, Imposter Syndrome, negative feelings about writing, and how thoughts influence behavior. However you choose to handle this system, be sure you don’t skip it!   #7: Project Prediction Plan This is my system for project management. As an academic, you are a de facto project manager, there is no getting around it. We balance multitudes of projects of all different types, from writing to teaching to service to research to admin. Being able to predict what needed tasks are on the horizon and how fast projects move to completion is a vital tool you need in your tool belt. Make sure you have systems in place to manage all of your projects.    #8: Pipeline Propel I also recommend a specific pipeline management system to help you manage your writing projects. This system helps you decide what projects to work on when, diagnose clogs in the pipeline, get rid of projects that are no longer serving you, and publish your best work.    #9: One Year Goal-Setting  We can only realistically map out about 3 months ahead with a deep level of detail and accuracy. But having a system for mapping your writing projects and goals for the year is a good idea to keep you on track and aligned to your mission statement.    #10: Five Year Goal-Setting Using a 5 year goal-setting system helps you create a strategic plan. Choosing a place you want to be in 5 years and then working backwards to see what you’ll need to have in place to get there helps you make steady progress. You’ll want to come back to these plans with your yearly goal-setting system and adjust accordingly.    “We are embracing the idea that we are taking care of ourselves first and our careers first, and that by doing that we will have a better and a greater impact on the world.”   These are the 10 systems you need in order to enact and maintain the kind of radical change I’ve been talking about on the podcast! They also happen to be the 10 modules we teach in my Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap course that is open for enrollment TODAY (if you are listening in real time)!   You can take these systems and run with them! Learn about them, set them up in a way that works for you. If that sounds completely overwhelming, or you’re looking for a leg up in getting them implemented, we’d love to have you join us in Navigate! Learn more about Navigate here.   Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Follow me on Clubhouse: @cathymazak  This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode77.

Is your career 90% awesome? Do you spend most of your time doing things that are important for your scholarly work? I can show you how to get there. In my last episode I talked about what radical change in academia looks like. The outcome of that radical change is that we build careers that are 90% awesome. Careers in which we do things we love 90% of the time.  When you first wanted to become an academic, you got into it for the act of creation, the making of knowledge that had the potential to change the world. But what happened to this aspiration when it came in contact with reality?  Our ruthless academic culture--the one that exploits contingent faculty and graduate students, squeezes tenure-track faculty into more and more teaching and service, and more and more unpaid admin, and more and more minutiae--has led you to believe something I’m not ok with.  It led you to believe that you have to suffer to do the scholarly work. I’m here today to tell you the most important message you need to experience radical change in 2021: You don’t have to suffer. You’re allowed to strive for a career that’s 90% awesome. Your career is made up from the activities you do every day. And if you hate most of the things you do every day, your career is going to be 90% awful.   Choosing Yourself It is ingrained in us at every turn that time, energy, and money are scarce in academia. These beliefs are enforced by us being underpaid as graduate students, expected to work nights and weekends out of “passion” or because “that’s what I had to do when I was a graduate student.” Awful.   This works out perfectly for institutions because by the time we get tenure-track jobs, we are “just lucky to have a steady job.” So, we pretty much tolerate the culture of overwork and the glorification of busy, the toxic colleagues and the “we don’t have money for that” messaging because we are so ingrained in scarcity that we feel like we have no choice but to suck it up, buttercup. And still, we spend sleepless nights wondering if our publications and grants are enough to get us tenure or full.    “We cannot collectively change academia if we keep believing in awful, in suffering, and in settling.” -Cathy Mazak   If we’ve learned anything as academics over the last year, it should be that we need to deeply and profoundly make choices that go in the service of ourselves, because our institutions will not have our back.    Academics who choose themselves, and who have put the systems and processes in place to support this deep belief in their own work and worth, are not scared by all the uncertainty around us and the ever-impending crisis in their institutions. That’s because they know that what they are building is not dependent on their institutions. What they are building is bigger than that.    “The message for all academics, loud and clear, is: choose yourself.” -Cathy Mazak   Achieving 90% Awesome Achieving this kind of career is not some dreamy, esoteric thing. It is achieved through two things I’ve talked about in past episodes:  Values Systems   The values part is easy. You just have to believe that academia should be changed, radically, and that you are worthy of the career you want. Done.   The systems part is harder because the systems behind a mission-driven academic career, a career where your scholarly work, not the minutiae of emails and committee meetings, drives your day-to-day routine, are hidden. Most of us know that our advisors got work done, but how they got work done is absolutely still a mystery when we graduate. Or maybe we did see how they got work done, and it was by driving themselves into the ground.   But these systems do exist! I’ve been teaching them (and refining them) for myself for almost 20 years, and for hundreds of other academics for almost five years. You really only need three sets of systems:  Time management systems Writing systems Pipeline & planning systems   So for all you skeptics out there, if you are onboard with the idea that the values we espouse inside of academia need to change, then all you need to start living out those values is a set of systems that are 100% learnable. I teach these systems inside of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap, and if you want to be sure to get all the info when I open the doors for enrollment from Tuesday, April 27 to Monday, May 3, join the waitlist here. If you’re ready for a radical change in academia, you need to be in this cohort! Get on the Waitlist! Be one of the first 10 to sign up  and you’ll get a free spot at our retreat! And, if you’re thinking about joining the #radicalcohort of Navigate, we want you to know that we’re offering a reduced payment plan so that you can get started in the program for $247 (with 8 additional payments of $247 monthly after that). If you’d rather pay in full, Navigate will be at the special lump-payment price of $1997. Pulled in a thousand directions and can’t seem to carve out time to write? Download my 10 Ways to Make Time to Write cheat sheet for ideas to implement today!   Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Follow me on Clubhouse: @cathymazak  This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode76.