Academic Writing Amplified

Dr. Becky Dawson is a public health epidemiologist who has strategically navigated her journey through academia with determination and purpose. Prompting from an early mentor led her to discover her passion at the intersection of environment and health.    Becky shares her path through graduate study, PhD defense (on her due date!), leaving a tenure track job at an R-1 institution to return to her alma mater, winning tenure, and co-founding a brand new health agency on her campus. We talk about how education can encompass many different avenues, and how relationships and community building can enhance academia just as much as publishing and traditional teaching.    Becky shares her sudden propulsion into the spotlight as an expert on infectious disease in the time of Covid-19, and how this has amplified her work and message. She also gives us her top thinking points and recommendations for our own health during the pandemic.  Key points discussed:   Picking a college based on athletics, confidence as a college athlete [5:45] Finding her senior project topic and future field of graduate study through the valuable advice of a mentor [10:30] Returning for her PhD with newfound clarity after working in a post-grad position in D.C. [11:45] Finding a model job and pursuing the person who occupied that job for information and advice [13:30] Starting a Phd at 30 (her nickname was “gramma”) and pregnancy during the dissertation process [16:45] Receiving a gift of time from an advisor and paying forward kindness and grace [18:00] Landing and leaving a tenure track job at a top research institution [23:00] Having a “yes/no” friend to help talk through important decisions [25:30] Restarting the tenure track clock and proving herself at her current institution [30:00] The emergence of Covid-19 and how it thrust her into the spotlight as an epidemiologist [36:30] Fame as an academic [40:00] Using time blocking and boundaries to structure her time and accomplish her goals [41:30] Teaching epidemiology during a pandemic [45:30] Co-directing a brand new agency and stepping away from teaching for a time [48:30] Dr. Becky’s top items we all need to think about going forward in the time of Covid-19 [1:00:30]   Key Quotes: “One person can make all the difference.” -Becky Dawson “I’m looking forward to the day that I actually have the opportunity to pay it forward…” -Becky Dawson “Everyone needs to go get yourself a yes/no friend.” -Cathy Mazak “I’m in it because I want communities to be healthy, and I want to train the next generation of students that also want to make communities healthy.” -Becky Dawson “I was very careful with my time.” -Becky Dawson “Who am I at my core?” -Becky Dawson “Who is your team?” -Becky Dawson Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode37.

For this interview episode of The Academic Womxn Amplified, I’m talking with a member of my own team, whose journey has brought her to the highest levels of achievement in academia… and out the other side.    Gina has always been a passionate learner, at home in classrooms and schools. Her path included travel abroad, where she discovered a passion for languages and cultures. She shares about taking a job outside of academia, testing her theory of wanting to become a professor and gaining invaluable skills that helped her when she returned to the academic world.    She also shares about having babies during her dissertation process, finding a tenure-track position, and what it was like to finally get tenure. We talk about writing and publishing, the nitty-gritty details of faculty jobs, and getting clarity about what you really want and operating in your ‘zone of genius’.    Key points discussed: Growing up in an atmosphere of learning [3:00] Participating in Upward Bound and the opportunities this opened [6:30] Finding herself in college, with other people who love to learn [8:30] The life-changing experience of travel abroad [9:45] Taking a job after graduation and the experience gained [15:45] Having a baby the day after she turned in her dissertation draft [20:30] Starting a tenure-track job and feeling completely lost [23:30] Picking a dissertation topic through the lens of her passions [27:15] Using project management skills gained in the corporate world to help her in her dissertation process [28:00] Approaching writing and publishing and dealing with rejection [30:00] Learning lessons and building on confidence in publishing [31:45] Parenting while teaching, bringing kids to class, and being an example for others who are trying to have babies and navigate academia [37:00] The feeling of anti-climax upon getting tenure, and what that meant for her [44:00] Reflecting on what we really want; realizing that academia does not have to be the end goal, and that leaving a tenured position is ok. [51:30] Having the confidence to embrace failing and making mistakes and to keep learning in that way. [55:00]   Key Quotes: “This combines all of the things that I have discovered I love: reading and writing and traveling, and talking to people.” -Gina Robinson “I kind of felt like I wanted to make some of my own mistakes…” -Gina Robinson “Don’t feel bad about asking those things, because everybody was there at a certain point.” -Gina Robinson “Why is every person making these big mistakes, all alone, in their offices…” -Cathy Mazak “Yes, you can have a baby and you will still get a PhD.” -Gina Robinson Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode36.

On this episode of The Academic Womxn Amplified I’m speaking with Dr. Maira Quintanilha. She shares about growing up in Brazil in a culture where higher education was a given, and the struggle to balance family expectations and her own desires in choosing a field of study. After studying in Canada for a time, she knew she wanted to return; she credits other women academics with helping her find a way back to Canada for her graduate and PhD studies, and giving her a passion for mentorship.    She talks about her decision to have children during her graduate research, how securing external grant funding made this possible, and how conducting qualitative research on the postpartum experiences of immigrants while pregnant affected her. We talk a little bit about race issues and the inequity inherent in our healthcare systems. Maira’s academic journey has taken her from Brazil to Canada, through having children at an unconventional point in her career, receiving her PhD and now to her passion of sharing knowledge and insight with other academics through qualitative research methods training.  Key points discussed: Growing up in Brazil with a love for learning and a family that valued education [3:30] Expectations of family, dealing with crisis,  and coming to a field of study [6:30] Studying in a new country and feeling freedom as a young woman [10:30] Reaching out to contacts and finding support from other academic women to return to Canada for graduate study [12:30] The power of community and mentorship in helping each other achieve dreams and know which steps to take next [15:00] Starting a job after graduation, finding it wasn’t the right fit, and returning to academia for graduate studies [16:45] Dealing with residency status and joining a study led by an admired researcher [18:00] Messiness of community-based study, application for grant awards, and dealing with other academics who don’t know what they don’t know [21:00] Having babies during the PhD process, the financial privilege of personal grant money, and navigating the opinions and microaggressions of colleagues [24:00] Learning from study participants, studying birth complications while pregnant, seeing participants struggles through the lens of her own experience [35:00] Qualitative research as investigating the human experience, with all its joy and sadness [38:30] Public health and racism [43:00] Seeing new angles on her research as a result of current events [47:00] Launching a new course to help people be more reflective in their qualitative research [49:00] Course aims: discouraging (perceived) neutrality in students, helping them become more attuned to their own experiences and what it means for research, being more compassionate with subjects and with themselves. [51:00] The vital role of community in supporting qualitative researchers [56:00]   Key Quotes: “All paths are legitimate paths.” -Cathy Mazak “I always did my homework when I came looking for answers.” -Maira Quintanilha “We can learn so much from each other and I think we can uplift each other more than we sometimes recognize.” -Maira Quintanilha “You often feel as if you’re doing what no one else is doing by having kids during your graduate program…” -Maira Quintanilha “Having my babies really changed how I look at the data.”  -Maira Quintanilha “That connection between public health and racism is really deep and old and we’re seeing it so clearly right now.” -Cathy Mazak “We cannot go back to ‘normal’.”  -Maira Quintanilha “It’s never too late. It’s later than yesterday, but sooner than tomorrow, right?” -Maira Quintanilha “It’s easier to catch a breath when you have people alongside you to support you.” -Maira Quintanilha   More information and resources from Dr. Maira Quintanilha: Facebook Group: Quali Q for Qualitative Minds  7 Reflections for Better Responses Quali Q Guide to Qualitative Content Analysis Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode35.

On this interview episode of The Academic Womxn Amplified we are starting our series sharing the life stories of academic womxn to explore how they have created success for themselves on their own terms. Let’s bust the myth of a “traditional” path to academia, one story at a time. Dr. Felicia Thomas grew up in the 1970’s in Detroit as a talkative, insatiable learner in a close-knit extended family. She moved from the inner city to a small New England town to attend college, and became the first college graduate in her family. She moved on to become an ordained minister and the first woman pastor at the church she led. Through marriage, children, pastoring, travel, moving to new cities, and the death of her father, Dr. Felicia Thomas followed her dream to write on her own circuitous path to become a tenure-track professor at Morgan State University.  Key point discussed with Dr. Felicia Thomas: Felicia’s backstory, growing up in 1970’s Detroit, becoming first generation college graduate [5:00] College as a means to an end, not as a road to academia [9:00] Taking a low pay job out of college [9:45] Feeling a calling to preach, attending seminary, becoming ordained [10:25] Getting married, having children, and parenting alone while husband traveled [12:00] Feeling like life was sucking her dry [13:15] The urge to write and feeling like it could replace what was being depleted in life [13:40] Some things take longer than planned; completing the artist's way in 1 yr, rather than 12 weeks [14:20] Coming to the idea of academia in a roundabout way [16:40] Discovering her love for graduate study; reading, writing, immersiveness of campus [19:40] 4-year program with 5-year funding allocation ended up taking 9 years [20:50] Piecing together research in non-traditional ways to fit it around life and family demands [22:00] Struggling to find self-validation and realize that what she had to say matters. [24:00] A PhD advisor who didn’t pour into her; forcing her to find the support she needed [25:40] Finding “sister colleagues”; academic women who supported each other through the challenges of PhD life and beyond [26:00] Burn out by the time she reached dissertation defense [27:20] Dealing with her father’s illness and death during “PhD hell” [29:30] Struggling through moving to a new city [30:45] Trying to find work in a glutted job market [33:30] Beginnings as a substitute for adjunct faculty then online instructor [34:00] Precariousness of position while waiting for decisions on tenure track job [38:00] Getting ready to go up for tenure, publication, and uncertainties caused by Covid-19 [40:00] Embracing the hard and accepting that the ‘traditional’ path was not made for us as women [42:30] Key Quotes:   “Everything in my life was sucking me dry.” -Felicia Thomas “The thing that I felt might sort of replace some of what I was putting out was writing, was more creative pursuits, and I just couldn’t find time to write.” -Felicia Thomas “I just had to find another way” -Felicia Thomas “Be nice to the assistants in the office! They know everything, and they will help you if you are nice to them.” -Felicia Thomas “The path is the path. It is what it is.” -Cathy Mazak “The 20 years would have passed anyway.” -Felicia Thomas “I’ll do what I have to do, PhD or no PhD.” -Felicia Thomas Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode34.

Are you worried about what your summer might look like as an academic this year? I’m sharing advice and actionable tips for how to get writing done, even this summer.   Summer has a beautiful appeal to us as academics. The spring semester is over and summer stretches ahead of us with the appeal of more control, more time, less demands. But, even when we’re not dealing with a global pandemic, we often arrive at the end of summer with a lot less accomplished than we had hoped.   In this episode of The Academic Woman Amplified I’m giving you my advice for how to approach summer writing no matter what your circumstances are like right now. I’m sharing goal setting basics, skills you need to develop, and the secret to having a summer full of ease.   We are living through unprecedented times right now, and this summer promises to be different than any other we’ve experienced. As I’ve been talking with many of you, I’m noticing some trends about how many of you are feeling, that seem to fall into three areas (some of which overlap).   You may have increased care demands this summer. Your kids are probably going to be home with you, you may have an elderly family member you are caring for, or other household members working from home. Your day may include much more time spent caring for others than your typical summer day in past summers.   You may have increased levels of anxiety. You might be worrying about the pandemic and its effects on your life. Much of your brain space is taken up with worry, on news channels, or trying to maintain connections with others through social media. You might feel like you don’t have much left over for writing.    Both of these things are valid, they make sense, and I’ve got strategies for you to deal with them. You might feel like you actually have more time and the opportunity to get more done than you usually do. Maybe a lot of time that you spent commuting or on in-person activities is now available to you. You might be balancing feelings of guilt over seeing positives in this negative situation with the desire to take advantage of this time. Well, I’m giving you permission to see something positive amidst the negative.    No matter which of these camps you see yourself in, we can make this summer work for you and your writing. Goal Setting Basics When you get ready to set goals for the summer, here are three things I want you to do to make sure those goals serve you well.   “There’s no way that you’re going to get anywhere unless you have some goals in mind.”   1. Plan Less to Accomplish More It’s so tempting to try and push through with a giant list of goals, but I am here to tell you that if you try to do that, you will end up with less to show for your efforts at the end of the summer than if you pared it back. Keep in mind the visual of a pipeline vs. a funnel:   Pipeline= a steady flow; when you start one project at the beginning of your pipeline, it comes smoothly out the other end. Funnel= a stopped up trickle; you dump lots of things in at the beginning, but hardly any of them come out the bottom, and if they do, it takes forever.    You want to keep your projects flowing through your pipeline, so the key is to only work on a few at a time, otherwise you risk the funnel effect.   2. Use the Power of the Big Three Scale your big list of projects and tasks back to three. Three is a reasonable number to hold in our minds, and to get done in three months. Focusing on a smaller number relieves overwhelm and frees your mind. If you accomplish those 3 goals early, then (and only then) you can choose another. This means you will have to get strategic and make some hard decisions about what to keep and what to push back or cut.   “Not every project is worth your time.”    3. Create Positive Feedback Loops by Choosing Goals You Can Crush I always recommend Jon Acuff’s book “Finish” when talking about goal setting. In it, he talks about the importance of accomplishing goals to boost confidence in order to be able to continue on to finish what you start. The way to do this is to cut your goals in half, or double the amount of time you give yourself to finish them. When you are able to accomplish your goals, the wave of momentum and confidence keeps you going.    3 Skills to Develop to Support Your Writing This Summer Giving yourself strong, accomplishable goals is the first step. Once you have those set, you need to develop these 3 vital skills to support your writing and check off those goals.  1. Writing Project Management We’re always managing multiple projects as academics, and summer is no different in that respect. You need to hone your project management skills to be able to break down your projects into tasks, manage deadlines, direct team members or work with co-authors.    In my Academic Women’s Writing Roadmap course we teach project management skills and how to apply them for your specific goals. 2. Writing Systems Development Writing systems are any recurring practices you use to get your writing done. (Panic writing when a deadline is bearing down on you is not a writing system!) What do you have in your toolbox full of strategies to help you manage the challenges this summer might present? For example:   How is your system going to help you balance your brain space with anxieties you may be dealing with? How will your system work in tandem with extra care constraints?   In my programs, we teach how to develop systems, with an emphasis on the Tiger Time method, which I cover in detail on Episode 2.    Keep in mind that if writing just isn’t going to fit into your life this summer, you should take the summer off from writing. But be sure to look at your calendar and plan a re-entry date. 3. Pipeline Planning To keep that pipeline flowing smoothly, you’ll need to practice pipeline strategy and pipeline management. Strategy involves planning out what you will work on to benefit your overall goals and career plan. Management involves working through your pipeline, tending it to be sure it doesn’t turn into a funnel.    We cover both of these components in our Writing Roadmap course, teaching you how to strategize, manage and adapt your pipeline to fit your needs. The Secret to a Summer Full of Ease Notice I didn’t say “the secret to an easy summer”. I’m not promising that following this advice will make things “easy”, but that it will help you release some of the tension and overwhelm, and make you feel more at ease this summer. Are you ready? Here it is:   The very first thing you need to plan this summer is a break.    If you can, take a full week completely free from all academic demands. Planning rest proactively prevents you from collapsing later.   You are living through traumatic times, with a lot of extra emotional and mental work supporting students, switching classes online, dealing with work-from-home situations that may not be conducive to work. You need to rest! Plan a block of as many consecutive days as you can.    Additional Resource to Take Control of Your Writing Enrollment for my Academic Women’s Writing Roadmap course  is now open! It only opens for one week, so don’t delay if you want to join us to develop the core skills we’ve talked about in this episode.    Included with the course are 10 modules; each module is 1-2 hours long and we recommend working through one per week, but you can take them at whatever pace works for you! You have lifetime access as soon as you register.    Also included are a strong community in our private Facebook group and 3 group coaching calls with our coaches and a cohort of other women just like you. We draw on our years of coaching experience as well as the collective wisdom and experience of the community during these calls, connecting you not only to valuable information, but to others in the same situations that you are in. Click here to learn more and register.   When you register, you are granted lifetime access to the course materials. To give you an idea of the kind of teaching you’ll get, here is a quick overview of each of our 10 modules:   1. Map Your Mission Learn how to craft your academic mission statement, how to apply it in your career and make decisions against it.   2. Align Your Activities Complete an activities audit to see everything you’re doing, which things should stay and which should go. We’ll help you craft a plan to remove the things that need to go, and align what’s left with your mission.    3. Time Management Learn how to corral time intense activities like email, prioritize student interactions and realistically choose your projects.   4. Develop Your Writing System Learn our signature system using the tiger time method, and build up a toolbox of customized strategies.   5. Goal Setting Learn 3 types of goals, and how to set achievable goals to boost your confidence.   6. Breaking Projects into Tasks Learn what this means and how to do it. You’ll make a confident plan for breaking down big projects into small, actionable tasks.    7. Managing Mindset Learn the importance of what you believe about your writing practice and what you believe about yourself as a writer. Learn strategies to combat guilt, overwhelm, imposter syndrome and more.   8. Setting Up a Publication Pipeline Learn how to customize a pipeline that is specific to you, how to assess its function and remove blockages.   9. How to Make a Year Plan Get guidance for yearly planning to accomplish your goals and keep your pipeline flowing.    10. How to Plan Long Term Learn how to make a long term plan, balancing long term goal setting with inevitable uncertainty.   I’d love for you to join us! Click here to register.    This marks the end of my Spring podcasting semester. I’ll be back in June to start up the summer semester. In the meantime, be sure to check out my Facebook page to take advantage of free trainings and Facebook live videos.    I can’t wait to get back to you in June with more episodes! If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to share it with a friend, subscribe, rate and review it. Thank you! Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode33.

How do you feel about your writing right now? Guilty over outstanding projects? Overwhelmed by this unprecedented semester? Confused about how others are getting things done? Maybe one of these 3 mistakes is holding you back.   Academic women are a diverse and electrifying group. I truly get so much energy from working and interacting with such an incredible group of people.   But the more academic women I get to know, the more I realize that we have some things in common that need to stop. If guilt, overwhelm, and confusion are weighing you down, consider whether you are making one of these mistakes.   Mistake #1: Thinking You’re Supposed to Know What to Do It may feel like you should know what to do when you become an academic, but why do we assume that? You may have had wonderful PhD mentors who helped guide you in writing for graduation, but that’s not the same thing as writing for publication. Now that you’ve graduated, who do you ask?    “Academia doesn’t come with a handbook.”   It’s ok not to know! It’s important that we get together in community, support each other, share what we know and ask for help.  Mistake #2: Thinking You’re the Only One Struggling Please believe me when I say, you are not alone! In my I Should Be Writing Facebook group there are 12,000+ members; posting in this group quickly shows you that there are so many others sharing your worries, concerns and struggles.    In my webinar chats and other programming, there is always a chorus of “yes, yes, me too!” and “I thought I was the only one!”. We are all in this together; through the frustrations of juggling commitments, co-author guilt, rejections, and stress of not knowing how to navigate it all, you are not alone.   Mistake #3: Thinking That YOU Are the Problem This one really gets me. Ladies, as I say at the beginning of all my podcasts, women are revolutionizing academia within institutions that were not built for us. The impenetrable “ivory tower” is the problem, not you!    As a woman, you have likely had to fight your way into where you are. The patriarchal culture of academia wants you to think that when you feel pulled in a thousand directions, or you don’t know what to do, it’s because you are deficient. I even hear women say that it’s ‘personal weakness’ that keeps them from being able to write that 1000 words a day. It’s just not true. The problem is trying to operate within a system that doesn’t work for you, in a culture that is not built for you.    “You are not the problem.”   The good news is that all these things are learnable! Ways of doing things that respect women as whole beings, and don’t ask us to sacrifice ourselves to a patriarchal model do exist. Struggling through motherhood and being a professor, I learned a lot of these things through trial and error, but I don’t want you to have to endure that struggle!   If you want to join me to learn ways to live academic life on your terms, get ready to register for The Academic Woman’s Writing Roadmap course. Enrollment opens this Friday (May 1, 2020)!   This course is based on my experiences as a tenured professor and mom of 3, as well as the experiences of over 150 women I’ve mentored and worked with. The course is self-paced, but includes opportunities for connection and group work in a private facebook group and group coaching calls. You keep your access to the course information forever.   How can you be sure to get the info on joining us for this course, and to get information on all my other offerings?    Join us for the Summer Writing Challenge! It’s a free, 5-day challenge with 5 different topics to help you make this a great writing summer. You might need a new approach for this complex summer; we can help. Download my PDF cheat sheet, 10 Ways to Make Time to Write and you’ll be added to my email list. Check me out on Facebook. I often go live on my page to address issues that people bring up in the group… check those out any time! Request to join our group, I Should Be Writing, and you can add your email to my mailing list when prompted.   I hope you’ll join us in one of our community opportunities to keep learning, sharing, and changing academia from the inside. Remember, you’re not alone, it’s all learnable, and you can do this! Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode32.

Is writing constantly dropping to the bottom of your to-list? Do you have a growing pile of half done projects? You may be holding on to myths about writing that are holding you back.   If you’re like many women I work with, you have a list of almost-done projects: revise-and-resubmits, drafts that need to be hacked out, reviews you’ve promised. You’re trying to figure out how to get through this semester, you’re trying to plan next semester, your list of to-do’s is a mile long.   “So much of our writing practice is about our beliefs about writing.”   The reality is that chaos always seems to take over, and writing projects keep dropping to the bottom of the list. Part of the reason that writing projects keep getting pushed out may be because you are holding on to one or more of these 5 writing myths. So let’s break them down, and bust them with some reality checks. Myth #1: You Need Inspiration to Write I used to wait for inspiration, or to feel ‘in the mood’ to write. That went right out the window when I had my first baby. There was never a time I felt inspired, or in the mood to write. There was hardly any time to feel anything!  Reality: You Need a System to Write You need a system, complete with a set of established practices, that you can rely on and go back to. A system gives your writing a rhythm, and it gives you a way to get back on the wagon if you fall off.   In my Academic Women’s Writing Roadmap course we teach participants to develop and establish a writing system that works, instead of waiting around for inspiration to strike. Myth #2: You Need to Work Nights and Weekends Becoming a mom blew this idea out of the water too. Getting up before the kids to get writing done sounds good, but when your kid gets up at 4am it doesn’t really pan out. And you shouldn’t have to do this to get your work done anyway! The idea of the ‘dedicated scholar’ burning the midnight oil is a decidedly male idea (who’s feeding this guy? Where are his kids?). We need to let go of the myth that we need to work at all hours to get things done.   Reality: You Need a Concrete Plan   You need to plan well to corral your activities, including writing, into a reasonable work schedule. Stacking your schedule is a great way to do this. Stacking means you put like activities together on the same day, stacked on top of each other to prevent bleeding over. I made sure to put lesson planning time on the same day as office hours and meeting with grad students, all those teaching kinds of activities stack on top of each other.   Myth #3: You Need Big Block of Time for Writing If you’ve ever been granted a sabbatical, or had some other event that loosened up your schedule, then you already know: having big blocks of time does not necessarily mean you get more writing done. Having the time doesn’t automatically mean you know what to do with it. And you don’t need it to be able to get the writing done.   Reality: You Need to Find and Use Your Tiger Time    “Tiger time” is a term coined by entrepreneur Amy Porterfield. It refers to those times when you are most focused, energetic and creative. These times will vary based on your personality, and your current life circumstances. To learn more about tiger time and how to find yours, check out Episode 2 of the podcast. You’ll get much more quality writing done during your tiger time then during (potentially non-existent) big blocks outside your tiger time. Myth #4: You’re Too Busy to Write This is not a total myth...in all likelihood, you are too busy, and should probably drop a few things off your plate. But, you are not too busy to get writing done.    Reality: Your Activities Are Not Aligned   Sometimes we feel even busier than we are because our activities are not in alignment. The answer is to find a focus for our careers and to align all of our activities behind that focus.    In the Academic Women’s Writing Roadmap course, we walk participants through a step-by-step plan for how to align everything in their careers behind a personal academic mission statement. We teach a structure for decision-making, and how to implement a timeline for finishing or quitting projects. These steps are the key to stop feeling like you are pulled in a thousand directions, and finding the time to write.   “To feel less frazzled, you need to make your activities more cohesive.” Myth #5: You Don’t Have Enough Time to Write I get it! I spent a lot of time spinning my wheels and feeling like I never had enough time. Academic women have full plates, and lots of competing demands on our time.  Reality: There Are More Important Factors Than Time   I’ve learned that intentional focus, pre-planning, and aligning activities are more important than the quantity of time you have. I’ve learned how to manage these things through trial-and-error, but you don’t have to! You can go from freaked out to 5-year plan with me. We teach time management, focus, planning, and mindset in The Academic Women’s Writing Roadmap program. Registration opens May 1st! Make sure you get all the info on how to register, plus never miss a podcast episode or free live video training. Here’s how to get on the mailing list to make sure you’re in the know:   1.  Join our I Should Be Writing Facebook group. Provide your email address when prompted in the questions and you’re on the list!   2.  Download my free PDF cheat sheet  10 Ways to Make Time to Write and you’re on the list!   Coming soon: The Summer Writing Challenge! Starting April 27th, we’ll take 5 days to get ready to make this summer (yes, even this one!) a great writing summer. Join us!   Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page   This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode31.

What exactly is a writing system and why do you need one? I’m taking you through 3 parts of an effective system, and showing you why you need one.   You might think you already have a writing system if you try to write a certain number of words everyday, or you employ the Pomodoro technique in your writing sessions. But these are goals, not systems. So what is a writing system? And why do you need one?   Here is my definition of a writing system:   “A set of practices, rooted in a value system about writing, that is employed strategically to help you meet your goals.”   Let’s break that down and look at each of the 3 parts that comprise it.   A Set of Practices These are certain things that you do regularly, combinations of activities relating to your writing. This does not mean a number of words that you try to write each day. These are things like:   How and when you schedule your writing time, and how you honor that time. How you keep track of your writing progress. What rewards you give yourself for reaching writing milestones. How you choose what projects to focus on next. How you keep track of the time writing takes, and how you refine your time allocations.   In my Academic Women’s Writing Roadmap course and all my other programs, we teach a set of practices, to pull back the curtain on how academic women actually get their writing done, so you're not re-inventing the wheel. These practices are flexible, you tailor them to your own life. Rooted in a Value System About Writing Our practices grow from the foundation of our values concerning writing and what it means for us as women and academics. Some values that root and ground a writing system are:   Putting writing at the center of our careers. We recognize that by putting writing in the central place and building our careers around it we become better scholars, teachers, researchers and members of our academic communities.  Using the feminization of academic culture as an underpinning for our writing systems. This helps us keep in mind the ways in which patriarchy is infused into academia and reminds us to honor and support the experiences of academic women as whole beings. Reducing guilt and overwhelm and building systems that repel them. Any writing practices we employ must help us make our writing feel good instead of allowing us to become overwhelmed or overworked. Building positive momentum. Our writing systems help us to feel positive, inspired, and excited to write.  Employed Strategically to Meet Goals All of your practices are like your bag of tricks; they are a toolbox full of actions you can choose from as needed. Things will always ebb and flow, your life and career circumstances change. As you move through these changes, you can strategically choose the practices that help you reach the goals you have in that moment.   Why You Need a True Writing System This type of system might sound a little complicated at first. Why do I believe you need to have a system for your writing instead of individual goals?    When you have a system, you have a way back into your writing if you get off track. If your whole system is “write 500 words a day” and then a crisis hits and you can’t stick to that, what happens to your writing? Does guilt over not completing that goal make it hard to get back to it? Not having a system means you don’t have other options to choose from. You have a set of practices to strategically employ. So if writing every day doesn’t make sense right now, you have other things you can do. Without a system, you don’t have a toolkit to help you move projects out the door. A writing system can expand and contract in response to your situation, helping you jumpstart projects and push them out the door.   “You need a writing toolkit to move projects out the door.”   A writing system is a set of practices, rooted in a value system about writing, that is employed strategically to help you meet your goals. And you need one to keep you moving in your practice, no matter the situation.   The Academic Women’s Writing Roadmap course opens for enrollment very soon! The teaching is rooted in the values that writing should feel good and you should feel good. If you want to be first to know when enrollment is open, be sure to sign up for my email list by downloading my free PDF cheat sheet: 10 Ways to Make Time to Write.  Never miss a podcast episode or live video (like my recent series on how to work from home), and get access to free trainings, webinars and workshops… click here to download the PDF and get on the list!  Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode30.

Is it time to hit the reset button? When we are in unusual circumstances we are forced out of the ‘norm’. And while that can definitely have its downsides, it can also give us an opportunity to reevaluate how we’re doing things.    This moment in time might be the perfect opportunity to evaluate your academic life and hit the reset button on a few things. I am a relentless optimist, and it’s my nature to look for the opportunity in any crisis or negative situation. While our current pandemic crisis has certainly piled on extra work and extra stress, I think it could also give an opportunity to explore how we might step back and change some things for the better.    This month in my Amplify program we’re focusing on mindset and digging into a lot of things that can be reset in this historical moment. But I want to give you, my podcast listeners, a peek into the types of things that can be reset for a fresh start in our academic lives.  Reset Expectations for Email Response Time Email is the worst. Now more than ever, it’s how extra work arrives. It can feel overwhelming. And you may have been allowing people to use it as a tool to convey time sensitive information, or as a way to get in touch with you at all hours. Now is the time to reset those expectations. Here are some ideas: You decide what your turnaround time for email responses will be, but I suggest a 24 hour turnaround time policy.  Email should not be a medium to convey emergencies or urgent needs.  Draw boundaries around your work time and family time, and do not allow email to filter in to this time.  Set aside a scheduled time in your day that you deal with email and don’t do it at any other time! Consider using an email scheduling tool if you want emails to send at specific times. Reset Your Approach to Your Own Availability  How can you reset boundaries around your daily availability? You may have started out this time at home wanting to support your students and colleagues in any way possible, which is admirable. But! You simply cannot be available to everyone 24/7.    Choose specific, limited times during your week that you are available to others for meetings, etc. There are calendar scheduling tools you can use that list your available times for people to choose from. Make sure you are choosing times that work well for your current schedule, and stick to them! If someone asks you to attend a meeting or take on an issue outside of those times, it’s ok to tell them you are unavailable. Think about how your current schedule might be different from how things were a short time ago, and plan accordingly. For a method to map out your “ideal week” listen to Episode 4: Create Your Ideal Week.  Think about other ways you might draw boundaries around your own availability.   “You cannot let work ooze into every moment of your day.”   Reset Your “Productivity” Bar If you’ve been following me for long you know that I hate the word “productivity” because it makes me feel like we are robots in a factory. But what I am trying to convey here holds. Especially right now at this unprecedented time, you simply must reset your expectations for your own work output. Right now, we are dealing with worries about the worldwide pandemic, extra work with kids doing school at home, or other family members home that usually aren’t, or maybe we’re stuck at home alone and are dealing with loneliness. In situations like this, creativity might desert us completely. Remember:    Now is not the time to try and hit goals that you made 2 months ago. Set the bar for what you will accomplish in the next few months LOW. You may be able to get more done in less time than you did on campus, and you may not. Either way, don’t try to work long hours. Be gentle with yourself and those around you.   Reset Your Writing Practice It’s time to get back to basics with your writing practice. Now is not the time to go all out, or to try and stick to goals you had before everything went nuts. Your energy and focus will be drastically different right now. But you don't want to completely let go of your writing either, since as we all know, it is connected to so much in the academic life. Here’s what to do: Reset your practice by figuring out your Tiger Time in your current situation. Tiger Times are the times in your day when you feel most focused, energized, and creative. For a refresher on how to find your Tiger Time, take a listen to Episode 2.  Set your expectations low. Shoot for 1-2 hours during your Tiger Time, 1-2 times per week, and that’s IT.  Remember that a small amount of focused, energized time will yield much better results than lots of time when you’re tired and out of energy.    I hope you are able to use this time to reset some aspects of your academic life. To be part of the discussion on these ideas and many more with like-minded academic women, join us in my Facebook group, I Should Be Writing.   My Academic Women’s Writing Roadmap course is opening for enrollment soon!  We cover all kinds of tools and tips to help you create a sustainable writing system, even in these uncertain times. We’ll help you get your pipeline up and running, and help you find that time to write.    To be sure you’re on the mailing list so you know when enrollment is open, be sure to grab my free PDF cheat sheet,  10 Ways to Make Time to Write. You’ll automatically be put on the email list to receive the latest information about upcoming workshops, trainings and opportunities. There’s a lot coming up, so stay tuned!   Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode29.  

How do you sustain a writing practice in times of crisis? Whether the crisis is a global one like a pandemic, or a personal one like an illness, taking these 5 steps will help you sustain a writing practice. We are in an unprecedented time right now, dealing with a global pandemic. You may be on lockdown, teaching from home, trying to supervise or teach your kids, caring for relatives, or practicing social distancing. We Puerto Rican professors are no strangers to crisis situations. From Hurricane Maria in 2017, to student strikes, to the recent earthquakes, we have been through situations that have paralyzed our nation and left us stuck trying to work at home with children while dealing with shortages and uncertainty.   These 5 steps for sustaining a writing practice during a crisis come from personal experience living through these mass disruptions of normal life. Let me say that the first week or two are the hardest. You will find a rhythm for your days, and once you do, things will get a little easier. Here are 5 steps to take to sustain your writing practice and keep your sanity in trying times.   Step 1: Get Back to Tiger Time Basics Start your tiger time from scratch.  Find out which hours during your day are your most focused and energetic.  Pick one to two hours during this time one or two times per week to focus on your writing.  Remember that if it is not your scheduled tiger time, you should not be writing, so it is ok to let go of the guilt! One hour of focused time produces much better results than lots of unfocused time.   (Not sure what tiger time is or how to find yours? Be sure to go back and listen to Episode 2, where I lay out how to find and implement your tiger time.) Step 2: Shift Your Mindset When you are in a crisis situation, it is not business as usual, so don’t expect your academic life to operate as usual! There is no way you can expect the level of productivity that you may have originally planned for. You may be in survival mode for a few months, so you need to adjust your goals and expectations accordingly. Set the bar low, for your writing practice and all your other responsibilities.   “You cannot expect yourself to use the same techniques for getting your writing done now that you did before your work situation has changed because of the global pandemic.”   Shift what you see as reasonable, and be willing to look at your responsibilities on a different scale.  Step 3: Work Four Hours Per Day When you work 8 hours a day on campus, you are not actually producing work for all of those hours, right? Some of the time is spent getting around on campus, having lunch, etc. So it is totally unnecessary (and unwise) to try to set your day up the same way at home. Use the 4 power hours method instead.  Structure your time to fit your current schedule needs. You likely won’t get 4 hours in a row, especially if you have kids at home.  Set the kids up with something to occupy them for a couple of chunks at a time (Frozen 2, anyone?) Make a list of the main areas you need to work in, and block chunks of time for each. For example: maybe you spend an hour on writing, 2 hours on student support and teaching, 1 on meetings and email, etc. Consider stacking content prep time for asynchronous classes at the beginning of the week so you have more time for writing as the week goes on.  Power through: concentrate hard on what you’re doing for hour-long chunks, then take a break.   We have been conditioned in academia to think that overwork is the ‘norm’, but it is not normal or necessary, especially during times like these. Don’t put pressure on yourself to work more hours just because you “should”.  Step 4: Corral Online Activities This may be the perfect time to re-draw some boundaries, for yourself and others. Reset expectations for email turnaround time, and corral email checking into a set block of time.  Put boundaries around synchronous meeting times. In our current situation, people may be asking for live, online meeting times. Be sure to limit the times you are available, and let people know what those times are. Just because a lot is happening online right now, do not be pressured to be available 24/7. You decide your available times.   “If you’re going to get through a time of crisis, you must have boundaries around what you’re doing.” Step 5: Ramp Up Self-Care Having endured several major crises during my academic life, I have learned the vital importance of rest. Rest that rejuvenates and restores you will prevent a major breakdown, and keep you going in uncertain times. It will also enable you to continue to create. In order to increase your capacity for creation (writing, creating course materials, etc.) you must increase your capacity to restore yourself. This is not a luxury in times like these, it is a necessity. Here are some suggestions: Take care of your physical health. Get some kind of exercise every day. A walk outside, playing with your kids, even chores or yard work. Do something to move your body. Limit social media and screen time. Especially now that you may be spending more time online for classes, be purposeful about time away from screens. Read a book (on paper!). Listen to an audiobook or podcast. Be intentional about getting away from screens. Take the time to shower, get dressed, and take care of yourself everyday. It makes a big difference in how you feel! Be diligent about taking time for yourself and doing whatever it is that makes you feel restored.   “Be gentle on yourself, and realistic about what you can do in this crisis.”   For more advice on how to keep your writing practice going, join us in our free Facebook group I Should Be Writing!   We’ve got lots of exciting, free workshops and content coming your way very soon. My Summer Writing Planning Webinar is coming back by popular demand, and the 5 Day Summer Writing Challenge starts on April 27!   Grab my free 10 Ways to Make Time to Write  guide, and you’ll have the chance to join my email list to stay up to date on all upcoming trainings, workshops, and challenges. Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode28.