The three traps that catch us when we plan the academic year
The academic year arrives already full. Teaching allocation, committee dates, marking deadlines, the module that needs rewriting, the review you agreed to last year and forgot about. By the time you sit down to think about what you want from the year, the diary has filled itself.. You meet September as a list of things other people need from you.
You may have seen that I ran a planning webinar in July, August and September which aimed to help academics like us to set some priorities and some boundaries (taking account of the context we are in!). I know not everyone could make it, and not everyone does their planning in the Summer, so I've made a one-page download to capture the key messages. Three traps we fall into when we plan the academic year, and a few questions that get us out of them. You can read it in a couple of minutes and keep it somewhere you'll see it.
Why this, and why now
Most planning advice for academics is really time management in disguise. Block your calendar, protect your mornings, learn to say no. That can help, up to a point, but it treats the problem as a skills gap, as though you'd be fine if you were only a bit more organised (cue a collective sigh).
You're not disorganised, and you don't need better time management. You're carrying a load that was designed to exceed what fits. The University and College Union found the average academic works around two days a week beyond their contracted hours. So it really isn't you. It's the job as currently built.
Last year is your evidence base
You have substantial research skills. You already know that the best predictor of what happens next is usually what happened before. The download applies that to your own working life.
It asks you to look back at the year you've just finished and read it as the evidence base. What kept filling your weeks that you'd stopped noticing? What did the year quietly cost you, without you ever deciding to pay it? What would you protect if you chose to? These are the pieces of information you have about how you actually work and what slips off the sides when you're stretched. Most of us never look back. We start each year with fresh intentions and the same conditions, then wonder why it runs the same way again.
What it gives you
This is not a finished year long planner, and that isn't really what I was aiming for, because one page won't do that, and I won't pretend otherwise. But, what it gives you is a clear view of the three traps and the questions that get you out of them, enough to recognise the pattern and start thinking differently about the year ahead.
The questions are easy to read and easy to avoid. Considering them properly is harder, and that's usually where working with someone helps. But the page is a good place to begin, so you can take time to congratulate yourself for making a great start to being more intentional about your working life.
Who it's for
Academics and researchers who can't quite keep going the way they have been, but haven't worked out what to do instead. You're still functional. You're good at your job. You're just aware that the current pace doesn't have many more years in it, and that nobody is going to hand you the time to think about it.
This is a small way to start taking it.
Hi, I am Wendy.
I work with academics to help them build sustainable careers so they can progress with autonomy, intellectual challenge and impact.
Packages start from £499.
With me you can expect to achieve:
A comprehensive mapping of where you are now, and where you want to be.
Clarity on what matters to you both professionally and personally.
Practical tools to set work boundaries that actually stick in academic environments.
Strategies to protect your wellbeing while still delivering quality work.
Emotional support and understanding.
Confidence to make decisions to support your future personal and professional life.
Book a chat in my diary, it is free for a 30 minute conversation to find out if working with me can help you take the next steps in your academic life. https://tidycal.com/drwendynicholls/letschat
Thank you for reading my article.
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