An Academic's Life

36. Supposedly, It Is Okay to Rest

This episode title is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it's a good reminder that it is okay (and necessary) to rest. This week, I talk about the need for rest as the year wind's down (ugh, don't remind me that 2023 is just around the corner!) and how our prior learning knowledge can create self-beliefs that prevent us from taking the rest that we need. I draw from Susan A. Ambrose et al.'s work on prior learning knowledge in How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching [https://www.wiley.com/en-us/How+Learning+Works:+Seven+Research+Based+Principles+for+Smart+Teaching-p-9780470484104]. I close the episode with a few reflection questions about our own prior learning knowledge about rest and work and what we might do to teach ourselves that it is okay to rest.  Happy listening!

35. Workspace Hacks: How to Lessen Energy Leaks

Do you know that everytime you are mildly (or greatly) annoyed with your office or workspace, you waste cognitive and emotional energy? I've been trying to force myself into loving working in my on-campus office, and I just ..... can't. And I'm envious of folks who can. But forcing myself to try to be productive and motivated in a space that doesn't do it for me is actually causing me a huge energy leak. "Energy leaks" are the ways in which our cognitive, emotional, and intellectual energy dissipates leaving us tired, frustrated, unfocused, and/or resentful. (And maybe many other emotions.) In this episode, I get honest about my office and workplace energy leaks and what I've been doing to stop the leak.  Happy listening!

34. What is Workplace Happiness and How Do You Find It?

This week I explore Agota Kun and Peter Gadanecz's 2022 article "Workplace happiness, well-being and their relationship with psychological capital: A study of Hungarian Teachers [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-019-00550-0]." Kun and Gadanecz provide a really nice overview of the scholarship on workplace happiness and well-being, as well as the necessary components to ensuring employees' happiness, so I highly recommend you all to read their literature review. Ever with the goal of finding ways forward and strategies that work, I share my own understanding of workplace happiness and offer listeners several strategies for finding (or refining their search for) workplace happiness within academia.

33. Working on my Promotion Materials and Creating an Ebook

I am currently neck-deep in promotion material writing/organzing (due September 6), but I was inspired to do a little creative writing with an ebook! In this episode I reflect on how my promotion material writing and the ebook adventure have been retraining my brain away from deadline freak outs and internal criticsm. Without giving away what I've learned, I've found that desensitization [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desensitization_(psychology)] works really well for me in these particular contexts.  If you want to check out my ebook [https://www.amazon.com/Youve-Got-This-College-Templates-ebook/dp/B0BB92RVYB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2PQPOBGY62GP6&keywords=genesea&qid=1661896857&sprefix=genesea%2Caps%2C114&sr=8-1] (on Kindle and as a print-on-demand), feel free. This is me-in-action learning new (non-academic) things and practicing not being perfect -- both things I need to keep working on. How am I supposed to learn new skills and retrain my brain away from the imposter syndrome if I don't challenge myself? Happy listening!

32. Why You Should Get to Know (at least) One Support Office

It is GTA Orientation time this week, and I'm neck-deep in training our new first-year composition graduate teaching assistants. If there's one thing I can encourage you to do this semester--as I've been telling our new GTAs--is to pick one support office on campus and get to know the staff. I've found that getting to know various support offices on campus have helped me be a better teacher and mentor, as well as set boundaries. If you're feeling lonely, disconnected, or confused from your program, department, or campus, getting to know one support office can definitely help.