Real Academics Blog

Dear Real Academics, Empathy I feel you. I really do.  Many of you have communicated with me about the inevitable mix of excitement and stress of the beginning of a new school year.  For lack of a better non-cliche phrase, "There's something in the air" as summer ends and the school year begins, and most everyone is feeling the seasonal change. Action With that, I want to do a few things. (1) First, I am going to refraining from posting NEW blogs for the rest of this month - I'll recycle some old ones on LinkedIn for those who may still want some content. The last thing you probably want is more email (for those signed up for our newsletter) or posts (for those who follow on LinkedIn), especially at the beginning of the school year. (2) Second, I am writing this post to encourage you. What you do is important. Whether you are an educator or a student or parent of a student or whatever you do, it is important. In fact, I encourage you to dwell on this point to help y...

 Dear Real Academics, Today is National Pet Day (April 11). For those of you who have furry (or non-furry) friends, take a moment to appreciate your pet(s) past or current - yes, let's remember our friends who are no longer with us! I certainly appreciate my pet, Rocky. He is a 20 lb. rescue dog with a small build but a big heart. Here is a recent picture I have of him on my cell phone (one of MANY): Rocky was enjoying a "pup cup" (i.e., whipped cream in a cup) at Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers that day. This is the reason for the cream on his lips. You can follow Rocky on his Instagram channel here . So, in honor of Rocky and all pets past and present...here are some pros to owning a pet related to...you guessed it!....productivity. (1) They know your routine and will hold you accountable if you don't keep it. I had a colleague who told the story of writing every morning and then taking her dog out to walk. One week, her family was in town and she did n...

Dear Real Academics, This past week I was figuratively running. I have a very big project to complete, and I was talking to one person and then to another and trying to put all the pieces together. The problem is, the pieces were stubbornly just not coming together. Needless to say, I was feeling quite frustrated and quite tired.  Has this ever happened to you? You feel as if there is a mad rush to get something done and everyone around you is running and you are running, too, but you feel as if all the effort is not getting you anywhere? I decided to go for a walk with my puppy in the crisp air and warm sunshine. After the walk and some quiet prayer, I understood I needed to:  Stop running.  Stop striving.  Still move forward, but stop rushing.  This understanding was confirmed by one of the project constituents who called and said that maybe I needed to slow down. The confirmation continued with a wise friend from church in his 70's. (Actually, the advice i...

Dear Real Academics, It's the month of "love", and today I want to reflect on feelings. Regardless of what messages exist regarding feelings (e.g., go with your heart; don't trust your feelings), feelings are real and are part of being human. Feelings can also affect our writing and work productivity, so it's helpful to learn ways to manage them. This week I want to talk about some things you can do in the event you are feeling down. Perhaps you've heard some bad news or are going through something difficult -- whatever the reason or length of the issue, how can you still be productive and/or restore productivity when feeling down? Photo by Lukas Rychvalsky: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-standing-near-lake-670720/ Here are four ideas to manage negative emotions and keep up productivity: (1) Go for a walk/move. Weather permitting, go for a walk (or run). Or move somehow. Exercise can help clear the mind and relieve stress associated with negative emotion....

 Dear Real Academics, Few people I know like change. While change can be exciting and adventuresome, it is never easy.  For this blog post I want to ask, "When is it time for change when it comes to academic writing and research?" The following are three examples of when it may be time for change in academic writing and research. I also provide ideas of what you can do to initiate healthy and productive change: When your ideas have dried up. If you are in the world of writing and research, having ideas is important. If you feel your ideas have dried up, try to "change things up". Try a free-writing exercise, or try writing in a different genre. Write a blog post or try your hand at creative writing (yes, even poetry). You may be surprised how changing from the more technical, academic genre can actually give you ideas for your next writing and research project.  When you feel stuck.  The question to ask yourself here is: Why do I feel stuck? Am I stuck because I don...

Dear Real Academics, The semester will start full force this week, and I'm already dreading the amount of screen time I know I'll be putting in. But, I should not blame work solely for my screen time.  I find that a lot of my "down-time" is also screen time: Screen time texting, checking other emails on my phone, scrolling through photos, playing word games...you get the idea. I think it would be worst if I had social media on my phone. This past weekend I challenged myself to minimize my screen time. The sad part was that I didn't know what to "do" without using a screen.  Then, I saw my puppy, Rocky...perfectly content soaking in the sun in the backyard, sniffing the air and looking around at the green grass and blue sky. In my realization of my screen-dependency, I came up with some ideas listed at the end of this post. Now, don't laugh. I promise I'm not trying to transport you back to some other time-period.  But, I can truthfully say that t...

 Dear Real Academics, It's only January 3rd, but I'm already a bit daunted by the many things I have to accomplish at the start of a new semester. Are you perhaps feeling the same way? If so, you are not alone. Managing the many pieces is important so that things get done and that they get done with minimal stress. But, how to manage? Think of the many things you need to accomplish like pieces of a puzzle. There are many different pieces, but all the pieces need to come together to accomplish the big picture of "The Spring Semester". So, to get things done, strategy and focus are needed.  Strategize by: Writing down your goals. I encourage you to write down semester goals first. Then, at the beginning of each week, write weekly goals. Then, at the beginning of each day, write your daily goals. Making a plan of how you will get them done a little at a time. This is best done with helpful tools such as The Productivity Planner. Focus by: Turning off social media and sma...

Dear Real Academics, Are you feeling anxious? Or have you felt anxious recently? My bet is you would most likely answer "yes" to at least one of these questions if you have done any of the following activities in the last couple of days: watched the news, engaged in social media, checked emails, talked to another human being about world events, engaged in academic writing (yes, writing anxiety is a real thing). For today's post, I wanted to provide you with some ways to help deal with anxiety, however big or small.  Disclaimer: I am not a professional counselor or medical doctor.  I did, however, find a helpful video by Dr. Olivia Remes from Cambridge University that reminds me of some research I have read regarding academic writing anxiety.  You can watch her 15-minute TedTalk video and/or learn more about her by clicking on the links at the end of this blog post. Here, I summarize some main ideas from the video: First, anxiety is very real and lots of people unfortunat...