making time for writing/dissertating as a new faculty member

[mleok]

To what extent is your continued employment in this new position contingent on you receiving your PhD?

[filologos]

To what extent is your continued employment in this new position contingent on you receiving your PhD?

It's not. I'm qualified based on other degrees I hold. I will not be terminated for not earning the PhD within a specific timeframe. But it's an unusual arrangement; if I ever wanted or needed to move, I'd need the PhD in hand.

[mamselle]

I've meant to say, I like your moniker, too!

M.

[fizzycist]

Can you wait until the summer? What you are describing seems next to impossible to me and even attempting sounds miserable. 4/4 all new course prep for brand new faculty is already a very hard job.

There are some ppl on this thread who have described some heroic efforts (5/5 + 4 hrs commuting, holy crap!). But it sounds truly awful and short train to burnout. Life is too short for that, go for a bike ride or eat a nice dinner with your 30 minutes of spare time instead.

(disclaimer: I sometimes work long hours on focused research, and it is something I love to do. Was assuming this is different, but if I am wrong in assuming 4/4 new prep + dissertation writing is torture my apologies. )

[mleok]

To what extent is your continued employment in this new position contingent on you receiving your PhD?

It's not. I'm qualified based on other degrees I hold. I will not be terminated for not earning the PhD within a specific timeframe. But it's an unusual arrangement; if I ever wanted or needed to move, I'd need the PhD in hand.

Would it prevent any sort of career advancement at your current institution. My department had graduate students who taught full time at a nearby community college who would get paid more once they receive their PhDs.

[filologos]

Yes, there's promotion and a salary bump for finishing.

[AvidReader]

Contrary to some of the other posters on this thread, I find it easier to do large blocks of time rather than 30 minutes a day. I think this is personal and project-dependent. Regardless of how you schedule it (30 min/day, two half days, one long day), the goal is consistency and refusal to be distracted. Schedule your writing like a meeting. ("No, sorry, I'm already booked on Friday morning.") As others have said, don't check your email. Regardless of how badly the grading is piling up, don't let it eat into writing time.

In non-COVID times, having a scheduled time and a set location have really helped me. When I was an adjunct, I left the house to go to the local library on my writing day. Many of my colleagues prefer coffee shops. Even moving from desk to dining table can train your body to get used to having a writing space (in which no email is checked, no social media is browsed, etc.).

Since COVID, I have benefited from having a writing buddy. We log on to Zoom at a set time, set goals for the session, and write/research away, checking in every hour or so. This makes it even easier to treat writing as a scheduled event, since I can tell people I have a professional meeting.

Something else I noticed when I was teaching a lot is that there were days--particularly late in the semester--on which I was too exhausted to create something new. I try to maintain a list of small essential things that need to be done but didn't take much brainpower: proofreading, formatting footnotes, checking references, making tables, etc. (I also keep a list of things to look up so that I won't fall down the rabbit hole of research on a day when I actually am fresh enough to write).

AR.

[Ruralguy]

Yes, Avid, this is what I was also getting at...early on, large block help, later, small blocks can help because you might not have much energy to do a lot anyway.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Contrary to some of the other posters on this thread, I find it easier to do large blocks of time rather than 30 minutes a day. I think this is personal and project-dependent. Regardless of how you schedule it (30 min/day, two half days, one long day), the goal is consistency and refusal to be distracted. Schedule your writing like a meeting. ("No, sorry, I'm already booked on Friday morning.") As others have said, don't check your email. Regardless of how badly the grading is piling up, don't let it eat into writing time.

In non-COVID times, having a scheduled time and a set location have really helped me. When I was an adjunct, I left the house to go to the local library on my writing day. Many of my colleagues prefer coffee shops. Even moving from desk to dining table can train your body to get used to having a writing space (in which no email is checked, no social media is browsed, etc.).

Since COVID, I have benefited from having a writing buddy. We log on to Zoom at a set time, set goals for the session, and write/research away, checking in every hour or so. This makes it even easier to treat writing as a scheduled event, since I can tell people I have a professional meeting.

Something else I noticed when I was teaching a lot is that there were days--particularly late in the semester--on which I was too exhausted to create something new. I try to maintain a list of small essential things that need to be done but didn't take much brainpower: proofreading, formatting footnotes, checking references, making tables, etc. (I also keep a list of things to look up so that I won't fall down the rabbit hole of research on a day when I actually am fresh enough to write).

AR.

I completely agree with the bolded. I'm not going to get much done in 30 minutes, so I'll dedicate one or two full afternoons to research each week (more in the summer, of course).

[mleok]

Contrary to some of the other posters on this thread, I find it easier to do large blocks of time rather than 30 minutes a day. I think this is personal and project-dependent. Regardless of how you schedule it (30 min/day, two half days, one long day), the goal is consistency and refusal to be distracted. Schedule your writing like a meeting. ("No, sorry, I'm already booked on Friday morning.") As others have said, don't check your email. Regardless of how badly the grading is piling up, don't let it eat into writing time.

In non-COVID times, having a scheduled time and a set location have really helped me. When I was an adjunct, I left the house to go to the local library on my writing day. Many of my colleagues prefer coffee shops. Even moving from desk to dining table can train your body to get used to having a writing space (in which no email is checked, no social media is browsed, etc.).

Since COVID, I have benefited from having a writing buddy. We log on to Zoom at a set time, set goals for the session, and write/research away, checking in every hour or so. This makes it even easier to treat writing as a scheduled event, since I can tell people I have a professional meeting.

Something else I noticed when I was teaching a lot is that there were days--particularly late in the semester--on which I was too exhausted to create something new. I try to maintain a list of small essential things that need to be done but didn't take much brainpower: proofreading, formatting footnotes, checking references, making tables, etc. (I also keep a list of things to look up so that I won't fall down the rabbit hole of research on a day when I actually am fresh enough to write).

AR.

Yes, there are different types of research tasks, which require differents levels of time, intensity, focus, and clarity. So, the art of being able to make good use of the lower quality and fragmented segments of time we have effectively, so that we can save the high quality contigious periods of time for the tasks that require it, is critical to being productive while balancing many competing demands.

[Parasaurolophus]

It's also worth adding that just because you're aimjng for 30-60 minutes a day, that doesn't mean that you only work 30-60 minutes every day. Some days, you'll have the time and energy to do more, and then you should do so. The idea is just to work consistently, so that significant work accretes over time despite everything else calling for your attention.

[mleok]

In all things which are important but not urgent, you need to schedule time for it, and protect that time ruthlessly.