a few ways to plan your day
A few weeks ago, in a different life, I had a system of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that kept me pretty well in line. I knew what things I did on Tuesday, and what things I did on the last Tuesday of the month - and even if there was a little bit of a shift (I was sick or I had an appointment or whatever), I knew what I had planned to do, so I could make it up.
Now I'm in a whole new world where a lot of the assumptions I made about where I'd go, what I'd do, what resources I'd have access to are no longer valid. Do Tuesdays still exist anymore? Hard to say!! And yet, there are still things that need doing, and I apparently need to do them, so I've been experimenting with a few new frameworks for thinking about tasks. I'll put them here in case some appeal to you - with my normal pandemic reminder that now is a time for flexibility and experimentation! The conditions for many of us keep shifting, so therefore, we will probably need to shift how we think about our time and our work.
Three things - This is a model that I've seen recently on Instagram, as popularized by Elise Cripe. You purposefully pick smaller things when you're feeling overwhelmed with a big thing, and you let yourself focus on just those. You know that there are other things to be done, but you do the little things and you re-establish your identity as a person who does some things sometimes!
Top Three - Another variation, used in a lot of planners. You put the three most important things in your top spot, above all the noise of the rest of the list. It's a way of visually pulling out the highest priority items so that you can focus on just the smaller section first, and then move on if you have more time.
Day block goals - My days have been separating into three categories lately - before lunch, after lunch, and after dinner (MEALS ARE LIFE) - and it has been helpful to pick a goal for each block. The trick to this one is that I can only have work items in two of the three blocks - one has to be a rest/self care/fun/family thing. It doesn't necessarily have to be the last block of the day, but it does have to be there.
Start here - My brain has also been VERY FOGGY in the morning and after breaks, so before I switch tasks or shut down for the day, I pick somewhere to start. It isn't usually the most important, or the hardest thing, but it really helps ease me back into my work when I really really don't want to. Past me picked where to start! Thanks past me!
Next thing - Sometimes, when I'm at my most overwhelmed, I drop into what I call "next thing" thinking. For example, I might get up and see that the kitchen is a disaster. Instead of letting myself make a list of everything in the whole house that needs to be cleaned, getting totally overwhelmed, and then not doing anything, I just pick the next thing. I wash this mug. And then, I wash the next mug. Then maybe I wipe down a counter. But I only focus on the next, most readily apparent thing. This is particularly helpful when my anxiety is really high - just focus on one thing, and then the next thing, until I can feel a little more grounded.
Be gentle with yourself - what worked before might not work now. But just because *that* way of working isn't as effective right now doesn't mean that NOTHING will work - it just means you have to embark on an experiment to see what can be useful in these conditions.
A letter to my past self: before starting a fellowship term
Dear Past Katy, on the eve of her fellowship,
This is the only four month stretch that you have without teaching obligations or your own courses during your entire graduate school career. You've been asking everyone you know for advice for weeks about how best to structure your days, how to be productive, how to get up every morning and do the work. You have all the books about writing every day, writing stylishly, writing in 15 minutes a day: none of it is resonating. And you're freaked out.
Instead of picking the most appealing program and forcing yourself to stick through it through sheer force of will, treat the whole semester like an experiment. Test out different hypotheses: does writing a set number of words no matter whatever, every day, produce a finished chapter faster than writing while teaching did? And instead of using "chapter draft completed" as the only metric, start measuring other factors: does this routine support regular exercise? Does it support regular meals of mostly vegetables (and a few cookies)? Does this routine improve my sleep? Make notes. Track changes. See what works. Progress looks like more than just completed drafts.
Say yes to the opportunity to volunteer at the shelter down the road. It will do you good to have someone expecting you, and to see the visible impact your hours make.
Break the habit of working during lunch as soon as you can. Your lunch breaks with a novel, magazine, or TV show away from your desk will stop feeling luxurious eventually, and start feeling like the needed break they are.
You initially imagined clocking in at 9 am and clocking out at 5 pm, spending the hours in between in quiet, fulfilled productivity at your desk. But you forgot that your brain makes connections and puts things together on its own rhythm. Reading in the park, drawing out an outline in your notebook before yoga class, having revelations in the shower and hopping back on your computer to write them down before bed are things to be embraced, not to be embarrassed of. Give yourself the space to think, because that's a big part of writing too.
You're more productive when you work with other people. Your ideas get better when you talk them out with friends and writing group colleagues and your partner and your cats. Find your communities and build them up - they'll eventually hold you up, as you will them.
You don't stop being a teacher because you're in a period where you aren't in front of a classroom. When you get blocked, imagine making slides to explain the concept to a class. Actually, make the slides and record the narration. It will be the most clear first draft you've ever written.
Set out clear expectations and timelines with your chair as soon as you can. Even when it's uncomfortable, stick to your agreed communication schedule. Deadlines are guidelines, but when all the parties are in the loop, everyone can adjust their calendar and workflow.
Even when the chapters are behind - they will be behind and, rarely, ahead of schedule - don't work through planned yoga classes, volunteer hours, family dinners, TV nights with friends, or sleeping hours. The work rhythm will eventually even out, but the ebbs in self-care and connection are much harder to correct.
Your mind will eventually start wandering to other projects. You will daydream about other books, articles you could write, blogs you could start, a bakery you could open. This is a natural by-product of staring at the same ideas all the time, and not a sign that the dissertation isn't working. So write a few pages on those ideas! Read a few books! Talk to friends about it! Your dissertation will still be there, and the thrill of new ideas and the hope of a future beyond the dissertation will be sustaining.
You will feel like a bad colleague and friend for not attending every talk, presentation, or panel on campus during the semester. Faculty will imply that your fellowship does not excuse you from participating in the department culture. Strike the balance for yourself. If you were taking the semester to do field research, no one would expect you to be an irrelevant talk just because your department was a co-sponsor. So pretend that you are. And remember to extend the same courtesy to other colleagues who disengage during their fellowship periods.
Have fun. Play around. Enjoy the flexibility. But then let yourself off the hook for not loving every minute of your "academic life" as a "scholar engaged in writing and research full time." There are many ways to write a dissertation, and many ways to be an academic. There are even more ways to use a PhD. This is just one model.
Love,
Future Katy