whether you're planning for a sprint week, AcWriMo 2023, or another burst of focused work, i'm here with five steps to a sustainable, action-packed time. avoid the common pitfalls and set yourself up for satisfaction and rest!
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If you are planning to work sprint, or maybe you're getting ready for ACRA. IMO starting in November. And this is the episode for you.
📍 Welcome to Grad School is Hard, But... A Thrive PhD podcast. I'm Dr. Katy Peplin and this is a show for everyone who's doing the hard work of being a human and a scholar.
And in season three, I'm demystifying some of the most important, but often invisible parts of grad school that learning about might just make your life a little bit easier. And make sure you check out the link in the show notes for my working more intentionally tool kit. Which is available for you totally for free. Now let's get into it
This episode is all about planning for a burst of work. This could be a sprint a two week writing sprint. It could be something that you're planning for. ACRA IMO. In November. It could be for a work retreat. Or a bootcamp day, but there are a lot of reasons why you might want to have a burst of work.
It's something that you do that is a place of concentrated effort on one part of your project. Object, but there are actually some tips and tricks that make it easier to plan a reasonable amount of work inside of that burst. So it isn't just another ambitious plan that you don't manage to hit.
First step that I like to do is to identify a chunk of work. Now. Lots of people will be like, okay, I'm in a sprint for two weeks and write this journal article. And that might work if you already have a text and it's well-researched, and you've got all of the reading done, but you might want to aim for something a little bit smaller.
I am doing a burst of work on the lit review section of my article. I am planning a burst of work to get through all of my course prep. I'm planning a burst of work to get through. Um, five blog posts that I need to write and schedule. It depends on you and what your resources are. What's a reasonable chunk of work, but the first step is almost always to decide what you're going to be doing that burst on or about.
The second step is to maybe create some sort of flexibility inside of the plan. I really like to use good, better, best goals here, where you can say like, okay, baseline. I want to finish all of the reading in this particular area. A better case scenario would be that I get everything outlined and the quotes put into that outline.
And best case I have a rough first draft of it. Having a spread like this builds in a little bit of flexibility, so that even if you only hit your good or better goals, you still can feel that sense of accomplishment.
Lots of us love the challenge of an ambitious goal and something like a sprint week can really help you hit that ambitious goal because it has different rules, but. Sometimes it's just one more piece of pressure that we put on ourselves. One more unrealistic deadline, one more thing that we plan for that didn't quite hit. So bringing some flexibility into that process makes it a little bit easier to adjust to all of the unexpected life things that might happen.
All of the reasons why you might not get as far as your brain wanted you to do.
Step three is to create some time in your calendar. This is again, going to look different for everybody, but maybe it is blocking off mornings during your sprint session to work on the project. Maybe it is planning some weekend days that you don't normally work. Maybe it is scheduling and a bunch of work togethers, or potentially clearing your schedule of some extraneous meetings or appointments to make sure that you have some time.
But it's hard to do a sprint and then change nothing about your schedule. So, whatever that schedule change looks like. It usually means that you are creating some extra space for this extra work to go into.
Step four is to create some support for yourself. And support for the work specifically. I love work togethers during sprint weeks because they're scheduled. There are other people, um, I host work togethers in my community, every weekday. So her at least some. That I have in my schedule already blocked off.
Um, I love to schedule a time to work with friends that I don't normally work with. I'd like to try out different work together, pieces of software like Focusmate or life IO. Um, but either way, I know that for me, having prescheduled time with other people in advance is one of the most important ways that I can give myself some support during those times.
For you, it might be asking your partners to help you out with some of the house things for that week, or it could be about letting your coauthor on a different project. Know that for the next two weeks, you're really going to be focused. In another area. It could be about doing some meal prep. Um, to help support the work, but thinking about what things help you.
Actually show up and be at your desk can be really helpful. And you also step five, want to create some supports for your human self. I like to, for myself and advise my clients to, for as much effort as you're putting into planning that sprint put at least half of that effort, if not an equivalent amount into creating some support for your human self, whether that means.
Uh, clearing things so that you have time to decompress at night, maybe it means meal prepping and getting a bunch of food ready in advance so that you can grab and go things. Maybe it is also booking a yoga class every single day. Or making dates to walk with friends in the park or to set up. A playlist of YouTube videos that you really want to use to move your body during that time.
I know that for me. I can build up a lot of energy during these bursts. And my brain is so busy and I am moving through things and it feels really good, but I need some of that energy to go somewhere at the end of the day. Otherwise I'm not going to sleep. So I like to, during sprint weeks really make an extra concerted effort to get in that movement.
And for me, that usually means scheduling something ahead of time so that I know that I'm going to be supported in that particular way. For you, it might be about seeing friends or going to coffee shops or making sure that you get enough sleep. But if you're going to put in an extraordinary amount of effort on the work, you probably need an extraordinary amount of support for your human body. That's going to be doing it.
And last but not least, I think it's really important. Step six, to schedule a non-negotiable end to this particular burst of work. Whether that means that you are going to exclusively sprint during the month of November for ACRA IMO. And December is going to ease off a little bit. Maybe it means that you will have non-negotiable weekends off.
Maybe it means that you sprint for two weeks in two weeks only. And it ends say at American Thanksgiving where you know that you are going to want to be with your loved ones, as you gather around a delicious meal. Whichever way you want to schedule it. Having a non-negotiable end means that it's not that you just decide to start sprinting.
And then never slowed down. It's a lot like the sprint metaphor in terms of like running and sprinting, . A sprint is when you purposefully have a burst of extra concentrated energy, you run faster. You do not sprint a marathon. You sprint a hundred meter dash. So thinking about, okay, this is a concentrated burst, but it is going to end and I'm going to have some recovery after that end.
It can be really helpful because a lot of our brains really like to say like, okay, I did this concentrated amount of work here. I've reset the baseline. This is what I'm capable of. This is what I should be able to do every day. It's not, it's a special condition that you made special support for and yes, it felt really good and it felt really satisfying, but it isn't forever. It's not a permanent sustainable pace.
Sprints are really great, but they're not sustainable over the longterm. So do your best to think about these as a burst of work, that's about changing the conditions so that you can build a little bit of momentum. It is a time for you to reconnect. It's a time for you to focus on one project at a time.
It's a time to build momentum, a sense that things are changing and things are moving forward. It's not about saying, okay, this is what I can do. In extraordinary conditions, let's make sure that that becomes my new normal. If any of this sounds good to you. I am running a whole month of free resources for ACRA IMO, which is modeled after national novel writing month where people try and write an entire novel in a month.
Academic writings a little bit harder than that in terms of kind of making it work. But I have over the five years that I've done this already created a system that is a little bit more sustainable, has a little bit more flexibility, but still brings in a lot of that attention. You can sign up for free.
At the link in the show notes, and I would love to have you join us in the month of November. But whenever you encounter this podcast, I hope that it brings you a little bit more strategy and intention around planning a burst of work. See you next week.
📍 Thank you for listening to Grad School is Hard, but... You can find more information and resources in the show notes and at thrive-phd.com. Every month, I'll select one reviewer for a free 45 minute session with me. So please subscribe, rate, and review to help spread the word about the show. Thanks so much and I'll see you again soon!