2.19 sometimes you can't avoid it - how to make working on vacation suck a little less
of course, i want everyone to take completely work-free time off this summer. but the reality remains that summer is often some of our most precious time as scholars. so how do we balance the immoveable deadlines of work with the very human, very necessary time off that can also come in the summer?
this episode has some of my best tips for negotiating boundaries, setting schedules, and dropping into focus mode quickly! enjoy!
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I wish that I could promise you that you will never have to work when you're traveling or away from your desk or on vacation. But if you ever need to, because academia does not sleep. This episode is 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 two, I'll introduce you to various tools that might make the hard stuff from writing to managing your time to taking care of your brain just a little bit easier.
And make sure you check out the link in the show notes for a brand new summer planning template, all available for you for free. Now. Let's get into it.
Summer is usually a time for traveling home. Taking a little bit of a break. Being able to see people that you care about. Sitting in the sun. At least for me going to the pool. And there is also this alternate pressure. There is something so seductive about starting the new academic year. The new term with a fresh slate. And so many of us try to balance.
Work and time off during this time of the year so that we can get the best of both worlds a summer that's restful, and also a fall term or new academic year that isn't going to kick us in the butt immediately. Once it starts.
All of this is so complicated because we are often burned out after a long academic year. We're tired. We're exhausted. And we also put a lot of these human milestones, whether that's vacation with the family or time away or chores that we're going to catch up on or life projects to the summer season, too. So.
Of course, I want for you to take intentional time off over the summer. And that is a really good plan. And I wish that for all of us. However, if you can't just take two or three weeks to completely disconnect. Or you do have pressing deadlines. Let's talk about how you can balance both. How did, can you be a human and still get some things done over the summer?
The first area that I think is important is to think about setting boundaries with the people that you may be traveling with or with yourself. So step one is to communicate what you need as clearly as you can. When I go home to visit friends and family and I live about five hours away, so I don't get to see them as often as I like it is so easy to fill up every minute of my time.
With family. Visits with friend catch-ups with eating all of my favorite foods and seeing all of my favorite places. And if I need to get work done, it can be a huge obstacle because every minute of my waking time is filled. And I don't have any other brain focus hours available to do any work. So I find that it's really useful to let everybody know the impacted parties, so to speak.
As soon as possible that I'm going to need to do some amount of work when I'm traveling. Because it can help set that expectation in advance. I tend to say things like I am so excited. To be coming home or going on a trip with you are going to stay. But as you may know, I also have this really big deadline coming up.
I'm planning on working for an hour or two every morning when I get up. So between eight and 10:00 AM or between nine and 11. And after that, I'll be all yours. So two hours in the morning, but then the rest of the time is yours.
The second thing to think about is compromised. Is it easier to skip one whole day of festivities and get everything wrapped up, really get into that deep focus zone, get some time and some energy and some space to really focus. Or to scatter that work throughout your break. I like to make the bargain with myself personally, that if I worked for an hour or two every day, I can make the rest of the time present and focused with the people who matter.
With no phones or computers. But you might find that it's actually easier to just clear one day of your schedule and get that deep focus instead of trying to work more regularly. It can also be helpful to remind people that by skipping a quote-unquote low level event, you know, not the main thing, the wedding that you're traveling for, or the most exciting day of your vacation.
But by skipping something that's slightly less of a priority. You can be there for something that is a really big priority. The work is a moveable. Usually that's why you're doing it. I'm breaking the first place, but the timing of it can be flexible.
And lastly, inside of this boundary category, I really recommend that you develop a signal, your own personal signal for do not disturb. Will you be in a location where it is easy to be distracted? I know that when I try and work at home at my kitchen table, it is very difficult, both for me and for everybody else to respect that I'm working and not to be disturbed because I'm right there in the middle of it.
So develop a way for people to quickly and quietly know that you're in a focus zone without them having to ask if you're working. This could be a sign on your bedroom door that announces that when your door is shot, you aren't to be disturbed. Or wearing headphones or sometimes even leaving the space.
A little bit more on that in a minute.
The next category of suggestions that I have in this area are about setting up your work conditions quickly and easily so that when your work time does come, you can drop right in. Step one in this process is to use your work rituals.
My brain, for example. Associates certain visual and taste cues with working. Yeah, I almost always will sit down in a chair, put in a piece of peppermint gum. When I'm trying to get ready to work. So when I'm traveling, I make sure I bring that ritual with me. Proper mint gum, my playlist, sometimes even a candle. If I can manage it.
Even if I'm in the busiest airport. By brain slips more easily into these work modes because it knows that peppermint gum equals go time.
It might also be useful to find a work zone. Is there a new coffee shop in your old childhood neighborhood? Does your uncle have a sweet home office that you can borrow? Are the libraries open? Sometimes you have to go to a new location to totally escape the, Hey let's make cookies right now, or, Hey, do you want to sit down and watch the new episodes of love island?
Be creative. So many places have wifi or better yet wifi and coffee, and they can help you make the most of a few hours and really reinforce that space between vacation you and work. You.
Last in this category is something that all of us struggle with and for good reason. Trying to avoid some time traps. So if you only have a few hours to work and get really important things done while you're traveling or while you're on break. Then try to avoid the time consuming tasks that don't necessarily have a huge impact and move right into the high value work.
This might mean putting in a website blocker that blocks Twitter or Instagram or the new threads or wherever you hang up. Maybe even your email. And setting up a vacation autoresponder can give you some space to respond to emails in a delayed way. Maybe you put your social media on pause, use the short work hours for the most pressing high impact tasks to make it feel like you really accomplished something when you snuck away.
Last, but not least this category be mindful. Be compassionate. Because this thing is really hard to do.
First step, take a few centering breaths. Are you having a sticky encounter when you're rushing to finish this essay before the deadline feeling guilty, maybe about missing some of the festivities, maybe you are resenting every life choice that ever led you to be at your high school library, grading student papers.
Well, everyone else is enjoying time at the pool. We've all been there. Take a few deep breaths and get re-centered. Rather than letting all of that bubble up and be a low. Or maybe high key distraction during your work sessions, it sometimes can even help to free write it. Write it out in your journal or maybe even a Google doc so that you can revisit those thoughts or not afterwards.
Be compassionate with other people too. Many of us come from backgrounds that don't totally understand all of the work that goes into a grad degree. And it can be so vulnerable to explain that you're behind on a deadline. To others, it might look like a sequence of typing activities that you are doing into various windows.
But that work is important enough for you to take time away from other things to finish it. Being compassionate with others that might not understand how important the work really is. Can help you feel not quite as attacked when those well-meaning, but probing questions and comments, start to roll in.
And last, but not least be compassionate with yourself. Missing out on a long awaited and often expensive trip or travel opportunity, it can be hugely upsetting for me. I start to feel really guilty about not finishing things earlier about having to take time away from the people who I've traveled so far to see people who care about me and that I'm not having this like idyllic holiday season.
Where I'm really making the most of every summer minute, or even sometimes I can feel guilty about not resting enough.
Having to work during the summer break or any other break doesn't necessarily mean that one high priority is higher than the other. It just means that you have a full, complex life with values and roles that sometimes overlap. We all wish that we could take perfect summer breaks and be there for every minute of all of our exciting trips and time together with our families and loved ones, but finding a way to fit the work into the whole picture of our lives.
And try new things out to support ourselves can be a gift. All on its own. And if you're looking for a little bit of structure, I really do encourage you to join us in summer camp. We're about halfway through, but you can still sign up. We are taking new members all the way through the end of August. Don't forget to use the word podcast for 10% off. Thanks so much. And I will 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!
2.11 - don't fall into the traps! - summer planning strategies
what's like new year's eve, but even MORE if you're a scholar? the first day of summer - or any time when you're released from other jobs and "get to" focus on your writing!
however, summer can be a trap! and if aren't careful, you can end the summer even more exhausted than when you started - so listen in for my top three strategies for planning a summer that gets stuff done, but not at the expense of your health and well being.
plus find out about my new summer camp - and don't forget to use the code PODCAST for 10% off!
resources:
PS! if you are user "DakotaPlains" you won a free session with me! email at hello@thrive-phd.com to claim your free session!!
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Nothing says summer, like great weather, endless blue skies and a completely unreasonable plan for how much work you'll get done to catch up and start the school year off right. Join me for some tips on summer planning on this week's episode of
📍 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 two, I'll introduce you to various tools that might make the hard stuff from writing to managing your time to taking care of your brain just a little bit easier.
And if you like what you hear on this podcast, you're going to love what I have cooked up for you in summer camp. More details in the show notes. Now let's get into it.
If you're listening to this podcast, it's probably because you are having some sort of a schedule change in the next couple of weeks. For American and Canadian academics specifically. Although I'm sure that our colleagues around the globe and in various different hemispheres also have a similar situation.
The academic winter term is ending. The seniors are graduating, the campuses are emptying out. You can finally park again. And for most academics, that means that the drumbeat has started. Time to catch up on your writing. Time to catch up on your work. Time to get done. All of the things that you said you were going to do over the school year, and really didn't get a chance to.
So this week, I'm here to share a couple of my top tips for summer planning in the hopes that you won't make the mistakes that I did. And you'll set yourself up for a summer where you not only emerge having done the most important things that you wanted to do.
But you also arrive in September, not burned out, having pushed all summer with no thought about recovery. So let's get into it.
If there's one thing to academics, that's even more seductive than new year's energy. That belief that starting on January 1st, we're going to be a whole new person. It's the idea, belief, traditional system, near religion that almost all academics at some point have subscribed to. That as soon as the semester ends, as soon as the term is done.
You're going to be a whole new person. You're going to write in the morning, you're going to meal prep. You're going to get on top of your reading. You're going to finish all of those journal article drafts that have been languishing. Just everything about you is going to change. And what was hard will be easy again.
Now I have seen that happen. And psychologically speaking, we do know that anytime that you have a big schedule change, For example, like teaching full time during the semester, and then suddenly not teaching once the term ends.
Anytime that you have a big schedule change like that the conditions are ripe for some behavior modifications. It makes sense, right? If your schedule changes, then it means that you have new time cues during the day, perhaps new body cues, maybe new family routines, or rhythms that are going to help you support changes.
When one thing changes, it's easier to change other things too. But I am here to caution you as someone who has gone into many as summer believing that I would be radically different person. The instant that I walked out of class that last day before grades were due. I do have to counsel you that, unless you're really intentional about it, I've seen one or two things happen over the course of the summer.
Option one, that's pretty common and I'm here to normalize it in case it's ever happened to you is: you submit your final grades, yours schedule changes, and you take a well-deserved break. Maybe it lasts for a week, maybe it lasts for a little bit longer. You catch up with all of those friends, you take that family trip and I'm not here to knock any of that.
But very quickly, one week off, it turns into two and then the avoidance monster shows up. . And it starts to feel a little bit harder every day that goes by to get back into those routines and let's face it summer isn't going to throw you back into those routines. There will be places to go and pools to swim in, I hope! I'm an ex lifeguard, so I love pools.
Summer, isn't going to send you an engraved invitation that says, Hey, wouldn't it be great if you got back to your dissertation right now, it's just not in the nature of the season. If you come back, you're going to have to plan for it. So that's option one. Time drifts. And then all of the sudden it's maybe mid July or maybe even mid August, and you're really crunching to get everything done, including prep for the next semester.
Option two are people who hit the ground, running the instant that their final grades are in. They start their new schedule, their new exercise program. They have a rhythm for how, and when they check in with their friends, every moment is scheduled.
And they push, push, push. And in the beginning it feels amazing. Like those first couple of days of January where your resolutions feel really good and really supportive and you're like, yeah, I'm doing this.
What I see happening with these friends though in the option two category is that they push it a little bit hard, a little bit fast, and they ignore the fact that the school year is long.
That they are tired and they need a little bit of time to refresh and recharge and that just replacing one type of work, all consuming, overwhelming for another. Isn't going to get them that kind of sense of accomplishment and rest that they really need. Yeah, it does feel good to get that article draft submitted to get that syllabus done, to get back on top of your email or your reading list.
But all of those things in and of themselves, aren't going to make you any more rested or any less burned out. They're just going to mean that there are new things on your to-do list. Because if there's one academic truth that I know to be true, it's that doing things begets more things to do.
So whether or not you fallen into category a or category B in the past. Or maybe. A unique category. All of your own, here are my top three tips for planning a summer that's going to allow you to be flexible, to be spontaneous, but also give you enough structure so that you're not overwhelmed by all of the things that you could do.
Number one is to book your fun, your recovery, all of your human things in first. Most of us are drawn to this profession because in some way or another we're happier, we get a little bit more done. We enjoy the structure and the routine of the school year.
And while it can feel good initially to completely throw all of that routine and structure to the wind, eventually a little bit of structure can go a long way into making sure that you're the most supported, effective person that you can be. So why not build that structure in with things that are going to help you recharge recover, or maybe even dare? I say it have a little fun this summer.
Maybe you sign up for a yoga class that is a little bit earlier than you might want to, but it gets you out of the house two days a week and you then get to stay at your favorite library afterwards to work a little bit on your dissertation. Win-win it's a structure and it's a movement and it gets you out into the sunshine. We love to see it.
Maybe you set up time to visit your family and take that long lost vacation that you've been talking about. Maybe you set up a schedule where you don't work on Fridays, where you take every Monday off this summer. Work will expand to fit the container that you give it. And so the first step in summer planning that I've seen be really effective is to limit the container of time available for work. If you wait until the perfect moment presents itself, to go on that vacation, to go camping, to do any of your other COVID safe, public health friendly activities this summer, it's never really going to present itself.
There's always going to be something more that you could be doing. So book those things in first and let the rest of it settle in around those blocks of fun and care.
My tool number two is actually to break the summer down into smaller, more comprehensible parts. I'm a big fan of splitting it into two weeks sprints. And I'll tell you a little bit more about that at the end of this podcast, but splitting the summer up into chunks, whether that is an initial phase of recovery after a really tough term, it could be two weeks where every two weeks you focus on a different section of the chapter that's due.
Or maybe you structure it around something like Wendy, Belcher's how to write a journal article book. There's thousands of ways to structure it, but breaking it down so that it's not just summer one giant monolith can really help you because a, it means that you have smaller chunks to plan for. And planning is always more effective and more accurate the smaller the chunk and the closer we are in time to it, just by nature of the unpredictability of life. So go ahead and break it down. This also has the added benefit of giving you a lot of different chances to restart. Say you have one, two weeks sprint this summer that doesn't really work out as planned.
Okay. You've still got a bunch more that you can try, but if you don't really break that summer plan down into different pieces, it's really hard to find that natural reset and evaluation point because it's not built in. You're going to have to wait until there's some sort of anxiety manifested crisis, like a late deadline or a meeting that you didn't expect to force that evaluation.
Better the evaluation, you know about and can do willingly, then the stuff that comes at the bottom of the oh man. I'm so behind valley.
And the third tool that I'm going to suggest is having a tiered system for your goals. It is really easy to say that you're going to do everything this summer and maybe you personally will get everything done this summer. In that case, I applaud you. I'm excited for you. Please tell us all how you did it.
But most of us will anxiety dump a huge long list of things that we even under the best of conditions don't have time and energy to do. At least not in the sport. At least not in the space of that ever shortening time between terms so. Rank that list, maybe it's most important to you that you get this dissertation chapter done so that you can apply for fellowships in the fall.
Second tier of importance is getting a syllabus. Prepped and third tier is starting to work on that collaboration that isn't really doing until the end of the year. Meaning December, but could be helpful if you get a jumpstart on it this summer. It's not that all of those things aren't important. They are. It's just that if you are finding yourself in the middle of a summer push and you know that you've only got two hours, it's going to be so much more beneficial for you to work on the top tier goals. Than it is to sort of spend the first couple of weeks, maybe even months. Either straight up avoiding your work or working on all of the things that are great, but they're ultimately nice to haves. They're not going to be those real powerhouses that make a difference and move you forward in a tangible way.
As I mentioned up top, these tips are coming from my multiple summers of experience where I have really great intentions and it just don't have the structure to support me in making all of those dreams come true. At least not at the expense of my own rest and recovery, that almost all of us need after long draining academic years.
If any of this sounds good to you. I invite you to click the link in the show notes and check out summer camp because summer camp is built on these three and a couple more of my key summer tenets.. There's two weeks sprints so that you can sign up for the weeks that you're going to be working and not feel like you have to pay for the weeks that you aren't.
There's sprint planning and check-in and evaluation courses that you can do on your own time to help you get clear about your goals, small groups, that we're calling cabins, that you can meet friends, hang out with and all of the fun and silliness, that's tied to the theme, which changes every camp session. I would love to have you there. So please use the code podcast for 10% off. You can book a four pack of sessions and get one free. Maybe you book for the whole summer and get two free or just sign up week by week as you feel like you need it.
I'm offering summer camp on a sliding scale, and you can learn all about it at the link in the show notes. Don't forget to use the code podcast for 10% off. Thank you so much. And I can't wait to see you next week. Bye.
📍 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!