Leigh’s Five Things to Listen, Watch, Read, Sign Up to and Do (July)
The good weather has finally arrived (for most of us and sometimes!) and again, for most, the academic year is starting to ease down into the summer non-teaching period. There will be postgrads to supervise and induction planning to do – and you may have a third teaching term, but generally we are heading for the period where we can step back and congratulate ourselves on getting through another academic year – one that has been hugely tricky in many ways.
It’s also that time where friends, who should know better, suggest that we’re all off for the summer! Every year for the past three decades someone in June has said ‘well your year’s done now, isn’t it? It’s pretty tiresome, because they’ve been told and thus should know better, but mainly because it underplays the sense of panic that people working in HE get in July. No, we don’t have the summer off. Most academics have to get the bulk of their research work done in the next three months, professional service colleagues are tidying up the end of the academic year, whilst simultaneously getting ready for the next one….and everyone is wondering if anything can get done given the amount of leave everyone has owing.
So this month’s LWRSUD considers how we might deal with that sense of panic and get everything done….or not.
Listen: How to manage your time more effectively (according to machines). Brian Christian TedTalks
This is a bit different! This short (4 mins) presentation discusses computer science scheduling and how it might help us to manage our time. One of the most striking things is an early point setting out that the time we spend prioritising our work is time we aren’t spending doing our work. And machines procrastinate! I’m feeling better already.
Watch: How to stop procrastinating mindtools.com
Apparently, 95% of us procrastinate (inc machines). Shout out to the 5% that don’t – that really is a superpower! This is a bit of a watch and a read, but it’s got a number of really good tips. They’re things we all know, but it helps to have a reminder of how we carefully plan to procrastinate. At the very least, it’s worth a read so you can delay starting the other work you need to do.
Read: HBR Guide to Managing Up and Across (Harvard Business Review)
So much of what we do on a daily basis requires us to get people to do things for us. But how do you do that when you lack formal authority? Or when you have a boss who gets in your way? Or when you’re juggling others’ needs at the expense of your own? It’s not enough to rely on hierarchical power within organisations as not many of us have it and this e-book focuses on how to manage up, down and sideways across an organisation….with a useful section on navigating office politics.
Sign up to: Secret Escapes holiday listings.
Other travel companies are available, but the weekly email I get from Secret Escapes reminds me that there is a world out there that isn’t about work….and it’s lovely. I rarely book a holiday as a result of the email, but I’m happy each week to be offered the opportunity to do so (see below!!). And when I’ve had enough, I’ll just unsubscribe.
Do: Take your leave
A break from work is essential for wellbeing, reconnecting with friends and family and just generally recovering from work. It’s not heroic not to take your leave and you should take all that you are offered. It’s best to spread it out through the year so that you have regular breaks – but also so that you have some summer left to do all of the things that you feel you need to before the next academic year! Just book it and then you won’t keep scheduling things into the summer.
Yours as ever
Leigh
Leigh Robinson is PVC (Student Outcomes) and the University of Roehampton and a Women-Space Associate. She is our regular, and wonderful, writer of 5 LWRSUDs as well as being one of our Boudicca agony aunts.