Academic Summer: Making Progress on Your Research and Writing While Still Having Fun
Jacqueline Caemmerer, University of Connecticut
Crystal Taylor, Appalachian State University
The academic summer is an amazing gift. Most faculty have more time available, as they likely have lower teaching and service demands than in the fall and spring semesters. The promise of this increase in unstructured time can feel a bit daunting. Faculty may feel pressure to make up for a decrease in their research productivity that may have occurred during the academic year. The academic summer is not necessarily a time of unlimited productivity, though. We tend to overestimate what we can do during the summer, because not all of our typical job responsibilities disappear. We are still likely supervising graduate students; we may have summer grant deadlines; we may be recovering mentally and emotionally from the academic year; and we may be addressing areas of our lives that we paid less attention to during it. For parents, a decrease in childcare availability can also be a barrier to productivity at work.
With all the unstructured time in the summer, setting goals and creating a plan can be especially helpful to realize what you were hoping to achieve while also making time for a much-needed break. While we are not claiming to be experts on this as we’re still trying to figure out how to do this ourselves, we wanted to share good advice we have learned from mentors, past ECF blog posts, and lessons imparted in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity curriculum (check if your institution is a member of NCFDD for access to resources or use start-up funds to access this amazing experience). Many of these techniques can be useful throughout the year, not just during the summer, but we approach this blog through a summer lens.
Tip #1. Create a realistic, achievable plan for the summer weeks.
First, set SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. We encourage you to prioritize your goals. Select your top 1 or 2 research/scholarly goals that require a lot of time, effort, and focus. Select another 1 or 2 goals that require less effort or time and involve maintenance-type work, such as revising papers and collaborating on research projects where your role is more secondary or supportive.
Bonus Tip: Consider expectations. Is the goal to make progress or complete the task? What does making progress look like? For example, is your goal to move a paper from an idea to an outline or to revise a paper? Maybe your goal is to clean data, but you will analyze those data in the fall when colleagues return. When expectations are clear, your goal becomes more attainable.
After you have identified your top-priority goals, break each goal down into the small steps required to meet it.
Map your goals onto your summer calendar. You might find it helpful to backward plan. Identify the goal completion date, then work backward to determine when you will complete each step required to reach the goal.
For collaborative projects, connect with your colleagues and collaboratively decide on completion dates for tasks that account for each person’s summer goals and plans. You may need to adjust your timeline to match your colleagues’ summer travel plans, their priorities, etc.
Tip #2. Align professional goals with personal goals.
When mapping your goals to your calendar, don’t forget to include vacation time, and, for parents, consider weeks when you have more or less childcare. Update your calendar to reflect all your summer non-negotiable time commitments, such as research and grant meetings, summer classes you are teaching, and personal commitments like vacations, time with family, hobbies, and exercise.
To align your goals with your calendar, you will need to estimate the amount of time required to complete each task. Be realistic about these estimations. We have found we tend to underestimate how long tasks will take, and some guidance suggests doubling your estimates.
Bonus Tip: Dedicate a few days at the beginning of summer to monitoring your time. Write down your whole routine as you go with timestamps. 7:00 am wake up; 7:05 brush teeth; 7:10 get dressed; 7:15 workout … etc. This will allow you a realistic idea of how long tasks take.
Color code your calendar if you wish. You can assign colors to categories such as research/writing, teaching and/or advising, service, etc. The color-coding allows you to easily evaluate how you spend your time each week and how it aligns with your priorities.
Bonus Tip: If you use Google Calendar, take a peek at your time insights; if you color-code your work, it will break down how much time you spend with each category.
Tip #3. Schedule writing as if it were a meeting you cannot cancel.
Block out writing time in your calendar. Identify the time of day that you feel is your most productive writing time and schedule that time as a writing block. Many sources recommend daily writing time, even for small blocks such as 30 minutes a day. Some people, however, prefer large blocks of time referred to as writing hunkers.
Limit distractions during your writing time, and experiment with different techniques to increase your productivity while developing strategies to minimize distractions.
If email is a major distraction, make yourself a rule that you must write for “10” minutes, or write “2” pages, or write “100” words before you can check email. Or select days to put an out-of-office message on and work on tasks that are important to you instead of checking email.
If procrastination or fatigue is hard, try the Pomodoro Technique. Set a timer for 25 minutes (or longer if you prefer) and work solely on that task during that time. At the end of the timer, take a short break and then repeat.
Build support and accountability into your writing time. Join writing groups or identify accountability partners. These can be in person or virtual and can involve spending time writing together, sharing goals, and providing updates on your progress. Shameless plug: the SSSP-ECF hosts monthly writing retreats; join us!
Tip #4. Mid-summer check-in.
Now that you have a solid productivity plan, it is time to get to work. We encourage you to pause midway through the summer to monitor your own progress. Determine what is working, what needs to change, and update your calendar and priorities.
Be kind to yourself, just as we would tell a special education teacher monitoring a student’s goal: a little progress is still progress. Maybe you need to request an extension on that R&R; that is okay, most editors are flexible. Perhaps your goals were too lofty; consider the progress you’ve made and set realistic goals moving forward.
Tip #5. Preventing burnout and setting boundaries. Give yourself a 90s summer!
During your “off” days, plan activities that fill your cup. Summertime is supposed to be rejuvenating, and we are lucky to have this time free. Say yes to the trip. Go to lunch with friends. Sleep in. Start a new hobby. Do what makes you happy.
For those of us on 9-month contracts, teaching and service responsibilities are typically expected to end when the contract ends, though in practice that boundary can sometimes be less clear. We recognize that not everyone is in a position to decline additional service requests, but when possible, especially early in your career, it can be helpful to be selective about taking on commitments that fall outside your contract period. As best you can, prioritize activities that support your research productivity or other professional goals.
Tip #6. Reentry Planning for Fall
As the summer winds down, begin to transition into fall semester mode. Consider your fall teaching load and how much time you need to prep your classes–recall the tip from above; you may need to double your time estimates. Prioritize finalizing syllabi and organizing course materials during the remaining weeks of summer in August.
If this is your 1st semester teaching, you moved to a new institution, or you are prepping classes you’ve never taught before, allocate more time in August to course prep activities.
Early August may be a good time for an end-of-summer check-in. Revisit the goals you set at the beginning of the summer. How much progress did you make on each goal? Readjust timelines as needed for the remaining summer weeks.
Finally, start the planning and goal-setting process for the fall semester and begin again with tip #1 and work through the other steps. Make a plan for your writing and research productivity in the fall that accounts for the additional time demands of increased teaching and service activities. Reflect on the personal goals you hoped to achieve over the summer and determine how those best fit within the fall semester.
See our previous ECF posts related to summer specifically:
https://www.sssp-research.org/summertime-and-the-workin-is-easy-the-five-ps-of-a-productive-summer/
https://www.sssp-research.org/how-do-you-prepare-for-the-new-academic-year/
See our previous ECF posts related to scholarly productivity specifically:
