How Can You Progress Towards Better Work-Life Balance?

April 14, 2014

Last month, we turned our attention to work-life balance and posed several questions for scholars to consider. This month, we highlight some strategies that may be effective for you, as you progress towards better work-life balance.Set BoundariesSetting clear boundaries about one’s time and attention may alleviate the sense that one’s professional activities are all-encompassing since there always seems to be something on which we could be working. In our own experience, colleagues have reported or demonstrated a number of strategies for establishing boundaries such as:·       checking emails only at designated intervals or times;·       developing an email communication policy;·       protecting specific personal/family times (e.g., family dinner, daughter’s volleyball games, yoga class) when scheduling meetings or classes;·       maintaining a “traditional” work schedule to ensure time with non-academic partners;·       scheduling non-negotiable writing time;·       maintaining rigid office hours;·       scheduling work time around child-care activities;·       delaying responses to requests for new projects or service activities at least 24 hours to allow careful deliberation (e.g., allowing oneself to say no); and·       working behind closed doors or from home to minimize potential interruptions and maximize on-task time.Such boundaries are dynamic and may shift as professional and personal priorities change.Sometimes, it is helpful to communicate these boundaries to colleagues and students (e.g., developing an electronic communication policy for inclusion in syllabi). This may shape their expectations about how they use your time and reduce ongoing confrontations or intrusions. At the same time, it is important to remember that people do not need to know what you are doing at all times or why you are not available; often it is fine to simply say, “Sorry, I am not available then” (Jones, 2011). The goal is to develop some autonomy over one’s work life. This sense of control over one’s schedule has been shown to be the strongest predictor of work-life balance (Berry, 2010).Work SmarterFor many faculty, having the feeling that there isn’t enough time to accomplish everything that must be done may be one of the greatest hindrances to a sense of balance or satisfaction. Competing and seemingly endless demands make time management and efforts to increase organization and productivity critical to success. Faculty can assess ways they can be more productive by documenting and reviewing their work tasks, monitoring time on-task and progress toward goals, and eliminating time spent on tasks that do not align with goals (e.g., web surfing, spending hours a day on emails). Others suggest making daily or weekly lists of action items organized by type of work (e.g., reading, writing, class, emails, calls, errands), rather than on relying on to-do lists of general tasks (Cavendar, 2010). At the same time, creating—and reviewing regularly—lists of short and long-term goals can be important to keeping track of the bigger picture.Some early career scholars have reported tracking and charting time spent writing, words or pages written per day, and other key behaviors. A simple web search for “productivity tools” or “time management tools” yields numerous free applications that can be used to self-monitor. Amanda likes the free app for computers and mobile devices from Rescue Time because it does all the monitoring for her, allows for categorization of specific applications and websites, permits goal setting, and automatically generates reports on productivity. Mac users like Bryn may enjoy apps such as Concentrate or Anti-Social. Such resources can be used to determine how you actually use your time and where potential inefficiencies lie so that you can address them. Rob uses a digital chess timer to keep track of on-task and off-task time, but only uses it when starting new tasks, which is particularly challenging for most of us. He has also used a repeating alarm on his digital watch as a self-monitoring strategy. Setting a repeating alarm (it just beeps for a second and then starts counting again) is a useful way avoid getting too far off-task. Faculty members should share resources on these topics and provide support to each other in an effort to improve work-life balance within the professional community.ConclusionsReflecting upon one’s work-life balance is the first step in improving areas in need of change. Faculty members may choose to focus on improving one aspect of their situation at a time, or to increase the positive aspects of their job to increase their sense of satisfaction. It is important to note that this process is not simple or quick. As such, it evolves and continues throughout one’s career. However, faculty members are better teachers, researchers, and administrators when perceptions of work-life balance are positive.What strategies do you use to improve work-life balance?Have these strategies changed over time?Also, stay tuned for the next blog post focusing on self-care, another important aspect of work-life balance.ReferencesBerry, E. (2010). Achieving work-life balance: More than just a juggling act. American Medical News. Retrieved from http://ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/01/04/bisa0104.htmCavendar, A. (2010, February 5). The balancing act. Chronicle of Higher Education.Jones, J. B. (2011, May 27). Expecting balance. Chronicle of Higher Education.

What is Work-Life Balance in Academia?

March 17, 2014

Being a scholar in school psychology is a rewarding career that offers opportunities for, collaboration and lifetime learning. This path also offers a degree of flexibility not found in many other fields. The flexibility of the profession requires having to carefully regulate motivation and work ethic and practice effective time management. In the absence of a fixed schedule, it is essential to define manageable boundaries between professional activities and personal relationships. Academics commonly work long hours, including nights and weekends, but want separation between their work and personal lives (Kinman & Jones, 2008).As professionals, we all strive for work-life balance, or perhaps more accurately, some sense mutual fulfillment or overall contentment across our professional and personal lives. Here, we conceptualize balance as an alignment between the use of time and personal and professional goals and priorities—not necessarily equal distribution of time between professional and personal activities, but rather general satisfaction with one’s life (Berry, 2010). For early career scholars, this issue can be particularly salient when grappling with expectations for tenure, such as the perception that we must “publish or perish.” In school psychology, junior faculty also juggle teaching, supervision, service, and practice responsibilities.These pressures can be exacerbated by the concern that they should work all the time and constantly do more (Solomon, 2011), making it difficult to rationalize and create time away from professional activities. Not surprisingly, early career faculty are especially at risk of burnout. Given these constraints, many scholars will find it beneficial to engage in purposeful activities to foster well-being and satisfactory sense of balance in one’s professional and personal lives. Research suggests that the happiest faculty are those who have a sense of control over their work and schedules and have support within their institutions (Kinman & Jones, 2008). With this in mind, we begin our discussion of potential strategies to assist scholars at all career stages in improving work-life balance with reflection.Engage in Self-ReflectionBefore you start crafting your desired professional arrangements, it is necessary to identify what you want. Ongoing self-reflection is essential to self-care and one’s sense of balance. Berry (2010) emphasized the importance of regularly assessing one’s values and priorities to identify professional and personal goals and to guide decisions about responsibilities, activities, and time management. This may occur at annual, semesterly, monthly, or even weekly intervals. Schultheiss (2006) provided a series of questions we can periodically consider and discuss with mentors or peers when assessing our professional roles. She recommended recording and reviewing one’s responses to the following questions at regular intervals:

• What does workmean to you? (Note: Faculty may consider research, teaching, service, and practice separately.)
• What roles does workplay in your life?
• What supports and barriers are in place that influence your professional activities? What supports are currently missing, but may be possible?
• What implicit messages might there be about gender, race/ethnicity and privilege within professional and family relationships? How do these shape your professional activities?
• Do you connect with colleagues and share common interests, values, and goals?
• Do you have a sense of alienation and isolation at work?

To this list we add some questions you might ask yourself to determine facets in your personal life that might deserve some attention:

• What do I find fulfilling about my work?
• What aspects of my work do I find least rewarding? Why?
• How much time and attention to the fulfilling aspects require v. the unfulfilling aspects?
• Why do I want to be an academic? How does this vision align with the three items above?
• How does work creep into my personal life?
• What interests do I have outside of work? Do I have a hard time having conversations that don’t relate to my work?
• How do I make time for things outside of work that interest me (hobbies, activities with friends, personal relationships)?
• Are there facets of my life where I feel unfulfilled?
• How do I regularly take care of myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually?

Take time to reflect on each of these questions. What do they tell you about yourself and where you are professionally? The questions can be used to identify needed changes in thoughts and behavior to foster greater professional satisfaction. Avoid absolutist or perfectionistic thinking and instead think about your feelings, goals, priorities, and needs. Think instead about adopting an orientation of continuous improvement in both the personal and professional spheres. In next month’s installment of the Early Career Forum, we will explore strategies for fostering a satisfying sense of balance.An earlier version of this column appeared in the April 2013 issueof APA Division 16’s The School Psychologist.ReferencesBerry, E. (2010). Achieving work-life balance: More than just a juggling act. American Medical News. Retrieved from http://ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/01/04/bisa0104.htmKinman, G., & Jones, F. (2008). A life beyond work: Job demands, work-life balances, and wellbeing in UK academics. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 17, 41-60.Schultheiss, D. (2006). The interface of work and family life. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 37, 334-341.

Follow Up to the ECF Sessions at the 2014 NASP Conference

February 26, 2014

The Early Career Forum had a productive week at the NASP Convention. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the ECF session and to all the participants who attended the sessions. Interested individuals can access handouts and information on the presenters each of our sessions below.Our first activity of the conference was the panel, Dollars and Sense: Advice for Early Career Scholars on Grantsmanship, featured four distinguished speakers: Edith Arrington, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Connections; Jacquelyn Buckley, Institute of Education Sciences; James Griffin, National Institutes of Health; and  Jessica Hoffman, Northeastern University. The panelists provided guidance on current federal and foundation funding opportunities, and strategies for navigating the funding process and developing compelling proposals.Next, Rob Volpe, Amy Briesch, Julia Ogg, and Maria Rogers led a conversation hour, Developing and Sustaining Research Collaborations. Participants engaged in an informal discussion surrounding how to foster productive research partnerships with peers and students.The session, Academic Motherhood: Perspectives from Early Mid and Senior Career Faculty, was a resounding success. Panelists Bryn Harris, University of Colorado Denver; Jessica Hoffman, Northeastern University; Shannon Suldo, PhD, University of South Florida; Beth Doll, University of Nebraska Lincoln discussed strategies for navigating the tenure clock, increasing research productivity, teaching strategies, negotiating parental leave, and forming supportive systems while parenting.In the symposium, Straight Talk about Faculty Careers: Preparing for the Role,Bryn Harris, University of Colorado Denver; Amanda L. Sullivan, University of Minnesota; Janine Jones, University of Washington; Jamie Zibulsky, Fairleigh Dickinson University, discussed the variety of career opportunities available to prospective faculty in school psychology, the common roles and expectations of faculty in different types of institutions, and strategies in which graduate students and practitioners can engage to prepare themselves for this career track.In the final offering of this conference, Making Mentoring Work for You: Advising and Collaborating with Students, ECF Committeemembers Amanda Sullivan and Rob Volpe, with Amy Briesch provided an overview of various faculty roles in mentoring and advising, tools for facilitating positive mentoring relationships with students, and strategies for initiating and maintaining productive rewarding individual and group mentoring relationships. Rob also discussed how to develop a research team, complete with a team website for recruiting and dissemination.We think these sessions were successful, but we’d love to hear from participants. What worked? What didn’t? What topics would you like us to address in the future? Please let us know!

Making the Most of Professional Conferences: More than Presentations

January 27, 2014

Many early career scholars attend conferences to present their research and learn about the work of others, but there is much more to conferences than just research. With the NASP convention fast approaching, scholars should plan to take advantage of the numerous networking and professional development opportunities offered. In particular, these conferences provide distinct occasions to network with individuals from throughout the nation around topics related to one’s professional interests and goals. Early career scholars should keep in mind the value of breakfasts, business meetings, social hours, receptions, and other social events as opportunities to meet scholars and clinicians whose interests overlap with their own. In addition, do not underestimate the value of the informal networking that occurs in hotel lobbies, lounges, and restaurants. Sometimes the best experiences can happen when you are just hanging out.Attending conferences is a valuable chance to meet people, so early career scholars should take the time to get to know other scholars, be it introducing oneself to respected researchers, potential mentors, prospective collaborators, or future colleagues. Conferences are also a great place to become acquainted with people with whom you might later interact with when applying for internships, post-docs, or faculty and clinical positions. You can prepare for these interactions by planning your “elevator speech” to quickly (approximately 1 minute) summarize your training and interests to others. It is useful to think ahead about how you want to present yourself to others in the field, even though you may tailor it for specific individuals.For more introverted individuals, this can be challenging, so it may be helpful to set goals to encourage mingling (e.g., 1. Introduce myself to Dr. Smith, 2. Talk to three interventionists, 3. Attend the SSSP Early Career Forum events, etc.). The key is to be as intentional about networking as you are in selecting sessions to improve your knowledge or skills in a particular substantive area of research or practice.Conferences also often provide opportunities for very targeted professional development relevant to early career scholars. At some professional meetings, these include methods or statistics workshops from brief workshops to multiday intensive trainings focusing on the development of technical skills, typically at reasonable costs. Professional conferences also offer diverse career development opportunities relevant to pursuing academic positions in school psychology and related fields, such as conversation hours and speed mentoring. We at the Early Career Forum are busy preparing such events for school psychology scholars attending NASP and APA.For graduate students and other prospective faculty, conferences can provide valuable opportunities to learn more about faculty roles and the nuances of engaging in the various stages and responsibilities of academic positions. Make time to talk to current faculty (most people are happy to meet up for coffee) or attend relevant sessions.So now that NASP is just a few weeks away, take some time to think about all of the non-presentation related activities you’ll be doing at NASP. What’s on your list?An earlier version of this blog appeared in the July 2013 issue of APA Division 16’s The School Psychologist.

Being Efficient in Course Preparation

October 14, 2013

By Bryn HarrisAs an early career scholar or as a seasoned instructor, course preparation can be a challenging task. Much of this challenge comes from the fact that course preparation never feels “done.” There are always more articles to read, grading rubrics to expand, or modifications to make based on continuous feedback. In the absence of a clear plan, time spent in course prep can overcrowd other important activities. Below are some recommendations for making course preparation manageable, and protecting time for other tasks that important to your success:·      Schedule it! Time management may be my answer to a lot of things, and this is one of them. Allocating specific time from our schedule to course preparation makes us more purposeful in our preparation and thus, more efficient. Some people use kitchen timers or an alarm on a cell phone for a physical and auditory reminder. You might also consider limiting course preparation to certain blocks of time or days of the week.·      Make revisions right away! Take notes during or immediately after class on the things that went well and things that need to be improved. In addition, I like to make notes of all the activities I do, how long certain activities took, and feedback from students within these notes. Make course revisions as quickly as possible, immediately after class being the best time.·      Use technology! While it can take some time to learn new technologies, judicious use of them can improve efficiency. For example, you may consider creating a short video on a tablet about a question that is asked a lot so students can refer to it on their own time. Or you may consider using Google Drive or Dropbox to save course material so it can be accessed anywhere at any time. Lastly, you may want to check out such resources such as Evernote (www.evernote.com), Explain Everything, (www.explaineverything.com) or Google Apps (http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/education/) to find a plethora of ways to facilitate simple technology integration and other solutions to your course needs. If you plan on using a novel application as part of an in-class activity, make sure you test it out in the classroom before class. It working on your home computer does not guarantee it will work with the projector and wireless in your classroom.·      Take advantage of university resources! Most colleges and universities have faculty development centers or teaching resources. While there are days it can seem difficult to take an hour to attend a presentation, these trainings can be highly valuable. In addition, faculty members should learn about the other campus resources that may be beneficial such as the Writing Center, Office of Disability Services, and the Academic Advising services. There are other professionals on campus that can assist students, so use them! Lastly, faculty members should consider collaborating with the campus library. Librarians can inform you of new books and articles related to your course and resources for students.·      Ask for help! New faculty members often report feeling overwhelmed by course preparation tasks their first, second, and sometimes 5th semester of teaching. It is very common to feel this way. I have found that once I have taught the same course 4-5 times I start to feel more confident in my teaching, course activities, and assignments. Preparing for a course for the first time is incredibly draining and can easily take precedence over other required tasks because you have to be ready to teach each week. Course preparation does get better over time! Experienced faculty members can provide support and mentorship to new faculty members by sharing or reviewing syllabi, observing classes, and meeting with the faculty member to review lesson plans and course feedback.Other tips:·      Teach early in the week if you can- it forces you to be efficient, and leaves the rest of the week for other tasks.·      Take notes- use Adobe to highlight and make notes on the important features in your reading. This improves your efficiency in reading them on subsequent occasions. The same can be done with texts if you use the kindle/iBook version.·      Use the notes feature in PowerPoint to remind you what you were thinking when you made the slide a year ago. Be kind to your future self! Charts are a good place to use this strategy. Bullet the important points you want to make. You can make notes on anecdotes or examples so you don't have to reinvent them each year. You can come up with new ones of course, but having the old ones helps you improve them each time.How are you efficient in course preparation? Please share your tips with us!

How do You Prepare for the New Academic Year?

August 22, 2013

By Bryn Harris

With the new academic year upon us, we share our strategies for preparing for the fall semester.RobBeing a university professor has to be one of the greatest jobs in the world. It is hard to imagine a career that would match it in terms of flexibility with regard to topics of study and scheduling. With the exception of service obligations and teaching, you really do make your own hours. Indeed, to a large extent you can choose how much time you allocate to the big three areas of effort: research, teaching and service. For many of us, this is a tremendous asset, but it can also lead to stress and undermine our success when we do not set clear priorities and devise mechanisms to structure our time. The parameters of this blog will not allow me to go into any significant detail initially on this topic, but let me hit on some important themes here and we can follow-up with discussion or perhaps another thread. Two notions guide my advice for beginning of the semester planning:1.     Because we have so much control over how we allocate our time an important skill to develop as a university professor is regulating our motivation. This involves forethought and planning.2.     Often, the frequency and proximity of the feedback we receive about our work is high and closer respectively for teaching and service than it is for research. For many of us it is important to supplement feedback on our progress in research by goal setting and keeping track of our progress.I believe it is important to take a significant amount of time off in the summer. For me personally, I need the time to think about other things, to reenergize and to pursue other interests. For me, getting geared up for the new academic year is all about planning and preparing to get started on the right foot and to keep my motivation high for those things that are most important to me. The key things I do to keep motivation high are to positively frame my work, to set short and long-term goals, to plan how much time I will allocate to achieving these goals (protecting time), and to pick two or three things that will take priority over all other tasks. Planning is so important at this time of the year, because when the semester gets rolling, it is easy to become overwhelmed and to get into what I call “survival mode.” Survival mode is when you are reacting instead of acting- like riding in a rollercoaster as opposed to driving a car. It is not fun. Planning ahead and setting clear priorities will help you make the most of your time when you get into those situations. Right now I am planning studies and writing projects I will complete over the fall semester (detailed plans) and spring semester (less detailed plans). Though in past years, I have instead allocated time for reading about a new area of interest to get to that point where I can design and write-up those studies.A key motivation killer is getting overwhelmed. For me, writing down the things I need to do helps me keep from getting to that point. Well, that is one part of it. Sometimes that list can be intimidating itself, but when you plan when you will do each task in your calendar or whiteboard, it has the magical effect of making it much less so. We have so many little tasks to do to get ready for the new semester (updating syllabi, setting up blackboard/WebCT sites, finishing up tasks that were supposed to be done over the summer…) that we can easily fill up our days and feel like we have not accomplished much at all. Also, a lot of valuable time can be spent spinning our wheels because we don’t know what to do next. This is especially true when we finish a big task. When you have a well thought out calendar, it is possible to reward productivity on difficult tasks with something else that we might think of as more fun. I like to schedule more fun kinds of tasks later in the day. Like writing this post for example. I worked on a grant budget this morning (not that much fun for me), and I am now doing something much more fun (the good old Premack Principle works for us all). It is quite possible that I will go for a sail when I am done writing this because I finished my tasks for the day—it is still summer after all.

BrynThe beginning of the academic year is exciting yet also anxiety provoking. The summer always seems too short, and my ideas for preparing for the academic year far in advance are never realized. However, in the past five years, I have learned a few strategies that help start the academic year positively and efficiently.1)   Time Management – This is the concept that seems to be the most important to my productivity. Of course, it is also critical to consider when preparing for the new year. Now that I have an 11-month-old son, I find it even more important to create work time and family time. My husband and I discuss childcare, family obligations, and other issues far in advance to eliminate the dreaded “I thought you were picking him up?” scenario. I also spend some time at the beginning of the year creating yearlong goals for each of my responsibilities (research, teaching, and service). Lastly, on Sunday evening, I go over my weekly, monthly, and longitudinal to-do lists and make sure I am focusing on the most important tasks during the week. As an early career scholar it is easy to spend a lot of your time working. However, if you are more purposeful with your time, I think you will find you feel more productive.2)   Calendar Creation - I allocate some time in mid-August to prepare my semester-long calendar. I teach two days a week, and I try to use those days to work on course preparation, grade, advise/mentor students, and attend meetings at my university. I then allocate other days of the week to research and service tasks. By blocking off time in my calendar for specific tasks, I find I am more productive in those areas. In terms of my courses, I make sure that assignments are not due at the same time so that I am not struggling to provide feedback in a timely manner. I also upload all materials to our online course management system one week prior to class and request that students print materials themselves if they wish.3)   Grant Submissions – Grant RFPs always seem to have such short deadlines! At the beginning of the year, I email the director of grant services at my university to inform her of the grants I intend to apply for the year. She sends valuable reminders to me prior to the RFP, during the grant writing process, and also informs me of other grants I may be interested in. This assistance is invaluable! While I understand that not all readers will be writing grants, my advice would be to find people at your university who can support you in your endeavors – you do not need to do this alone!

AmandaAs Rob notes, one of the greatest advantages of this career is the flexibility, but capitalizing on this freedom and avoiding its potential pitfalls requires intentionality in one’s professional activities. Thus, for me, August is a time for reflection and strategizing. The beginning of a new academic year provides a natural point at which to reflect on the activities of the previous year, but more importantly, to think back on my own practices to consider what worked and what didn’t, what I did well and what I can do better.I am a list-maker, so this is a great time to consolidate my various project lists for research, teaching, service, and professional development (which can get disorganized when I kick into survival mode at the end of the semester) to re-prioritize and strategize for how to accomplish my goals given what I’ve learned over the past year and how each project aligns with my annual goals and long-term targets. This year, I attend primarily to my research projects, thinking carefully about where each project is, how it fits (or doesn’t—file-drawering is a topic for another day) with my research agenda and long-term goals, and on what timeline it should move forward. Once I’ve developed a plan for the term, I work out from there to account for my other responsibilities. Building my annual plan around research works for me because my position is more heavily loaded on research and I am not teaching this fall, but for others, having teaching activities at the core might make more sense.Like Bryn, I set aside time to revisit my calendar, entering all obligatory activities (e.g., faculty meetings, committee meetings, research group, spring classes) for the academic year and preferred activities (e.g., spin class) so I can build in office hours and writing time. The two days of the week in which I have standing meetings are the ones I reserve for teaching/advising and service activities. I’ve learned that compartmentalizing each domain in this way can help minimize the overflow that often crowds out writing time.I am also not one of those people who can progress on papers when writing in small chunks of time, so I like to block out larger segments of time for research activities and writing time. My intent is to align my actual apportionment of time with my workload. By scheduling out the obligatory events for the year, I can then fill in research and writing time and develop targets for each project that account for the real constraints on my schedule. Color-blocking (i.e., red for teaching, orange for advising, green for meetings, blue for research activities, purple for writing, etc.) provides an easy visual  that I use to determine whether my actual time allotment corresponds with my workload and goals. I then make the adjustments necessary either in specific activities or in my commitments to bring the two into alignment.Having done these two main activities, I feel invigorated for the new academic year. There are certainly smaller tasks that must be done, but the project lists and calendaring provide a road map for the coming term. I have a plan and I know what I want and need to accomplish over the months to come. I’ll revisit my project list every few weeks and tweak my calendar as necessary, but for now, I’ve got a clear (color-coded) vision of what the fall semester holds.What do you do to gear up for the new academic year?