For those of you who have just made it through the first, overwhelming week of school, congratulations! It gets better. For those who are about to head into a new term, hang in there. I know this is a busy time for all of us, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of giving up our writing completely as we settle into our semester routines. Fortunately, there are ways to mitigate the effects of the whirlwind. Get your calendars and your timers ready, and think about your goals for the term as you read these tips:
Schedule all appointments directly into your calendar.
This includes grading, teaching prep, research time and writing. I know many people who write down their schedules and their to-do list for the week or day and think they’ve done enough to plan. While some planning is better than no planning, unless you have a reality check with your calendar, you may tend to overbook. You may want to use an electronic calendar for this, although paper daytimers can work well too. The important thing is that you are actually writing down the task within the block of time that it will take to do it.
You can read the rest of the article at:
http://gblog2.academicladder.com/2013/09/avoid-beginning-of-semester-panic-six.html
