I need to do a post on my nursing and academic journey, but for now, I want to encourage those in academia especially faculty of color, to try the tips I mention below. I started utilizing the tips mentioned two weeks ago.
The first tip is to read the books I have in this post’s feature image. These books have provided me with great information on how to be successful in academia. Some of the major takeaways for me this week were:
- Incorporating writing time in my schedule
- It is not enough to just say I am going to write. I actually need to schedule daily writing it in my planner. I did just that this week. My writing days are scheduled for Wednesday and Saturday mornings. I will provide an update on how it goes. I also made sure this week not to check my emails before writing. Once you start checking your email, you will feel obligated to respond, which will take up your writing time.
- Organization
- In order for me to be successful, I have to have my office space organized in a fashion that encourages success. I did that this week at work, and I can say I felt more encouraged to be productive in my scholarly writing.
- Brunsma Research Queue (BRQ)
- The final suggestion I planned to incorporate this week was the Brunsma Research Queue. The concept is to basically setup a visual reminder of your scholarly projects in your office. You buy a bulletin board, separate it into 9 sections, and for each section, you create a packet for each research related task you are working on. In each packet, you include all of the materials that relate to the research tasks. On the front of the packet, you include a cover sheet and write the tasks you need to complete and the deadlines in bold. Now you have a visual reminder of your scholarly projects, and it also serves as a reminder of the things you need to get done (Rockquemore and Laszloffy, 2008). I bought my bulletin board for my office, but I have not had the chance to put it up yet. I plan to put it up next week. I can’t wait to see how it goes.
Two other tips I have did not come from an academic, but it did come from a major influencer I follow on instagram named Mattie James. Even though she is not an academic, the tips she gave still apply to my home and work life. During one of her live sessions, she encouraged her listeners to write the things that are on our mind down. What that does is it frees up space in our head to focus on the more important things. I incorporated that tip this week. I either use the notes app on my phone or a tiny notepad I keep in my purse to write the things I want to remember down. It helps me feel less anxious because now I won’t forget it, and I can put my focus on other things.
The other tip she provided was using a schedule to maximize your time. Now, I am a lover of planners. Paper planners to be exact, but I may not have my paper planner with me all the time. Mattie uses both a paper planner and her Google calendar to help her stay on top of things family and business. So, I did the same. I went through my paper planner and added all of my appointments in my Google calendar for the rest of the semester. I cannot tell you how that has been such a relief for me. Now if I am away from my paper calendar, I still have my digital calendar handy in case I need to make an appointment. Now, I decrease the chance of double booking myself. You know what another great thing about this is. My Google calendar is shared with my husband, so he is even able to stay on top of things with me and the kids. He is more of a tech guy, and I am a paper loving girl. Now, we have the best of both worlds.
The final tip I have from this week is more so a personal one for myself, but it may be beneficial to someone reading this post. That tip is to stop procrastinating. If you wrote something on your to do list, you wrote it for a reason. I would write out my to-do list for the day, and at the end of the work day, I would be disappointed because I did not complete my tasks. That delay would put me once step further from reaching my goal. The sad thing is majority of the time no one was stopping me from completing my to-do list. I would hype myself up out of fear and procrastinate, so it was totally my fault. I finally had to have a come to Jesus meeting with myself and say stop it. You wrote that list for a reason so get the stuff done. Plus, I knew I would feel bad if I didn’t get it done due to my purposeful procrastination.
That’s the end friends. Those are the tips I’ve incorporated into my life over the past two weeks. I hope this tips are helpful. Until the next time.
