How to prepare to take a (real) break

Plus feline and flower photos, and more questionable use of capitalization.

Welcome to Academia Made Easier. I am so glad you are here.  

In my corner of the world, it is summer. I used to approach summer as a time to get All of the Things Done, now that teaching and meetings were not part of my daily schedule. I would start with great plans that both excited and exhausted me to think about. Oh, the things I’d do! There were articles to be written. There were grants to be won. My mountain was waiting. (Apologies to Dr. Seuss here. Or perhaps not.) 

My summer plans were fantastic. I mean that in the true sense of the word: they were built on fantasy. They ignored the fact that I needed a break - physically, mentally, creatively - and set me up for disappointment.

Things would not turn out as planned, despite summer days at the office running data, formatting bibliographies, and rewriting paragraphs. By the last week of August (what one of my coauthors calls “the week of broken dreams”), my achievements would be partial at best and my fatigue levels nearly as high as when summer had begun.

I have since adopted a better way. This approach is to …. (wait for it) … take a break. A real break. A guilt-free break. A restorative break. You are likely thinking, “That’s not a revolutionary idea, Loleen.” And you are right. But it can be revolutionary for anyone who needs a bit more self-kindness in their life.

This might include you.

Many people - often (but not exclusively) women, often (but not exclusively) early-career researchers - tell me they are fearful of taking a break. They worry taking a break will make them fall behind, reducing their chances of achieving tenure, promotion, or whatever the next brass ring is. If this is your own thinking, I empathize, as I once thought the same.

But I also ask: are you sure? Is it possible that the opposite is true? Is it possible that taking a break could improve your chances of achieving your goals?

My new mindset is that rest and time away from work is an investment that benefits my work. This is because the quality of my work is better when I am rested. To be sure, I can push through and get stuff done. But as Saundra Dalton-Smith asks, “If I can produce at the level I was producing [at] in the middle of exhaustion, what would I be capable of if I actually felt well-rested?” 

Taking time off - true time off - gives us the physical and mental rest we need to be better at our jobs. It helps us be more effective, more creative, and better able to distinguish between things that should be done and things that should be ignored. Any time ‘lost’ in quantity is regained in quality. 

If you don’t already have plans for a real break from work, I encourage you to revise your summer plans to build one in, of whatever length you feel you can accommodate. To help you with this, I am deviating from my usual practice of one newsletter every second(ish) Friday and sending this on a Tuesday in case you have a break planned starting July 1 or shortly thereafter.

Today’s small thing to try immediately is sets you up for a (real) break that you enjoy - without “I should be writing” guilt or a looming sense that your entire future or program will collapse if you don’t respond to email for two weeks.

Please give this one a try.

One Small Thing to Try Immediately: The Pre-Break Setup

To prepare for a restorative break, complete the following four steps.

1. Adopt a foundation mindset. In my workshops and talks about academia and work-life balance over the past few years, my starting premise that work-life balance is the foundation of academic success, and not a reward for it, always draws a reaction. For many people, there is a sense that rest, work-life balance, and just general enjoyment of life need to be earned. But as I have written about before, “just one more year and then you’d be happy” is a recipe for burnout.

An alternative mindset is to see your well-being as the foundation for your success. You are not a machine (and even machines need maintenance and recharging). Adopt the view that rest is the precursor to achieving your goals.

2. Decide what a ‘real break’ means for you and commit this to writing. Are you going to take a complete break, including not checking in with your team or colleagues, not attending '“just that one meeting”, and not working on projects? Are you going to check email and Slack, and if so, how often and what will you respond to? The choice is yours, obviously, but whatever your choice is, decide now and write it down. It might look like this:

“For the two weeks I am taking a break from work, I will not work on administration, teaching or research. I will only check email once per day at 4 pm or later, and the only emails I will respond to are those that are truly time-sensitive, such the page proofs for my article in the Journal of Important Stuff.”

Seriously. Write it down. And then tape it to your mirror to remind yourself.

3. Schedule a pre-break ‘Tying Up Loose Ends Day’ and a post-break ‘Return to Work Day’.  Use the workday before your break to address all those little things that might nag at you over your break. (My own list for this year includes submitting expense claims, finishing and submitting a journal article review, and completing and submitting an ethics renewal form.) In all emails you send, let people know you will be away for a bit and gently encourage them not to contact you before then. Here is some sample text: 

I am taking a much-needed break from work and email from today until Monday, July 19, so no need to reply. I look forward to reconnecting later this summer. Until then, enjoy the season!

In your calendar, block off your first day back to work as a no-meetings transition day to allow yourself to wade through email and to reacquaint yourself with your projects.

4. Create an awesome out-of-office message. Your out-of-office email autoreply should include the basics: when you will be responding to emails and who to contact in your absence. But why not use it to do a bit more? You can take this space to increase awareness of your new book, direct students to resources they might want, celebrate your program’s achievements, or grow your social media followers. Just keep it professional. Here is an example:

Hi - I am taking a much-needed break from work and email from today until Monday, July 19. In the meantime, please note the following:

• For program-related matters, please contact Jimmy Pesto Jr. [email link] and he will assist you. Also, be sure to follow our department Facebook [link] and Twitter [link] accounts for the most up-to-date information and announcements, such as my colleague Dr. Bob Belcher’s fantastic recent article on the politics of ground beef.

• POLS 256 students: please be sure to check out our course website. The class syllabus will be on the class Canvas page by August 20.

• Media inquiries: please check out the Informed Opinions Experts list for other contacts to provide insights and commentary. 

• This spring, one of my research teams released a number of research briefs on political attitudes in Alberta and Saskatchewan; please check out the project website to learn more.

I look forward to reconnecting later this summer. Until then, enjoy the season!

These four steps will set you up for a great - and real - break. Enjoy!

Chipping Away: What I Have Been Up To

A quick update on what I have been up to since my last newsletter, since I have your attention:

• I co-authored an opinion article for Inside Higher Ed about the systemic factors that create an oversupply of PhDs relative to tenure-stream academic positions. The article drew some interesting social media discussion. Some commented that we said things that needed to be said, while others commented that we didn’t go far enough, or took issue with the idea of ‘oversupply’. What are your own thoughts on this topic? I am interested to hear them!

• My last newsletter lacked any cat references - a choice that drew a number of reader complaints. (Well, one is a number…). To right this wrong, today I share a recent picture of me at my weekly cat rescue society volunteer gig. The cat with me, Xaidyn, is a complete love and the person who adopted him is extremely lucky. 

• Summer in Saskatoon is beautiful, so I brought some of our garden beauty inside. Peonies were my grandmother’s favorite flower and always make me smile.

Until next time ….

Thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to share this newsletter with a colleague or your network. Your help to build the audience for Academia Made Easier means a great deal to me. 

Stay well, my colleagues. I look forward to seeing you next time.

PS What are you planning to do to take a break in the next few months? Please hit comment and let me know!

Loleen Berdahl, PhD: I am a twin mother, wife, runner, cat lover, and chocolate enthusiast. I spend far too much time on Twitter and binge-watching television, and my house could be a lot cleaner. During the work hours, I am the Executive Director of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. I am the author of University Affair’s Skills Agenda column and my most recent books are Work Your Career: Get What You Want from Your Social Sciences or Humanities PhD and Explorations: Conducting Empirical Research in Canadian Political Science.