How to end the semester gently

Plus excerpts from two recent conversations, one with an actual person

Hello and welcome to Academia Made Easier. I am so glad that you are here.

I had a conversation earlier this week that you might be able to relate to:

Me: I look forward to our dinner in a few weeks.

Other person: That dinner is next Tuesday.

Me: No, no – it’s not until December.

Other person: Next week is December.

Me (silently): Fuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkkkk.

I am not ready for December. I am not even sure I am ready for August, and that certainly is long past in my rearview mirror. For me, 2024 has been both a lot and super-fast. And now here we are, moments away from December and, as I stated earlier: Fuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkkkk.

My past self used to approach Decembers with a ‘let’s kick ass’ energy. Finish strong! Wrap up all of the things! Get all unfinished journal articles out the proverbial door (journal editors must hate people like Past Me), get all the prep for next term ready, and finish anything I put on any to-do list at any time in the January-November prior. Oh, and get the house in order!

Ugh. I am not willing to lean into that energy anymore.

My current approach to Decembers is more of a ‘let’s move gently’ energy. Finish joyfully! Leave things undone! Do what absolutely needs to be done and what I actually want to do, and throw out any old to-do lists that no longer speak to me. Oh, and pick up around the house a bit. Or not. Whatever.

If this resonates with you, today’s small thing to try immediately has your name on it.

One Small Thing to Try Immediately: Choose your December approach deliberately

There are things you need to get done before the end of the term. (Sorry). But that list might be shorter than you think. There may be items on your mental list that can be delayed, simplified, or outright eliminated. Everyone’s agency for what they can postpone or cut from their to-do lists will vary, but we all have some agency. I encourage you to be thoughtful about yours and use it to meet your current needs. Here are some steps to do so.

1. Decide to end the term in a way that feels good for you. A few weeks ago, I received an email newsletter from Jen Carrington titled “You don’t have to end the year strong.” She writes:

“if we want to, we're allowed to end the year gently … We are allowed to listen to our needs and desires right now, to navigate this last stretch of the year in alignment with our own capacity instead of trying to keep up with someone else's version of productive. … Tune out everyone else's noise and lean into the pace and perspective that truly feels aligned, supportive, and nourishing for you.” (emphasis in original)

The word that jumps out for me is “allowed”. You can choose to do all the things from now until the end of the term, or you can choose to do some of the things, or you can choose to do only the absolute minimum of the things (which, frankly, might be more than enough as it is). And you are allowed to choose where on this spectrum you want to fall.

Of course, your brain may not agree. Which brings us to step 2…

2. Identify your internal thoughts that pressure you to do more than you need to do. You may, like me, have a constant burnout culture voice in your head telling you to do more, more, more. Give this voice a name. (Some options to consider: Fear. Anxiety. Fuckhead. Asshat. Old Shitty. Burnout Brain.)

Once you have named it, speak back to it. An example from my own thinking just this morning:

Internalized Bullshit: “You really need to write a lot in December to catch up for all the writing you didn’t do in the past eleven months.”

Me: “You really need to fuck off.”

3. Identify what absolutely needs to be done, and at what level. Take out a piece of paper and braindump all of the activities you think you need to complete by the end of the term. It can be helpful to categorize (e.g., teaching, research, service, family, wellbeing). Once you have the list, go through and highlight what is truly necessary (grading, next semester’s syllabi, the R&R that is due on December 15, holiday shopping…). Make sure that your personal wellbeing needs are included on this list.

For each task that absolutely, really, truly needs to be done, add it to your calendar. Block in the time. Make sure to allocate more time than you think is required (in my experience, grading takes four times longer than I like to plan for). And again, be sure to include your personal wellbeing needs.

Allow anything not highlighted on your list to be optional over the weeks ahead.

4. Let enough be enough. As you move toward the end of the term, expect the burnout culture voice in your head to continue to tell you to do more. That voice has years (perhaps decades) of experience being in control and thought patterns can be hard to break. Just anticipate the need to keep talking back at it, ideally in a way that you find amusing, and stick with your plan.

You can choose to finish the term as strong as your energy and time available allow. You can choose to finish the term as gently as your responsibilities and workload allow. Either way, I encourage you to maximize your agency.

Until next time…

On my own list of things that absolutely need to be done is holiday shopping. Unfortunately, this year holiday shopping snuck up on me. If you are in the same boat, you might want to check out my past newsletters on this topic, “How to start thinking about holiday shopping when December seems far, far away” (ahh, 2021 Loleen, you were so on top of things) and “How to start thinking about holiday shopping when December seems far, far away, 2022 edition” (2022 Loleen was also a keener!). Ah well…

How do you plan to end the semester? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. As always, thank you for your readership. It is a privilege to be part of your day.

Stay well, my colleagues.

P.S. Unrelated to anything, I am happy to report that our sweet covid rescue kitten, Storm, was praised by her vet recently as being “in perfect health”. (He did make some comments about her weight but there’s no need to dwell on that…) I have long thought Storm is in perfect health and am delighted to have an expert’s confirmation of this. Here is a recent photo of my perfect goofball:

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