How to protect more time for your priority work

Plus a shout-out to International Cat Day, which is pretty much every day at our house.

Aug 08, 2023

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

It is August. August! And not just early August. It is the first full week of August. Shortly, single-digit August dates will become double-digit August dates. September is rushing at us and I swear I saw a tree with a few yellow leaves. (Maybe it was just dying? Let’s hope? 😬) There is no denying that summer is going to end again, just like it always has, and soon some asshole is going to start posting old “winter is coming” Game of Thrones memes on whatever soon-to-fail Twitter replacement I keep failing to check. Dammit!

In my corner of the world, August is when academia starts picking up steam again, gradually, then suddenly. The emails trickle and then flood in. The calendar invitations move from manageable to daunting. The reality that all of the things Past Me committed to do “in the fall” need to be done IN THE FALL sets in. This happens Every. Single. August. DAMMIT!

But, I have good news and a bad metaphor (sorry!) for you! The horse isn’t out of the barn yet! There is still time to grab the reins on this runaway pony (sorry!) now before it rides us off into Overload Land, famed for its Burnout Forest and Valley of Despair (so sorry). So hold your horses (SORRY!) and give today’s small thing to try immediately a shot.

One Small Thing to Try Immediately: Block off early week time

Most of us, whether we want to or not, have some sort of electronic academic calendaring system. Depending on our university roles and our calendar settings, this calendar can be viewed and managed by one person (you) or many people. Whenever anyone asks for your time, they inevitably ask you to check said electronic calendar and you must decide what time (if any) you will give them. By blocking off time early in the work week for your priority work, you can tip that decision process in the favour of the work that you do that brings the most value to your discipline, your university, and the world.

Here is how.

Pick the earliest day in the workweek that you can manage given your immovable scheduled commitments (such as teaching or key meetings). It doesn’t need to be a full day (although that is awesome if you can do it) but aim for at least an hour or more. If your Monday is not a regular teaching or meeting day, pick Monday. Why the earliest day? Well, in the words of Stephen Covey, “First Things First”. Your priority work deserves your creativity, energy, and enthusiasm. Creativity, energy, and enthusiasm tend to be highest earlier in the workweek and erode to almost nothing by Friday. Also, the annoying stuff that doesn’t get done early in the workweek (emails, expense claims, approvals, etc.) tend to get pushed to the end of the workweek. The result is that many a Friday ‘research day’ turns into a Friday ‘administrivia day’. 🥲

Plan to take as MUCH of that earliest day as you can for your priority work. If you have nothing regularly scheduled on Mondays (or whatever day you picked), plan to take 8:30 am - 5:00 pm inclusive. If you work with people who like early morning meetings (WHAT IS WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE?!?!?!), move the start time earlier but keep the end time at 5 pm or later. If you are free until 2 pm on Mondays (or whatever), plan to take 8:30-2:00 inclusive. (Adjust as needed for transport, etc.)

Go to your electronic calendar and create a recurring weekly calendar event for that priority work time. Schedule it from today until the end of the semester (minimum) or the end of the academic year (in my world, June 30). Set it to show as “busy”. If you are the only person who sees your calendar details, title the event something that you find motivational, such as “Your research MATTERS. Protect this time to protect your research.” or “Climate change research >>> Email” or “Finish your book, FFS!”. If other people see your calendar, title the event something that either (a) invites limited questions (e.g., “Pap Test”, “Meeting with Attorney”, “Appointment to have tapeworm removed”) and/or (b) discourages requests to make changes (e.g., “FOCUSED WORK TIME. DON’T EVEN ASK.”) Set up a calendar reminder so that you get regular alerts reminding you that you prioritize your focused work enough to put it at the start of the week.

Assess the amount of priority work time you have blocked in your calendar. Is it enough to achieve your priority work outcomes? If not, move to the second earliest day in the workweek and repeat steps 2 and 3. If that is still not enough time, do it again with the third earliest day.

Address conflicts now. Look through your scheduled time blocks week by week until the end of the year. If there are random conflicts that would be easy to move (e.g., meeting with a team member, phone call with a prospective graduate student, dental appointment), reschedule them. If there are random conflicts that would be very difficult to move (e.g., meeting with the dean, guest lecture in a colleague’s class while they are at a conference, specialist doctor appointment for an actual tapeworm removal), reschedule that protected time block to the earliest possible time in that same week. Let me repeat that again: do not simply cancel it - reschedule it in whole or in part for the same week.

Inform everyone who regularly works with your calendar or makes requests for time in your calendar. Explain to them that you are protecting time early in the week for your priority work – the work that you do that brings the most value to the university and the universe – and that your availability is much greater later in the week (Thursdays and Fridays) than earlier in the week (Mondays and Tuesdays). Let them know that you will do your best to be available for all later in the week requests. And be sure to thank them for all the hard work they do, because scheduling meetings amongst academics is no small feat!

Depending on how your time blocking schedule worked out, you may have full-day Mondays blocked, or Monday mornings and Tuesday afternoons, or one hour on Monday mornings and two hours on Wednesday afternoons. The total amount of time and when it occurs will be individual. What you do with that time (research, teaching prep, service, other) will be individual. The point is that you now have protected weekly time for what you consider to be priority work in your calendar for next week, and also mid-October, and also (if you went beyond the calendar year-end) early March, and even in late June.

Is this how things are going to work out in reality? Oh, my sweet summer child, no. There will inevitably be times when you need to compromise some of that blocked time. Dean meetings, guest lectures, and tapeworm removals will require accommodation on your part, as will some committee meetings, student discussions, and dental appointments. Time blocking is not an excuse to be unreasonable. It is definitely not an excuse to be an asshole and require everyone to compromise while you don’t.

But having time blocked will force you to actively decide which requests of your time are worthy of compromising priority work time over, and how often. It will force you to actively decide when to reschedule your priority work in the face of unplanned requests. And, importantly, it will force you to remember the value of that early week time - that time in which you are hopefully more refreshed and best able to do your most creative work – and protect it like the jewel it is.

Go block some time, my friend!

Until next time…

Despite all of my complaining about the inevitable loss of summer, I do love September. Autumn is gorgeous and the start of a new academic term brings so much excitement to campuses. But I do feel that July went by far too quickly! 📆 😭 🎻

Stay well, my colleagues.

Academia Made Easier

How to protect more time for your priority work

Plus a shout-out to International Cat Day, which is pretty much every day at our house.

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