Productivity Monster

Happy Monday morning everyone! I’m on my way to work and that productive writing professor whom I mentioned in my previous post has already been hard at work writing for at least 10 minutes. He really is inspiring in his dedication. 

    I worked hard as well this weekend. I sent off an article that I had been working on and then after some sleep I did the thing that most academics do after they have cleared off a pile of work- clean the house. I remember how in grad school at the end of the coursework semesters my kitchen would be a series of dirty rice bowls and the living room and area around my desk would be piles of library books and article print-outs. The pleasure I had in cleaning up my space after all the essays were handed in was just as much as the pleasure I had in actually handing in my work. This was the same when I was teaching and I had finished grading the final exams and inputted the grades. Once the grades were in and the email acknowledgement of such received,  I would busy myself in tidying and filing things away.

  Yesterday I spent time cleaning pasta bowls (oh carbs) and putting books and articles in order for the next 4 (yes 4) articles I need to edit. I have a great desk with a built-in bookcase as its right leg and which separates out into, conveniently, 4 sections. It feels good knowing that Ruskin is in this section, Hardy is in the other one, Cunningham/Woolf is in the third, and Egerton materials in the 4th.

   I have also set my writing schedule for the next while (well at least until April) so that I have a clear view of what I can (or will try to) accomplish before the 21st and then what’s next on the schedule in the new year. I guess I have been bitten a bit by a productivity monster, or at least the desire to have a path to keep me going in 2019. As I have mentioned before, not teaching means I have time when I get home that I would usually have spent in lesson planning and grading to do other things like write and read. I want to make the most of the time I have been given, but I also want to make sure that I take the time to relax and rest. 

   I know that the productivity monster is a byproduct of grad school. I struggle with this every day. Often I have these conversations with myself on days when I feel I haven’t read or written enough. Academe is hard and it can bring about some rather unhealthy habits. As I am writing this the bus I am on has taken a detour through a residential area and this has distracted the productive professor at the front of the bus. Sadly all I could think of was how he would be disappointed in himself if he didn’t achieve his bus writing goal by being distracted by the things outside the window. This is a perfect example of the unhealthy thinking that academic spaces can promote.

   This goes for our students as well. The end of term is a rush and push to the finish line and students also struggle with being productive and balancing school, work, and life. I always tell professors to listen and talk to their students and don’t expect them to all be the exact same in terms of productivity. The productivity monster lurks just as much for them as it does for us. Maybe it is time that we talk more about this and how we can have a healthier balance. Sure writing articles and publishing is good, yes getting your essays done for class is wonderful, but what is also really important is our health and not thinking about how many words you can write in a 30 minute bus ride.