Dear friends,
I am writing this message on January 29th, and it will post as my February blog. I am sure there will be more executive orders and directives in the next few days, and I expect our stress and uncertainty will continue to be in high gear. It’s hard to know what to say, so I will start simple: you are not alone. Seek out your people and be in community.
Hope the cold dark winter days find you warm, cozy, and safe! I find the month of December to be particularly challenging, as everyone tries to clear their to-do list before taking a break. Over the years I have tried several strategies to mitigate this year-end game of hot potato. Here are three practical ideas: (1) block off some work time pre-vacation; (2) put your auto-reply up a couple of days in advance of leaving this office; (3) set a turn-around time with your team and collaborators (e.g., any requests I receive after December 12th will be addressed in the new year.)
Dear friends,
Hope you’re enjoying the last long days of summer! I am in that pre-vacation rush, fighting to get as much done as possible before I leave. I’m going on a hiking trip, and I have been training for the last couple of months to get ready physically. In increasing the duration and intensity of my exercise, I had two realizations that apply to intellectual work as well.
Dear friends,
Hope this message finds you being kind to yourself amid all the tumult in the world right now. Can you believe 2023 is half over? I find myself thinking that time is too short to spend on trivialities. Let’s keep committing to the work we are called to do, every day, in the second half of 2023.
Dear friends,
Summertime is here! Can you believe it? For a minute there I wasn't sure I would make it through the always-hectic month of May. I hope all of you have time away planned this summer. I've written before about how important it is to pay attention to, and align our work plans with, seasonal rhythms that affect our body and mind.
I hope all of you had an opportunity to take a break at the end of 2022 and are as well as possible. This time of year, with cold weather and short days, can feel challenging. For me, it is not a natural time to make resolutions or feel motivated. I feel out of sync with the culture- everyone is packing the gym or setting out to maintain their daily meditation streak, and I just want to read in bed with a cup of tea.
It’s December, and if your workplace is anything like mine, everyone is scrambling to meet year-end deadlines and hand over work to colleagues before heading out to winter break. In past years I have tried to manage this increased workload and stress by asking mentees to send me work earlier in December, by blocking off meeting-free time, and by planning way ahead for time-consuming holiday tasks like addressing Christmas cards. This year, I am opting out. I recently read Rest is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey, and it has given me a new understanding about incessant work demands.
Happy September! Every fall feels like the start of the new year for me. We are still in tough times, and I hope you’re finding optimism in some corner of your life. In August I shared that I did not realize until I went on an extended vacation how much my workload was affecting my brain and body. I've been experimenting with reduced working hours for the last month, and I will report back to you in a future post about whether I can keep it up.
I am writing this post far in advance, before my extended, much-postponed travels. I fervently hope that when these words reach you, we are not reeling from more collective trauma. The fatigue and grief have been real. As I prepare for my trip, I’m keeping in mind the words of poet Toi Derricotte, “joy is an act of resistance.”
The days are getting longer and brighter, and I hope your mood, like mine, has been lighter of late. I’ve embraced a new hybrid schedule. It feels amazing to be together in person as a team, and I love running into people unexpectedly at work. I appreciate my remote work more as a quiet contrast to the office, so my entire work experience has improved, for the first time since March 2020. I wish the same for you.
I hope spring is bringing you some peace and optimism as our challenging times continue. This month I want to share some advice that I gave a colleague who is going on sabbatical. Like many of you, this person excels in their work and loathes the idea of self-promotion. We have talked about bragging effectively and using peer amplification to get the word out. I thought of another strategy for staying top of mind that felt acceptable and feasible: the AWARE Share. And yes, it's an acronym (Awareness of Work and Achievements through Relevant Emails). Consider sending quarterly updates to key stakeholders who should be aware of you but are not in your immediate mentoring circle. Here are my tips.
It’s March 2022, and I can’t say whether time moves quickly or slowly any more. The state of our world is hitting me hard right now, and I am sending solidarity to all who share this feeling. I spoke to a small group of mid-career faculty recently, and they followed up after the meeting with the following question: “We suggest a future blog post on techniques and strategies for supporting excellence on research teams. We admire your ability to maintain high standards for your team.” My first thought was that I don’t do anything to make my team perform at such a high level- they do it themselves. I shared this question with Sarah Lisker, our lab’s program manager, and to my surprise, she pointed out three things that I do that support high standards for our team’s work. Based on our conversation, here’s my advice.
I’m writing to you over winter break, looking out at the snowy Sierra landscape. I hope when you’re reading this you feel recharged and ready for 2022. As you may know, I don’t agree with the “New Year, New You” mentality. I like the person you are, and I hope you do too. At the same time, I endorse wanting to learn and grow over time. Setting goals is critical for my personal growth, but when I fall short, I can succumb to unhelpful self-criticism. I want to offer you a different way to think about past and future goals.
It’s November, and the recent vaccine approval for children has me feeling especially thankful. Let’s hold on to optimism as we look forward to the holidays. Since I last wrote to you, I’ve stepped out into the world several times- I attended two scientific meetings and my college reunion. After all these months of isolation, being with others has been a blessing that has left me mentally overloaded. So, I’m really writing to myself as I process what it has been like to start to re-enter the world professionally.
It’s October, my favorite month. The mood here is the most cautious of optimism, all of us wondering if our fragile hopes for normality will be dashed once again. This month I drew blog inspiration from an unlikely source- the movie Zombieland, which I just saw for the first time. Quarantine has led me to be more flexible about movie night at home. It’s hardly a cinematic masterpiece, but I did like the protagonist’s Rules for Survival. As I watched it, I couldn’t help thinking that some of the Zombieland Rules apply in our world too.
