Establing Life Balance in Academe

As the academic year begins, many faculty members are throwing themselves fully back into the academy, but as the Chronicle of Higher Education's article on 'Serious Academics' at Play
suggests, it's just as important to continue to include in your daily life activities that you enjoy, and particularly physical activities to keep you healthy and sane and perhaps even more productive.

In this piece, Dr. Anne Kurzan, Professor of English at the University of Michigan, calls for the end to the "sink or swim" mentality that is often thrust upon new faculty and even graduate students, and instead advocates for a more balanced academic life that actually aids the "explosive productivity" expected in academe. In this same spirit, here are some practices to consider to keep you happy, healthy, and productive:

Make room for exercise and/or a hobby
Although you may think that there is no way you have time to exercise (and I'm certainly guilty of this) or doing the things you love, the truth is that when you don't make time for these things, that time is often wasted when you're banging your head against the wall with writer's block or spacing out when you need to be concentrating. By making time for yourself, you may find that you're able to be more focused on your work when it's time.

Schedule breaks
For the same reason described above (preventing space-out or writer's block), planning breaks help to keep you and your mind active. Artist and grant-writing guru, Gigi Rosenberg suggests taking a short break every 30 minutes that you write or work. She finds that even though she may not want to break after 30 minutes, she finds that with a short break, she is reinvigorated, and she's not away long enough that she needs to warm up again - she dives right in.

Establish boundaries
Dr. Jean Kutner, Professor in CU's School of Medicine and Head of General Internal Medicine, spoke at an ORDE seminar a couple of years ago and made the point that there is no such thing as work/life balance. "It's all life!" she said, although she was clear that this did not mean that your work should take over all aspects of your life. In that sense, researchers run into a particular challenge. Often, they set their own schedules and when all time is yours to delegate, it's easy to find yourself working at all hours of the day and night. To prevent the burnout that can come from this, set some boundaries; identify what's important to you and what relaxes you and set a schedule where there is room for all of those things.

Include balance in mentoring
The Chronicle article above also references a great mentoring article from 2013 by Dr. Kerry Ann Rockquemore who discusses the importance of communicating the importance of balance to mentees as well. Oftentimes, mentors who were tossed into the deep end as new Assistant Professors think that this is then the best way to mentor today's new Professors and/or grad students, but Rockquemore rightly insists that a better mentor approach is that of support for a more well-rounded academic life.

Although many folks who could benefit from this blog and the great articles referenced above may not read them in the hustle and bustle of the Fall, when they do catch their attention, hopefully, they will be inspired to make some small steps toward a healthy balance in academe.

Resources

'Serious Academics' at Play - Chronicle of Higher Education
A Mentoring Manifesto - Inside Higher Ed
Gigi Rosenberg's Blog
Jean Kutner's ORDE Talk : Charting Your Research Path