The promise and disappointment of academic breaks

Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash

Marie Curie is best known for her groundbreaking achievements as the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different fields—chemistry and physics. Despite her remarkable productivity and dedication to science, her day-to-day life might surprise us by today’s hyper-focused standards. She loved long walks in the country and cycling. She and her husband spent many weekends and summers at a vacation home in France. She also enjoyed gardening and spending time with her two daughters. Curie clearly worked hard and faced many barriers in her professional career, but she also took breaks.

As we move into winter break for many universities in North America, a common re-frame among faculty is they “can finally get some work done”. By “work”, faculty are typically referring to their scholarship pushed aside by teaching and service responsibilities. Faculty, especially new principal investigators, may feel the pressure to write up those grant proposals, papers, and books that eluded them during the busy semester. The time between academic terms is, in some ways, similar to each weekend. After a busy week, it is tempting to finally get some work done on the weekends with space and time.

Creating a long list of goals for ourselves during breaks is tempting. We have large blocks of time back in our days without meetings and teaching. The office is likely quiet. However, I think this line of thinking will only set us up to be disappointed.

With grading now complete, I have also dusted off my list of semester goals. I didn’t achieve all my goals, but I also feel okay with where I am. As Marie Curie herself famously noted, “One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.”

I’m trying to resist the temptation to view my winter break as a time to simply plow ahead on papers and grants. I’ll be taking time off to see family and friends. Everyone has their own style, but I can’t work and take time off. I have to choose one or the other. Outside of my break, I plan to think about the big picture. My goal in winter is to establish good routines and systems to ensure I can be successful year-round, not just during school breaks.

If a productivity plan involves constantly firefighting during the semester, frantically catching up during breaks, and repeating this cycle endlessly, burnout seems unavoidable.

I could spend more hours producing more work. I think that is a short-term approach that can yield short-term results. However, I could also spend more hours thinking about my work and how I do my work, so I can produce more with fewer hours.

Although specific to me, here are a few questions I am pondering over the winter break.

• Where do I want my research program to move over the next couple of years, especially post-tenure?

• Where do I want to be spending my service commitments? How much time do I want to think about developments within my department and university versus time to outside groups?

• How are the systems within the lab (and my own life) working? What needs to be modified?

I think this last bullet is particularly significant. Every individual and every lab operates within a set of systems and processes that guide how work unfolds. Even if these systems and processes aren’t explicitly documented, they still exist and influence daily operations. Thus, I think it is also important to be thoughtful about how work evolves to ensure clear expectations for everyone. I will actualize new work systems before I move into the next term. For instance, I’m dissatisfied with my current note-taking methods. My notes are scattered across paper, notebooks, my computer, and a Remarkable tablet. I aim to streamline this process to ensure consistency and accessibility.

Within the lab, we’ve started building an internal wiki to document key workflows and resources. For instance, we have wiki articles on how to sign up for classes (and which ones we like as a lab), the difference between a RA and TA position, and a description of offboarding steps for departing lab members. However, it is clear to me that I need a host of other processes clearly laid out to help the lab progress. Every time I explain the same process to multiple people, it is an alarm bell for me to capture my thoughts in writing.

I won’t be able to develop perfect routines. However, I think stepping back to think about both my own and the lab’s systems and processes can help us work more effectively when the semester starts up.

Do you feel the temptation to simply work with breaks between semesters? What could you do now to set you up for a more productive and sustainable next academic term?