DP&L Episode 234 - Are You Behind This Summer?

In this timely mid-summer episode, President and executive writing coach Christine Tulley addresses the universal academic experience of feeling behind on summer projects. Recording at the end of June, she provides practical strategies for reassessing summer goals, managing academic guilt, and making strategic decisions about competing priorities when time feels scarce.

Christine opens by acknowledging the extra layer of summer guilt that academics experience - the pressure to "catch up" during months supposedly dedicated to research and writing progress. She shares her personal summer project list using Penzu, an online notebook tool, demonstrating transparency about her own challenges with staying on track while managing multiple writing commitments.

Her summer, which officially began June 2nd when her children finished school, included successfully completing major deadlines including conference proposals and a book proposal for an upcoming sabbatical guide. However, unexpected project revisions and new professional obligations have shifted her timeline, creating the familiar feeling of being behind despite objective progress.

Christine introduces several strategic frameworks for summer project management. First, she advocates for conducting a "consequences audit" - honestly assessing what actually happens if certain projects remain incomplete. For tenured faculty, delayed personal writing projects may have minimal immediate impact, while those on the tenure track or job market face more significant career implications from lost productivity time.

She demonstrates the power of strategic elimination, considering whether to reduce her planned Inside Higher Education articles from two to one, allowing focus on her persistently delayed "yucky writing project" - that half-finished article that continually gets pushed to future semesters. This decision-making process illustrates how academics can move from overwhelming task lists to manageable priorities.

A key insight emerges around timing-sensitive projects. Christine emphasizes that book promotion work for her spring publications cannot be indefinitely delayed without losing marketing opportunities, while other projects offer more flexibility. This distinction helps writers identify which delays have real consequences versus those driven primarily by perfectionist tendencies.

The episode addresses holistic summer planning beyond writing projects. Christine shares her success with restorative activities - pleasure reading, guitar playing, outdoor time, and family workout classes - noting that maintaining these practices often indicates healthy work-life integration even when writing productivity feels insufficient. She acknowledges one unmet goal: visiting the art museum, demonstrating realistic self-assessment without harsh self-judgment.

Christine introduces the concept of decision deadlines, giving herself until July 1st to finalize her revised summer plan. This approach prevents endless rumination while ensuring thoughtful priority-setting for remaining summer weeks.

She challenges listeners to recognize areas where they might actually be ahead of schedule, encouraging academics to claim credit for deep work that took longer than anticipated but produced higher-quality results. This reframing counters the academic tendency toward perpetual dissatisfaction with productivity levels.

The episode concludes with practical encouragement: counting remaining summer weeks reveals substantial time for meaningful progress. Christine calculated six weeks remaining until her semester begins, reframing "behind" feelings into opportunities for strategic focus and realistic goal adjustment.

 

TOOLS MENTIONED

●      Penzu - Free online notebook for project planning and tracking (link in show notes)

 

UPCOMING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES:

DPL Writing Classes - Join upcoming free workshops at Eventbrite including:

●      Paragraphing Workshop - Transform paragraph construction skills

●      Sentence-Level Writing Workshop - Master academic prose at the sentence level

Summer Faculty Development - Multiple free workshops available through Eventbrite designed for faculty developers, covering writing group facilitation and low-cost professional development programming.

Coaching Support Available - Individual coaching sessions are readily available during summer months and never expire. Coaching supports manuscript development, writing practice refinement, and specific challenges like dissertation methodology feedback.