Is anyone planning to implement any strategies this year to help get them through?

[Whatliesbeneath707]

I feel this last year was particularly tough, and I don't want to repeat it this year.
So far, I've set up some career counselling and I'm just about to start seeing a coach, and this is a longer term plan. I'm also planning to commit to some self care activities- regular cycling & some strength based exercises.
Has anyone else made any plans to ease yourself into this next academic year, & more importantly to keep afloat?

Good plan! I've paid for Headspace... again. Used it once last year. Making weekend plans so they don't slip by.

I haven't got any plans, but I need them!

Two academic household, and work ends up completely taking over our lives as we somehow have ended up with not much esle to talk about (no kids (not by choice), most of our friends are academics, non-academic friends have all moved due to house prices, family in other countries... so it feels like there is literally no escape from work and there's too much stress and not enough enjoyment there anynore).

Both so knackered that even consistently managing a weekly supermarket trip is beyond us.

I really need some balance back in my life.

Last year was 😳so I'm thinking this year - just accept there will be some insane hours but also carve out more weekends and treats. OK - they will cost in insane catch up but better that and schedule the treats than just more generally insane hours with no treats IYSWIM. That's basically my strategy.

Yes, it's so easy to let this job consume you and the hours can be brutal if you let them. I'm trying to work out how to be neutral in amongst the chaos of the year. I want to do a good job but I want to let a lot of the things that annoy me, just wash over me!
Planning nice things in the evenings & weekends might be a way of keeping me on track & stopping me from working in my own time.

I'm pushing back against requests that are too time consuming, and that I won't gain any benefit from. By benefit I don't necessarily mean financial*, but, say if reviewing a book, I'd want to really have read it anyway; if giving a talk, I want to be able to repurpose it in teaching or research.

• but I certainly won't work for free, eg book proposal assessment for commercial publishers!

Blocking out Fridays as no meeting days.

I am saying no to non essentials. Have had to as DD is in an awful place and school is rocky. But it is helpful. I feel guilty but it is needed.

I hope things improve for your daughter very soon @purplepandas

I decided today to take the step of turning off my laptop at twenty past 5, even though I've had an incredibly unproductive day. Staring at that screen till gone 7 isn't going to actually help anyone, and instead I've washed my hair (oooh fancy lady that I am!), hoovered downstairs, and will spend some time making a nice healthy balanced meal of salmon and vegetables.

As with others, I really want to prioritise things that will pay off for me in some way or other. I tend to get asked to do a lot of service activities as I like to solve problems and just generally get shit done, but fixing other people's problems does nothing for my career or stress levels.

Good idea @purplepandas It will give you time to catch up on Fridays too. I tend to feel that meetings (at the higher level) tend to be "bad news" quite often as they will usually announce something like we need to work harder/take on more.
I'm sorry that your DD is struggling. Mine is too. She's relieved it's her last year at school (GCSE year).

I'm trying to prioritise my health instead of letting it fall by the wayside again this year. Physical activity really helps my mental health, too, especially exercising outdoors.

I've been trying to be frugal in general because my subject area isn't a 'sexy' one and I don't know how stable my job/Department is, going forward. Plus, bringing a healthy lunch to work is better than buying crap at work anyway.

Considering a gym membership (it's half price for staff) so that I don't lose my fitness gained through running, yoga and core/arm exercises all spring/summer.

Feeling like a backslide has already happened a bit and it's still so early in the academic year! Got to snap out of it.

Sometimes I daydream about a different career, but it's easier said than done. And would probably entail a pay cut at first. Challenging as I'm the main earner in my household.

Today I'm going for a run and may even do a face and hair mask or something later.

This is such a good idea. Dealing with grant rejections and lack of funds for all the things my students want to do is getting me down.

I'm going to have to book theatre tickets for half term to cheer up.

Yes, I agree. We need to maintain these nice activities even when the workload is overwhelming. Having something to do or to look forward to is important. Exercise is a win win in so many ways.

Thanks for this thread, OP, really enlightening stuff.

For me:
> Carving out, booking and protecting time for 'me' activities (like exercise) which become absolutely immovable in my diary.
> Saying "No" to extraneous and useless activities which aren't fun and offer no rewards in terms of promotion.
> Saying "Okay, if you say so" to insane ideas and colleagues to avoid getting drawn into ideological bullshit arguments. Then I just go ahead and do whatever the fuck I like anyway.
> Not internalising the stress and pressure that other academics like to create both on social media and in real-life.
> Leaving social media.
> Not comparing myself to colleagues. I'm on my own journey which is unrelated to others' successes or failures.

More generally, over the last three years, I've just really stopped giving a fuck. It's more of a general mindset and approach than a set of tactics as such though.

More generally, over the last three years, I've just really stopped giving a fuck. It's more of a general mindset and approach than a set of tactics as such though.

This has happened to me over the last year, after a lifetime of thinking that I was not the kind of person who could simply stop giving a fuck. But it happens! It's like something clicked inside me without me really doing anything. I'm HoD in a department populated mainly by more senior males who cannot resist mansplaining me all the time (sometimes even questioning, not even so subtly, whether I have understood an e-mail or a regulation... I'm also a non-native English speaker), our logistics and maintenance support is a shitshow, my department got absolutely roasted in the last NSS... two years ago, the thought of facing something like this would have filled me with dread and anxiety. Now I resent the fact that I have to be constantly alert to deal with the various shit that gets through my way so that it doesn't pile up in my e-mail inbox and become worse, but none of this impacts my sense of self-worth or self-esteem. These are annoyances rather than existential threats. In my case, what clicked was realizing that no matter how much I achieved or how collegial I was, my department, with all these senior males playing the self-important yet quirky and oh so lefty card (we're A&H after all), is never going to love me back. Doesn't matter - there's plenty of people out there, in academia and outside, who do.