A close friend of mine had her birthday recently. She lives in a different state, and we had scheduled a ‘phone date’ for that day. We planned on chatting in the afternoon, but she texted me saying we will need to talk another day. I wished her a happy birthday over text.
A few days later, we spoke on the phone. She had initially decided to take her birthday off from work, but in the morning, decided to take a few meetings. She works in academia as a staff member and works remotely on certain days. After the first meeting, she took in more meetings (what’s one more…), and without her realizing it was already 4 PM.
She mentioned how she might have a ‘problem’ with overworking. This made me think about how most folks in academia do not have a proper work-life balance. I observed this during graduate school where almost all faculty had no ‘life’ outside of work. Writing million-dollar grants, managing students and postdocs, often micromanaging group dynamics, teaching large classes while possibly not knowing any of the students’ names, endless committees… I did not want that life. When I graduated, my motto was ‘Anything but Academia.’
Yet, here I am. But apart from a few very stressful years in the beginning (it was awful), my career has been mostly relaxing. There are stressful days, for sure, but I put my ‘other life’ first, always, even pre-tenure. It is easy to get myself injected into all the things that need to be done, because, there is always ‘something,’ but ‘something’ can wait while I take an hour-long walk with my dog. Or have a cup of tea on my back porch and just stay there for a while listening to birds knowing there are ‘things to do.’
“Things” will always get done. As of now, I have to write four recommendation letters for students, and one write-up for a teaching observation I did for a colleague. It’s Sunday today, and a nice day at that, so instead of all that, I did about 4-hours of yard work, and then some house cleaning. Tomorrow seems to be nice weather, so I plan to walk to work, even when it takes about 2-hours of the day. As is my daily step goal, everything will still get done on time. In my experience, work-life balance in academia can be an oxymoron if we don’t prioritize the ‘life’ part intentionally. Naturally, some days it’s easier said than done.
I often tell my students to do something for themselves every day, besides school work. This is part of an email I received a few weeks ago.
“Thank you for the advice. The walk was definitely needed and I just thought you should know it at least helped one student.”
Photo: Arches National Park in Utah.
