March 2025 PNP Roundup
Last Month in Review
Happy spring, dear readers! I’ve been delighted to discover that buds appear as early as February in the Netherlands, and we are now starting to see blossoms as well! Considering the broader gloom of the political state of the world of late, I’ve been happy to be reminded that spring returns after the gloom of winter. I hope this newsletter finds you in a similar state of hopefulness.
It’s the end of the month, which means it’s time for the roundup! Here are some of my favorite media I’ve consumed over the past month on writing, productivity, and managing all the things. Some of this content is new, some of it is old, but all of it has kernels of wisdom for busy academic writers.
1. These are the Publish Not Perish posts from March, in case you missed any:
2. I’m expanding Publish Not Perish to offer more structure, guidance, and community! Starting in April, paid subscribers will get access to new resources designed to help you keep writing with purpose.
What’s included in the new paid PNP subscription:
Quarterly Webinars (New!)—Interactive deep dives into academic writing & managing academic life. We’ll also record and summarize these for folks who cannot attend live.
A Monthly "How-To" Guide (New!)—Practical templates and frameworks you can immediately apply to your work.
The PNP Writing Circle—A community space for accountability, encouragement, and connection.
Full Access to All PNP Resources—A growing archive of more than 150K words of advice & strategies.
10% discount on Other Services—Receive a 10% discount on 1:1 coaching and courses.
3. One major challenge for academic writers is determining how to structure their time and unwieldy projects in ways that actually advance their goals.
and Dr. to the rescue! These two gems are offering a workshop on April 11 from 11am to 3pm EDT that many of my dear readers will find intriguing. It’s called Structuring as a Path to Sustainability andAfter this 4-hour session, you will leave with a personalized productivity plan, a repeatable project template, and deeper clarity on how to structure your days with more compassion and flexibility so you can make progress on your terms.
Here’s the link for more information!
4. I absolutely loved this episode of Leslie Wang's Your Words Unleashed podcast, in which she interviewed Dr. Roxanne Donovan about wellness in the academy. It’s a nuanced conversation centering women of color and discussing why it’s so structurally hard to support your own wellness, but also so essential.
Donovan says,
That also is a form of social justice. So it’s about kind of complicating these essentialized expectations of us in the academy that dehumanize us. If we lived in a society that valued wellness, that valued time off, that valued spaciousness, we wouldn’t be in conflict. If we were at institutions where there were tons of us, all doing similar work, if I said no, I would know that there are other people to pick up the mantle and do the work that care as much as I do.
But when we’re in under-resourced places, the pressure is seriously hard. And until we are in those whole humanizing spaces that value wellness, and I do believe we’ll get there one day, we’re definitely not there now, until we’re in those spaces.
Individuals have to make awful choices, but I hope those choices are in concert with being well enough to challenge the systems. So it’s a both/and. You gotta be well. You gotta be well in order to challenge systems.
You can read the transcript or listen to the episode here.
5. Many writers I’ve encountered in academia face emotional barriers to writing that stem from their fear of criticism and rejection. There’s a desire to bulletproof one’s work and, by extension, one’s self from negative experiences. I often work with folks through coaching to help them reframe what it means to write and put ourselves out there in the world, where we may be judged and rejected. That’s why when one of my dear readers shared this piece (thanks, Liz!), I knew I needed to share it with you.
What if instead of aiming for acceptances and acclaim, you aimed for rejections?
The author, Kim Lao, explains,
This small piece of advice struck a deep chord in my fragile creative ego. My vulnerable ego only wants to be loved and accepted, to have my words ring out from a loudspeaker in Times Square while a neon ticker scrolls the text across a skyscraper, but it’s a big old coward. My ego resists mustering up the courage to submit writing to literary magazines, pitch articles, and apply for grants, residencies, and fellowships. Yet these painful processes are necessary evils if we are ever to climb out of our safe but hermetic cocoons of isolation and share our writing with the world. Perhaps aiming for rejection, a far more attainable goal, would take some of the sting out of this ego-bruising exercise—which so often feels like an exercise in futility.
If rejection and scholarly critique are difficult for you to manage, I want you to know you are not alone. I would also encourage you to reframe the fear of rejection into something that you might have more agency over—like maybe even setting a rejection goal, as the article suggests. It may help you both normalize the experience and put yourself out there in the world!
6. Jane Jones, PhD, is offering a fantastic-looking workshop called Reclaim Your Writing Time: Find Five Quality Hours to Work on Your Book Every Week —Without Waking Up at 5am or Chugging Espresso! It’s Friday, April 4th, at 1pm EST. Jane is a wealth of knowledge on academic book writing, so this is a fantastic opportunity to gain some wisdom from her for a mere $57. Here’s the link to register!