Rewind: Going with the Flow

Why Slow Work Days, Rest, and Hobbies Make Us More Productive

Photo by Ezra Jeffrey-Comeau on Unsplash

Academia can sometimes feel like you’re fighting for your life. The pressure to perform, to excel, or to win can make us feel like we constantly have to be working at a frenetic pace. Both graduate students and new faculty believe they must sprint throughout the day in order to do their jobs and do them well. If you've been reading Publish Not Perish for a while, you know that I promote carefully organizing your schedule in order to achieve your objectives and lessen some of the pressure that comes with this job. I argue for planning your writing schedule like you plan your syllabus, for example.

I must admit, though, that I'm not a planner or a type-A personality by nature. Planning and goal-setting are learned abilities that aid me in negotiating the challenging terrain of a career that doesn't actually allow much time for research and writing. This means that for someone who doesn't naturally gravitate toward these strategies, scheduling, planning, and achieving can become exhausting.

To combat this, I take periods of time where I abandon the hamster wheel of planning and achieving and just go with the flow. To illustrate the “going with the flow” mindset, I return to some lessons I’ve learned while training the martial art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu for nearly 10 years. I’ve written about the lessons I’ve learned from my martial arts practice before, and likely will again!