In the first episode of season seven, the 10th year the Changing Academic Life podcast, I invite us to reflect on the theme of being intentional about what we want for ourselves at the beginning of this new academic year for many of us in the northern hemisphere, or for any temporal landmark that is relevant for you.

As example and inspiration, Anna Cox from UCL shortly shares her strategies for setting clear priorities, maintaining work-life balance, and managing her remaining 'available time to promise', recognising every yes entails a no to something else. This is a great example of the 'fresh start effect', using the temporal landmark of a new academic year, as talked about by Katy Milkman and colleagues, and reminds us of the importance of creating pauses for reflection.

So how will you be more intentional about your fresh start?

00:34 Introduction

01:27 Starting With Intention

05:28 Anna's Fresh Start 

07:05 Thinking About Priorities

09:01 Available Time to Promise

10:56 Creating Pauses to Think

12:20 Re-iterating Anna's Key Questions

16:29 Wrapping Up 

17:57 Pointers to Other Related Episodes

19:24 Wrapping up

20:31 End

Related links:

eWorkResearch group at UCL and Anna’s webpage and WLB definition 

Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Riis, J. (2014). The fresh start effect: Temporal landmarks motivate aspirational behavior. Management Science, 60(10), 2563-2582.

Loleen Berdahl, How to quit promising time and energy you don’t have

See www.changingacademiclife.com for an easy search for the related podcasts: Anna Cox, Marta Cecchinato, Johanna Stadlbauer, Amy Ko, Carmen Neustaedter, Katherine Isbister, Vikki Wright

Welcome to Changing Academic Life.

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I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick, and this is

a podcast series where academics and

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others share their stories, provide

ideas, and provoke discussions about what

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we can do individually and collectively

to change academic life for the better.

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Welcome to this new season

of changing academic life.

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It'll be called season seven.

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For some reason, I haven't been very

good at numbering my seasons because it

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is actually the 10th year that I will

have had the privilege of hosting this

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podcast series and sharing some stories

and insights from amazing people who are

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making all sorts of interesting different

choices about how to navigate academia

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and academic life, as well as discussions

about how we can create a better kinder,

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more collaborative, more collegial,

academic culture together, where we

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really recognize wellbeing as a foundation

for being able to do great work.

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For this new season coming up I've

already got a couple of great episodes

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recorded, and you'll hear about them

in due course as they get released.

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In this first welcome episode

of the season, though, I thought

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it could be useful to briefly

touch on the theme of being

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intentional, starting with intention.

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And that's because many of us in

the Northern hemisphere, autumn is

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the start of our new academic year.

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And even for those of us who are what I

call un salaried, there's something still

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about the same rhythm in terms of work.

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These sorts of beginnings can be really

useful points of reflection about how we

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want to be more intentional and in terms

of what we want this new year to be.

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And reflecting on what's within our

control towards making this happen.

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Katy Milkman and colleagues from

the Wharton School at University

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of Pennsylvania talk about this as

the fresh start effect where we can

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make use of these sorts of temporal

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management science paper "to demarcate

the passage of time, creating many new

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mental accounting periods each year.

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Which relegate past imperfections to a

previous period and induce people to take

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a bigger picture view of their lives and

thus motivate aspirational behaviors."

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End of quote.

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And I'll put a link to this

paper on the episode webpage.

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And a fresh start will be different

for each of us, an intentional

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fresh start . Certainly.

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One of the themes that I think comes

across in all of the conversations that

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I have is that everyone is different.

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Everyone has different priorities.

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Are happier with different sorts of trade

offs when they make decisions and so on.

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And I had the opportunity to chat

recently with the wonderful Anna Cox,

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and while I had her on the line about

something else, altogether different, I

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used the opportunity to ask her what's

she doing about being intentional for

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the start of her new academic year.

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And she very kindly let me recorded

it and what you'll hear is what

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she came up with on the fly.

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And Anna is a great person to speak to

because this isn't just something that's

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part of her deeply reflective practice

for her own work, but it's also her

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area of research at UCL where they look

at the role of digital technology and

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workplace effectiveness and focusing

particularly on issues like productivity

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and work life balance and wellbeing.

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Anna has a great definition of work life

balance that's worth reading out here,

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she defines work life balance as quote,

"feeling in control of how you balance the

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various demands of all aspects of one's

life to support and enable wellbeing.

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In this context, wellbeing is about more

than just trying to avoid being ill.

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It also encompasses feelings of

happiness, fulfillment, and job

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satisfaction to achieve complete

physical, mental and social wellbeing."

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You can find this definition along

with lots of their other research

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around work on eworkresearch.org.

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That's e work research all one word.

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Again, I'll include a link to

this on the episode webpage.

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So over to Anna and her reflections

on how she's starting this new

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academic year with more intention.

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Anna: We're at the end of the academic

year and I've spent this last academic

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year on sabbatical and it's been it's been

interesting in lots of ways, but one of

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the things that I did was clear the decks

to take my sabbatical, and now I'm scared

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of putting anything back on the decks.

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It's had an interesting

effect on me, I think.

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I wonder how I did all the things

I did before and I'm much more, I

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keep seeing opportunities before

where my initial reaction is

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still, oh, I could apply for that.

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Geri: Yeah.

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Like the shiny object syndrome.

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Anna: Yeah.

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And then now I think, oh, but

do I actually want to do that?

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Then I take time thinking about

would I actually want to do that?

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And I'm certainly not cured.

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I applied for something just this year,

which I didn't get, but I, I went all

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the way through the recruitment process.

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And, and on reflection.

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It was to do something that is not

something I particularly enjoy.

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I don't even know why I applied

for it other than it was a shiny

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thing I could just apply for.

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Geri: That's interesting.

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So when you are talking about clearing

the decks and scared about putting

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anything back on your plate, does

that mean there are some things that

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are on your plate to start with and

you don't want to add things to it?

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Or have you got a totally empty plate?

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Anna: Well, it's not totally empty,

so when I, you know, restart for the

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new academic year, I know what my

teaching will be next year and I have

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my objectives for the year, which

have come from my appraisal process.

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Mm-hmm.

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And I put quite a lot of effort into

that this year in terms of thinking

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about what were the things that I

really wanted to be on there and

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making sure it's a really small list.

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Mm-hmm.

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Um, I think one of the things that I have

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been thinking about is

that the word priority.

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Like means one thing is more

important than everything else.

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So you can't really have many priorities.

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Because then they're not priorities.

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Geri: Ooh, good point.

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Anna: So, so I try to have

one thing that is important.

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So for my, for the coming year.

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Have three main objectives.

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And so how do I make those such that each

can have its time when it is the priority?

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I basically split them up over the year.

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So that means that the first four

months of the year I work on where

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one is the main thing, the next

four months is when the other thing.

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And it doesn't necessarily mean that

the first one has to be done at the

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end of the four months, but just that

you turn up the dial on that, I guess.

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So that becomes the main thing.

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But with three things to deliver that I

think are all fairly big, chunky things,

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if then something else comes my way.

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I'm not really sure how

I'm going to fit it in.

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So the other thing that I have already

done is this exercise, which is

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called time available to Promise,

where you, you kind of, you make a

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list of all the things you're already

committed to and you work out roughly

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how much of your time that will take.

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And you also work out how much of

your time will be taken, you know,

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how much of your time do you want to

work and you take one number away from

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the other and you see what's left.

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And when there is no time left,

which is the situation I'm in, so

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that means if I take something else

on, something else has got to give.

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And that's either my personal time or

it's something on the list of work that's

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gonna have to come off, or be reduced.

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And how my.

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You know, so it makes you

think about these things.

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Geri: Oh, lovely.

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Because every Yes entails

a no to something else.

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Anna: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And so I think it's useful

thinking about what that might be.

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What is the thing that

you're gonna say no to?

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And sometimes it's really easy.

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There's something you've done

for a long time and you're like,

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I don't need to do that anymore.

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I can say no to that.

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Or something you're not enjoying.

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But sometimes it's really hard deciding.

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Geri: Yeah.

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I often think that it's harder

to say no to the things that you

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want to do, that you'd like to do.

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Yeah.

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I mean, it part, some of it's

shiny objects, some of it's

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fear that it won't come again.

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Anna: Yeah.

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Geri: And yeah, that thing of what

you said before about pausing to think

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about stuff is important because if

you can recognize that first instinct

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to wanna go, oh yeah, that's exciting.

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Without having in the cold

light of day thought through,

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what's your time available?

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Anna: Yeah.

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And, and I think remembering, I mean,

at least for me, remembering that

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I need to pause and think is hard.

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Yeah.

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So I have a recurring item in

my calendar to write down what I

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have done against my objectives.

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So to track progress.

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So one place where I just track

everything once a month, but that

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kind of helps me keep in touch with

the things I've promised to do.

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Geri: Like your commitment to

yourself as the first priority.

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Anna: Yeah.

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In a way, because otherwise it will, you

know, I'll start imagining that, oh, next

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term, I've got loads of time to do things.

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Yeah.

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'cause I've forgotten the

things I've already, or they're

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just not completely forgotten.

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But something comes along that you

think, oh, I'd like to do that.

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But.

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And that in the moment is just more

salient than the things you haven't

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started that you really also wanna do.

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Geri: Well they're great pointers

just to set us off thinking with,

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so thank you very much, Anna.

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Anna: You are welcome.

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Geri: Well, that was great, wasn't it?

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So much food for thought and such

important questions to ask ourselves.

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I'd like to repeat them here and reframe

them as prompts for us all to think with.

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So what do you want for

yourself for this year?

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And start off thinking about what

is important to you to have in

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your life, in your non-work life.

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This is your number one priority,

and what do you need to do to

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protect time to make that happen?

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Can you put it in the calendar?

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Is it signing up for events or

meetings or courses or clubs?

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What do you need to do to protect that

time for you, for your friends, for your

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family, for rest, for doing nothing.

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Important time.

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And then the question Anna asked.

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How much time do you want to work and

being intentional about setting that.

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Because that puts a limit to the

amount of available time you have.

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And given that time,

think about Anna's plate.

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What do you really want

to be on your plate?

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And I loved her point about

everything cannot be a priority,

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otherwise nothing's a priority.

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So what is your small list of the

really top priorities that you want

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to focus on for this coming year?

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And again, how do you make this as

a promise to yourself and how do you

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practically create the quality blocks

of time and space to work on those

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things that are on your priority list.

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And then what is the time left

that you have available to promise?

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And I'll put a link on the webpage

to the article by Loleen Berdahl

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that unpacks questions much more

deeply to help you think about what

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time you have available to promise.

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And this article is beautifully

titled, how to Quit Promising Time

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and Energy that You Don't Have

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Because Time is a finite resource

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and as Anna said.

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What are, you know, being clear about

what are you going to say no to?

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Because you can't say yes to everything

and every yes you say will necessarily

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entail a no to something else.

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There are always trade offs.

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So how do you prevent trading off

against things that are important

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to you, whether that's the things

that are important to you for your

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own time, health, family wellbeing.

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Or the things that are important to

you for work where other people's

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priorities take precedence.

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So being realistic about this.

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And finally, Anna's challenge around

how to create the pauses to stop

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and reflect and to stick to the

promise to yourself to focus on

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what's important and to manage that.

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So how do you build in those pauses?

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So.

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All the very best starting off

this new academic year for those

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for whom it is a new start.

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And for those in the southern

hemisphere or on other work rhythms,

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find other temporal landmarks that

you can use as your own fresh start.

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Just to reset, reframe,

reconnect to priorities.

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A limited number of priorities.

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The things that'll really

make a difference to you.

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The things that will contribute

to that bigger picture view.

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And that contribute to what Anna

includes in that definition of wellbeing.

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Which is around happiness and fulfillment

and satisfaction and achieving complete

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physical, mental, and social wellbeing.

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And these are just foundational for being

able to do great work, which is why we

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are here, despite all of the constraints

that the current context entails.

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And I do appreciate that for many people

there are significant changes happening

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at the moment, and challenges as with

restructurings and budget challenges and

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increasing demands, but still taking that

time to reflect on what is it that you

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can control towards at least shifting the

dial a little bit towards more of what

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you want to do and what you love to do,

and where you can have your best impact.

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And if you want to hear more from

Anna, you can go back and listen to a

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full conversation that I had with her.

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And that episode was from March,

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about a lot of her strategies around

trying to reflect on her own work

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practices and what she was doing then.

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I also did a short solo episode

called Stop the Purposeful Pause.

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And I could point you to various

other episodes where people have

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shared strategies about approaching

their work with more intention

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using our language from today.

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In particular.

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I can point ,you to Marta Cecchinato,

who also worked with Anna previously,

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and, Marta talked about digital

wellbeing and micro boundary strategies.

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Johanna Stadlbauer about

boundaries as well.

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Carmen Neustaedter talked about

tracking his work and being surprised

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about what came out of that data.

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Amy Ko also talks about very

deliberate practices for

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tracking and structuring work.

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Katherine Isbister talked about being

productive within eight to five.

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Vicki Wright had also talked about

role-based time blocking as a strategy.

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There are many, many episodes

that connect on these and similar

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themes that might give inspiration.

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So I look forward to sharing

this new season with you and

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bringing many more conversations.

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That can become part of our ongoing

collective conversation about how

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we individually and collectively can

change academic life for the better.

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You can find the summary notes, a

transcript and related links for this

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podcast on www.changingacademiclife.com.

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You can also subscribe to Changing

Academic Life on iTunes, Spotify,

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and I'm really hoping that we can

widen the conversation about how

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we can do academia differently.

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And you can contribute to this by rating

the podcast and also giving feedback.

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And if something connected with

you, please consider sharing this

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podcast with your colleagues.

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Together we can make change happen.