Hallelujah! 2020 is almost over forever. I’m sure I’m not the only one who felt like this year was 15 years long. I am done with it and ready to move on. Who’s with me?!

While January 1^st is not my first choice for the “start of the year”, it is an opportunity for a fresh start and a time when many of us reflect on the past year and think about what we want to accomplish in the year ahead.

In this post, I’m going to talk about the different “years” that we deal with in academia (and as a parent if that is applicable to you) and how you can use that information to strategically plan your year.

As an academic, I think it’s important to understand the ebb and flow of your academic year in order to plan ahead and be strategic with how you invest your time and energy.

There are multiple “years” that you need to be aware of: 1) the calendar year, 2) the employment year, 3) the academic year, and 4) your children’s academic year (if applicable).

1. The calendar year. January 1^st to December 31^st. This is the most obvious year but other than taxes, vacation time, and the normal calendar, it is not actually the schedule that we really live by in academia. That being said, the calendar year can sometimes be used to your advantage (or not) when it comes to publications, conference presentations, and research grants.

2. The (university) academic year. This is another year that we are very familiar with since we have spent most of our adult lives at the university in some capacity. In Canada the academic year runs from September of one calendar year until August of the following one. It is divided into Fall Term (Sept-Dec), Winter Term (Jan-Apr), and Summer Term (which includes multiple course timeframes between May-Aug). For me, the academic year is all about teaching responsibilities, graduate student progress, and administrative deadlines. Normally professors are required to teach during 2/3 of these semesters/terms, with one term to focus more on research. That looks great on paper but in real life, most research happens over the full year, not just over 4 months. However, knowing your teaching responsiblities does allow you to prioritize the most time-consuming aspects of your research when you have less/no teaching.  

3. The employment year. Typically, this year is from July 1^st of one year to June 30^th of the following year. This is the “year” that counts towards probation, tenure, promotion, and years of service. Often you will be required to provide an updated CV or progress report by June 30^th every year to show what you have done in the last year. This year is also used to determine when you are eligible for sabbatical leave and your possible retirement dates.

The employment year is a bit awkward because it includes parts of two academic years: a) Academic Year 1: Tail end of summer term (July/August), and b) Academic Year 2: Fall term, Winter term, and first half of summer term (May/June). However, I still think it is the best year to use for planning as an academic.

If you are on the tenure track or pursuing promotion to full professor, you should absolutely print out a copy of your employment contract and write down the key dates related to submission of your applications for probationary review, tenure, and promotion. I also encourage you to go buy a sturdy 2-3′ binder and start creating your portfolio of evidence of meeting the criteria for tenure as you go. It is so much easier to do this as you go than waiting until the last minute!

4. Your kids’ academic year. If you have school-age children like I do, then you also deal with their academic calendar in your planning. In Canada, the school year runs from after labour day in September until the end of June. This year aligns almost perfectly with your employment year, minus the summer (July/August). Remember how the summer semester was supposed to have “extra” time for research? About that…

Seriously though, if you have kids, you need to find something for them to do when you are working in the summer and also plan for some family vacation time. If you are going to have students working for you in the summer you also need to consider how you are going to deal with that. Are you going to make them take vacation at the same time you do? Are there things that they can work on independently? Or maybe you have a post-doctoral fellow or senior graduate student who can step up and provide some leadership while you are on vacation?

Putting all these years together we get the following:

Note that I used the employment year as the base year for this because in my opinion it is the most important one as an academic employee. From this perspective, we are actually halfway through our “year” rather than at the beginning of it.

Planning Strategically for the next 6 months:

1. Make a list of the things that you must do in the next 6 months.
2. Is there anything that you can delegate, defer, or make easier? If yes, take action to make those things happen.
3. Schedule your remaining must dos into your calendar.
4. Make a list of the things that you want to do in the next 6 months.
5. Rank the items on your want list.
6. Schedule your want list by priority.

Example:

1. My MUST DO list for January-June 2021 looks like this:
   1. Teach graduate course on healthy public policy & determinants of health (online, synchronous)
   2. Teach undergraduate course on professional practice (online, asynchronous)
   3. Oversee development of specialty nursing professional development certificate
   4. Transition to Associate Dean role
   5. Move to Moncton for new role (sell house, find new place to live, etc.)
   6. Graduate student supervision (currently 4 students)
   7. Co-lead of 1 major research project
   8. Co-investigator on another major research project
   9. Sign up kiddo for summer day camps
2. Is there anything that you can delegate, defer, or make easier? Not really lol…
3. Schedule your remaining must dos into your calendar. Many of my must do commitments have weekly times allocated to them. For teaching, I also make sure that I put all of the assignment and test dates into my calendar and block off time for marking and meeting with students afterwards. Selling my house and moving is going to take up a lot of time and energy so I am going to wait until I am done teaching in April before I start looking for a realtor and putting the gears into motion for that. I have the advantage of having a lot of experience moving which will help but it is still a lot of work! Day camp sign ups are usually in May/June so I will put a reminder in my calendar for that.
4. My WANT to do list for January-June 2021 looks like this:
   1. Finish and submit 2 journal articles that I have been working on
   2. Have a big BBQ party to say goodbye to our Fredericton friends (depending on COVID19)
   3. Compete in a powerlifting competition
   4. Lose 20lb
   5. Plan a fun camping trip vacation
5. RANKED LIST:
   1. Plan a fun camping trip vacation
   2. Lose 20lb
   3. Finish and submit 2 journal articles that I have been working on
   4. Compete in a powerlifting competition
   5. Have a big BBQ party to say goodbye to our Fredericton friends (depending on COVID19).
6. Schedule your want list by priority.
   1. Planning for the camping trip vacation will actually have to happen later on once I have sold my house and have specific dates for moving. I am confident it will happen but even though it is #1 on the want list, it will have to wait.
   2. Losing 20# is an important goal for me this year. I have been sitting so much the past year and feel unhealthy. To work towards this goal I have scheduled in time for walking the dog twice a day and working out in my home gym. I also schdeuled in time for weekly meal planning, grocery pickup, and meal prep.
   3. These 2 articles are so close to being done! I blocked off time in the next 3 weeks to work on each of them and polish them up.
   4. I haven’t competed in powerlifting for 6 years (yikes) but it is something that I really like doing and would be fun to do with my powerlifting friends. The one I want to do is in early April on PEI which has been super strict with COVID19 restrictions. I’m still on the fence about this one because it is during a busy part of the semester and there is still a lot of uncertainty about COVID19. I also just realized that it is on Easter weekend so I think that specific competition is going to be a no for me this year. The next 6 months is going to be busy so while I will still work on my strength and fitness, I think the wise choice is to look at competing next year instead.
   5. BBQ party TBD…will have to wait and see!

I hope this process helps you with your planning for the next 6 months 🙂

Happy planning!