Managing your workload as a full-time academic

Overwork is rampant in academe.

Whether you are tenure-track, tenured, or some other kind of full-time (temporary or otherwise), the Tenured Radical has some of the best advice I’ve ever seen. It may seem harsh, but you are strongly advised to do everything she says.

Here are some snippets to tempt you:

Yeah, baby. The problem is, there is almost no one I know in academia who has a job description that would give them a reasonable sense of where a professor’s job begins and ends. Couple this with the reality of being tenure-track (or worse, a full-time visitor), which often seems like an endless exercise in pleasing everybody, all the time, in every way we can. Top it off with the fact that we learn early on not to complain about being overworked because some jackass will look at us piously and say, “You just have to learn to say no to things!” (subtext: say no — except to me) as if you are overworked because, somewhere along the line, you forgot to say your safeword.

…

How can this year can be different? How can you create a plan of action that will make this year different? The answer is: Take charge. The answer is: Write your own job description, using these principles.

• Knowing your appropriate load allows you to know your overload.
• If you have a joint appointment, total the activities of each part of your appointment and divide them in half.
• If you are a visitor or a post-doc, do your job well and politely decline to do favors or spend time on anything institutional you have not been hired for.
• Limit the number of recommendations you agree to write, and be clear with students what they need to do for you.
• Do not volunteer, stupid.
• Underrepresented faculty in underrepresented fields have no obligation to extend themselves without end to under-served students.
• Your scholarship is part of your job

She elaborates on all of them. GO READ IT!