Order and Repetition

Write every day. Read every day. Talk to colleagues regularly. Talk to students. Teach often. When you are not teaching, spend some time every other day thinking about how you might teach what you know. Think about how to keep the conversation going.

Notice that I am not suggesting you do anything "all the time". I am suggesting you return to each of the many aspects of your scholarship on a regular basis, one at a time. We could also add various administrative tasks, and that combination of research and administration activities that puts a funding application together. Never spend weeks and weeks, day in day out, on any one thing. That includes teaching. And it certainly includes writing. Even if you have "nothing else to do" for two weeks, don't imagine that you will do nothing but write. Reserve half of each day for other things. Some suggestions:

Write every day. Read every day. Talk to colleagues regularly. Talk to students. Teach often. When you are not teaching, spend some time every other day thinking about how you might teach what you know. Think about how to keep the conversation going.

Order emerges from repetition, not merely being repetitive. Your attention passes from one thing to another in a regular cycle. Scholars have better conditions than most people to control the speed and intensity with which they cycle through the tasks that must occupy their attention. And their attention, we must keep in mind, is the thing about them that is valuable. Scholars must pay attention to their object of specialization; they must pay attention to their peers; they must pay attention to their students. They are paid for their attention. It is important to build stable, orderly routines around them.

Write every day. Read every day. Talk to colleagues regularly. Talk to students. Teach often. When you are not teaching, spend some time every other day thinking about how you might teach what you know. Think about how to keep the conversation going.