Protect your time: Play offense AND defense
First order of business: Let’s give away some books! I just received 20 more copies of A Field Guide to Grad School to send to prospective and current PhD students in the United States. If you’d like a copy, enter the giveaway linked below (details at the end of the newsletter).
Second order of business: I’m writing more on LinkedIn. For whatever reason, it feels easier for me to share there (maybe because I can’t see how many people don’t read my posts!). Those posts tend to be more personal day-to-day reflections and observations. So if you’re curious, you can find them on my profile. Most recently, I wrote about getting older and questions faculty job seekers should ask prospective departments.
Third order of business: This post! This semester, I’m working on protecting my time. I’ve set this goal before, but I’ve never quite landed on strategies that stick. And keep in mind — protecting your time is appropriate at any career stage. As a PhD student, I was under the impression that if I didn’t have something scheduled, that time was available for anyone and anything. Wrong! Everyone has the right to set boundaries. So, with all this said, here are the strategies I’m implementing this term to protect my time in some important domains of my academic life.
MEETING TIMES
This term, I am reluctant to accommodate meeting times that are far outside those times I consider to be my typical work hours. For me, this means that only special circumstances would lead me to schedule meetings of any kind after 6pm (an exception would include opportunities to meet with student clubs on campus, many of which meet in the evening). I am also aiming to stack my meetings. This means that meetings outside regular standing meetings must largely take place right before or after a standing meeting. It’s difficult for me to optimize my work time when I have gaps between meetings. And when in meetings, I will end them prematurely if possible rather than arbitrarily continue to meet until the planned end time. Finally, not everything requires a meeting. If it can be an email, I’m going to suggest we proceed with email rather than meeting. So, to recap:
I am enforcing meeting time boundaries.
I am aiming to place non-recurring meetings right before or after standing ones, reducing wasted time between commitments.
If a meeting finishes early, I end it. There’s no reason to fill the full block just because it’s on the calendar.
Not everything requires a meeting. Sometimes an email works better, and I’ll suggest that.
TEACHING
Teaching is a core part of my professional identity, and I care deeply about creating effective and engaging classrooms. I was especially honored to receive Stony Brook’s 2025 Excellence in Teaching Innovation Award, which recognizes the effort I put into designing courses that push students to connect theory to practice.
That said, last term I stretched myself too thin. I created too many new lectures, invited multiple guest speakers, recorded asynchronous interviews with industry experts, built a custom client project, managed a Discord channel, and ran an Instagram account with between-class learning checks. It was too much.
So, this semester, I’m making intentional changes:
Students disliked group projects, so I replaced them with a simulation students complete on their own. It gives them practice with social media marketing tools (something they indicated wanting more practice with) without the stress of group logistics.
I stepped away from Discord. Although I wanted to be accessible, I found myself unable to set boundaries with instant messages. Now students can reach me via email, our learning management system, or office hours (options they had before but didn’t typically avail themselves of given the easy access to Discord). Importantly, these current options serve them and protect my time.
I no longer spend unlimited hours tweaking lectures. Teaching will take as long as I let it, and perfection isn’t sustainable (don’t let perfection be the enemy of *more than* good enough!). If I can’t revise a lecture in, let’s say, two hours, I jot down notes for the next term. This keeps me accountable without compromising quality.
SERVICE
I will always be a good colleague and do my fair share of service work. But I can’t always be the first person to say yes (and, to be clear, I’m not!). This term, I’m letting service requests sit in “email quarantine” for a while (along with most other emails). I’m not going to earn tenure because I was the quickest to respond to an email!
That doesn’t mean I’m shirking responsibility. I’ll continue to do what’s needed to support my department, university, professional societies, and disciplines broadly, but I need to do so more strategically.
So, this semester, I am:
Not immediately responding to service requests (though there will be exceptions, I’m sure).
Identifying where I can have the largest impact with my service, and keeping active tabs on how many commitments I take on.
Balancing responsibilities across different domains so no one area consumes all my energy.
What has all this meant for me so far? Even in the first couple of weeks, these strategies have made a difference. This past week, I clawed back around 12 hours of my time. I used this time to move major research projects forward and to do things that bring me joy, like writing this post.
Until next time!
How to reach me: You are always welcome to email me (letstalkgradschool@gmail.com). You can also find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Want to support my #hiddencurriculum efforts? Consider “buying me a coffee” via Ko-fi. All funds will be put back into Marginalia (formerly Let’s Talk Grad School) initiatives (i.e., webinars, buying/mailing books, etc.). Learn more about my efforts here.
Let’s give away some books: Readers located in the United States are eligible to enter the book giveaway to receive a copy of A Field Guide to Grad School by Dr. Jessica Calarco. To do so, complete this survey and note that you only have to complete it once to be entered in all subsequent giveaways!
Wishing you all the best!
Margaret