We’re midway through summer: that bittersweet time when I need to shift (or at least think about shifting) the focus of my work-life from writing to teaching. This summer, the shift feels more disorienting, yet richer in possibility, because I’ve been on sabbatical. Thanks to Mount Mercy University, I’ve been away from the classroom since January, and I’ve been writing.
What have I written? What have I discovered? A full account of my adventures in sabbatical land will appear in a forthcoming post. Right now, while I still have a bit of sabbatical left, I want to make the most of my transition out of it.
Brimming with sabbatical-induced energy and optimism, I’m asking these questions:
What is the best way to divide my time between writing and teaching? What is the best way to shift from one compelling task to another?
I hope these questions will be relevant not just to me and other writers and teachers, but to any of you who are lucky enough to engage in two (or more!) absorbing pursuits.
My questions go beyond the issue of time management to mind management. Attention management.
Maybe the basic question I’m asking is this: What is the most efficient way to shift and manage my focus?
Current Method: Minimizing Shifts Between Compelling Tasks
Ordinarily, I divide my writing and teaching time in order to minimize the number of shifts.
During the summer, when I’m not teaching, I devote nearly all my work time to writing. I focus only on what I’m trying to conjure into words. I savor the glorious experience of pure absorption.
Then a couple weeks before school starts (sometimes prompted by an anxiety dream), I devote nearly all my work time to class prep. I lose myself in developing schemes that will excite students about, say, Shakespeare’s miraculous complexity or their own abilities to produce lovely sentences and compelling ideas. During the semester, I become enthralled with my students themselves. Monday through Thursday when I teach, I’m all about making my students’ journeys the best they can be. Sometimes on Friday mornings and part of the weekend (especially if I have a writing deadline), I’m able to let go of my teaching and return to writing. But—alas!—sometimes I’m not.
The most obvious benefit to this method, this rhythm, is that it’s easy to focus on each activity. Writing or teaching, I’m all in. And when I’m working on a long-form project like a novel, I build much-needed momentum.
The obvious downside is the length of time away from each activity—especially writing. When I’m not in the midst of a writing project, I feel out of sorts. And it hurts to set aside a project midway when you suspect you’re not getting back to it for a while. The more immersed I am in the world I’ve created, the harder it is to leave.
The pleasures of my current method seem to create its difficulties.
Despite these emotional highs and lows (or maybe because of them?), I’ve been pretty productive.
As a teacher, I’ve created a lot of new courses (most recently LGBTQ+ Literature), and most of my courses feature high-impact practices: study abroad, service learning, many opportunities for revision.
As a writer, I’ve published (and reissued) three mystery novels. My husband, Ben Thiel, and I are seeking an agent or publisher for our dual memoir about his gender transition and its impact on our marriage. I’m drafting a fourth novel outside the mystery genre. Along the way, I’ve published a few poems, stories, scholarly articles. I’ve started this blog.
But I can’t help wondering. Could I be more productive? More peaceful? Do I need those highs and lows? These are genuine questions.
Alternative Method: Minimizing Time Away from Compelling Tasks
I intend to try a method that will minimize the length of time I’m away from writing. But it will, of course, increase the number of shifts between writing and teaching.
What if, much earlier in the summer (now!?), I devoted the morning to writing and part of the afternoon to course prep and the rest of the day to life: time with Ben and friends, time kayaking and other merriment? What if, when the academic year started, I was so well prepared for my teaching that I could write a bit each day or at least every Friday—guaranteed—during the whole school year?
I have tried this enticing method, and so far, it has not worked. I find it hard to quit writing; I find it hard to quit thinking about writing. So after I write, I don’t have much time or energy left for course prep. The same is true if I start my day or week with teaching-related work.
So if I’m to give this new method a legitimate chance, I need advice:
How do you segue between two compelling tasks?
How do you let go of one compelling task so that you can immerse yourself in another?
Reader, I really want to know. I plan to try your strategies to see if they work for me. I’d also love to hear from those of you who have been able to make both time-dividing methods work for you. Does one method make you more productive? Does one free up more emotional and intellectual energy for the rest of your life? Or is there some other midway method I have not yet envisioned?
Stay tuned as this experiment unfolds…