An academic version of New Year’s resolutions

Each year when January rolls around we hear about New Year’s resolutions. It is tempting to set some goals or promise ourselves a new start on some aspect of our lives. As you probably know, a pitiably few people ever reach those goals or stick with those resolutions, and most of their motivation is gone by March or April. Is it wrong to want a new start? No, but maybe there’s a better way to change some things in our lives at this time of year, and the way I suggest we do it is through adopting new habits. 

By now you have may have likely heard of James Clear’s Atomic Habits. In this international bestseller, Clear breaks down progress according to systems, not goals. After all, everyone at the Olympics wants a gold medal; every job finalist wants the job. However, only one person gets there. Therefore, the goal is not the issue, it is the habits and systems that underpin such goals that can mean the difference between success and failure (ex. never miss a day of exercise, no matter how brief). Clear reminds us that if we get just one per cent better on a regular basis, by the end of the year, we will not be recognizable. It all makes sense, and I think we intuitively know that the journey is the key, not the destination. 

So, what does that look like for academics? I would suggest that if you are looking for a change, look to daily habits that either take you closer to where you want to be or further away. Spending too much time on email? Make a decision to check three times a day: morning, after lunch and before you leave the office. I have recently been coaching an academic who feels she must check email before going to bed. Not much happens at night in the workplace, so it has just become a bad habit that keeps her on her phone. Making a resolution to check only three times a day is one way to keep that distraction at bay. And if you can cut that down to two or even one, go for it! 

Having trouble setting aside focus time to work on projects? Perhaps a habit of getting up 30 minutes earlier (and, at the same time, going to bed 30 minutes earlier) will give you some alone time or time to focus on work before 9 a.m., when most of us have more control over our timetables. If you don’t have children, a stint in the evening when the workday is over might serve the same purpose. If you do have children, finding time to work around their schedules is difficult. Again, early morning or a chunk of time after bedtime may be your best bet. The key is to block off time that is not interrupted by people or messages and to stick to the plan consistently. 

Do you find yourself procrastinating about grading? Make it a habit that when an assignment or test comes in, you go to a pleasant place like a coffee shop or the school cafeteria, get a nice beverage, and get down to brass tacks for a couple of hours until you are done, or have met a quota of grading. Don’t take calls or emails during that time, and even if you don’t like marking (I personally hate it), don’t let anything distract you during this time. Block the time in your calendar so no one can make a meeting during your work time. 

You can also do what Clear calls “habit stacking.” The formula is, “when I do X, then I immediately do Y”. For an academic, that can be “at the end of a meeting, I always review with people what was accomplished and ask who has the next action to take on whatever project we are working on.” This is a great habit to get in to, whether you are trying to change your behaviours or not, because most meetings leave people open-ended and without clear direction as to what they should do with the outcomes of that meeting.  

Habit stacking can be applied to tasks that don’t happen as often too. At the end of the semester, when my teaching duties have paused and exams start, I devote time, usually no more than a few hours over a day or two, to redesign courses. This is my time to find new readings, tinker with assignments, and overhaul, if necessary. I find that adding this  to my end-of-semester routine saves time in the longer run and makes the transition into the next semester much easier. 

If you take small, one per cent increments of improvement in various areas of life and make them habitual and automatic, it relieves your full academic brain from having to remember things, prioritize them, and schedule them. We all have too much on our minds – that’s the nature of our difficult jobs – but making certain things habitual will get you much farther by the end of the year than lofty goals that are likely to sputter when real life hits you.