hey academics, guess what? you're allowed (even supposed to) have free time and to do what you wish with it: a thread inspired by someone asking me how I possibly have time to write a novel

I abhor the work-aholic culture of academia, regardless of whether it's real or performative. And I GET IT because there are times when I'm working way too much. But if I consistently worked so much that I LITERALLY had no time for anything else, I would quit.

Every year when I post my fiction recs ( https://caseyfiesler.com/fiction-reading-recommendations/) I get comments from folks about how they don't have time to read since they entered academia. Which may be true because of other obligations (kids, hobbies, etc.) but hopefully not JUST because of work.

"How do you possibly have time to write a novel?" is a great example. Because let's say I work 50 hours a week. That still leaves many hours for other things. I'm not writing a novel instead of writing papers/grants. I'm writing a novel instead of watching TV or gardening.

And yes, you SHOULD be watching TV or gardening or reading or going to the park with your family or taking yoga classes or playing games or writing a novel.

There are times (deadlines ugh) when you'll work too much to do other things, but not ALL the time or something is wrong.

And I'd like us to be able to talk about these excellent things we do in our free time without feeling like someone is thinking "well if they have time to do X then why haven't they finished that paper/written more grants/done that service obligation yet?" Your time is your own.

Like, sure, I could in theory do everything that I'm behind on on my to-do list (because trust me, there's a lot) if I decided to work 80 hours next week. But I'm not going to do that. And we shouldn't feel guilty during the time we're doing other things. Because we need that!

Anyway, the moral of this thread is: Cherish your free time, spend it however the you want, and don't feel like you can't talk about how you spend it. Work hard, play hard.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go back to binge-watching Umbrella Academy. Because it's Saturday.

p.s. plz reply or RT and tell us all about the ways you love spending your free time when you're not doing academic work

one more personal confession: despite all of this, I am very, very bad at taking "vacation" because I have so many immediate work obligations + meetings. I need to learn how to block off free time in days rather than hours.

But in the meantime, I'll take the hours. :)

update: I finished all of umbrella academy yesterday, just wrote 2k on the novel in 3 hours this morning, but now I have to do a bunch of reviews and finish editing a law review article

work life balance lol

I am loving the replies to this thread, keep them coming! :)