As new Asst. Profs begin their positions this semester, I& #39;m reminded that my first semester on the TT was the worst. I thought having nearly an entirely unscheduled semester would be great for productivity...it was my least productive semester ever

The lack of structure led to procrastination, inefficient writing, and then self-blame for being so unproductive. I had no students, no teaching load, no service requirements, so nothing concrete to build my schedule around

I also naively assumed that other faculty would reach out to me to schedule lunches, coffees, meetings to get to know me...although that happened occasionally, I should have been more proactive to reaching out to colleagues

I also wish I would have joined some writing groups to add structure to my week and also have some social support (I felt rather isolated that first semester)

Hope folks can learn from my mistakes and have a more productive and enjoyable first semester on the TT!