It’s September 1. I’ve often called the last week of August “the week of broken dreams” for academics, because it’s our nature to have big research and writing plans for the summer that inevitably never quite pan out. (Adjust dates as necessary for southern hemisphere.) 1/7

Nothing to be ashamed of. Whether in grad school or in contingent or permanent positions, academics constantly wrestle with how to manage their time and projects, and the tradeoffs with the rest of their lives, including leisure and vacation time. It is always challenging. 2/7

(Personally, I have carried around the weight of that gnawing feeling: “I could be writing right now” continually since 1993.). 3/7

As I’ve said before, summer + sabbaticals are contradictions for academics. We treat them as a REST from teaching work…so that we can SURGE ahead on research work. And inevitably we look back with regret that we didn’t do enough on the latter…that we didn’t WORK enough. 4/7

Of course in the bizarro year 2020, everything is even crazier. Regular routines and child care are gone; kitchen tables have become offices; long-term planning is two weeks ahead. And yet: hands up for anyone who still wrestles with “I could be writing right now…” 5/7

I also assume most academics have spent their summers primarily trying to prepare for a very unusual teaching term. And I assume no one feels ready…even if they had planned to be by now. See “broken dreams” above. 6/7

My point: the above is all normal. You likely didn’t accomplish the things you had hoped…realistically, honestly, best guess, being totally practical…hoped to do this summer. I sure didn’t…again. (Every summer since 1993!) And that’s okay. 7/7