Why I don’t get any research done

September 8, 2011 by John

The semester has barely started and I already feel like I am treading water. I have short essays to grade from each of my three classes, committee meetings, and meetings with students. Beyond this and my recurring Major Procrastination Disorder, I’m also teaching my third entirely new course since starting my job. In total, I’ve taught seven different courses since starting just over two years ago. With so much emphasis on course prep (I’ve never had a semester when I didn’t have to prep a new course or substantially revise an old one), once assignments and exams start rolling in there isn’t much time for anything else. Then, when there is a moment when I finish my teaching-related work I feel like I’m “done.” This feeling is similar to the lack of motivation I felt as a student after completing a major paper. In these moments I often think of the research projects I want to work on. I think about them as I’m drifting off to sleep for a rare mid-afternoon nap.

Posted in Major Procrastination Disorder, SLAC, Teaching Tricks, The Publication Gauntlet | Tagged Academic Workload, Course Prep, Major Procrastination Disorder, Research, Teaching | 4 Comments

4 Responses

on September 13, 2011 at 9:43 pm A week in the life « Memoirs of a SLACer

[...] discussed how much I typically work in a week and the challenges of accomplishing anything that isn’t teaching related, but I’ve never discussed what an actual work week looks like. This post seeks to fill this [...]
on September 20, 2011 at 9:04 pm Opportunity knocks « Memoirs of a SLACer

[...] government subcommittee. While this will surely take away from the time that I have to spend on other things, I hope that it is time well spent. Eco World Content From Across The Internet. Featured on [...]
on October 11, 2011 at 9:22 pm The overworked type « Memoirs of a SLACer

[...] that I’ve felt extra-busy this semester, a few recent discussions of work habits caught my eye. First was a post by Female [...]
on January 24, 2012 at 9:01 pm The semester I’ve been waiting for « Memoirs of a SLACer

[...] and service duties, adding additional off-campus involvement this year. In that time period I still haven’t had any time for research. Through the first two and a half years there has also been another factor contributing to my lack [...]

Comments are closed.

Memoirs of a SLACer

sociological views on life and the liberal arts