Bobbi Gentry, Bridgewater College
Recently, I had a conversation with a colleague who asked me about my research process. They wanted to know how I was able to be so productive in my scholarship, even though we both teach at a small liberal arts college with a three/four load. Recognizing that this is a struggle for many of my colleagues and the value of my organizational strategy for getting everything done at work and doing what I want to in my “spare” time. This product is the result of that conversation and thinking about what works for me. Please feel free to share and edit it to make your own. I will also attach my examples of organization for you to download and adapt for yourself.
I have had to work hard, ha!, to not be a workaholic. Luckily, I have learned there is more to life than work; I learned the hard way being an untenured chair of a department working fifty to sixty hour workweeks. One question to ask each other is what are we working for? For what purpose? Thinking through that, a friend of mine gave me a wonderful gift with this question: Does it feed you or does it deplete you? Do more of what feeds you and less of what depletes you. Now, I know we can’t just shrug off responsibilities like assessment or departmental meetings, but we can ask ourselves what are we doing that supports our ability to continue to be teacher scholars and create a healthy work/life balance? Below are my strategies.
I have a semester breakdown of teaching, research and service along with how many hours per week that this work takes up (See Breakdown). Writing these down also let’s you see where you are spending your time. You can also reflect on if your time is spent in places where you are being evaluated. I also find that this is an important tool when others ask me to do additional work, I show them my current breakdown and ask them what they would like me to not do so that I can do what they would like me to. Having this visual makes it clear to yourself and others what your priorities are and where you are spending your time. Most of my time as a teacher scholar is devoted to my students either in one on one meetings or with teaching, then research, then service.
| Teaching | Research | Service |
| Research Methods-5 hours | TLC Advising Professional Development | Research Resource Group |
| Intro to American Govt- 5 hours
|
TLC Grand Theft student | Flight Path Committee |
| Public Policy-5 hours | SSN Grant Paper | Poli Sci Dept Assessment- 30 min |
| Professional Development 2 hours | Community Engagement Committee | |
| 14 Advisees- Variable 1-3 hours | Pi Sigma Alpha Advisor 1 hour | |
| Senior Seminar – 4 hours | Virginia 21 Advisor | |
| 22-24 hours per week
|
5 hours per week | 5 hours per week |
For the semester, I write a week by week guide to what projects I want to work on along with important dates such as deadlines, conferences, or holidays. I know that the beginning of the semester and the end of the semester are going to be full of meetings, and responsibilities, so I schedule less research during that time. The guide also allows me to see how my two major projects line up, and to see if there is a third project that I can work on in short bursts.
Then I do a weekly schedule. This lets me know when I am supposed to be doing what, and you will notice it does not have weekends or nights on it. I also schedule time for lunch, which is a great time to connect with my colleagues across the institution.
There are two major ways that I have seen that teacher scholars think about research time; either they need huge chunks of time, such as hours, or they can do small bursts of research in a shorter time (15-to-30-minute chunks). Neither of these is better than the other. The important idea is to figure out which one you prefer and schedule accordingly. In these 15-minute chunks (my preferred method), I am able to morselize my projects into manageable pieces and I feel less overwhelmed.
I journal about my research every morning—this helps to get the emotional baggage out and to focus my thoughts. There will always be doubts during the research process, and having time to journal about that lets me work on and focus on what is really creating a barrier to my project or ways I can think about the work differently. This can be a short time; and I just use a composition notebook. The idea is to write every day even if it is in 15-minute chunks (Bolker, 1998), even if it is journaling about your research. At the end of my journaling, I write a daily task list of what I want to accomplish that day and I only do a max of 5 items (Pausch, 2007). Time management research tells us that we can only complete 5 things well in one day, so I stick to that!
I give myself GRACE. Instead of beating myself up over not getting work done, I acknowledge that the previous day was not “productive”. Acknowledging not working and making a plan to address it is a valuable part of the process. Sometimes I am not productive because I am waiting on others or there is a serious challenge with what I am doing, such as a hard topic like intersectional identity and politics which plagued me last year.
Lastly, I take to heart what I teach my students, which is two important aspects of being an adult are knowing when to ask for help and the second, which is actually asking for help. I have projects that I work on with colleagues and I have my solo work. But I am not alone in my research. I collaborate with others because they have an expertise that is essential to the project, and they can keep me accountable. I also consider the work that I am doing outside the classroom as ways to engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning, such as curriculum design, assessment, or writing in political science. Consider some of your institutional or departmental work as ways to publish your learning as scholarship. For instance, my work with internships resulted in the APSA publication Political Science Internships: Towards Best Practices.
Getting IT done is about finding strategies that work for you as a teacher scholar, and borrowing from others knowledge that you can use to be successful in your work without overworking.
Supplemental Resources
- Gentry Research Timeline List, Fall 2023
- Breakdown of Teaching Research Service, SP23
- Spring 2023 Schedule
References
Bolker, Joan. Writing your dissertation in fifteen minutes a day: A guide to starting, revising, and finishing your doctoral thesis. Holt Paperbacks, 1998.
Pausch, Randy. The Last Lecture. Delivered at Carnegie Mellon University. 2007.
Van Vechten, Renee B., Bobbi Gentry, and John C. Berg. “Political Science Internships: Towards Best Practices.” 2021.
Additional Scholarship from Bobbi Gentry 1. Political Science Internships: Towards Best Practices 2. School of Hard Knocks: Rebuilding a Program 3. Grand Theft Student: Strategies and Tactics for Political Science 4. Advising and Identity Development: Insights for Political Science
Bobbi Gentry is Associate Professor of Political Science at Bridgewater College. She is an expert in American politics, media and politics, youth voting behavior, political identity development, the science of teaching and learning, and political science education. She served as the Editor of the Political Science Educator from 2016 to 2021. She is the co-chair of TLC at APSA 2024, APSA’s Teaching and Learning Conference within a Conference. She is also a current member of APSA Educate’s advisory board (2022-2024).
