2017 was a very productive year for me (thank you, dear Productivity and ThisIsMyEra planners). This is what I have done:
- Wrote 3 new articles. Each of them was on a new topic for me (Transition, immigrants and theater/film). I believe that 3 articles a year is perfect because you can do one each semester and one in the summer, which is a stride I find very doable, even while teaching 3 classes per semester.
- Finished all of the editing, translation, indexing, copyright clearances, etc. for the book and had it published.
- Spoke at 2 conferences. And was accepted to speak at the MLA in January of next year.
- Discovered some fantastic writers: Sayeb Taleh, Ramon Saizarbitoria, Eliseo Alberto, Cecilia G. Guilarte, and a novel by Ernestina de Champourcin I had no idea existed.
- Discovered some great new theory and criticism by Patricia Ventura, Jim McGuigan, César Rendueles, Mario Ojeda Revah, Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, Joseba Zulaika, Edurne Portela, and Paul Verhaeghe.
- Became a lot more active in the service to the profession, writing book reviews, participating in career counseling at a conference, starting to work as a Treasurer for a professional organization.
It’s absolutely not true that having a small child and being a very engaged parent prevents one from being a productive scholar. I just have to plan a lot more efficiently now that I can do no work past 4 pm. As I said before, I had taken a year off research after Klara was born, but thanks to careful planning, nobody will ever guess that from my CV.
I’m at a weird point right now because I will finish my last article of the year this week, and I still have no idea whatsoever what my next article will be on. I’m not used to this, and I have to start writing that new article on January 15 (I have a conference talk and a review to write before that). This means I have to decide fast.
The next post will be on personal achievements of the year.
Clarissa's Blog 
Now I feel even less productive than I did before. I spend all my time arguing with students about grades and it saps my energy. This semester out 46 Civ 102 students I failed 13 students and had another dozen Ds. If I hadn’t been so wishy washy on giving into student badgering or been better able to catch cheating there would have been a lot more Fs. But, since January I got the following done.
One peer reviewed journal article published
One conference paper
3, One book review published
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Yes, I am more like J. Otto, I fear. HOWEVER I will say that those productivity planners are worthwhile. In general, congratulations to Clarissa!
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I did a ton too:
2 papers submitted: 1 under 2n round of reviews, 1 accepted
2 papers accepted that were submitted last year
2 conference papers submitted
Invited speach at conference
Invited public forum speaker
Taught training workshop for industry
Taught 2 course: one grad, one undergrad
Developed ideas for 2 proposals (to be sent early next year)
Bought new equipment for the lab
Coordinated testing teams for the year
Time tracking does wonders for me 🙂
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That’s really great. We are productive bunch around here.
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Congratulations, Clarissa!
Totally agree that having a small child is not a deterrent to being a productive scholar. After all, we academics do creative work — it does not matter how many hours we put in, and we are lucky enough to have jobs where we do not need to put in a lot of face time. Still, that being said, your productivity is indeed impressive, and an inspiration for us all.
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Thank you! This is so nice to hear.
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So how did you use the Productivity and ThisIsMyEra planners? Did you change the planners after your last planner post?
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Yes, I had to do the Era planner in the last weeks of the semester because I needed a lot of space to plan and decorate. It really helps to decorate it with stickers. I have a book of planner decoration stickers, and it works like magic.
As a result, I had everything very much under control at the end of the semester.
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Was just going to ask the same thing. I have been planning on a plain notebook, but I am trying out the Passion Planner start I g Jan.
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Congratulations! I birthed a child, two articles, two book chapters, and two conference papers (obviously not everything was written in 2017 but that’s when it came out, although the date on the chapters is 2018) I also ran a Summer program, got a contract for an edited collection, got another chapter accepted, and submitted another one for review. Having children has just forced me to have a kick ass planning system:-).
You mean Tayyeb Saleh right? Check out this blog for more great Arabic literature in English: arablit.org
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You had another kid??? Why didn’t you say anything? Congratulations!! This is fantastic news. You rule!
Is it another girl or a boy?
Thank you for the link! I’m very into Arabic literature (in translation, obviously.)
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Thank you! A boy, born in August! Maternity leave allows me to spend more time commenting on your blog ;-).
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I’m so happy for you! This is really really great news.
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