NEW ADVENTURES IN ACADEMIC ENDEAVOUR

This morning, as the local weekend began, I got up at 6 AM, brewed some coffee, sat down and lucidly plotted out my entire upcoming assignment in detail. After months of muddling through a murky mind, I can think again now that my coordination job is done. The assignment is still far from finished, and the deadline is frighteningly near, but I now know that a quality assignment will be ready on time, against all odds.

I do not like flying by the seat of my proverbial pants. This time there was simply no other option than the trade-off: my professional self-respect depends on doing my job as well as I can. But that is done now, and I can concentrate on my studies, my slightly wilted self and finding a job where they need not be neglected.

Big Strategies, Little Tactics

I have heard strategies defined as the big picture plan, and tactics as the small steps that make it happen. The definition is debatable, but it suits me.

What I am trying to do at the moment is break down my own strategy in three separate but overlapping areas: study, work and life at large. It is all looking very big from where I stand right now, and to take it all on, I need to break things down into bite-sized chunks.

This means calendars with lots of space for lots of plans. It means backward mapping, starting with deadlines and working them back to where I am now. It means a whole week of parachute time before that deadline, in case things go all pear-shaped. Things have a way of doing that. It means blocking out one day a week for R&R, come hell, high water or head of department.

And most importantly, it means dealing with today’s little bite-size chunk. Today. Every day.

ILLUMINATION

With a pressing deadline, it is tempting to work right through the weekend. I have resisted, taking off yesterday evening to have a little bit of a life. This morning I rose early and started fatiguing the “ancient” poster I will present at the national ELT conference on 23 April, and put together with a Powerpoint presentation for the less lateral thinkers in the audience. Then I chilled flat-out.

Is relaxation justified? According to Wallace ( reference not found), genius works in five stages: the first are concerned with gathering information, and the final with “illumination”. While no step should be underestimated, the fourth is the one that fuels the revelation: “incubation”. Stepping away.

There was an area of my literature review that simply seemed labyrinthine: the myriad typologies of learning styles make them difficult to pin down. After my afternoon of sloth, I sat down with my distilled notes and a few coloured pens to find direction. Suddenly, it all fell into place: those many typologies can be boiled down to four continua represented as spokes of a wheel. A person’s learning style can be represented as four points on the axes, and connected to a kite. To verify my loosely structured interview data, I can ask students to use the wheel to represent their perceived styles, and use the resulting kites for analysis.

Is there time, in modern life, for a full-time professional studying part time to take a day of rest? I believe the day lost is more than compensated for in the efficiency gained every other day, and in the insights gained from stepping back to see the forest and the trees.

The Assignment Evolves

Not all my time over the past week has gone to the relentless pursuit of justice, believe it or not. I still rise with the dawn call to prayer, and head straight to Vivaldi, my (midnight) oil burner, a shot of spiced coffee and the mountain of books surrounding my desk.

Now that my assignment outline has been approved, the not inconsiderable task of writing lies before me. Writing high quantities has never been a problem for me, but writing high-quality, information-rich, sharply defined academic prose is a slightly rusty skill that may need some oiling.

My solution to this is backward mapping, a management technique I was reminded of in my readings. By beginning with the deadline and working backwards, it is possible to plan with more foresight. At least, so the theory goes. Admittedly, my backward maps are probably more realistic than my forward maps. The fact that they feature a weekly day off is their crowning glory.

While the big ideas incubate, I am starting of with some Zen typing: the reference pages. When I was working on my first degree, everything still had to be done on a manual typewriter. Not only did I not have a computer, I often didn’t have electricity either. Getting the references lined up at the eleventh hour was always the very worst past of the nightmare. Now that I am older, wiser, and able to afford both a modest computer and electricity (the gods be praised), I am hoping to prevent any cause for nightmares by starting off with the reference pages, which can be adapted if necessary as the work evolves.

Of course, the strategy may evolve, too.