You’ll be happy to know that I have no recommendations to offer this new year, except to say that January is an absolutely awful time to start changing your life.
That’s true for most people, but it’s very much so for academics.
Our year doesn’t run from January, and the past few weeks have been a brief pause in the gallop from semester to semester.
I have my ‘to-do’ list sat in front of my monitors in the office and it’s not a pretty sight. Plus, I notice, it doesn’t even include all the stuff I need to do.
Plus, everyone else is back at work now, so that email inbox is filling up nicely.
So what can we do?
This shouldn’t be cause for getting down though.
In these days, before it really gets going again, there’s still some space to take stock and to look ahead across the coming months.
It’s like standing on a little hillock, looking across the plain and trying not to get too concerned about the marshalling armies preparing for battle on the land you are about to tread.
Key point to remember here is that you’ve made it through the first semester and through the start of the academic year.
Semester two is more of the same, not whole-new-ballgame territory. Plus you probably also get it broken up by Easter. Plus the days are getting longer again.
So keep your chin up and think about what’s been good so far and about how you’ve avoid/manage the bad stuff.
And for that alone, it’s a happy new year.