Category: Wellness
October 11, 2010, 03:00 PM ET
What's For Breakfast? Smoothies!
Back
when I was finishing up my dissertation, I tried to put myself in
"lockdown" mode to keep from getting distracted, to be as
productive as possible. After all, a dissertation's not getting
done if there aren't words piling up on the page. I'm someone whose
brain works best first thing in the morning, but I'm also likely to
get pulled into reading the newspaper or checking email instead of
jumping right into writing. So during dissertation "lockdown" mode
I would shower the night before, get up early in the morning and
head to the (then WiFi-less) library, where I had a grad student
carrel to work in. No distractions. Just me and the laptop. Plus
hunger... which can be extremely distracting. And so this was also
the period during which I had to break myself of the
coffee-for-breakfast habit because I couldn't bring food into the
library for later and I didn't want to have to leave ...
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October 7, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
Get Lost
Some of our ProfHacker readers
started new jobs this semester, which probably meant moving to a
new place. When I started the job I have now, one of the hardest
and most exciting parts was moving to a part of the country where I
had never been (except for my two-day site visit). In addition to
negotiating all the demands of a new job, I had to find out where
to buy my groceries, board my dog, take a walk, and do all of the
other things that are a foundational part of my daily life.
One of the best things I did to help me navigate my new
home was to get lost.
As I was starting my new job, my husband was working on a graduate degree in another state. When he would visit, I would drive us around. The first weekend he visited, I told him I had found a movie theatre a couple of miles from home. He asked how. I said, "I got lost driving home from the DMV." Afterward, I drove us to dinner a...
Read MoreOctober 4, 2010, 03:00 PM ET
From the Archives: Be Prepared
Although some of the ProfHacker team would
probably do better than others in handling a bear attack or the
zombie apocalypse, in general I think it's fair to say that part of
the ProfHacker mindset includes the old maxim "Be Prepared." A
little action now can save you a lot of time and frustration should
something unexpected occur.
Prepare for the Weather
As we head into fall, it's worth revisiting George's Anticipate the Commute (and the comments by other PHers), which recommends updating your regular auto maintenance tasks and switching out the summertime items in your trunk for rain, mud, and snow gear as appropriate for your region.
At a more pedestrian level, how many umbrellas do you have? Do you have them where and when you need one? Pick up a couple cheap ones to keep in your office or in your car for those mornings when you forget to check the forecast.
Back Up Your Digital...
Read MoreOctober 1, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
Hacking Your Personal Life
Here at ProfHacker, we encourage balance
between the mind and body. See Kathleen's "Prioritizing
Exercise," Nels's "The
Whole Life Grid," and "Nurturing
the Mind-Body Connection" by guest author, Meagan Timney for
just a few examples of these posts. Today, I want to think about a
slightly different kind of balance: the balance between the
personal and the professional. Maintaining a life outside of our
professional obligations and responsibilities can be challenging
for all of us no matter what stage of our careers we have achieved.
These challenges can vary depending on several factors: our own
personalities and the kind of institution where we spend our time
are perhaps two of the biggest variables, but in addition, whether
you are partnered or single, whether you have children or not, and
whether you must commute to campus and how far also all contribute.
Finally, whether you are...
September 27, 2010, 03:00 PM ET
What's for Breakfast? Granola!
Homemade granola is easy to make and an excellent option to keep on hand for quick breakfasts (or snacking!) You can serve it with milk or yogurt, or even bag some up to keep on hand in your office.
Below is a recipe for peanut butter and honey granola from the website The Kitchn, with an adjustment for baking time. I found that the granola takes much less time to bake than called for in the original recipe.
Please note that this recipe has lots of peanuts in it via peanut butter and roasted peanuts! If you or someone else who might be eating the granola has an allergy, you'll want to look to other recipes.
This recipe produces about eight cups of granola. It's very flexible; you can halve it easily, as well as leave out a few items if you don't have them on hand, such as the wheat germ, raw pumpkin seeds, and dried dates. Feel free to sub in quick cooking oats or light brown sugar ...
Read MoreSeptember 23, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
Act Like a Child
I fully admit that there has been a theme
to my most recent posts here on ProfHacker: the need to enjoy life.
As I mentioned in last
week's post, this is largely because of a conscious move on my
part in the last year or so to stop whining and start feeling more
gratitude for what I have, which means having more fun in life,
too. Today's post is in that vein. Most of us are officially
enmeshed in the seriousness of the semester. I don't know about
you, but I need a break whenever I can get one. So this week, do
something child-like for five days of the next week.
As usual, I do not mean anything big. Jump in a pile of leaves. Finger paint. Grab a coloring book and box of crayons for a few minutes of coloring inside or outside the lines. Play a game of Candyland with other adults. Play a game of hide-and-seek with your spouse or partner. Go for a walk around the block and step ...
Read MoreSeptember 16, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
What Should You Be Enjoying About Your Life?
In last week's post about
what the me of the future will say about the me of today, I
mentioned that I didn't want to look back and see constant whining,
complaining, and negativity in my life. When I look back at my 30s,
I see a lot of that, especially in the years after my mother died.
I am not proud of it, and it is something I have tried to spend
this last year consciously addressing. And I have had some success
with that. People have noticed a difference, and I know I certainly
feel and act differently that I did a year ago.
One of the things I have been repeating to myself this past year is that I have no reason to whine and complain about many of the things I whine and complain about. As of now, I am where I want to be in life. There is nothing significant about my life that I want to change. While I know that things can change and that in a year, month, week, day, or...
Read MoreSeptember 13, 2010, 03:00 PM ET
String Theory: Reflections on Knitting as a Hobby for Hacker Types
[This is a guest post by Amanda
Watson, who works as a Research and Instruction Librarian at
Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. In her spare time,
she tries not to let her yarn habit get out of control. You can
find her on Twitter (@amndw2) or read her blog. In February, Amanda
wrote
Hacking Your Home Library with LibraryThing for
ProfHacker.]
When I was a nervous, fidgety graduate student trying to quit smoking, a friend said "You should learn to knit. It gives you something to do with your hands so you won't wish you had a cigarette." The idea appealed, so I found a basic knitting book, a pair of needles, and some soft blue yarn, and launched my first project: a scarf. While I didn't manage to quit smoking until several years later, knitting helped me get out of the grad school sensory-deprivation trap I'd fallen into: instead of reading literary theory nonstop, I...
Read MoreSeptember 9, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
What Will the You of 2020 Say about the You of 2010?
It is pretty common for people to think
in terms of five-year or ten-year plans when it comes to mapping
out the various paths our lives can take. I remember sitting in a
restaurant in college and developing different visions of what I
thought my life might be if I accepted each of the various offers
I'd received for graduate school. Things did not turn out as I had
planned, but I still think that exercise helped me make a good
decision.
In this post, I want to explore a variation of the ten-year plan. Instead of thinking of a concrete place where you want to be or project you want to complete, I want you to think about the person you want to become. In other words, what will the you of 2020 say about the you of 2010? This question is partly inspired by another blog post several friends of mine were talking about on Twitter and Facebook a few weeks ago. In "Regrets from the ...
Read MoreAugust 30, 2010, 03:00 PM ET
Prioritizing Exercise
Last week, in discussing my new
(academic) year's resolutions, I mentioned that one of my goals
for the year is to run three times a week. It's relatively easy for
me to promise myself something like that right now, as I'm on
leave, and aside from some travel and some project meetings, my
only real time commitments are to myself.
Personally, I've found that maintaining a regular exercise program is way more difficult than that during a regular semester. I always start out with all kinds of good intentions, and feel great as long as I'm still working out regularly. But school-oriented commitments inevitably start creeping in: that one meeting that has to be scheduled during my usual gym time; that article that I'm not finding enough time to work on; that class that isn't quite as prepared as I'd like. And almost invariably, when I start feeling pressed for time, the first thing that...
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