You know you have been busy when you realize it’s been a while since you have written a blog post. That’s been me because I realized it’s been not only month, but several (!!) since I have written a blog post.
OOPs.
But that’s sometimes what happens in life! It’s been *that* busy for me for 2023. It’s been a good kind of busy – working on building up The Bird’s Nest, working with clients, mentoring students, meeting new contacts and establishing key relationships. That on top of teaching, researching, coordinating projects, and writing – and then there is my life outside of academia as well. It’s been already a rewarding and exciting year so far, and it’s just the beginning.
I am inspired to write this post based on an email I received recently that kept me pondering this question to see how to answer it the best way possible. This colleague was saying how they were inspired by the work I was doing with TBN while still being active as a professor – and wanted to do the same but they asked me this:
Can professors do it all? Can we be able to research, teach, consult and run our own student agency while having a life?
Simply, the answer is yes. However, I did say there were some things you have to do to keep things manageable and balanced to make it all work.
Here are some universal things I’ve felt have helped me tremendously.
- Blocking time on my calendar. The biggest thing I did was to make sure the time I had dedicated to teaching, research, and key aspects of my life outside of academia and my role were blocked off. This does set a boundary in place to protect your time. I realized this very quickly when I was getting requests to meet on my calendar that were during times I had reserved on my personal calendar. Made this change very quickly!
- Taking time for yourself. Having balance is so important – I cannot stress this enough! You got to make sure you make time for you, your family, and others. I have times where I literally have MWF listed (for Mando Wade Freberg) and OTF (Orangetheory) on my calendar b/c it’s that important to me to reserve this time.
- Setting short term and long term goals. You want to make sure to keep yourself accountable for what you want to accomplish in your time running your agency, along with your research and teaching obligations. For me – I wanted to have a certain number of clients we would be working on, and fundraising strategy in place for our agency. We are working on this short term goal – with bigger ideas for the future on the horizon. This keeps you focused and driven to achieve these goals down the line – which helps with what you are doing now to build on these efforts.
- Doing a little every day. I know this may not work for everyone, but yes – I do work on weekends especially on projects that have deadlines or need additional reviews. This does not mean I work 24/7 on the weekend, but I may for an hour or two. Getting ahead of tasks for the week, working on a revision, formulating a presentation for an upcoming conference, etc. All of these things add up and allow you to be prepared for the week.
- Investing in this formula: Document + Create + Advocate. I have always said you have to be your best advocate, and in building a brand – you have to just that. In building something from the beginning – you have to share your experiences, updates, stories, and document these for others to see. If you are not going to share your story and create these experiences – who will? That’s what I have been doing. You got to document what you have bee doing, create the stories and experiences in a format that works for your community and audience, and advocate for what you are doing and where you are going.
- Take inventory of your duties, projects, and obligations. This is where you have to decide which of these to keep and invest in, what projects give you joy, what are your current obligations that cannot be changed. You also have to see what you are doing that is taking up time, not giving you joy, and items you can stop doing. I did this as I was entering this role, and it really helped me frame this year of work for me.
While I consider my work to be the same and balanced, there were things I realized I didn’t necessary have to do anymore. This is not forever, but perhaps in the short term. There have been things I have done differently, and other things I’ve increased a lot of.
- Investing in industry focused events. With TBN, it’s essential to go to industry events to connect with others in the field. However, it’s not just in *one* field – it’s in every touch point and discipline we have. Advertising, digital currency, PR, social media, branding, communication – these are some areas I will be a part of this year alone.
- Understanding balance of things in celebrating and learning key lessons. There are going to be times where you will be like – WOW! This is amazing and we accomplished so much. The next day could be – well, that didn’t go well. I’ve learned more in these past eight months about being a director than I would have ever imagined – and that’s a good thing. Take the wins and enjoy them, and think about the lessons you have learned to note what to consider for the future.
- Being an open book.I have absolutely been truly amazed (and fascinated!!) about the lack of resources and discussion about how to really manage a student agency. Yes, there are services and resources – but they do not fully provide you with the details everyone wants to know and would help them out tremendously. I experienced this when I started teaching social media – but this has been more extreme. I assume that it is due to the fact that 1) student agencies are a prized recruiting features for departments, and 2) student agencies make money for the department, program, etc. Well – I am going to be open about everything I’ve done that has worked, not worked, and what I am learning about as well. In fact, that’s the whole focus I am doing for my ProfCon talk later this year.
- Taking a step back from conference service. I understand my colleagues who want to serve the profession and in roles with academic organizations, and I have done my part earlier in my career in these roles. It’s a lot of work, but I think these roles are very similar to unpaid internships for our students. We are asked to do a lot, but we do not get compensated.
- Being more selective academic conferences. I am being way, way more selective of conferences (especially the academic ones) now more than ever. I used to go to all of them every year, all the time. Now, I ask myself what value will I get if I attend this event? Am I going to present work, or to network? If I submit work – will it actually be reviewed fairly (this is due to my previous experiences at AEJMC where my work was rejected – later finding out reviewers knew it was me submitting the work). Is the cost really worth it? Ultimately, I do not need to go to these academic conferences every year.
In summary, the answer to this colleague’s point was yes – you are able to do it all, but you do have to take inventory on what you want to do, what you have to do, and what are some things you can put off to the side for later.
Always happy to discuss more on this. Thanks and have a great day.
Best Wishes,
