It's Okay to Pursue Your Passions: Get Started

What if you could break free from the comfort zone of academia and truly achieve your personal and professional dreams? Get ready to discover actionable strategies to replace time-wasting habits, like scrolling through social media, with productive tasks that propel you toward your goals. In this episode, I challenge you to embark on a 30-day experiment, stepping away from consuming self-help content and diving into real-world experiences. By applying these practical tips, you can transcend the limitations of your higher education job and start building your brand, writing your next book, and becoming a thought leader in your field.

Follow Dr. Sheena Howards' socials:
@drsheenahoward | Power Your Research

Chapters

• 0:00 Maximizing Time for Productivity
• 8:14 Setting Productive Boundaries for Maximum Efficiency

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

watching all the self-help people, watching all the business coaches online. Instead of that, I'm spending time doing the thing, because really you're going to learn more from the experience in doing it than watching 100 hours a week of someone talking you through how to do it. I don't want my work to be stuck behind an academic paywall. I want to leave a legacy, I want to reach my potential and I want to change lives. This podcast, power your Research, is my attempt to help the smartest people in the world do that very thing. Attempt to help the smartest people in the world do that very thing. My hope is that you use the lessons I share to make more money than what your higher ed job can ever pay you. I've done it, my clients have done it, and so can you. My hope is that you'll apply what you learn here and one day join the Power your Research program where you can work with me one-on-one. A lot of my academic and educator friends are busy and everyone's busy, but I never want that to be an excuse to not reaching your goals and not doing the things that you want to do, especially in terms of building your brand or writing that next book or, you know, becoming an authority figure in your field and the thought leader you want to be. Now I do want to add a caveat because I have to keep it real with y'all. The first step in the power year research program is about mindset, and some of the too busy claims are actually a mindset issue more than anything else. Because it's comfortable for you to say you're too busy to do the work of reaching the goals that you actually want to reach, because showing up to teach your classes or do your research or get the tenure is actually easy, because it's in your comfort zone, because you've been in academe your entire life and you know the system, you know the steps you have to take. So saying you're too busy a lot of times is a comfort zone thing to get you off of the hook from actually doing some of the work, the extra work that you actually want to do. But that's just a little caveat, right, we're not talking about mindset here. I actually want to give you three practical things you can do to make progress in 30 days, especially especially for my folks that, uh, feel like they're too busy. And just to give you some context I am a professor, I teach a 3-3 load, I run power your research, which is my academic branding company, and I run my writing business and I have a six-year-old and I'm a single mom and I make it all work without pulling my hair out and without not taking care of myself. I think I subconsciously touched my hair when I said not pulling my hair out. It's kind of funny.

Speaker 1: 3:03

Here are the three steps to make progress in 30 days if you feel like you're too busy. First, a lot of my time is wasted on social media and I know this. So, like, after my son goes to bed, I'll spend two hours scrolling through social media until I fall asleep, because you know it's like your wind down time, it's your mindless. You know, do whatever you want to do time and I get that and you need I think you need that, you need that escape. But if I realize that I really want to get something done like sometimes I'll write a whole fiction book in 30 days let's just use that as an example. Or maybe you just want to get more media coverage in 30 days. That two hours a night is a lot of time in a month. If you replace that two hours of scrolling through social media, maybe you scroll through social media for two hours just throughout the day. Replace that time mindlessly scrolling through social media for 30 days with productivity time and tell yourself you're only going to do it for 30 days. I like I like to do 30 day experiments with myself. So for me, it's helpful not to think about making these changes for like a whole year. But in my mind, I'm like you know. I can replace my social media time for two hours a day in order to get this book written, or in order to get or in order to reach whatever the goal is, because the time you're spending on social media scrolling mindlessly is actually a whole side company that you could be running Seriously, y'all. So the first step is replace time that you're wasting with time to be productive. For me, it's social media, for you, it just might be something else that you're wasting time doing.

Speaker 1: 4:42

Hey everyone, real quick, I don't run any ads on this podcast, so I have to rely on word of mouth. If this podcast has helped you in any way, please share it with a friend and follow me, dr Sheena Howard, on LinkedIn, where I give more free content on building your brand as an academic. If you tell me you came to my LinkedIn from the podcast I'll make sure I accept your request. My LinkedIn from the podcast I'll make sure I accept your request. Second thing is stop for 30 days wasting time listening to podcasts, reading books, watching YouTube videos. That is teaching you information. So you're spending a lot of time and I know you are, because I do it too Listening to the experts tell you how to do something, reading what the experts have written, telling you how to do something, watching the experts on YouTube telling you how to do that thing.

Speaker 1: 5:35

If you count it up, you're probably spending a lot of hours doing this, but at some point you just got to do it right, and so I'm in this 30-day experiment with myself right now. That is working out tremendously. This experiment is turning out to be something that I know works. That I'm going to put in my personal user's guide. But for 30 days right now, in my experiment with myself, instead of watching all the self-help people, watching all the business coaches online, instead of that, I'm spending time doing the thing, because really you're going to learn more from the experience in doing it than watching 100 hours a week of someone talking you through how to do it, and I'm not saying that those things are not helpful because they are. But there is a point of diminishing return where you actually start to feel like you're productive because you're watching an expert talk about the thing that you want to do, and so, yo, this is, this is real. I feel like that's a whole thing, like a whole video in itself. But try this out for 30 days, and I want to tell you something powerful that happened to me in this 30 day experiment that I'm doing with myself.

Speaker 1: 6:40

So I used to listen to these podcasts on my walks too. So you know informational, informational content on my walks too. So you know informational, informational content on my walks. But since I'm in this 30 days of not listening to those people, I've come up with some really, really, really good ideas, because now I'm taking walks with nothing in my ears, and so now I'm actually coming up with solutions, because I don't have the distraction of listening to this podcast that is telling me how to do the thing, and I've come up with two phenomenal ideas just over the last two days of taking a break from listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos, and so every time I feel myself wanting to go and watch the YouTube video or listen to the podcast. I try to do something active, like think about some solutions on my own or journal or something like that.

Speaker 1: 7:29

The third step to make progress in 30 days if you feel like you're too busy is to set boundaries on your time. Can you set some boundaries for 30 days and see how it feels? These could be whatever boundaries you need to set, because boundaries are really a personal thing. Like, hey, if you have two meetups with a friend this month but the friend is always late or always canceling, cancel those meetups. Yo, like you're going to spend 30 minutes each time waiting for your late friend. That's a complete waste of your time. Or this friend cancels on you the day of or two days before all the time. I don't have time for that. That is one thing that I can't vibe with.

Speaker 1: 8:13

But what are the boundaries for you?

Speaker 1: 8:14

Do you need to set up a calendar to schedule people to meet with you every month, as opposed to just letting people send you random times of when they're available?

Speaker 1: 8:18

What boundaries do you need to set? Maybe it's some boundaries with your kids. Hey, mommy's going to be working for an hour. You need to find something to do. But hey, moms, hey, mommy's going to be working for an hour. You need to find something to do, but hey, moms, don't feel bad about doing that. Kids need to know that you have boundaries too and that you may have something to do. So think about what those boundaries are for yourself. Set those boundaries for 30 days, replace this new time with something productive and see how it goes, and implement these two steps and let me know your results. These are some of the things I use. I highly recommend you do 30-day experiments with yourself. It could be on this or with just with other things. I do all types of self-experiments, particularly in the summer when I'm not having to go to the university to teach, so let me know if this helps. Drop your questions and comments, and I hope you have an amazing day.