How Smart Do You Have to Be To Become a Successful Academic?

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, he argues that success is often the product of hard work, combined with timing, luck, and ability. He also contends that superior intelligence is not necessary for success; you just need to be over a certain threshold. (This threshold theory of intelligence was proposed by Ellis Paul Torrance, and popularized by Gladwell.) Academia would certainly count for one of the areas where a certain threshold of intelligence is required.

I think the threshold theory of intelligence is interesting for two reasons. First, we can honestly ask how you know whether or not you are over the threshold. Secondly, once you are over the threshold, you don’t have to worry about how smart you are: you just need to work hard and hope that your timing is right.

Are you smart enough?

A few weeks ago, Jonathan mentioned the threshold theory on his blog. He argues

if you have a PhD from a respectable school, if you've published an article or two, if you've been engaging in the actual work in a way that's intrinsically satisfying to yourself, then you are over the threshold.

I agree with Jonathan, but I suspect he places the bar a bit too high. I think that anyone who is accepted into a graduate program at a school that consistently places students in tenure track positions and who is able to complete an M.A. thesis is likely over the threshold. I am tempted to put the bar lower, but will leave it there.

If that describes you, then we can presume you are intelligent enough to become a successful academic. You see, you don’t have to be concerned about whether or not you are the brightest in your cohort or the current star on the academic job market. You just have to be over the threshold and then work hard enough towards your success. If that does not describe you, then you might still be over the threshold, and just need to develop the skills to complete an M.A. thesis.

A Meritocracy?

It is funny to listen to myself say that if you work hard you will be successful, because I know we do not have a meritocracy in the academy, or anywhere else for that matter. However, I also know that many academics are plagued with doubt about their abilities and that these doubts keep them from being successful.

One aspect of being a successful academic is that it requires a certain set of skills. And, these skills can be learned and honed. As Malcolm Gladwell and Jonathan Mayhew argue, you need to have a certain level of ability to become a successful academic. But, as they both would likely agree, there are many more people with this ability than those who actually become successful academics.

Learning the Skills for Success

Focusing on learning and teaching skills for success is a more democratic project than attempting to identify the most intelligent people in the world. A focus on skills also will lead to more knowledge production. I am in favor of the production of knowledge and believe that our knowledge base will be substantially enhanced if we are able to draw from as wide a pool of knowledge-producers as possible. Malcolm Gladwell points out that Canada could have twice as many hockey stars as it currently does if it allowed for two leagues: one league for players born between January 1st and June 30th and another for players born on or after July 1st. Academia could probably have many more brilliant scholars if we could convince more people early on that academic success is not based on superior intelligence (a fixed trait), but on learning and mastering a set of skills (a learned trait).

In addition to describing these skills in this blog, I teach a writing and publishing class each Fall at the University of Kansas. In that class, I do my best to teach second year M.A. students the skills they need to become successful academics: time management, daily writing, planning, editing, critical thinking, and analytical skills. One semester is certainly not enough to teach all of the skills, but my intention is to create a situation where students to understand that the completion of an M.A. thesis is dependent upon learning a certain set of skills, not on being the smartest person in the room.

If you are working towards becoming a successful or more productive academic, I suggest that you think of those areas where you can improve your skill set. What are the skills you need to be successful? How can you learn them? Focusing on improving your skills as opposed to raising your IQ is much more likely to help you to become more successful.

Writing while enjoying life: How to make the most of your day

This blog is about being productive and enjoying life at the same time. I know sometimes the blog posts sound like I am just writing about being productive. But, my hope is that, by implementing some of the strategies you read about here, you will have more time to enjoy the good things in life.



In this post, I will talk about how to structure your day to maximize productivity while also leaving time for other things that are important in your life: your health, your family, exercise, eating well, etc... One strategy that works very well for me is to work in relatively short, concentrated bursts, and to make sure that I complete my most important tasks first thing in the morning.

Slow and Steady: Writing For Two Hours a Day

This summer, for example, my strategy has been to get in two to three hours of writing as early as possible in the morning, and then to dedicate the rest of the day to other tasks. I have had quite a bit of success with this. Using this slow and steady method of writing two to three hours this morning, in six weeks, I have been able to:

1. Complete a Revise and Resubmit
2. Complete the revisions for a short book manuscript (25,000 words) and send it out for review
3. Put the final touches on an article and (almost) send it out for review
4. Finish up a chapter for a textbook and send it out for review
5. Analyze 4 of my 63 remaining interviews.

My system has been working. It has allowed me to make progress on my writing, while also permitting me time to enjoy my summer in Europe, and make some headway into new research projects here in Spain and France. Most of my new research has entailed me getting out of the house and finding out what is going on, so it has been most enjoyable. At this point in the summer, with just over a month left before classes start, I feel completely relaxed and as if I am making the most of my summer.

New Situation = New Strategy

But, things are about to change, meaning I need to implement a new strategy. On July 14, our European work-cation will be over. I will spend a few days in my hometown, Washington, DC, and then will go back to Kansas, where I normally live and work. For my last month of the summer in Kansas, I will need to switch gears and ensure I make progress on four fronts:

1. Writing for my deportation project
2. Analyzing my deportee interviews
3. Preparing my tenure dossier
4. Preparing my syllabi for Fall 2011.

To get these things done, I will use the same principle: Allocate tasks to different times of the day and leave plenty of time for breaks. Here is my new plan.

Each morning, from 8am to 10am, I will go to a coffee shop near my house and write for 90 minutes to two hours on my deportation project. Making progress on my writing is my most important priority, and it is the task that requires the highest level of concentration. So, that goes first.

After my writing and coffee, I will go home and have breakfast with my family. My children will not be in summer camp or any other organized activity. After breakfast, I will help the kids get ready and take them to the public library with me. I will set the kids up in the library with one activity or another and then get to work myself.

From 11am to 1pm, I will analyze at least one deportee interview. I am hoping this part of the plan will work, as it could fall through if my kids don’t want to go to the library or if they begin to argue amongst themselves in the library, making it difficult for me to do my work. But, I know that I can be interrupted while checking an interview transcription and pick up where I left off without a problem. So, we will try this strategy.

After our library trip, we will go home and have lunch and relax for a bit.

From 2:30pm to 4:30pm, I will go up to my office and complete the tasks that require me to be in my office and connected to a good Internet connection. I will check and respond to emails for about 30 minutes. Note that this is the first time I will check email in the day. (I hope I can do this!!) Then, I will spend the remaining 90 minutes working on my tenure dossier and/or preparing my syllabi.

I will be home by 5pm, and can take the kids to the swimming pool or the park and spend the rest of the afternoon and evening with them. Depending on the weather, I also will figure out a way to work some exercise into my afternoon. If it isn’t 100 degrees outside, I will go for a long walk. If it is too hot, I can take a short walk to the nearby community gym and get on the elliptical. Alternatively, I can do my 20-minute Jillian Michaels “Making the Cut” video.

The idea behind this plan is to consciously break up the day into times of work and relaxation. I know that I cannot work for six hours straight, but that I can get in five to six hours of work between 8 am and 5pm if I take long breaks between. I also know that this will be a lot less stressful than if I stayed in my office from 8am to 5pm. And, believe it or not, I also know that it will be equally (if not more) productive.

So far, this is just a plan, so I will let you know how it goes.

A Caveat

I also will point out that this plan works for me because of various factors in my favor. 1) I live in a small town and thus getting from one place to another takes about 15 minutes by foot or 5 minutes by car. A person with long commute times would have to come up with a different plan, such as finding ways to take long breaks without veering too far from the office or working at home for at least part of the day. 2) My husband will be at home this summer as well, and thus he can cook while I take the kids to the library or go grocery shopping while I am with the kids at the pool. If you are a parent without childcare during the summer, you would have to be quite a bit more creative to find time to write. 3) My kids are aged 10, 10, and 7, and thus quite independent. At these ages, I can expect them to entertain themselves for an hour or two in the public library. When they were smaller, this plan would have never worked.

How have you been structuring your days this summer? Is it working for you? If so, great! If not, how might you change your structure to be more productive and have a life too?

How to become a better, faster writer

If you are an academic, and you think you do not write very well or very fast, you are not alone. Most academics think this way. But, this blog is not about sharing gripes: it is about providing solutions. And, the problem of not writing well or fast has a solution. You can become a better, faster writer through deep practice.

The idea of deep or deliberate practice has been around for a few decades. Proponents of this idea argue that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice make an expert. This does not mean just spending 10,000 hours, or 2 hours a day for ten years, doing something, but doing it purposefully, always pushing your limits. Scholars and popular writers such as Daniel Coyle (The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How.) and Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers: The Story of Success) have used this idea to explain chess prodigies, Olympic swimmers, and phenomenal musicians. The good news for us is that deliberate practice can be applied to a wide range of activities, including writing.

You can become a better, faster writer through deliberate practice.

How do you improve your writing other than to just sit down and write, write, and write some more? Proponents of deliberate practice offer some suggestions. Daniel Coyle, for example, offers this advice to become an expert, using the acronym REPS.

R stands for Reaching/Repeating.
Element 1: Reaching and Repeating. Does the practice have you operating on the edge of your ability, reaching and repeating? How many reaches are you making each minute? Each hour?

E stands for Engagement.
Element 2: Engagement. Is the practice immersive? Does it command your attention? Does it use emotion to propel you toward a goal?

P stands for Purposefulness
Element 3: Purposefulness. Does the task directly connect to the skill you want to build?

S stands for Strong, Direct, Immediate Feedback.
Element 4: Strong, Direct, Immediate Feedback. In other words, the learner always knows how they’re doing — where they’re making mistakes, where they’re doing well — because the practice is telling them in real time. They don’t need anybody to explain that they need to do X or Y, because it’s clear as a bell.

As writers, we can use these suggestions for deep practice by testing out new waters in our writing, fully engaging in our writing, writing with purpose, and receiving consistent feedback. I can imagine these concepts being used in a wide variety of ways in terms of writing, and will offer a few examples to show how we can use this idea.

Deep Practice Element 1: Reaching and Repeating.

Writing is the process of conveying ideas through words. One way to “reach,” then, would be to use a new word every day. Just before you begin to write, pick up a journal article in your field and find a word you do not use very often. Not a jargonistic word, but one that is useful, like “complement” or “corroborate.” Try and use the word at least twice in your writing for the day.

Element 2: Engagement.

When you write, concentrate on what you are doing. When you edit, think about the extent to which every sentence in the piece you are writing is necessary towards your argument. Be engaged and passionate, and cut out anything that is excess.

Element 3: Purposefulness.

Purposefulness is about connecting tasks to your goals. Here, our goal is to become a better writer. Reading well-written books and articles can improve your writing, but this method works best when you pay attention not only to the content but to the style. Thus, when you read with an eye to improve your writing, pay attention to how the authors you admire construct their sentences and choose their words. Read with the purpose of becoming a better writer.

Element 4: Strong, Direct, Immediate Feedback.

Getting honest, critical feedback is essential for becoming a better writer. Getting strong, direct immediate feedback does not mean that you write an article in isolation and send it to a journal when you are finished, but that you get feedback at every stage of the article. Get a trusted friend to read early drafts, and ask experts in your field to read later versions. Get feedback early and often.

Worried you will never be a good writer? Well, worry no more, after 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, you will be among the best. And, if 10,000 hours sounds like a long time to wait, fret not. You probably already have quite a few hours of practice under your belt, and you will see immediate results once you begin to practice your writing on a daily basis.

The Key to Publishing Journal Articles – Submit, submit, submit

One of my wise mentors once told me that one of the best attributes a new academic can have is a thick skin. The reason is that rejection is a major part of the academic experience and if you let rejections get under your skin, you will have trouble moving forward. When you get a rejection from a journal, the best thing to do is to accept that rejections are normal, use the comments to revise the article, and send it out again.

Rejections are Part of Life as an Academic

I have received at least a dozen rejection letters from academic journals, and even more from fellowship opportunities. Rejection letters are unpleasant to receive. Who likes getting told their work is not up to par. However, they are part of life, and the best attitude is to think of rejections as just another step on the way to getting published.

How to Deal with Rejection: Send out as many articles as possible

One way I have found to deal with rejection is always to have a manuscript under review. That way, when I receive a rejection, at least I know that I have another chance for success out there. Of course, the more manuscripts you send out, the more rejections you will get. However, it is also true that if you don’t send anything out, you will never get anything accepted. My strategy has been to submit, submit, and submit.

Submit, submit, and submit some more

I began my position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas in 2005. Just before starting at Kansas, I sent a paper out for review. For the next five years, I always had at least one paper under review. This means that I have never received a rejection letter without another possibility for acceptance out there.

I began my tenure-track position with an article from my dissertation under review by spending the summer before I started my position preparing an article for submission. At the time, I didn’t have the benefit of Wendy Belcher’s book – How To Write a Journal Article in Twelve Weeks – but, that would have been the perfect time to use it. I worked over the summer revising my dissertation, and, just before moving to Kansas, I submitted an article based on my dissertation.

Once I arrived in Kansas, I found a whole new world of responsibilities I had not had before – faculty meetings, committee meetings, students, and formal and informal gatherings with colleagues.

I knew that, to achieve tenure I would not only have to meet my daily responsibilities – attend meetings and teach my classes – but I also would need to publish articles. I also expected my article that was under review to be rejected. To prepare for that inevitable rejection letter, I began to work on another article to submit. I also had articles circulating from my time in graduate school, and got to work on those.

Always have at least one article under review

By the time the rejection letter came in December, I had a different article accepted, and another chapter of the dissertation under review. And, so I continued, always making sure to have at least one article under review.

You might wonder what happened to that article I sent off in August 2005. Well, it was just recently published – in February 2010. Yes, it took nearly five years. In fact, it took the longest, as all of the other papers I have submitted over the years have been accepted, usually after two or three rejections.

As I write this, at the end of my sixth year on the tenure track, every single paper that I have sent out is either in print, in press, or still under review. Had I given up at the first rejection, sure, I would have fewer rejections. But, more importantly, I would have fewer acceptances.

Want to get published? Then, you have to submit, submit, and submit again.

How to Manage Multiple Projects: Two Strategies that Work

Academic writers often have more than one writing project to attend to. If you are writing a book, that book has several chapters, and people rarely write a book from beginning to end without looking back. If you primarily write articles, you are likely to be working on a new submission when an offer to revise and resubmit comes across your desk. If you co-author articles with other academics, then the chances you are working on several pieces increase.



Because juggling multiple projects is so common, I frequently get requests for how to manage multiple projects. Here are two strategies I have used.

Strategy #1: Work on projects in specific blocks of time each day

This strategy involves working on several projects in a day, one at a time. Schedule time slots during the day for each separate project. The advantage to this strategy is that you can prioritize one project while still making progress on others.

Here is an example of how it works. Last June, I had three things on my plate: 1) the page proofs for my book; 2) a new article on Jamaican deportees and 3) data analysis for my interviews. I wanted to move all three of these projects forward. Thus, I decided that each morning, I would spend the first hour of my writing time looking at my page proofs. From about 8am to 9am each morning, I read over the page proofs for my book, usually getting through a chapter during that time. Once I was done with that, I would leave my office and have breakfast. After breakfast, I would spend another 60 to 90 minutes working on my article on Jamaican deportees. Then, I’d take a break to respond to emails and do some chores. Then, I would have lunch. After lunch, I’d take myself to a seaside café and spend another 60 minutes analyzing the data for my interviews. As it was the summertime, after that, I’d take the rest of the day off to relax.

There are three things that make this strategy effective.

1. You should schedule the time slots according to your energy level. I am most alert and least likely to get bored first thing in the morning, before breakfast. Thus, it made sense to schedule my page proofs first, as those can be a bit tedious. I am least productive after lunch, thus I scheduled my data analysis after lunch, as this requires less focus and attention than the other two tasks.
2. You should schedule between 60 and 90 minutes for each task. Most people cannot concentrate for much longer than that at one time.
3. You should schedule breaks between each task. The longer and less like writing the breaks are, the better. Note: Checking email is not a very good break, while a walk around the block and a lunch away from your desk are good kinds of breaks.

Strategy #2: Work on one project at a time for a fixed number of days

Depending on your personality, the sort of projects you have going on, and the amount of time you can allocate to research and writing it might not make much sense for you to focus on several projects in one day. A perfectly good alternate strategy is to work on one project for a fixed number of days and then to change projects. Here is how that works.

Pick your most pressing project to work on and dedicate a fixed number of days to work on it. I often find that two weeks is the maximum amount of time I can concentrate on any particular writing project. Thus, I usually try to schedule no more than two weeks during which I will work on a project before setting it aside.

This summer, for example, I spent the last two weeks of May working on a chapter on racism in the criminal justice system. Then, I spent the first two weeks of June working on a piece on the lack of due process in the immigration court system. Now, I am spending the second two weeks of June working on a revise and resubmit for the journal Global Networks.

When I focus on one project at a time, I try and work on the project in blocks of time as well. For example, most days I write for an hour before breakfast (but after coffee!), and then get in another 60 to 90 minutes after breakfast.

Putting a two-week time limit on a particular project also works well because it allows you to really get into a project, yet also make sure you stop and attend to other projects that require attention.

Of course, nothing in life is really black and white, and I often combine these two methods. Right now, for example, I am taking a bit of afternoon writing time in addition to my morning sessions when I focused on my revise and resubmit to write and post this blog entry.

How do you manage multiple projects? I welcome your comments in the space allocated below.

Too many balls in the air? Juggling multiple projects as an academic writer

One of the biggest differences between being a graduate student and being on the tenure track is that, as a graduate student, you have that one, big project that is at the forefront of your mind: the dissertation. Since I completed my dissertation, I have never really felt that way again about a project. Instead, I feel as if I am constantly juggling multiple projects. Turning the dissertation into a book was a herculean effort, but, still it became one of many projects.



It is funny, then, that now, six years after finishing the dissertation, I crave having just that one project to work on. I want my work to consume my thoughts. I want to be immersed in one big question, one big project.

The big project that is calling me now is my project on deportees. Last year, I conducted 156 interviews with deportees in Jamaica, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. I have not made as much progress as I would have liked in terms of analyzing the interviews and writing up the project. One of the main reasons is that I have too many other things going on. I now can see that I need to get these other things out of the way so that I can move on to my deportee project and make sure that it moves forward.

Other Balls in the Air

Another book. I am completely finished with what was my biggest project this past academic year my book: Immigration Nation. I spent the bulk of the Fall semester responding to the editorial suggestions for revision, and a few weeks in the Spring semester responding to copy-edits and then reviewing page proofs. The good news is that project is done, and the book will be out in August.

A textbook. Another fairly big project for this past academic year has been a textbook I am working on. Yes, a textbook. I am writing a critical textbook for Oxford University Press designed for undergraduate courses on race and racism. I have long been frustrated by the state of race texts, and was offered the opportunity to do something about it. I accepted, and things are going well so far. I have written three chapters since I agreed to do this book a year ago. I still have 12 chapters to go, but decided to put this project aside for a while since I sent the third chapter out for review last week.

A short book. I also am writing a very short book for Routledge. This book, which will be no more than 25,000 words, focuses on the lack of due process in immigration proceedings. It has taken me years to get my head around the fact that non-citizens do not have the same Constitutional protections that U.S. citizens do. My goal in this very short book is to explain in clear language exactly how and why people facing detention and deportation do not have the right to due process protections such as access to counsel, full judicial review, or a bond hearing. I just sent the first draft of this book to my editor, and it will be going out for review soon! Of course, eventually, there will be revisions, but I can put the manuscript aside at least for the rest of the summer.

An article. In addition, I am working on an article on the right to mobility, with two coauthors. Fortunately, that is nearly finished, and my coauthors are working on the article at the moment. I will have to return to that this summer. But, I shouldn’t have to dedicate too much more time to it before we submit it in July, as it is nearly finished.

Clearing the Plate

Now that I have gotten the due process manuscript off, I can return to the deportee project. The first thing on the menu for the deportee project is a Revise and Resubmit I got from a journal for my first full-length peer-reviewed article from this project. This piece, which focuses on Jamaican deportees, should help me re-acclimate myself with the project. Once I get that revised journal article back to the journal, I can dig my teeth into the data once again.

Looking ahead to The Big Project

I have completed the initial analyses for about 90 of the interviews, meaning I have about 65 interviews left to listen to, analyze and write up. My plan was to get back into these interviews as soon as the summer began. But, I have not done that. Instead, I have focused on finishing up other writing projects: the textbook chapter, the right to mobility article, and the due process manuscript. But, now that those are nearly finished, it will soon be time to focus on the interviews.

When that time comes, which I reckon will be the first week of July, I will switch gears and move into data analysis and write up. If this is all I focus on, I should be able to do two interviews a day, and finish with the analysis and write up by mid-August! Once I have the interviews written up and analyzed, I can finish the two remaining data chapters in September and October. Then, it will be time to step back from the project and figure out what I really want to say.

It feels good to have an end in sight. At the same time, it is a bit overwhelming to think that I will have to come up with a good line of argument that can carry through all of these data. 156 interviews in 4 countries. That’s a lot of stories and there is a lot going on there.

Good arguments come with time, with thinking and processing. So, once I get back into the data I can begin to try out arguments and stories and see which ones work and which ones don’t.

Juggling multiple projects is essential for moving forward as a productive scholar. However, from time to time, it is necessary to clear the plate and focus (almost) exclusively on one thing. I am looking forward to that time!

How to have a productive summer by working four hours a day

It’s summertime and the living is pretty…. Or, at least it should be!

How can you have a remarkably productive summer and return to the school year feeling refreshed and like you had a break? To do this, you need to plan to be productive and to plan to leave time to enjoy life. The thing is, if you plan to work all the time, you are likely to feel guilty every moment you aren’t working. And, who wants to feel guilty all of the time?

Plan to be productive

To plan to be productive, first you have to decide what you will accomplish over the summer. Make a list of all of the things you would like to do this summer. Include everything – from revising book chapters to analyzing data to submitting articles to finalizing your syllabi.

Once you have your list, decide when you are going to complete these things. Start with the most important items first. How long do you think it will take you to turn that dissertation chapter into an article? How long will it take for you to come up with a draft for your next book project or grant proposal? Now, map those tasks onto your summer weeks. What will you do between May 15 and May 31? Between June 1 and June 15?

Prioritize your Tasks

Once you map your tasks onto your calendar, you likely will realize that you have more tasks than time. But, believe me, it is better to realize this now than at the end of the summer. At this point, you still have time to prioritize. What is most important? What items have deadlines? What can wait until the Fall or until next summer? What can’t wait? What can you drop or delegate?

Make a Schedule – and stick to it

The next step is to come up with a work schedule. When will you work and when will you play? Many people work best in the mornings; others are best late at night. How many hours will you work each day? How much time will you spend writing each day? When and where will you do your writing?

If you wish to return to the semester relaxed and refreshed, I recommend trying to work every day for just four hours. That’s right – just four hours! You see, academic work is trying and if you try to work all day, every day, you most likely will get burned out. Instead, if you try to work for just four hours every day, you will have the rest of the day to re-energize and are less likely to burn out.

Limit your working hours

Believe me - you can have a very productive summer if you work for four focused hours each morning. The thing is – you do have to focus during that time. And, it works best if your time really is limited. Last summer, for example, I worked while my children were in summer camp. This meant that I had from 8am to noon each day to work. My husband and I have agreed that, during that time, I will be allowed to concentrate and focus on my work. I will not clean, cook, do laundry, watch television, or surf the Internet during that time. I have all the rest of the day to complete household tasks and to relax.

Make time for yourself each day

As academics, we all need time to process our ideas, thoughts, plans, emotions, and experiences. It is crucial that you carve at least an hour out of each day for yourself when you can process all of your thoughts. This time allows you to make plans, to come up to solutions to theoretical puzzles, and to relax your mind.

If you have children, finding alone time can be tricky. But, there usually is a way. When my children were small, I took them to the gym each day – where they had a daycare where I could leave the children while I exercised. Now that they are older, I take them to the park where I can walk around the track while they play. Other ideas would be to put a DVD on for the children while you meditate or run on your treadmill. In my mind, me-time each day involves exercise, but others may prefer to garden, sew, crochet, knit, paint, or work on model airplanes. So long as it is an activity that allows you to think and reflect, it should work.

If you doubt my suggestion that you can be productive working just four hours a day, I encourage you to try it and see what happens. And, let me know how it goes….