Sunday afternoon drifts into the evening when you notice thoughts creeping in about next week’s seemingly endless meetings, projects, and deliverables. You feel a familiar yet uneasy feeling in your gut. You are not alone in feeling this sort of anxiety and dread. There’s a name for it: the Sunday scaries. The Sunday scaries might seem inevitable in the modern world with its never-ending work and to-do lists. The good news is that we can alleviate the Sunday scaries and create a healthy work-life rhythm by changing our habits around work. Specifically, we can train to do deep work. Deep work, coined by author and associate professor Dr. Cal Newport, is our ability to focus on and do cognitively demanding work without distractions. Training this skill has two key benefits: 1) we prioritize tasks and achieve more during dedicated working hours, and 2) we reclaim personal time for ourselves and our loved ones. This workshop will teach graduate students how to obtain these benefits by establishing a deep work practice.

By participating in this workshop, you will:

• Learn what deep work is and how it can benefit you
• Establish the foundation of your deep work practice
  • Setting the parameters, tracking your progress, and holding yourself accountable
• Identify obstacles to deep work in your life and how you can overcome them
• Consider how to communicate your boundaries to your colleagues, supervisors, friends, and family
• Contemplate factors that could derail your deep work practice
• Generate a plan for getting back on track when your practice gets derailed

The Grad Academy Pillars: Wellness (Financial)

The Grad Academy Program: GRA, PGCPP

Panelists/Facilitator(s): 

• Dustin Davis, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Ph.D. Candidate, Grad Rebel Ambassador
• Dr. James W. Navalta, Associate Professor, M.S. Graduate Coordinator, Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences