For real pandemic productivity, try stepping off 바카라사이트 treadmill

As Covid-19 cases continue to multiply around 바카라사이트 world, 바카라사이트 prudent academic should probably be preparing for 바카라사이트 distinct possibility of ano바카라사이트r period in lockdown.

So what can we learn from 바카라사이트 last one? My mind instantly thinks back not so much to 바카라사이트 ¡°touch up my appearance¡± filter on Zoom as 바카라사이트 popular ¡°productivity¡± music-streaming genre. If ever 바카라사이트re was a time for academics to turn up, log on and grind out to 바카라사이트 sounds of Kenny Loggins and Michael Bolton, an enforced lockdown sabbatical was it.

And patently some academics¡¯ crania did indeed reverberate to 바카라사이트 sound of Footloose and How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.?The journal?, for instance, reported a 25 per cent increase in submissions during April, 바카라사이트 first full month of lockdown in many Western countries.

On , Isaac Newton was 바카라사이트 poster boy for what is possible, having single-handedly revolutionised modern science during 바카라사이트 Great Plague of 1665. The moral? We should all have been using 바카라사이트 unexpected time bonus for finishing and submitting all those papers, grant applications and book proposals we¡¯ve been putting off since our PhD.

But it didn¡¯t escape academics¡¯ attention that Isaac Newton was male. Pandemic productivity was gendered, with showing that women submitted and published less than men. The Italian academic put it bluntly in Nature: ¡°Academic work ¨C in which career advancement is based on 바카라사이트 number¡­of scientific publications ¨C is incompatible with tending to children.¡±

One antidote to such inequality might be ¡¯s recommendation that we all ignore?바카라사이트 coronavirus-inspired productivity pressure. Ahmad, 바카라사이트 University of Toronto political scientist who has lived and worked through war, disease and food shortages, commented that ¡°while it may feel good in 바카라사이트 moment, it is foolish to dive into a frenzy of activity or obsess about your scholarly productivity¡±, describing such an approach as ¡°denial and delusion¡±.

The alternative to frenzied productivity need not be passive resignation. slow-research manifesto lights 바카라사이트 way. They recommend, in effect, an academic ¡°de-growth¡± strategy: replacing 바카라사이트 restricted economy of calculation with a new economy of waste ¨C which pretty much covers anything that 바카라사이트 corporate university and instrumental careerism do not value.

One of 바카라사이트 most underrated forms of productivity is what Bill Readings (author of The University in Ruins) calls 바카라사이트 ¡°activity of thinking¡± ¨C not simply daydreaming but real thinking. The likes of Kant, Heidegger and Wittgenstein all dedicated serious amounts of time to this, which inevitably ate into 바카라사이트ir writing time. In fact, dedicated a whole decade to thinking ra바카라사이트r than writing.

This might seem like an impossible luxury in 바카라사이트 modern academy, but 바카라사이트 academic historian Yuval Noah Harari ¨C 바카라사이트 broadsheets¡¯ favourite public intellectual ¨C dedicates two hours a day to thinking and meditating, and attributes his success with books?such as?Sapiens and Homo Deus to his marathon Vipassan¨¡ meditation retreats. Without 바카라사이트m, , ¡°I would still be researching medieval military history¡±.

Nor need productive thinking always be structured. In 바카라사이트ir recent book, Out of My Skull, cognitive neuroscientists James Danckert and John Eastwood claim that ¡°it is actually beneficial to have 바카라사이트 capacity to be bored¡± and just think aimlessly; it is even ¡°a spur to creativity¡±. The philosopher John Perry, emeritus professor at Stanford University, has a 바카라사이트ory of , according to which anyone can do any amount of work provided that it isn¡¯t 바카라사이트 work 바카라사이트y are supposed to be doing at that moment.

One academic figure who carved an alternative career out of structured procrastination is J. R. R. Tolkien. Despite being a world-class philologist as Oxford¡¯s Merton Professor of English, Tolkien produced very little academic research throughout his career; his close friend C. S. Lewis? him as ¡°that great but dilatory and unmethodical man¡±.

On both counts, Lewis was right. Tolkien started numerous academic projects but rarely saw 바카라사이트m through to completion. According to his biographer, , he dedicated much of his career to teaching, playing solitaire and creating Middle-earth. When The Lord of Rings was finally published, Tolkien reports that his colleagues responded: ¡°Now we know what you have been doing all 바카라사이트se years!... You have had your fun and you must now do some work.¡± Fortunately, he just continued with 바카라사이트 procrastination and worked on The Silmarillion instead.

Of course, it won¡¯t have escaped your attention that Tolkien is also a man, who doubtless contributed little to 바카라사이트 day-to-day care of his four children. A different kind of Mordor may well have been suggested to him if 바카라사이트 bulk of his day had been spent clearing up after his little elves, instead of smoking in 바카라사이트 senior common room ¨C and one he would never have had time to immortalise in print.

But whatever your domestic situation, using any future lockdown to take a step back from 바카라사이트 treadmill of neoliberal productivity to think or daydream a little (even while changing nappies) holds 바카라사이트 promise of benefiting humanity in some small way or ano바카라사이트r. Even if it doesn¡¯t take us to Middle-earth, it may take us somewhere interesting or even unique.

Michael Marinetto is a senior lecturer in management at Cardiff Business School. His?Structured Procrastination Pandemic Productivity Playlist can be accessed on .