Best of Both Worlds Podcast Where Does the Time Go with Professor Christine Tulley EP 453
Apr 7, 2026
Professor Christine Tulley, a rhetoric and writing professor who studies academic mothers' time use. She talks about why time diaries reveal career strategies. She explains how academic work demands flexible scheduling and deep-work guarding. She describes practical tactics like protected child-free blocks, morning writing rhythms, matching tasks to cognitive load, and finding pockets of productivity in daily life.
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Integrated Writing Habits Drive Academic Productivity
- Academic mothers who succeed at scholarship integrate writing into real life and deliberately block child-free time for deep work.
- Christine Tulley found about one third of participants used planning, troubleshooting, and defended child-free hours to average ≥7 writing hours weekly.
Planning And Troubleshooting Prevent Lost Writing Time
- Time diaries reveal high multitasking but strong planning among productive mothers who re-prioritize when disruptions occur.
- Participants adjusted timelines (e.g., postpone grading) to safeguard writing slots when unexpected events arose.
Reserve Child Free Blocks For Deep Work
- Prioritize child-free hours for high-focus tasks and protect them from interruptions.
- Use early-morning after-dropoff or post-class reset rituals (walk, coffee, playlist) to transition into deep scholarly work.
