Part of the skill survival set for a scholarly career is learning to juggle multiple demands.

I try to find practical ways to achieve that. My calendar is my guide, my best friend. I'm very rigorous about my calendar. I keep standing times each week that I work on my research. I protect specific times each week to meet with students, to do my course preparation.

I keep office hours and times on my calendar to deal with the unexpected, because there 's always something unexpected, but I find, too, that I need to have my own physical environment for writing, so there are certain places in the school that I do my best reading. There are certain places in my home that I like to grade papers. There are certain places in my office that I do my best research writing.

So I try to find out what works for me to keep my rhythm and keep that going, and then I use an electronic calendar so that if something comes up like travel or a special event, and I have to reschedule, particularly rescheduling appointments that I've made with myself for my own research, I tell myself I can't cancel. I have to reschedule. So I try to find another place holder to save time for that.

It also helps if there is a convergence of topic in the multiple activities that we do, so for me things have a synergy instead of a competition for time when they come together around many of the same topics. So I direct a mental health research center. I teach in the area of mental health. My research is addressing some of the same topics that I'm teaching on, and then I try to be pretty disciplined to not take on things that don 't align as well in terms of my professional service.