Welcome to The Tending Year blog!
You can access a list of every blog post by title and date of publication here.
You can access the blog posts by category by clicking the hyperlinks below.
Scroll down to browse blogs by cover image and content summary.
newsletter and free resources
Sign up below to access six free resources and my newsletter, tending.
Below you will find all blog posts. The most recent posts are displayed first.
click “older Entries” at the bottom to read more.
1.47: What is Work and Why It Matters
I had a little breakdown last week. I knew it was coming because I kept thinking, Is this the day where I finally cry in public? My go-to breakdown moves are crying in public or leaving work early because I am worried I will break down before I can make it to my car....
1.46: What I Learned from Monitoring
Two topics I return to over and over in The Tending Year are self development and productivity. Although on the surface they may seem disconnected, they blend together to help me to find balance in my busy life as a graduate student and blogger who works three jobs...
1.45: Have Purpose on Purpose
I usually open the semester by asking my students why they are taking my Composition course. A handful of students will share that they are genuinely excited to improve as writers, but the most common answer I receive is “because I have to.” My university requires all...
1.44: Choosing Yes, Choosing No
Before I realized that my willingness to overcommit myself was clogging my system and draining my emotional/mental/physical resources, I took a lot of pride in the bursting capacity of my to do list. With that pride came lots of negative self talk, crankiness, and a...
1.43: To Hold in the Hand: A Guide to Maintaining
The Latin root of the word “maintain” is manu tenere, which means to hold in the hand. So cool, right? And very fitting for this month’s theme of practice. This week’s post focuses on the active experience of maintaining. I’m very excited to share it with you for...
1.42: How to Handle Overwhelm
Do you ever try to start your creative engine and feel like you are met with the mental equivalent of sputters, grinding gears, and high pitched screeching? Do you ever begin a project eagerly, only to find yourself saying “there is no way I’ll ever be able to...
1.41: Some is Better than None
Because I am aware that limiting mentalities affect my ability to thrive, I am actively invested in shifting my perspectives about what it means to be productive, healthy, and successful. This week’s blog post tackles the misbelief that we need to choose between...
1.40: One-Inch Picture Frame
The idiom “can’t see the forest for the trees” refers to the anxiety we experience when we get caught up in minutia at the expense of seeing the larger picture. But what about the inverse, when we feel overwhelmed by the vastness of the task at hand, doubting our...
1.39: Ways to Handle a Bad Mood
This month I’m focusing on Living the Life You Want to Live. It’s no surprise that I want to live a happy life. We all do, don’t we? In that pursuit, I’ve committed to healing from chronic health issues, paying off debt, and writing a whole freaking...
1.38: Keeping a Dissertation Journal
My theme this month is a fun one: live the life I want to live. In brainstorming for last week’s focus, I asked myself two questions: What do I want? What do I need to do to get that thing? Unsurprisingly, my answers hearkened back to one of my main goals for The...
newsletter and free resources
Sign up below to access six free resources and my newsletter, Tending.