working soft workshop for academics

You know your talents and work very hard at your research and your career success. You put in all your energy, but you wonder whether you work in the smartest way possible. You feel overwhelmed. At best you seem to make little progress in your research, chaos and chance rule. Or worse, your joy at doing research suffers, doubts start nagging and you are heading for a burnout.

Do you recognize this?

    • you want to focus in a relaxed way on innovative work and you have a lot of ideas, but you somehow never get round to doing something with them
    • you are being lived by your “shoulds” and “have to’s
    • you structurally stuff work in “empty” evening hours and weekends

You know what I mean: a vague unrest, the nagging feeling that something is not right that you cannot seem to put your finger on. Or that quiet voice that you just refuse to listen to. Or the other way around: you know exactly what you should change and do, but you just don’t manage to put it to practice.

What I discovered in the workshop is how the academic social environment conditions us to believe that having academic ambitions equals being willing to put everything else aside. I was relieved to find that others struggle with this, too.

You are not the only one

Working hard is the norm in the academic world. And it is catching and addictive, too. You are always busy, meeting deadlines, it is never enough, so you are constantly pushing on because… competition and performance pressure. Only to crash, exhausted at the end of the semester or in the holidays. ‘Fortunately’ your crash stays mostly invisible to your colleagues and employer. After all, you can still email from your bed or couch. Or no-one notices your collapse because you just made it to the end of your temporary contract. You do not even think about voicing your stress, for fear that you are judged weak, whining, and just not up to it. You do not want to harm any future career chances after all…

It can be different

    • achieve more in a relaxed way
    • save energy and time for research work that makes you profoundly happy, fulfilled and grateful
    • be in charge of your time and energy
    • be able to genuinely enjoy your time off without nagging piles of work or guilty feelings

What if your hasty, busy ways and unrelenting water treading changes into flowing in a easy stream in which you work creatively with your talents to realize your dreams. So you have abundant time and energy for everything you value. So you feel confident that you have a wellspring of out-of-the-box ideas at hand to tap as you build your meaningful, innovative work. Not by working harder, but by working softer.

Before the workshop I doubted whether I was capable of pursuing an academic career. Since the workshop I know I can be, by working soft.

Working Soft®, what is that?

Working softly is the opposite of working hard. You use your talents in a relaxed way to creatively realize your dreams. Working softly starts with making time. No more blindly running around, but mindfully doing what needs to be done. Because you have enough time. Because you can make time.

By working softly, you discover what is blocking you. Where are you acting like a lifeless zombie, without being aware of it? How do you start building and realize your dreams, step by step? Not later, when you have arrived in your career, but right now, at this dynamic stage in your life.

Take charge of your time, energy and mental space to deliver creative, innovative top results in a relaxed, sustainable way, without becoming drained and burned out in the process!

How can I learn to work soft?

From personal experience I have realized how the Working Soft® method delivers fast and strong results without stress. I am one of the first licenced Working Soft® coaches in the Netherlands. My translation of this method to the academic world is unique.

Do you want to achieve more not by working harder but by working softly? You are welcome at the Working Soft in Science workshop. In this playful workshop you will get an interactive tasting of this way of working and you immediately see some pitfalls of your own hard working ways.

After the workshop you know

    • the basic principles of the Working Soft® method
    • how you can create more calm and focus for yourself
    • where you can change your current way of working so you can achieve more by working softer.
    • where you leak time and energy, and how you can make sure you always have all the time you need

The workshop was a great success for me. It was a wonderful moment of reflection. I liked to hear how others deal with the hard working ways of academia, but I especially loved the way Claartje senses what people need: she knows just what to say or ask. Her remarks have impact. It was confronting to face my issues head on, but I learned a lot. All in all I remember the workshop as sunny, relaxed, and very valuable.

P.S. If you apply before August 1st you receive a bonus copy of The Art of Working Soft by dr. ir. Ellen de Lange-Ros, the developer of the Working Soft method (value €20,-).

Working Soft Workshop for Academics

Date & timeSeptember 1st 2017, 10:00 — 12:30, welcome from 9:30
Locationin / around Utrecht
Participantsmax. 15
Costs€ 97,- per person (includes btw, workshop materials, coffee/tea)
Bonus until August 1stIf you apply before August 1st you receive a bonus copy of The Art of Working Soft by dr. ir. Ellen de Lange-Ros, the developer of the Working Soft method (value €20,-).

Early bird until July 14thIf you apply before July 14th, you only pay €77,- for the complete workshop including the bonus book The Art of Working Soft.

Register for the Working Soft Workshop on September 1st 2017