"Stop reacting to your academic workload. Start directing your academic career."

Are you:

• A junior academic struggling to find a single uninterrupted hour for research and publication amidst heavy teaching loads?

• A mid-career academic delivering massive administrative value, yet continually overlooked for promotion because the criteria don't match your daily reality?

• A senior leader, HOD, or Dean whose own scholarship and research agenda have been swallowed whole by meetings, compliance, and crisis management?

Join Prof. Johannes Cronje and Dr Franci Cronje for an extended series of six online academic group coaching sessions guided by Zoom and WhatsApp. Over six structured weeks, we bridge the gap between your official workload model, your CV, and your institution's promotion criteria—giving you the practical tools, strategies, and boundaries to achieve key career milestones (such as research proposals, publications, NRF ratings, or institutional advancement) while building a productive, sustainable academic life without sacrificing your well-being.

Schedule: There are two versions of the workshop. One runs on staggered evenings in the week, and the other runs on Saturday mornings. We meet once a week for group and individual feedback and support, as well as covering a specific theme for the day. 

Week 1: Goal Setting — Bridging Your CV and Promotion Criteria

We start the programme using the GROW coaching strategy to formulate a clear, strategic vision for your academic trajectory over the next three to five years. We will conduct a rigorous alignment audit between your current CV and your institution’s formal promotion or rating criteria. By identifying where your outputs match institutional expectations and where critical gaps exist, you will translate high-level career goals into precise, measurable milestones tailored to your specific academic stage.

Week 2: Reality — Deconstructing the Workload Model and Time

In Week 2, we confront the friction between your official job description and your actual daily workload. We examine your current teaching, administrative, and service allocations to reveal where your time and energy are truly going. You will learn practical time-auditing and boundary-setting strategies to carve out and protect dedicated research time so that you can reclaim control over your calendar without compromising your institutional responsibilities. Resources include: The four-hour workweek (Tim Ferris), the Esenhower matrix (Perfony) and the Pomodoro technique (Cirillo).

Week 3: Opportunities — Unlocking Synergies and Low-Hanging Fruit

This week we focus on strategic efficiency and leverage. We explore how to work smarter by identifying high-yield opportunities that serve multiple academic requirements at once. We consider a SOTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) approach to convert teaching activities and reports into publishable papers. We look at forming strategic co-authoring partnerships and collaborative supervision teams. We will consider practical ways to multiply your outputs while sharing the heavy lifting. Finally we look at networking and navigating organisational politics that may inhibit or advance your promotion.

Week 4: Way Forward — Building Your Integrated Career Roadmap

With goals defined and opportunities identified, Week 4 is dedicated to drafting your comprehensive 12-month academic career plan. We structure your research projects, grant applications, teaching innovations, and administrative commitments into a realistic, phased timeline. This roadmap gives you a clear, week-by-week operational blueprint that keeps your long-term career advancement on track amidst daily operational demands.

Week 5: Execution & Constraints — Managing Bottlenecks and Projects

Even the best plans encounter friction. In Week 5, we apply the Theory of Constraints to identify the exact rate-limiting factors stalling your progress—whether it’s slow peer-review cycles, administrative overload, or energy depletion. You will master project management techniques specifically adapted for academia, learning how to bypass bottlenecks, delegate effectively, and strategically say "no" to low-value demands.

Week 6: Reflection & Commitment — Creating a Sustainable Academic Life

We conclude the series by evaluating your progress and embedding sustainable habits for the long haul. Week 6 focuses on preventing burnout and resisting the pull back into reactive crisis management. You will refine your personal academic identity through building a personal brand, establish an ongoing peer-accountability network, and finalise a personal career plan to ensure your work-life balance and research momentum endure well beyond the programme. 

(Drafted by Prof Johannes Cronje assisted by Gemini)Dr

Feedback form to use at the end of each session

Padlet