The holidays can be a tough time for anyone who’s dealt with trauma—whether it’s family struggles, the loss of loved ones, or simply the weight of personal history. But one thing that struck me recently in a conversation is how often we forget that it can actually be a blessing when someone else doesn’t understand our trauma.
It’s natural to feel frustrated when we share our experiences and the person we’re talking to just doesn’t “get it.” Maybe they look puzzled, or they try to offer advice that doesn’t quite fit because they’ve never had to navigate the same emotional minefields. But here’s the flip side: the fact that they don’t understand means they’ve been fortunate enough not to go through that kind of pain. And while that can create a gap in understanding, it’s also something to be thankful for.
So as we head into the holidays or as we navigate conversations with friends or family who haven’t had to face trauma, let’s try reframing our perspective. Instead of feeling that they should already know what we’ve been through, we can see it as an opportunity to gently explain our experiences. We can be thankful that they haven’t had to endure that kind of hardship and appreciate their willingness to support us, even if they’re learning as they go.
In other words, let’s offer a little grace to those who haven’t walked in our shoes. Let’s be grateful that they haven’t had to face those battles and let’s see it as a chance to build understanding rather than resentment. After all, the holidays are about compassion, connection, and sometimes a little bit of education. Let’s embrace all of that.
Lately I’ve been thinking about how stress doesn’t always announce itself with dramatic moments. More often, it slips in quietly and sets up camp. For me, it started back in early September when I began working on my promotion portfolio. I expected the fall to be busy—after all, fall semesters always are—but I didn’t expect the continuity of it. It felt like I’d stepped onto a treadmill that just kept speeding along. Not overwhelming, not crushing, just… constant.
And here’s the strange part: once you’ve been in that mode for long enough, your brain gets used to it. It starts to expect the next push, the next deadline, the next thing that demands your attention. That’s exactly what I’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks. When I finally reach a moment where I can relax, my mind pops up like an anxious stage manager asking, “Okay—what’s next?” Even when there isn’t a next.
For example, this afternoon I only have choir practice and grocery shopping on the docket. No emergencies. No looming projects. A quiet weekend ahead (Well, as quiet as the weekend before Thanksgiving can ever be). And yet I caught myself scanning for something stressful out of pure habit. It’s like part of my brain is still bracing for impact even when the storm has passed.
If you’ve ever lived through a long stretch of work, caregiving, emotional load, or any season where you had to stay “on,” you might recognize this feeling. It’s the leftover adrenaline talking. The stress-response cycle hasn’t finished its lap, even though you have.
🌱 Here’s the reminder I’m giving myself—and maybe you need it too:
It’s okay to slow down.
You don’t have to be preparing for the next hard thing.
Your nervous system needs time to believe you’re safe again.
Sometimes the most important work we do is letting ourselves come back to baseline. Not out of laziness or avoidance, but out of respect for the body and mind that carried us through everything we just did.
So if you find yourself scanning the horizon for danger when the path ahead is actually clear, take a breath. Step off the treadmill. Notice the stillness. Remind yourself that it’s real.
And let this be permission—yours and mine—to treat recovery as part of the journey, not an afterthought.
Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is changing the way we do things inside and outside of our classrooms. Tools like ChatGPT and other generative A.I. platforms can be powerful allies in your academic work, or they can get you in a ton of trouble. Students want guidance, hence this blog post and infographic. Here are my 3 guiding principles of AI use in my classroom, and in professional life.
1. Generative A.I. is an effective tool, when used with care.
A.I. can help you brainstorm ideas, clarify confusing topics, and even provide feedback on early drafts. It can put things in words that your professor wouldn’t think to use, which may help them click better. And it’s great at proofreading, it will catch all those little things your eye misses. However, simply copying and pasting output without editing or reflection is likely to backfire. A.I. often produces generic or superficial responses, and it sometimes makes factual errors or misinterprets context (it hallucinates worse than you’d think!). It works best when you use it as a collaborator—not a shortcut.
If you rely on it too heavily or uncritically, your work may lose its clarity, depth, or voice. Worse, you may inadvertently turn in something that doesn’t fully address the assignment—or that raises plagiarism concerns. Or both for extra fun! Use A.I. to enhance your thinking, not to replace it.
2. Generative A.I. starts a conversation—you may use it, but you should tell me where, when, and why you’re using it.
Transparency matters. If you use A.I. in your work—whether to rephrase a paragraph, summarize a reading, generate ideas, or check grammar—let me know. I’m not here to penalize you for using helpful tools; I’m here to help you learn how to use them well. But if you just tell me “Nope, didn’t use it at all!”, I have nothing to provide to you in terms of guidance. And Principle 3 will really get you in that case!
Briefly describing how you used A.I. helps me understand your process and support your learning. It also helps create an honest academic environment where we can talk openly about emerging technologies and how they fit into our work.
3. Generative A.I. Helps, but You Own the Work.
When you submit work for a grade, you’re putting your name on it. That means you are responsible for the content, the quality, and the implications of what you submit. If an A.I. tool generates a clunky sentence, makes an inaccurate claim, or uses a tone that doesn’t fit the assignment—and you leave it in—it reflects on you. And you might not want to be known as that person who only speaks in groups of threes and uses em dashes extensively!
Likewise, if I ask you to explain your thinking and you can’t speak to what was written, that’s a problem for professional life. A.I. tools can support your efforts, but they cannot replace the understanding, decision-making, or academic integrity that you bring to your work. You don’t just turn in words—you turn in your thinking.
Final Thoughts
The goal of these principles is not to restrict you, but to empower you. I want you to feel confident and competent in your use of A.I. tools, and I want to help you learn how to use them in a way that complements your own voice and skills. A.I. isn’t going away—so let’s learn how to use it wisely, responsibly, and creatively.
Have questions about when or how to use A.I. in a specific assignment? Just ask. I’m here to help you navigate this new landscape.
One of the things I love about Disney is thinking about the “backstage” aspects of it. The fact that it’s a workplace that exists in fantasy but also very much in reality. The fact that on one side of a door is a Castle and Cinderella greeting guests to her kingdom, and 5 feet away is a boring hallway and dingy conference / break room where Flynn Rider is fighting with the Keurig and Belle is wondering if her tax refund is coming soon.
Anyway, obviously there is a whole Disney employee culture, and RedBubble offers a glimpse of that if you search “Cast Member”. Here are a few of my favorites:
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of a telephone call. I live in a region where many people still believe that the only way to get action on anything is to call someone, which leads to many, mostly in the younger generation, having extremely awkward phone etiquette. Both Karey & I often talk about how the majority of our phone calls are from people who want us to give them information, which is nearly always better communicated over email. And a good majority of them don’t actually know what information they want. Case in point: I’ve answered a dozen phone calls this summer asking “Is your psychology program online?” when none of the online information about our program mentions an online class option.
Anyway, a different phenomenon is what I think is related, yet worse. If the sage advice of the Southern Grandmother is “You gotta call those people and ask…” it’s related rejoinder is “If it’s important, they’ll call”. And here is why the latter is absolutely false.
Today, in 2023, plenty of important things are communicated in methods other than phone. For example, recently a friend’s utility service was disconnected for delinquency. They hadn’t noticed that their auto-pay had somehow been disabled, and after 3 months of non-payment, service was cut with no telephone call notice. I subscribe to the same utility – I get an emailed statement every month that prominently shows me my bill amount. I’d be willing to bet that these statements noted that last month’s bill hadn’t been paid. It was important, they didn’t call.
And it’s not just delinquent utilities, here are some more great examples:
Despite the numbers of them, generally the best sales and coupons come from email and mail. My grocery store, for example, regularly sends me a $10 off a $100 purchase, 3-4 times per year. But it’s through postal mail. Off the top of my head, I’ve saved at least $100 this year thanks to email and mailed coupons.
Even better, 14% don’t even listen to a voicemail if it’s left. Of course that’s assuming you have voicemail set up.
Given the undocumented nature of phone communication, the fact that the legal system still utilizes physical mail or electronic records, and that most people aren’t even answering calls they don’t recognize, in short, even if it is important, they aren’t going to bother calling.
So the next time someone tells you “Don’t worry, if it’s important, they’ll call”, ask them why they believe that. I suspect it’s something related to how the telephone was one of the few communication mechanisms in human history that was intrusive – you couldn’t control when it would ring and interrupt your life. You had no idea who was at the other end of the line – it could be a salesman or it could be the police. You couldn’t read it at your leisure. It was the only way to push messages in near real-time, and it was utilized as a central plot device in so many medias over the last century. But times are changing – and we can’t let memories of “40 years ago, they’d call you and ask if you wanted to come in for an interview” excuse our lack of checking our job search email’s spam filter!
Our learning management system asks us to write an “About your Instructor” page for our students. Here’s Fall 2023’s – I think I’ve reached peak “This is who I am”…
I was born last century, the only offspring of artists who both never had the opportunity to complete a college degree. From an early age I knew I wanted to be a psychologist, but still to this day do not know what made me decide on this path. Perhaps it was Bob Newhart’s portrayal of a forever frustrated psychotherapist in The Bob Newhart Show, or maybe it was the fact that a large number of Michael Crichton’s novels portray a positive behavioral scientist. Regardless, from day one of college, I was a psychology major.
And yet I was also a complete computer geek as a teenager – teaching myself to program, administer, and network computers as soon as I could get my hands on them. My background in information technology is outlined on my blog’s About Me page but I’ll save you the time – suffice it to say, I know a lot about (and have written a lot about) technology. Which brings me to my hobbies – writing, creating, crafting, and spending time with family and a small circle of friends. Mid-career, I am your typical eccentric professor. Ask me questions, and you’ll get surprising answers. Engage with me, and I will try, in some small way, to improve your life through knowledge.
If you’re one of my new or returning students this fall, welcome to class. And if you’re just passing through, welcome to my corner of the internet.
We’re at the end of the Summer II term, and I’m reading term papers. It has made me think about the biggest issues I see with student writing today. So here is my list, in no particular order, of my biggest pet peeves. If you are a student in one of my classes, this is your list of things to avoid, because you know I will count off for them.
Writing like you’re giving a powerpoint presentation.
We’ve all seen that standard bullet-point slide from Powerpoint, the one that looks like this:
Thanks to Bing AI for this content, we have our example slide. The problem I see is that students write a paper as a series of disconnected statements like the ones above. A student example might read like this under the section heading “Cat Cuteness”:
Cats have facial features that resemble human babies. They make sounds similar to a baby’s cry. They have soft fur that feels pleasing to touch.
Imagine if you were giving this powerpoint slide as a talk – you wouldn’t just read it bullet to bullet (or at least you shouldn’t do that – a presentation pet peeve of mine is people reading directly off their slides, but that’s a different article). If you were giving the presentation, you’d probably say something like this:
There are a lot of reasons why cats are cute. For example, they have facial features that resemble human babies, and so as humans, we may think of them as similar to our own offspring. They also communicate using sounds that are similar to human infants. Finally, their fur is just so darn fluffy and fun to touch, and when we do that, it releases hormones in both ourselves and our cats, which are enjoyable.
See what happened there? When I talked through the slide, I naturally added in a short introduction (“There are a lot of reasons why cats are cute”), I also put in transitions (“For example”, “They also”, “Finally”), and I expounded upon what I said beyond simple declarative statements. Also, I didn’t need to see the section heading “Cat Cuteness” to know what you were talking about, because it was right in the text.
I refer to these transitions and ability to ignore section headings as “connective tissue”, and many writers forget about it. They focus on content, but don’t realize that they know their own content so well, they don’t naturally think to set it up for a new reader who hasn’t encountered it before. Here are some tips to make sure you’re not doing this:
Imagine that all the section headings are missing from your paper. Would you still know from the first sentence of a paragraph what that paragraph was going to be about?
Imagine that the last line of a previous paragraph was missing – would the first line of this paragraph review what was important previously? Or would it seem like an abrupt shift to the reader?
Imagine that your reader just read the last line of your paragraph – would they know what direction the next paragraph was going in?
To these last two points, it can be helpful to take a paragraph out of your paper and ask a friend “What do you think I just talked about in the last part of the paper?” and “What do you think I will talk about next?” – if they can’t answer those questions, you’ve got to write more, and probably revisit your outline. Which brings me to my next pet peeve.
Outline? What outline?!?
If you sit down to write a paper, and start with the introduction, then stop – you’ve already made a mistake. You should only write the introduction after you have an outline. Your outline doesn’t have to be fancy – you don’t need to use roman numerals and indenting (although it can help), it just has to be a roadmap you can follow. Imagine your instructor has asked you to write a paper on why cats and humans have a symbiotic relationship. You could just sit down and pound out everything you know about cats and humans, but that will likely lead to a stream of consciousness style paper. It will sound like you’re having a conversation with a friend about cats and humans. This seems fine, but your reader is going to be very annoyed – they want to use your paper as a reference material – they want to know facts they can use about the subject. To use a modern analogy – they don’t want to read 70 pages of backstory before you give them the recipe!
Thankfully, today, AI tools allow us to generate outlines pretty easily. I’ll ask Bing AI once more to generate an outline for that prompt. Here’s a PDF of what it came up with.
Let me be honest with you – if a student took this outline, tweaked it, and then wrote the paper based on it’s suggestions, that would likely get an A from me (Assuming it was well sourced and cited). The real power of Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models is NOT to write the paper for you – it’s to give you ideas to write the best paper possible. And you cannot write a good paper without an outline.
If you turn in a stream of consciousness to me, you will get a low grade. If you use an outline, not only are you organized, you can also easily build in transitions like the ones I mentioned above AND you aren’t dependent on section headings to tell the reader what you’re trying to do. Isn’t software great – of course, it isn’t always perfect, and it definitely can get you in trouble if you decide to copy and paste directly out of it.
Copying and Pasting Nearly Always Leads to Plagiarism
We have a big problem today with people not understanding what Plagiarism is. Great tutorials exist that can help people understand citing and paraphrasing (I particularly like Kosha Bramesfeld’s hosted by the Society for the Teaching of Psychology), but it seems many pretend that changing 1-2 words is sufficient. Here’s an actual example:
Student’s Paraphrased Version: Teachers can improve the utilization of homework by using research-tested strategies and accommodations (McNary, Glasgow, & Hicks, 2005).
Did you spot the “paraphrasing”? The person changed “their” to “the”. Not only is this not paraphrasing, it’s hard to see how it could be an honest mistake.
Now it could be: The person copied that line out of the article and put it in their notes, then when it came time to write the paper, they thought they’d paraphrased it already when they put it in their notebook, but in reality they’d just copied it. For this reason, my syllabus contains the following stern warning: “Copying and pasting from an original source material is never allowed unless you see it explicitly discussed in the directions of the assignment.” I put that line in not to be mean, but to help people avoid honest mistakes – copy and paste can be a dangerous tool. Also good advice: If you aren’t sure if you’re allowed to do something or not – ASK THE PROFESSOR. We can provide guidance before problems arise.
So far we’ve talked about the issues related to transitions, outlines, and plagiarism. Now let’s turn to the last biggest Pet Peeve – APA Style violations.
It Doesn’t Need to Be Perfect, But At Least Try!
I don’t think anyone is an expert in APA Style. But there are several things I would like students to at least try to do because they speak to the deeper tenets of having a style in the first place. Here’s a quick list:
Prefer paraphrasing over direct quoting. APA style is meant to be concise and coherent in one voice. It’s not like MLA – you shouldn’t be taking large chunks of people’s writing and providing them as examples of one’s literary excellence. A scientist might write a 10 page paper – you should be able to sum it up in 1 or 2 sentences, if that. All we care about is who had the original idea, and when it was published. I typically use less than 2 direct quotations in any APA style work I write – I reserve them for when I simply cannot say it any better than the original author.
Understand that we don’t care what something was titled. While it’s pretty common in MLA to see something like “Jonathan Westfall, in his book “Practical R 4″ discusses how to use R to automate the creation of powerpoint slides”, in APA style we would see something like this: “You can use R to create powerpoint slides (Westfall, 2020)”. Notice how it’s more concise and readable?
Focus on content, not filling space – I hate page length guidelines as they typically make students inspired to create mountains out of molehills. I do NOT want you to take a sentence and turn it into a paragraph. I want you to take 10 page papers and reduce them down to 1-2 sentences!
For the love of uniformity, make sure your fonts match. Seeing a font change (for example in the running head) just makes me think you’re sloppy and rushed.
Ultimately writing is difficult to master, and the only way that you do is to, well, write. Set yourself up for success by avoiding these pet peeves – write good transitions and introductions, set up an outline that you can follow, avoid plagiarism, and follow style as best you can, and you’ll be on the right track!
A colleague and I are creating a Discord server to discuss psychology and all things related (Technology, community, academia, culture, etc…) We’re hoping to use it with our students, and our colleagues and friends.
If you’d like to join in, head over to https://go.jonwestfall.com/psychout and jump in. Right now just a few channels in there for general talk, posting news that you’d like to discuss, and just some fun. So stop by, post some stuff, and enjoy.
I made this in about 5 minutes… sometimes having the right tool means pay a bit of money to speed up your workflow. Could I have done it for free? Yes. As accessibly? No.
It’s been awhile since I’ve talked productivity on this blog, but recently I’ve had a number of people point out to me that I’m extremely busy. If you don’t know, I have a few different roles professionally and personally – if you’re really curious, here’s the list as of today. But without boring you, know that I have multiple job titles and roles. I’m at the point this fall that I’m openly telling people that if they hear a story of me throwing someone out a window, it’s because that person told me “I’m too busy”, because I don’t know of anyone else on my campus that has as many irons in the fire, as it were, as myself. They probably exist, but haven’t revealed their true amount of overloadedness to me.
Anyway, this post isn’t about how busy I am – it’s about how I maintain a high level of productivity while being so busy. I figure every so often it’s a great idea to point out what I’m doing that makes me productive, so that I can share it with others. Also helps me highlight some of my older content that you may have missed. So here’s what I do:
Everything is on every device or accessible from every device. I wander around with my iPad Pro, which can connect to my MacBook from anywhere, meaning that when I’m out at a meeting across campus and I have a few moments to take care of some work, I can do it remotely.
I also dispatch and answer emails and texts as quickly as possible, so that they don’t bunch up. There is an added psychological benefit both to myself and for myself in this as well. I honestly believe I’m seen as much more competent than I might be just because I get back to people quickly. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not ill-equipped for my job, I just don’t think I’m as great at it as others tell me I am!
I use a calendar booking service (YouCanBookMe) and I send automated reminders to people that we’re scheduled to meet. Prior to this I’d say I probably spent at least 10-15 minutes per day answering emails that purely were about scheduling time to meet. YouCanBookMe, and to a lesser extent, sites like Doodle.com and SignupGenius.com are essential scheduling tools.
In the classroom, I take advantage of technology to facilitate my teaching – through entry/exit tickets and tracking participation in Microsoft Excel. Both save time when entering information into my Gradebook.
While I have 2 offices on campus, I also try to be as productive out of the office as possible. This post, written prior to the pandemic, highlights 5 tips I gave then that helped me weather the “work from home” storm much easier in 2020 than I might have otherwise done.
Sometimes when I get tired of having to type the same things out over and over again, I write them down so I can direct people to them. This might seem a bit callous or flippant, but it’s the honest truth:
Students having issues with registering? See my DSU Probs posts.
Want to know all my best R tips? Read this book (I put 10 years of tips in this)
Want to run a server like I do? Read this book (I put 20 years of tips in this).
And, ya know, posts like the one you’re reading right now!
So there you have it – in very basic terms how I stay productive. What I perhaps didn’t put here is that one also must balance things out within oneself to be productive – if you haven’t thought about it, I suggest two small additions to your life:
Routine / Ritual: Whether it’s a morning ritual to get pepped up, an evening ritual to wind down, or a lunchtime moment of enjoyment, find something that you can structure around and try to hold is sacred. This trains your brain to understand that even when life is absolutely crazy, there are almost always constants. This is also a great way to add new habits to your life that you want to take pride in.
Balance work and life as best as possible. I do this in a few little ways:
Saving work – If something isn’t time sensitive, I have no problem putting it down to do later in the week. It’s a common misconception that you should keep working until your to-do list is empty. The honest truth is that your to-do list should never be empty, but your time sensitive tasks for today should be. Think about it this way: If you have something due in a week, and you know you have a light day later this week, what is better – assign that task to the light day, or do it today and miss out on a) dinner with your spouse, b) a conversation with co-workers, c) a TV show you enjoy relaxing to? A-C are much better options than being bored at 10 AM on Thursday because you did the work Tuesday night.
Don’t be afraid of embracing unmotivated boredom time at work. I have, on several occasions, freaked out co-workers by dropping by their offices and saying “I’m bored, what are you up to?”. They usually tell me “Don’t say you’re bored – it looks bad!” – but the honest truth is, sometimes we aren’t motivated. Sometimes we are bored. And those are times when a little human interaction can be really beneficial. Not only does it give you something to do that many people find rewarding (e.g., talking to people they like, assuming you like your co-workers), it also creates relationships that are reciprocal in nature. No one wants to be that co-worker that only talks to you if they need something.
While I personally plan on saying “No” a bit more this fall (given my work level), I generally give the advice to not be afraid of saying “Yes”. Be an “experience junkie” – take on new challenges and find enjoyment in them. Just don’t overload yourself.
So there you have it, my tips and tricks, Fall 2021 edition. Stay safe, stay sane, and stay busy!
