Modern Anthro Consulting: Q1 Update

In August 2024 I started a new job very different from my old position as Assistant Professor of Anthropology. A few weeks later, I discovered I was expecting my 4th child. These two were a lot to juggle mentally and physically. Progress with my consulting work under my LLC Modern Anthro Consulting reduced significantly. Luckily, I had worked ahead a bit before starting the new position. The rest of 2024 was characterized by having little time or energy to do anything but rely on those reserves.

When 2025 started, I wanted to recommit to my consulting side work. With New Year energy, I worked to find ways to fit in consulting around my full-time job and family obligations. I thought I would share some Q1 notes here. Make no mistake, progress is still slow. But it’s not non-existent, and for that I am happy.

What I did in Q1

With my New Year energy, I set out to have a list of progress to share by the end of the first quarter (January, February, and March 2025). I was happy to compile the list below, as it shows a distinct difference from August-December 2024. In the past quarter I:

1. Launched my first heritage microcourse, a collaborative effort to help people identify winter birds in Western New York.  
2. Worked on a small content project related to heritage work in Greenland (a microcourse targeting a specific audience, now unclear if we will be able to launch it given the evolving political situation). 
3. Submitted a bid for a New York State contract. This was one of my 2025 goals, I am excited I finished it early in the year. With a new Women-Owned Business Certification from NYS (which gives me a small but not non-existent boast in bids for state contracts), I wanted to learn how to write a bid for state work. Like most government things, there is a learning curve. A few days after writing this was a goal for the year, a NYS agency emailed stating they had found my business on the State’s contract system and wanted to draw my attention to a request for proposals to be posted the next day. I am convinced this was a sign; this was the bid I needed to write. The process taught me a lot. It has not moved forward yet, but I am also 100% okay if it ends up just a great learning experience.  
4. Created a 2025 content calendar laying out my writing plans for the RWP Heritage Engagement Project (HEP). I am really excited about the new subjects I get to explore.
5. Compiled a bunch of social media suggestions to bring traffic back to some of my 2024 HEP articles. (Fun fact -the popular online publication Buffalo Rising just picked up two of my 2024 HEP articles and reran them - here and here!)
6. Wrote more for HEP: I wrote my February HEP piece on Wintering Well.  My January piece, a reflection on the project in 2024, was finalized and posted in Q1 (although mostly written in December). I skipped March due to a lack of time but did manage to start April’s piece.
7. Resigned a contract with Educational Testing Services to write lecture material used in TOEFL iBT testing. For years I’ve freelanced for them, writing and recording 10-minute lectures on anthropology/archaeology topics. I typically only fit in a few a year, but its good money and interesting work. After signing a new contract for the year, I pitched an idea for a lecture that was approved and started work on step two (lecture outline production),
8. Filed my company’s biennial statement. This was an easy but important step in keeping my LLC a legitimate business in the State of New York. 
9. Filed my 2024 business taxes.
10. Attend a SBDC webinar for exploring new opportunities for MWBEs (my Women-owned Business Enterprise Certification).

My first launched heritage microcourse

A Note on Fitting it in...

As this work does not benefit or build my work as Director of Donor Relations at St. Lawrence University (unlike when I was an anthropology professor), I cannot justify doing it during traditional work hours. I also have lots of little kids, prenatal appointments, and other life responsibilities. It is, without a doubt, tough to find time to work on these projects. Since I am always inspired reading how others manage to juggle a lot, I'm sharing my approach. This quarter, I made a few productivity tweaks that worked:

• Woke at 5/5:30 a few mornings a week. I did not do this the whole quarter (February illnesses and March insomnia interfered), but I  did it enough to buy some work time. My brain loves this time of day when no one else needs me. I achieve twice as much in half the time.
  
• Took a few vacation days and hit consulting projects hard on those days
  
• Did an overnight retreat in early January and another in February. An evening and morning alone provided roughly 7-8 uber-focused work hours at each, in quiet, super comfortable Adirondack hotel rooms. My January work retreat doubled as a planning retreat when I could focus on thinking through my 2025 goals.
  
• Did a few Saturday/Sunday work sessions. Hockey season with two kids on two different teams and a third easier kept at home meant winter weekends were not exceptional work times. But I managed a few sessions. Sometimes I escaped to a coffee shop, once grabbing the spot in front of a fireplace. I love these projects. Getting myself to work a bit on the weekend is logistically hard, but not mentally difficult to commit to.
  

Writing retreats always include good food and coffee

What I did not do much of was evening work. This is a terrible time for me. I am SO wiped out after work, dinner, evening activities, and bath/bed routines. I also don’t like to rush the evening bedtime with my older kids. They are more willing to read, practice writing, and tell me about their day once tucked into bed with little lap desks and reading lights. I don’t want to short change that time, it won’t last forever. So while many champion the split shift and evening work, this didn't work for me this quarter.

Learning when and how you work best is 10000% worth the effort. If your brain is too tired at certain times of the day/week, trying to work then is fruitless, aggravating, and draining. When your brain is awake and ready, you can achieve far more in less. My goal is not just to put in the time, but to put in highly productive time…quality over quantity. Figuring out my *magic times* helps me fit more in. Those times can change though, depending on the season of life I am currently in. So I revisit the idea often and redirect when what I am trying to do doesn't work. The overnight writing retreats have been a recent add to my life, a tactic that came when some of my go to working hours were not longer that productive. 

If you are reading this and hoping to start or grow your own business, I hope this is helpful! To be clear, it may all sound great but know there are plenty of days where I am flopping. Not all weeks are good. In the winter when everyone gets sick, snow days wreak havoc on schedules, and energy is low, it feels incredible to achieve anything at all. But I believe in slow productivity and not giving up on projects that bring me joy, even if I have to fit them into the margins. There are plenty of things I am not doing great at (don’t ask how clean my house is, how often I fit in a shower, or how long I take to answer text messages). Achievement lists don’t reflect the struggle or failures that accompanied them. Difficulty has to be read between the lines, but all who are ambitious face it.  In case you are someone who needs to hear this, don’t let tough seasons or low achieving phases convince you to give up on whatever it is you are working towards. We are on this earth for a limited time. There is no reason not to go after all the things we want, to keep life a giant experiment, and to try to squeeze in as much joy, professionally and personally, as possible. 

Welcome Q2!
Katie

My January retreat included an amazing sunrise. Pro-tip...forget about Jan 1. Book a room midweek in early January when rates plummet and you can splurge on a room with a view.