Summing up the work year 2025

I have just summed up my work year in 2025 based on my log of working hours. 2025 was my second shortest work year in living memory (with my work log going back to 2009), with an average work week of 46,2 hours all weeks in the year included. This amounts to 2409 work hours, which compares to 143% of an ordinary work year. 

This year I also summed up my work/life balance, focused on sleeplessness, karate training and meditation.

Overall, the work year was characterized by making room for finishing the manuscript for my book originally titled Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement and now titled Carbon Capture and the Future of Environmentalism. I so did, in early August 2025. In my work log, this is reflected in the fact that book projects had the highest share of total work on record, and ended up as the largest category of work for the first time. Moreover, the share of my work time I spent on research plus book projects was the highest ever. Book projects was also the category whose share of all work hours increased the most from 2024. 

See also:

Summing up the work year 2022

2024: Shortest work year in living memory, at "only" 138% of normal work year

2024: Shortest work year in living memory, at "only" 138% of normal work year

I have just summed up my work year in 2024 based on my log of working hours. 2024 stands out as the shortest work year in living memory (with my work log going back to 2009), with an average work week of 44,7 hours all weeks in the year included. This amounts to 2335,5 work hours, which compares to 138% of an ordinary work year. I worked 180 hours less than in 2023, which was at that point my shortest work year in living memory. This has contributed to a better work/life balance, with more time for karate training and relaxation; since the summer of 2024 I have also taken up daily meditation. And I still got quite a bit done in my working hours - though I got to attend fewer international scientific conferences in person than I´ve been used to, due to budget cuts at University of Stavanger.

Even though it went down from 2023, the share of my work time I spent on research in 2024 was the second-highest in living memory (after 2023). Similarly, the share of my work time I spent on research plus book projects was the second-highest ever, after 2023. Research was the largest category in terms of work hours in 30 weeks, vs. 17 for teaching, supervision and grading etc., and 6 for book projects. Book projects was the category whose share of all work hours increased the most from 2023, in result of my prioritisation of getting Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement finished by Summer 2025.

The work year 2023 by work hours

I have just finished reviewing the work year 2023 in terms of work hours logged. The year stands out as the shortest work year in recorded history, with 2.518,5 work hours logged, which amounts to 48,3 hours per week in average (holidays not subtracted), or 149% of a normal work year. In comparison, my average work week in 2009-2022 was in the range of 50,8-62,0 hours per week.

Among other key developments, the share of my work time I spent on "research" was record-high, at 41,4%, as was "research" and "literature" (e.g. book projects) combined, at 55,3%. "Research" was what I spent most time on in 36 weeks, while I spent most time on "UIS" 14 weeks. Of book projects, I spent the most time on Utslippsfrie nye verden? in the 1st tertial, Regnskap in the 2nd tertial, and Captured in the 3rd tertial. 

See also:

The academic year 2023 in review

The academic year 2023 in review

This year has been a special year for me in that I returned to a scientific position on Friday January 6th after 2 years as Head of department (after having been Vice-Dean of Research the 2 previous years, resulting in 4 years in academic leadership 2019-2023). For the first time in years, by Summer, I no longer held any leadership positions. In the course of the year I was replaced as steering group leader of Cognitive lab at University of Stavanger, and stepped down as President of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS), returning to the position as Secretary of NASS. An unhappy consequence of my resignation as Head of department was that my Scientific assistant Jan Karlstrøm´s position was terminated earlier than initially planned, but our collaboration on two scientific articles will continue until completion. In Spring, I had some time for academic updating, which in effect mostly amounted to getting to the bottom of my email inbox over the course of several weeks, and a visit to Oxford University.

At the Department of social studies, I have been involved with teaching in collaboration with Christian Wedler in a course on law and ethics in Spring, and Ex.phil. in the Autumn (all teaching by me, grading by me in collaboration with Rune Falch from University of Bergen). Both courses are part of the department´s bachelor in psychology. In the Autumn I also gave a couple of lectures in the university´s new course on sustainability and green transition, coordinated by Andra Riandita at the UIS Business School.

I have supervised Joakim Jiri Haaland in his ph.d. studies and co-supervised Jacob Tom in his, with Jacob going through with his midterm evaluation in September. I have had some extra research time for working on my book project Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, have taken part in the national editorial board of the new Stavanger-based festival on philosophy and science "Wonderful World", which was first held in June this year, and have hosted Lenart Škof, Professor of philosophy and religious studies at Alma Mater Europaea in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on an Erasmus exchange in December. Meanwhile, I took up the responsibility as guest editor, along with Carlo Brentari at University of Trento, for a special issue of Biosemiotics on the topic of "Umwelt theory and phenomenology", which will be published next Summer. I also co-wrote two consultative statements issued by Norway´s Council for animal ethics, and was in the Summer of 2023 reappointed as a member of the council for 4 more years.

In 2023, my paper "Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis" was reprinted as a chapter in the anthology Transcending Signs – Essays in Existential Semiotics edited by Eero Tarasti and published by De Gruyter (Berlin). My article "The study of past Umwelten" was published in a special issue of Discipline Filosophische (Italy) edited by Vallori Rasini, and my chapter "Umwelt theory for practitioners: Semiotic guidelines for application in a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology" was published in the book set Open Semiotics, edited by Amir Biglari and published by L’Harmattan (Paris). My introductory chapter "Nosology and Semiotics" appeared in the book Organ Crosstalk in Acute Kidney Injury: Basic Concepts and Clinical Practices, which was edited by Carlo Guido Musso & Adrian Covic and published by Springer Nature, and I co-authored the short communication "Biosemiotic Achievement Award for the Year 2022", published in Biosemiotics, with Ludmila Lackova & Ahti-Veikko Juhani Pietarinen. Finally, my article "Wasted GDP in the USA" was published in Humanities & Social Sciences Communications.

Among my personal achievements this year, I have given a scientific lecture for the UNDP´s Human Development Reports Office in March, seen my article "Wasted GDP in the USA" be mentioned in about 1500 tweets, and reached 1.000 citations by the count of Google Scholar. I further gave a keynote speech at the conference "Contemporary Umwelt Analysis: Applications for Culture and Ecological Relations" in Tartu, Estonia, in April - which also resulted in an extended interview with Martin Avila and me by Thorolf van Walsum - and was an invited speaker at the research colloquium «After Nagel: Science and the phenomenology of animals subjects” held in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in March, at the “Henrik Steffens – The Prophet of the Anthropocene?” conference held in Stavanger in September, and at Dyreetikkonferansen (the Norwegian animal ethics conference) 2023, held in Oslo in December. Also, an interview by Norway´s national broadcaster NRK with Erica von Essen and me on the ethics of wolf hunting was featured in NRK TV´s daily news program Dagsrevyen as well as the popular weekly comedy show Nytt på Nytt.

In 2023, I have engaged in new collaborations, which include commencing article work with my department colleague and legal scholar Maren Sagvaag Retland, with Thomas Hylland Eriksen, based at the University of Oslo, with Martin Drenthen at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and with Søren Nors Nielsen at Aalborg University, Denmark. Of larger research consortia, I am thankful to have been included in the astrobiology-themed book project Mars and the Earthlings, with initial contact made via David Dunér in Lund, Sweden, and in the "Live better" research consortium led by Kuba Krys, based at Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. In the latter, I am currently gaining experience with international quantitative surveys.

I have done what I mention in this post within a work year that has been shorter than usual for me - around 2.500 work hours, compared with around 3,000 work hours in previous years. This has allowed me to basically have weekends and evenings off from academic work, making for a healthier balance in my life.

See also:

#35; 2023 totals (words written)

Summing up the work year 2022

In 2022, I logged 2.763 work hours. This is 53 hours a week (all year, including in holiday weeks). At 163,6% of a standard Norwegian work year, this is considerably longer than the average employee´s work week. And yet it was my second shortest work year in terms of work hours over the last 10 years, due to health issues (which resulted in about a month´s sick leave altogether in the autumn). However, in 2013, my first year as a father, I had a somewhat shorter work year (2.650 work hours). In 2020, as an effect of the covid pandemic and a month´s sick leave related to surgery, my work year amounted to some 2.790 work hours. My longest work year ever was 3.231 work hours (2011).

2022 stands out with a few records of different sorts: Highest share ever for academic work (vs. literary and other work), lowest share ever for "other work".

Summing up 2021 in terms of work hours

In 2021, I logged 3.114 work hours. This compares to an average work week of 59,7 work hours (holidays included).  This is my third-longest work week ever, beaten only by 2011 (when I finished my ph.d.) and 2012 (my first year as an associate professor and about the time up until I became a father), and compares to 184,5% of a normal work week.

Other highlights: As expected, the category "UIS" increased the most and reached record levels, while research and book projects had a significant decline. Also the broad category "academic" reached a record level, at the cost of literary projects and "other tasks".

2020 work year redux

In 2020 I logged 2.790,5 work hours. This corresponds to 169% of a normal work year, and is the least I have worked since 2013, the first full year that I was a father. This was due to a combination of covid-19 circumstances and a month´s sick leave. My average work week was 53,4 hours, 5,5 hours less than in 2019.

I spent the most time on University of Stavanger tasks, ahead of research and "litterært" (book projects). The share of UIS tasks and "litterært" were both the highest in recorded memory (which goes back to 2009).

#39,5 - 2020 totals: 94 writing days; 84.739 words written

Today I have had half an article writing day, with some 900 words written on the Preface of Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, which I co-write with Alexei Sharov as second author. Final number of writing this autumn ends up at 39,5. This is more than the autumn of 2019, when I had 32 writing days. This Spring I had 54,5 writing days. In total in 2020 I thus had 94 writing days (a new record).

I have logged 39.578 words written this autumn, compared with ca. 27.000 words in the autumn of 2019 and 45.161 words this Spring. Year total for 2020: 84.739 words.

Summary of work year 2019

In 2019 I ligged 3.073,5 work hours, which is 186% of the normal work year in Norway. My work week was on average 58,9 hours, up 2 hours from 2018 and up 4 hours from 2017. This is my longest average work week since 2012, and in other words my longest work week/year since I became a father.

About 31% of this time was spent on research, down 3% from 2017. Work with book-long texts was stable. UIS work (primarily as Vice-Dean of Research) was largest category, with 32% (+9%). I spent less time than ever on "other tasks" (4%); 77% on academic work; 19% on literary projects.

The work year 2017 summarized

In 2017 I worked for some 2.863 hours, resulting in a weekly average of 54,9 hours. This is about 1.213 hours more than a normal work year, or 1,735 times as much. 

Last year I worked relatively less with what I characterize as academic work, and slightly more with both book projects and "other work" (including a lot of time spent doing voluntary work for the Norwegian Green Party). 

This had a negative impact on my work hours spent on research, with the lowest percentage post-2011 - but "research" nevertheless narrowly ended up as the biggest single work category, yet again. While Green Party work and time spent on book projects had record highs, the categories for my Philosophy business Spør filosofen, music, administration and "writer" (besides research and book projects) had record lows. 

The work year 2012 summarised

In 2012 I worked some 3165,5 hours. This results in an average work week (all weeks included) of 60,5 hours (against 62,0 in 2011 and 58,1 in 2010), which represents approximately 192 % of a normal work week (given 35 hours per week, minus 5 weeks of holidays).

I worked more than ever (since records begin in 2009) at the University of Stavanger (where I have in previous years only graded papers), with book projects (categorised as 'Litterært' and including both co-editing and monographs in process), and  with Minding Animals and to some extent the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies.

The share of my work time spent doing research is a bit tricky to estimate; the category "Research" stood for 28,1% of all work hours, though this does not represent all research activities and is at any rate not directly comparable to previous work 2009-2011 categorised as "doctoral work" (which included work beyond research as well).