Discussion Forum > Academia and TM system considerations?
Check out Cal Newport's blog. He's a math professor who has been interested in study and work habits since he was a student. He's a big fan of blocking time for deep work, and also of taking time off during the week to let things percolate.
March 4, 2014 at 19:59 |
Cricket
Cricket
I'm a graduate student. While I enjoy systems like AF1 and FV, I have found that they can be hard to maintain when your schedule gives you only small blocks of discretionary time between scheduled classes and such. As a student, even though I enjoy FV the most of Mark's systems, I have found that I am most consistently productive whenever I am using DIT.
March 4, 2014 at 21:02 |
Austin
Austin
Well, as someone, now tenured, who has been/is in your position, although in a different discipline, let me just acknowledge that you have a wonderful and impossible job. Especially with your teaching load and with no TAs.
So, in addition to thinking about the details of capturing and scheduling, I'd strongly suggest you spend some time setting some boundaries for how much work and how much effort you're going to put into various areas. If you are untenured, does that mean you are tenure-leading or that you are ineligible for tenure? If on a tenure track, getting tenure is your first priority and that does mean making sure that you have accomplishments in the required areas and that you make them visible to your reviewers and put them into context for them.
Early on, I decided that I would not try to be Professor X, a/k/a the woman who does everything perfectly. I decided instead, that I would try to be a "good enough" tenured professor and I met that goal.
I'm always evaluating how I can meet responsibilities and be effective WITHOUT spending excess time, particularly in the cursed areas of service and advising. With advising, I try to be competent and empathetic but not get over invested. Students have to prepare for in-person appointments (bring their degree audits or draft schedules or . . . ) and they don't take more than 15 minutes and much of our conversation occurs via email.
With the committee work, I try to find areas that play to my strengths--analysis, curriculum, writing--and set myself time limits for how many hours I'll spend reviewing grant applications or whatever the task is.
One of the best things that happened for me was becoming part of an interdisciplinary group who's finishing an NSF grant and applying for a larger one. Our PI is a model of efficiency and that's because he does NOT procrastinate, follows "little and often" religiously, and aims for "excellent" for important things and "OK" for unimportant things. He is NOT a perfectionist and he guesses but doesn't second guess or agonize. I learned to do a draft, take my best shot, proposes and idea, and just keep chipping away at things and to review and comment of drafts QUICKLY. It's not poetry we're writing. In our research we plan, we implement (in classrooms) and we evaluate. When things don't work out we come up with ways to make it better and try again.
I also learned to communicate that "yes, I received something and thank you and expect a reply from me by xxx" if it's not something I can deal with right away.
For the nuts and bolts, I put hard deadlines on iCAL with lots of alerts. That calendar syncs with my laptop, iPhone and iPad so I know where I'm supposed to be and what's due when.
I keep project "logbooks" for complex design projects where I note what I did, where I stopped, what went wrong/right, what I need to do next, so when I pick it up three or four weeks later I'm not lost.
My files are in loose plastic sleeves with color coded cover sheets and when the (phase) of the project is complete, most if not all of the paper gets recycled. I sync everything--EVERYTHING--via DropBox, iCloud or application specific syncs.
I keep text files (have realized the virtues of the .txt format) on my laptop in nvALT with custom headers e.g iPadx-course syllabus-date which I've set up with a typing macro app (I use Typeit4Me. So much easier to look at that list of topics and be able to see them immediately than to have to open a bunch of files, and it syncs with my iPad.
For deliverables for colleagues or for those higher up in the food chain, I follow the advice I gave myself in a former career, which is to do "the worst draft possible" and do it quickly and send it out for review. Most of the time I fail, because that first draft is pretty close to just fine and gets better after comments. Having a typing macro app makes so many things faster. I can set up the text to email out a grade sheet, e.g, and I have shortcuts for all the academic phrases I must repeat in our hated annual reports.
As an ADDer (although I agree with Edward Hallowell that many of the symptoms of ADD are ALSO the symptoms of modern life) I know what I need to work effectively and that is project based approaches with areas/work stations that support particular activities. My office is my art studio so that means a computer station, a sewing station, a drawing station, a recording station . . . you get the idea, all cleverly organized into a relatively small space. I follow the Montessori classroom model: everything is containerized, you take the work out, then you put the work away.
I make sure that I capture my ideas (if I'm in the car, I'll pull out my iPhone when I'm at a light) and otherwise I use those nvALT text files. In a meeting I'll just use a discretely folded sheet of paper and many a thorny studio problem has been solved during a boring meeting.
For capturing tasks, I use a version of Do It Tomorrow, using an iPad app, Planner Plus, that looks and functions like a paper planner, only so much better . . . .
I don't usually have a list of tasks that's more than 4 items long. Longer project planning goes on a project sheet.
My records are digitized. I throw digital receipts into a yearly file, mostly from email as 80 percent of my purchases are online. I use iBank to keep my account registers, categorize my expenses and generate my tax report so I can do my taxes. Part of my pathology is that records MUST be neat and accurate and so I've been using financial software since 1992.
I also keep a Simple Note log of notes that have to do with workflows: WHERE something is, what app to use to do something, materials and supplies I might want to order someday, how to set the outdoor light timer, that kind of thing.
I have to use time-boxing. Not just so I make sure I have studio research time, but also so that I won't spend TOO MANY hours on a project. For things with deadlines, whether research based (an exhibition, a grant deadline) or for developing a new course or doing the academic administrative work, I start the project when it's assigned. I do follow my nose, and my energy levels when deciding what to do when I have discretionary time. I clean out my email box when I'm at a low energy level, for example.
I hire people to help me: a student for my web work, someone to clean my house, cut my grass, shovel my snow. The household maintenance I chain together: go down to the basement, scoop the poop, put clothes in the washer, bring up coffee from the pantry, empty the recycling. I play a game either when I get home or before I go to the university to see how many things I can get done in X amount of time.
I do follow Mark's advice that if you want to advance a project, work on it first thing. At various times that might be my piano practice, my writing or the development of a new course.
That's it off the top of my head and I hope some of this helps.
So, in addition to thinking about the details of capturing and scheduling, I'd strongly suggest you spend some time setting some boundaries for how much work and how much effort you're going to put into various areas. If you are untenured, does that mean you are tenure-leading or that you are ineligible for tenure? If on a tenure track, getting tenure is your first priority and that does mean making sure that you have accomplishments in the required areas and that you make them visible to your reviewers and put them into context for them.
Early on, I decided that I would not try to be Professor X, a/k/a the woman who does everything perfectly. I decided instead, that I would try to be a "good enough" tenured professor and I met that goal.
I'm always evaluating how I can meet responsibilities and be effective WITHOUT spending excess time, particularly in the cursed areas of service and advising. With advising, I try to be competent and empathetic but not get over invested. Students have to prepare for in-person appointments (bring their degree audits or draft schedules or . . . ) and they don't take more than 15 minutes and much of our conversation occurs via email.
With the committee work, I try to find areas that play to my strengths--analysis, curriculum, writing--and set myself time limits for how many hours I'll spend reviewing grant applications or whatever the task is.
One of the best things that happened for me was becoming part of an interdisciplinary group who's finishing an NSF grant and applying for a larger one. Our PI is a model of efficiency and that's because he does NOT procrastinate, follows "little and often" religiously, and aims for "excellent" for important things and "OK" for unimportant things. He is NOT a perfectionist and he guesses but doesn't second guess or agonize. I learned to do a draft, take my best shot, proposes and idea, and just keep chipping away at things and to review and comment of drafts QUICKLY. It's not poetry we're writing. In our research we plan, we implement (in classrooms) and we evaluate. When things don't work out we come up with ways to make it better and try again.
I also learned to communicate that "yes, I received something and thank you and expect a reply from me by xxx" if it's not something I can deal with right away.
For the nuts and bolts, I put hard deadlines on iCAL with lots of alerts. That calendar syncs with my laptop, iPhone and iPad so I know where I'm supposed to be and what's due when.
I keep project "logbooks" for complex design projects where I note what I did, where I stopped, what went wrong/right, what I need to do next, so when I pick it up three or four weeks later I'm not lost.
My files are in loose plastic sleeves with color coded cover sheets and when the (phase) of the project is complete, most if not all of the paper gets recycled. I sync everything--EVERYTHING--via DropBox, iCloud or application specific syncs.
I keep text files (have realized the virtues of the .txt format) on my laptop in nvALT with custom headers e.g iPadx-course syllabus-date which I've set up with a typing macro app (I use Typeit4Me. So much easier to look at that list of topics and be able to see them immediately than to have to open a bunch of files, and it syncs with my iPad.
For deliverables for colleagues or for those higher up in the food chain, I follow the advice I gave myself in a former career, which is to do "the worst draft possible" and do it quickly and send it out for review. Most of the time I fail, because that first draft is pretty close to just fine and gets better after comments. Having a typing macro app makes so many things faster. I can set up the text to email out a grade sheet, e.g, and I have shortcuts for all the academic phrases I must repeat in our hated annual reports.
As an ADDer (although I agree with Edward Hallowell that many of the symptoms of ADD are ALSO the symptoms of modern life) I know what I need to work effectively and that is project based approaches with areas/work stations that support particular activities. My office is my art studio so that means a computer station, a sewing station, a drawing station, a recording station . . . you get the idea, all cleverly organized into a relatively small space. I follow the Montessori classroom model: everything is containerized, you take the work out, then you put the work away.
I make sure that I capture my ideas (if I'm in the car, I'll pull out my iPhone when I'm at a light) and otherwise I use those nvALT text files. In a meeting I'll just use a discretely folded sheet of paper and many a thorny studio problem has been solved during a boring meeting.
For capturing tasks, I use a version of Do It Tomorrow, using an iPad app, Planner Plus, that looks and functions like a paper planner, only so much better . . . .
I don't usually have a list of tasks that's more than 4 items long. Longer project planning goes on a project sheet.
My records are digitized. I throw digital receipts into a yearly file, mostly from email as 80 percent of my purchases are online. I use iBank to keep my account registers, categorize my expenses and generate my tax report so I can do my taxes. Part of my pathology is that records MUST be neat and accurate and so I've been using financial software since 1992.
I also keep a Simple Note log of notes that have to do with workflows: WHERE something is, what app to use to do something, materials and supplies I might want to order someday, how to set the outdoor light timer, that kind of thing.
I have to use time-boxing. Not just so I make sure I have studio research time, but also so that I won't spend TOO MANY hours on a project. For things with deadlines, whether research based (an exhibition, a grant deadline) or for developing a new course or doing the academic administrative work, I start the project when it's assigned. I do follow my nose, and my energy levels when deciding what to do when I have discretionary time. I clean out my email box when I'm at a low energy level, for example.
I hire people to help me: a student for my web work, someone to clean my house, cut my grass, shovel my snow. The household maintenance I chain together: go down to the basement, scoop the poop, put clothes in the washer, bring up coffee from the pantry, empty the recycling. I play a game either when I get home or before I go to the university to see how many things I can get done in X amount of time.
I do follow Mark's advice that if you want to advance a project, work on it first thing. At various times that might be my piano practice, my writing or the development of a new course.
That's it off the top of my head and I hope some of this helps.
March 5, 2014 at 23:15 |
Liz I.
Liz I.
Wow! Thanks, everyone!
@Cricket -- thank you for the heads up on Cal Newport's blog. I have subscribed to the feed.
@Austin -- I appreciate you sharing that DIT has worked well for you ax a grad student with small blocks of discretionary time. It's the one system of Mark's I haven't tried. Lol!
@Liz I. - thank you for such a detailed and informative post! There is so much great advice that is directly relevant to my life. I'm copying it all into Evernote and will be thinking about each piece. I laughed at the "worst draft possible" because that's what I do, too. I tell myself to do a 50% draft and it usually ends up about 80%. Not sure why that trick works, but it does.
Are there any blogs or sites you find especially helpful as an ADD academic?
Thanks again to all of you.
@Cricket -- thank you for the heads up on Cal Newport's blog. I have subscribed to the feed.
@Austin -- I appreciate you sharing that DIT has worked well for you ax a grad student with small blocks of discretionary time. It's the one system of Mark's I haven't tried. Lol!
@Liz I. - thank you for such a detailed and informative post! There is so much great advice that is directly relevant to my life. I'm copying it all into Evernote and will be thinking about each piece. I laughed at the "worst draft possible" because that's what I do, too. I tell myself to do a 50% draft and it usually ends up about 80%. Not sure why that trick works, but it does.
Are there any blogs or sites you find especially helpful as an ADD academic?
Thanks again to all of you.
March 8, 2014 at 13:40 |
silviastraka
silviastraka
Glad it's useful!
I forgot to add that everything is color coded, green for make (creative research), orange for teach and blue for life. This makes it easy to find files (clear folders have a cover sheet with a colored edge) and to scan my calendar and make sure there's some rough balance.
When the deadline is looming, there's nothing better than a Pomodoro timer (25 minutes work, 5 minutes break, repeat 4 x and then 15 minute break).
Hallowell's books and website are great resources. His book CrazyBusy can help anyone be more present, more effective and less stressed.
I highly recommend Michael Schecter's website, bettermess.com. It will help you find workflows that fit your situation.
Which reminds me that is crucial to know and honor your thinking and learning styles. I'm a huge introvert so after required public/social interactions I have to have a long detox/replenish period.
Finally, what helps me the most is to make sure I have joy in my life, which means doing something on my research every day. A little, a lot doesn't matter but I'm showing myself and my unconscious that this matters to me and keeping my process alive. Colleagues do research "in the summer" but that simply does not work for me.
As achievers, it's easy to think an hour isn't a long time but it really is. You can get a LOT done in an hour--if your tools are at hand and you have notes / a rough map of where you're going.
I forgot to add that everything is color coded, green for make (creative research), orange for teach and blue for life. This makes it easy to find files (clear folders have a cover sheet with a colored edge) and to scan my calendar and make sure there's some rough balance.
When the deadline is looming, there's nothing better than a Pomodoro timer (25 minutes work, 5 minutes break, repeat 4 x and then 15 minute break).
Hallowell's books and website are great resources. His book CrazyBusy can help anyone be more present, more effective and less stressed.
I highly recommend Michael Schecter's website, bettermess.com. It will help you find workflows that fit your situation.
Which reminds me that is crucial to know and honor your thinking and learning styles. I'm a huge introvert so after required public/social interactions I have to have a long detox/replenish period.
Finally, what helps me the most is to make sure I have joy in my life, which means doing something on my research every day. A little, a lot doesn't matter but I'm showing myself and my unconscious that this matters to me and keeping my process alive. Colleagues do research "in the summer" but that simply does not work for me.
As achievers, it's easy to think an hour isn't a long time but it really is. You can get a LOT done in an hour--if your tools are at hand and you have notes / a rough map of where you're going.
March 8, 2014 at 17:49 |
Liz I
Liz I
Thanks again, Liz!
I use fabric baskets (in a cube bookcase) rather than files. Martha Stewart Office has some nice labels that stick to fabric. I have one basket for each course, one basket for each research project, one basket for each committee. There is also a basket for grading to do. I can usually manage to throw things into a basket and the more recent things are on top. When I need to, I sort through the basket and organize like things together, but I usually only need to do that after the halfway point of a course. I keep file folders on hand for when I temporarily need to pull some papers from a box and go to a meeting. (I tried coloured boxes but my office looked like a daycare centre, so I switched to a more adult look. :))
I've never quite cottoned onto Pomodoro, because 25 minutes is often too large a time when I'm trying to overcome that huge hurdle to getting started. I tend to use some of Mark's ideas of little and often and I'm enjoying the Random Time Management idea. I sometimes use an iPhone app called 30/30 --and shift the time periods to whatever seems manageable (it's designed to cycle through tasks at 30 min each, but can be adapted to any time.)
Most important seems to be to have a series of strategies and tools that I can vary as needed. Sometimes I just need to change my system for the sake of change, since nothing seems to works for too long with ADHD. But I have a series of tried and true approaches and cycle through them.
The other time I shift system/strategy is based on the type of workday before me. If I'm in a teaching semester, I need to stay on top of a huge variety of weekly tasks and meetings. Some strategies are better suited to times when I'm behind, or when I need to do a large variety of urgent tasks. Other strategies are better for when I'm caught up and trying to get ahead, especially things like research and writing. And my choice of system/strategy also depends on my particular internal challenges that day. some days are more internally challenging (foggy brain, etc.) than others.
I've learned that I have to decide on my choice of strategies the night before and plan out my next day. If not, I will drift along doing whatever first catches my attention the next morning, losing track of time... So having a structure in place is super important. (I've also learned to take 5 mg of Ritalin 30 minutes before I get out of bed, to help me start my day right and not spill things in the kitchen.)
I love Hallowell and didn't know about that book. Thanks!
Like you, I also have to remind myself I need down time. I present as a real extrovert, but like all academics, I have a strongly introverted side that needs to be nourished. The outside contact is stimulating for me, so it takes awareness for me to remember how much I need to balance the times when I'm "on" with the times I need to recuperate energy.
I'm really thankful you posted all these ideas. They are very helpful and I feel less isolated. So many wonderful people on this web site with great ideas that have been helpful, but our academic context is somewhat unique, so it's good to connect with others with the similar work demands.
I use fabric baskets (in a cube bookcase) rather than files. Martha Stewart Office has some nice labels that stick to fabric. I have one basket for each course, one basket for each research project, one basket for each committee. There is also a basket for grading to do. I can usually manage to throw things into a basket and the more recent things are on top. When I need to, I sort through the basket and organize like things together, but I usually only need to do that after the halfway point of a course. I keep file folders on hand for when I temporarily need to pull some papers from a box and go to a meeting. (I tried coloured boxes but my office looked like a daycare centre, so I switched to a more adult look. :))
I've never quite cottoned onto Pomodoro, because 25 minutes is often too large a time when I'm trying to overcome that huge hurdle to getting started. I tend to use some of Mark's ideas of little and often and I'm enjoying the Random Time Management idea. I sometimes use an iPhone app called 30/30 --and shift the time periods to whatever seems manageable (it's designed to cycle through tasks at 30 min each, but can be adapted to any time.)
Most important seems to be to have a series of strategies and tools that I can vary as needed. Sometimes I just need to change my system for the sake of change, since nothing seems to works for too long with ADHD. But I have a series of tried and true approaches and cycle through them.
The other time I shift system/strategy is based on the type of workday before me. If I'm in a teaching semester, I need to stay on top of a huge variety of weekly tasks and meetings. Some strategies are better suited to times when I'm behind, or when I need to do a large variety of urgent tasks. Other strategies are better for when I'm caught up and trying to get ahead, especially things like research and writing. And my choice of system/strategy also depends on my particular internal challenges that day. some days are more internally challenging (foggy brain, etc.) than others.
I've learned that I have to decide on my choice of strategies the night before and plan out my next day. If not, I will drift along doing whatever first catches my attention the next morning, losing track of time... So having a structure in place is super important. (I've also learned to take 5 mg of Ritalin 30 minutes before I get out of bed, to help me start my day right and not spill things in the kitchen.)
I love Hallowell and didn't know about that book. Thanks!
Like you, I also have to remind myself I need down time. I present as a real extrovert, but like all academics, I have a strongly introverted side that needs to be nourished. The outside contact is stimulating for me, so it takes awareness for me to remember how much I need to balance the times when I'm "on" with the times I need to recuperate energy.
I'm really thankful you posted all these ideas. They are very helpful and I feel less isolated. So many wonderful people on this web site with great ideas that have been helpful, but our academic context is somewhat unique, so it's good to connect with others with the similar work demands.
March 21, 2014 at 15:28 |
silviastraka
silviastraka
My year consists of teaching semesters (fall and winter) and the summer, during which my main focus is on research, writing and course prep for the next year. In a teaching semester I have about 10 hours/wk of discretionary time. The rest of my time is spent on:
-- teaching (2-3 courses/semester). Prep + class time = 20-25 hrs/wk. if there is grading, add another 10-30 hrs over a 2-week period (no TAs). The prep and grading mostly occur during evenings and weekends.
-- student advising(35 students) and office hours. Varies between 6 and 12 hrs/wk -- because mostly non-traditional students with learning challenges and frequently in academic or personal crisis.
-- admin: Regular meetings (program, department, division, senate) take up at least a full day each week. And we are going through 2 program review processes, a hiring process, and program admissions -- with four faculty and no admin support.
- service: another required aspect of academia. I sit on a few boards of community organizations, participate in community events, and sit on university-wide committees.
-- research and writing: my performance is mostly evaluated on this area, which gets squeezed out. And this area gives me tremendous satisfaction and allows me to contribute some of my best gifts. A research project is spread out over several years and has several complex phases, beginning with the assembly of a team and community partners and the writing of a funding proposal with tight deadlines.
Oh yeah... And I have ADHD which involves the frontal executive functioning of the brain -- planning, prioritizing, organizing... And when overwhelmed I get paralyzed. So having a really good system is crucial for me.
I do realize that I need to find a way to hard-schedule regular research and writing time. But I also a system that helps me prioritize among all these competing demands.
MY QUESTION: how do others in academia adapt Mark's systems, considering both the scheduled aspects and the cyclical nature of the work (weekly teaching cycle, beginning and end of semester, research cycle, summers...).
My current system is very project-focused: each course is a project, each research/writing project, each conference presentation, each committee. I also treat student advising and admissions as projects, because they are cyclical. This ends up with a large number of projects, which encompass probably 90% of my workload. My personal tasks are probably more 50-50 split between projects and actions
What systems and strategies work for you?