Honest Productivity Hacks: How Not to Suck at Grad School

For a host of reasons both personal and professional (but mostly sloth), I have been away from writing this nominally monthly blog. I am feeling recharged and as if I have something to say again. Therefore, this marks the return of “how not to suck at grad school.” The goal is to create a new blog post every month. I am also giving some thought to putting together a series of short books based on this blog: how not to suck at grad school, how not to suck as a postdoc, how not to suck as a new professor, and how not to suck as a research supervisor. There may be a need for short, easy to read, and inexpensive books on these topics. Let me know what you think. I am also open to suggestions and ideas for putting such project together.

Honest Productivity Hacks: How Not to Suck in Grad School

Steven R. Shaw

Every day there is a growing number of articles, blog posts, websites, and aphorisms that promote productivity hacks. Academics, like all business people, worship at the altar of productivity. Maximizing productivity is the goal and ultimate achievement for everyone. But then, of course, we whine about work-life balance being out of whack. Hacks refer to magic shortcuts or workarounds from the basic rules, programs, constraints, and demands that limit functioning. Therefore, academics search for that one golden tip or miracle trick that will minimize long hours and maximize productivity. Such a thing does not exist. Probably the most effective productivity hack I can give is to stop reading articles about productivity hacks and use that time to get something accomplished.

There is no such thing as a hack or a shortcut. There is no replacement for time on task. However, there are always ways to become more efficient and effective with the time that we have for work. Everyone has a different style of work, life demands, professional expectations, and career ambitions that make a one-size-fits-all approach to work productivity impossible to achieve. Rather than productivity hacks, I prefer to call these efficiency increasing tactics.

Foundation

Efficiency increasing tactics are methods of fine-tuning along the fringes of a strong foundation of productivity. Typically, the foundation consists of seven stages. 1) goals: articulation of the end state or result of productivity efforts; 2) priorities: because you can only do one thing at a time, goals must be sorted into a sequence from immediate to long-term; 3) scheduling: a to-do list of goals and priorities without a time scheduled and dedicating to complete the tasks is nothing more than a wish list; 4) habit: professionals do not run on inspiration, they run on habit and discipline. Productivity requires consistent effort whether the mood is there or not; 5) execution: during the time required to work on goals there must be effort, focus, and single-minded energy directed to the task; 6) follow-up: when the task or work is complete for the day, the final step is to develop a new plan for what comes next; and 7) revisions: no set of goals, priorities, and scheduling will be perfect. Unexpected demands, bad days, and external pressures may require revising the stages of the foundation of productivity. Understanding that revising the plan is part of the plan helps to reduce stress, self-flagellation, and overall feelings of failure when events interfere with the original foundation.

Four Efficiency Increasing Tactics

Forget hacks. Here are four tactics for increasing efficiency within your foundation.

Investment. All goals require significant behind-the-scenes work to support them. Investment of time and energy is something that is always ignored, underestimated, or not considered in the time budget for any project. Investments include things such as reading literature; researching appropriate journal and grant funding outlets; receiving input from peers; manuscript preparation; troubleshooting errors in data, coding, and analysis; maintaining a laboratory or idea notebook; monitoring the most recent research; and revising multiple drafts of product. All projects require an investment of time and energy that is often thankless and necessary. Usually, the more experienced one becomes the less time-intensive the investment is. Failure to plan for this investment is why time allotted for a project is nearly always underestimated. Develop a schedule that accounts for the investment of time and you are less likely to be frustrated, timelines for achieving goals will be more accurate, and the quality of work will be better.

Focus. There may be time scheduled, but monkey mind frequently gets in the way. The focus bounces from one task to another. The basics are to make sure that you have eaten, bladder is comfortably empty, your door is closed, and you are at an ergonomically effective workspace. Remember your priorities and work on the current and most urgent project with full focus. For me, usually this is enough to stay on task. During challenging times, I switch to the Pomodoro method that requires 25 minutes of intense time on task followed by a five-minute break. If I am really struggling with monkey mind, then I take a five-minute break for simple breathing meditation that helps to manage intrusive thoughts. You can only do one thing at a time, so focus and do it well and efficiently. Only when one thing is finished, can you move on to the next thing. Thinking about the large number of projects ahead is the enemy.

Downtime. Everyone requires downtime during the day. Forcing yourself to work every second of the day is not realistic. During the day, downtime is used to play Candy crush, mindlessly scroll through Twitter or Facebook, stare into the void, or otherwise waste time. Nearly everyone needs mini-breaks. My advice is to make sure that your downtime is full and useful downtime. Semi-working or multitasking between productivity and downtime means that you are not using your downtime effectively or achieving productivity effectively. The worst of both worlds. Examples of a full downtime include a 20-minute nap, in-office yoga session, going for a walk, or another form of full relaxation and removal from activities. Most of us need downtime for mini-rest and recovery period. Make sure that you use your downtime well.

Time scraps. We all have 10 minutes or so here or there, multiple times in the course of the day. Waiting for meetings to begin, waiting for a late colleague, 30 minutes between appointments, time saved by eating lunch at your desk, and many other time scraps. Most of us waste these times and treat them as inefficient downtime. Not coincidentally, most emails and administrative tasks require less than two minutes for full completion. Before the day begins, collect mini-tasks and have them at the ready. Then use your time scraps for emails, filling forms, some grading, signatures, and administrative tasks. Time scraps for substantive and thoughtful work is possible, but requires the ability to shift focus on a dime. Most of us cannot do that with any effectiveness.

These four tactics for increasing efficiency are not hacks. There is no magic or new way of thinking. These are simply easy approaches that can make the core process of productivity work a little bit better.

Conclusion

Productivity hacks are usually ways of deluding ourselves into thinking that somehow we can beat the system to improve our work life balance. Most often this effort is a fool’s errand and increases imbalance of work and life. The best way to have a quality life and a strong career is to have developed a strong foundation for productivity and to develop a set of tactics to fine-tune your efficiency. Not hacks, smart habits.

Getting the Writing Mojo Back: How Not to Suck in Graduate School

SR Shaw

Being an academic or grad student is a good life. We research, teach, mentor, engage the public, edit, promote, organize, administer, discover, counsel, and a host of other roles and functions. Ultimately, academics write. Writing is how our ideas have the furthest possible reach. Writing is how our ideas become fully formed and permanent. Writing is also how we are evaluated and is the currency by which we acquire things (e.g., grants, tenure, promotion, reputation). Moreover, most academics have solid writing habits that work well for them. But there are times...

Non-writing sneaks up on you. I am generally a 1,000 word per day person five days per week. Yet… you do a favor for a colleague, a student is having a personal crisis, you accept a travel commitment, you are on a search committee, the dean asks you to serve on another committee, 212 emails per day (yes, this is my median received email count in the winter and fall semesters), program director reports are due, teaching activities pile up, relationships with clinical supervisors in the community need to be nurtured, accreditation self-studies are due, need to take the dog to the vet, some students bring a complaint to you that requires a complex adjudication, you need to read theses, the dean wants to you to speak to a parent group, editing and review responsibilities pile up, and before you know it you have gone 6 weeks and written 140 words total. And you have fallen into the habit of non-writing. Then there are the consequences for not writing. Co-authors are not happy, deadlines are missed, student co-authors miss opportunities, small grant call for proposals are ignored, and there is a potential ugly hole in your CV. A primal scream ensues — followed closely by frustration and despair. A writer who does not write is courting insanity. A researcher who does not write is a technician and a tinkerer.

I would really like to have a full-on meltdown and declare commitment bankruptcy. Then start from scratch, only better. But overwhelming frustration is simply the nature of the job. Even the best planner gets overwhelmed. So, time to re-build the writing habit.

Stop digging. No matter how awesome a new opportunity might be, say no. Or better yet, say I cannot start on this project until X date. No more new crap. Delegate. Disappoint your boss. Frustrate your students. Say no to an editor. You cannot add to the mess.

What can be put off or cancelled? Professionals keep their commitments. But if any deadline can be extended or projects delegated, then do it. You are trying to make writing time now. 

Inertia is now the enemy. When you are on a typical schedule, writing 1000 words per day is so easy that you cannot imagine that you will ever stop this level of production. But now, opening a word processing file is aversive and you cannot imagine committing any thought to a file. Do not worry too much about word count. It is like a marathon runner recovering from an injury. You do not step back from the injury and expect to be able to prepare for a marathon. Write a few words that can be completed without pain or frustration. Then the next day, write a few more. The goal is to simply improve productivity every single day. Although it will not be easy, you can regain your form quickly.

Examine your schedule for scraps of time. Even in a full schedule there are 15 minutes here and an hour there that can be filled with writing. Keep your writing project open on your desk top. When you have a few minutes, write a few words. Twenty words, 50 words, 100 words. They add up.   

For my schedule, from May 1 to August 31 is the productivity zone. Over 80% of my writing productivity takes place over these four months. I really do not want to spend this prime productivity period working on getting my writing Mojo back. I have about two weeks to rebuild the habit and be completely ready to hit the ground running on May 1. The plan is to dig out completely from the massive number of tasks and get the writing momentum moving in a positive direction. As an aside, Mojo is defined as a magic power. When things are going well, it seems like a magic power. Yet, writing Mojo is not magic, but the result of discipline and habit building — those are the magic ingredients.

I need to get back up to speed in not only the volume and speed of productivity, but also in the complexity of the writing. I typically ramp up with increasing complexity of projects. The first stage is to write a blog post, which I try to produce monthly. These blog post are intended to be helpful, but often are self-indulgent and the level of prose is not especially complex. The next level is writing manuscript reviews. These reviews require critical thinking and teaching. However, it is easier to respond to someone else’s ideas then to create one’s own ideas. The third level is for short and important projects that require discipline and will be read by others, but are not especially innovative or groundbreaking. Examples of level three projects are test reviews, book reviews, newsletter articles, website content, and the like. These forms of writing are fine and important, but they are for show. Level four writing is for the dough. These are grant proposals, books, and articles for refereed scholarly journals. This is where it is necessary to integrate scholarship, data and analysis, innovative thinking, and word count into a coherent expression of a contribution to advance your profession. The complexity of thinking and execution of writing are at the absolute highest levels. Getting on that level is challenging to attain and even harder to maintain. I have fallen, but am building my way back up. Here is the blog post. I wrote a manuscript review this morning. Today, tomorrow, and Wednesday I am writing two test reviews; while tapering down the large administrative load. Getting at the highest level of thinking and speed of productivity does not happen by accident or all at once. Have a plan and go to grab your writing Mojo back.

Lessons Learned from Sport: How Not to Suck in Graduate School

Lessons Learned from Sport: How Not to Suck in Graduate School

SRShaw

The influence of sport is pervasive in society. For example, every news or political chat show is always peppered with sports references. There are always references to a home run, Hail Mary, horse race, prevent defence, red card, or slam dunk. I am a sports fan, but find this use of language tiresome. Beyond the superficial contributions to language and simplistic cultural touchstones, there are some positive and constructive lessons to be learned from sport and applied to the academic world.

Life is not fair. I am always surprised and envious of people who believe that life is or should be fair. In my experience, it is not. Although there are elements of a meritocracy in both sport and academia, true meritocracy is an illusion. I know five athletes who played professional sports: two in the NFL, one in the NBA, one who played AA baseball, and one who played pro hockey in Germany. But the best athlete I ever have been around had his athletic career ended with multiple concussions in high school. Other amazing athletes I know personally had careers ended through injury, sexual abuse by coach, dropped out of sports to work to support his family, automobile accident, drug and alcohol addiction, and a farming accident. They were better athletes than those who had tangible success. No matter how awesome you are and how hard you work, being derailed is common and rarely fair.

Differentiating injury from pain. Every athlete faces physical pain. A successful athlete will power through. But if the problem is an injury, then powering through is dangerous. When there is injury, then healing, rest, and getting professional help are necessary. When an academic is tired and does not feel like working, a successful academic will power through. But successful academics know when there are elements of burnout, exhaustion, physical problems, or mental health issues; then healing, rest, and getting professional help are necessary. Understanding the difference is a challenging and critical skill.

Work does not always lead to success, but not working always leads to failure. Work as hard as you possibly can. Exhaust yourself. Train with discipline and purpose. But do not presume that hard work entitles you to anything. The only thing that hard work entitles you to is more work and the possibility of success. So I hope you enjoy the work.

Every day needs to be a personal best. Comparisons to others often lead to being discouraged and general unhappiness. The person that you were yesterday is the fairest and best competition to consider. My personal goal is to do something better than I have ever done that thing before. I find it highly motivating to be completely driven to be better every single day.

Work when no one else is working. Academia has a competitive component. It can never be assumed that one has more talent than the competition. The only thing that anyone has control over is outworking competition.

Rest is part of the program. Resting is not something one does only when exhaustion has been reached. Rest and recreation are fundamental elements of success. Physical and mental rest are preventative medicine. Rest must be scheduled into the agenda the same as any other high priority activity.

Competition drives improvement. The only way to get better is to face the highest level of competition that you can. Work with the most accomplished partners, apply for the most difficult grants, submit your papers to the highest impact factor journals. Every failure or disappointment will lead to improve skills.

Failure is part of the process. Losing can be discouraging. Most successful athletes hate losing far more than they enjoy winning. Yet, losing is a necessary part of the process to improve skills. Identify the important lessons and areas for improvement in all failures. The old martial arts saying, “either I win or I learn” applies here.

Adapt. There are many approaches to being successful as an academic. Breadth of skills and understanding the context in which you are functioning is necessary for success. It is not necessarily the smartest or most talented who thrive, those who can adapt to new situations and contexts have success.

Sometimes, you are not good enough. This is a hard one to face. Sometimes you do not have the requisite talent or skills or work habits to be at the level you wish or believe you deserve. At this point, it is necessary to either work to improve your skills or to realize that your goals may not be realistic. The biggest mistake that you can make is ignoring this information, blaming other people for your failures, or making excuses.

Some people have advantages. When competition appears to have unfair advantages, frustration can set in. In athletics, it does not seem fair that some people are born exceptionally tall or fast, have access to the best and most expensive coaching, have exceptional family support, can afford the best and most nutritious foods, or have no competing responsibilities that reduce training and practice time. Academia is like that, too. Life is not fair.

Conclusions. The sport-as-life analogy is a bit worn out. Sport is more than a popular culture touchstone for middle-age people who are laying on their couch or the purview former athletes who wax poetic about the glory days. There is a reason why I train judo well into my middle-age years. There are lessons that are still to be learned from sport that can be applied to many walks of life.

In many fields of study, it appears that the likelihood of getting a tenure-track academic position are about the same as making a living in sport. Despite hard lessons, sport and academia both work best when they are pursued with joy.