Top 10 tips from the last 25 years
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
This month marks 25 years since first starting my academic job at the Rotman Research Institute and University of Toronto. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve had some wins and made some mistakes. Along the way, I’ve watched how others have organized their careers, and I’ve read a variety of books on leadership and productivity in the hopes of unlocking some new secret that would help me become a wiser, more creative, and more organized version of myself. I haven’t found any singular magics or discovered a secret leading to instant transformation (not yet, anyway). But I have collected a few habits over the years that have helped me stay at least reasonably organized and somewhat productive, and have kept me making progress towards my goals. Hopefully, some of these tips will be helpful for you too as you kick off this new semester.
My top 10 tips:
1. Create ‘no meeting’ chunks of time for yourself. I would wager that most academics really enjoy thinking deeply about a problem and its potential solutions. However, the realities of job often mean that we don’t get a whole lot of time to just sit and think. When we don’t get enough space to think, the end result is a research or teaching program that lacks spark and creativity. This can ultimately lead to dissatisfaction with our jobs, or even burnout. To protect against this, I institute ‘no meeting’ Fridays for myself, to do some of the deeper thinking and writing that I can’t quite get to earlier in the week. For me, no meetings on Fridays also means that the pace feels slower and more relaxed, and I can gently ease into the weekend that now doesn’t feel so harried. If I can manage it, I’ll even do ‘no meeting’ weeks; this is especially helpful during grant season when I really want to dive into a new idea and make the proposal shine. Now, your level of seniority and responsibility may or may not allow you to take full weeks or even full days as meeting-free. But, wherever you can, find a meaningful chunk of space in your schedule to devote to deep thinking.
2. Build in ‘contingency time’ in your schedule. One of the things that makes the ‘no meeting’ days or weeks possible is that I build what I call ‘contingency time’ into my schedule before and after those ‘no meeting’ slots. Typically, once a day, or once every few days, I’ll schedule an hour or two in my schedule that is simply for clearing out whatever small (and likely tedious) tasks have piled up: responding to emails, scheduling a meeting, reconciling my receipts for the month, etc. I block this time because, otherwise, if left ungathered, these small tasks can seep into every minute of your day, and derail your progress on the things that matter.
3. Eat the frog. There’s always that one task that we keep putting off, whether it’s because we don’t really want to do it, or because we think it’s going to take a long time, or because we don’t know how to do it. But, it’s gotta get done, and the longer you put it off, the more shame and stress you feel over it. That’s when you just have to decide that today is the day that you “eat the frog”, as popularized in this book. ‘Eating the frog’ means deciding to do the hard task first thing in the day and just get it out of the way so you can breathe again. And if you do, you’ll probably find it wasn’t as bad as you had made it out to be in your head.
4. List your top priorities for the next day or week. It can be easy to get overwhelmed by all of the things that need to get done. So, before you end a workday, it can be helpful to jot down 1-3 priorities for your next workday. This can help you stay focused on the things that are important to you and not get sidetracked by something that can otherwise wait for contingency time.
5. Realize ‘no’ is a complete answer. That’s it. You don’t have to do everything. Decide what is helpful for your career, and say ‘no’ to everything else unapologetically.
6. Be clear on everyone’s priorities, needs, and timelines. Science is collaborative, but neither you nor your collaborators are mind readers. Get everyone on the same page: explicitly define what is needed for a project, paper, or grant proposal, when is it needed, who needs to do it, and what schedule and ordering of events makes that possible for everyone to participate happily. Don’t assume your colleagues and your students will work on the arbitrary timeline you keep solely in your head; communicate about what is possible given everyone’s work and vacation schedules.
7. Start grant writing early. Relatedly, if you’re working on a grant proposal, just start early. One of my colleagues is always working on a grant so that the ideas and the proposal are reasonably together whenever the next cycle arrives. As a result, they are quite well-funded. Now, working on grants all the time is….aspirational. But the lesson here is that the earlier you start, the more time you have to polish your ideas and the writing of the proposal, and you’re less likely to experience the panic and around-the-clock writing that typically happens the week before a grant is due.
8. Get a regular writing and reading habit. This is actually a time-saver. Even 30 minutes to an hour every day of writing and reading can keep you in the mindset needed to efficiently move a paper or a project along, because you don’t have to spend the first hour thinking, “so where was I?”
9. Think long-term and strategically. Just like your research program benefits from the long-term plan you laid out in your grant proposals, you should also have a long-term and strategic plan for your career. Be clear on what you want to achieve, what it will take to get you there, and when or how you can accomplish each step. (If you want more help on this topic, check out previous blog posts here and here)
10. Get a hobby. No, seriously. This job is tough and you’re going to need an outlet. Find something that allows you to decompress, brings you joy, or at least helps you to stop thinking about work for a little while.
These 10 tips are things that I have found useful in my career. Does that mean I execute each one with perfection? Absolutely not. Sometimes I continue to procrastinate when I should just eat the frog, sometimes I go far too long without writing anything, and sometimes my contingency time ends up taking a chunk out of the deep thinking, no-meeting time I’ve scheduled on a Friday. But, I try to be aware of these moments when I am mucking it up, and I start over the next day with a revised plan. The key here is to find the strategies, tips, and organizational tricks that work for you. Be intentional with your time. And if you have strategies that work for you that are different from those I’ve listed here, please share them with me! I’m still on the hunt for that one magic secret that will surely be life-changing. Otherwise, if you need help organizing your work life in a way that is more manageable and peaceful, book a call with me here and let’s have a chat.
