Friday, January 21, 2022

Productivity methods and why they failed (for me)

Trello. - someone made me use it. Confusing and visually noisy. Abandoned almost immediately. And it cost money to expand to enough board for me to use. 

Why it failed: overload from large team. 


Kanban board - found a lovely app that allowed me to color code my tasks and neatly see my progress. 

Why it failed: only worked on my iPad. So only available on one point. So abandoned because I’m cheap and won’t shell out for cross-platform. 


Bullet Journal - hasn’t failed per se. Adopted this after reading a lot about it and listening to productivity podcast. 

Why it would fail: tricky to track progress. Feels like treading water on small tasks. Also: only works where my journal is. 

Why it hasn’t yet: analog. Something pleasant about that. Satisfaction in physically crossing off tasks. Allows me to acknowledge tasks that I do but are not associated with an email. 


Inbox 0 - sorta working. Adopted 5 years ago so should be considered a success. Big thanks to Matt Kenworthy for getting me starting. 

Why it’s failing: does not differentiate between a 2-day task (rewrite this article) and a 30min one. So weight is given to shallow, short-duration tasks. Overwhelm from spam(ish) accounts as well. And I’ve abandoned checking the “waiting” and “someday” folders because...well overwhelm. But the biggest reason: it’s now (forcibly) split between two accounts. 


Time blocking - like the idea. Block time to deal with This Thing. Be realistic about what you really can do each day. 

Why it would fail? Because 2020/2021 that’s why. Labore interruptus. 


To-do list on a pad - literally the worst of all worlds. I would lose the pad and walk around feeling I missed something. I keep finding old ones from years ago. 


Suggestions? Other than Hermione's time turner?

Monday, January 17, 2022

2021 Wins

One of the healthier things to do at the end of the year is to tally the wins. 2021 wasn’t exactly the easiest year with the pandemic raging on and my tenure file due. 


Win #1 the tenure file


This was months long process and it is in. Talkmabout a win list. 5 years of grants, papers and more. I won’t lie. This is an anxiety machine. What needs to go in, what is considered sufficient, what actually gets read etc. is vague enough to add to a general background of anxiety for most of the year. It was a relief/anticlimactic event to have it in. I’m sure there is some more to do. I haven’t heard a peep for months. 


Win #2 the book


I finished my book. The key thing here is finished. I didn’t aim for amazing, brilliant, complete, comprehensive or even fully spelled right. I aimed for complete. If that sounds like I don’t like the end result it’s not that. I can’t really judge. But I did what I set out to do: write a 200+ page book on a topic I like. 


Win #3. Bike to school most days


Ms C has a bike and she and I have been biking to her school most days. We are the only ones. Sometimes scary but it’s been lovely. And doubling down on our Dutch-ness. 


Win #4 m plays football (soccer for US audience) 


This took some doing. Mr M got into a soccer team and we managed to stick with it. And he likes it! Both of these are “trying to be involved parent” goals. Weirdly harder and easier with the pandemic. No travel so I can be there consistently but part of a churn of weeks that seem to grind relentlessly. 


Win #5 classes did ok


I mean not amazing but “pandemic good”. I still got everyone, well most everyone, there and over the finish line. Calling that a solid win in pandemic semesters 3 and 4. Students liked the classes too. 


Win #6. Students did ok


I’m working with students on research. Which is going fine amazingly. They are writing their papers and applying for grad schools. I’m in awe they are functioning at all, even thriving as a group. 


Win #7 kids in the swim team


With the pool opening back up, R got them swimming lessons and they got into the (not hypercompetitive) swim team. Get them to move again. Yay. 


Win #8 40th first author paper 


I resubmitted my 40th first author paper days before my 45th birthday. These numbers are converging. That’s a good thing right? I’m happy I got some of my ideas on paper and into journals. 


Win #9 school clicked for Ms C


Transition to middle school amidst a pandemic was weird and stressful but we all stayed with it and c is now enjoying classes and clubs. 


Win #10. The house got better 


New windows installed, kids got their own bedrooms, redid the columns on the front porch, restored the octagonal window out front, basement fully waterproof and outfitted with small gym. Yeah not bad. 


Win #11. The garden grew some food


This is 99% Robin but our chaos gardening approach did seem to yield a lot of tomatoes. More gardening to come. Death to lawns.