effectiveness recipe!?

[Marasme]

i wrote a post that disappeared :/

i am basically hoping to make some changes so that the 2024 academic year does not eat me alive

I work all the time but feel that i achieve so little for the time i put in - looking around me, i see people who seem to still have a life, but also make good progress. Fair enough, some of it may be appearances, but some of them are really keeping it together, running a tight ship, achieving whilst also looking like they are having fun!

what is their recipe?

hmm, not sure I'm one of those super successful people, but I do manage to make reasonable progress. I block my time out pretty strictly, so that I wfh one day per week (research papers & grants only), and then I have meetings / email time on specific days, and teaching time on specific days etc. I have 1-to-1 meetings with everyone in my team once a month formally + informal meetings in between. And somehow that is enough to keep things going.

i do the same except that management meetings, grant panels etc always end up eating my blocked day. Do you just decline?

@Marasme I understand how you feel. I was doing a look back over the year and it was supposed to be a review of my highs & lows but I noticed that work totally dominated this review. "I survived delivering that module.." etc

My goal for this year is to try to keep work (prep & marking especially) confined to a normal working day. Work needs to just be something that i do - not all consuming. I need to be more productive/sharper with completing tasks. I think procrastination eats up a lot of my time, because I don't enjoy the tasks I'm doing.

Like you, I plan my days really well but then get drawn in to sorting student issues or writing these up. I feel that if I'm still standing at the end of the academic year, I've done well! I don't want to feel like this again, but I'm not sure what the answer is (other than look for another job).

I have been wondering the same and observing for about a couple of years. Of course, cultures in different institutions/departments can vary enormously, but I have been consistently surprised that the consequences for repeatedly saying no/being uncollegial/being a selfish b*stard seem to be... not much. Not even social ostracism. There are a few people in my department who will only teach certain things and do certain administrative jobs, even then they will try to get as much buyout as possible, never volunteer for anything, have no qualms in not doing their fare share and let other suffer the consequences... and they are still treated very amicably and collegially, and when they ask for help there will always be someone who volunteers, even though they will very rarely return the favour (and only when there's something to be gained from it). I am not saying you become like this but I would advise you observe the dynamics around you and try to figure out how much you can get away with with saying no. I think the most conventionally successful people I know have mastered that game.

I guess I don't often have management meetings or grant panels etc. I do sometimes lose my blocked day to meetings, but then I try to block another day instead. Or I say that I'm wfh that day and often that gives a reason to skip the dull meeting because people can't be bothered to set up hybrid.

@parietal - good point re WFH, which has now dwindled to max a day a week for me - between keeping an eye on the lab, PGR in the lab, and the travel. i ll block more firmly and will try to not be attracted to shiney meetings with new people oe new topics (my weakness, i love a meet and greet or collab exploration).

@aridapricot - we have a stereotypical split in our unit: women who do a shitload of service and pastoral, a 3 guys, across career stages, who say no to everything. No consequences in saying no (because... what can we do). They are very much detested, but they don't care, because they back each other in their little cliquey threesome.

It might sound a little ‘un-academic’ but have a look at the book by Tim Ferris, ‘The Four Hour Work Week’. There is a lot in there about self employment which won’t be applicable (or perhaps will one day if you don’t get this cracked?!), but some very useful content around managing email traffic and other people’s expectations around your availability. Ali Abdaal (Youtube) also has a lot of content on productivity.

thanks @MaybeDoctor - found a free pdf online. Will have a read.

Objectively, i need to do less and also care less. Stop picking up extra work by trying to save the unstaffed project, or filling up for the missing colleague, or saying yes to another committee.

i also need to stop mothering my staff and students and try to permanently save them from whatever disaster is going on in their work or their lives.

i also need to figure out why it s taking me, say, 100hours to write a grant, when others seem to do it in 50 (hardcore recycling? more effective collaboration?)

Glad to help.

There are also some useful threads on MN about handling email, might be worth a search. Setting up an auto-response setting out your availability and likely response time to emails is probably a good first step.

i don't think email is the crux of the problem, tbh.

In fact this is already automated to the extreme, with stock replies for applicant emails, OOO with rerouting whenever i m not in, etc.

I hesitate to say this, to not sound ungrateful for the advice but: i am very effective at managing emails, diary, booking system, etc

Sadly, time is a finite quantity. As I got more and more senior, i (like most people here) did not get the secretary that the previous generation of profs had, and i still find myself doing all sort of super basic admin tasks (e.g. today, chasing HR to find out who is not pressing the correct button holding back job applications) whilst accumulating more and more internal and external responsibilities.

REF got thankfully pushed back, because, lucky me, I am the REF person for my unit. I tried to say no, but apparently, this is the price you pay for promotion. There is no amount of email management which will take the sting out of that one.

i don t want to be spikey, i really don't. But the job feels, often, like eating soup with the hands tied behind my back. I just really really would like my day to be filled by interesting creative pursuits, rather than dreary tasks.

Well, as I said above, auto-response and re-routing is the very basic first step in reducing workload. The advice from Tim Ferris is much more about the attitude that you take to email and other forms of communication, which of course springs from the attitude that you take to the use of your time by your colleagues, your clients and ultimately yourself.

What are the most important activities that you do and are you spending the right amount of time on them?

Do a time/activity study for the month of January and see where you are actually spending your time?

i timeblock my outlook with categorised items and do a data download every quarter checking exactly this.

Loads of the time is on grant writing and project management, which is fine, but the bloated categories are always admin (hr, finance, legal) and pastoral work.

I'm afraid I only have sympathy rather than solutions...

I suspect that efficiency (of deadling with emails, and 'getting stuff done' in general) is one of the causes of the issues rather than a potential solution. In academia the reward for getting stuff done is to be given more stuff to do (e.g. REF co-ordinator...) until your workload becomes completely unmanagable. This is a particular issue for women in male dominated fields (as is pastoral work).

the bloated categories are always admin (hr, finance, legal)

My impression is that this has got much worse in recent years; more and ever changing things that 'have to be done', and each thing takes longer because of the loss of expertise/knowledge caused by support staff constantly changing roles. And there's not much an individual academic can do to address this. It needs radical central changes.

I've been having similar 'I need to make changes to my workload/habits to make things managable' thoughts over the break. I have a tendency to try and fix issues, and I seem to be the go to person for miscellaneous 'what do I need to do for X' queries (from students and academic staff). So my plan is to stop taking responsbility for things which aren't officially my responsibility, and be less helpful (and hopefully train people into sorting their issues out for themselves).

And one final thing: I knew 'Professors with major admin roles' were busy, but I didn't appreciate the overwhelming reality until it hit me personally.

I suspect that efficiency (of deadling with emails, and 'getting stuff done' in general) is one of the causes of the issues rather than a potential solution. In academia the reward for getting stuff done is to be given more stuff to do (e.g. REF co-ordinator...) until your workload becomes completely unmanagable. This is a particular issue for women in male dominated fields (as is pastoral work).

I completely agree with this. In fact I thought of suggesting the OP, and only half tongue-in-cheek, that she stops being efficient in parts of the job she's not interested in. My sense is that demands will decrease exponentially. I cannot vouch for it from direct personal experience (I am too cowardly to put it into practice!) but certainly as a line manager and simply as a colleague, there's been several times where I had to allocate a certain task to a colleague and I ended up not doing so and doing it myself, because I quickly figured out that this would be quicker and easier than dealing with incessant moaning, requests for support (=explaining to them what they should have known for years of not decades) and delays.

My impression is that this has got much worse in recent years; more and ever changing things that 'have to be done', and each thing takes longer because of the loss of expertise/knowledge caused by support staff constantly changing roles. And there's not much an individual academic can do to address this. It needs radical central changes.

Also very true but I am always amazed at how quickly many academics buy into this mindset. I have colleagues who have lost thousands of pounds in the last years striking for a more manageable workload. Yet in their admin roles the first thing they do is to introduce forms and procedures that create more work for everyone else. Maddening.

@xxuserxx
it s quite a shock when it hits you, isn't it!?

i wish i found a way to be more candid with my group about what is is like - because it s not just tasks in diaries, it s the mental load of dealing with staff and students with complex MH issues, with students freaking out about their incomplete theses, running out of funds to support staff at end of their contracts etc...

i d love to find a way to be less helpful without contributing to an already selfish research culture / ecosystem.

Like... i ve got a student in financial hardship - she s going to be evicted and it s of course impacting on her progress. I ve signposted to support, but i m not sure i can leave it at that and divorce the academic work from recognising her situation and adapting what we do accordingly (which is being much kinder, take time to check what things are like with her, support her in checking whether she is getting answers from various services etc).

@aridapricot yes, definitely scope to do "just good enough" rather than "perfect"

but then i feel ashamed about that work product.

I wish i had confidence and pride in my mediocre outputs :) like some if my colleagues who are genuinely clamouring about each and everyone of their papers, talks, blog regardless of how trivial. You can feel the pride in their voice / tone etc. I m afraid i never managed this - i look at everything i produce with a very critical eye and cannot sing its praise without being forced to do so.