Tales From the Tenure Track: Time Management

Time management is a never ending issue for those on the tenure track. You’ve just about got your email under control and something breaks. You think you’ll have lots of time to write in the summer but suddenly there is random money for renovations. There is always something pulling at your time.

Greg McKeown offers some great advice on existentialism and saying no to be more effective. “…by focusing on the few things that are really essential we are actually able to make a more valuable contribution.”

There’s a lot of ways to try and manage your time, not all of them will work for all people. Here’s a few tips that I’ve found helpful.

Email

Try and keep your inbox at 20 or under, over 20 and it’s easy for things to get buried.

Don’t use auto sorting mail folders unless you either a) really good at checking things other than your inbox, or b) don’t really need to read those emails because most of us will just ignore the darn things.

If you can answer the email in 5 minutes or less do so when you first open it unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Meetings

Look at your week as a whole, make sure that you leave yourself blocks of meeting-free time to get your work done. (Sometimes it is not the number of meeting but when they are scheduled that disrupts your productivity.)

When possible stack meetings on the same days so that you are not constantly being interrupted all week.

Meetings should be scheduled with the time and location displayed on your calendar; add in travel time if the meeting is not in your office, even for meetings in your building. A minimum of 15 minutes travel time will allow you to gather your stuff and walk to another part of the building even with last minute phone or email interruptions. Add more time for meetings not held in your building as appropriate.

Lastly, at a certain point in your pre-tenure career you’re going to have to decide what is essential to you and take a stand because you’ll be getting a lot of conflicting advice on what will make you the best possible tenure candidate. Talk with as many mentors both at and outside of your institution as possible and then find a path that marries what you consider to be essential with the essentials of your department and institution. Sometimes you will have to do things that you don’t care for or disagree with, but as long as they are not deal breakers it is best to think of them as the stepping stones that allow you to make a difference in the areas that really matter.

SciPop Talks! Meet us at the Intersection of Science and Pop Culture

#SciPopTalks

SciPop Talks Schedule of Events Image
SciPop Talks Schedule of Events

One of my favorite reasons for not having time to post here is our new SciPop Talks! series hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries in collaboration with the UNL Department of Chemistry and Doane College.

Check out this great Storify of Dr. Raychelle Burks’ talk on how to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. Video coming soon by popular demand! In the meantime fight smarter not harder and check out the webpage for her talk for related books, movies, links, and more!

Below is a quick video ACS Reactions made with Raychelle based on her talk.

The Mark Griep’s talk on Alien Biochemistry in the Movies even includes an interview with an attendee. Check out the webpage for related materials including Dr. Griep’s book ReAction! Chemistry in the Movies.

There are two questions everyone seems to want to know the answer to. Are the talks successful and how did they come about? So far we’ve have four talks and 200+ attendees! (Note I did not count library staff and student workers, or journalists, in this number.)

The talks came about mainly because we finally had the right group of people at the right time. Rebecca Lai and Raychelle Burks organize the speakers, Joanie Barnes organizes the space, library support, and publicity. I primarily organize the webpage, books for checkout display. We all brainstorm what to do next, how we can tie other outreach events into future outreach activities, what’s working and what’s not. All of us are well connected but with very different networks. Interestingly I am the only person who knew all the individuals before this project started.

In many ways this is a prime example of what I do, connecting people with the same interests and passions, this time is unique in that for once I stayed involved. Usually the people I connect are working on projects outside my scope and/or areas of interest. You never really know what the future will bring, but you put together four very driven people and that odds are in your favor. We’re already planning on who else we need to collaborate with on campus, Office of Research and Economic Development for one, to capitalize on our momentum to do some serious science outreach and education.