academic coach

Technological Tribulations

**************************************************************

A definition:

“PATIENCE – n., A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.”

-- Ambrose Bierce

**************************************************************

Since early December, many of my newsletter subscribers have not been getting my Monday Motivators.

In fact, I haven’t even been receiving my own newsletters!

So far, I’ve spent several hours on the phone and sending emails to the three companies responsible for this problem. Unfortunately, at this point my efforts have been completely unsuccessful.

Technological tribulations – how we hate them.

Crashed computers, zapped wireless networks, erratic email. Gah!

Problems with modern day technology follow the long-established law of Murphy: What can go wrong will. Furthermore, what can go wrong does go wrong at the worst possible moment. Know what I mean?

In my own case, years ago, my laptop melted when I was frantically trying to revise my defended dissertation in time to file the document before paying for another semester of graduate school. I also needed to meet my deadline so that I could officially begin my post doctoral fellowship.

Fortunately, when the crash occurred, I had copies of the complete dissertation. Unfortunately, I lost all the revisions I’d made in the two weeks since the defense.

The meltdown also left me without a computer.

When I wasn’t on the telephone with the computer nerds who were trying to recover my hard drive, I was at the library continuing to make revisions. So much for late night sessions of productivity. So much for working in my pajamas with a cup of coffee in my hand. So much for scattering needed spreadsheets of statistics all over the floor of my home.

That computer crash was a major hassle rather than a devastating disaster. In the years I’ve been coaching grad students and faculty, I’ve certainly heard much worse. Dropped laptops. Burgled apartments. Devastating fires.

Do you have any tales of woe to share?

If you do, I’m sure that you back up your work with great regularity. If you haven’t experienced devastating technological tribulations, then you may not be appropriately proactive about protective measures.

This week, please be sure to back up every computer file. Email yourself the latest version of your document. Give a hard copy of recent drafts to a friend who lives in a different building. Check your spam-filtered messages carefully. Invest in an external hard drive. Start today.

Please also cross your fingers that the folks at Earthlink, Professional Cart Solutions, and 1 Shopping Cart will come to their senses, fix my problem, and allow this newsletter to be read by everyone who wants it.

And give me the patience to keep harassing people until they fix these glitches.

Write It Down

*********************************************************************

“The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.”       

-----    Lee Iacocca

*********************************************************************

Often we carry around in our minds a vague list of things to do and notions of our priorities.

I call this a “Rolodex mind” because we shuffle through our list of “shoulds”, spinning our mental Rolodex wheel and accomplishing little.

When we are trying to work on one project, we get distracted and overwhelmed by thoughts of all the other tasks yet to be done. It is difficult to focus on the immediate task at hand because we’re too busy worrying about other responsibilities and obligations.

A Rolodex mind is an unfocused mind.

A Rolodex mind can also be a defense against the anxiety of making a choice. We flip through mental lists, waffle about which one we’ll begin with, and avoid committing ourselves to action. We feel apprehensive or ambivalent about starting an important project, so we settle for something less challenging to act upon.

Should you work on the literature review or methods section? A difficult choice? Then why not check your email before you decide?

Should you begin your literature review with a description of theories or the history of the problem?  Why not search for a few more articles first to make sure you're not missing any relevant information on the topic?

Sound familiar?

How can we improve our focus, make decisions and take action?
The answer is deceptively simple: Write down our goals.

Far too often, we keep our projects and priorities in our mind rather than on paper.
Do you have a list of the research projects you are currently working on?

Have you made a graphic timeline for the semester that indicates all the deadlines you will be facing?

Is your “to do” list prioritized so that you can begin each day with important rather than anxiety-free tasks?

Do you have a schedule that includes blocked-out appointments with yourself for research and writing?

* Right now, try making a list of the most important projects you will work on this week.
* Rewrite the list so that your projects are ranked in order of their importance to your academic career.
* Now create a new list breaking down each project into concrete action steps. For example, “write the literature review” would be broken down into steps such as “write three paragraphs describing and contrasting Marxian and Hegelian views on property ownership.” “Write the methods section” might be broken down into “write a paragraph describing how subjects were recruited.”

Writing things down may help you stop spinning the Rolodex wheel and lay out a plan for activities in a linear sequence that can be tackled one step at a time.

If you tend to have a mind cluttered with the phrases “should do” and “must do” you may be surprised how writing down goals and action steps will free you to focus on your current task rather than on future anxieties.

Here’s the short version of this tip of the week:
Write it down. Then make it happen.

New Year's Resolutions

*************************************************

“We are what we repeatedly do.”

-- Aristotle

*************************************************
Happy New Year!

Do you make New Year resolutions?
I do.

This year, on January first, my list looked pretty typical. I vowed to exercise more, eat less, keep my office cleaner and keep my email inbox emptier.

What about you?

Will my resolutions fade out within a month or two? Probably.

Do I mind? Not really.

I figure even if I only exercise thirty minutes a day until mid-February, I’ll still be healthier in 2007 than I would have been without the New Year’s resolution.

I figure that if I only clean out my email inbox a few extra hours this month, I’ll still get rid of many 2006 messages I no longer need.

Some people are talented at establishing new habits. They pick one routine, stick with it for a month and then find that it is ingrained – a new habit that is a solid part of their repertoire. Their temperament – based on genetic endowment, biochemical tendencies and environmental history – makes it more natural for them to establish consistent routines.

Other people, like me, get bored with routines after a while or find it extremely difficult to avoid the slow slide towards irregularity and disorganization.

We seem to need a fairly frequent influx of new techniques, fresh resolves and renewed vows to maintain our motivation and progress.

My experience shows that some people are temperamentally able to move in linear, regular paths towards their goals. Others, like me, move forward in fits and starts, in cycles of zest and discouragement.

It has taken me along time to accept that I will never be a paragon of regularity and consistent discipline. Yet this does not mean that I should give up on my efforts of self-improvement. As I have accepted my tendency to fluctuate in my resolve, I have found it easier to manage my cycles of productivity.

I now know that when I fall off my New Year’s resolution band wagons I must look for new means of transportation towards my goals. I will get bored with routines and need variety. When my resolution patterns peter out I will seek new techniques to re-inspire myself.

When my daily trips to the gym lapse, I will join an exercise class. When my in-box fills, I will schedule a kamikaze marathon clean-up session.

Fits and starts and ebbs and flows are my natural rhythm. But I still resolve to be regular and methodical; because there is no doubt that the turtle beats the hare in the long run.

In short, accept your temperament, but even if it doesn’t come naturally, try to implement steady habits.