academic coach

Think on Paper

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“Don’t think and then write it down. Think on paper.”
Harry Kemelman

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Get things down on paper first. Then rearrange, adjust, and tweak.

Right now, I have three clients in the humanities who keep getting stuck on the outlines of their dissertations. As they plan the sequence of their arguments, they get stuck because every theory and every argument can be connected in a multitude of ways.

There is no perfect order, I tell them. In life, things are not linear and don’t follow a single sequence. Complex ideas are truly connected in a multitude of logical ways.

Write first, I suggest. Work with the outline you’ve got and, as you’re writing, if you find that things come up in a different way, then take that path. Don’t worry about whether it is the “right” path, or even the “best” path. Get it down on paper. Then assess.

You can go back and evaluate the order of your narrative at a later phase. You can get feedback from other people – especially your advisor – about choosing a sensible line of reasoning.

Trust your unconscious more: When you allow yourself to slip into the flow of steady writing, you may be surprised at the fluidity of the logic that emerges as the words tumble out.

Thinking on paper is just as important for people in the sciences.

In most cases, the order that scientific data should be presented is fairly clear; but scientists can still gain important benefits by writing before they have finished data collection.

I’ve convinced one of my clients to begin writing his results section even though he still needs to conduct a few more experiments.

As he has begun to put together his tables, and writing up his results, he has discovered gaps in his argument that need to be filled. There are a few logical holes that suggest additional experiments and appropriate controls. As he writes, my client is locating areas where he can strengthen the power of his propositions.

Of course he can’t write about experiments that haven’t yet been conducted. Therefore, when he can’t add any more prose to his results section until he conducts a certain experiment, he keeps his paper moving forward by writing the methods section, the literature review, and pieces of his discussion. Daily writing is possible while he’s still in the process of data collection.

The scholarship of social scientists falls in between that of those in the humanities and the sciences.

Their research tends to alternate between clear linear progression and areas that could be connected in many, equally valid directions. Either way, social scientist can think on paper.

Writing as you go, watching your ideas and findings take shape on paper, is a useful approach in any field.

It is my experience that all scholars should attempt to write on a consistent basis, from the inception of a project and during data collection process, rather than at the conclusion of their research process. Unfortunately, this skill is not taught.

In fact, high school students and undergraduates are routinely expected to collect and read material and write their papers as the final step. This habit usually persists, unexamined.

It may not feel natural at first to write as you go. But it is a technique that can be learned. And I promise that if you think on paper, on a consistent basis, your scholarship will improve and your productivity will soar.

Email Addictions Part III

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Computers make it easier to do a lot of things,
but most of the things they make it easier to
do don't need to be done.

- Andy Rooney

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A final motivator devoted to email management:

1) Have a “two minute rule”.

In the book “Getting Things Done,” time management expert David Allen recommends keeping your inbox empty in order to keep your mind clear. He suggests answering email messages immediately if they will take less than two minutes to compose. For responses that will take longer than two minutes, Allen suggests creating an “Action Folder” and addressing those communications at a planned time.

2) There will be exceptions to the “two minute rule.”

I generally recommend that professors NOT respond to student emails as soon as the messages arrive, even if it will take less than two minutes to respond, because it leads undergraduates to expect immediate feedback. If you routinely reply to student queries within minutes, later in the semester, when you don’t answer the 11pm cry for help the night before the exam, your students will become disgruntled at your “lack of responsiveness.” Don’t train them to expect service 24/7.

3) Create clear, firm email boundaries for students at the beginning of each semester.

Set up a schedule, similar to office hours, for answering student emails. At the beginning of the semester, preferably both verbally and in your syllabus, inform students that you receive so many email requests that it typically takes you a day or two to respond. Then try to stick with a set schedule for responding to student emails. Set up a folder in your browser and only reply to requests at set times that you have scheduled in your day planner. This will allow you to be responsive to students but to avoid being at their beck and call. Having a student email schedule will also put a halt to the irritating experience of having desperate students email you at 11pm the night before a test is planned or a paper due. If you have announced and enforced a set schedule, students will no longer assume that you will reply to all last minute, electronic questions or pleas.

4) Create a separate email accounts for non-essential email.

Some of us just can’t resist reading our e-newsletters, list-serves or favorite blog updates once we open our email. Reading through the daily New York Times headlines, and reading the etymology of the daily word sent by dictionary.com used to be my autopilot practice when I opened my inbox each morning. Now I have my newsletters sent to my gmail account and I plan a time each day for catching up on news. Having a account for non-essentials can lessen distracting temptations.

5) Use folders to organize your email and have regular housecleaning sessions.

If you need to save messages, David Allen recommends setting up a file system for different categories of email. In all of your email programs, create folders for correspondence just as you do for printed material. Empty your inbox on a regular basis – but don’t use peak energy times for this activity. A weekly cleanup session should be sufficient, especially if you have been regularly attending to your “Action File.”

6) Finally, before you send or respond to an email, remember to ask yourself the following question: WHAT IS THE BEST MEDIUM FOR THIS COMMUNICATION?

This is the most important guideline for email management, and is also the easiest to forget, ignore or avoid. All too often, we engage in a conversation via email that would be better conducted in-person or by telephone.

Complex messages take longer to write than to say. Sensitive messages can be easily misunderstood on the computer screen and need the nuances of vocal tones, and perhaps facial expression and body language, to be toned down or sharpened up.

When a message will take longer than two minutes to compose, or when you are feeling a strong emotion about a given communication, always ask yourself whether it would be more effective to pick up the phone or walk down the hall. People could avoid many misunderstandings if they were more careful about when they chose to use email.

Email Addictions - Part II

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"You control your life by controlling your time."

– Conrad Hilton

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Email has changed the way we conduct our academic lives. Often it is our first choice means of contacting people – even colleagues sitting down the hall. But are we using the medium wisely?

Some of us react immediately when we receive a new email message. We operate as though we were physicians and our email program is the pager that informs us we are needed at the hospital. When we react in “emergency mode”, we allow external cues to control our time.

Instead, we can decide to be doctors with a nine to five practice who have no “on call” duties. Wouldn’t life be calmer if we didn’t treat our email as though it was an emergency pager?

To manage our time wisely, and keep work demands from taking over our lives, we need to take conscious control of our email habits.

In a previous Monday Motivator, I gave five tips for dealing with email. Here are six more tips to help you manage your electronic mail.

1) Try using a timer to measure how long you spend on email.
Are you aware how much of your day is spent dealing with electronic mail? Many of us promise ourselves that we’ll read and answer messages just for a few minutes, but we get wrapped up in our inboxes and lose track of time. We emerge much later than planned, surprised by how the electronic medium has just sucked up a large chunk of our limited work time.

2) Don’t automatically respond to email messages every time you check your inbox.
Choose whether an incursion into your inbox is for the general purpose of dealing with new mail or whether it is going to be a quick entry to send a specific message. Practice the challenging art of sending the email you intend without replying to other people’s requests.

3) Jot down your goals for each email session.
Are you someone who gets sidetracked by new messages? I’ve been known to open my email program in order to send a specific message, but somehow I get seduced by new mail, spend a half hour or more cleaning up my inbox, and only realize after I’ve logged out that I’ve forgotten to send the very message that motivated the session. Does this ever happen to you? Now I quickly make a note of the messages I need to send and start with my top priorities.

4) Find out what your most productive colleagues are doing.
Take an informal survey and ask several professors how they deal with their email. Some high achievers check their inbox innumerable times each day, but many prolific professors set strict limits to keep from having their time controlled by email. Ask whether they have a system and how well it works for them.

5) Think through the role that email should play in your workday.
Are you someone who needs to be at the beck and call of every incoming message? In certain cases, the answer to this question will be “yes.” One professor I know is collaborating with colleagues from other universities to run medical research projects in Africa. Most of his research administration takes place via email and it is necessary for him to spend two or three hours each day fielding up to 100 work-related email messages. For most of us, however, being so readily available electronically is unnecessary. Constantly checking for new messages may be a form of procrastination and our research might progress faster if we were on email less often.

6) Don’t waste your “prime time” on email.
If you are most alert and productive first thing in the morning, why do you spend your first hour at work going through your inbox? One of my coaching clients was the Dean of a prestigious private college. She received over 100 new, important email messages each day. After experimenting with different ways of managing this information onslaught, she made it a practice never to check her email until 3pm. She chose this period of the afternoon because her energy level tended to be low during that time. She was confident that if she allowed email to suck up her morning vigor she would never accomplish her goals. Keeping the demands of email in check helped her get her job done. (She also found that when people had to wait a few hours or a day for her reply they sometimes solved their problems without her.)

The basic premise of these tips is to control your email rather than allow it to control you.

Question: What would happen if each time you started to open your email browser you first asked yourself “What is the best use of my time, right now?”

Answer: You’d become much more productive.