Category: Productivity
October 8, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
Using TripIt to Organize Travel
One of the perks of academia is the opportunity
for occasional travel to conferences, archives, or
field-work. But keeping travel plans organized can be
difficult amidst writing deadlines, grading, and the blizzard of
email that we all sort through on a daily basis. If you have
a Smartphone, there several apps out there that might help simplify
things for you. I recently discovered TripIt, and it
was love at first use.
TripIt is a free program for BlackBerry, Droid, or iPhone that organizes all of your travel information (flights, hotel reservations, rental cars, etc.) into a single itinerary. It is easy to use from the get-go and does not require account numbers for your reservations. You will, however, need a map application on your Smartphone (if you do not have one pre-installed on your phone, GoogleMaps is a free option). Once you have installed TripIt, all you need to do ...
Read MoreOctober 7, 2010, 11:00 AM ET
How to Create Digital Letterhead for Your Department and Job Search
We at ProfHacker are quite aware of the onset of the academic job market. That's why you've seen recent posts from Erin about the five things that helped her survive the job market and one from Heather about keeping track of job postings. (Don't miss Heather's call yesterday for your tips on managing the job application process.) If you dig a bit deeper into the ProfHacker archives, you will be able to find posts from Nels offering ways to stand out on the job search; from Erin on using an NFL analogy to explain the academic job market; and from me last May advising you to get started new (then?) on preparing for the job market.
If I had to pick just one tool that helped me survive the three runs at the academic job market that I've had, it would be Interfolio. As Julie wrote previously, using Interfolio to manage your professional documents takes a lot of aches away from what will no...
Read MoreOctober 7, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
Get Lost
Some of our ProfHacker readers
started new jobs this semester, which probably meant moving to a
new place. When I started the job I have now, one of the hardest
and most exciting parts was moving to a part of the country where I
had never been (except for my two-day site visit). In addition to
negotiating all the demands of a new job, I had to find out where
to buy my groceries, board my dog, take a walk, and do all of the
other things that are a foundational part of my daily life.
One of the best things I did to help me navigate my new
home was to get lost.
As I was starting my new job, my husband was working on a graduate degree in another state. When he would visit, I would drive us around. The first weekend he visited, I told him I had found a movie theatre a couple of miles from home. He asked how. I said, "I got lost driving home from the DMV." Afterward, I drove us to dinner a...
Read MoreOctober 5, 2010, 03:00 PM ET
Online Tools For Collaboration
Over the last
year or so I’ve been involved with two different collaborative
projects, each of which has required keeping up with an array of
people, tasks, documents, and deadlines. Furthermore, each of these
projects involve people I don’t see every day or even every week.
As a result, it can be tricky to keep track of who’s doing what by
when. Email certainly isn’t the answer. Nor are weekly or bi-weekly
meetings in which everyone reminds everyone else what they’re
working on. Instead, we’ve come to rely on a combination of online
applications focused on the aforementioned tasks, documents, and
deadlines. Assuming that communication by phone or email is already
worked out, here are a few things one can do to manage
collaboration.
An online calendar
Google Calendar is a very user-friendly tool. At the beginning of the semester, map out what you’d like to get done and by...
Read MoreOctober 5, 2010, 11:00 AM ET
Sabbaticals and Productivity-Talk
The concept of
"productivity porn" is by now a familiar one. (In fact, last week's
"Weekend
Reading" linked to both a
video and a post about
it.) The basic idea is that you can get so caught up in fiddling
with your productivity system or gear that you forget to actually,
um, do things.
But there's another kind of productivity porn, as well: the type that insists on measuring everything in easily quantifiable, and thereby easily jukable [YouTube], stats. In higher ed, a standard form this takes is the LPU, or least publishable unit, or the practice of parceling out new knowledge into as many different articles as one can, or, alternatively, of publishing as soon as you have a certain amount of data, rather than working toward a bigger project. (You can see a qualified defense of the LPU here.)
In the current issue of Academe, Max Page argues that this latter notion of productivity porn ...
Read MoreOctober 4, 2010, 03:00 PM ET
From the Archives: Be Prepared
Although some of the ProfHacker team would
probably do better than others in handling a bear attack or the
zombie apocalypse, in general I think it's fair to say that part of
the ProfHacker mindset includes the old maxim "Be Prepared." A
little action now can save you a lot of time and frustration should
something unexpected occur.
Prepare for the Weather
As we head into fall, it's worth revisiting George's Anticipate the Commute (and the comments by other PHers), which recommends updating your regular auto maintenance tasks and switching out the summertime items in your trunk for rain, mud, and snow gear as appropriate for your region.
At a more pedestrian level, how many umbrellas do you have? Do you have them where and when you need one? Pick up a couple cheap ones to keep in your office or in your car for those mornings when you forget to check the forecast.
Back Up Your Digital...
Read MoreOctober 4, 2010, 11:00 AM ET
Reader Input Wanted: Keeping Up with Job Applications
Awhile back on Profhacker, I posted suggestions for keeping up with job postings. But it was clear from the comments that keeping up with job applications is also on many people's minds.
We want to hear from you: how do you keep up with the status of your job applications? Do you use a spreadsheet, or some other type of software? Do you have follow-up reminders in place via a calendaring system? Let us know. We'll combine the suggestions into a later post.
[Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user gabrielamadeus.]
Read MoreOctober 1, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
Hacking Your Personal Life
Here at ProfHacker, we encourage balance
between the mind and body. See Kathleen's "Prioritizing
Exercise," Nels's "The
Whole Life Grid," and "Nurturing
the Mind-Body Connection" by guest author, Meagan Timney for
just a few examples of these posts. Today, I want to think about a
slightly different kind of balance: the balance between the
personal and the professional. Maintaining a life outside of our
professional obligations and responsibilities can be challenging
for all of us no matter what stage of our careers we have achieved.
These challenges can vary depending on several factors: our own
personalities and the kind of institution where we spend our time
are perhaps two of the biggest variables, but in addition, whether
you are partnered or single, whether you have children or not, and
whether you must commute to campus and how far also all contribute.
Finally, whether you are...
September 30, 2010, 03:00 PM ET
Hacking Multiple Campus Offices
I have the dubious honor of
having two offices. Yes, dubious. As of the beginning of this year,
I've got an office at MATRIX: The Center for the Humane Arts, Letters, and
Social Sciences (where I serve as as Associate Director) and an
office in the Consortium for Archaeological Research (where
the archaeology faculty in the Department of Anthropology live).
While this setup is absolutely necessary, it can be challenging at
times. Don't get me wrong, having two offices can also be
rewarding. I'm very fortunate in that both office locations are
filled with great colleagues who I like being around. I also
recognize that I'm probably in the minority in this whole
multi-office setup thing. Most scholars only have a single office.
It's also a rather sad fact that many scholars (especially at the
lower end of the academic food chain) don't even have an office of
their own. This having been said...
September 29, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
Announcing Digital Humanities Questions & Answers (@DHAnswers)
Several months ago, we were lucky enough to have been
approached by the Association for Computers and the Humanities
(ACH) with an idea for
collaboration that would help broaden (and serve) the digital
humanities community—many of whom we know read the ProfHacker blog
and interact in the commenting community we have here. The result
of that idea, put forth by ACH Vice President Bethany Nowviskie, is Digital
Humanities Questions & Answers, a community-based
Q&A board you can participate in for free at:
http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/
(We also suggest you follow @DHAnswers on Twitter.)
The goal of DH Answers is to create a friendly and inviting space where people can help each other with questions about languages, tools, standards, best practices, pedagogy, and all things related to scholarly activity in the digital humanities (broadly defined). No question is too small, or too...
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