Productive (adj)

Everyone is talking about Kathleen Fitzpatrick’s new book Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University . Mark Largent, our Interim APUE & Dean of Undergraduate Studies, just blogged about it here . Fitzpatrick gave a keynote about generous thinking at the #ITeachMSU Spring Conference on Student Learning and Success . And it’s the next pick for the Hub’s monthly book club . I haven’t read the whole book yet, but the ideas are so exciting that this is a book pre-report, as one of my favorite colleagues Bre Yaklin remarked last week. I first learned about Generous Thinking at the Envisioning the Future of Academic Work at MSU  workshop in April, where Fitzpatrick led a breakout session called “Generous vs. Competitive Thinking in the Academic Environment.” Anyone who knows me knows I’m the opposite of competitive, so this title jumped out of the schedule for me. In essence, thinking generously means rescuing academia from paths that seem to relentlessly i...

It's been a while since this blog has updated... 2.5 years, in fact. Wow! I should start by announcing that I finished my PhD and I'm working at Michigan State University at the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology and at Lyman Briggs College . I'll have way more to say about this and what I've been up to since 2016 in future posts. But right now, let's talk about blogging (how meta!). One of my goals at work this year is to turn blogging into part of my regular practice. I do so many cool projects, and the Hub has an awesome blog where people with better follow-through than I have regularly churn out posts about their work or reactions to issues in higher ed. I even had a series of posts in mind about informal learning on campus that I pitched in the spring to write in the summer... and then it never happened. Not because I'm not interested in the topic, not because the actual writing would be too hard or unpleasant, but because I never hit the rig...

Here is a playlist of clips I showed in a guest lecture for Megan Halpern 's Intro to History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science course at Michigan State. I used clips from wildlife films, trailers, behind-the-scenes features, and the CBC Fifth Estate documentary Cruel Camera . The most popular clip was the viral sensation Iguana vs Snakes from Planet Earth II (2016) .  Enjoy!

When considering graduate schools, even fictional ones, it's important to assess a variety of characteristics to determine the best fit for your academic goals, career interests, and work-life balance. Here's a rundown of what you can expect within a range of prestigious fictional graduate programs [mild spoilers for those unfamiliar with source books or movies]. School : The ABA (American Ballet Academy), featured in the dance-and-eating-disorder-afterschool-special Center Stage (and its sequel and recent TV movie ); grad school for ballet dancers. Grad School Cred : Student dancers have a year to take classes and improve their skills, at which point they perform in a showcase audition, a 1-day job market that determines whether they'll be employed in a ballet company. Admission : Audition-based. Highly competitive. Free catering Conditions : Punishing. Hard on toes. Having "bad feet," not adhering to a strict diet, or demonstrating "bad at...

When all of the seasons of Friends were released on Netflix this winter, many of us took the opportunity to catch up on a show from our 90s childhoods. But when I did I couldn’t help but be struck by how awful its characters could be to others within the TV universe, Ross most of all. Many of Ross’ shenanigans were related to his job as a palaeontologist, first at a natural history museum and then as a lecturer (later tenured ) at NYU. Ross is a terrible person, and that bleeds into him being a terrible palaeontologist & professor. Binge-watching the series really drives this home, as you can see from this parade of professional nonsense: -He has an after-hours date, then sex , in the museum and gets caught the morning after by kids on a field trip. -He yells at and threatens his museum coworkers, leading to a forced leave of absence while he undergoes anger management training. -His papers are widely discredited . -He forgets to attend his own classes (this runni...

Last time I talked about attending a conference with a baby. Many of you gave me great feedback about your own experiences. Unfortunately, some women shared stories of departments or committees which weren't supportive of students having babies during graduate school, or even talking about being parents. Frankly, that attitude is a symptom of dysfunctional PhD program culture, something Sarah Kendzior explores in an excellent piece in Vitae from this past summer. Perhaps all we can do through discussions like these is to share our experiences, support each other through the tough stuff, and  slowly change the culture of academia  together. Now there's a nice thought. In this post I'll be describing how you can hold a family-friendly conference. More and more conference committees are ensuring that parents of babies and young children can participate in their events. It's not difficult to make things much, much easier for parent attendees, and they'll really a...

Preamble: the title of this post officially "gives it away": I'm ABD with a B-A-B-Y. Most everyone I interact with professionally knows this, and I wasn't keeping it secret from the internet , but there's still a disadvantage to being a  mother in academia , and many hesitate to talk about being parents publicly. I think that's unreasonable, and I hope that this and similar posts can be helpful to other academic parents facing similar issues. Last week my family attended HSS / PSA in windy Chicago, and it was a great example of a conference that took families with babies into consideration. My next post will be about the good choices those conference organizers made, but this one is directed towards the parent(s) conferencing with a baby in tow (note: some of these tips may not apply to multiple/older children or other types of dependent care, areas in which I'm not experienced). 1. Be baby-travel savvy.   There are plenty of usefu...

We've all been there: things are chugging along fine, until everything grinds to a halt. Your productivity measures aren't working anymore. Your writing goals feel more and more out of reach. Unhelpful or challenging feedback makes you doubt yourself. The emails are piling up, as is the marking. It's even more frustrating when you've devoted energy over the years to building systems for getting to work, getting things done, and keeping yourself accountable, and things are still not progressing. For me, the low point was a few years ago . I was working on a major paper and I'd utterly lost momentum. I hadn't written a thing in days, and I barely had the drive to open a book. The project was so big and unwieldy that I didn't feel like I could make a dent. I realized how bad things were when the most I could muster the energy to do was take out the garbage. On the walk back up the steps, I realized that the pride I had in accomplishing such a minor task ...

Do your days seem to get busier and busier? Do you have no idea where the time goes? Are you committed to projects you don't really care about? Do you wish you had more time for the people and activities that mean the most to you? After having read that last sentence, are you currently thinking, "Oh yeah, how come I never spend any time with my favourite people/activities?" You might need to work on your priorities. Here are five ways to help with this very common problem.  1. Take stock. Here's a trick from a team building exercise to illustrate your current workload. Draw out a typical week of your life (or use a calendar or day planner): 7 days of 24 hours each (168 hours total). Mark the time you spend at work or, if you have numerous smaller projects, how much time you devote to each of these in a day. Mark down your sleeping, meals, leisure time, commute, workouts, everything. Add any TV watching/internet time. Try to be honest; the point is to get an...

Here is the second part of my previous post on reducing your food costs. 6. Coupons Companies want you to buy their products, and they will entice you with coupons. This includes the companies that make the products you are already buying. To save money, you need to find and use these coupons. A good place to start is your grocery store flyer. Scan the coupon section and cut out any coupons that interest you. You can also find coupons online , on consumer websites , company social media pages , and so on. You may be tempted to buy things just because you have a coupon, but that would be a mistake: if you never buy that product, you are spending money in order to save (less) money. However, if you find a really good deal on a product you've been meaning to try, go ahead. Watch for expiration dates and small print on coupons: they're tricky! 7. There's an app for that! Recently a series of grocery apps have made it easier to find a good deal. Some grocery stores...

If you're not a farmer who grows, harvests, cans, stores, raises, & butchers her own food (plus whatever verb applies to beekeeping) you need to pay others for their efforts in those areas. And unless your time is so valuable that you'd rather pay a butler/cook to shop and prepare meals for you (or more likely, eat at restaurants all the time) you need to buy food. Here are my household management tips for spending less money on food. 1. Budget (and hold yourself accountable) No matter your level of income, it's important to have a general idea of how much discretionary spending you can afford each month. You can use online budget tools like Mint , a simple spreadsheet, a pen-and-paper system, or watch a few episodes of Til Debt Do Us Part to figure out your grocery allowance: income minus fixed expenses (like rent, utilities, transportation, other bills, and savings) will tell you what you can spend on food, plus your "fun money" for entertainment, c...

No one enjoys having unpleasant chores to do. Being on maternity leave means I have more time around the house, and I've taken it upon myself to be responsible for a greater share of the non-baby-related household chores as well. Here are some initial thoughts on chores, based on the last few months; some of these were surprising to discover. -As anyone who struggles with productivity knows, finishing a task can be immensely satisfying. Having a discrete chore to do and having the time, energy, and opportunity to take care of it are a recipe for self-satisfaction. Floor needs sweeping? Done. Flour on the counter? Wipe that down. Full dishwasher? Stack those plates back in the cupboard. You feel like a champion. The link between cleanliness and procrastination is well established. -But there's only so much you can tackle. Work on our  finite willpower , decision fatigue , or more enjoyably this classic Hyperbole and a Half post , illustrate that you can't chug alon...

Those of you who read my resolutions for this year already know that I'm trying to do much more bulk cooking. For anyone with even rudimentary cooking skills (if you can chop, stir, and not get distracted while everything is burning) and a few free hours, bulk cooking is the way to go. You can make a double or even triple batch of your favourite recipe without doubling the time, and with the help of extra time-savers like a food processor (to slice, grate, chop, or puree) and an immersion blender (no need to lug out the hard-to-clean full-size blender) you'll have dinner on the table, plus up to a week's worth of future meals to freeze. Here are my tested, go-to recipes, from my own trial-and-error cooking or from trusted websites, to fill your tummies and freezers. *For all recipes below, when reheating leftovers you can save time by defrosting the serving in the fridge for a day. Reheating from frozen works too, but it will take longer. Make sure leftovers are heate...