Productive (adj)

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...

Last week's post  resonated with many of you, so I'm happy to present part 2. It turns out that the things I'm writing about, and that I thought I was clever enough to have thought up on my own, are already on the radar of universities , grad students, and alt-ac professionals . They are known as transferable skills, and many people more informed than I am have written great   pieces about them . But I'm certainly happy to add my voice to the chorus that, besides your research, you are gaining useful and valuable skills as a graduate student. Here we go: 6. How to communicate effectively.  This might seem lame, but you have been engaging in intense multi-platform communication while a student, and you surely have come across instances of poor communication. Sometimes extremely poor communication. Busy professors whose emails are indecipherable, undergraduates who can't form a coherent paragraph, department-wide memos advertising a talk that don't prov...