ProtoScholar: From Student to Scholar

History in the making

2008-08-29T13:43:08Z

This presidential election will be historic no matter who wins. We will either have a Black Male President or a White Female Vice President.

So can we finally stop paying attention to such things and actually pay attention to issues and stands? Palin may have a vagina, but that doesn't make her pro-woman. She is anti-abortion and pro teaching creationism in schools. She has more administrative experience than Obama but almost no foreign policy or defense experience.

It is imperative that we not let this election devolve into a choice between the chick and the black guy. Both are lacking some experience. Both are running with a very experienced running mate. Let's choose on issues and where the candidates stand.

Here's my new Planner, same as the old Planner

2008-08-10T15:24:08Z

If you never looked at my concept for a project-oriented planner because it had the words "Graduate Student" in the title, time to look at it. I am very pleased with the way in which my Graduate Student Planner has transitioned to supporting my full-time job.

Using Goggle Calendar Sync, I can sync my Goggle calendar to my work outlook calendar. That, by default, syncs to my work-provided Blackberry.
My work is still highly project oriented. In fact, I am being asked to use my PMP certification and manage a bunch of projects. The result is that the tabbed binder described in my original post still accurately reflects my work. It allows me to keep meeting notes with the project being worked on, print out time lines and add them to the planner, and move things around as needed.
The only change: I now keep 2 versions of this planner; one for at work, one for at home. The work one stays at work, the academic/home one stays at home.

Some may question this last bullet; David Allen certainly would. One of the core concepts in GTD is that you should NOT separate your life like that. So I want to talk a little about why I do it anyway.

Due to resources, time and the desire for something that passes for work/life balance, it is important to me to focus on work at work and not-work at not-work. I have more than the normal 40 hours worth of work to do at work, but I am loathe to stay there longer or focus on that stuff when I'm not there. If I did, I would never get anything else done. By having a separate binder for the two principle parts of my life I force the separation. I don't write conference proposals at the office, and I don't write project plans at home.
Simply practicality; my binder would be 3 inches thick if I combined the two areas and tried to carry it all with me.

Does separating my time like that decrease my productivity? I don't believe so. I see it more as batching my work; I do the professional batch at the office and the academic batch at home. When I am working in that area, my focus is there. I then sub-batch where I can within those broader categories. To me the ability to concentrate on one thing/subject area at a time helps me get more done.

So how do I handle those things that kind-of cross, such as needing to call for an appointment during specific hours (such as while I am at the office)? I email my work account with a reminder and all the information I need for that next action. When I process my email inbox there, I am able to do the action and then check it off by deleting the email. If it is running an errand, I schedule it on my calendar to remind myself (and show my coworkers) that I am busy during that time.

For someone with fewer ongoing projects (work alone has 20 currently) and more crossover between the different aspects of their life there is no reason you couldn't do all of this in one binder, and that is probably preferable if your life is more integrated. My key observation is that by moving to a project-focused planner from a date-focused planner, you will be able to keep more balls in the air, better support a GTD-oriented organizational scheme and get more done all around.

Never talk to the police without a lawyer present...

2008-08-09T22:18:09Z

No really. Never talk to the police without a lawyer present. Even if you are innocent. Watch this video to understand why, but here is the clif-notes version:

The 5th amendment is there to protect you, especially if you are innocent. Almost anything you say can be turned against you, no matter how innocuous the comment may seem. The video shows you how it can be done.

Also, watch the 2nd video further down the page which is a reply by a police officer. He agrees that you shouldn't talk to the police without a lawyer present. He talks about the techniques that the police use to get people to confess or talk.

The deck is stacked against you unless you have a lawyer with you, and even then it is very easy to trip yourself up. As soon as you get your Miranda Warning, shut up and ask for a lawyer, no matter whether you are guilty or innocent.

Note, the exception is routine traffic stops. If you are pulled over, the first thing you should to do is turn your car off, turn the dome light on (if it's nighttime), roll down the window, and keep your hands on the steering wheel. Don't immediately reach into your glove compartment for your license and registration. Officers want to be able to see your hands for their own safety. Wait until the officer asks to see your paperwork before retrieving your documents.

The first thing you should say to the officer is, "Hello officer. Can you tell me why I am being pulled over?" The officer may give you a hard time or say, "Why do you think I pulled you over?" Tell the officer you don't know. Most importantly, do not apologize after you get stopped, because that can be considered an admission of guilt and could be used against you later in court.

Show your identification if it's requested. Be respectful and non-confrontational. Refer to the police as "Sir," "Ma'am," or "Officer." Remain calm and quiet while the officer is reviewing your documents. If the officer writes you a ticket, accept it quietly and never complain. Listen to any instruction on paying the fine or contesting the ticket, and drive away slowly.

Again, admit to nothing and do not apologize. If the situation escallates, then ask for a lawyer.

Hypocrisy

2008-08-04T21:07:36Z

Appalling. Apparently its bad to do scientific experiment on animals, but acceptable to firebomb the homes and sleeping families of HUMAN animals. Do they not see the hypocrisy?

Cleaning as productivity: 6 Steps to clear the deck

2008-08-03T19:51:21Z

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do with your time is to rearrange and clean your office.

Mine had become a disaster, with books and stuff EVERYWHERE. Between new books I had bought, articles I had sent to the printer to read later and notes I wanted to keep for later I had every surface piled with papers and stuff. So it was hardly surprising that when I sat down today to figure out what I needed to work on I darn near had a panic attack.

The clutter and dust left me feeling that I didn't want to be in that room, and more importantly like I didn't want to think about any of the things related to the stuff in that room. Since that would be things like my classes, my dissertation, and really my long-term goals, that was a bad emotional reaction to have.

Some people thrive on clutter. Some can't deal with it at all. I'm somewhere in between; I have a great deal of tolerance to a point, after which I either fix it or burn it all down. Today I reached my limit. Here are a few of the things I did to get it back under control:

Deal with Loose Paper: I've already written about the glories of my label maker, so the first step was to print labels for all those accumulated articles, put them into file folders and then sort those folders by topic. When I was done I had 3 broad themes and less random paper laying about. I could file or set aside as made sense.
Have the right size storage for what you need to store: For a long time I had been living with 2 4-shelf bookcases. These were well past too small. I had already had to get rid of (ie: sell through amazon) some stuff that was less relevant to my current work, but I no longer had space for things like methodology books and journals. Books had taken over the chair, both levels of the cheap credenza and were starting to pile up on the floor. After some discussion, we went to Ikea for 2 Billy book cases (Black-brown to go with our furniture). These units are both slightly wider and 2 shelves taller than the book cases they replaced. To give you an idea of the overflow, there is less than half a shelf empty between the two of them.
Dust: In the process of moving everything I discovered a layer of dust that would make a haunted house jealous. I didn't have time for a truly exhaustive cleaning, but dusting made an enormous difference in both appearance and the mood that was created. Vacuuming would have been nice as well, but is less visible.
Get rid of things: It turned out that some of that paper needed to be recycled, not filed, and that some of those books needed to just go away. I didn't get rid of a LOT, but the process of going through it all helped me get rid of a few things.
Put things back where they belong: I have a desk. It has 1 drawer, in which I have a pen tray. Yet there were pens EVERYWHERE around the room. They would get lost under whatever papers were dropped on them so that I would have to take a new one out each time I needed to write something. The same goes for filing; I had created a filing inbox that I never seemed to empty. Today, I did. Suddenly a huge stack of visual clutter went away.
Scan and back up your computer: Run things like CCleaner and Spybot while you clean, then run a fresh backup (if yours aren't already automated using something like Syncback). This kind of regular maintenance keeps your computer running fast, and doing it while you do other things is a good plan.

The room is no longer unpleasant. Rather the opposite. The top of the credenza has nothing on it at the moment except a bottle of lotion and a picture. (When I get working I like to keep everything close at hand, and the credenza makes up for how little desk space is left after the keyboard and mouse.)

The room is still crowded - this is the 3rd bedroom in our house, with the 2nd functioning as a guest room, so this room has to provide storage as well as being my office. A true den would be a luxury, one I don't expect for a while.

But the room is now back to being a relaxing space. I can find the things I need, I have clear space and no more piles of unidentified stuff. Now I can concentrate again. That, to me, makes a very productive day.

When deadlines collide

2008-08-02T12:16:00Z

I'm not dead yet (best heard in your head with a cockney accent) *grin* I have just had far too many immovable deadlines over the last few weeks, leading me to prioritize everything else over blogging.

First I went to a history of ed conference in Newark that was awesome. I practically got giggly when I saw some of the big names in the field sitting across the lunch table from me.

I really needed that conference; I've been losing faith in both my ability and desire to finish this. Working full time in a career that is, in some ways, still very interesting (even if it isn't the life-style I want long-term) with a major project deadline was sapping my enthusiasm for my academic work. However the project is done, so that will help going forward. I hope. And the conference reinvigorated me toward my work.

Then, like every other education scholar, I have been rushing to prepare conference proposals to the "big" conference in the field (AERA) that were due yesterday. Tomorrow I have a paper due for one of my classes, so I won't get caught up until after that.

I can say that I am very pleased with my submissions to AERA. I sent in one proposal to a SIG that essentially is what I want to do for my dissertation, so I forwarded it off to my adviser as well. My writing group read it and only one had any real substantive comments; the rest were just grammar (I still mix up that/which for example) and clarifying of wording. Everyone thought it was well written. We'll see if the sig agrees. It is definitely a unique perspective.

What interested me about that proposal is that the angle came to me on a drive and, when I got home, I wrote the whole thing up in under 4 hours. It really just flowed. I thought when I sent it off to my readers that they would say it sucked or was scattered, but apparently it was more along the inspired lines. Ah the power of a conference to get one motivated, followed by amazing cinnamon swirl french toast for energy.

I also sent in a pre-conference professional development proposal having to do with presentation skills for academic conferences. Last week I was at a really interesting international conference and was reminded again of just how few academics seem to know how to:

Summarize their paper into a 15-20 minute talk (ie edit the content reasonably)
Distill in information into slides that help, not hinder, their presentation
Deliver said presentation within the timelimit
"Read the room" to determine whether pacing is working, explainations are clear, etc.

So my presentation (called "Making your Brilliance Known") focuses on taking what is certainly a fabulous paper and distilling it down, making slides that help, how NOT to read your own slides but deliver in an engaging way and use the feedback from the room to modify your delivery. I've blogged on parts of this topic before, but this will give me a chance to pull it all together.

Who knows if that one will get accepted; I think it is needed, but some people might find it offensive. ("What does some chick with an MBA know about presenting at an academic conference? Shouldn't she at least finish her dissertation before she starts trying to tell us what to do?") I just don't get why people don't realize the skills are VERY different.

I have decided that I need about 3 conferences per year to stay motivated. That means this international one during the summer, the american history of ed conference in the fall (already have a paper accepted for this) and the big conference in the spring. I am committing to myself to submit to each one, which shouldn't be hard. I'm finding that if anything I have too many ideas after each conference. This is going to cost money, but as long as I am working full time it is a managable expense if it keeps my enthusiasm level up for the work. Once I am a full time academic, I can back that off. (Anyway, the international conference next year is in the Netherlands - I've never been!!!)

Anyway, now I have a historiography paper due this week and an academic book review due next week that I need to write. Sometimes it feels like it never ends, bit a little enthusiasm helps.

Mind Mapping the Literature Review

2008-07-14T21:28:29Z

GTD practitioners from David Allen on down sing the praises of mind mapping. I've played with a bit but never gotten far. In fact, the only time I ever used mindmapping was taking notes in a class taught by a post-modernist who rambled. It was the only way to capture what he was saying and even then it was a mess.

Today, however, I read a brief blog post about using mind mapping to design a literature review. The idea really struck a cord with me; it makes a lot of sense and forces you to focus better.

I haven't done it yet, but I'm starting to think about it. I just am not sure if it will help or be just another organizational toy distracting me.....

Note taking - Part 3

2008-07-06T12:03:01Z

Over dinner last night I was talking to my husband about my thoughts on note-taking and specifically, that I felt my notes were too wordy and in depth due to using the voice recorder. He suggested that it wasn't such a bad thing, as it offered the opportunity to go back later and review/edit down the notes to a more compact form.

Essentially his idea was that by editing later I would more thoroughly embed the ideas in my head and offer myself the chance to put any further musings onto the page.

From a time perspective this would only be useful if the voice recorder starts getting almost everything right; if I have to edit the long notes as well as compress them it starts to take a lot of time. But assuming for the moment that I can get the long notes to the point where no editing is required, do you think there is any usefulness to the second pass?

2 small history rants....

2008-07-05T23:19:54Z

Why doesn't the history channel ever show, you know, HISTORY? Ice Road Truckers? Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed? Modern Marvels? Mega Movers? MonsterQuest?
If a movie is going to purportedly be about history, couldn't they at least make it vaguely plausible? I love a fun romp as much as the next guy, so tonight I watched National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets (Widescreen). It centers around Cibola, a City of Gold. They find it. In appearance it is essentially Mayan. Several THOUSAND miles north of where one would reasonably find anything Mayan. Couldn't they have stuck it further south? Texas? New Mexico? Somewhere not entirely impossible? (Just for the record that was only the single most egregious historical absurdity in this bit of fluff. It was far from the only one.

Note taking - Part 2

2008-07-05T16:00:26Z

There were a couple of questions embedded in the comments that I wanted to address, then provide an update on how the system outlined is working. Comments first.

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From Gabriel: I would just make sure the extra work from the voice recognition part is not taking a toll on your work schedule.
This is a really important comment, for two reasons. First, it is taking quite a bit of time to fix up the notes. Second, it is taking all that time in part because I'm even wordier when I talk than when I type. What I come out with isn't "notes" so much as a summarized narrative. I'm not sure that's such a good thing.

A simple example: I took a quick read through last weeks notes and tightened them up. When I started I had 6 pages of text. When I finished I had 2, mostly bullet points. No meaning was lost, just unnecessary detail and wordiness. Frankly, it is making me rethink the voice recognition piece.

From Cal: How do you keep track of what you need to read?
I have started using Zotero for tracking references, and I have a specific reference library for things in the queue. Since I am working on my dissertation right now it is all pretty consistent. I suppose if I had more irons in the fire I might maintain several queues.

My Next Actions list contains a pointer to where I left off. That way when I have time again I pick up reading from there. I have toyed with setting specific reading goals, but find that if I just track where I need to start next I can decide when I open the book how much time I have to devote to the effort.

I have taken all the anti-multitasking literature to heart though, and am trying to force myself to only be in the middle of one book at a time. Part of that process is differentiating between items I need to read cover to cover and those I only need a chapter or two out of.

Also from Cal: How do you store and organize your notes?
This is a bit more difficult. I read the article you posted about note-taking databases and it makes total sense, except it doesn't really reflect the way I take notes. So for now I have a series of word documents in folders relevant to each topic. One document per book. I'm still debating whether that is the best method, but for now it is the lowest impact to capture the material in a searchable manner.

From Jacob: If you've got access to a reduced price/free license to the thing, Endnote is among the best software for organizing and saving academic research.
My school is cheap - they only provide Refworks, with which I wasn't impressed. I suppose I could buy Endnote, but I am so impressed with Zotero's ability to just suck the citation in that I can't not give it a chance. Zotero also has note taking capabilities, and I've played a little with it. I just am unclear on what the search capabilities are like.
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As I mentioned in my response to Gabriel above, I am rethinking the voice recognition piece on account of wordiness. I need to learn to use it either for bullet points or for musing on a topic. Note taking should be succinct and to the point, and that format encourages neither.

I also am becoming convinced that I am taking too long to get through a single book. Partially this is because I am filling in a lot of background details for the specific time period, but I need to get past that and be able to get the jist of the arguments, any new facts, and move on more quickly. One recommendation I've seen is that a book of 250-400 pages should take no more than 2-3 hours of concentrated work. Another suggests that with practice you can get it down to an hour.

Regardless of which method I look at, they are all telling me one thing; I'm taking to long, reading to linearly and taking too extensive of the wrong kinds of notes. *sigh*

So, I have one more chapter in my current book, then I will use one of these new approaches for the next one. Test, assess, adjust, retest. Or something like that.