Productivity

What are you up to in the new year? Anything you're committing to stoping, starting, or continuing?

A friend and colleague asked me about how to achieve work-life balance and what tools are best for doing that. Let's just say I got a bit energized by her question that I recorded a video for her and sent her some key points from what I shared. If you're wondering about these same questions, check out the comments for a link to the video I sent to her, which is now on my YouTube channel.

RESPONSE

I appreciate you reaching out with your concerns about achieving a more effective work-life balance and integrating tools like Microsoft Planner with your team. Here are some insights and recommendations based on what you've shared, which I share in more detail in the video:

View Work-Life Balance as a Journey: Rather than seeing work-life balance as a fixed destination, it's more helpful to view it as an ongoing journey. This perspective allows for flexibility and adaptation, acknowledging that some days or weeks might be more challenging than others.

Incorporate Consistent Tools and Habits: To achieve effective work-life integration, it's crucial to not only have the right tools but also to establish consistent habits that make the use of these tools part of your daily routine. Just as I shared in my video, using apps like Calm for meditation has helped me manage stress and maintain productivity through structured breaks like the Pomodoro technique.

Maintaining Flexibility in Tool Usage: It's okay to step away from certain tools occasionally. What's important is returning to them when you realize they bring balance and peace to your life. This adaptability is key in managing not just tasks but also your mental well-being.

Implement Practical, Routine-Based Strategies: Strategies such as a weekly review can dramatically reduce feelings of being overwhelmed and improve your organizational habits. Scheduling regular check-ins on your progress can guide you in managing your workload without feeling inundated.

Choose and Stick to Appropriate Technologies: The effectiveness of any tool depends on it being integrated thoughtfully into your day-to-day activities. My experience with tools like Raindrop for bookmarking and Zotero for academic references emphasizes choosing technologies that fit seamlessly with your workflow. Also, avoiding frequent changes in your toolset helps in building a routine that you and your team can rely on.

Continuous Commitment to Your Tools: Commit to your tools unless there's a compelling reason to change. This consistency will help not only you but also your team in becoming more proficient with the technologies adopted and ultimately, more cohesive and functional as a unit.

VIDEO

Remember, the key to integrating any new tool or process effectively into your work-life system relies heavily on consistent usage and the development of supportive habits around it.

I gave a couple of talks this month that I wanted to share a bit with you. First, David Rhoads and I joined Bryan Beatty to discuss the myths and truths of Hyflex Learning. I also shared at the Lilly Conference about igniting our collective imagination. Each of those two links has the associated resources on them and more information. However, during the Lilly Conference one, I got asked a fair amount of questions about my standing set up in the chatbox, which I didn't anticipate.

When I saw the question, I joked that I was not going to be held up as a model for standing setups. I had used this bendable tripod thingy with a screw sticking out of the top of it and tried to balance my webcam on top of the screw. I'm not sure if the camera was straight at any point in my presentation. Two of the three legs of the tripod blocked my already-poor view of the Zoom window and the other application I was using to run my slide-deck and polling. I used one of our kids' upholstered chairs to raise my keyboard up a bit and had my trackpad resting in the seat of the chair.

Let's just say it wasn't ideal.

Trent Tucker came to the rescue on Twitter. He tweeted: “…as luck would have it, I ran into a colleague at #myTRU who has the stand-up teaching set-up I was looking for! Cranks the desk up, rolls the whiteboard into place, webcam on… stand-up teaching!”

Hey @NeuroscienceUT @marklipton @bonni208 … as luck would have it, I ran into a colleague at #myTRU who has the stand-up teaching set-up I was looking for! Cranks the desk up, rolls the whiteboard into place, webcam on… stand-up teaching! #EdTech #TeachFromHome #cdnpse pic.twitter.com/MjVJbQx5UX

— Dr. Trent “I wear a mask” Tucker, PhD (@ProfTucker) December 4, 2020

Trent later described what things look like before John Ofee transforms the desk to the standing setup:

“Hi Bonni — I have permission from @john_ofee to share this. It's his office and set-up, I took the photo and doctored it up. Here is the “before” picture — it's a regular office then it transforms into super stand-up teaching space from the other photo. Happy blogging.”

A friend from work said his wife was really liking her stand that converts her desk to a standing desk, so I bought a similar one. I like it a lot, from a functionality standpoint. However, it was too wide to fit the part of my desk where my monitor sits. I'm thinking it will head to work with me when I one day return and will likely work better there.

Now Dave and I are thinking that I should look for an independent tripod that would raise my webcam up high enough to not give me the appearance of having four chins (my words, not his). My goal is to have things up and running well by the time I speak at the Musical Theatre Educators Alliance's conference in early January 2021. Standing for that one seems most important… I'm working hard at keeping the bad musical theatre puns to myself for the event, as well. “Ya Got Trouble – Right Here in River City…” In all seriousness, I couldn't be more excited and honored to join them for the conference.

One purchase that has worked out well in my setup is this light that sits atop my monitor. It's LED can be adjusted in two ways: brightness and tone (warm/cool). It has a dimmer on it and a power button (that unfortunately I keep forgetting to turn off when I leave my computer for the day; I'm thinking of seeing if there is some kind of automation I can use for this situation).

It needs to be shut off when I'm on any kind of web conference tool, or it makes my webcam adjust awkwardly and put me in the shadows. But it works great for when I tuck my computer and keyboard away and work on analog tasks. Speaking of pen and paper tools, I recently received an early Christmas gift, which I initially heard about from Katie Linder. Here's Katie's recent answer to the question: Will I Use PowerSheets in 2021? I've gotten as far as putting my name in the front and looking through everything that came in the PowerSheets bundle I received.

 

I was inspired by Bryan Alexander’s post on his Daily Practice: Tools of the Trade. If you aren't already familiar with Bryan, he is a higher education futurist who has quite an influence in our industry. He also wrote a kind post at the start of the new year about his recent visit on Teaching in Higher Ed:

Discussing the Future of Higher Ed with Bonni Stachowiak, A Podcaster Who Knows the Web

I enjoyed reading his appreciation for all the aspects of producing the show, such as taking the time creating show notes for each episode, transcripts, quote graphics, and then some. I had no idea that the transcript of his episode wound up being 17 pages. Amazing!

Back to Bryan's post about the tools he uses in his work. Here’s a treetop view of what I use to get my work done and facilitate other aspects of my life.

Writing

Two forms of writing require two different sets of tools:

1. Longer-form writing (books, book chapters) – Microsoft Word. Despite all the bad-mouthing people do about Word, it is still the most fully-featured tool I know of for longer-form writing. A close second would be Scrivener on the Mac, but I just haven’t wanted to commit to the learning curve, since I know Microsoft Word like the back of my hand.
2. Shorter-form writing (articles, blogs, etc.) – I often start writing in plain text using Ulysses. I write using a style called Markdown, which has text-based symbols to indicate where formatting belongs. 

Speaking

When I speak at a conference or am hired for a keynote or workshop, the following combination of tools helps me streamline the tasks – to free me up for the creative thinking end of things:

1. Recent episodes, topics I present on, and how to get in touch – WordPress – Beaver Builder.
2. List of all past and upcoming speaking engagements – WordPress, Beaver Builder, and a wonderful web designer. Naomi completely streamlined how I curate all my speaking resources.
3. Cover slide in various sizes – Canva (pro version allows for magic resizing)
4. Slide design – inspired regularly by Nancy Duarte, use a combination of Microsoft PowerPoint and Canva for slide designs
5. Brainstorming and open loops for upcoming talks – Evernote
6. Planned interaction (polling) for during talks – Glisser
7. Resources page (sample) – WordPress page with Pretty Link (easier/shorter link for people to type in)
8. Travel coordination – I’ve outlined my approaches on episode 261 with Dave Stachowiak and in a blog post.

Teaching

I had better be careful with this one, or I could write a few books on the topic. I’ll narrow myself down to the first nine tools of the trade that come to mind:

1. PollEverywhere – One of my favorite tools for in-class retrieval practice. I poll students with questions that either have a correct answer, or ask for their perceptions/opinions. They answer on their smart phones. We get to interact far more than times when I lecture without some kind of approach like this. I typically have them be anonymous to invite even more participation.
2. Quizlet Live – Once you have a set of flashcards on Quizlet – you can play a game in class with students where they have to collaborate together to come up with the right matches/answers. It is lively and engaging. Here’s a post where I talk about my experiences with Quizlet Live more.
3. Canvas – This is the LMS we use at my institution. It is the best one I’ve ever used, coming from having used Blackboard (still do, sometimes), Moodle, and WebCT in the past. I like how easy it is to integrate other tools inside of Canvas. For example, if I want to connect Quizlet with Canvas, that’s something I can do without having to possess admin rights in Canvas. There are a lot of conversations happening regarding who owns student data within Canvas right now that are outside the scope of this list of tools.
4. Canvas Studio – This service makes videos interactive, while still offering the “protection” that the walls of the LMS can provide. For example, if I want to add a YouTube video within studio, students can interact with me and with each other, without having to deal with all the messiness that online commenting invites. You can also upload your own videos and essentially have your own YouTube-like channel with videos you can use across the LMS (and beyond).
5. PowerPoint – As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been inspired for years by Nancy Duarte – especially her book Slideology. Another person who has made an impact on my design approaches most recently is Oliver Caviglioli.
6. Pinboard – having a place to store digital bookmarks is essential to me for keeping examples I use current in my classes and continually engaging with my personal knowledge management system (PKM). Here’s an example of all the bookmarks I have tagged (categorized) related to my technology and leadership doctoral class I teach as an adjunct a couple of times a year: EDD 703. I also keep track of things I want to share with the Teaching in Higher Ed community. Topics like ungrading that I continue to want to learn more about are saved on Pinboard, as well.
7. AcuityScheduling – I’ve written for EdSurge about how we can get people to join us for office hours. One approach is to make it super easy for students, using an automated scheduling tool like AcuityScheduling. I especially like it because I can use it for “regular” office hours, but it also integrates with Zoom and I can have people book online appointments using Acuity, too.
8. Zoom – speaking of Zoom – it is the absolute best online meeting service I have ever used. And I’ve been using them since the 1990s… It’s not even a close competition with the rest of these kinds of online conferencing tools.
9. Meeting Owl Pro – Integrating flawlessly with Zoom (plug and play) is the Meeting Owl Pro. It is a 360 degree, smart video conference camera that allows virtual guests to see everyone in the meeting room who is with you. And hear everyone in the room. The Meeting Owl Pro is definitely my best find of 2019.

Collaborating

I tend to mostly meet people where they are, when it comes to collaboration. Here are a few of the ways I collaborate on projects with others:

1. Microsoft Teams – I set up a Team for each major project and department I lead. We can track who has committed to what actions using Microsoft Planner (within Teams). Sharepoint lets us sync the files we share with our local computers. If I put a file in that folder on my computer, it automatically syncs it back over to SharePoint/Teams.
2. Dropbox Paper – This collaborative writing space is the best I have ever used. I can share a link to a Dropbox Paper file and others can collaborate – without needing to have a Dropbox or other account.
3. Google Docs – My monthly EdSurge Office Hours advice column gets edited using Google Docs, thanks to the wonderful Jeff Young.

Getting Stuff Done

I not only could write an entire book about this topic – I have. Consider pre-ordering your copy of The Productive Online and Offline Professor to learn more about how I set goals, manage my tasks and calendar, keep track of projects and items I have delegated, and how I avoid crashing and burning (by not having backups of my computer data, or having secure passwords).

Learning

I follow the practice of Personal Knowledge Mastery (PKM) in my commitment to lifelong learning. Harold Jarche is the person I’ve learned the most about PKM from… He was a guest on episode 213 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

Here are some posts where I share more about PKM:

1. My updated PKM system
2. Practicing curation
3. Cataloging course resources using PKM

Link: All of the podcast episodes on the topic of PKM

Communicating

I focus on enabling communication tools to work for me, instead of me working for them. That means I keep as few of notifications as I can (while still being accessible to our kids’ school, for example).

Email

1. SaneBox – This service helps me keep my email from taking up more time than it deserves. It works on Gmail, Office 365, iCloud, or any email address.
2. Mail – I use the regular mail client on my Mac.
3. I avoid using email as a task manager and commit to achieving inbox zero once a day. Learn more about my approach way back on Episode 56. Discover even more about email management in my forthcoming book.

More email advice from an email emergency I experienced (how to organize folders, etc.)

Other communication tools

1. Remind – An easy way to stay connected with my students, even when class isn’t in session. I can preschedule reminders about offsite visits, connect one-on-one with students – without sharing my personal cell number, and easily send photos, files, and other messages to an entire class.
2. Disconnecting from the attention economy – Episode with Mike Truong – Teaching in the digital age.
3. The kind of faculty to communicate with most often via my column on EdSurge.

I just finished reading Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. He recommends tangible practices we can use to help us get the most out of what digital tools have to offer, while leaving the rest behind. I highly recommend this book.

Your Turn

I would enjoy hearing what tools of the trade you are finding most essential these days…

 

Photo cred: Philip Swinburn on Unsplash

Recently, Katie Linder recommended on her blog that we answer 11 questions, which were inspired by Tim Ferris. They come from his book Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World*. Here are Katie’s answers to the 11 questions, which I found so fun to read.

My Answers to 11 Questions

I thought I would try to tackle the questions for this week’s blog.

What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?

The book I’ve given most as a gift is Richard N. Bolles’s What Color is Your Parachute?* The reason I find it to be a valuable gift is that it gives graduating seniors a structure to use to stay focused on job hunting. While they are in school, we tell them when papers are due and when the exams are scheduled.

As they look toward graduating, they often lack a system to carry them through the transition. It also helps them gain the most leverage with the time they spend in the various job-hunting activities. Spoiler alert – sending out unsolicited resumes won’t produce much fruit, as compared to relying on relationships.

The book that has influenced my leadership approach is Peter Block’s The Empowered Manager*. It also happens to be in second place for the book I have given as a gift most often. I view The Empowered Manager as an anecdote for burnout. Block proposes we have an inter-dependent relationship with our employers and transition from traditional hierarchical models.

I talk about this shift in my work life on Episode 208. I also share about it often on Dave’s (my husband’s) podcast: Coaching for Leaders.

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)? 

I purchased an annual subscription for the Full Focus Planner from Michael Hyatt*. I bought it prior to recommending it on Teaching in Higher Ed episode 290 and before Dave and I entered into an affiliate relationship sharing about the planners with our podcast communities.

One of the many practices recommended in the planner is to identify a big three for each day. What are the three things I will focus on completing, beyond everything else that comes up? This has seriously helped me focus, in addition to making sure I am realistic about what a day may entail. For example, when I teach (once a week for three hours) – that is entered as one of my big three. I try to keep the other two wins as smaller items since teaching really does take up a big part of my Mondays.

Here’s another thing I really like about the Full Focus Planner* (well, it is really four planners, since the subscription gets you one planner for each quarter of the year). It is made with care and is such high quality. It has two bookmarks that can be used to save places you want to access frequently. It has an elastic band to keep it closed when you’re not using it. Unlike every other planner, it stays wide open on my desk when I am using it, which I didn’t realize I would appreciate so much until I was able to contrast it to other planners I’ve used.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?

It is a story that I don’t like to talk about very much. The transition was such an awful time in my life. I was laid off after 11 years working for the same company. I had earned a steady-and-growing paycheck for more than a decade. Living with unpredictable streams of revenue was challenging for me (it still is).

The reason I decide to talk about it, despite it not always being my favorite story to tell, is that these seasons can bring about shifts in our lives that we eventually find to be even more suited to our strengths and passions. William Bridges wrote a book called Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes*, that is very good on this topic.

For those of you who have read it – let’s just say it was a ride of a lifetime in the neutral zone.

Bridges also has a wonderful leadership book on the topic of change called: Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change*. I have been revisiting it recently, after having been promoted to dean at my institution.

If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it — metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions — what would it say and why? It could be a few words or a paragraph. (If helpful, it can be someone else’s quote: Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?)

One message I would love to see get out to millions of people would have to do with worry. Dale Carnegie prescribed a method for this in his book: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living*.

It begins with a counter-intuitive step of imagining what the worst thing that could happen is… Once that beast has a name, it is easier to put it into perspective and begin to move to step two.

Next, we prepare to accept that worst thing. When I bought my first house, I was troubled by doing this alone. I thought you were supposed to be married when you made that kind of a purchase. My husband is glad I took the risk back then and also realized how empowering it can be to own your own property as a single person.

My Mom had me brainstorm what the worst thing that could happen if I took the plunge. The big fear was that I might lose my job and wind up needing to live with them for a few years, until I was back on my feet. I never wound up needing to do that, but it truly didn’t seem like such an awful outcome, all things being equal. Preparing to accept the worst allowed me to feel more confident in making the decision to purchase the home.

Finally, Carnegie recommends taking steps to avoid needing to accept that worst outcome. In my case, I could have an emergency fund, which would allow me to carry through difficult financial times, should they come along after committing to a 30-year mortgage.

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living* has a lot of other practical approaches we can use to put worry on the back burner. Even though it was written all those decades ago, Carnegie’s advice still rings true.

What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? (Could be an investment of money, time, energy, etc.)

I invested a lot of time and money in setting up a productivity system that I can trust.

By that, I mean that I know that things won’t fall through the cracks, unless I am aware of them and decide to renegotiate my commitments and focus on them at a later time.

If you are interested in my approach and the tools I use, consider pre-ordering my forthcoming book:

The Productive Online and Offline Professor*

What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?

I don’t think I have any unusual habits. One thing that amuses people is that I do enjoy the smell of manure. It reminds me of getting to go to horse camp as a young person.

I stayed for two weeks and was able to take care of “my own” horse during that time. I have such fond memories of those experiences and am reminded of them whenever I come across that scent.

They built some new houses near where we live that backed up to a horse ranch recently. We do not, by any means, live in a rural area, but there just happen to be some equestrian properties in the town we drive through often to take our kids to school.

I thought it would be so cool to get to take in that smell every day. Fortunately, more practical minds prevailed and we still live in the same place we did before. It was better for a whole host of reasons, not to mention that no one else that I know has that same fondness for manure smells.

In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?

One of the practices we have really had to hone these past five years around here is having a place for everything. With two kids, ages five and seven, there are always a lot of “things” coming and going. It seems like every weekend, there’s a kids’ birthday party, resulting in some kind of goody bag coming home.

My work generates a lot of paperwork and I strive to convert all of it to electronic form. Whenever I find things getting cluttered, it is almost always because whatever things are sitting out don’t have a place where they belong.

What advice would you give to a smart, driven college student about to enter the “real world”? What advice should they ignore?

I try to avoid using the phrase “real world” when talking to smart, driven college students. I used to say that, but found that it could come across as patronizing, as they tend to perceive that they already are living in the “real world” and for me to think otherwise is insulting.

In general, I find that many recent alums have challenges managing their time and their money upon graduation. Jane Bryant Quinn’s book on Making the Most of Your Money Now* is more than ten years old, but still contains the best advice I’ve ever received about money. As for managing their time, I recommend David Allen’s Getting Things Done*.

Advice they should ignore is to do something they love. Yes, find meaning in your work. But early in our careers, we can have unrealistic expectations about the first few years and what that experience will be like, that it can actually hold us back from experiencing authentic joy in our lives.

More on this can be found on episode 54 in my conversation with Jonathan Malesic (who is far more eloquent on this topic than I’ll ever be).

What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?

A lot of bad recommendations stem from not trusting students. When we focus our pedagogy and systems on catching people who might be cheating, or may not be working to their fullest extent or capabilities, we lose the greatest things teaching has to offer.

Here are some reflections on trusting our students on Hybrid Pedagogy by Amy Hasinoff.

In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? What new realizations and/or approaches helped? Any other tips?

My biggest advice on saying no is recognizing that with every no answer you give, you are freeing yourself up to say yes to something more directly related to your priorities, dreams, and sense of meaning.

Greg McKeown’s book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less*, provides lots of practical approaches to use in saying no. I don’t take it quite as far as what he recommends, but have heard his words echoing in my years for long enough to affirm what a difference reading his book made for me in my life.

I would also recommend reading some of Michael Hyatt’s posts on saying no, as they are quite helpful.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do? (If helpful: What questions do you ask yourself?)

I have an app I have been using over the last couple of months called Focus I use to block applications and websites that have the potential to distract me while I’m working. I set it for a certain amount of time (usually 50 minutes) and it redirects me, if my mind starts to wander and so do my mouse and keyboard.

I am also such a big fan of walks. My friend and colleague, Shannon, and I walk together on almost a daily basis. This time helps us have greater energy and focus when we return. Also, it is almost like having short meetings together, daily, to catch up on work stuff. We are in the same department and always have lots to talk about and strategize on.

Your Turn

If you wind up answering the 11 questions, I would love to see your post. Alternatively, feel free to share your answer to just one of the questions with me.

Photo cred: Evan Dennis on Unsplash

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