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

* denotes affiliate links

I have enjoyed seeing various members of the higher education community write about what has happened in their lives over the course of this last decade. I'm inspired to share some of what has transpired in my life these past ten years.

ACADEMIC PROMOTION. I received tenure early in the decade, as well as promotion to associate professor. As we near the end of this ten-year period, I'm applying for full professor. Those of us who submitted our portfolios won't find out until 2020 the results of our applications.

CHILDREN. After more seasons than I feel like counting, we finally were able to have our first child in 2012 – and then two years later, had a second. Our children are one of the absolute joys of my life.

PODCAST. In June of 2014, I started the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, thanks to a lot of nudging from Dave. Nothing has shaped my teaching more than these opportunities to speak to amazing educators from around the world.

LOSSES.  Three of my colleagues passed away from cancer during this period. I can still feel the weight of the grief ever-present in our community. Mary Wilson (librarian) introduced me to writers and thinkers who helped me be able to better integrate my politics with my religious beliefs. Sheri Benvenuti had such a powerful blend of humor, grace, and strength. Elizabeth Leonard had a tremendous capacity to find interdisciplinary ways to extend her research on women who had been incarcerated for defending themselves against abusive husbands. She wouldn't hold back in sharing her perspectives on things, but would transition the conversations back to action with her use of the word: nevertheless… Yes, these are the challenges we face, but nevertheless… Then, we would get back to the work.

CHANGE OF FOCUS. I took on an administrative faculty role a few years back: director of teaching excellence and digital pedagogy. Leadership at the time had wanted me to become the institution's director of online learning, but I wasn't interested in a role that targeted only one way of facilitating learning. However, when I shared a broader vision for what role I would like to play at the institution, they decided to change the focus.

PARTNERSHIP. Dave and I have had our relationship continued to grow and evolve. I love watching him as a parent and how well he cares for our kids. I also enjoy that even after almost 15 years of marriage, I still look forward to talking with him about things we're passionate about. Some of those conversations even get recorded on his podcast – Coaching for Leaders Q&A episodes.

SPEAKING. I started doing more keynote speaking and workshops in 2017. I'm thankful for each organization that has trusted me to come in and share stories and inspiration toward better teaching. I even drove through a snowstorm in Nebraska and learned that there are not-one-but-two convention centers in Miami.

WRITING. I also was paid for the first time to write something. EdSurge launched my monthly advice column in 2018. Toward Better Teaching: Office Hours with Bonni Stachowiak helps me connect what I've learned through hosting the podcast and in my own higher ed teaching these past 15 years with my goal of serving others and giving back. I'm also thankful for the opportunity to be guided through all of this by the ever-capable Jeffrey R. Young, senior editor at EdSurge.

PROMOTION. In August of 2019, I became the dean of teaching and learning at Vanguard University. I continue to lead our Institute for Faculty Development, but I am also overseeing the people who lead our library, student success initiatives, and academic resource center. We are just starting to dream together about possibilities, but I can say that there are great things in store as we work to serve our students and faculty even better than we do today.

BOOK. It looks like it probably isn't quite going to happen in this decade, but in early 2020, The Productive Online and Offline Professor will be released. The work that we do as professors is essential, yet there can often be the sense that there just isn't enough time to do all we want to accomplish. This book seeks to identify those areas where we can identify our priorities and focus on the most essential areas to focus on. I also share ways to save time on the seemingly small stuff, to give us greater freedom to be more fully present for our students and other people who are important to us.

Please consider pre-ordering your copy today, so it gets to you right away once it gets released early in the year.

---

Thanks for joining me in revisiting this past decade with me.

These past few months have brought some fun speaking engagements and presentation opportunities. Here are just a few links to resources from those talks that may be of interest to you:

• Leverage Social Media to Extend and Express Your Teaching and Learning Center's Values, Katie Linder + Bonni Stachowiak at the POD Annual Conference
• Igniting Our Collective Imagination at Sam Houston State University's Teaching and Learning Conference
• Productive Productivity at Sam Houston State University's Teaching and Learning Conference

If any of you have tweeted, blogged, or otherwise shared about what has transpired for you over the last decade, I would love to read your reflections.

 

If you have been listening to the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast over the last few months, you have heard me talk about TextExpander (available both on the Mac and Windows). This application is one of the first programs I ever install on a new computer because it is so essential to me getting work done.

However, talking to you about TextExpander isn’t quite as powerful as getting to show it in action. That’s what I’ll do in this post. I have created three, short demos that let you peek behind the curtain to see how I use TextExpander.

You Can Still Keep a Personal Touch

Before I get to that, however, I did want to mention that my goal in saving time with TextExpander isn’t to lose the personal touch that comes from authentically-written prose. Instead, my approach is to consider that whatever time I can save through the automation that TextExpander affords me means that either I can give that much more of a personal approach as I customize boilerplate text, or that I have additional time to be able to reply to more people.

When someone comes on the podcast as a guest, I do use TextExpander to help me curate a message of gratitude to the person. There are a few basic pieces of information I always send:

• A link to the episode’s show notes
• Information about where the podcast is distributed (Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, etc.)
• A link to the quote graphics from the episode

By automating that part of the email, I can spend more time letting them know the kind of response I have been getting about their episode on social media or some of my own personal reflections about our conversation.

When someone gets in touch with me asking about how to join the Teaching in Higher Ed Slack group, by having a “canned” response, I am able to get back to more people who have questions or suggestions.

Demos

Below are three demos that show TextExpander in action.

Demo: Part 1

In this demo, I show TextExpander in action as I create new show notes for an episode. The example I show uses fill-in snippets, where I can customize the text before it gets entered. TextExpander has a video showing how easy fill-in snippets are to create.

Demo: Part 2

In this demo, I give even more examples of TextExpander in action.

Demo: Part 3

In this final demo, I show how to add new snippets to TextExpander and how easy it is to make it work for you.

Purchase TextExpander

Get 20% off your first year of TextExpander and a 30 day free trial (select Teaching in Higher Ed from the dropdown menu os where did you hear about TextExpander?)

Other TextExpander Resources

I’ve only skimmed the surface here, as there are so many ways that TextExpander can save us time and improve our workflows. The more I learn about TextExpander, the more time it saves me (and lets me know with periodic reports on my TextExpander stats).

Below are some links to articles that extend the benefits of TextExpander in higher education.

• An Introduction to Text Expansion, by Hanna Peacock on Inside Higher Ed
• TextExpander video: Introduction to TextExpander
• TextExpander video: TextExpander on Windows
• Download existing collections of TextExpander snippets
• TextExpander video: Sharing snippets
• Jason Jones shares his uses of TextExpander on The Chronicle’s ProfHacker
• Using Text Expansion Software in Your Workflow by Jason Heppler on Inside Higher Ed
• Ryan Cordell shares his uses of TextExpander on The Chronicles ProfHacker
• I share about TextExpander and other tools that contribute to Frictionless Systems
• The Sweet Setup shares TextExpander as one of the “Apps We Love”

This post is a sponsored post. I am grateful to TextExpander for helping to support the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. However, I have been sharing about the benefits of using TextExpander on the podcast and in the blog long before they provided any financial support.

About a year ago, I recorded an episode of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast that I titled:

When Things Will Just Have to Do (Episode 145)

Similar themes are recurring this year, though I suppose in nowhere near as drastic of a case. I have been dealing with frustrating health challenges (dental work, anyone?), but ones that aren't likely to have any life-altering consequences. Still, my already-packed life resists being “forced” to tap into flexibility. Here are the ways I am attempting to navigate these challenges.

Get Perspective

I feel guilty writing about my dental woes, especially after finishing Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved, by Kate Bowler. The author teaches at Duke's Divinity School and researches what is known as the prosperity gospel. She shares the story of her stage IV colon cancer diagnosis and how it impacted her friendships and faith. This book had me laughing and crying from page to page.

Play Music

I have been enjoying exploring NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concert series on YouTube. I am a bit late to the party, but I think the gig is that they all play a concert surrounding a desk somehow. I started thinking it was the desks that were small (they don't seem to be), but I think it is the concerts that are supposed to be small. You can hear The Roots singing Ain't it Fair, Wyclef Jean singing Borrowed Time, and a favorite of mine – Jamila Woods singing Black Girl Soldier and Holy.

Take Stock

My weekly reviews and current projects list have been vital to not having too much fall through the cracks (at least without me knowing about it, in advance and making a conscious decision to let something slip). I write more about the tools I use in my weekly reviews on a post about managing during a stressful season from 2017. In that post, I also link to many of Robert Talbert's blogs about GTD (based on David Allen's book: Getting Things Done).

Celebrate Progress

Another tool I am grateful to be able to leverage is my “trimesterly” goals (based on Robert Talbert's Trimesterly Review process). Instead of being discouraged that I am not as productive as I prefer to be, I can look back at a longer duration and recognize that a lot more has happened than I realize. It is easy to get caught up on a single week's progress, instead of viewing achievement using a broader lens.

Let it Go

Our daughter would be disappointed if I didn't include the name of her absolute favorite song here. I have been in some pain, lately. When my body has had enough, it is showing up in my not being able to concentrate as long as I usually can. When that happens, I tell myself to let it go and to switch gears to something not as mentally taxing. Here are a few items I found on some of these less-structured browsing sessions:

1. Five Ways to Use PowerPoint to Edit Images
2. A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age
3. 4 Questions to Help You Start a Successful Blog
4. Anchor Turns Itself into a One-Stop Podcast Creation App

After a conversation about the recent Parkland shooting in one of my classes, a student shared this video entitled “Evan,” a gun violence video that is impossible to say much about without ruining it.

Your Turn

What advice do you have for those times when stuff happens? 

This past week, I have been experiencing what can best be described as an email emergency. Somehow, all my email folders got erased and I went through processing what life would be like to lose all the emails I had ever been sent using one of my two primary email addresses.

The mostly happy news is that it looks like I am going to emerge out of this with my emails in place. However, I won’t be able to get the multitudes of hours back into my life that I have spent on this project.

Less is More – When it Comes to Email Folders

I had over 35 different folders and subfolders in my email storage structure. As I worked on moving my emails over from the backups, I decided not to replicate the same structure this time around. Instead, I kept it as lean as possible, knowing that search has come such a long way and I’m likely to be able to find what I need from that method of retrieval.

My folder hierarchy is now as follows:

• Archive
• Encouragement
• Family
• Humor
• Innovate Learning
• Personal
• Purchases
• Reference
• Vanguard

There are some people who recommend not having any folders at all, except for archive. If you use an email app on your smartphone, you can likely swipe to one side and automatically send an email right into the archive folder. You can search by sender, receiver, subject line, or even in the contents of the emails, in most email clients.

I think I will probably trim down the number of folders I have in my teaching/work email, too. I like to have a folder for the current semester, in order to zero in on student emails that have come in related to classes. After a semester ends, I move all emails over to the archive folder.

I have a folder directly related to my role of Director of Teaching Excellence and Digital Pedagogy – for those times when I need to get a sense of what I have been focused on in recent weeks. But many of my other folders are excessive and I have far too many subfolders.

When I finish my work-related email clean up, it will look something like this:

• Archive
• 1-teaching-excellence-and-digital-pedagogy
• 2018s
• Departments
• Encouragement
• Personal
• Research

I can feel myself resisting this change, even as I type it up. Since I was “forced” to in dealing with my email emergency on my personal account, it made it easier to “rip the band-aid off” in that case. I can now see how much more streamlined things are going to be, so hopefully I can remember that when I get to making the change on my work account.

Backups are Essential

Dave and I use a service called FastMail for our Innovate Learning emails. We pay extra for backups – and this past week’s adventures are a testament to why. If I hadn’t had a backup plan with them, I would have lost most of my emails from many years of email use.

Their response time has been less-than-ideal regarding my email emergency. However, the backups of my emails were well worth the money we paid and somewhat worked as expected.

Sanebox is a Game Changer

Another service I have had to live without, as I get this all sorted out, is SaneBox. It sorts through my emails and leaves only the most essential ones in my primary inbox. I have been lost without it. You can receive a free SaneBox trial if you want to experience the sanity that only SaneBox can deliver.

Email Clients are Not Task Managers

The biggest change in how I have needed to work this past week, while all this gets sorted out, involves leaving emails in my inbox for longer than normal. I typically keep with a “touch it once” approach to email. When I first look at an email, I read it for “action” – is there anything that requires action buried somewhere within this message?

If the answer is yes, and it only is going to take me two minutes or less to perform that action, I take care of it right then. If it will take more than two minutes, the email is sent over to my task manager (OmniFocus) and can then be prioritized amongst all the other things I have on my plate.

When we don’t do this, we allow others to dictate to us what our priorities should be, instead of allowing their requests to be considered in the context of the other things that are important to accomplish.

Speaking of task managers, The Sweet Set up just did a nice write up of their favorite task managers, along with recommending Things3 as their top pick.

Next Steps

I have recorded an episode of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast that describes my process for managing email in detail.

• Getting to zero inbox

Other episodes related to productivity include:

• Get More Meaningful Work Done
• Teaching in the Digital Age
• Strength Through Habits
• Get It Together
• The power of checklists
• The weekly review
• Approaches to calendar management in higher ed
• What to do before you act on all you've captured
• Practical productivity in academia
• Lower your stress with a better approach to capture

Preorder The Productive Online Professor

I’m excited to announce that preorders for my new book: The Productive Online Professor are available now. The book discusses even more methods for managing email more productively, along with plenty of other topics to help us have more peace in our lives, so we can be even more present for our students. Please consider pre-ordering a copy to support the launch of the book, not to mention your own potential productivity boost.

This past week, I began emerging from a bout with the flu. Even though I still have a bit of a cough and a runny nose, it has felt delightful just to be out of bed and returning to some sort of normalcy.

Frictionless Systems

One thing I was grateful for during this season was the productivity systems I have in place. I was able to determine what I had fallen behind on and how to make adaptations to priorities I had been unable to focus on.

Weekly Reviews

I have written and podcasted before about the importance of weekly reviews in the past.

• The weekly review
• When Things Will Just Have to Do – Teaching in Higher Ed
• How to manage during a stressful season in higher education
• Get More Meaningful Work Done – Teaching in Higher Ed
• Sticking with Getting Things Done (GTD) – Teaching in Higher Ed
• Getting things done gets redone

Each time I complete a weekly review, I come out of it with less stress and more of a sense of the most important things to focus on during a given week.

TextExpander (Windows, Mac, iOS)

I officially recommended TextExpander on episode 114, but have mentioned it many times in past shows and blog posts. TextExpander lets us save time by “quickly inserting snippets – email addresses, signatures, code chunks, form letters images – as you type, using a simple keyboard shortcut, or custom abbreviations. Save time without typos and copy/paste.”

I recently learned how to have TextExpander type something into the subject line of an email and enter the rest of some text into the body of an email. TextExpander also has room for customization of each “snippet.”

When I have a podcast guest scheduled, I send them a couple of emails about being on the show. This process is made much simpler with TextExpander. Each episode’s show notes are also produced that much faster using TextExpander snippets.

Ulysses (Mac/iOS)

My blog posts and podcast show notes all start in this brilliant text editing application. From their website:

A pleasant, focused writing experience combined with effective document management, fast syncing and flexible export make Ulysses the first choice for writers of all kinds.”

Sanebox (Gmail/Google, Apple iCloud, Outlook.com, Office 365, Yahoo, and many more)

Their promotional text reads: “Today is the day you take back control of your inbox.” They aren’t kidding you. I can’t imagine going back to life without SaneBox.

We prioritize your Inbox and let you know if an email didn't receive a reply.

We can also sort your Inbox, keep track of reminders and snoozed emails, rescue real email from your spam folder, upload attachments to your cloud, and more…”

Airmail (Mac, iOS)

I have found Airmail to be a wonderful way to get through email quickly. My favorite feature is the keyboard shortcuts that are available. I hardly ever have to use my trackpad when I’m moving emails into folders and processing incoming mail.

Fantastical (Mac, iOS)

I use Fantastical primarily on my Mac, though they do have an iOS app, as well. The main feature that people love about Fantastical is the ability to “use natural language to quickly create events and reminders.”

I find that I make more use of the ability to have different collections of calendars to switch between. Sometimes, I might just want to see our family members’ respective calendars and not pay attention to my work calendar at all. In other instances, I may only want to see my work and personal calendars and leave Dave’s and the kids’ calendars out of the picture.

Here’s how they describe this feature (calendar sets) on their website:

Fantastical 2 lets you quickly toggle multiple calendars on or off with a single click, so you can focus on what's more important in that moment. The days of going back and forth, clicking multiple times, just to hide and show your calendars are over.

But we didn't stop there. You can even automatically switch Calendar Sets based on your location (i.e. Work and Home). How cool is that?”

Paprika (Windows, Android, Kindle, iOS, Mac)

As some of you might have heard me talk about, I recently joined the club of those who are obsessed with the Instant Pot. It has me cooking a lot more often and taking advantage of my recipe app regularly.

Paprika “is an app that helps you organize your recipes, make meal plans, and create grocery lists. Using Paprika's built-in browser, you can save recipes from anywhere on the web.

Want to access your recipes on your phone or tablet? Our free cloud sync service allows you to seamlessly sync your data across all of your devices.”

You can also more easily adjust the ingredients you will need, based on different desired serving sizes. You definitely can’t do that quick of a set of calculations with a cookbook, or a recipe you found on Pinterest.

When Paprika says “you can easily save recipes” on the web, it means it. You copy a link over to Paprika and it extracts the needed data from the website and adds it into all the various fields (cooking time, ingredients, instructions, etc.).

Your Turn

What apps and services are you finding are helping you create a more frictionless experience?

Thanks to everyone who replies to my calls for entertainment help on Twitter while I was sick. Let’s just say I have been watching more than my fair share of this one and this one in recent weeks.

I also am so appreciate of Nicholas Cifuentes-Goodbody who helped me on his new Research Hacking Slack channel to troubleshoot a TextExpander / Ulysses workflow issue I was having.

I received the following question from a listener and had more than a quick response…

I’m coming back to teaching after a semester off, and even though I’m teaching courses I’ve done before, just finding all the right documents is a challenge.

I have to check the LMS, supporting websites, my lesson plans, my post-class reflections, the syllabus, assignment documents, and potential readings in Evernote, just to figure out where I need to update dates and materials.

I inevitably make mistakes or have things out of sync. I’ve made life harder on myself by adopting different tools over the years. Are there models for managing everything, and for building courses in more modular ways, so I don’t feel like I’m always rebuilding them each semester.”

– Teaching in Higher Ed Listener

I have done this the hard way and I have done this the easy way.

The hard way, as you describe, winds up being a hodgepodge of information. I can sometimes navigate around my own “systems,” but if I ever want to share with another colleague, they often can’t make heads or tails of what I have done when teaching a class.

The easy way sometimes takes a bit more thought from the start, but pays off in spades over many years… Here is my advice on how to stay organized.

Think in Terms of Course Assets

In my 15 years of teaching in higher ed, I have gone through many-a-learning management system (LMS). That has made me tend to want to consider my computer’s data (or, in my case, the stuff I save on my preferred cloud service – Dropbox) as the primary assets for all my courses.

Then, I think of just linking to these assets from the LMS. Then, when things inevitably change, the LMS files don’t need to be updated. Since the LMS only links to the files, when the files change on my computer – anyone accessing them from the LMS from that point forward always has the latest version.

Having a mindset of course assets also helps when the duration of a course changes, as can sometimes happen at my institution. Colleagues who have to modify a 15-week course to an 8-week course have a lot easier time, if they are looking at it through a lens of re-arranging a series of course assets instead of completely reinventing the wheel.

Syllabus Example

A basic example of a course asset involves how I handle syllabi. Instead of uploading each semester’s syllabi on the LMS, I have links that go to a PDF file that is always the most current syllabus for a given course.

I explain this practice on a blog post and short video from 2013 – and am still using this approach today. This technique means that when a former student emails me to ask for a syllabus from the Spring of 2014, I can easily send the exact syllabus that I used on a specific semester, but when I copy a course shell over on our LMS into a new semester, I never have to spend time updating the syllabus file for that semester in the LMS.

PowerPoint Example

When a colleague was going to be teaching Consumer Behavior this semester and wanted to know if he could use my PowerPoint slides, I happily sent him a single link to my Dropbox folder that contains all the PPTs. To produce that link, I only had to right-click on that folder on my computer and choose copy-dropbox-link. I don’t have to go to the web or otherwise be logged into Dropbox. That option of right-clicking is always available for sharing.

I will often use the same approach for students. Depending on the class, I will either have all the PowerPoints linked to in one folder, as described in the last paragraph, or I will individually link to specific PowerPoints.

In our LMS (Canvas), I create calendar items for each of our class meeting times. There’s an option to create repeating calendar items in Canvas. Once I create all the repeating calendar items with our class meeting times, I can then go in and customize each class meeting time.

Here’s an example of a portion of the first night's schedule of this semester’s Business Ethics class in the Canvas calendar.

I can link to PPTs, or handouts, or other course assets, using this right-click Dropbox feature.

Other cloud-based services like Office 365 – OneDrive have the option to link to files and folders, but they don’t always make it as easy as Dropbox has for me.

Digital Notebook Example

Many of us also make use of some kind of a digital notebook in our teaching. Scott Self was on episode 48 and really got me thinking about how to use Evernote (but the same is true for Google Keep (which Robert Talbert is a fan of), OneNote, Bear (which Doug McKee recently raved about on Twitter), etc.) in my teaching.

Scott Self really turns Evernote into his LMS, using the actual LMS primarily for linking to Evernote and then for grading. I haven’t gone that far, but do sometimes wonder if it isn’t better than my structure.

I do use Evernote for assignment instructions often, however. Especially when I am teaching a class for the first time, or doing a significant rewrite to a class, I wind up having a lot to think about in terms of assignments. Having the instructions for an assignment in Evernote means I can keep tweaking them, without always having to login to the LMS and changing them there. Inside the assignment description on the LMS, I link over to the Evernote note that has the assignment instructions in it.

Keep Folder Structures Organized

The other approach I take that has really helped me is staying consistent with my folder structure and file name conventions. I share about this technique in the post: Keep Course Files Organized.

Simplify Your Tools

As you mentioned in your question, it is also good practice to minimize the number of educational technology tools that we have in our rotation. While that is better for students, it is also a way that we can somewhat minimize the number of possible places that our course content might reside.

I suspect this is somewhat of a relative thing, though. My idea of keeping it simple may prove to be way too many possibilities for others.

The services that I have been using quite often include:

• Quizlet – Flashcards service that is a perfect way to do some retrieval practice
• FlipGrid – Video service – the edtech world's answer to everything that's wrong with traditional discussion boards
• Remind – For when I really need to quickly text everyone in my class, but don't necessarily want them replying to everyone, or having my cell number
• Glisser – Mostly use for keynote talks, not as much in class. Wonderful polling service and then some.
• PollEverywhere – Free account has a max of 40, so I only use in classes under 40. Terrific for peer instruction.
• Kahoot – Mostly use for large faculty development events, not as much in class. Playful, game show format.

Avoid Mentioning Specific Dates

Whenever possible, avoid mentioning specific dates within the LMS. This may be obvious to most of you, but I encounter enough faculty who will create a quiz, for example, and have in the name or description of the quiz that it is due on November 1. The next time they go to teach the class, they have to rename their quizzes and wherever else they mentioned dates or times in the class.

The two LMS that I use with any regularity (Canvas and Blackboard) both have options for adjusting course dates to fit a new time period. When the new semester comes around, when importing the old course, you have the option to have all due dates adjusted, relatively. If something happened during week 2 of the class, it will adjust to week 2 of the new semester. It is well worth exploring this option with whoever helps you learn your LMS, as it really saves a bunch of time.

Your Turn

What advice do you have for keeping all the “stuff” for our courses more organized?

Our university is embarking on a prioritization initiative, based off of Dickeson’s (2010) Prioritizing Academic Programs and Services: Reallocating Resources to Achieve Strategic Balance. For those who have not participated in an undertaking like this, to say it is time-intensive would be an understatement…

I have been asked to be a part of the team that evaluates the administrative programs and services. While I will confess to being a bit disappointed to see some of the priorities I have been working on be put on the back burner for a season, I am pleased to be collaborating with such a competent and dedicated group of people.

Importance of a Current Projects List

As we begin this process, I am more thankful than usual that I have a continually updated list of projects that I am working on. In Getting Things Done (2015), Allen considers a project anything that takes more than one action to bring about a desired outcome.

Here are just a few of the reasons I have found that a current projects list can be useful:

• An unexpected commitment (like my recent involvement with the prioritization initiative at my institution) can be viewed in context with other projects
• When formulating goals, projects can be used as a starting point for reflecting on desired outcomes (Robert Talbert’s post on The Trimesterly Review is worth referencing regarding goal setting, as well)
• The weekly review can be enhanced by having a current list of projects, or even to nudge us in realizing that our list is out of date (Reference Robert Talbert’s post on planning)
• Each project can be brought that much closer to reaching the desired outcome by reflecting on what the next action is to get it to that point

It really makes a tremendous different to have a list of projects that is always being worked on to remain current.

Structure of the Current Projects List

I use a Mac app called OmniFocus for my project and task management. It is a good tool for those people who really want to dig into the possibilities for what a task manager can do, but not for those who do not enjoy that kind of exploration.

As you will see from my current projects list, I have two types of lists I keep:

Admin lists (1): Those tasks that only have one step to complete and are associated with the various roles I play in my life (mother, professor, Director of Teaching Excellence and Digital Pedagogy, etc.)

An example of a task I would put on my family-admin (2) task list would be to set a doctor’s appointment for our daughter. Please pause for a moment while my husband laughs out loud, since he is unable to remember a time when I have ever done that. Let’s just say he is the one who typically makes appointments like that for our kids, but I was working on an easy example of what goes on admin lists.

Project lists (3): Anything that requires more than one step to complete ideally becomes a project.

My family member with dementia now needs to be transitioned over to a new facility, since she has faced a significant health decline this past month. At first, I needed to make contact with the placement person who helped us the last time around went in my Family-admin (2) list. However, as I realized that we would need to (at a bare minimum):

• Contact the placement person
• Receive recommendations of possible facilities
• Schedule tours of facilities
• Decide on a place and put down a deposit
• Give 30 days notice at the current facility
• Pack her things
• Arrange for disposal or donation of items not moving to the new place

You get the idea (and now, so do I, since I had not yet started to write some of this stuff down). All of those tasks being listed under the general Family-admin (2) list would have started to get bogged down in there, mixed in with a bunch of other unrelated tasks.

OmniFocus does allow me to assign contexts to each task, so that all the calls that I need to make come up in a single list, even if they are otherwise unrelated. If I went to my @phone context, it shows me every task that can only be completed if I have a phone with me and am in a place where I can use it.

Projects can also be deferred (put off) until a future date in OmniFocus. The list of projects you see in the image are not reflective of all the projects I have identified. In fact, I know that with the addition of the prioritization work to my responsibilities, I need to go in and refine my current list of projects to have them represent ones I can realistically move forward in some way in the next 3-4 months.

Tips for Making a Current Projects List Most Useful

When creating a list of current projects, it can be helpful to structure them in such a way as to be able to quickly discern the kind of list being referenced and the desired outcome.

To that end, the following are tips for making your current projects list most useful:

• Name [admin lists] (single item tasks) (4) with square brackets, in order to quickly distinguish them from multi-step projects.
• Start all other project names with the verb that best describe your desired outcome for that item.

I have a project called Rollout: arc media (5). Once arc media is introduced to our faculty, they have had training on it, and we have transitioned over to regular maintenance and help desk support, we will have successfully rolled it out and this project will be marked complete.

Recruit: More faculty to use Canvas (6) – is a project that aims to have 95% of our faculty using Canvas in their classes. Once we achieve that aim, the project will be checked off.

• Keep projects on the list until every task associated with them has reached completion.

I recently attended the Digital Media and Learning (DML) (7) and OpenEd2017 (8) conferences. While the “attending” part of the project is over (which was my main goal for the project), I am still waiting to be reimbursed for the registration fees and other expenses. Once I receive those checks, each of these projects will be considered done.

• Include dates for items that have firm completion dates in parenthesis.

I did quite a bit of keynote speaking and workshop facilitation this Fall. Some of the events have already been marked as complete and do not show up on this current list of projects. As I was preparing for the talks and otherwise engaging with collaborators, it started to get really confusing as to when different conferences were taking place.

While the events were entered in my calendar, I then had to switch over to my calendar each time I was looking at dates for each of the tasks associated with these events. It made it much easier once I included all the dates in with the conferences and rearranged them in chronological order.

Get Started

If you do not have a current list of projects, but would like to experience some of the benefits described above, just start. Spend some time getting a list of projects together that you are aware of and reference it regularly over the next week or two, as you discover more multi-step projects that you are responsible for. Reflect on what the end goal is for each of the projects and name them using a verb that represents that desired outcome.

Your Turn

How do you manage your projects and tasks? What tools do you find most useful in these endeavors?

We finished our Spring semester a little over a week ago.  Graduation came and went… We had our final, full faculty meeting of the academic year. Grades were submitted.

Summer is Here (Sort of)

My mind and body haven't made the shift over to summertime yet. Part of that is because I still have some work-related commitments to attend to… An academic retreat, some departmental hiring decisions meetings, and participation in a visit from an external reviewer.

Part of my not being entirely sure what season I'm in is because it can be difficult to shift into an entirely new way of working.

I'm writing a book this summer. My time is being steered by Pacemaker, a writing word-count web service, as well as a time tracker called Timing that watches what I do on the computer (and even when I leave the computer's side) and asks me to account for that time. But, I haven't quite gotten in a groove yet that has me at my most productive. I find myself looking at clutter that didn't bother me during the academic year, but has me convinced that I ought to overhaul our pantry, or perhaps re-organize my entire home office.

By no means am I complaining. I find such joy in teaching and am already missing the pace of the semester. Sometimes.

After bawling through John Warner's post on his “Last” Class in The Chronicle, I was all that much more aware of the joy that I find in having a tenured position at a university. It wasn't like John just gave up all of the sudden, but has chronicled his difficulties in the past. It was strange to experience that kind of sadness over someone whose class I never sat in, or ever even met.

Another recent post that brought me to tears was Sean Michael Morris' writing about what his Dad taught him about teaching. He writes:

To teach, we must believe in the potential of each person in the room. Unwaveringly. This is not to say we don’t get to have our bad days, our off days, the days when we really can’t stand to talk to another student or plan another lesson. But it does mean that we teach for a reason, and that reason lies in what lies in the heart of a student. What lay in our hearts when we were students. Hope despair melancholy desire passion hunger confusion. All the things it takes to learn to walk. All the things it takes to learn to do anything. All the things it takes to live in Los Angeles, or to love someone who is hard to love.” – Sean Michael Morris

I started reading Stephen Brookfield's book: Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. Brookfield asserts that if we commit ourselves to critical reflection, we will receive the following benefits:

• Align your teaching with desired student outcomes
• See your practice from new perspectives
• Engage learners via multiple teaching formats
• Understand and manage classroom power dynamics
• Model critical thinking for your students
• Manage the complex rhythms of diverse classrooms

It wouldn't be a book that I would recommend as a starting point for someone in their first year or two of teaching. However, after 14 years of teaching, and me having read only 20% of the book, I'm already being challenged in important ways.

The other trouble with summer is that there's always so much I want to do that it is easy to become stuck in the thinking of the possibilities phase. I'm still contemplating if I'll open an account on Patreon to try to find supporters of the podcast to cover some of the associated expenses for producing the show (web and podcast hosting, editing and production costs).

There have also been inquiries about transcripts over the years. If I could get enough supporters to cover some of the foundational costs of the podcast, it would be a good time to start including transcripts with each episode. That would only be if there was an expressed need for them that was compelling enough that people would want to give, financially, to support that effort.

I experimented this week with an automated transcription service called Trint that was promising. Here's what the episode #150 text output looks like, after exporting the basic transcript.

The transcripts can also be produced as something richer than plain text. I then used Camtasia to add a graphic of the logo, along with the audio file, together into a single .MP4 file and uploaded it to YouTube. Trint allows you to export a transcript in what is called .SRT format, which is one of the ways to import closed captioning into YouTube. If you view episode #150 on YouTube and click the button to view the CC (closed captioning), you'll see the transcript is included there, and has the correct timing settings without me having to do anything. It was pretty remarkable.

What are your plans for summer, or do you even get to take a break at all during this season?

As a small step, consider taking advantage of this free online subscription to the Washington Post (for those with .edu email addresses). Or, think through some aspects of your digital literacy, using this post from Catherine Cronin. If all that sounds like too much, maybe you just want to do some coloring in Julie Schumacher's Doodling for Academics?

As I share about in episode #145 (which airs on March 23, 2017), things have been more than a little hectic for me in recent weeks.

We're having a bit of a crisis with a family member who is experiencing cognitive decline. I've had some changes at work, but am still committed to my current teaching load for the remainder of the semester. And I've got a new writing opportunity that I'm plugging along on…

In this post, I'll share some tools that are helping me manage during a stressful season.

Reviews

This past Monday, I was having a really tough go of it. One of the people who cares for our children during the week had been unable to come for a couple of days during the prior week, because she was sick. I was unable to play catch up over the weekend, because of needing to attend to some urgent matters with the family member who is having mental health challenges. I arrived at work and felt all the stress of being so far behind on everything.

Initially, I made the mistake of opening my email (like it wasn't bad enough with all the stuff in my mind that I knew needed doing). 40-some odd emails flowed into my inbox and I started scanning the subject lines. My caffeine hit from the iced tea hadn't hit quite yet and I started feeling a bad combination of drowsiness and dread.

Then, I suddenly felt some sense coming to me. I quickly closed my email and opened up my task manger (OmniFocus). In it, I have a prescription of all the things I do each week to review where I stand. David Allen in Getting Things Done calls this the Weekly Review.

• Read Robert Talbert's post on The Chronicle of Higher Ed on his weekly review process
• Listen to me describe my weekly review process on Teaching in Higher Ed Episode #64
• Listen to Robert Talbert and I discuss the weekly review and provide an overview of Getting Things Done on episode #120
• Read Robert Talbert's post on GTD for Academics: Planning

I felt entirely different, once I had completed my weekly review. There was still a lot to do, I knew, but I was able to discern what most needed my attention that morning and what could wait until later in the day. I was able to capture all the worry I had in my head and translate it into actionable steps that could be attended to at the right time. The weekly review came through for me, once again, and I was ready to teach my class that morning with greater focus and sense of purpose.

Progress Trackers

Since we had missed two days of child care during a week that was supposed to be fairly writing-intensive for me (it was Spring break at our institution), I was behind on my writing project. Thanks to a new tool I had found called Pacemaker, I was able to regroup this week and modify my writing plan to accommodate those missed days.

As you read this post, you can see where I am in meeting my writing goals.

It's a flexible tool, which I've grown to appreciate. I have experienced so many regular reminders of just how many unexpected events can occur in our lives, after we have made the best laid plans. I have Pacemaker configured to avoid having me write on the weekend, to write more words on my non-teaching days, and to keep up a steady pace until I achieve my final word count destination in the summer.

Another tracker I've been enjoying is the Productive app, which I recommended on episode #139 with Stephanie Lancaster. I still only have one habit that I'm tracking: stretching. But, the daily reminder to take some time to stretch has been incredibly helpful in managing my stress levels.

Updates

One positive thing that happened during the last couple of weeks is that my new role was announced at my institution. I'll be serving as our Director of Teaching Excellence and Digital Pedagogy, another topic I share more about on episode #145. It felt good to have concluded the process of recommending the modified role (the job description for the position did not initially have a focus on teaching excellence, but I made a case for coupling that function with the emphasis on technology), being interviewed by a search committee, and negotiating some aspects of the position.

I'm also looking forward to celebrating 150 episodes of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast in April. Please consider being a part of episode #150, which will be made up entirely of recommendations from the Teaching in Higher Ed community.

• You can leave a message via this webpage from your computer, or record your own audio recording and send it to me. Your message might sound something like, “Congratulations on 150 episodes, Bonni. I'm recommending ___ today, which I think will help people ______.”

If you've been listening to the show for a while, now, you'll know that these recommendations can be anything. Books, music, movies, slow cookers, technology, or even just a general recommendation about life.

Final Thoughts

As I reflect on this stressful season, two final thoughts come to mind.

First, when things inevitably go wrong, we can decide to fix them, or decide that it just isn't worth it to invest the time. I discovered that last week's email newsletter went out with a boatload of broken links. I was going to resend the email, but didn't want to fill people's inboxes with an additional email.

• Please consider taking another look at last week's post: Podcast greats for 2017 (this time, with working links)

Finally, when things inevitably go wrong, we can decide to make the best of it. In the case of our kids' care giver calling in sick, I decided that it must be a sign that we were supposed to head to LEGOLAND that day. Instead of spending my entire Spring break trying to play catch up, “life” decided that we were going to get some unplanned adventures out of the whole deal. As you can hopefully tell, we all enjoyed this change of plans.