I am Meira Kensky, and This is How I Work

Today, I have the pleasure of inviting Dr. Meira Kensky for the "How I Work" series. Meira Z. Kensky is currently the Joseph E. McCabe Associate Professor of Religion at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA. Kensky received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Biblical Studies (New Testament) from the University of Chicago. Her first book, Trying Man, Trying God: The Divine Courtroom in Early Jewish and Christian Literature, was published by Mohr Siebeck in 2010, and was the inspiration for a conference on “The Divine Courtroom in Comparative Perspective” at Cordozo School of Law in New York. Currently, she is working on her second book for Mohr Siebeck, an examination of the figure of Timothy in Early Christian literature. Recent publications include articles on Romans 9-11, Tertullian of Carthage’s Apologeticum, and the figure of Timothy in the Pauline and post-Pauline epistles. Kensky has lectured widely around the Chicago and Cedar Rapids areas, and gave the 29th Annual Stone Lectureship in Judaism at Augustana College, IL and the Winter 2016 Dean’s Craft of Teaching Seminar at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She was the recipient of Coe College’s C. J. Lynch Outstanding Teacher Award in 2013. She currently serves as Coe College’s Director of First-Year Experience. In Fall 2018 she is in residence as a teaching fellow at the Newberry Library in Chicago as the co-director of the Associated College of the Midwest’s Newberry Seminar in the Humanities.

General:
Current Job: Joseph E. McCabe Associate Professor of Religion, Coe College
Current Location: Iowa City, IA
Current mobile device: iphone 6
Current computer: some sort of HP laptop

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
This fall I’m on leave from my regular job at my SLAC to teach the Associated Colleges of the Midwest’s Seminar in the Humanities at the Newberry Library in Chicago. I’m coming off of a one-semester sabbatical, where I have been working on my current project, a monograph on the figure of Timothy in Early Christian Literature. I’ve been working on this monograph for a while. During my sabbatical, I worked on two chapters, finishing the bulk of writing for a chapter on the figure of Timothy in John Chrysostom’s Homilies on 1 and 2 Timothy, which I’ll present at a conference in November, and a chapter on Timothy and the Death of Paul in the New Testament.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
My laptop, obviously, and internet connection. I don’t like to have a ton of books around me when I write, so I check references online as often as possible, and I always have an online Greek lexicon open. Other than that I don’t use a lot of apps or programs other than Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat.

I tried Zotero and hated it; I’d honestly rather type in my citations by hand one at a time. I find writing footnotes soothing.

In terms of internet sites, I don’t know what I would do without the Perseus project and the ATLA database.

What does your workspace setup look like?
I don’t have an office at home. I could have, but I really don’t like writing in an office setting so I didn’t set one up. I like to work at the dining room table or at a coffee shop. I do my best work when other things are going on around me; I think I like the noise and activity. I also really like the dining room table to be clear of all other things, but this is not usually the case since it is also, you know, our table.
I have not found myself able to work on my research in my office at work, unless it is just reading and taking notes on something. However, I just recently switched offices, so maybe that will make a difference when I get back to campus in the spring.

What is your best advice for productive academic work?
Set limited, daily goals and stop working when you reach them. Also figure out the rhythms of the academic year and be realistic about what those goals can be. I know, for example, that there’s no way I’m getting anything done on my own syllabus in October, when things really heat up in terms of classes and my administrative responsibilities (I direct Coe’s First-Year Seminar Program). Once thanksgiving is over, it’s recommendation writing and grading time. So it’s important not to do something with an unrealistic deadline, unless you’re okay missing the deadline and then feeling bad about it.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
Probably just in my head, with a wall calendar. The wall calendar is really crucial. I tried using other methods but they are just not as simple as turning your head to see what is coming up. Small projects (like grant reports or recommendations) can really disappear from your radar if you don’t put them on the calendar.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
My printer! I like to print everything and annotate it by hand. It helps me to see, also, how much I have really accomplished and feel good about it, and I also can highlight things that thematically belong together that are currently in different sections of a document.

Also my USB drive, which lives in the inside zipper pocket of my purse and goes with me everywhere. I have a note to back it up this week.

I also have a six-dollar folding travel metal bookstand that is critical apparatus. This year I did a mentorship workshop with a group of undergraduate researchers and I bought one for each of them.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
My sense of humor, my reputation for competency and efficiency, and my bullshit detector. I’m known around campus as someone who can get shit done and is not interested in wasting anyone’s time. This really helps me be trusted by my colleagues and turned to by administrators. My students tell me that I have a scary stare in class which I use to prompt them to elaborate or to locate information in the readings.
Also I have an exceptionally good lipstick and accessories collection.

What do you listen to when you work?
Nothing. Sometimes I’ll put on pandora at home but more often it’s whatever is playing in the Panera.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
I read constantly! I’m currently reading How to Walk Away by Katherine Center, which I started yesterday and will probably finish today. It’s great. I read in the bathtub mostly. I have a hard time relaxing and focusing so coming back to a good novel every day in a set environment is really good for me. I love having a linear plotline to return to.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
Though I’m loud and talkative, I’m actually much more of an introvert. I need quiet alone time every day. I watch tv and do cross stitch. I don’t know if this influences my working habits. I can’t immediately switch from an extrovert task like teaching or going out to working. I need to recover from the extrovert task before I can make that move.

What's your sleep routine like?
Oh, good lord. I have a really hard time turning off my mind at night. I need to get into bed several hours before I actually fall asleep. I have an anxiety disorder so I use medication to help me!

What's your work routine like?
My teaching work is pretty routine, but my research is not. I know I do my best writing in the morning, so in the summer I wake up, have coffee, write my 500 words or my three pages or whatever my goal is for the day, and then stop and do something else entirely.

What's the best advice you ever received?
End on a downhill! If you know exactly what you are going to write next, stop. That way you can get up the next day and do that, and then you’re already going and it will lead to the next thing. Starting something totally new is much more difficult than just keeping going.

I am Signe Asberg, and This is How I Work

Today, I am interviewing Dr. Signe Asberg for the "How I Work" series. Signe is a MSc in Cell- and Molecular Biology and soon-to-be PhD in Molecular Medicine. She work at the Center of Molecular and Inflammation Research, a Center of Excellence at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She did parts of my PhD research at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She's interested in everything biology, but antibiotic resistance and global health are her true passions. Her research focus on the interplay between the immune system, pathogenic bacteria and antibiotics. She's also a guest blogger for LifeOMICs where she writes about the immune system and how it is affected by life style choices. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Note: I interviewed Signe in August 2018.

General:
Current Job: I submitted my PhD thesis and will defend in November*.
Current Location: I’m based in Trondheim, Norway
Current mobile device: iPhone 6S
Current computer: MacBook Air from 2012 (that I’ve cared for like a baby, so it looks and feels almost new)

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I’m in that weird place between having submitted my PhD in June and preparing the dissertation in November. So I do everything from finishing papers to applying for grants and post doc positions. My PhD research was focused on the interplay between macrophages (innate immune cells), mycobacteria and antibiotics. Mycobacteria cause severe chronic infections, like tuberculosis, by setting up camp inside macrophages or other immune cells. Mycobacterial infections kill millions of people each year and most of them require months to years of antibiotic treatment. I’ve been investigating the interactions between single macrophages and single bacteria, also during treatment. There is so much we still don’t understand about these infections, especially why they survive antibiotic treatment so well.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
My phone, my Macbook and the PC at work. In addition I do a lot of reading and searching on my iPad.

I do all my writing in Google Docs and use Paperpile to handle the references. I’ve previously used Scrivener and Papers and like them a lot, but when combining Mac and Windows it’s easier to use Google Docs. Paperpile is great with references and for reading papers.

I do literature searches on all my devices because weird hidden gems tend to pop up on the phone or the iPad.

Previously I lived my life in Evernote, but now I use an «everything» notebook, that was suggested on Raul Pacheco-Vega's blog.

I also rely heavily on Twitter to interact with other scientists and it’s incredibly helpful. I’ve recently started to use Instagram for science outreach and inspiration too and there are so many awesome science ladies out there.

What does your workspace setup look like?
All my experimental work is done in a lab with only shared space. In addition I have an office at work that I share with 7 other PhD students. My office is «organized chaos» but it works out. I have a big collection of books and mascots that cheer me on. I also work a lot from home, but ever since my desk became the dumping ground for papers and random stuff I mostly work at the dinner table. We have a huge table with one half designated as work/gaming space and the other half is for eating.

University office

University office

Home office

What is your best advice for productive academic work?
Plan! Planning is everything! You need to know all your goals and the tasks required to reach them. Then you need to know the deadline for each and their priority. Then get to work! The most important first and so on. The list and the plan needs to be revised often. Plans are not holy and should be changed regularly. At some point you learn to make realistic plans, and then life gets a lot easier.

I repeatedly ask myself: is what I’m doing now the right task to do now?
Very often the answer is no. It’s what I want to do now, but not the most important or urgent task. Then switch to the right task.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
By the advice of Raul Pacheco-Vega I keep an «everything notebook» where I write everything down, including overviews of projects and lists of tasks.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
I use a confocal microscope and iPad for work. I use an electric bike to get to work in the summer.

At home we have Google home and Homey. My partner is really into home automation and I try to keep up, or I’ll soon don’t know how to open the front door. It’s so weird that my toddler thinks it’s normal for her parents to talk to a device and a window opens, music turns on or a movie starts. Occasionally she will stand below it and yell at it!

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
I guess my planning, organizing and writing skills. Also the fact that I enjoy them, which is probably not so common (judging by the comments I get).

What do you listen to when you work?
My partner created a playlist in Google music with all kinds of songs he thinks I should listen to. That playlist definitely got me through the last month of writing my thesis. Other than that I prefer silence when I work or else I mess up my pipetting. When I do image analysis I listen to podcasts, mostly science or parenting content.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
I didn’t do any reading outside work for years. But I discovered during the most stressful months of my PhD that reading helps me sleep, so lack of sleep is my main reason for reading. My brain needs to be shut down in the evenings and reading an actual, physical book (just about 10 minutes) is the best way to do it. That’s also why I go for positive books, or books where «nothing» happens. I just read Hans Rosling latest book «Factfullness» and it’s probably the best book I’ve ever read, at least the most positive. I strongly encourage everyone to read it to get a thorough walkthrough of the state of the world. It’s a LOT better than you’d think. Now I alternate between parenting books, «No is not enough» by Naomi Klein and «Radiation: what it is and what you need to know» by Robert Peter Gale.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert?
I’m very much an introvert and need quiet time to focus. I need at least 10 minutes a day for no talk, quiet alone time or else I’m completely overloaded. That is surprisingly hard to get if you dont make an effort. But I also need friends and colleagues. I have regular coffee with a friend, or escape the lab with a colleague to go for a walk. I also enjoy to collaborate on projects, especially when we combine different expertise and methods. It’s a great way to learn.

What's your sleep routine like?
 I haven’t slept much for the past two years, but the toddler just started sleeping around 11 hours a night, mostly quiet. I should go to bed around 9 pm, but usually it’s around 11 pm and I get up at 6 am. I sleep very lightly, dream and wake up a lot. This is especially difficult in the summer when it never gets dark in Norway.

What's your work routine like?
Since daycare opens at 7.15 and close at 4.30 (most) work has to fit within those hours. The first goal is getting the toddler to daycare around 7.30, and my partner picks up at 4-ish. I plan out my week on Sunday evening or Monday morning. I try to get lab work done as early as possible because it always takes longer than expected. I also designate time for writing and reading, but I don’t do whole days for each anymore. When you have kids and/or can’t work all the time (like everyone else seems to do) you need to fit reading and writing into the lab intensive days too. I no longer believe it when people claim they can’t shift their focus from an experiment to writing on the same day. You can when you have to.

We have meetings almost every day and they really break up the workflow, so I don’t always attend all of them. Wednesday is my «long day» where I work until I feel done, while my partner has his long day on Mondays. I occasionally work in the evenings, but that is not the norm.

What's the best advice you ever received?
«It’s your PhD, own it. You make the decisions».
I struggled a lot during my PhD, and I mean a lot, with work and life related problems. Whatever I did at work would fail. Eventually I burned out and got depressed, followed by a pregnancy with non-stop nausea that ended abruptly in week 32 due to preeclampsia. We’re all fine today, but my point is that is was incredibly though. After coming back from maternity leave I had only one year to finish. My mentor had been pushing for a while that I could in fact make the decisions about my PhD. Finally I «got it» and took charge of things. In stead of asking I made the decisions: I set the deadlines, I informed my supervisors when they would receive my drafts and together we scheduled when they would read them and give me feedback. Looking back, the final year of my PhD was definitely the best and I wish I had learnt this sooner.

* Note that this interview was done in August 2018.

I am Brian Sigmon, and This is How I Work

Today, I am interviewing Dr. Brian Sigmon for the "How I Work" series. Brian O. Sigmon is acquisitions editor at The United Methodist Publishing House, where he edits books, Bible studies, and official resources for The United Methodist Church. In this role, Brian is editor of the Daily Christian Advocate and managing editor of the Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions. He has a Ph.D. in Old Testament Studies from Marquette University, where he taught courses in the Bible and theology. Brian finds great joy in thinking deeply about the Christian faith and helping people of all backgrounds deepen their understanding of Scripture. He blogs about the Bible, theology, and the universe at Starstruck Christian. Brian lives in Kingston Springs, Tennessee with his wife Amy and their two children.

General:
Current Job: Acquisitions Editor at The United Methodist Publishing House
Current Location: Nashville, TN

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I currently work outside academia as a book editor at The United Methodist Publishing House, a Christian publishing company based in Nashville, Tennessee. My Ph.D. is in biblical studies, with a focus on the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. I became an editor out of a desire to reach and teach people in churches rather than in college and university classrooms. In my current role, I edit books and Bible studies that help people grow in faith. That includes working with videos, which I’ve had to learn entirely on the job. I also edit our official denominational resources for The United Methodist Church, a role I didn’t anticipate when I began working here, but which I very much enjoy. The United Methodist Church is a worldwide Christian denomination of 12 million members, as well as the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States. I oversee the production of materials that support our General Conference, the denomination’s legislative body that meets once every four years to shape official teaching, policies, and practices. I am currently involved in a project that will move these support materials (about 3,000 printed pages in 2016) into an all-digital publication. So I’m having to learn about web design and user interface in addition to my work in books and videos. My work involves a little bit of everything, from writing and editing to theology and project management.

I have also recently started a side project, totally unrelated to work, where I’m writing about the intersection of theology and space exploration, to understand the theological implications of space exploration and what it means for human life and faith. This is just getting off the ground in the form of a blog, but I hope eventually to publish academic papers and start some conversations with others about these topics, which are important and timely, and which people of faith don’t seem to be talking about very much.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
Most of my day-to-day work is in Microsoft Word, which creates documents that feed into Adobe InDesign, an industry standard in terms of publication software. I also do a fair amount of proof review using PDFs in Adobe Acrobat. We have specialized software unique to our company for content management and project workflow. I also use Frame IO and Vimeo to interact with our producers on video projects. Finally, I use a proprietary legislative management program designed for The United Methodist Church in my official church work, to track delegates and legislation in our denomination’s legislative process that creates policies for our Church.

What does your workspace setup look like?
I have a small but efficient and well-organized cubicle at my company’s headquarters, together with the rest of our publishing unit. I have a laptop and 2 monitors, a small filing cabinet which mostly goes unused (we’re largely paper-free), and some shelf space for books I use frequently.
We have a beautiful patio overlooking a pond, and I usually work there for a few hours a week just to change the scenery. I do not have a dedicated home office, but do work from home about once per week at my kitchen table.

What is your best advice for productive academic work?
Find a routine that works for you and stick to it. I wasn’t the best at this during my Ph.D. program, and I probably would’ve been more efficient and productive if I’d had more of a daily and weekly routine. In my work now, I have a routine that works very well, and it helps me get a lot done and also balance my work with home life and hobbies. Routines and habits, if they are good ones, take a lot of the thought and work out of scheduling and planning your day, freeing your mental and physical energy for the work you truly care about and need to get done.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
Old-fashioned paper and pen! I keep a running to-do list for today and the next 2-3 days, which I update as new projects and tasks arise, tasks are completed, and priorities shift. This has always worked well for me—I’ve been able to adapt some version of this for my work throughout college, my master’s program, my Ph.D. program, and now my work. We also have a weekly production meeting with my team, where we talk about current and upcoming projects. That weekly get-together is critical to assure that we’re all up to date and know the most urgent tasks.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
Not really, unless you count a television and DVD player to review videos.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
I a high-level thinker who prefers to address the big picture rather than get bogged down in minutiae. That helps me set ambitious goals and develop projects with end results in mind. I am also drawn to ideas and positions that differ from those of others—I like to “zig” when everybody else “zags.” That often leads me to creative interpretations or deeper insight that I wouldn’t have come to otherwise.

What do you listen to when you work?
I usually work in silence, which I find very relaxing and centering—it’s really hard for me to focus when there’s any sound other than background noise. When I was writing my dissertation, I used to listen to classical music some, but even then I worked in silence as often as not.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
I am always reading! Lately I’ve been reading a lot about physics and space exploration, popular books as well as textbooks, all of which is deeply fascinating. I love the way these fields stretch my mind and force me to think in different ways from how I typically do.

I also continue to read theology, though at a much lower rate than I did when I was completing my Ph.D. And, of course, I read the books I edit! My coworkers laugh at me because I’ll edit books all morning, then read for fun during my lunch hour, then back to book editing in the afternoon. I just love learning, and books are a great way to do that.

I find time to read mostly because I enjoy it. I’ve found that we are able to make time for things we enjoy and find important.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
I’m most definitely an introvert, which goes well with the nature of my job because it’s a lot of time working on your own. That allows me to engage with people productively when it matters, such as in meetings and interacting with my authors. So it’s a balance that works well with my personality.

What's your sleep routine like?
I usually get around 6.5-7 hours—lights out around 10 or 10:30 and awake at 5 am. Naps are extremely rare.

What's your work routine like?
Pretty much 9-5 every day, though I put in extra time at home as needed when a project is in the works. That’s almost always after 8 pm when my wife and I put our kids to bed. I start each day with a workout, because physical health is important to me and I’ve found that unless I do it first thing, it’s too easy to skip. When I’m at work, I prefer working on editing and anything that requires a high level of concentration in the morning, and I do my best to respond to emails at set times during the day. At the end of every day, I spend a few minutes planning for the next day so that I can be productive right away. I find that spending a little time addressing emails in the evening is a great way to ensure that I don’t get off track the next day, but can start right away on the work that’s most important and urgent for me.

What's the best advice you ever received?
It’s not about how little you can get by with. It’s about how much you can do.

I am Matthew Reid Krell, and This is How I Work

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Matthew Reid Krell. Matthew is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alabama. His dissertation research focuses on federal trial courts and the relationships among litigants and judges. He's currently on the market - feel free to look him up at mrkrell.people.ua.edu! He temporarily lives in Jerusalem, where he's clerking for the Hon. Hanan Melcer of the Supreme Court of Israel. When he's home, he's bossed around by the three cats Titus, Vinnie, and Albie. Follow him on Twitter @ReidKrell.

General:
Current Job: I currently have three jobs. I'm writing my dissertation in political science at the University of Alabama; I practice law in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas; and I am currently a volunteer foreign law clerk for the Hon. Hanan Melcer of the Supreme Court of Israel.
Current Location: Jerusalem, Israel
Current mobile device: Google Nexus 6X
Current computer: Lenovo X1 Carbon Thinkpad

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I'm a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alabama. I've also continued my law practice since starting the Ph.D., and currently have about 8 open files that I share with co-counsel. I was fortunate enough this academic year to be awarded a dissertation completion fellowship, so I was able to spend three months clerking for a justice of the Supreme Court of Israel. My dissertation research focuses on information exchange in trial litigation - basically, how do litigants evaluate their case as they learn more about what the other side and the court thinks? My research for the Court is confidential, I'm afraid.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
So I am a pretty "default" kind of guy. I write in Word, use Google Chrome for online research, and Stata for my statistics package. I have been working on trying to make more use of a citation manager (I use Zotero), and I've experimented with Scrivener. I liked Scrivener, but found it not great when I was putting the final package together. For research development, I use a lot of the techniques that Raul Pacheco-Vega uses, most especially the Conceptual Synthesis Excel Dump.

What does your workspace setup look like?
Unfortunately, being in Jerusalem, I don't really have a set workspace at the moment. I'm actually writing this from a coffee shop on Emek Refaim near my apartment because my heat isn't working. At the Court, the foreign law clerks have a dedicated space in the back of the law library. At home, I have a home office that is currently being used strictly for storage because I discovered one of my cats had been using a corner of it as an unauthorized litter box, and I haven't had a chance to shampoo the carpet.

What is your best advice for productive academic work?
Don't let days go by where you do nothing. You don't have to do much; reading one article, jotting down a paragraph's worth of notes, or even just a few bullet points of "here's something I want to do with this." Sitting and vegetating is part of how our brains develop new ideas, but doing nothing but vegetating breaks good habits.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
Oh man, I should probably start doing that? I used to have a whiteboard, but when I switched from a teaching assistantship to a fellowship, I lost my office on campus. Google Calendar keeps me from screwing up my appointments, and I deadline everything. Marking conferences and submission deadlines on the calendar helps as well. But if something isn't ready to be calendared, I'm not sure that I have a way to keep track of it other than in my head.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
I used to use a tablet, but I couldn't get myself in the habit of carrying it or using it, and I didn't have any markup tools that would make it a paper-equivalent. So no, right now I don't use other technology.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
Not really convinced that I do stand out? To the extent that I do, I think it's the way I straddle the humanities and social sciences. Even if lawyers, judges, and legal academics don't like to admit it, law is a humanities discipline, and our epistemologies have more in common with literary studies than physics. And there's nothing wrong with that! But I think it might mean that using the scientific method to try and analyze legal systems leaves us with a lot of things that we think we know that we actually don't.

That said, there's definitely things we can do to employ scientific epistemologies in the study of law and legal systems, and I think that my great strength is that I don't pick a particular approach. I use the right tools for the problem, whether that's a doctrinal approach that uses more literary methods or a stats-heavy quantitative approach. While I would never claim that I'm as brilliant as Gary King and Lee Epstein, my approach to research is heavily informed by their 2000 Chicago Law Review piece, "On the Rules of Inference," where they basically say, "look, legal academics, you don't have to do statistics to do empirical research!" I've taken that same approach.

What do you listen to when you work?
I have been a Pandora subscriber since 2005, and I have about 35 stations. Some of them I cycle through fairly quickly. The ones that I tend to linger on are based on Myla Smith (a local Memphis artist I got to know in law school and then saw again when I was living in Memphis, as she's based there), Great Big Sea (a now-defunct Canadian sea shanty/rock band), half a dozen stations that tend toward EDM and trance. I find that genre really helpful for writing as it has a strong beat that lets my heart follow along and I can fall into a flow state.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
Jerusalem's been a godsend for reading, frankly. I have a half-hour commute each way to and from work, and sometimes I have to wait an hour or more for my bus to arrive. Reading on the Kindle app on my phone kills that time (and my phone battery, but whatever). I went to Eilat for a weekend recently, which was a four-hour bus ride each way. I read about half of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Labyrinth of Spirits on that trip. It's a Gothic romance set in Barcelona during the Francoist dictatorship, and it's utterly fascinating. It's the last in a series.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
I think I'm probably a misanthropic extrovert? Which means that I'm probably best off in terms of working habits with people around me, but not having to interact with them. It's why I like cafes. If I try and work without people around, I just sit around and watch Youtube videos, but if the people are people I need to interact with, I find myself not buckling down and working.

What's your sleep routine like?
"Routine" is a bit laughable as a descriptor of my sleep. Still trying to figure out why I sometimes sleep 16 hours and why I sometimes stay up for 30 hours, sleep 2, then work a full day.

What's your work routine like?
Identify today's goal, work toward it, Twitter, work, Twitter, get a phone call, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, um....

What's the best advice you ever received?
"Life is too short to be cautious." Not going to say I follow it, but it's definitely good advice.

I am Dave Shriberg, and This is How I Work

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Dave Shriberg. Dr. Shriberg has been a professor for the past fifteen years. Starting on August 1, 2018, he will be a Professor of Education and Program Chair for School Psychology Programs at Indiana University. Dr. Shriberg has authored or edited six books and dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He is the Editor of Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, and has chaired 24 completed dissertations. A founder of a national (US) network of social justice advocates, Dr. Shriberg's research focuses on the application of social justice principles to educational and psychological practice. He can be reached via Twitter at @DrDaveShriberg.

Current Job: Professor of Education, and Program Chair, School Psychology Programs, Indiana University (start on 8/1/18. Before that I was a Professor of Education at Loyola University Chicago.
Current Location: Bloomington, Indiana
Current mobile device: iPhone
Current computer: MacBook Air

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I am entering my sixteenth year as a professor after obtaining my PhD in school/counseling psychology in 2003. My main research focus is the application of social justice principles to education. I have authored or edited six books, and approximately 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters (around 30 of each). I am also a journal editor (Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation). I have chaired approximately 25 completed dissertations and typically have a research team of 8-12 students. I love both conducting research and mentoring/supporting graduate students in their research areas of passion.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
I tend to rely a lot on Dropbox and Google docs to stay organized and to facilitate working together on writing. I also do a lot of video calls.

What does your workspace setup look like?
I work approximately half-time from home and half from my university office. I do very little academic writing in my office and when writing from "home" this often means going to a cafe so I don't have as many distractions. My work environment I think is fairly standard. Lots of pictures of family at my office and space to meet with students, but otherwise my office is not super-cluttered. At home I have a decided space to work, but I often move around a lot with my laptop.

What is your best advice for productive academic work?
For academic writing, carve out time and protect this time fiercely. I believe the literature says that the most productive writers work for shorter periods of time every day. I actually have done better when I protect whole days and half-days for this purpose.

For teaching and service tasks, I prioritize being really thoughtful about your syllabi and prioritizing giving students high quality feedback. I used to obsess over every possible question a student might ask in class and in this sense "over-prepare". Now I find that I do best when I have a tight outline for each class with a few extra options depending on how things are going (my classes are usually once a week for 2.5 hours, so I have some time) so I can adapt, but I don't try to micromanage every minute or stress if I don't give intense coverage to EVERY reading. I think about the 2-3 main things I want to make sure gets done well in every class session and work from that.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
I used to keep this mostly in my head and calendar, but either I got older and/or busier because now there are too many things to work that way. So, I rely a lot on lists keeper in google docs to keep me organized. I also take a lot of notes/logs from my meetings with students so I can look at a glance as to where they are with things. For dissertation students, I keep a more detailed google sheet of where they stand, key milestones and deadlines, what we covered in our last discussion, etc.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
I'm sure I'm forgetting somethings, but these are the main ones. I do a lot of video calls via my computer. I'm pretty attached to my laptop, most things flow from there.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
It is hard to answer this without coming across as immodest. I think my greatest strength as an advisor is that I am not trying to turn my students into miniature versions of myself. Only I can be me, you do you. My goal is for students to become the best versions of themselves, whatever that looks like. In this regard, I think I am pretty flexible and am not upset at all when students pursue their own interests, even if they are not my interests. I also try to be very generous about sharing my professional network with my students and facilitating opportunity for collaboration in this way.

What do you listen to when you work?
Usually my Pandora stations. It's forever the 1980's/early 1990s with my music as I was born the 1970s so grew up with this. For some reason, I feel like I write really well to Jack Johnson songs, which I would not ordinarily admit, but his music seems to put me in a good headspace. When I'm tired and need a "push", I will listen to fast and loud music to get myself going.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
At the moment I am reading "Little Women" because it's one of my daughter's favorites and I promised her I would read it. I have to admit that I like this book a lot--halfway done--but in general I tend to read non-fiction. I like biographies--I get inspired by people who have lived remarkable lives. I find people's stories really fascinating. I find that if I do enough "fun" reading like this not only am I happier overall, but also more productive with academic reading.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
I am very much an introvert. I like public speaking so teaching does not drain my energies, but being in a lot of social situations with people I don't know well or otherwise do not have comfort with drains my energy a lot. Being able to work from home or somewhat anonymously in cafes really helps an introvert like me stay productive. If I were in the office every day, I know that this will take a toll in this regard, no matter how nice my colleagues are, as I need and value alone and family time.

What's your sleep routine like?
I'm not sure if I really have a formal sleep routine. I have two teenage children so evenings pre-sleep are usually spent catching up with my wife. I do try to do mindfulness techniques to relax right before falling asleep, but not nearly as regularly as I should.

What's your work routine like?
It really varies. As the parents of two teenagers (one in 7th grade, the other in 10th grade), I try to match their schedules as much as possible by working like crazy as much as I can when they are not at home. But, invariably I end up working some nights and weekends too. Each week I figure out with my wife as we coordinate a lot of logistics, so I don't end up with an exact work schedule. I also work a fair bit in the field and also do a fair amount of speaking engagements, so my schedule really varies a lot.

What's the best advice you ever received?
Tough question! I think things related to not personalizing setbacks. I have not always been perfect in following that kind of advice, but the more years I am in academia, the more I see how, which no one is perfect (least of all me), everyone has setbacks. And, academia can be a really competitive and petty place--don't personalize and internalize when others resent your success and/or happiness. Finally, the idea of paying it forward is really big for me. Don't be kind to graduate students for your own gain, but because it is the right thing to do and is what you want them to be doing when they are in your role. My graduate mentor was incredibly generous and kind. She passed in 2012, but I feel like anything I do something that is helpful to a student, I'm carrying out her legacy.

I am Paul Hanstedt, and This is How I Work

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Paul Hanstedt. He holds a Ph.D. in Victorain Literature and is currently the Director of Pedagogical Innovation and the Teaching Collaborative at Roanoke College, where he led the revision of a campus-wide general education program, developed an innovative writing-across-the-curriculum program, and coordinated the implementation of the college’s ePortfolio system. He is the recipient of several teaching awards, received a Fulbright to aid general education curricular revision in Hong Kong, and is co-recipient of a FIPSE grant for sustainable faculty development. He is the author of several books on faculty and curricular development, including General Education Essentials (Jossey-Bass, 2012) and Creating Wicked Students (Stylus, 2018).

Current Job: Professor of English at Roanoke College; Director of Pedagogical Innovation and the Teaching Collaborative; Consultant in Higher Education, specializing in General Education/Liberal Arts, Curricular Reform, and Pedagogical Development (I usually visit between 8-12 different schools a year)
Current Location: Roanoke, Virginia, though I live in Lexington, VA, home of the now famous Red Hen restaurant
Current mobile device: iPhone 9
Current computer: MacBook Air (but also an old old PC desktop that I use to write longer documents)

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I've been a professor at Roanoke College for 22 years. RC is a small liberal arts college of about 2000 students. For the last 14 years or so I've also taken on some mid-level administrative work, largely in the realm of curricular and faculty development. This coming year, for instance, I'll teach three courses, admin for the equivalent of 2, and use a sixth to pursue my own projects.

In addition, I visit between 8-12 schools a year, helping them with curricular reform and pedagogical development.

My current research is on developing course designs and pedagogical approaches to enhance student authority--that is, their sense of their ability to step into the world as thoughtful agents of change. This has nothing to do with my dissertation. In fact, I haven't used my dissertation work directly in the last 14 years.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
Honestly? I use an old PC desktop for all of my longer writing. I just like sitting at the desk, having that big keyboard clacking in front of me. I write on Microsoft Office Word (365). I don't use any other apps other than, occasionally, Safari to look up some random fact. I try and keep my phone away from my desk when I'm writing.

What does your workspace setup look like?
I have a fixed workspace in my home. It's the only place I do major writing. It's on the top floor, at the back of the house, facing over an old cemetery and some distant mountains. It gets the morning light. My desk is a huge old door set up on two filing cabinets. It's very cluttered, which is funny, since I used to be very tidy. Now I don't care any more.



What is your best advice for productive academic work?
Several things come to mind:
1) When writing, imagine a gracious and loving audience. That helps deal with anxiety about not "getting it right."
2) Allow yourself, in Anne Lamott's words, a "shitty first draft." Let it suck. Just turn off the editor/critic and get the words down. Then you have something you can revise.
3) Go for a run or do some form of exercise before you sit down to write. This will lower anxiety and stress.
4) Sometimes light music helps distract that critical nasty questioning part of your brain. I listen to CDs by The National when I write.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
I keep a jotted list on my desk. I take great pleasure in crossing things off.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
Nope.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
Hmmmmm . . . I guess I'm a communicator? I take pleasure in taking complex ideas and finding ways to make them meaningful/understandable for various audiences--be they students or the resistant faculty member at the back of the room.

What do you listen to when you work?
I love that you ask this! Anything by The National, including SLEEP WELL BEAST, HIGH VIOLET, TROUBLE WILL FIND ME, and BOXER. I also listen to GIVE UP, by the Postal Service

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?

I am currently reading Rory Stewart's THE PLACES IN BETWEEN.

Until this last sabbatical (that I'm currently coming off of), I did a terrible job of finding time to read. But this year I've read probably more books than in the last 22 years! I'm hoping to keep this going as the school year begins by: a) reminding myself how healthy reading is, that it slows down the heart rate and relaxes the breathing, focusing the mind (much like meditation); and b) putting down books that don't grab my interest. I'm getting older now. I don't feel obliged to read through something that doesn't interest me anymore.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
I appear to be an extrovert, but really am an introvert. I need time by myself to clear my head, read, mull, daydream, write. I can face out and perform, but it is a performance.

Realizing that much of my public work is performative has actually been freeing. I've learned to turn it on and be public when I'm in public, being gracious and out-going, knowing that, eventually, I'll retreat to my lair and recoup.

What's your sleep routine like?
Shoot for eight hours. Take more if I can get it. Try and avoid less if possible. Naps are lovely.

What's your work routine like?
Two to four hours in the morning of writing. But that only happens when I'm not teaching. When I'm teaching, all bets are off and life just becomes task task task.

What's the best advice you ever received?
Be gracious to yourself. Forgive your flaws and mistakes and errors of judgment. Once you do that, it's easier to be gracious to others.

I am Lauren Drogos, and This is How I Work

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Lauren Drogos for the academic parents edition of the "How I Work" series. Dr. Drogos is an Alberta Innovates Health Solutions Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Calgary in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. She received a B.S in Psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology – Division of Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research across the past decade has focused on the effects of steroid hormones on cognition and mood, with a focus on women’s mental health.

This time, I tried something new - we did the interview through Skype and recorded it for publication on the blog. Let me know how you like this form of the interview series!

Here's the interview - in which we talk about tech tools, Lauren's research work, and parenting twins:



(PS: I had my questions on my other screen - that explains my constant looking away from the camera, sorry!)

I am Andrew Watson, and This is How I Work

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Andrew Watson for the "How I Work" series. Andrew is a second year Doctorial Researcher at the University of Glasgow. By day Andrew is a Data Analyst for an Insurance Provider and by night is researching peoples bodily and sensorial engagement with Neolithic funerary monuments.

Current Job: I work full time as a Data Analyst and study part time for my PhD in Archaeology
Current Location: Somerset, UK
Current mobile device: LG K8
Current computer: Dell Inspiron

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I’m a part time PhD student in archaeology using a phenomenological approach to understand peoples bodily and sensorial engagement with Neolithic long barrows. I’m interested in how much of our experiences today could be similar to that of people in the Neolithic.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
I don’t use any fancy tools, apps or software. I have a word document that I update whenever I study and start a new one weekly. It has numerous headers including things to be done this week, things to be done in the future, what I plan to do, what I actually did, upcoming deadlines and things to work on when I have spare time(!).

What does your workspace setup look like?
I’m a distance learning student so I study at home primarily and sometimes visit a local university library. With the arrival of my son my workspace has diminished somewhat from a big desk in my spare room, to a smaller desk in the living room, to one in the bedroom, to now using my laptop with a second monitor on the dining room table and tidying it away each time.



What is your best advice for productive academic work?
Break tasks down into smaller chunks and work towards these first. Ultimately for me if what I’m working on will not help me finish my thesis then is it a priority? Do I have time to be working on a side project? Sometimes the answer is yes, and this is fine, but other times you need to say no to things or put them to one side until the key deadline is met.
Managing time well is key for a part time and distance learning student.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
My trusty notebook and weekly to-do list!

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
Not that I can think of.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
While I wouldn’t class myself as an academic yet, as I don’t have my PhD, I believe I am self-motivated, determined and have good time management. As I’ve studied from my Undergraduate degree via distance learning I’ve had to find ways of keeping myself motivated and focused over the almost 10 years!

What do you listen to when you work?
While not my usual cup of tea, dubstep is quite good when I need to focus. I think this is because it’s quite repetitive. Rock music too like Iron Maiden or AC/DC is good too!

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
You can’t write before you’ve read… well at least for your literature review. Reading is important, not just books or papers written previously but it’s also important to keep on top of new papers being published. There are many journal notification emails that I’ve signed up to but it’s important to set some time aside each week to read and keep on top of things.
What am I reading now? Numerous things on qualitative and phenomenological research as my fieldwork is due to take place in a few months!

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
While I potentially come across as an extrovert, I believe I have become an introvert over the years. I’m confident in my research but sometimes wonder if my ideas are quite abstract and fear negative peer-feedback and how that may knock my confidence.

What's your sleep routine like?
Sleep is important. As a dad, full time employee and part time student it is important to get enough rest! I tend to aim for around six hours a night. Any more and I feel less productive the following day, any less and it usually catches up with me a day or so later.

What's your work routine like?
Since the birth of my son I’ve struggled to motivate myself at the end of a busy day either being a dad or working in my (sometimes) mentally draining job. The thought of sitting down to a few hours of work was not appealing. Equally, if my son had a bad evening, didn’t settle or woke up late into the evening I couldn’t get things done. Instead I’ve found getting up around 4:30am allows me two hours to work while everyone else is asleep and then I can get ready at 6:30am to get into the office to start my day. This then allows me the luxury of sitting down some evenings and having time to myself!

What's the best advice you ever received?
Pace yourself and set realistic goals. I’ve previously agreed to take on too much or set very ambitious targets and not reached them. This can be most disheartening. Setting realistic goals, which only you know what you can achieve, will help you have a more positive experience!
Oh… and share your ideas at an early stage! I’ve mulled over and stressed about ideas wondering if they are worth sharing and when I finally do they are usually well received and supported by colleagues.

I am Joni Gilissen, and This is How I Work

Today, I am interviewing Joni Gilissen in the "How I Work" series. Joni (°1990) holds a degree in Social Work, a master’s degree in Social Policy and a postgraduate degree in Social Profit and Public Management. She is working for 4 years within the inter-university and interdisciplinary End-of-life Care Research Group (Belgium) on a project in which she will develop and evaluate an Advance Care Planning intervention in the nursing home setting. Furthermore, she co-coordinates the Twitter page of the research group and is responsible for the monthly newsletter.

Current Job: Joint PhD Candidate in Social Health Sciences and Biomedical Sciences
Current Location: Brussels, Belgium
Current mobile device: iPhone 6S
Current computer: Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Azerty)

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I am a fourth year PhD candidate in a joint PhD program in Social Health Sciences at the Vrije University Brussels and Biomedical Sciences at the Catholic University Leuven. I currently carry out a large study within the End-of-Life Care Research Group of which the focus is on advance care planning for people in nursing homes, including residents living with dementia. Advance care planning focuses on one central question: “What type of health care would you want if you became too sick to tell the doctor or the involved healthcare professionals yourself?”. Advance care planning provides the opportunity to define goals and preferences for future medical treatment and care, to discuss these goals and preferences with family and healthcare providers, and to record and review these preferences in documents such as a ‘living will’ (or advance directive).

To this respect I am evaluating the effects of such a process of advance care planning in a cluster randomized controlled trial in a large number of nursing home settings in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. My current situation involves running this trial (eg. making sure advance care planning is implemented according to protocol, planning meetings, observing practice, doing interviews), preparing for final follow-up measurement of the primary outcome to evaluate effectiveness, applying for follow up funding and hoping to publish my work before the term of my PhD trajectory ends.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
To schedule my day and meetings I use Google Agenda. Evernote keeps track of my to do lists and ideas, which are synced on my phone and computers, so I’m always able to follow-up wherever I am. Same with my Dropbox files and Zotero. Running the trial, I spend a lot of time in my car and such apps make it possible to follow up work, even if I don’t have my computer with me. For my writing I started using Outliner and InDesign to graphically outline my PhD thesis. To draw diagrams for my papers, I use Lucidchart, an online program which I really love. When I work from home I Skype or Zoom a lot with colleagues or supervisors. And then you have the regulars in research, such as SPSS, Nvivo and LimeSurvey. I also use Google Forms a lot to help me schedule workshops and send out short training surveys or attendance lists.

What does your workspace setup look like?
I tell everyone I am really into the clean desk policy but after four years I still don’t manage to keep my desk spotless. However, besides my daily fruit, some photographs from parties with colleagues or from travels and the papers I am actively reading or working on, I manage quite well. We just got new offices in Brussels, where I am sharing an office with five other PhD candidates. When I don’t need my two screens and I have to write, I love working from home. At home, I am trying to only use my laptop and I usually sit at the dinner table. The year that passed was a bit chaotic and inferior for my work place environment but it also has its perks. Because I spend a lot of my time on the road, traveling between nursing home facilities, I have these short blocks of time between meetings, providing me with just enough time to write a short paragraph or check up with my e-mails in a coffee shop nearby. A bit of coffee bar hopping didn’t hurt anyone! And I have the benefit I like working in crowded places. When I was a grad student I always studied in the overcrowded student library. There are even studies that have proven that a moderate level of ambient noise is conductive and stimulates creativity, and I even found an app that recreates coffee shop background noise. I haven’t used it yet though.

Workplace 1 (End-of-Life Care Research Group offices in Brussels):

Workplace 2 (Our house, currently being renovated):


What is your best advice for productive academic work?
After four years of working as a researcher, I found out that it depends on the kind of task you need to do. It helps me a lot to block out shucks of my agenda (eg. one afternoon) for a specific task and reorganize my working environment and schedule depending on the task. It took some time before I figured this out and my advice is to try several things to find out what suits you best. For my writing I usually block the whole day, if possible two, to come into the workflow. However, I have to force myself to stop writing which can be tempting at some point. I’ve learned I always have new insights after a day or two of writing-rest. The same with data analysis and protocol writing. The tasks that I don’t like, such as folding envelopes, arranging meetings, doing the necessary telephone calls I usually do in the mornings so that after lunch I can move on to the things I like, ending the day with a good temper.
Two more advices: don’t schedule important work meetings after 3pm, people will be tired, and keep the Friday afternoons for long-term “important but not urgent tasks” (such as arranging your folders, organizing your agenda, follow-up on e-mails, etc.).

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
On Friday afternoon I check my Google Agenda to get an overview of the week that is ahead, so I have a clear idea of what the upcoming week will look like and how I can optimize it. If it is really busy, even my sport activities and social life will be scheduled around my PhD work. In three main Excel files I keep track of 1) the trial I am running, 2) my publication record (the papers I am working on, for which I haven’t received feedback, for which data analysis will start, etc.) and 3) my PhD trajectory (which provides me with an overview of when funding ends, important calls and deadlines for grant applications for future research, etc). For each work package within the trial (such as ‘recruitment’, ‘baseline measurement’, ‘first training of healthcare professionals’) I use Evernote. One note tab, for each work package. Both in my Google Agenda and Microsoft Outlook, all work packages have different colors or folders.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
My coffee machine or hot water boiler for lots of tea or coffee? No, seriously, I use an extra monitor (BenQ) for when I am writing papers or performing data analysis. I use Bluetooth to listen to music on the wireless speakers at home. I am saving up money to buy a Garmin watch so I can follow-up my sport activities like swimming, biking and running. I’m almost there.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
I can manage a lot of pressure and a busy life. Because I am really dedicated to the research I am performing, I have never seen my PhD as ‘working’ but as an opportunity to learn and I have clear goals for this and future research. In addition, I am quite sociable and I like to believe I am a team player that strives to a cohesive working environment. Every first Thursday of the month I try to organize an ‘out-of-office’ lunch at a restaurant nearby, with the other PhD students (we are 20 PhD’s btw) or a ‘potluck’ at which every PhD student brings one dish we eventually share.

What do you listen to when you work?
I only listen to music when I am writing the discussion section of a paper. I don’t know why but that is the only time I feel it can be helpful. When I’m driving to the nursing home facilities that are involved in my research, I use Spotify to listen to music in my car. Currently I listen to Luluc, an Australian band I recently discovered on Spotify, and all kinds of Jazz. Always Jazz.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
I am reading Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, which I borrowed from one of my colleagues. So good! I don’t have that much time to read though. I read mostly while I am travelling, on rare quite Sundays or on the scarce moments I take the train.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
I am definitely an extrovert. Ask my colleagues or my friends. I do believe it has its advantages in presenting my work to others, recruitment participants or involving partners for my research and in networking on conferences.

What's your sleep routine like?
I have a normal sleep routine. I sleep from 10 or 11 pm to 6 or 7 am. Unless I have a deadline or at times I struggle with work, I tend to get slightly nervous and this always affects my sleep quality. I love to wake up early for a morning swim or end the day with some ‘Yoga with Adriene’ on Youtube. Try it! It’s really nice!

What's your work routine like?
Your work routine should not focus on the number of hours you spend working but on the productive ones. That is why my work routine really changes depending on the week and the task I scheduled. This week for example, I am working until 7 pm because I am following up on my publications, at the same time I am applying for a grant and during the day I have to run the trial and prepare the online database for data-entry. Other weeks I work from 8am to 5pm because my work is well scheduled and I make sure I have time to spend with my friends or doing sports. There are even weeks I work from 10am to 3pm, stop early to take a swim or work on the house and start working again at 7pm. I also work in the weekend sometimes if I have a free Saturday and I feel inspired or if I want to start fresh on Mondays and I feel I haven’t finished all the tasks from the week before. My advice? If you feel like nothing relevant is coming out of you sitting behind your computer, take a walk or go running and start over. Don’t feel bad against your colleagues. It is not a competition about who can work the most.

What's the best advice you ever received?
“Search for a job that combines something you love to do, something you are good at and something that adds value to society” (Toon, my boyfriend)

I am Diogo Aguiam, and This is How I Work

Today, I am interviewing Dr. Diogo Aguiam in the "How I Work" series.

Current Job: In between jobs in research
Current Location: Braga, Portugal
Current mobile device: Nexus 5x
Current computer: Macbook Pro (Mid 2012)

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
Nuclear fusion occurs naturally in stars. Two light atoms fuse together to form a heavier atom, while releasing energy. If we could control this reaction here on Earth, we would be able to produce electricity from the excess energy! But this is very hard to do...
We must heat a plasma to millions of degrees to get the conditions required for the fusion reaction. We can do this using special donut-shaped devices called tokamaks, which use strong magnetic fields to confine the plasma without touching the walls. Still, getting more energy out of the reaction than what we use to get it going is still a few decades away.
My research is focused on developing radar-like diagnostics to measure the density profiles of the plasma to understand its shape and location inside the tokamak during a discharge.
I have a background in electronics engineering and I have just finished my PhD in physics developing a reflectometry diagnostic for ASDEX Upgrade, a tokamak device at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
For my work I use Visual Studio Code and Jupyter to develop my processing codes in python and analysing data. I use Mendeley to manage papers and organise everything inside dropbox. In our group we communicate using hangouts and slack and collaborate with code through gitlab. I also backup my entire work directories to a WD MyCloud server at home, which has saved me more than once!

What does your workspace setup look like?
I mostly work from my laptop as I move around a lot between my home institution IPFN, in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany, where my diagnostic is installed. I have an office at both places, with a desk, a keyboard, mouse and monitor, which I connect to the laptop.
During operation days I typically work in the Control Room of ASDEX Upgrade to check on the data after each experiment. Most other days I am in my office developing codes, analysing data, or reading/writing papers. When we need to repair equipment you'll find me lugging my laptop and an assortment of power meters, oscilloscopes, coaxial cables, etc...

What is your best advice for productive academic work?
Always keep an organised copy of everything you do, such as code, data and figures. You will often have to come back to it.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
I try to work on one big project at a time and schedule the others in google calendar. When I have to deal with a lot of bureaucracy, I write every step in my notebook and tick them off as I go.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
I am too lazy to do repetitive work. I have spent a week developing a tool to automate a calibration procedure that I would have to do three times. I organise these tools and share them with other researchers helping them do their own work. I have found I am most productive when helping other researchers do their jobs faster, such as writing scripts to make figures or learning new programming tips.

What do you listen to when you work?
I get a random study, focus, light edm, trance playlist from spotify playing.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
How to win friends and influence people, by Dale Carnegie.
I often read on my kobo when commuting or on long flights.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
I used to be an introvert, and I still value alone time at home. But I've grown to enjoy meeting new people and talk about anything. I get to learn new things every day.

What's your sleep routine like?
I typically get only 6 or 7 hours of sleep every day as I browse Feedly and Twitter late into the night.

What's your work routine like?
At my home institution I do typical 9 am to 6 pm days. During missions, however, my schedule stretches to 12-14 hours per day, often late into the night, as I have to get everything working before the next operation day.

What's the best advice you ever received?
Never stop learning.

I am Marie Morganelli, and This is How I Work

Today, I am hosting Marie Morganelli in the "How I Work" series. Marie Morganelli has an earned doctorate in English Literature. She has taught literature and composition at the community college and university levels since 2006, and has professional experience in marketing, copywriting, and volunteer management, as well as visitor services for a large cultural institution. She is passionate about informal education, particularly with zoos and other cultural institutions, and with telling a good story. Her freelance business, www.precisewords.org, focuses on clear, concise copywriting for small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other publications who need help telling their unique story to further their goals. She is a huge fan of travel, coffee, and wine.

General: Marie Morganelli has a PhD in English literature, and is building a freelance copywriting business while working by day as an administrator for a university with a large online presence.
Current Job: Freelance writer for Precise Words Copywriting
Current Location: Manchester, NH
Current mobile device: An apple iphone 6, with which I have a love/hate relationship
Current computer: MacBook Air 13 in.

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I finished my PhD with no interest whatsoever in working in an academic field. I was burned out from the politics of graduate school, and stressed by the many hoops one has to jump through to get anywhere with a career in academia. I do love teaching, though, and so taught part-time for an online university while working full time in education and guest services at a cultural institution (zoo). The part-time job led to a full time job as an Associate Dean, so, ironically, I did find myself working in an academic field, though because our program is unique, my traditional title does not quite match my somewhat nontraditional role. Our hierarchy and program management are somewhat different than at a traditional university, which is what drew me to it.

While I feel very lucky to have this position, I missed working in a creative capacity, and have an entrepreneurial spirit, and so I have been working on building a freelance business to indulge my creative interests, utilize my skills, and feel as though I have some agency as to my personal success.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
My MacBook Air is one of my favorite purchases ever. I bought it when I started teaching online because it is so lightweight and portable. I previously had a Windows-based laptop which was heavier and thus harder to lug through airports, and it was prone to crashing from viruses. Macs cost a lot more but crash a lot less, and the MacBook line is incredibly lightweight. I opted for the 13 in. because the bit of extra screen space is helpful. The 11 in. was just too small to be practical for me.

I prefer a laptop to iPad because I like having my files with me as well as the full size keyboard.

As for apps and software, I use Microsoft Word almost exclusively to write, though I do sit down with a notepad and pen quite often and rock it old school when writing a first draft. The pen in my hand helps me think better, I find. That also prevents me from web-surfing when I should be working!

I don’t use many apps in the course of getting my work done, though I do use the internet at large quite a bit for research.

What does your workspace setup look like?
I have a desk, chosen specifically for its large surface so I could spread out, in my spare bedroom. I have a second monitor that is incredibly helpful. Sometimes, when the weather is nice, I take my laptop outside and work on my porch.

I currently sit in a traditional office chair, and it’s killing my back. I am on the lookout for a backless kneeling chair to help with posture.



What is your best advice for productive academic work?
I do try to stay current in research and academic writing given my day job, but the truth is, I do not love it. I much prefer to work on my freelance projects or personal writing when it comes to professional writing. There is something about academic writing that has never truly appealed to me.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
I am continuously working on ways to do this better. Right now, my billing is tracked through an excel spreadsheet and I use the calendar built in on my mac, so I can sync with my phone. I tried using a paper calendar, but online seems to work better. I am determined to find a better way, though!

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
These are the key items. I wish I could get by with using technology less, and I have been making a conscious effort to stare at my phone less overall, which helps. The truth is that I type much faster than I handwrite, so working via computer will probably always be necessary.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
I’m a pretty terrible academic, to be honest! I am a terrific teacher, though, and an excellent writer. I have the skills to be a good academic but not the spirit. The skills and confidence I learned in graduate school, though, directly influence the work that I do now, both as a freelance writer and as an administrator, and I am not sure I would be on my current path without having gone through that experience. I do have a pretty strong dose of self-confidence when it comes to knowing that I’m good enough and smart enough for the work that I’m doing.

What do you listen to when you work?
Usually, silence or the birds chirping outside, which make me happy because it means that spring is finally, finally here. Sometimes I listen to classical music.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
One of my current goals is to read more. Reading is one of my favorite things to do, and so I decided to make time for it. I read for at least half an hour every night before bed (with a hard copy book or my non-backlit Kindle) in addition to any other reading I can squeeze into a day. I am currently halfway through “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee, which I highly recommend. It’s riveting.

I also read business-related books, and right now am reading “Blue Ocean Shift” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, which is about changing one’s perspective from being a competitor to being an innovator. After that, I plan to dive into “Change Your Space, Change Your Culture” by Rex Miller, Mabel Casey, and Mark Konchar, because the concept of space and place is one that interests me a great deal and that affects many aspects of our personal and professional lives (and was a focus in my dissertation).

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
I am an introvert through and through. It took a long time for me to realize this. I spent years not really understanding how I could not consider myself shy yet found myself wanting to spend so much time alone. Then I started learning more about introverts and recognized myself immediately. I do work to embrace and appreciate myself for who I am, and know that sometimes I need time to myself, and I protect and defend that time. But I also recognize that sometimes a person needs to act like an extrovert to get things done. My previous role at the zoo managing guest services taught me how to function like an extrovert when needed.

Being a writer really is the perfect job for an introvert, except I do think it’s important not to let my comfort level at spending time alone become a crutch or a habit. Instead, I make time to participate in activities outside my home because “introvert” does not have to mean “hermit!” Plus, personal connections are how one grows and nurtures a business as well as are an important way to stay connected with others.

What's your sleep routine like?
I really wish I could confidently say that I get eight to nine hours of sleep a night every night, but that would be a lie. I am working towards meeting my goal of eight hours of sleep a night but I have yet to meet that goal, except on weekends. Typically, I try to at least get ready for bed by 9pm, and then read for a bit. I wake up around 5am to work on my freelance projects for a few hours before going in to work at my full time position.

What's your work routine like?
I work best in the early mornings, especially with a deadline, such as a time I need to leave to get to my full time position. I do not work well at all in the evenings when I am tired, so I reserve evenings for meal preparation, exercise, reading, and my artistic hobbies (cross-stitching, drawing, and stained glass).

What's the best advice you ever received?
Years ago, I asked my dad what advice he would go back and give his younger self if he could only give himself one piece of advice. He thought about it for a moment and then said: “Save early, save often.”

He was right. The impact of compounding interest is real. The impact of getting into a habit of saving regularly is real. Thanks to that one piece of advice, I opened my first retirement account when I was still in college, before I even had my first full time job, and I am definitely seeing the rewards of that now. This advice translates into other aspects of life as well, because making a habit to move consistently forward, one step after one step after one step, is how to accomplish one’s goals and make dreams a reality.

Poll about working from home

Some time ago, I ran a poll on Twitter about how often academics work from home. Slightly more than half of all have a designated work-from-home day, I learned from this poll.

Some parents work a split shift (myself included): adding a few hours of work after the kid(s) are asleep at night. During baby's first year, I was working 6 hours daily in the office, and then tried to add an hour at home in the evening (with mixed results, I often feel rather tired in the evening).

Here's the wake of this poll:

I am Philip Shields, and This is How I Work

Today, I am interviewing Dr. Philip Shields. Dr. Shields is a scholar-practitioner in the field of Executive Leadership. He currently works as a manager for a General Electric Company and as an Adjunct Professor at two universities. His undergraduate degree was in Chemistry and he holds a Master's degree in Management with a focus in Integrated Logistics. His passions include faith, family, flying, friends, and bridging the gap between public and private organizations so that both may benefit through strategic alliances.

Current Job: Manager at FieldCore, a General Electric Company. Adjunct Faculty at the University of Charleston and at Liberty University
Current Location: Unites States and Virtual
Current mobile device: iphones
Current computer: Dell PC and MacBook Pro

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
My research focuses on Executive Leader perceptions of their involvement with forming and sustaining Cross-Sector Strategic Alliances. Public-Private Partnerships are a type of Cross-Sector Strategic Alliances. I am exploring avenues for continuing the research that I started while in my doctorate program. I am also looking for other publication opportunities for excerpts from my dissertation research.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
I do not work in an office with my teammates and other managers of FieldCore and so I depend heavily on my virtual communication tools. I use WebEx and Skype for Business daily. My iphone is the link that keeps me connected to my team and direct reports. During my research I found Skype Recorder to be a very good tool for recording virtual interviews and it was compatible with TranscribeMe, the transcription service that I use for qualitative research. In research I use Nvivo as a tool for analyzing multiple (hundreds) of articles for themes. It proves itself to be worth the cost each time that I use it.

What does your workspace setup look like?
I use two desks for my home office. One desk is a large table with a two monitor VariDesk setup on it, and the other desk is a vintage wood desk with my macbook and an extra monitor. I use my VeriDesk for my full-time work computer or for long writing sessions on papers (I found during my doctorate work that using the standing desk reduced my total completion time for a 18-20 page paper by four hours. I do go to work in the home office sometimes and when I travel to our Tampa, FL home office I take my work laptop and an ASUS usb monitor (game changer for those who travel a lot...you gotta have 2 monitors).



What is your best advice for productive academic work?
Get buy-in from those close to you. Your significant other needs to be supportive, because this gives you the opportunity to write without/with less guilt. Don't try to separate your work from your family...face the challenges together so that you grow together (or you will grow apart...50% of doctorate students get divorced during or immediately following the program).

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
I use a bound planner that I get from Michael Hyatt's company. It is his Full Focus Planner. I find it to be the best planner that I have ever used (previously I used a Franklin-Covey planner system)

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
I also have a nook that has a digital reader function. There are times when listening to a book or an article is the most efficient way for me, like when driving, so I let my nook read the article out loud to me. I then go back and highlight as needed.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
Confidence and Collaboration. I enjoy collaboration and feel that my willing to face rejection (confidence to hear a No) helps me to meet people and partner in research.

What do you listen to when you work?
The genre of music varies but I try to listen to music that I don't mind being on repeat. I use music that I like and that I don't have to concentrate on the lyrics. Recently I have been listening to Rend Collective and NeedToBreathe.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
Jocko Willink's "Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual", and various faith based books and articles. I wake-up each morning at 4:55am and use the time before 8am for self-development. Including exercise in the morning makes me more productive throughout the day.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
Extrovert. I am not a fan of working alone at my house (when my wife and kids are around I am actually more productive), but I do like the flexibility of working remotely. I enjoy working in environments that I can collaborate with and draw energy from others around me. When I am working alone and see myself becoming distracted I make my phone calls or conference calls that I need to make that day.

What's your sleep routine like?
This is where I fail most often. My goal is 10:30pm bedtime with a 4:55am wake-up. Most often it is a 11:30pm bedtime.

What's your work routine like?
First, update my planner by checking my calendar and transferring my to-do list to this day's page. Next, I check my phone and email inbox for urgent messages. Then I start with my to-do list. During the day when I feel sluggish (mentally or physically) I take a break and step out of my office. As I wrap up my workday I review my progress and plan for my next day or few days.

What's the best advice you ever received?
Never give in, Never, Never, Never... Winston Churchill's 1941 speech. Don't quit, that is the quickest way to fail.