Preprints or not?

Since I've been publishing with authors who always upload preprints, I wonder if it is a common practice. I like the idea of a preprint, but on the other hand, I seem to be too lazy/overwhelmed/... to actually upload preprints of my work - so I rely on other to do so.

To map the practice of preprints better, I ran a poll on Twitter. Here are the results and its wake:

Disconnecting from work

Some time ago, I ran a poll on Twitter about disconnecting from work during holidays. Most respondents feel the same way about it as me - we try, but it's hard. I want to disconnect, but I'm afraid I'll miss something and I am afraid my mailbox will be too full when I return. But on the other hand, I haven't been fully disconnected and able to enjoy my holidays completely for the last 6 years - courtesy of my smartphone.

I originally wrote this post during my vacation - when I planned not to do any work or any email or anything at all, and then planned to remove my email client and not take my computer along for the 1 week of my 3 week vacation away from home. It went very well, and I hope to do the same again this year - that's why I ended up postponing this post until closer to the summer holidays :)

You can find the wake from this poll here:

On setting writing targets

At the beginning of the year, I ran a poll to learn if academics set writing targets for the New Year. I often see other blogging academics mention that they want to submit X papers during the year, and was wondering how common this is. Personally, I don't set targets, but I do make a list at the beginning of every semester which papers I intend to submit - for conference papers, this is related to deadlines, and for other papers I use my list of papers in progress and papers to write to see which paper(s) I should be working on.

While I sometimes set writing targets for myself (I want to write 1000 words on this paper today and then move to the next task), I have started to move away from setting such targets, since these only work when I need to draft text. It doesn't help when I need to type up lots of formulas, or when I'm making drawings for my papers. And some papers are just harder to put together than others. So, I now prefer to dedicate myself to focused attention for a certain amount of time per day to make sure a writing project moves forward.

t looks like my approach is not so strange - most respondents of the poll don't set goals or don't set writing targets.

You can find the results of this poll and its wake here:

PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: The Challenges of Parenting and Academia

This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands.

These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those of you interested in pursuing a research position in the Netherlands.

If these posts raise your interest in working as a researcher in the Netherlands, even better - and feel free to fire away any questions you might have on this topic!

"As a serious academic, you should spend all your waking hours working on your research and you should not have a life or family," some seem to argue, or that seems to be the undercurrent of some of the "I've had 4 hours of sleep over the last 6 days to finish the proposal" kind of stories you may hear some academics tell each other at conferences. Such a work rhythm is not sustainable - not for single academics, and not for academics with families.

With that said, being an academic parent can pose some challenges. As I'm learning more each day about what it means to be mom and an academic, and I'm interviewing fellow academic parents (which children in all age categories) about how they work as academic parents. While my conclusions about parenting is that every person does what works best for his/her family, I wanted to list a few challenges that are typical for academic parents and some ideas on how to overcome them.

1. Geographical isolation

If you moved away from "home" for an academic position, you may be geographically isolated from your family and friends - and not have anybody to rely on when you need an extra hand. Not being able to drop off your child for a few hours with the grandparents can be quite an inconvenience.

But wherever you are, you need a support network - it takes a village to raise a child, so you will need to build your village. If you don't have any family nor friends around, try to pair up with other parents who may be in the same situation (find them at your kid's or kids' activities). You can help each other out, and find moral support along the way. If you are having a hard time making friends with other parents, see if you can bring a grandparent to help you out for a few months (for example, when you return to work after parental leave). If none of these options are available for you, see if you can hire more help.

2. Low income

If you are/become a parent during your PhD years, you may be on a low budget. If your spouse traveled with your for your PhD and is not allowed to work because of visa restrictions, you may suddenly need to feed and house an entire family on a student stipend. While this is not impossible, and many students do so every year, you may find it challenging.

If you are on a low budget, see what your childcare options are for your budget, and if you possibly can get financial support for childcare from the government or your institution. If your spouse is not allowed to work, at least you save on childcare. To make ends meet, you may need to have a good look at your current expenses, and drastically cut down on certain categories. I've written about controlling your budget and ways to save money in the past - I personally think it's better to learn to live frugally for a few years, rather than to return home after graduate school with the burden of depth. Remember, this too shall pass.

3. Travel demands

If you need to travel to conferences or to a field site for research, parenting can become challenging. Travel is demanding for parents at many levels. When you are the mom of a nursing baby, traveling will mean that you need to accommodate pumping and perhaps send milk home. When you are a single parent, traveling overnight will require your child to stay with a trusted person overnight - which you may not have when you are geographically isolated. When your children are older, you will need someone to take care of all logistics at home when you travel.

There's no single solution to this challenge. Options include traveling with your child(ren) and a family member to see your him/her/them during the day, hiring more help for short periods of time, as well as cutting down on travel. I've significantly reduced travel over the last two years, and nothing bad has happened to me.

4. Irregular lab hours

If you need to run experiment on a certain time schedule, which may involve irregular hours, you will find that childcare can be difficult to arrange. Your partner may be able to jump in, but that's not always the case.

The key here is planning. If you know that a period of intense experimentation in the lab is coming up, start to look for your options in advance. Can you get extra hours in daycare? Do you have friends or family that can chip in? Can your partner trade hours at his/her job? Should you hire extra help? Should you delegate part of the experimental work to a student?

5. Inflexible tenure clock

Depending on the conditions of your tenure track, you may find that the tenure clock does not stop when you become a parent. If you work with chemical substances in the lab, it may be impossible to continue experiments during pregnancy. You may fall behind the tenure clock during maternity leave, and then you may decide to work part-time instead of full-time, but the tenure clock won-t adjust to your new schedule.

If you are faced with an inflexible tenure clock, speak up about it. It's not a fair system, and it should be changed so that parents don't get cast to the side because of the tenure clock. Ask for your options. Insist where you can - this battle is worth a fight, as it will improve the conditions for the generations that come after us.

6. Working environment

If you are constantly hearing other people brag about all the hours they put in to their academic work, you may feel out of place. If you are the only parent in a research group, you may feel that your colleagues don't understand your struggles.

To make academia more sustainable, we need the working environment to change and to be able to accommodate people with different backgrounds and with different situations at home. To solve the world's pressing problems, it's all hands on deck - we can't afford to lose good researchers simply because the working environment is hostile towards parents. If you feel that your colleagues don't understand your struggles, build your own network of academic parents to help each other out and to share your best advice.

How sleep-deprived are academics?

I recently ran a poll on Twitter to see how much or how little sleep academics are getting. The majority of the respondents of the poll (70%) are getting between 6 and 8 hours of sleep per night, as recommended. However, 20% of the respondents are getting less than 6 hours on average, which may lead to adverse health effects in the long run. A few years ago I wrote an article on why depriving yourself of sleep is a bad idea, and what you can do to get better sleep.

Here are the poll results and the wake of the discussion:

Peer review and the journal impact factor

I recently ran a poll on Twitter to learn if academics change the way they review depending on the journal impact factor. As for myself, I won't be "milder" if I'm reviewing for a lower impact factor - the methods still have to be justifiable, and the paper still needs to be well-organized and well-written - in my opinion.

What I learned from this poll is that most of the respondents have the same attitude. For some high impact journals, the perceived future impact of the work is more important, so that may change the way in which the reviewer prepares his/her report and recommendation - but at the end of the day, the science still has to be good to merit publication, regardless of the venue.

Here's the wake of the poll:

The carbon footprint of academic conference travel

The latest IPCC report on climate change worries me deeply - I can't ignore the alarm bells this international panel of scientists have set off. Generally, I try to be make environmentally friendly choices: I eat plants, I walk my commute, I buy second hand clothes and furniture as much as possible, my kid is in cloth diapers, I recycle as much as possible etc etc. But the elephant in the room for my lifestyle is my traveling. I used to get excited about the opportunity of going to a conference halfway around the world. Now, I worry about the carbon footprint of my trip.

So I ran a poll on Twitter to see if I'm the only one - and I learned we as academics have heard the alarm set off by our fellow scientists. Now let's go one step further and take direct action in our teaching and our profession (how? I am still trying to figure that out!). Here's the poll and its wake:

Tools for planning

I ran a poll on Twitter to identify which method is most popular for planning: lists, tasks, or a calendar. The most popular method seems to be lists, but more than anything, I learned from this poll that every person has his/her own method. After all, this conclusion is not surprising, as learning how to organize oneself and developing our own methods is a typical part of the learning process in the doctoral years and beyond.

You can find the results of the poll and its wake here:

PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Academic Honesty and the Dark Side of Academia

This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands.

These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those of you interested in pursuing a research position in the Netherlands.

If these posts raise your interest in working as a researcher in the Netherlands, even better - and feel free to fire away any questions you might have on this topic!

Academia has a dark side. Some scholars have published work that turns out not to be reproducible, as a result of data fraud or even complete data fabrication. You can read plenty of stories about such dishonesty on Retraction Watch - some are stories about errors in methodology, and researchers jumping too quickly to conclusions, whereas other retraction are the result of fraud.

By now, the dark side is present at all levels. Undergraduate students can buy their essays (and typing this sentence makes my stomach churn, as I'm sure this post will be flooded with spam comments from paper mills). Graduate students can buy their thesis online. And some professors who may feel pressed for extra income contribute as ghost writers to this system. The for-profit cycle of academia is complete (and has sent some students and academics completely out of orbit).

In an extreme case, a dean who exposed academic fraud in South Africa was murdered. One of the men accused for murder is a former colleague of the murdered dean. When people have a lot to lose, they can become extremely desperate.

Paper mills

Paper mills are websites that churn out on-demand essays for students at all levels. And the use of paper mills is on the rise. According to this article from the Times Higher Education "one large essay-writing company says that it has seen a 20 per cent increase in the number of UK customers in the past two years."


Ellis, Zucker, and Randall (2018) studied this problem and managed to find the cracks in the system of paper mills to learn more about their business model. Their analysis show that the paper mills are a mature business, and they offer some recommendations for academics to detect fraud.

If you want an intriguing look into the life on the other side of the paper mill, read "The Shadow Sholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat" by Dave Tomar. I found myself wanting to yell at the author many times for making such poor choices in his life, but all in all, it's a fascinating read.

And also: thesis mills

You can also order your PhD thesis online. Out of curiosity, I've filled out a request form twice. The first one got lost in my archives (I think I submitted the request late 2012, early 2013), but I remember asking for a quote for 100,000 words of a PhD thesis in 48 hours, with the topic of my PhD research (which includes experiments). They got back to me with a quote and a confirmation they could deliver the requested thesis. Ha ha ha.

The second time (November 2017) I filled out a request for a quote, I was limited to 10,000 words of PhD level work, to be delivered in 48 hours. Price tag: 275,175.95 British pounds. Again - I laughed in disbelief, posted about it on Instagram, and called it a day.



But some PhD candidates do take this route for their PhD thesis. Here you can read how a Turkish scholar pressed a paper mill for answering questions about delivering a PhD thesis, and he mentions the following jaw-dropping results of an investigation: "The Boğaziçi University Centre for Educational Policy Studies examined 600 post-graduate papers (470 master’s theses and 130 PhD dissertations) submitted between 2007 and 2016, and found that 34.5 percent of them were heavily plagiarised. The global average for plagiarism is 15 percent."

Predatory journals

Another part of the underbelly of academia are predatory journals. These journals, following the open access publishing model, are only interested in cashing the article processing fee (APC), often with no or minimal peer review. While the general idea is that scholars are "tricked" into publishing with predatory journals, in some cases the authors know very well what they are doing, and use such publications to pad their list of publications.

Until 2017, Jeffrey Beall curated the Beall's list of predatory journals. Unfortunately, after receiving threats. You can find an archived version of the list here. By now, other players, including the anonymous "Stop predatory journals" are or were working on updated versions of the list, but many scholars are afraid of continuing this work because of the threats Beall received.

Sadly enough, predatory journals nowadays are the venue of choice for antivaxxer and climate change deniers to publish - resulting in these articles showing up as "proof" in a number of blog posts and news articles by these groups.

If you are not sure if the journal you want to submit your work to is legit, ask your colleagues if they have heard about the journal. Check some recent publications in the journal to see if these appear to be studies that have gone through peer review. Beware of emails addressed directly to you asking for a publication, especially when they talk about a (conference) paper you recently published. Similarly, don't accept invitations to serve on the editorial board of such journals (note that some predatory journals list academics on their editorial board who are not even aware of the fact that they are listed there - in case of doubt, send an email to the "famous" researcher on the editorial board with the title and abstract of your work to see if your work is suitable for the journal).

Hijacked journals

While less common than predatory journals, hijacked journals are according to Wikipedia: "legitimate academic journals for which a bogus website has been created by a malicious third party for the purpose of fraudulently offering academics the opportunity to rapidly publish their research online for a fee." Here's an archived version of Beall's list of hijacked journals. To my best knowledge, there's currently no up-to-date list of hijacked journals. When in doubt, ask around if you are submitting your work to the correct journal/website!

References:
Ellis, C., Zucker, I. M. and Randall, D., 2018, "The infernal business of contract cheating: understanding the business processes and models of academic custom writing sites," International Journal for Educational Integrity, V. 14, No. 1, January 11, pp. 1.

Acknowledgment: thanks to Prof. Pacheco-Torgal for the inspiration for part of this article, and the links to a number of the articles referred to in this post.

Academia's favorite pens

On a lighter note, I recently ran a poll on Twitter to see what most of us use for writing - and, not surprisingly, the ballpoint pen won the poll! I like writing with a fountain pen and until the end of my first master's I always wrote in either pencil or fountain pen, but then I started to write with the free pens I get at conferences as my studies advanced and I got poorer.

Here's the result of the poll and its wake:

I am Suzan Verberne, and This is How I Work as an Academic Parent

Today, in the subseries about academic parents in the "How I Work" series, I am interviewing Dr. Suzan Verberne. Suzan Verberne (1980) grew up in Twente in the east of the Netherlands. In 1998 she started her academic education at Radboud University, Nijmegen. She obtained her master degree in Natural Language Processing in 2002 and worked in a small company for a couple of years. From 2005 to 2009 she was a PhD student, also at Radboud University, on the topic of automated Question Answering. After her PhD she worked as a postdoctoral researcher from 2009 to 2017, on a variety of projects involving Text Mining and Information Retrieval. As from March 2017, she is an assistant professor (tenure track) at Leiden University for the Data Science Research Programme.Check out her homepage.

Current Job: Assistant Professor at the Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science
Current Location: Leiden, the Netherlands
Current mobile device: Samsung Galaxy S7
Current computer: MacBook Pro 15 inch

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I am an assistant professor (tenure track) in the Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science at Leiden University. I am a data scientist, specialised in text data. I am affiliated with the university-wide data science research programme in which I supervise projects on text mining and information retrieval in the biomedical, health, legal, archaeological and policy-making domains. I currently supervise 4 PhD students, a handful of undergraduate students, and I teach two courses per academic year (link to my homepage).

I live in Nijmegen with my husband and two children (3 and 6 at the time of writing, almost 4 and 7). I have a part-time contract so that I can be at home with my children one day a week. My husband also works 4 days and we have 3 days of childcare.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
GMail, Dropbox, Todoist. Also: a text editor that allows for advanced searching/replacing and keeping track of multiple files in parallel (currently BBEdit). TeXshop for writing (although my collaborators have caused me to use MS Word as well), and PyCharm for coding.

What does your workspace setup look like?
I have two offices in two different university buildings, I work from home and from the train (my moving office!) I fully depend on my MacBook Pro that allows me to work effectively from everywhere.

Office number 1

Office number 2

What is your best advice for productive academic work?
Plan your long-term important work (proposal writing, paper writing) as first thing in the morning. The rest of the day you will be flooded with other work and you won't have time to write, which is frustrating at the end of the day. If you reserve the first hour (or one-and-a-half) of the day for the long-term priorities you are sure you progress with the important things over the course of weeks.

What is your best advice for academic parents?
Take vacations with your family, both long and short. Take real weekends: go out with your family, be active. Taking time off has a truly positive effect in the long run. Plus, it always strikes me that the best memories of my children are from family vacations. Being away together.
Also, try not to work on days with the children. Postpone the work to the evening when they are sleeping.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
I have overview spreadsheets: one for papers, one for projects and proposals. I colour the lines based on status (in preparation, submitted, rejected, in revision, accepted) and keep track regularly.
For task planning, I use Todoist, which allows me to set dates and priority levels. I learned not to be frustrated to not finish all my tasks but to be satisfied with finishing the high-priority tasks.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
Not that I am aware of. We have an iPad at home but I am typically not the person using it (all other family members seem to love the thing).

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
Planning and organisation are my talents. I can be very efficient and deadline-oriented. (A pitfall is being too deadline-oriented and doing too many on the last day; the closer the deadline the more efficient I become.)

What do you listen to when you work?
Mostly nothing. I don't bother to hear co-workers or co-commuters talking. I do have Spotify and listen to an occasional playlist when the train company is too noisy (current playlist: 90s Rock Anthems).

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
A book about the history of the neighbourhood we will move to next month (Hees in Nijmegen).
I don't find a lot of time for reading honestly. On vacations, when there is no Netflix and work to fill my evenings, I read a number of books. The rest of the year very few.



Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
Extrovert. I communicate a lot, both in written and in spoken form. I try to be open and honest to colleagues, supervisors and students. I feel that I failed when someone tells me I was not clear to them.

What's your sleep routine like? Has it changed significantly since becoming a parent?
Roughly 22.30 to 6.30. When I became a parent it changed dramatically in the sense of: going to bed earlier, sleep with many interruptions, and getting up earlier. Now my children are getting older and sleep through most of the nights, I am happy with a regular sleeping schedule where I go to bed between 10 and 11 PM and wake up between 6 and 7. To be honest, I have better sleeping habits now than before we had children because I often was away in the evenings and went to bed too late, which caused me to be tired during daytime.

What's your work routine like?
Different depending on the week day because my husband and I share the responsibilities for bringing the children to childcare/school and picking them up again.
On Mondays I work from home or have meetings that are relatively close by, so that I can bring and pick up the children. On Tuesdays my husband brings and picks up the children and on Wednesdays he does not work -- those two days I leave for work at 7.15 in the morning and return around 6.15 in the evening so that I can have dinner with my family and bring the children to bed. On Thursdays I don't work. On Fridays I bring the children to daycare and then leave for work, starting later. I return home before 7 in the evening, unless I have work events to attend in the late afternoon.
I often do some work in the evening but typically only for one hour, finishing some tasks and replying to emails (between 8 and 9 -- when the children are sleeping).

How is it like to be a parent where you work? Are your colleagues supportive and understanding?
The combination can be difficult sometimes. I have to say no more often than colleagues without children. I only attend one or two international conferences per year and I have not been to conferences outside Europe for 7 years. Also I have to set priorities for events at work and miss a number of relatively important events such as the opening of the academic year, and the monthly drinks at the institute. However, I have not experienced complaints from direct co-workers about not being available late in the afternoon, or evenings, or Thursdays.

How much maternity or paternity leave (if any) did you get and was it paid leave?
I did not use any. I have a part-time contract.

Which childcare services are you using? Does university provide support in finding and funding childcare?
I believe they do, but we have childcare close to where we live (and close to the school).

How is your parenting style?
Difficult question! When the children were younger I was leaning toward attachment parenting: I breastfed both children up to two years, carried them in slings and we co-slept regularly. Most of that was motivated by pragmatism, not so much a principled decision I must admit.
At the same time, we have always be working parents relying on professional childcare from a young age (3 months, which is standard in the Netherlands).
Now they grow older I cannot say we have a particular parenting style. There is quite some talking involved, we try to take our children seriously (although toddler tantrums are sometimes difficult to rationalise), and I think we have a little bit of focus on social relations -- the importance of having friends and contacts you trust and are loyal to. We have a few strict rules on the things we find important (the 'pick your battles' strategy).

What's the best advice you ever received?
In parenting: "het is een fase" ('it is a phase'), which means that challenges with children (infants/toddlers/preschoolers/...) often go away after a while; you can hardly influence that.
In work: this image

I am Misty Paig-Tran, and This is How I Work as an Academic Parent

Today, I am starting a new subseries within the "How I Work" series - a series for academic parents. My first contributor is Dr. Misty Paig-Tran. Misty Paig-Tran, PhD. is an Assistant Professor of Biology and runs the Functional Anatomy, Biomechanics, and Biomaterials lab at California State University Fullerton. She earned a B.S. in Marine Biology and a PhD in Biology with an emphasis in Animal performance.

Current Job: Assistant Professor California State University Fullerton
Current Location: Fullerton, CA
Current mobile device: IPhone
Current computer: Both Mac and PC

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences. My lab is called the FABBLab or Functional Anatomy, Biomechanics, and Biomaterials Lab. Most of my work explores how organisms perform in their environments. Sometimes this leads to new technologies for human use.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
We use the basic adobe suite of products often. We also use 3D cad programs and AMIRA visualization software. As for tools we use our material tester a ton. We also make use of microscopes (compound and Scanning electron microscopes, laser cutters, 3D printers, and high speed videography. Sometimes we need basic tools like drill and R software for data analysis.

What does your workspace setup look like?
I do have my own office, a labspace, and I make use of a home office as well.



What is your best advice for productive academic work?
For me, I use lists. Every morning I make a list of tasks to be completed. I keep longer term lists on my whiteboard where I see it daily until I complete the task.
Also rewards. If I am writing a grant, I write a solid paragraph then get a bit of social media time (5 min) or chocolate.

What is your best advice for academic parents?
Treat the day as if you are at a normal 9-5 job. I try to make realistic goals for what fits into the time I have here. Once I go home, my time has to be devoted to my kids (they are 1 & 3). By the time I get them both to sleep, I am too pooped to do more academic work.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
I am super conventional in that I have a running list of projects taped on my desk and a list of where each project is in terms of completion on my white board in my office. I’m really good at ignoring reminders on my phone or on a google calendar, so this is my best organization method.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
Ipad when I go to meetings for sure.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
Oh geez, this is totally a loaded question. Probably my experimental approaches, but honestly the thing I get asked most is how do I balance work and home life with two kids while still publishing.

What do you listen to when you work?
Ok so full disclosure I cannot listen to anything and write. I am one of those people who know the lyrics to everything, so my brain will focus on music or the podcast while I am trying to think. If I am grading, I try to listen to something light like post-modern jukebox.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
Currently I am reading a book called The checklist manifest because I realized that paperwork is not my strength and I am trying to learn to cross my T’s and dot my I’s so that I do not annoy the wonderful folks in the bio office. Usually I read some sort of fantasy novel because it is light and I don’t have to think to hard about the characters while I am at work.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
100% introvert. If I could just sit in my office and work I would. That said, people stop by my office all the time to chat and catch up. Sometimes this gets a bit overwhelming, kind of like going to a scientific conference and having to interact with people (with whom I really do want to socialize with) for days. By the end of the conference I feel like I need a week in solitary confinement. Interacting with people via social media is great fun because it also lets me experience a conversation without being forced to input my opinion unless I choose to.

What's your sleep routine like? Has it changed significantly since becoming a parent?
By 10pm I am done. By 4:30am or 5am I am up because my 1 year old refuses to sleep past that time. Naturally I like to stay up late and wake up late. So yeah, my schedule has totally changed since becoming a parent. My best work pre-kids happened at around 9 or 10pm. Now I am lights out at this time.



What's your work routine like?
8:00 am teach human cadaver based anatomy or ichthyology
mid morning = office hours/emails/prep for lecture/coordinate lab
late morning = meetings with colleagues or students about research projects
lunch
early afternoon = paper/grant writing
late afternoon = either more of the same or instruct students/experimental design/seminar/ other tasks
4:30 – off to get the kids.

How is it like to be a parent where you work? Are your colleagues supportive and understanding?
My colleagues are luckily 100% supportive. We are a family friendly university and no one bats an eye if I have to leave early for a doctor’s appointment or if I come to an after hours event with kiddos in hand.

How much maternity or paternity leave (if any) did you get and was it paid leave?
I got almost a semester of paid leave and yes, this was leave coupled with sick leave and disability. I got two extra weeks because I had c-sections.

Which childcare services are you using? Does university provide support in finding and funding childcare?
I use a Montessori school around the block from campus. I do not get extra support from the university. I found it myself and have not seen something through the university to help with this, though it may exist and I just don’t know about it. Childcare is ridiculously expensive especially when you have two kids. Basically this is where my paycheck goes and my partner pays the mortgage.

How is your parenting style?
Hmmm…I guess I don’t know the buzz words for types of parenting styles. I am somewhere between strict (somehow I will instill manners into a three year old – mostly there now) and somewhat hands off meaning I do try to let my kids make mistakes and learn from them.
When it is family time, I guess I am sort of all in and not getting work done – which is probably good for tenure but not good for my sanity. Toddlers are a special kind of challenge.

What's the best advice you ever received?
I guess I could say about what? About academia? I once was told that the tenure process is awesome because it is a guaranteed job for two years at a time and then if you get tenure it is a job for life. Having worked in restaurants, etc where I know people got fired all the time (no I have never been fired), that seemed like a great gig.

For my sanity: Never be the smartest person in the room. I tell my students on the regular that I feel dumb every day. If I don’t feel dumb, then I am not learning something new.

For parenting: Try to go with it and not react immediately. I tend to get frustrated when I have to say something over and over, which is pretty much a daily occurrence with a 3 year old. Stopping and taking a breath has been magical for my sanity and for my kids seeing a balanced and not-so-stressed-out mom. Does it always happen? No. Are there days when I question my life choices trying to balance the academy and small kiddos? Absolutely. But really, it is my dream job and my dream family, so I don’t have too much to complain about.

How long is a reasonable amount of time for peer review?

After a discussion about how fast or slow the review process is these days, and agreeing with a colleague that 3 weeks is a reasonable amount of time, I wanted to know if other academic think alike. The majority of the voters do agree with my first idea, and voted for the option "between 2 and 4 weeks".

Here's the wake of the poll:

I am Steven Shaw, and This is How I Work

Today, I am interviewing Dr. Steven R. Shaw in the "How I Work" series. Steven is associate professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University in Montreal. Before entering academia, he had 17 years of experience as a practicing school psychologist. From 1997 to 2004, he served as lead psychologist and associate professor of pediatrics at The Children's Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina and Medical University of South Carolina. In 2000, the South Carolina Association of School Psychologists recognized him for "Outstanding Contributions to Education" for his work on addressing overrepresentation of minority groups in special education and development of teaching techniques for children with borderline intelligence. In 2010, he received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Faculty of Education at McGill University. In 2012, he received the President’s Award from NASP for his innovative research-to-practice efforts. He has published a few papers, chapters, and such; talked to many groups of folks; and has also published four books. His fifth book, Applying recent advances in the science of intellectual disabilities to classroom and clinical practice will be published by Springer in early 2019. He is on the editorial board of six international scholarly journals, former editor of School Psychology Forum, and current editor of the Canadian Journal of School Psychology.

Current Job: Associate professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology
Current Location: McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada
Current mobile device: iPhone 6 (in the market for an upgrade because a friend just made fun of me for my old phone)
Current computer: SurfacePro III

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I tend to work on a specific area of research for a while, feel a pull to move on to something else, and then make a change. In some cases, I write a book to create closure on the topic. My new research concepts involve exploring the intersection among implementation science, open science, and evidence-based practices for the profession of school psychology. I am in the process of converting all my student-conducted research to entirely open science techniques that include registered reports, data sharing, and transparent analyses.
I have also completed 6 years of significant administrative responsibilities and am very excited to return to some decent levels of research productivity.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
I use Slack for communication with students and project organization, a Pomodoro timer, and Dragon naturally speaking because I dictate all manuscripts and emails to improve speed and flow of thought.
I use RescueTime to troubleshoot my work habits if I find that I am falling behind. I use sheets on Google Docs to keep track of my major tasks in the day, writing productivity, and status of projects.

What does your workspace setup look like?
I prefer working from home whenever possible because it is about a 90-minute commute to the office. So working from home saves me about three hours in the day. I do all my creative work standing and have a standing desk situation in my office and at home. I find that the standing desk increases energy and mental alertness. I do sit to read. I have a yoga mat in both workplaces to do a quick stretch during the five-minute Pomodoro breaks.



What is your best advice for productive academic work?
Always have a big picture and purpose in mind. What am I trying to accomplish? Where do I want these ideas to be in five years? When I have these questions answered, then the only work I do supports those big picture ideas. At that point, the work is satisfying, fun, and has a purpose.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
I have several files and tabs on Google sheets. My students have access to all these so that they can see what project I am giving attention to at any given moment.
I also have a notebook in which I write meeting notes and tasks for the day. I do this during my train commute to and from work. When I get to the office or return home, then I transcribe action items into a calendar or to do list.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
I have a nice pen (it is old technology). I have had the same Waterman rollerball pen for 11 years. Usually it is used only to sign my name. Yet, I still use it to make notes at meetings.

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
Consistency. I am a bit of a grinder. I do some work every single day.
Also, I try my best to ensure that no matter how many tasks have deadlines or how far behind I am on my work that I always have time for people who are important to me or otherwise need my time and energy. I am always busy, but I always have time for you.
Finally, I have a mantra that I try to meet every day: read 100 pages, write 1000 words, laugh often, and support others.

What do you listen to when you work?
Classic jazz, hard rock/metal, or silence.

What are you currently reading? How do you find time for reading?
I read three or four journal articles every morning before I get started. Some are part of my duties as a journal editor, some are from links supplied by Twitter people, and some are papers discovered by my students.
I usually read nonacademic books in the late afternoon or evening. I tend to read about one book per week. Currently, I am rereading: Kodokan Judo: Throwing Techniques by Sensei Daigo. My favourite book that I read this summer is I Fight for a Living by Louis Moore.
Time is not something that you find it is something you prioritize. So I never really understand that question. It is like asking if I can find the time to breathe or eat.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? How does this influence your working habits?
Extremely introverted. Although I am social and have friends and family, I enjoy being alone. I have no difficulty working for days or weeks on end without seeing anyone but family.

What's your sleep routine like?
I go to bed between 10 and 11 PM and wake up at 5:50 AM. Morning routine consists of five-minute meditation, 15-minute brief stretching, walking the dog, shower, coffee, and on my way.

What's your work routine like?
I tend to read the news and be silly on Twitter for an hour every morning. Then I read journal articles and answer emails. After that, it is time to take on the first scheduled task of the day. I just do as much as I can as fast as I can and try not to suck (a paraphrase from @chuckwendig).

What's the best advice you ever received?
Just do what you do. If that is not appreciated in your current work environment, then go find a place that is a better fit. I know that will not work for everyone, but I have already had a career before I became an academic. So I do not take the world of academia too seriously. I prefer to think that I am still school psychologist who works in knowledge generation and translation, and is preparing the next group of professionals. That works better in my head than thinking of myself as a professor or academic.

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.

Are we teaching lectures at the ideal length?

I recently ran a poll on Twitter about the length of the lectures we are teaching, and what we find the ideal length. Of course, the ideal length for a lecture depends a lot on the topic - I wouldn't be able to teach a laboratory class in a 50 min lecture. The classes I teach are 1h20 min, and it seems to be a good length of time for lectures. For exercises, however, it often feels short. On the other side of the spectrum sits Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where classes with exercises used to take 4 hours when I was a student. And of course, sometimes four hours would feel very long.

Here are the results of the poll and its wake:

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!)