Design your workflow so that you spend more time, doing less.

Academics are constantly under pressure to fit more work into the time we have. So when we find ourselves with more time, for example, during a relatively quiet semester, we tend to shift our attention towards trying to fit more in.

The purpose of designing a systematic workflow isn’t to do more. If anything, it’s a commitment to doing less, but doing it really well.

A few months ago, I recorded a conversation with Dave Nicholls where we discuss his workflow. Dave is an extremely productive and thoughtful academic who constantly impresses me with his level of high-quality output. In this conversation we talk about the tools and services we both use as academics, as well as our intentions that guide those choices. Ultimately, we agreed that ‘workflow’ is about creating space; not space that you can fit more stuff into, but space that allows you to take longer on the work that matters. You can also catch up with Dave at his excellent Paradoxa substack.