Calm productivity for academics
Category: Establishing Systems
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How to share what you’ve learned
You’ve figured something out that could help others. But how to share what you’ve learned without seeming like a know-it-all? The skill isn’t whether to share, it’s knowing what’s worth sharing, where it belongs, how to frame it, and when staying quiet is the better move.
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How to test your assumptions (before they waste more of your time)
You’re probably not testing your assumptions—you’re confirming them. Before your next big decisi, use this method to test your assumptions: write down what you currently believe, generate alternatives that would require different approaches, then actively look for evidence that would prove you wrong. Either you’ll find it, or you’ve genuinely tested your belief.
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AI for academics: From prompting to professional practice
Most approaches to AI for academics stop at prompting techniques. But the academics most comfortable with AI have progressed through three stages: substitution, adaptation, and transformation. This progression develops context sovereignty and professional taste—capabilities that turn AI from occasional tool into integrated professional practice. Here’s how to move beyond mere prompting and integrate AI use…
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You’re saving everything and finding nothing—here’s why
Your research is scattered across browser bookmarks, note apps, screenshots, and email drafts. When you need information, you can’t find it. The solution isn’t better organisation within each platform—it’s refusing to use multiple platforms. One capture method, one structure, for every source format you encounter.
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Stuck on a big question? Here’s how to break it down
Here’s what I’ve learned when trying to answer big questions: the question itself is the problem. Complex questions like “How do I make this work?” feel appropriately serious, but they’re actually asking you to solve for multiple variables simultaneously. The technical term for the solution is tractability—a process of breaking complex questions into components you…
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Academic communication systems: Why they fail and what you can do about it
Academic communication systems create cascading failures through unclear accountability, fragmented information, and human bottlenecks. Communication systems in other sectors solved these problems decades ago through clear governance and infrastructure. This framework shows what university-based staff can do—from individual practices to institutional advocacy—to create meaningful change.
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Work that shouldn’t exist: What to do when your role is a workaround
A lot of academic work seems to exist purely to compensate for broken institutional systems. When your primary function is forwarding emails, duplicating data, or routing queries, you’re not adding value—you’re revealing systemic dysfunction. Personal productivity strategies can’t fix organisational failures, and acknowledging these patterns is the essential first step.
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Why reading more won’t help you learn faster
Most of us treat learning like filling a bucket—we think that if we consume enough content then understanding will emerge. But after months of podcasts, videos, and articles about AI, I had breadth but couldn’t take positions. The problem wasn’t reading too little. It was reading for breadth when I needed depth. Here’s how to…
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A three-stage strategy for navigating conflicting advice
Modern life demands decisions about topics outside our expertise—from managing children’s screen time to choosing healthcare approaches or evaluating educational options. We’re drowning in conflicting advice from experts who seem to contradict each other. Here’s a three-stage strategy that transforms information overwhelm into systematic understanding you can actually use.
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Four questions for making sense of contradictory information
When credible sources contradict each other, ask four questions in sequence: Who’s making this claim and why? What’s the actual evidence behind it? What are they comparing it to? What are they not telling you? This systematic approach works for a wide range of decisions you need to make, no matter what area of your…
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Annie Duke (2023) Quit
Annie Duke’s “Quit” provides essential tools for academics who face intense pressure to persist despite diminishing returns. Her research-backed frameworks offer systematic approaches to complex decisions about research directions, career transitions, and resource allocation that typically rely on intuition or cultural pressure. The book’s combination of cognitive psychology research and practical application makes it particularly…