Head Space

Calm productivity for academics

Category: Establishing Systems

  • Managing information overload with fewer inboxes

    Learn how to manage information overload by streamlining your information channels. Rather than managing multiple inboxes across email, reference managers, and note-taking apps, discover practical strategies for consolidating your information flow. Create a sustainable system that reduces cognitive overhead and creates space for meaningful work.

  • Goal-driven motivation: Writing when you don’t feel like it

    Goal-driven motivation is the incentive to do something I know is valuable when I don’t feel like doing it at all.

  • [Note] Learning something new is difficult

    “Learning a new city and institution requires a lot of effort and puts a lot of cumulative strain on our brains. Our brains are forced to create new patterns of familiarity by the simple act of navigating a new learning management system or new city. Those small tasks add up quickly. When setting research and…

  • Managing academic reading lists

    Managing academic reading lists can feel overwhelming. Rather than trying to read everything, treat your reading list like a river – selectively sampling valuable content while letting less important items flow past. This mindset shift helps create a more sustainable and effective approach to managing academic literature without the guilt.

  • [Note] The laziest thing I can do at any moment is what I should be doing

    “I try to make sure that the laziest thing I can do at any moment is what I should be doing.” – Matt Might

  • Academic skill development: Excellence through deliberate practice

    Most professionals have structured approaches to skill development, but academics often just do the work without deliberately improving their craft. Apply deliberate academic skill development practices to enhance your writing, reading, and analytical abilities – transforming routine tasks into opportunities for meaningful professional growth.

  • [Note] Information is exchanged but knowledge is constructed

    “Information is exchanged. Knowledge is constructed.” – Amy Rae Fox

  • [Note] When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive

    “When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive.” – James Gleick

  • Turn email threads into coffee breaks

    Replace lengthy email threads with brief face-to-face conversations. Learn how shifting complex discussions from your inbox to in-person meetings can save time, improve relationships, and create space for meaningful work.

  • Academic writing workflow with Obsidian

    Transform your fragmented academic writing workflow into an integrated system that enhances your thinking and productivity. Learn why traditional approaches to managing academic writing across multiple platforms may be holding you back, and explore how connected note-taking tools like Obsidian can create a more natural, sustainable writing environment.

  • Developing a systematic approach to academic skill development

    Discover how academic skill development goes beyond mere experience. Learn the four essential elements of expertise development and how to apply them to crucial academic skills like writing, email management, and meeting facilitation. Get practical strategies for creating your own expertise development system, even without institutional support.

  • Use small routines to build good habits

    Building good habits when you’re short on time means that you reduce the scope of what you want to do, but stick to the schedule. James Clear (2018). Atomic Habits. Building a habit means that you integrate the activity into your daily routine, even if you can’t do the activity at the scale you’d like.…