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Building and sustaining momentum
Sustainable productivity comes from finding your natural rhythm, not from being busy all the time.
Focus on meaningful core work with AI
New research shows how AI tools might transform academic productivity by enabling knowledge workers to focus more on core intellectual work while reducing administrative burden. Like software developers using GitHub Copilot, academics can leverage AI to streamline workflows, work more autonomously, and explore new research directions – particularly benefiting early-career researchers.
Something sustainable and humane
“I want to rescue knowledge work from its increasingly untenable freneticism and rebuild it into something more sustainable and humane, enabling you to create things you’re proud of without requiring you to grind yourself down along the way.” – Cal Newport
Always busy but no progress
In academia, it’s common to feel perpetually busy while at the same time, not making any meaningful progress. True productivity comes from establishing a steady rhythm of shipping important work, not just completing a high volume of tasks. Building and maintaining positive momentum is key to sustained progress.
Cal Newport (2016) Deep Work
Deep Work by Cal Newport explores how focused, undistracted work boosts productivity and fulfillment in a world filled with digital distractions. Through strategies and routines, Newport shows how cultivating deep work can lead to higher quality output, helping professionals, especially busy academics, achieve more meaningful results in their work.
Email-free mornings: The simplest productivity tip you’ll ever see
Stop letting your inbox dictate the outcomes of your day by aiming for at least 2 hours of email-free mornings.
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.
It’s not your job to read everything
Information management is about improving the quality of information in my stream, not creating an infinite list that I need to finish.
Lazy productivity
A productivity approach where you tailor your environment so that the easiest, most natural action aligns with your goals. By doing so, even when taking the path of least resistance, it contributes to your overall objectives.
An update on the Head space project
Six months after launching the Head space project, I’ve made a few changes to the website redesign and pricing structure, and wanted to share a few plans for the future. I launched Head space a little over 6 months ago, with five courses that I thought were core to academic work, and the idea that…
Set up your environment to make it harder to work from home
What would you do if you couldn’t work from home? One of the biggest benefits of being an academic is that you can work anywhere, any time. And one of the biggest problems with being an academic, is that you end up working everywhere, all the time. But imagine getting home in the evening and…
Planning to take a real break
I’m about to go on annual leave over the summer break and usually, this period sees me making lists of All The Things I’m going to finish over the holidays. The thinking is that I’ll start the new academic year afresh, and feeling invigorated because I’ve finally (FINALLY) cleared the ‘to do’ list. What it…