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Calm productivity for academics
Tag: sustainable productivity
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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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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…
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[Note] Treat perfection like a process
“Treat perfection like a process, not an achievable state. Perfectionism is crippling to productivity. I’ve known academics that can’t even start projects because of perfectionism.” – Matt Might
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Steven Johnson (2011) Where good ideas come from
Steven Johnson’s “Where Good Ideas Come From” reframes creativity as a social and environmental process rather than individual inspiration. The book identifies seven innovation patterns emphasising interdisciplinary collaboration, incremental progress, and learning from errors. For academics, it offers practical strategies for cultivating creative environments through “liquid” networks, serendipitous encounters, and embracing adjacent possibilities.
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[Note] Specify concrete actions
“Your goal, for example, shouldn’t be to get your next academic paper accepted into a better journal, as it doesn’t specify a concrete action you can schedule and execute. A better approach might be to focus on banking 15 hours of deep work on your paper per week: this you can control, and it’s likely…
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Avoid information overload with an effective knowledge cycle
A systematic knowledge cycle helps academics transform information overload into meaningful scholarly output. The process involves purposeful capture, regular processing, deliberate connection-making, and consistent creation. Rather than processing everything perfectly, this approach converts selected information into valuable insights through intentional research, note-taking, and writing practices that compound over time.
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Academic stand-up meetings
Academic stand-up meetings, borrowed from software development, offer a practical solution to meeting overload in universities. Participants stand and briefly answer three specific questions about progress, current work, and blocking obstacles. These focused sessions typically last 15 minutes maximum, creating valuable time and mental space for deeper meaningful academic work.
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Build an academic prompt library for AI using templates for common tasks
Learn how to create and maintain an academic prompt library to streamline your administrative tasks. This practical guide shows you how to start a personal collection of pre-written, tested prompts that reduce cognitive overhead and create space for meaningful work, helping you develop sustainable systems for academic productivity.
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Quality over quantity in academia: Balancing institutional demands with sustainable practice
Discover how embracing academic productivity through quality over quantity can transform your work life. Instead of constantly expanding workloads, learn to focus on meaningful impact, sustainable practices, and deeper connections. Doing less, but doing it better, can lead to more valuable academic outcomes.
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Schedule personal time first, work second
Most academics make the mistake of scheduling work first and trying to fit life around it. Discover why reversing this approach is key to achieving better academic work life balance. Learn how prioritising personal commitments in your schedule can lead to more focused and productive work hours.
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Building momentum: Why rhythm beats volume
Building academic momentum isn’t about working longer hours or multitasking. It’s about finding your natural rhythm and maintaining steady progress. Learn how to move beyond busy-ness to create sustainable patterns of meaningful academic work through practical steps like protecting creative space and leaving intentional re-entry points.