Comments on: Academic Productivity, Part 1

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:52:37 +0000

academic parenting issues are definitely on tap for at least one post in this series, ideally more

By: Erin Copple Smith

Erin Copple Smith — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:30:06 +0000

Great tip, Jason, and one I’ve heard before from recent PhDs. I remember a few years ago, one of my grad school pals (who had recently finished and gotten a job) told me, “I didn’t know it was possible to write a journal article in a week, or a conference paper in a day, but it is. When you have to do it that way, you just…do it.”

Excellent advice, and something I understand even better now that I’m a VAP with limited time on my hands during the school year!

By: alexj

alexj — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:17:35 +0000

My recc for productivity: have some kids.

While I know this sounds facetious, and it is in part, I have found that there’s something important to learn from this life-enhancer/work-challenge that is relevant to (my) productivity. Having children (or a dog or hobby or partner outside the professions) insures that you STOP, usually for quite awhile every day, and do something that feeds another part of you deeply. It also means (for me) that when I am working, I am SO HAPPY to be working, and I am much more focused and task-orietned then I was when I had all the time in the world (which I would squander frivolously).

The facetious part is of course in relation to the gender inequity usually written into this equation, and how having kids (and a spouse or partner) has been proven to actually help male academics and slow female academics, and I think this would be a great topic for this conversation at a later date.

Thanks for beginning this conversation!

Alex

By: Jeffrey Jones

Jeffrey Jones — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:54:54 +0000

In grad school, we read the appendix to C. Wright Mill’s The Sociological Imagination, a section called “On Intellectual Craftsmanship.” I recently reread it and have assigned it to my graduate students as well. I also assign Wayne Booth’s (forget his coauthors) The Craft of Research. What both suggest is the “churn” (my word, not Booth’s or Mill’s) between a file or folder one keeps on one’s research subject, and constant writing about that subject. The suggestion is a helpful corollary to what you describe here–the lack of segregation between research, writing, reading, and everyday tasks.

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:15:31 +0000

thanks not only for the great tip, but for not picking one we had in tomorrow’s post 🙂

By: Jason Mittell

Jason Mittell — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:29:26 +0000

One addition to these other good pieces of advice: most tasks will expand to fill the space/time you allot for them. So if you give yourself a month to write a syllabus/conference proposal/manuscript review, it will take a month; try giving yourself only a week (or less). The marginal difference in quality will certainly be outweighed by using that time for something else productive – or having your juices rejuvenated by investing time into your personal life.