Personal – Page 3 – Uncommon Ground

Getting organized in 2018 – Tracking tasks

Last week I described the approach to an Everything notebook that I’m trying this year. With another week under my belt, I can report that it’s going very well. I have a few small things to add to last week’s entry:

I’m using two different fountain pens in my notebook. I use the Rotring I mentioned last time when I’m working at my desk, but I use a fine-point Namiki Vanishing Point (with a blue carbonesque finish, image above from Fahrney’s Pens) when I go to meetings.¹
I make it a habit to review my notebook at the end of every working day so that I can transfer any notes I have to one of my electronic applications, including the task manager I’m about to describe.
I use a Moleskine Classic Notebook (Black, XL) for my notebook.²

I first started tracking my tasks more than 30 years ago when I was a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley. For some reason, I received a catalog from DayTimer, and it struck me as a good way to keep track of my appointments, which were few in those days, and the things I needed to do. I used a 1-page-per-day compact planner for several years before switching to a journal-sized planner. I mention this because it shows that long before I read Getting Things Done, I was following David Allen’s advice: Write everything down in a place where it won’t be lost. As I told many people, the great thing about my DayTimer was that if it went into my DayTimer, I wouldn’t forget about it.³

When DayTimer came out with an electronic organizer in the mid-1990s, I started to use it. I even printed my own pages through the software. By the late 1990s or early 2000s, the redundancy made even less sense than it did when I started, and I stopped using paper. I’ve been through several different electronic task managers since then, and I’ve settled on OmniFocus as the best fit for me, at least for now. Here’s why:

I always have a complete inventory of everything I’m committed to doing,⁴ including dates by which projects (or components of projects) are do. It synchronizes across my MacBook, iMac, iPad, and iPhone, so no matter what device I happen to have handy, I can add an item or cross one off when it’s completed.
It provides a convenient way of grouping tasks into projects, and to making subtasks within tasks. As a result, it works as a lightweight project manager. For example, if I am working on a grant proposal, I’ll construct a preliminary list of all of the things that need to get done before it’s submitted with target dates for completion (e.g., outline proposal, develop budget, share initial draft with collaborators/colleagues, get letters of support, submit budget to Sponsored Programs for approval, submit final draft). The outline approach to organizing makes a lot of sense.
It lets me know when I haven’t completed a task by the time I said that I would. Its icon even tells me how many tasks are behind schedule, which makes me feel exceedingly guilty when I see it. My only options are: (1) finish the task, (2) decide that I can re-schedule (delay) the due date beyond what I originally planned, or (3) decide that I no longer need to complete it, so that I delete it from the list.
It works with Siri. If I’m walking across campus or driving somewhere and a task occurs to me, I simply say “Hey, Siri. Remind me to XXX at YYY” and a new task shows up in OmniFocus that I now won’t forget.
It has a nice “Review” option that I use every Sunday to review the status of all of my tasks.⁵

There are a lot of other electronic task lists out there, and I haven’t tried most of them. OmniFocus is moderately expensive, and it may be more complicated than you need, but if you have a smartphone or tablet and a laptop or desktop, you probably would benefit from using one of the many cross-platform task managers.

One thing I haven’t described is how my everything notebook, paper and pen, integrates with OmniFocus. It’s very simple. At the end of every day I review notes I’ve written in my everything notebook. If there are any notes that require some action, I create a task in OmniFocus. If there’s information in my everything notebook that’s relevant to the task, I use the “Notes” field in OmniFocus to make a note of how to find that information again.⁶
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kent January 15, 2018 Productivity 0 Read more >

Getting organized in 2018 – Trying an everything notebook

Introduction to the series

If you know me or if you read later entries in this series, you’ll see that I’m a bit of a tech geek. Most of what I do to keep myself organized I do electronically with a series of different applications that work across the electronic platforms I use (MacBook, iMac, iPhone, iPad),¹ but I am also a fountain pen afficianado. I carry 6-7 different fountain pens with me in my briefcase, even when I travel. I also find it much easier to take notes with pen and paper when I’m in a meeting. Since I’m in meetings so much as a result of serving as a Vice Provost and Dean, I use pen and paper a lot. Let’s start with how I use them, or more accurately how I am planning to use them in 2018. I’ll describe how I integrate the paper with my electronic platforms in a couple of weeks.

Last year I tried using a Bullet journal. The idea is appealing. It provides a simple way to organize to-do lists, meetings, and notes from every day into a single notebook. If I were working solely analog, I would almost certainly be using a Bullet journal. But I depend heavily on my interconnected electronic devices. I suppose I could carry my Bullet journal with me everywhere and record everything there, but it just doesn’t fit the way I work. I always have my iPhone with me, and if I’m at home or in the office, my iPad and MacBook (and iMac if I’m at the office) are never far away. I can add something to my to-do list if it occurs to me when I’m at the grocery store.² I can even use Siri to add something if it occurs to me when I’m driving to or from work. For me a paper Bullet journal is just duplicated effort, and after a year of trying it, it’s clear that it won’t work for me.

This year I’m trying an Everything notebook. I don’t remember how I ran across the idea, but I think it’s going to work very well. There have only been 4 working days to try it out so far this year, but so far it fits my work patterns much better. There are a few differences between the way I’m setting up my Everything notebook and the way that Raul Pacheco Vega set his up.

My notebook will be strictly black and white. I’ll be using a Rotring fountain pen that I’ve had for a little over 20 years, because its nib is fine and inflexible, so that my notes will be as neat as they can be with my lousy handwriting. I can’t tell you the exact model of the pen, because Rotring no longer makes fountain pens so far as I can tell.
I will be using index pages in the front of the notebook, an idea borrowed from the Bullet journal, instead of labeled plastic tabs.

At the end of every day, I’ll quickly review my notes and transfer to my electronic platforms as needed. The only difference between this and what I’ve done in the past (ignoring the Bullet journal for the moment) is that in the past I used notepads that didn’t leave a permanent record (other than what I transferred to my electronic systems). I expect this to work well for me, and it will provide a physical backup should that become necessary. (more…)

kent January 8, 2018 Productivity 6 Read more >

Getting organized in 2018 – Introducing a blog series

Welcome to 2018! This post is different from others you’ve seen if you’ve been here before. Instead of comments on a recent piece of research, on science policy or science communication issues, or on issues concerning conservation, biodiversity, or the environment, this post begins a series that will share how I organize my work. Why? Off and on through my career I’ve had people ask me about how I get things done. Especially since I became Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate School at UConn nearly 6 years ago,¹ quite a few people have asked me how I can do that and continue to advise graduate students, teach (a little), and make research contributions. By writing down what I do, I’ll now have a link I can send anyone who’s interested.

Today’s post merely announces the series. The first real post will appear on Monday, January 8^th and there should be another one every Monday morning after that for several weeks.²

Important disclaimer: I am not a productivity expert, and nothing you’ll read in this post or the posts that follow has been validated by empirical research.³ What I’m doing to organize myself may not work for you, and what I’m doing right now may not even be the best way I could organize myself. What you’ll read here is what I’m doing now. Adopt and modify anything that seems like it might be useful. Ignore anything that seems pointless. If you have suggestions for how I could organize myself better, please leave a comment. Not only will you help me, you’ll help other people who read this.

A note on software I’ve been a Mac user since 2009 or 2010. I also use an iPhone and an iPad. I know that some of the software I’ll mention, e.g., Evernote and Scrivener, is available on Windoze and Android. I’m pretty sure that some of it isn’t, e.g., Ulysses and OmniFocus. There are probably Windoze and Android equivalents of anything I mention, but I don’t know what they are so I can’t comment on them. When I am aware of alternatives to software I use, I’ll mention them, but I probably haven’t tried them. That doesn’t mean what I’ve chosen is best. It just means that I’ve found what I use works well for me.

I should also mention that I have no connection with any of the software products I’ll mention other than as a satisfied user. If you decide to purchase any of them, none of the companies will send me a royalty. Just as you should adopt and modify any advice you think might be useful and ignore what isn’t, you should use your own judgment about whether or not to purchase any of the products I use. (more…)

kent January 1, 2018 Productivity 0 Read more >

Remembering Mimi

Seventeen years ago a driver at Bill’s company was headed south on Route 2 towards Glastonbury. He swerved to miss a paper bag in the road and because he didn’t want anyone else to damage a tire running over a bag of beer bottles, he pulled over and retrieved the bag. Instead of beer bottles, he found two tiny black kittens inside. He was late for a delivery, but he returned to the office and left them there. What follows is a very long story, but at the end of the day Bill took them to our veterinarian. They were so tiny he didn’t know what they could eat. The vet gave Bill some kitten formula, and he brought them home. They were so close to starvation that their bodies shook as they lapped up the formula. They were so small that I could easily hold both of them in the palm of one hand. It was several weeks before they were big enough to climb the stairs to the second floor of our house.

By Sunday night we had named them. Mimi because she was so sweet and kind, as in Puccini’s La Botheme. Maxwell (“Max”) because he is a lovable and ungainly like Maxwell Smart.

Yesterday we lost Mimi. Her health had been declining for more than a year, but in the past week and a half the decline became precipitous. There was a sadness in her eyes, and she was happy only when one of us held her. She passed away peacefully a little after 4:00pm. Max is still healthy, but the three of us, including Max, are heartbrokn. Our house feels empty, but Mimi’s suffering is over. She lives on in our memories, and we will hold her close to our hearts forever.

kent October 14, 2017 Personal 2 Read more >

This is cool (if you’re a typography nerd)

A portion of the fontmap of Google Fonts generated by a designer from Ideo (http://fontmap.ideo.com)

Kevin Ho, software design lead at Ideo, created a fascinating tool to explore the 750+ typefaces available on Google Fonts. I’m not a designer,¹ and I use only a small number of fonts,² so I don’t need this tool, but I’ve been fascinated by printing and typography for several decades. I can’t stop playing with this fontmap, and I had to share the fun. There’s a nice article at Fast Company describing the project and how Ho used two open source algorithms to create it. Maybe future versions of Word will provide a fontmap to explore choices instead of vertical lists.
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kent May 15, 2017 Personal 0 Read more >

Photos from Bonn

Christmas market in Bonn, December 2016. Click on the photo to see the entire album on Flickr.

Late last November I visited Bonn to participate in a small workshop sponsored by the Crop Trust (https://www.croptrust.org/) intended to develop criteria to assess whether germplasm collections of crops and crop wild relatives are sufficient to meet the Millenium Development Goals. I was there not because I know a lot about crop germplasm (I don’t), but because my expertise in analysis of genetic structure in plant populations and my work on plant conservation genetics provided some (I hope) useful context for the discussions.

I didn’t have a lot of time to explore Bonn, but I did have a couple of hours on the afternoon I arrived and most of the morning on the day that I left. If you’d like to see the photos I thought were worth saving, click on the image above to visit a Flckr album where you can see them all.

kent April 17, 2017 Personal 0 Read more >

I feel appreciated

This week the University of Connecticut expressed its appreciation for employees. I am nearing the end of my 31st year with the University, and I’ve heard through the grapevine that I’ll be receiving a “surprise” gift recognizing 30 years of service at a meeting I’m attending next week. On Tuesday, I presented a gift to an employee of The Graduate School recognizing 35 years of service as a state employee. I was surprised and gratified to receive the unofficial “Certificate of Awesomeness” pictured above from members of The Graduate School staff. I feel very appreciated – and fortunate to have been a part of UConn for more than 30 years.

kent April 14, 2017 Personal 0 Read more >

A few photos from Dublin

I visited Dublin a couple of weeks ago for meetings of the Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies (DDoGS) from Universitas 21 (http://www.universitas21.com/article/research/details/55/deans-and-directors-of-graduate-studies-ddogs). The meeting began on 20 March with a workshop on “The Future of the Doctorate.” It continued on 21 and 22 March with discussions of graduate research project grants, the possibility of a 3-MT competition for master’s students, plans for a supervisor development project,¹, and a discussion of wellness and mental health. This was the fifth DDoGS meeting I’ve attended, and I’ve always found them useful.

There is a direct flight from Hartford to Dublin. I left in the evening on 18 March and arrived in Dublin a little after 5:00am on 19 March. Since there weren’t any activities until 6:00pm that night, I spent most of the day on the 19th wandering around Dublin taking photographs. I also spent the day on 23 March taking photographs, since I didn’t return home until the 24th. The photograph above is of Temple Bar, one of the most famous pubs in Dublin. If you’d like to see more of the photographs I took while I was there, here’s a link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/billandkent/albums/72157679862838432.

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kent April 10, 2017 Personal 0 Read more >

Catching up over the holidays

It’s been a busy few weeks since my last post (November 30). I was in Bonn when that post appeared for a meeting at the Crop Trust focused on developing metrics to assess whether global genebanks have the right types and amounts of diversity to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, specifically to meet this target under Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.

Almost immediately after I returned, I left for Washington, DC and the annual meetings of the Council of Graduate Schools. When I returned, many items requiring attention had accumulated, and some unusually challenging end-of-the-semester student issues emerged. That’s a long way of saying it’s been nearly a month since my last post. I hope to begin posting regularly again. We’ll see if I manage to do it.

I will be busy this spring, too. In addition to my duties as Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate School, I’ll be teaching my graduate course in population genetics, EEB 5348. I just started rebuilding the course website after losing it due to a server meltdown last summer. I’ll have notes for individual lectures on-line again in the next week or two. In the meantime, a compiled version of all of the notes is available on Figshare. If you’re a LaTeX geek, a more current version of the notes (in LaTeX, with EPS graphics) is available on Github.

kent December 28, 2016 Personal 0 Read more >