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Planning & executing
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Posted by Amontillado
Aug 9, 2021 at 02:05 PM
As Eisenhower, or Captain Picard, or somebody we’ve all heard of before once said, no plan survives contact with the enemy. :-)
Posted by Andy Brice
Aug 9, 2021 at 02:32 PM
I find that my paying customers keep me quite focussed! Obviously it is a bit different if you are an academic. But perhaps you can ‘construct’ some sort of customer (e.g. an academic peer who you promise to get a draft to by next Friday).
On the other hand, I would have thought wide ranging research and serendipity are an import part of being an academic? So don’t beat yourself up about it!
—
Andy Brice
https://www.hyperplan.com
https://www.easydatatransform.com
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Aug 9, 2021 at 04:45 PM
Hi Steve - though R stands for resources, for academics it’s worth seeing the R standing also for research.The research of others, which most academics need to peruse on a regular basis, is indeed a key resource, in terms of knowing one’s field, but also as a process which leads to questions and ideas an academic might not otherwise have considered.
Daly
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
Correction: The R stands for Resource, not Research.
>
>Here’s another source of information:
>
>https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/
>
>Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>Have you ever looked into Tiago Forte’s PARA system? I haven’t used this
>>myself, but it does look to me as if it makes sense and could be useful
>>for you. A quick intro. PARA stands for:
>>
>>- Projects (things you do that have a beginning and and end)
>>- Ares of Responsibility (things you have to work on but they don’t
>end)
>>- Research
>>- Archives
>>
>>Here’s a long introduction:
>>
>>https://fortelabs.co/blog/why-i-organize-areas-in-para-with-a-taxonomy-of-functional-areas/
>>
>>You can search the web and find a lot of other information.
>>
>>Steve
Posted by Ken
Aug 9, 2021 at 04:50 PM
I feel your pain as my mind often wanders when I have work to be done. But, in fairness, I find a bit of wandering healthy for the brain and it keeps me sharp. But back to your question, I use a variety of techniques, but not necessarily in any special order. Timeframes and deliverables are the largest drivers for me, even if they are far out on the horizon. If I know something has to be done by sometime, then that at least orients me on a large scale. Sometimes breaking down the tasks/actions/work/etc. helps me to at least understand the magnitude of what needs to be accomplished. I do not necessarily need to schedule it or add time blocks, but it does tell me what I will eventually need to scale to get there.
Often times I’ll grab a piece of paper and just jot down two or three important things that I know I want to work on or try to accomplish in the immediate future. The rest can wait. This helps me focus. It can be done with software as well, so pick what works best for you. If I am having trouble focusing, I try to do a Pomodoro for any length of time, just to force myself to not get distracted. I may not be productive, but at least I am focused on the issue at hand. And, if I am in a groove, I try to stay in it. Email can run my life, and while I try to be responsive, sometimes I am my own worst critic. Not everything need an immediate response. Some things do, but not everything.
Other than that, it is sometimes a game of inches, but I’ll take whatever forward movement I can get. Eventually the scenery changes.
Regarding the wanderings, place any information in some type of notebook and come back to it later. Just because a page is on your screen does not make it urgent. I am terribly guilty of that, and am learning to use notebooks to hold information until I can get back to it.
Good luck,
—Ken
Posted by David Garner
Aug 9, 2021 at 09:23 PM
I have an engineering background, but was raised by a teacher populated family and neighborhood. I can’t really relate to the publish or perish lifestyle. Further, I have not spent any time -doing- any of this, but I’ve read, with interest, about Zettelkasten in lots of places recently.
If you have not heard of, or already studied about the Zettelkasten method, it sure sounds like a system which was designed for the kind of thing you describe. https://forum.zettelkasten.de/ would be a good place to start, if you are not already familiar with the method.
My simple-minded understanding of it, is to take lots of atomic notes and connect them together manually or using any number of computer aided mechanisms.
I hope someone, here, might find this useful.