Any GTD practitioners in the academic world?

GTDAcademic

GTDAcademic

Practicing GTD in the academic world.
We all heard David say GTD is for anyone: from C-level executives to soccer moms. This wide range surely includes those that roam the halls of universities and other academic institutions. Academia can be a funny place though. Working at the frontier of science can be messy, unclear and frustrating, but also beautiful and rewarding. Two professors can be each other's boss in depending on the context they meet in, there are students, and then there is you, trying to get things done in the middle of it all.

Are there any other academics active on the GTD forums? Active, retired, support staff? How has GTD helped you in the academic world? Is it different from "traditional business" for you (if there is even such a thing)? What are your tools? What contexts work for you?

Let's talk!
 
As you know, I am a professor of microbiology and infectious diseases at the University of Iowa!
 
shankara said:
I am a professor of theoretical physics. I have been practicing GTD religiously since 2008, when I was a PhD student. It has helped me in my work in more ways than I can count!
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In what ways has GTD been helpful?
 
I think the list of all big and small advantages for which I credit GTD is too long, as I said. But broadly speaking there have been two main benefits:
  • Creativity: The "mind like water" state has enabled me to see solutions to problems where others could not.
  • Holisticness: As you obviously know, academic work involves keeping just too many plates spinning in the air: grants, mentorship, admin work, office politics, outreach, career development, etc. I wish my job were simple and monastic in nature, but it isn't. Managing this complexity is particularly critical for early-career professors like me. GTD has been the master key to tackle this to my satisfaction. Without GTD, I suspect I would never have those few hours every month when I can really connect to my work's real purpose of uncovering natural laws. This is very pleasing and I think brings a very valuable authenticity to my work life.
 
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I'm managing a grant support office at a university. So, I'm not an real scientist, but I am academically trained in Computer Science and am close to the research and researchers nontheless. Before becoming a group manager, I was both a grant developer and project manager, so helping researchers write project proposals and manage research and innovation projects. GTD has really helped me stay on top of a heavy workload.

One thing that struck me is that when I was developing grant proposals and manage projects, the scope is clear. There is either a projectplan to follow, or to create within the boundaries of the funding agency / call for proposals. Sure there were obstacles, but the end goal was always very clear. When I became a manager this mostly went away. Things like research acquisition strategy and team development are the day to day, but are in essence more areas of focus. The clear end goal I used to have has been replaced with things that do not necessarily have a best solution. And I need to be careful to give these appropriate attention in a world of email and small requests.

I can imagine this is the same for you right? There is no best solution for your research vision / direction and you need to constantly re-adjust when new papers are published. How do you handle these area of focus kind of things in your systems?

I'm using todoist with actions linked to projects and only 1 next action tag (contexts don't really resonate with me right now). I have filters to show e.g. "all my tasks concerning contracts" to focus my attention.
 
I have been a professor now for 32 years. As a senior professor with a large research group I manage including graduate students, Postdocs, and research assistants, this alone is a huge area of focus as I have to oversee this operation, which is funded by three different NIH grants. Then we add on teaching at the graduate level - two different courses - and many guest lectures in other courses. Then I have collegiate, university, and multiple national responsibilities as members of multiple committees and boards. Then of course is my personal life. I have been married for 42 years, have three adult children, and three granddaughters. All of this creates quite a mix to manage. GTD has been pivotal in helping me to do all of this. I receive 100-150 emails per day and many have tasks and/or projects embedded within them. The GTD workflow in processing and organizing all of this has been crucial for my sanity.

So, I have my own approaches in the engagement step. I have found over the years that I need considerably more structure in my days than standard GTD preaches. As everyone knows on here, I am an avid time blocker to protect my time and to be able to do focused, deep work on many of my projects (I am a big fan of Cal Newport). Just deciding in the moment what to do next has been a recipe for disaster for me as I need to plan carefully to manage my many commitments. Now with that said, we ALWAYS are deciding in the moment no matter how much of a schedule we create. The 3-fold nature of work has shown me many times that my plans sometimes have to be altered considerably based on new inputs. This is okay; one simply has to be be responsive to one's current state and what the ecosystem is now. But I MUST block time for myself on my calendar so that I can have focus.

One practice I do that is critical is the "front burner - back burner" approach. This was described beautifully in the book entitled "Working Clean" by Dan Charnas. I routinely move projects around like this as my situation dictates. I use the "Later" section in Nirvana as my back burner.

GTD is part of my life and has allowed me to thrive in the academy. I obviously have modified some aspects of it but that does not mean I am "not doing GTD". Deep work and focused time for this is critical for professors to advance in our fields. But to be creative, we have to have a clear mind. GTD provides that for me. Cheers everyone!
 
I'm an assistant professor in the humanities finally lured out of my forum-lurking habits by this thread.

GTD helps me to . . .
  • Have a complete inventory of my commitments so I can say yes or no to new potential projects with integrity. As a junior professor, I don't always have the luxury of straight-up saying no, especially to service requests internal to my department or school, but I've been successful sometimes with using what I know about what's on my plate already to negotiate deadlines or request additional assistance such that the work stands a solid chance of getting done to everyone's satisfaction. I can recognize though when one more peer review request would put me over the edge or when a "good" professional opportunity is misaligned with my areas of focus and thus better left to someone else.
  • Recognize when when my investments in teaching, scholarship, and service (internal to the school and to the wider profession) are getting dangerously out of balance or when I'm neglecting one of those areas (usually research!) to the long-term detriment of my tenure portfolio.
  • Turn problems into projects, which gives me perspective and a better sense of control. I'm still in the learning phase of GTD and have rarely experienced "mind like water," but at least I get to swim in calmer seas than I would without GTD!
  • Achieve something resembling a precarious sense of ever-evolving work-life balance between my roles in academia and other spheres of life. (I'm not a soccer mom - my kids are still too little and physical coordination is definitely not manifesting itself as one of my older child's gifts - but as my commitments to family and community and work change, GTD will help me to keep up and mostly cope!)

I have a few contexts pertinent to my role in academia, including:
  • @Campus - actions I need to handle while I am physically on campus, a sort of specialized subset of @Errands that will take me beyond my @Office context
  • @LMS - actions to knock off while logged into my university's online Learning Management System
  • @Desk - which for me means a big, flat surface to spread out with a project, whether at home, in my office, in the library, or in a classroom or conference room
  • @Grading - this is a quasi-context on probation in my system at the moment based on the rationale here on "Handling Grading in GTD." It gives me an overview of all my next actions related to getting things graded across different classes. I use a simple digital task manager that allows multiple context tags per item, so my grading actions all have a more standard context as well, usually @Computer or @LMS.
I have agenda lists for each of my standing committees, for my department chair, for the academic dean, for each of my doctoral student advisees, and for the student worker who helps coordinate event planning and promotion.
 
Livtally said:
I'm an assistant professor in the humanities finally lured out of my forum-lurking habits by this thread.
Click to expand...
Welcome! Thanks for the interesting post. You really seem to understand what GTD can do for academics. I wish GTD had been around when I was an assistant professor. Please let us know how your @grading context works for you- I’d be afraid I would avoid that context at all costs. And which “simple digital task manager that allows multiple tags” are you using?
 
Currently, I use Microsoft To-Do (migrated over from Wunderlist). In it, I can use hashtags to designate various contexts, and I have one list that is just all my contexts lined up within it as individual "tasks." When I want to work by context, I can just click through those hyperlinks to the context I want.
  • #Computer
  • #Email
  • #Home
  • #Campus
  • #Errands
  • Etc. . . .
To-Do's search feature can pick up next actions with multiple tags - so, e.g., a search for "#Home #Computer" yields a more specialized subset of available actions.

It's actually a bad time of year to trial a context like @Grading because it should be pretty empty for a while after I polish off a few straggling projects from students who requested official extensions and have now finished their outstanding work. I'm in the middle of an early-summer revamp and am testing out a few things that may or may not stick long-term. I eliminated @Library, for example, because it usually didn't have many things in it and I often forgot to look at it (and thus retrieve/return books) when I was @Campus!
 
I have found it difficult to impart GTD to my students and postdocs. First, it is not clear to me what the best way of doing this is: just ask them to read the GTD book? give them a mini-lecture on GTD? ask them to take training? Second, discussing non-physics issues isn't always considered a good thing in our environment, no matter how important I think these non-physics issues are.
 
shankara said:
I have found it difficult to impart GTD to my students and postdocs. First, it is not clear to me what the best way of doing this is: just ask them to read the GTD book? give them a mini-lecture on GTD? ask them to take training? Second, discussing non-physics issues isn't always considered a good thing in our environment, no matter how important I think these non-physics issues are.
Click to expand...
I think introducing GTD to students and postdocs is hard, in part because of the nature of the relationship. There is also the issue of lived experience. I came to GTD after trying other “time-management” approaches, chiefly Franklin and Covey. None of them were particularly effective for me, but when I read David Allen’s work, it immediately resonated with my experiences. If someone doesn’t perceive the need, it’s hard to motivate them. Of course, the jump from postdoc to faculty often leads to a very big expansion in responsibilities, and the need for GTD is much greater. I take a low-key ”model and mention” approach. That is also consistent with the cultural issues involved in faculty teaching extracurricular material.
 
Livtally said:
I'm an assistant professor in the humanities finally lured out of my forum-lurking habits by this thread.

GTD helps me to . . .
  • Have a complete inventory of my commitments so I can say yes or no to new potential projects with integrity. As a junior professor, I don't always have the luxury of straight-up saying no, especially to service requests internal to my department or school, but I've been successful sometimes with using what I know about what's on my plate already to negotiate deadlines or request additional assistance such that the work stands a solid chance of getting done to everyone's satisfaction. I can recognize though when one more peer review request would put me over the edge or when a "good" professional opportunity is misaligned with my areas of focus and thus better left to someone else.
  • Recognize when when my investments in teaching, scholarship, and service (internal to the school and to the wider profession) are getting dangerously out of balance or when I'm neglecting one of those areas (usually research!) to the long-term detriment of my tenure portfolio.
  • Turn problems into projects, which gives me perspective and a better sense of control. I'm still in the learning phase of GTD and have rarely experienced "mind like water," but at least I get to swim in calmer seas than I would without GTD!
  • Achieve something resembling a precarious sense of ever-evolving work-life balance between my roles in academia and other spheres of life. (I'm not a soccer mom - my kids are still too little and physical coordination is definitely not manifesting itself as one of my older child's gifts - but as my commitments to family and community and work change, GTD will help me to keep up and mostly cope!)

I have a few contexts pertinent to my role in academia, including:
  • @Campus - actions I need to handle while I am physically on campus, a sort of specialized subset of @Errands that will take me beyond my @Office context
  • @LMS - actions to knock off while logged into my university's online Learning Management System
  • @Desk - which for me means a big, flat surface to spread out with a project, whether at home, in my office, in the library, or in a classroom or conference room
  • @Grading - this is a quasi-context on probation in my system at the moment based on the rationale here on "Handling Grading in GTD." It gives me an overview of all my next actions related to getting things graded across different classes. I use a simple digital task manager that allows multiple context tags per item, so my grading actions all have a more standard context as well, usually @Computer or @LMS.
I have agenda lists for each of my standing committees, for my department chair, for the academic dean, for each of my doctoral student advisees, and for the student worker who helps coordinate event planning and promotion.
Click to expand...
Very nice. Be sure to block time for yourself for your research. I mentor junior faculty across the country (I am a mentor through the National Mentoring Network) and a grant-writing coach. It is imperative that you protect your time.
 
mcogilvie said:
I think introducing GTD to students and postdocs is hard, in part because of the nature of the relationship. There is also the issue of lived experience. I came to GTD after trying other “time-management” approaches, chiefly Franklin and Covey. None of them were particularly effective for me, but when I read David Allen’s work, it immediately resonated with my experiences. If someone doesn’t perceive the need, it’s hard to motivate them. Of course, the jump from postdoc to faculty often leads to a very big expansion in responsibilities, and the need for GTD is much greater. I take a low-key ”model and mention” approach. That is also consistent with the cultural issues involved in faculty teaching extracurricular material.
Click to expand...
I agree with @mcogilvie. I have found that by example students, postdocs and junior faculty will become intrigued. I have had colleagues ask me in meetings how I never seem to forget things and follow-up with people and how "organized" I am in meetings, whether they be 1:1 or in groups. They ask how I do it. Aha....the door opens!
 
I have found it difficult to impart GTD to my students and postdocs.
Click to expand...
I've not even attempted - many of my students are at a phase of life where the volume of "stuff" they have to manage is much less, and my two current doctoral students are both combining graduate studies and full-time careers and seem to have systems that work effectively enough for them. Rather than actively "evangelize" for GTD, I also would be inclined toward the lead-by-example approach mentioned by @mcogilvie and @Longstreet and share more information upon request. (From another perspective, sometimes I wonder if GTD reinforces my sense of imposter syndrome - I keep up some semblance of outward competence only because I have this system going that most other people don't know about!)

Be sure to block time for yourself for your research. I mentor junior faculty across the country (I am a mentor through the National Mentoring Network) and a grant-writing coach. It is imperative that you protect your time.
Click to expand...
Noted! This has been a real struggle recently with reduced availability of childcare and in-person schooling for the younger set during this pandemic we've been having and service-load creep. (Since faculty retirements within my school have outpaced full-time replacements, there are just fewer people left to do the same amount of work.) In my little world, this week is dedicated to resting and recharging and making plans for jumpstarting two stalled research projects with book potential so those progress respectably over the summer. Otherwise, it will be too easy to succumb to temptation to prioritize the smaller stuff with submission deadlines looming in the next few months.
 
Relating to the original poster's question, there's a small trove of information related to practicing GTD in academia in some older posts on this forum. Among them, you'll find some academics still currently active around here weighing in with insights and feedback.

Here's a partially annotated "threadography" of some posts I've found helpful.
* These last two threads refer to a podcast interview hosted on GTD Connect but also contain other helpful information.
 
Livtally said:
Relating to the original poster's question, there's a small trove of information related to practicing GTD in academia in some older posts on this forum. Among them, you'll find some academics still currently active around here weighing in with insights and feedback.

Here's a partially annotated "threadography" of some posts I've found helpful.
Click to expand...
That's a fantastic "threadography" that you have compiled. Thank you!
 
Livtally said:
Relating to the original poster's question, there's a small trove of information related to practicing GTD in academia in some older posts on this forum. Among them, you'll find some academics still currently active around here weighing in with insights and feedback.

Here's a partially annotated "threadography" of some posts I've found helpful.
* These last two threads refer to a podcast interview hosted on GTD Connect but also contain other helpful information.
Click to expand...
I see you are a true academic, and I am awed by your meta-scholarship about using gtd improving scholarship. The question now is whether any of this will raise our h-indices. Do forum posts count as refereed publications?
 
Livtally said:
Relating to the original poster's question, there's a small trove of information related to practicing GTD in academia in some older posts on this forum. Among them, you'll find some academics still currently active around here weighing in with insights and feedback.

Here's a partially annotated "threadography" of some posts I've found helpful.
* These last two threads refer to a podcast interview hosted on GTD Connect but also contain other helpful information.
Click to expand...
This is indeed impressive! I have been on the forums long enough that I remember a lot of these and of course, have forgotten a lot of these past discussions. Thanks for building this!
 
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