An organizing schema for organizing

A Writing Club member who was feeling disorganized this week, came up with a nice way to start dealing with this problem. In response to one of the questions on the progress log ("What are your specific goals for tomorrow?"), she made the following list.

Here is my organization strategy for putting that mountain of papers in its place:

• Step 1: (Create the categories) Create paper folders based on subject/topic (eg: stat notes; emotion articles; pilot analysis; chapter feedback etc)

• Step 2: (Start filing) Start filing papers into the folder created above.

• Step 3: (Revise categories) Go through papers that have not found a home and see if you want to create more subfolders or combine some.

• Step 4: ( Containerize): Now when all papers have found a home, based on sub folders, if any are too large- house them all in a box/ file holder, with sub-categorizations if it helps.

• Step 5: (Create a reference): List all folders and boxes and stick it where you can see it. This way next time you find a paper lying around you know where to throw it.

• Step 6 (Create flexibility): Have a folder where you can throw active stuff to be filed later. DO not allow it to overflow.

• Step 7- Enjoy the fruits of your labor !
  

Maybe a variation of this schema can be useful for your piles of paper.

Do you have time to think?

If you race around all day like a chicken with your head cut off, running from one task to another without time to think, you may be paying a price, according to some experts. This article from BBC news looks at how setting aside time to think can help you feel better and be more productive. Some food for thought as you start contemplating the upcoming semester. Just don't think about eating chicken!

Death by tenure track

A 45- year old Japanese chief engineer working for Toyota had worked "nights and weekends and often traveled abroad" for six months. When he died of heart failure, a local Japanese government agency ruled that his death had been caused by overwork, reports an article today in the Washington Post. Apparently death caused by working too much has become so common in Japan that they have a word for it -- karoshi.

The thing is, this description -- working nights and weekends and often traveling abroad -- reminded me of so many of the professors I talk to. Could it be that academia is quietly killing tenure-track professors?

I've never heard of any statistics that indicate that academics go to an early grave. I do see a lot of people, especially pre-tenure, who suffer from what are probably stress-induced illnesses.

Perhaps there is no increased incidence of karoshi in academia because the tenure track has an ending. Your body says, "Hang in there; there is hope; this will end." Or maybe the relative break that the summer semesters provide allows the body to recover.

Either way, the fact that it is generally accepted in Japan that overwork can kill you provides a cautionary tale. Work too much, for too long, at your own peril. Learn how to balance your life, so karoshi won't get you.

Procrastination is...

Procrastinate (and recognize yourself) by watching this fantastic animation.

What's your crap quotient?

I just got off the phone with a wise and experienced tenured professor client who I'm coaching. She recounted some advice that one of her mentors had given her long ago. This person had been an extremely prolific writer with many publications.

She said, "Your crap quotient is too low."

What did she mean by this? One way to look at it is this: If every article you send out is accepted for publication, it probably means that you could have sent out more. In order to learn how to write better, you need to write more. In order to improve your research and writing, you need feedback. Even article rejections help you learn. You might find out what kind of article is or isn't appropriate for that journal. You might get suggestions from reviewers, that as much as you hate them, are helpful for improving the article.

If you're holding on to your work until it's perfect, then you're not publishing as much as you might, and you're probably holding yourself back in other ways. Because creative ideas come from regular writing, there's a good chance that you're not as creative, along with not being as productive as you might have been.

I find that many of the professors I work with have a much lower opinion of their own work than everyone else does. If you're the kind of person that tends to be too self-critical, consider releasing more of your work into the world as soon as possible. You'll find out sooner whether you're on the right path or not, you'll improve your work, and you'll be freed up to write some high-quality work.

Do you hold on to your work too long, fearing that it's crap? Take this wise professor's advice, and increase your crap quotient.

"ABD" -- what does it really mean?

I thought I knew what the definition of ABD was. It was exactly the same as defined here in Carnegie Mellon's University Doctoral Candidate Policies for All But Dissertation (ABD):

After the completion of all formal degree requirements other than the completion of and approval of the doctoral dissertation and the public final examination, doctoral candidates shall be regarded as All But Dissertation(ABD).

I have, though, occasionally run into the term ABD being used as a somewhat disparaging designation for one who fulfills the formal degree requirements of the Ph.D. but never finishes the dissertation, and then quits the program. Most recently, I saw it in What They Didn't Teach You in Graduate School: 199 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career, by Paul Gray and David E. Drew.

Number 9 of their helpful hints is one that I strongly agree with: "Remember that a Ph.D. is primarily an indication of survivorship." They go on to say, "You stuck with it until it was done, unlike the ABDs (All But Dissertation), people who complete all the other requirements but bail out before they finish their dissertations."

In hint number 12, in which they remind the reader that "You must have the Ph.D. in hand before you can move up the academic ladder," they say "ABD's may be much abler and more brilliant than you but they didn't possess the stamina (or the circumstances) to finish the degree. In our judgment, being an ABD is the end of the academic line."

My guess is that the authors, as professors, have had to give such stern advice to their own students who were wavering about finishing the dissertation.

My only quibble is with their terminology. What do you think is the correct use of the term "ABD?" Should it refer only to people who have "bailed" on the degree? Or does it refer to those who are in the process of writing the dissertation, having fulfilled all other requirements?

The psychological mine fields of grad school

You must establish a firm psychological stance early in your graduate career to keep from being buffeted by the many demands that will be made on your time. If you don't watch out, the pressures of course work, teaching, language requirements and who knows what else will push you around like a large, docile molecule in Brownian motion.

That quote is from an excellent list of tips for graduate students, entitled "Some Modest Advice for Graduate Students," by Yale professor Stephen C. Stearns. I particularly like the section called "Psychological Problems are the Biggest Barrier." As a psychologist, I see all the time that the grad students I coach are plenty smart enough to do the job. What impedes their progress are the psychological mine fields that are in their path. I suggest reading this article if you have been running into these mines.