#masterslife

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Day n

Social Constructivism be like Iran’s nuclear ambitions maybe because

i) They want to achieve regional dominance

As part of my New Year’s Goals, I’ve been trying out some productivity apps in order to improve my focus over the last couple of months. So far, I’m finding I have indeed been more productive. For today’s Tip Tuesday, I would like to give a brief survey of the productivity apps I’ve tried. 

Forest

As someone who is task oriented, using Forest has been particularly helpful - I can set a time for working on research, a crafting project, or for blogging, and stay focused on that task until a tree is grown. Breaking tasks into timed blocks is what makes this app so effective for me. Thinking “I’ll work on this until lunch” means that lunchtime is always in the back of my mind - I constantly check the time, trying to decide when to take lunch, rather than focusing on my work. Forest app takes away the need for me to keep track of time because it does this for me.

Forest also discourages me from using my phone. While I do have a whitelist of apps, notorious time-wasters like Facebook are barred. The moment I open an app which isn’t on my whitelist, Forest warns me that my tree will wither. The threat is surprisingly effective! I always go back to Forest, put down my phone, and re-focus. 

Streaks

I used streaks for a little over a fortnight in January on the recommendation of a friend. It’s a simple little app which acts, essentially, as a box-ticking exercise for your habits. You make a list of goals you want to complete daily, and when you do them you tick them off.

Unfortunately for me, this wasn’t very effective. My goals are primarily research-based. Academic culture pushes the idea that a postgraduate student should be working 24/7, but this type of mindset just leads to burnout, which I do my best to avoid - I try not to do research on weekends, for example, and focus on spending time with my fiance. Having an app which relies on you maintaining a streak to demonstrate your productivity, then, just encourages an obsessive attitude towards ticking that box every single day. 

Pros: simple, easy to use; allows you to set reminder times for your goals.

Cons: no customisation for goals - you have to tick off every day to maintain your streak; you can only track 5 habits for free.

Goal Tracker

After Streaks, I tried Goal Tracker. This app is similar in concept - you make a list of goals or habits which you want to maintain and mark them off as you do them. Immediately, I found it more pleasant to look at. The overall design is neater, and I much prefer it’s muted colours (I wasn’t a fan of the green/brown colour scheme of Streaks). 

While Habit Tracker had more customisation than Streaks, it still wasn’t the right fit for me. After using it for almost six weeks, I was getting frustrated with the fact that the only way I could set a goal to complete x times per week was to choose specific days. This then required me to set a clear-cut schedule every week in order to meet my goals, but my schedule changes every week. Again, I was faced with the same frustration I found with Streaks - it just doesn’t account for the ups and downs of daily life. 

Pros: completely free with unlimited goal tracking; easy to use; pleasant colour scheme; some customisation for weekly and monthly goals; tracks statistics; detailed view allows you to see a description of your goals.

Cons: customisation is limited by specified days; chunky designs means that you can only see a few goals at one time.

HabitBull

The latest app I’ve been trialling is HabitBull. So far, I’m feeling quite positive. It seems to have ironed out a lot of the problems I have with Streaks and Goal Tracker. For me, it’s also the most pleasant visually of the three habit apps I’ve tried.  

HabitBull is very customisable. Rather than setting specific days for completing goals like you have to in Goal Tracker, I can set up my habits for a certain number of days per week. This means that I can set realistic goals, rather than trying to force myself to do research every single day, for example. 

Pros: extensive customisation; simple to use; provides plenty of statistics; night- and day-mode options; allows you to set a ‘success date’ by which your goals should become habits.

Cons: limited to five free habits; no detail view for a description of your goals.

Conclusion

Both Forest and HabitBull are still on my phone, tracking my productivity even now. They might only be apps, but they’ve made an immeasurable difference in my day-to-day efforts. While I’m not 100% successful in achieving my goals every week - I am only human, after all - I am on top of them, and I am always thinking about what steps I can take to improve my productivity. 

This week’s Tip Tuesday is all about desks. No matter what set up works for you, one of the biggest things you can do to improve focus and productivity is to ensure you’re comfortable in your workspace, whether you’re working from home or in an office. For me personally, I know that I am easily distracted - by shiny things, interesting things, stuff beyond my current research field - so it’s important that I maintain a tidy, organised space to get the best out of each day I spend working on my thesis or related projects. 

Here are a few photos of my desk at my University (one of seven in the room):

I can hear some of you calling me a neat freak. This is true... of my University desk alter ego. My desk at home is more like a game of Jenga: touch the wrong thing and it all comes tumbling down. 

Why such disparity, then? Well, my desk at home is a space reserved first and foremost for relaxation: I play games, I write fiction, and I binge watch Netflix. It doesn’t matter if I get distracted by a pile of comics or another item. When I’m at Uni, though, I need to be working on my thesis, my article, my presentation, my coursework; any number of things may need completing on any given day, and if I’m getting distracted all the time because a pile of books is in my way or I can’t find that thing I just printed beneath the other pile of things I recently printed, I simply won’t get anything done. 

Now, I’m not suggesting that everyone organise their desk like I do - as I said, everyone is different and the important thing is to ensure that you are comfortable in your workspace - but I will share a few useful tips and items that make my life easier. 

Labels 

You’ve probably noticed that I have a lot of books. I’m currently four books shy of my University’s generous postgraduate borrowing limit, and I have a personal collection which I also keep on campus. However you choose to organise your books (for me it’s alphabetically by author), label the different sections. I currently have five: 

Personal (books I own that are relevant to my research).

Library (books from the University library). 

Bonus+ (an inter-library borrowing service with shorter loan times).

Classics Collection (books from my department’s Loeb Classical Library collection). 

Article (select texts I need to finish a paper for publication, separate from my thesis).

Not only do labelled sections make it easier for me to find the text I’m looking for, they also prevent me from mixing my personal collection of texts in with library books and potentially returning them accidentally.

Labels are also useful in other areas, such as document trays. I have four different document trays: 

Thesis (articles or chapters relevant to my thesis).

To read (texts I need to read).

Presentation (drafts and notes for my Confirmation of Candidature presentation).

Article (select texts I need to finish a paper for publication, separate from my thesis). 

The best thing about labels is they aren’t permanent. When I finish my presentation, for example, I can file away the documents in that tray and relabel it. This is especially easy in my case because I’m lazy and cheap, so I use post-it flags with sticky tape: easy to peel off without residue, easy to replace. 

Book/Document Stand

If you’re doing any sort of writing - for a thesis, a paper, anything - you’ll likely have a lot of reading to do and notes to take but it can be difficult to be constantly looking down at a book, and there is nothing more frustrating than losing your page because a big book flips shut unless you have something laid over it. 

This is where a book stand comes in. They hold up your documents to make them more comfortable to read, and most models come with arms to hold open book pages. They’re all over eBay (I paid $14 for mine, which has a lightweight but sturdy metal construction, rather than purchase a plastic one for $40 locally) and very much worth the investment at any level. 

Screen Stand

In the same vein as the book stand is the screen stand, which gives your primary screen a boost. I was fortunate that there was one available in the office I share, and although simple, it makes a big difference in overall comfort and my ability to work longer hours (with breaks to stand, move, and stretch, of course). Mine is very simple, but there are many designs available, including some which allow you to convert your desk to a standing desk. 

Conclusion

If you’re in academia in any capacity it’s impossible to avoid time at a desk. For most of us, they’re a necessary part of productivity so it’s important to ensure you make the most of your space. Don’t be afraid to add personal touches. I keep a Pusheen on my desk, and beside my name card (not pictured) I have images and posters. You’ll spend a lot of time at your desk, particularly if you’re a postgraduate student, so turn it into a little home away from home.

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