the earl's studyblr

Over the years I've build myself a little collection of tools and resources to manage the weird and messy work of being an academic. I thought I'd compile them all here in case any of them are useful to you.

Academic Log

This Google Sheet template from Dr Bronwyn Eager lets you keep track of all the things you've done as an academic. I set it up after a very tedious promotion application and have found it invaluable. There's a blog post about it as well.

Academic Time Tracker

This spreadsheet was developed by Brendan Keogh as a way to track where you spend your hours across the days/weeks/year as a teaching and research academic. I was already doing some gentle time tracking, this sheet has been very useful to help me reflect and think about where I'm spending my energy (and to try and rein in the overwork).

Zotero

Zotero is a great reference manager, and with the browser plug in that I've installed, I've never been more on top of keeping my references up to date. It's also really great for collaborative projects, I have a whole stack of shared collections.

Trello

I have tried using Trello for general task management, but to be honest I'm usually happy with a spreadsheet, keep note or even a physical post it note. I've set up a trello board to keep track of where different articles are for publication, here's a template of it.

Paper diary

I keep a digital calendar, but I just like writing my week out and planning tasks on paper, and it's nice to have it all in one place. There are so many different diaries, I like one that's very minimal so I can use it as I see fit. It's not pretty, but it's useful. I use an emma kate co. because it has very minimalist pages, but that's just me.

Links to other resources I've found helpful:

Pomodoro method (Wikipedia): A good framework for approaching writing and other tasks in short focused sessions.

Seasonal organisation (Kirby Conrod): This article is framed around adhd, but I think it's good for everyone to know that you should always be revisiting how you work.

I've had a professor blatantly misunderstand A Room Of One's Own at me, completely failing to understand that it's not about the social constraints placed on women, it's about the material constraints.

And I do mean at me- I called him out for one of his quiz questions being Wrong, and he was all "well, I have a PHD, I know what I'm talking about".

I've had to read Marxist Theory ™ (which always sets my teeth on edge, even when I agree with it in principle, because The Marxist Theory Register sounds like my ex who tried to forcefem me).

THE MARXIST THEORY WAS WRONG ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES.

Last week, before our final (due tomorrow), she gave us One William Review Quizzes. These were, again, individually pretty trivial! Most of them were less than ten questions long and went over material we already knew! But trying to figure out how to prioritize them all was getting to me.

Today, she told us that all of those review quizzes were extra credit.

German children’s tv show mascot Bernd das Brot would do numbers if he had a tumblr account: