Postdoc Productivity

Summer’s here.  I capped off my semester with graduation. Even though I defended my dissertation last June, I was just over the deadline to graduate last Spring, so I got to graduate with two of my lab buddies, instead. Totally worth the wait.

That's me on the right, with another PhD (left) and master's candidate (center) from my grad lab.

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The last few weeks of the Spring semester leading up to graduation were rough, trying to meet deadlines for coursework and other projects.  This semester I finished:

• Intro to Epidemiology (two exams, four quizzes, a final presentation and a paper)
• Grant Writing (a draft potential R03 grant)
• Biostats II (a final project)

and submitted:

• one project to IRB
• one grant proposal to a local foundation
• one application for a summer workshop
• one poster for an international conference
• one poster for the national meetings
• one poster for the departmental program annual symposium

My semester, especially towards the end, felt a bit like this

Except without the tutu.

For the last several weeks, I was jumping from one deadline to another, having just a few days between to work on the next project on the list.  Not surprisingly, I’ve felt the need to have a way to keep more on top of things: projects, due dates, meetings. While I was writing my dissertation, I had used LifeBalance, but decided against upgrading because their iPhone app apparently has issues, and I had stopped using the desktop version over a year ago because it just wasn’t working for me and I didn’t want to pay for the update.  I downloaded the trial version of Things, but decided it didn’t fit my current (lack of) workflow, and required adaptations that didn’t really work for me.  Same for Midnight Inbox. I settled on OmniFocus instead, personal task management software based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done.  ProfHacker has a nice series of posts on applying the concept as an academic, including an Introduction, Contexts and Academic Work, Mind-sweeping, and Managing Project Files.

I’ve slowly been adding projects, setting contexts and due dates. I’ve been using OmniFocus for about three weeks, but I haven’t completed a mind-sweep yet, partly due to lack of time (cleaning up from the end of semester crazy), partly because I’m still in the process of learning the system (reviewing podcasts, screencasts, and blogs about implementation), and partly because I’m a little afraid to have all of my commitments down on paper. I’m still figuring out exactly what should go on the list. Everything? Or just those out of the ordinary things that I might forget if I don’t write them down? Most of what I have set up so far are work projects, and I feel already like I have a better idea of where things are and what needs to be done next.

That’s good, because my summer is shaping up to be very busy, even without taking classes.  Right now, the project list looks like this:

• resubmit proposal to IRB
• write three articles from dissertation
• write/contribute to other articles as assigned
• write book chapter
• help with PI R01 submission
• present research idea to local partner organization
• meet with biostatistics re. R03 proposal
• develop syllabus/course description for potential class
• plan analysis of samples from PI’s current R01
• create a career development plan

It feels really good to be finishing up the first year of my postdoc, despite feeling like I’m eating an apple while juggling knives balanced on a rickety table sometimes.  I’m hoping GTD and OmniFocus can alleviate some of that end of semester panic in the future.

For the other postdocs out there, what strategies/tips do you have for task management?

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Image credit: Graduation photo courtesy of lab buddies. Knife juggler photo Creative Commons licensed by peter.bryant via Flickr.