New Academic Year: Plans for a Great Start

[Cheerful]

Any New Academic Year's Resolutions?

The transition back to campus life after summer can sometimes be challenging.

What will you do attitude-wise and otherwise to get off to a great start?

[nescafe]

I'll start a new Passion Planner! I began using them a couple years ago and find they are an effective way of taking on new habits (while also keeping my appointments). Last year, I used one to remind myself to read more novels and take up a new jogging routine. This year, I'm going to try yoga. The books are also a handy way to keep track of writing progress (I log daily quotas via the pomodoro technique).

Beyond that, I strive to take on my Spring course prep in the Fall, rather than leaving too much of it to the last moment. I feel like I say that every year... but here goes.

[Cheerful]

Had not heard of Passion Planners, nescafe, neat!

I will continue my practice of not emailing on weekends.  Wish I had realized the many benefits of that practice earlier in my career.  I do still check email and wish colleagues wouldn't email about non-emergency matters on weekends.  Life is good when I don't think about the job on weekends.

I also try to do spring course prep during fall.  Makes life much better in spring semester.

[the_geneticist]

I will try to front-load fall as much as possible so I can start out with more of a time cushion.  And update my online portfolio now since I'm up for review in Fall.

[FishProf]

Thursday I return to my office, where I will spend the entire day ONLY* planning my tasks for the fall.  Then I will begin my preparations, with the goal of being 100% ready for the 1st day of class. (This will persist as long as the medication lasts)

*Barring students who pop in "just in case" I'm there.

[Grinch]

I will turn off notifications for work email on my phone and only answer emails when at the office.

[scamp]

I will turn off notifications for work email on my phone and only answer emails when at the office.

A couple of years ago I was going through really toxic situation at my last university and I turned off my e-mail notifications on my phone and it has been life changing. I am on my computer most of the day, so I see work e-mails that come in during business hours - something urgent that can't wait until business hours requires a phone call. I can check my e-mail on my phone if I am expecting something, but I no longer have the little e-mail icon causing me to check my mail (I hate uncleared notifications on my phone).

From a time management perspective, this was also really helpful. Because I hate writing e-mail on my phone, I would save it to respond to later, which means I mentally processed each e-mail twice, rather than once, which is a complete waste of time.

[Ruralguy]

Processing email twice is actually not bad. I know I avoid more errors or snap judgments if I process each email at least twice,and that's what I now do.

[eigen]

I have my notifications cut off at a certain point in the evening, and that has been immensely helpful.

I do like using my phone as triage: I don't worry that I'm missing something that I really do need to respond to, but I don't like using it to actually respond.

I mentally flag messages as they come in, but I don't start up my computer and respond unless it's truly urgent. This has been really helpful both over the evening and on weekends and lets me limit my response times with some peace of mind that I'm keeping tabs on things.

[downer]

Processing email twice is actually not bad. I know I avoid more errors or snap judgments if I process each email at least twice,and that's what I now do.

That seems right for the subset of email where my first inclination is to write back "f*** you." But a lot of email is so routine, and for students, the answer is very often "look at the syllabus."