Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 8 - Habit Forming

The eighth session of the Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers programme is about habits. I found the blog post useful in getting me to question how and why habits form and how they can be made or broken. I have mixed experience with this. Some habits I attempt to form are successful, others not. Sometimes, simply forcing myself to repeat something until it becomes more of an effort to stop doing it than to carry on is enough to make a habit stick. At other times, despite my good intentions, I fail within a few days.

It helps if I can see a benefit to continuing the habit. I developed the habit of going to the gym a few years ago, and managed to stick to it for several years because I could really feel the benefit. Sadly through lack of time I've stopped going recently but I definitely intend to start again!

I've recently resolved to eat more healthily which will involve a lot of determination and concentration! I've made a good start by being organised and making lots of lists so I have time to shop for the right ingredients and cook well-balanced meals. Let’s see how that goes!

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 7 - Notebook Software

Notebook software is the topic for Session 7 of the Year of Productivity programme. I'm a big fan of Evernote and use it constantly for so many things: rough notes, more detailed notes, conference notes, Christmas card and present lists, recipes, clipped web pages, lists... I wouldn't want to be without it. I have the desktop version on my laptop and netbook, the app for my phone and use the web version at work.

I wasn't able to read the article1 as I don't have access to the relevant databases, but I looked through the abstract. I read some of the other articles and blog posts and found several useful, particularly the post about using Evernote for genealogical research. I also looked at the Secret Weapon site and found some tips. I'd never thought of using Evernote to store emails: this looks like it could be a useful way of organising them.



1 Axford, M., & Renfro, C. (2012). Noteworthy Productivity Tools for Personal Knowledge Management. Online, 36(3), 33-36.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 6 - Calendars

Session 6 of the Year of Productivity programme looks at calendars. Personally, I love calendars. I use my Google calendar religiously, usually for personal appointments and plans – I go to the theatre a lot and I’d probably end up double-booking myself if I didn’t write down every booking I make. I have an Android phone so I can access my calendar anywhere. I mark off my annual leave on my calendar, as well as anything unusual – such as if I am going to be out of the office – but I tend to use my Groupwise work calendar for work-related stuff, only adding personal appointments to this if they impact on work time – such as a doctor’s appointment that infringes on work hours. I find my work calendar very useful: my manager uses it to schedule team meetings and one-to-ones, and if I need to get hold of someone in a different department or Centre I can check their calendar to see where they are and when they are free. I think Doodle is brilliant too – it is currently being used to plan one of my best friends’ hen dos and although it’s still a nightmare trying to get everyone together, I suspect it would be even more of a nightmare if Doodle didn’t exist.

I tried the ‘Don’t Break the Chain’ technique, printing out a booklet of calendars from the handy paper resources section on the blog a couple of weeks ago. I used it to assist my language learning, as I think the ‘little and often’ approach is particularly well-suited to this kind of task. I find marking off the days as I go very satisfying, and it gives me a sense of achievement to see the chain grow longer and longer, so I think I will carry on with this.

CILIP in London Meeting: Swimming in Data: Records Research in the Digital Age

On Tuesday I attended another CILIP in London meeting at The Square Wine Bar, Tolmers Square, near Euston. Called Swimming in Data: Records Research in the Digital Age, Caroline Kimbell, Head of Licensing at The National Archives in Kew, gave a talk on how the digitisation of Kew's archives is changing the ways in which history is studied.

Caroline explained that there are around 180km of archives at Kew, most of which are handwritten. Only around 7% of these records have been digitised so far, and while some of this has been pushed forward in line with Government policy, much of it is commercially driven.

Caroline explained some of the ways in which digitisation has assisted with research in new and unexpected ways. Digital records enable teams to work more collaboratively in the search for information, and means that collections which previously lay dormant have been 'woken up'. For instance, medical historians can use records kept by ships' surgeons to find out more about disease, while historians and scientists can use logs from whaling ships to map the extent of the Arctic ice shelf at various points in the past. Royal Navy log books from the 1690s onwards are assisting climatologists, allowing them to study the recorded weather readings and map them on a scale impossible before digitisation.

Digitisation can help make documents accessible again. Damaged census returns from Manchester, which had become unreadable owing to exposure to damp, have been made visible thanks to UV and infrared light techniques.

In literature, digitisation means that writing can be studied in different and more scientific ways. For instance, it has become possible to search text for particular words and phrases to get a more general idea about writing in the past. Tags and keywords can be added to digital documents to assist future researchers.

This system is not, however, without its flaws. The tags and keywords added now reflect our own cultural priorities and may not be what future generations need or want to study. Caroline mentioned the example of law archives: records of past cases survive because those in power at the time felt that they were important.

I really enjoyed Caroline's talk, and am particularly glad that she mentioned the Old Weather project - this allows the public to help transcribe the weather reports mentioned earlier, and looks like a great deal of fun too.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 5 - Paper Productivity Tools and the Pomodoro Technique

Session 5 of the Year of Productivity, and I think I need to work on my productivity, as I’ve come to it pretty late! Anyway, I was definitely impressed with the different paper productivity tools available. I love my electronic tools like Google Calendar and Evernote but I still have a soft spot for paper – after all, the battery doesn’t run out and it doesn’t crash. I am definitely going to check out the printable paper productivity tools in the LifeHacker post.

1. Chapter 4 of The Sketchnote Handbook is available for preview. Go to the author’s blog to download the sample chapter. You can also view three short podcasts by the author at his site.
   

Not being a lover of podcasts, I gave those a miss but I read through the chapter. I can see why Sketchnote appeals to people but I don’t know if it’s for me – I don’t really like expressing ideas in this way, I’d rather just write them down. However, there were some good tips in the chapter such as preparing a title page for your notes, scanning them once they are completed and correcting any errors afterwards – however I find it hard enough to write legibly when note-taking, let alone draw legibly.

2. Having read Chapter 4 in Exercise #1, try practicing the method while listening to a pre-recorded webinar.  If you don’t have one already waiting in your to-do queue that you need to view, you could watch the video of David Allen presenting his Getting Things Done method that Mary introduced in Session 4.

I gave this a go but ended up writing notes in the usual way! I do use bullet points and abbreviations in my notes anyway, but I don’t know if even more complicated note taking the way to go for me.

3. The Moleskine company has collaborated with the Evernote folks and created a special Evernote Smart Notebook.  Take a few minutes now and check it out here at the Getting Started Guide.  How might this tool help your workflow and productivity?  Could you combine it with the Sketchnote method?

I use Evernote a lot so this could work really well. I prefer to use a combination of paper and electronic methods to create notes so this is definitely something I’d like to look into. It could definitely work with the Sketchnote method, for instance if you’re in a meeting and want to make notes by hand then add them to Evernote later.

4. Review the Pomodoro Technique.  Try to apply the method on a project you need to start today.  How often did you have to keep yourself from straying from the task?  How much did you accomplish during the session?

I tried this, but I found that as soon as I wasn’t allowed to check my emails or distract myself in any other way, I immediately wanted to even more. Also, I found myself spending twice as long mentally ‘preparing’ myself for the 25-minute stretch of work knowing that in theory, at least, I wouldn’t be able to stop. I think I’m going to need more practice…

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 4 - Getting Things Done

Session 4 of the Year of Productivity programme, and Getting Things Done gets a mention. I’d heard of the GTD system before, but had been put off trying it – it seemed like so much work and that’s before you even start on your actual tasks.

However, thinking about it, a lot of it actually makes sense. David Allen, who came up with GTD, argues that you can’t be productive if your brain is buzzing with all the things you need to remember to do. I remember when I was studying for my GCSEs, and I couldn't sleep for thinking about everything I had to do – I would get up and make a list of all the projects, pieces of coursework and other random bits of work I had to complete, and found that simply writing it down helped, because I knew I didn't have to remember it all – everything was written down. Even now, one of the first things I do when I feel overwhelmed or stressed is to make a list – this is true for both my personal and professional life. I am a seriously compulsive list maker.

It does seem that there is more to GTD than to-do lists, and I actually ended up ordering the book to explore it in more detail. While I wait for it to arrive, I will begin to implement some of the principles.

This session’s tasks included doing the ‘data dump’ and sorting it into projects, actions and categories. I had fun doing this and decided to sign up for Todo.ly along the way. I tried out Remember the Milk (another list-making app) for a couple of weeks, and while it is straightforward and easy to use, it is comparatively basic in its functionality. Todo.ly is an obsessive list-maker’s dream, with its different categories and filters, and the ability to nest tasks. You can sort tasks into different Projects, which makes it ideal for GTD. There is a ‘Today’ button you can click to find out what is due today, and I like the ‘Next’ filter, which shows you tasks with the soonest deadlines from all categories.

I read an interesting blog post by Bethan Ruddock recently, which points out how much more difficult it is to change small everyday habits than big ones, as we don’t see them as so important. With this in mind, I’m going to try extra hard to stay focused on maintaining and reviewing my lists.

E-Learning and Digital Cultures (#edcmooc) - Digital Artefact (Final Assignment)

As the final part of the E-learning and Digital Cultures course, I've created a digital artefact which forms the final assignment for the course. I had a number of platforms to choose from, but opted for Thinglink, which helps you create interactive images - you select an image and add links to videos, images, articles, and anything else you like.

I found this task rather difficult: I am used to writing essays and even giving presentations, but something like this is highly unusual for me. I enjoyed the challenge but I'm not entirely happy with the result. I hope I will receive some useful feedback.

Here is my artefact:

A Technological Revolution?
(Original image courtesy of resumbrae.com)

I'd really appreciate any comments or suggestions.