Academia

Questions tagged [productivity]

Ask Question

On measuring or improving workflow, organization, learning, memory, etc. in an academic context.

140 questions
Newest
Active
Bountied
Unanswered
Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
3
votes
1answer
207 views

Is Manuscripts.io a legit tool? Any experience with it?

A colleague just tipped me about manuscripts.io which advertises itself as a collaborative writing tool, with some really sweet features like importing docx and LaTeX; searching and adding citations ...
3
votes
3answers
124 views

What is an optimal reading order for a set of related papers?

A common problem I encounter every time I do a literature search on a new subject is determining a reading order for papers. It feels akin to jumping into a prolific sci-fi fantasy series, but since ...
7
votes
2answers
190 views

How to improve the quality and visibility of research?

This might sound like quite a basic question, but the answer has eluded me for the past couple of years. I'm from a computer science background, but the question is probably relevant outside this ...
1
vote
1answer
95 views

How to Best Ask Mentor for Guidance

I'm not a currently enrolled grad student, but I am being adopted on as a "grad student" and am currently working on a project in pharmacology involving a lot of things that I'm not too familiar with. ...
3
votes
1answer
252 views

How can I increase my productivity through my daily habits? [closed]

I recently posted this similar question here but I guess even this site could help me with that it or could even be better. I am student how can I increase my productivity for studies by adapting/...
5
votes
1answer
110 views

How to find related work in academic writing in the most time-efficient way?

I noticed that, for each research project, there comes a point where I have to consult the literature, and find all the previous research related to the current project. Unfortunately, I seem to be ...
6
votes
5answers
365 views

Measuring daily/weekly productivity in academia

One of the things I struggle with in academia is measuring my daily/weekly productivity. Before academia, I worked in various fields and always felt productive because I could measure my productivity, ...
9
votes
1answer
470 views

Do academics actually work “full-time”?

My current postdoc position requires that I work 41 hours per week during a 5-day work week. As my first post-graduate position, I decided to take this seriously and actually track my hours. (People ...
7
votes
1answer
216 views

How to communicate realistic expectations for science faculty research to administration

I teach at a small US liberal arts college with no graduate students. There is no support for research, and the teaching load is 4-6 courses per year. A colleague was recently denied promotion to ...
37
votes
4answers
6k views

How do I regain my momentum in research after a long period of slacking off?

I'm two and a half years into my PhD program. Recently, I finally worked up the courage to admit it — I've been slacking off for over a year and it's my fault. Now I'm determined to be productive in ...
1
vote
2answers
103 views

How to set up an efficient watch on publications in planetary science?

The number of journal on the topics tends to be quite high and most researchers of the field have yet to take on the habit of sharing their preprints on archive repositories (ArXiv or others). Do ...
31
votes
11answers
9k views

Why don't I want to learn anything? [closed]

I'm an undergraduate student, rising senior. I've been immersed in academia now since freshmen year, and I'd like to pursue a PhD in Computer Science in the future. I'm posting here because I just ...
1
vote
1answer
135 views

About solving research papers involving complex Mathematics

Throughout my Ph.D., I have had difficulty in solving (maths in) research paper from other researchers. After the basic few steps, the researchers assume either one thing or the other thing, or have a ...
2
votes
0answers
92 views

Email alert for Google Scholar's recommended articles

I really like Google Scholar's list of "recommended articles". I usually find useful references there related to my work that I did not know about. But I rarely log into Google Scholar to check ...
2
votes
1answer
74 views

classifying work folders and data, any recommended structure?

As my research and fields if interest change over time I came to build a vast amount of research drafts, data files, different academic and non academic reports and publications. The same thing for ...
0
votes
4answers
276 views

Can I start writing my PhD thesis from the second year?

I'm going to enter my second year in my PhD after two months from now. I start to think that I can write some chapters from now instead of waiting until the fourth year. This would help me to finish ...
1
vote
1answer
247 views

Why don't we still have a good eInk reader device for research papers? [closed]

There are so many people in academia. A lot of people who are not in academia also read research papers. And I'm not talking about the formatting part. I'm talking about just looking up research ...
-7
votes
6answers
592 views

Why do degrees take so long, when textbooks can be read so quickly?

A bachelor's degree takes you three years to complete, and say it consists of about thiry courses, and say each course is based on a book of about four hundred pages (fairly standard for fields like ...
0
votes
2answers
140 views

Is there any way to pick a right direction in research while solving a problem?

I am a PhD student mid stage, working on computational aspects of mathematics. I am working on a research problem with my supervisor. I am at a stage where I can't take much help from the supervisor ...
1
vote
1answer
226 views

Rigorousness in Proofs [closed]

I am in an extremely stressed out situation right now. I am pursuing Mathematical Sciences, as of now. I experience absolutely no difficulty in understanding the motivation or meaning underlying the ...
28
votes
7answers
6k views

How to speed up my research as a PhD student?

I am currently in a problem-solving mode of my PhD (theory, middle stage). I am working on something which is incremental on the last half a year. Until now, I did not get anything non-trivial. I ...
0
votes
2answers
244 views

Impact of PhD cgpa in academia and industry

I'm a Physics PhD student in a US university who qualified for the PhD level and waiting for the comprehensive test. In the first year of my PhD, I wasn't able to cope up with the pressure and ...
1
vote
1answer
146 views

Is it worth it to accept this PhD scholarship?

I got a scholarship offer which requires me to work for a financial institution for three days (24 hours) a week. The scholarship is quite generous (50k AUD per year). Is it worth it to take it if I ...
4
votes
0answers
476 views

Dealing with the feeling of incompetence and team competition [closed]

To preface, I imagine this might come off really immature, given that I am 30 years old. I joined a university as a PostDoc after completing my PhD 6 months ago. I am yet to publish anything after ...
3
votes
1answer
125 views

Does educational research productivity count as research productivity? [closed]

I'm PhD student and I'll be graduating in May (next year). I've been getting into discipline-based educational research (DBER), including developing tools, running projects, a paper or two, and ...
29
votes
9answers
7k views

How to know I have done enough work in one semester?

I am a PhD student in computer science (theory). I am worried about my productivity. I try to do as much as possible. I used to take four courses per semester during my first two years of studying. ...
3
votes
2answers
202 views

How to efficiently progress on a complex problem in research?

I am writing my master thesis in game theory and realized one type of situation where I am often stuck for a long time and feel frustration creeping in. It is, to no surprise, when facing a complex ...
1
vote
1answer
88 views

Research assistant: I am responsible for scheduling subjects, how do I deal with attrition in my PI's longitudinal study?

At my place of work, among my other responsibilities I am responsible for following up with and scheduling participants in our longitudinal study. This study has been going on since the late 80's, and ...
-1
votes
1answer
170 views

Is there a case to be made for adjusting how academic semesters are scheduled in North America? [closed]

From my limited experience, many universities in North America with two-semester (full year) type schedule has the following timeline, Semester 1: Early September - Late November (or Late August - ...
3
votes
1answer
195 views

How can I cope with withdrawal symptoms from addiction while pursuing my PhD? [closed]

I am currently in the early stages of recovering from an addiction. I am finding it very hard to concentrate on my work due to withdrawal symptoms. How can I cope with this situation with a minimal ...
34
votes
6answers
1k views

Graduate school with tinnitus

I’m a Syrian refugee residing in Europe. I am about to complete my undergraduate degree in mathematics, and have applied to several graduate schools. To my surprise I got into a few very good ones. ...
26
votes
5answers
5k views

How to have productive meetings with Ph.D supervisor

I am a Ph.D. student in theoretical computer science. I meet my research supervisor once a week for around 2 hours. I prepare some of my research and try to present in front of him. I always try to ...
10
votes
1answer
1k views

Fear of missing out: how to maintain a good attitude towards research in academia in the age of rapid commercial success coming from industry?

I am currently studying information transmission in biological neural networks at a (fairly prestigious) university, specifically, the interaction between neurons and their surrounding glial cells. ...
3
votes
1answer
293 views

Do I have a chance at an academic career in North America or Europe? [closed]

I am a 46 year old former journalist who graduated with an Masters in Global Studies in 2008. After that, I decided to do a PhD, after working for an year. A dysfunctional program, personal issues, ...
15
votes
4answers
3k views

Can I ask my adviser for a raise?

Due to the recently passed tax bill by the United States Senate, graduate students will incur more taxes on their income which is already small. This will certainly affect my academic performance and ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views

Drinking and writing [closed]

This may be a sensitive subject given the subject matter. But I have currently experiencing significant writers’ block when it comes to writing my statement of purpose and personal statement for ...
2
votes
0answers
156 views

How to have a competitive research group in a school doesn't have graduate program?

I'm applying to assistant professor positions and my research plan is based on three main projects. My initial idea is having 2 PhD students and one postdoc working on each project. However, there is ...
5
votes
3answers
772 views

How do STEM professors become so hyper-efficient with their research?

When I compare myself to my advisor, I don’t compare our level of expertise, as I don’t think that’s so meaningful; he’s obviously years ahead of me in the field, and so any time I talk about research ...
2
votes
1answer
275 views

Is impracticality of Short Classes Tested Or It Is Just A Common Belief?

While knowing that students lose their focus on lecture after twenty minutes, due to the inefficiency of moving between classes every twenty minutes, universities timetable lectures for an hour up to ...
-4
votes
1answer
258 views

Explaining current situation

As it turns out,I realised that, the field I'm working on is quite different than my original one. How to explain this current situation?
9
votes
2answers
220 views

Getting grants at a teaching department while officially being considered an R2 institution

My department is focused on teaching. We teach 6 classes/year with heavy undergraduate mentoring. It actually feels like teaching 8 classes per year. I know that there are grants "designed" for ...
7
votes
1answer
202 views

What's the best way to progress and prioritise my reading?

I'm having trouble keeping on top of my reading and am looking for advice on a day-to-day strategy. My diet is as follows: Papers for current research, teaching and exploration. I have a large ...
3
votes
1answer
126 views

Balancing (Re)building Foundations and Research

I'm a third year postdoc in mathematics. I have been reasonably productive; however, I'm starting to feel some of my foundations in my subject slipping (especially since I specialized in my field ...
3
votes
0answers
378 views

Where do math grads, who don't code, land up in industry? [closed]

Do they go into investment banking? Consulting? Start their own bar and restaurants? Are there any statistics known about what percentage of industry jobs for people with math degrees require coding? ...
0
votes
1answer
115 views

Need a good, inexpensive app to catalogue journal articles and books [closed]

Like the title says, I'm looking for an inexpensive app or program that can catalogue both journal articles and books. I need something that has or can take input from an ISBN/QR/barcode scanner, and ...
2
votes
1answer
130 views

Using industry productivity tools and techniques for managing student projects

I'm heading a group of engineering students (from different fields) which need to build a robot (which performs tasks autonomously) as part of their courses. There are 10 students in this group and ...
11
votes
2answers
436 views

What are some of the task planning tools people use in academia?

I have used simple excel-style Gantt Charts to create a high level plan of tasks for the academic semester, noted the end times depending on conference and grant deadlines, and then managed my time ...
9
votes
0answers
400 views

How rampant are “smart drugs” in academia? [closed]

Is it common for people in academia to use "smart drugs"/prescription medications to help them be more productive? Or do most people just use things like caffeine to be more productive?
15
votes
4answers
617 views

How to efficiently proofread my own mathematical paper?

The main purpose of this question is to collect some advices to efficiently proofread my own mathematical paper (when there are two authors or more, it is easier since one is supposed to read what the ...
4
votes
1answer
307 views

What is the best philosophy and practice to use smartphones for academic life? [closed]

I am doing research in theoretical physics, and have learned that smartphones can bring in a lot of distractions to your life if you want to focus on your research and study. Like facebook, twitter ...

1 2 3