Questions tagged [productivity]
On measuring or improving workflow, organization, learning, memory, etc. in an academic context.
168
questions
2
votes
2answers
127 views
How to get tuned into a subject faster during exams?
We have 3 days gaps during exams. It takes me about two days to get tuned into a subject, i.e ., to get into the state of flow. I get tuned to studying around the middle of the second day. Is there ...
0
votes
1answer
114 views
How to efficiently switch between two different subjects without losing productivity?
One thing I have noticed as a student is that when I have to switch between two different tasks that I am supposed to be doing, say, for example, studying for two different subjects I am reading, I ...
2
votes
1answer
207 views
How to handle a harsh negative review? [duplicate]
Context
It is the first time I am submitting a research article as a first author. The review reports finally came back.
Review A is positive, suggesting acceptance and a few modifications.
Review B ...
1
vote
1answer
165 views
Ways to improve writing, so that one needs less time spent on proof reading?
Ways to improve writing, so that one needs less time spent on proof reading?
I've been a bit annoyed, because it seems that using a "write, then proof read" -approach seems ineffective, ...
21
votes
3answers
5k views
Why are small distractions impacting my day so much?
During the pandemic, at least the premier institutes of my country are operating in work from home mode. Since this lessens the physical activity of going around labs and classrooms daily I tried to ...
7
votes
4answers
2k views
What does it mean for a (assoc.) professor to have very few first-author publications while directing a lab/group?
I've stumbled upon various professors (R1 universities in CS) having almost no first-author publications for multiple years while directing (or co-directing) their research groups/labs.
From the ...
0
votes
3answers
4k views
Addressing loss of productivity during pandemic [closed]
I haven't had access to physical books since university libraries have been closed. How do I address this in interviews, and will people dismiss my file because of this?
1
vote
0answers
75 views
How to find all references for URL [closed]
I want to find all the papers that have cited a specific URL (which is in my case http://sable.github.io/soot/, https://github.com/soot-oss/soot, etc).
I tried searching those in Google scholar, ...
3
votes
5answers
782 views
How can I quickly learn advanced math concepts for my PhD in engineering?
I am a PhD student majoring in Medical Engineering. My interest in Math is high, but my knowledge isn't. I have just a bit of knowledge in Calculus, Linear Algebra and a little Statistics (just can do ...
2
votes
2answers
278 views
Supervisor not giving helpful academic direction
I'm a second-year (almost third-year) PhD student having serious trouble due to lack of scientific direction. I initially worked well with my supervisor, but when COVID hit she essentially ghosted the ...
16
votes
5answers
3k views
Moving from a modest research laboratory to a laboratory with a prestigious research portfolio. Tips to be successful?
Background
I have done my PhD (Computer Science) at a university (in a third world country) with very limited resources. My research was not funded, my previous lab didn't provide any research support ...
2
votes
2answers
663 views
People with at least four PhDs
This is a question of pure curiosity: just like there exists polyglots who speak dozens of languages, are there any cases of people obtaining at least four PhDs? (It is okay if topics are fairly close,...
1
vote
1answer
133 views
Maximizing Output [closed]
What are your methods in maximizing research output? I, a junior researcher without teaching duties at the moment, have been trying to work more and more hours, pushing leisure closer and closer to ...
88
votes
12answers
19k views
First year Math PhD student; My problem solving skill has been completely atrophied and continues to decline
I'm a first year PhD student in mathematics and I'm in a pretty bad spot.
Over the last year or so of undergrad and first semester of grad school, I've completely atrophied my problem solving skill. ...
1
vote
0answers
171 views
COVID-19 and decrease in research productivity
I wonder if there are any statistics or study analyzing the impact of isolation, teleworking due to COVID-19 pandemic on res.earchers' productivity.
From the beginning of the pandemic, I really feel ...
-2
votes
1answer
382 views
What is a good rule of thumb for the cost of a Postdoc, in the US at an R1 university [closed]
Suppose I want to pay a postdoc $65K for salary. How much research fund do I need to have to support this postdoc (on average, of course, not exactly)?
Is it only the 65K or are there many other ...
0
votes
1answer
158 views
Writing grant applications as a new academic/faculty member [closed]
I am a new faculty member at a University. In the last 5 months since I started, I have applied (or in process of applying) 4 research grants (2 internal applied, 2 external in the process).
What I ...
4
votes
1answer
152 views
Program to manage research
I'm searching for a PC program, that syncs to the cloud (to Dropbox?), that will allow me comfortable management of PhD research, kind of a digital lab book. That includes -
Comfortably adding daily/...
3
votes
0answers
87 views
How can I enable productive online meetings with my supervisor?
I am currently writing my master's thesis. My advisor is very busy, and I reckon he will allocate about 1-3 hours a month to actively supervise me, at least in the near future. Due to the ongoing ...
2
votes
1answer
250 views
Is being an event planner also part of being an academician? How do you cope?
My question is, is being event planners every semester (unrelated to deep research) considered part of being an academician? And how do you navigate or balance all of your tasks (including organizing ...
13
votes
6answers
5k views
Discouraged by advisor to take courses, is there a way to navigate through this situation?
Graduate schools in North America usually have a required number of courses that you need to pass. Afterwards, the school is usually pretty flexible at the student taking more courses (and it is often ...
1
vote
2answers
592 views
An already poor career profile turned worse this year. Any hope left for an academic career? [closed]
31 years old, with a PhD in mechanical engineering. Graduated last December, I did not get any decent postdoc position due to my poor publication record during my 5.5 years duration PhD (1 first ...
6
votes
2answers
279 views
Are Systematic Reviews Efficient To Familiarize Yourself With The State-of-the-Art?
Problem
I have to familiarize myself with a new sub-field fast, to the point where I can recommend an agenda/recommendation for further research. I thought about doing a systematic literature review ...
0
votes
1answer
166 views
How do you keep up motivation during individual doctoral research projects in the short run
I always have been extremely motivated in my research area and project. My team and I have been writing our current paper over the last 6 months, and since we stumbled upon bugs, the process became ...
1
vote
1answer
348 views
Is researchgate still useful? [closed]
It seems that researchgate is gaining some popularity in recent years. However, there is some criticism on their habit of sending requests and unsolicited spam emails?. What is your experience of ...
0
votes
1answer
125 views
Need advise on a career in academia [closed]
I am desperately looking for a sense of direction. I am about to start a career in academia and I am..I guess scared. My Ph.D. was something, it was enlightening, to say the least. I do not have too ...
7
votes
1answer
2k views
My PI is irresponsible and I worry about my career as a postdoc [closed]
I am a postdoc in life sciences in the US and have started my postdoc around 6 months ago.
I am at a great (top-10) university. I like the university, lots of smart people and friendly environment.
I ...
4
votes
1answer
181 views
Maintaining sustained productivity and enthusiasm
There are researchers who work each day, every day of the year from the moment they reach their office till late. As a young and upcoming researcher, I find that I need breaks after a few days of this ...
4
votes
3answers
345 views
Quarantined at home because of COVID19 - how can I do engineering research productively? [closed]
I started grad school last September, and so far have been primarily busy with courses, but have been trying to do a little research on the side whenever I can. I recently finished all my courses ...
0
votes
3answers
488 views
Has the rate of papers uploaded to arXiv changed due to Covid-19? [closed]
I'm wondering how much Covid-19 affected scientific productivity, if it affected productivity negatively at all (c.f. Newton actually did a lot of his most important work while the University of ...
3
votes
1answer
710 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
186 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
244 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
115 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. ...
4
votes
1answer
440 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/...
6
votes
1answer
179 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 ...
7
votes
5answers
491 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
683 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
252 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 ...
38
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
14k 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
196 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
102 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
85 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
762 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
513 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 ...
-6
votes
6answers
1k 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
166 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
339 views
Rigor in Proofs [closed]
I am in a messed up situation. I am doing Math, as of now. I experience less difficulty in understanding the motivation or meaning underlying the several concepts and ideas one is taught in ...
