What to do when your planning fails

Planning your progress and learning how to manage your time are two essential skills for a successful PhD. As we've discussed a number of times here about systems to track time and manage time, I'd like to focus on a different topic for today:

What should you do when your planning fails?

First and foremost: Don't give up on planning! Don't fall in the trap of saying that planning is just simply not for you.
We all need a planning - the degree of detail of planning might differ from person to person, but the question of what we should be doing and when to get stuff done, is essential to all of us.

Until you have found a planning method that works, I encourage you to do the following: test out different methods, try out different tools, and reflect on what works for you and what doesn't.
 This method might sound like throwing spaghetti to the wall and seeing what sticks, but if you evaluate how you do with planning honestly, and try to figure out why a certain method is not working, then you'll reach convergence and a working system much more quickly.

Here's a quick recap of a Twitter discussion I had on this topic:

For your convenience, here is the link to the Monthly Progress Monitor, and the programmer method of scheduling time.

Planning for Success - an update on my time management system

As I'm constantly experimenting with what works for me, and how I can optimize my workflow, it should be of no surprise that my time management system tends to gradually evolve over time.

The last time that I discussed my time management system on PhD Talk is more than a year ago. Since then, I've changed some of my tools.

Even though I haven't changed my overall top-down approach for planning what needs to be done, I've made some changes in the tools that I use: I tried to reduce the number of tools that I draw upon, to improve the fluidity in my planning.

I was reminded of critically analyzing my time management system recently, after reading The Sunday Meeting on Inside Higher Ed. I still do my planning usually on a Friday, before heading home for the weekend.

My current approach looks like this:

1. Tools for planning

I split up my planning from the general overview, down to the daily task lists:

- The general overview
With paper deadlines and conferences always planned several months in advance, and teaching duties coming up, I need a good overall view of what needs to be done in which month.
I am keeping the general overview in Google Calender, and I've added additional calendars with my personal planning, the academic calendar of USFQ, the Dutch holidays and more. More and more, I am gravitating towards Google Calendar for planning.

- To Do lists
I've given up filling out the Word documents with my monthly and weekly to do lists - something that I have used during my entire PhD. Instead, I've started to incorporate Google Task lists. These integrate better with my planning in Google Calendar. I still review my planning every Friday evening, to make my daily appointments. That precise moment also serves as a moment to reflect on my progress and to ask myself why or why not I met my goals for this week; a method inspired by the monthly progress monitor.

- Daily appointments
Rather old-fashioned, but I keep my day-to-day appointments in a paper-and-pen type of planner. (It's bound in red leather with a pattern of roses on it, if that explains why I can't switch to a digital version). I write down my most important task(s) for the day, and have all my appointments written down and planned. Also, I write down my To Do list for the evening at the very bottom of the day page. I've expanded on how I structure my To Dos in a different post.

2. Tools for tracking

I'm not using RescueTime anymore, and since leaving my office and office computer in Delft, I've also not been adding what I did to ManicTime anymore. I do plan to start using ManicTime again - but I'd need to sync it over different machines.
LeechBlock and Cold Turkey come in handy when I need to ban myself from the distractions of the internet, but most of the time I prefer a different approach: whenever I feel the urge to give up my task and go browse around, I smile, acknowledge the urge, let it pass, and continue working.

3. Tools for reminding

This part of my approach did not have a solid foundation earlier, but by applying the Task lists in Google Calendar, and having both my planning and deadlines in a visual display together, I've overcome this hurdle in my planning.

How does your time management system work? Has it changed much over the past year? And what did you learn from changing your planning habits?

PhD Talk, post PhD

Dear lovely readers,

Some of you have wondered what my plans are for PhD Talk now that I have graduated and am not a PhD student anymore, so I thought a small glimpse into the future is in place.

My most honest answer to this question is: I'll keep working on this blog for as long as I enjoy doing so.
At the moment, I'm still very much enjoying writing here, and sharing my thoughts, adventures and lessons-learned with all of you.

In the Fall semester, I'll be moving to Ecuador to start as an Assistant Professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. As a result of that, there are a few new topics that most likely will appear here, such as:

• Life as an early career researcher
• Teaching (I'll start with 3 courses of my own)
• Expat life in Ecuador
• Moving abroad

By the same token, I still have a number of topics on my sleeve related to the PhD process that I will frequently share with you all.

I keep on aiming at three posts per week, as long as that remains feasible.
If possible, I'd like to incorporate more guest posts from aspiring, current and former PhD candidates. If you're interested, don't hesitate and get in touch with me!

Also, I -not so- secretly aspire writing an e-book that assembles all that I learned while writing my dissertation: stay tuned!

Over the past years, I've seen (too) many fellow PhD students getting stuck in the swamps. In my research group, I pretty much graduated before all the folks that started their programs earlier than me (and I don't want to sound snobbish about that, just matter-of-factish). I finished and defended 2,5 months before the end of my funding, while the norm at my institution seemed to be extensions, and sometimes even unemployment checks.
For full-time PhD students, I think it is perfectly possible to finish on time, within the originally devised time schedule. Unfortunately, a lot happens along the way, many things don't go as they should, and I would love to improve the system - one PhD student at a time. So tell me, how can I help you?

Let me know what support you are looking for, what you would like to learn about and what you'd like to see on this blog. I'd be more than happy to give you a little boost when needed.

6 Essential Elements in Writing To Dos

In a not-so-recent Lifehacker post, I read the rather surprising stats about To Dos (logged in a particular type of software):

41% of to-do items were never completed.
50% of completed to-do items are done within a day.
18% of completed to-do items are done within an hour.
10% of completed to-do items are done within a minute.
15% of dones started as to-do items.

This post had me thinking about how I structure my own to do lists. In fact, I simply write in my planner what needs to be done on a given day. My office and research to dos are on the top of the page, with the appointments I might have marked at their time slot, and at the bottom I scribble down my to dos for the evening.

Given the fact that so few to do items ever get finished, and some others get finished almost right away, it is necessary to spend some time reflecting on when an item becomes a to do task, and how to treat these.

Over time, I've put a lot of effort into optimizing my own time management system, and writing to dos, as well as planning tasks is an essential element of organizing your time.

Here are 6 essential elements that you need to keep in mind when writing a to do.

1. Focus on the essential

Identify your Most Important Task of the day, and put that on top of your list. It might be tempting to go and do a lot of small things (reply some mails, file some papers, pick up a delivery, ...) but the most important task is what you really need to do.

2. Assess your time

Before starting to put 5 tasks on your to do list for the day, assess the time you have, and the time you think you need to finish them. If you don't really know how much time certain tasks take you, start tracking your time.

3. Distractions

If there is one thing for sure, you will get distracted. Allow for some buffer time in your schedule. If you work 8 hours, you can't fill these 8 hours with net work on your tasks. When adding to do items to your list, make a quick assessment of how much time of your day is lost by distractions.

4. Be early

If a task needs to be done, start working on it early. Don't put items a day before their deadline on your to do list, but plan them over a longer period of time. Take your own deadlines seriously, and work accordingly.

5. Think long term

Identify the tasks that really move your work forwards, and spend enough time on these. Don't let the tasks that are not urgent but important slip behind in your schedule, but place them high on your to do list.

6. Alternate tasks

If you can't focus on the same task for the entire day, add different types of work on your to do list. For example: combine writing a section on a journal paper with sorting out data in a spreadsheet and reading a paper. Not only will you get some more variation in your tasks, but you will also set shorter, defined times to work on these tasks. Short time slots are beneficial from your overall productivity.

How do you handle your to do list? Do you get your tasks done or do you find it hard to deal with distractions?

How to tackle a large task

Writing a doctoral dissertation is a large task, but not the only large task to face during the PhD. A few examples include:
- writing an article,
- preparing a research report,
- the literature review itself,
- developing a method,
- ...

One way to get started is to take a blank page of paper, stare at it, and then get started hoping you'll end up with your required result. This used to be my approach, but I've gradually moved to a more structured approach. Here's a description of my typical workflow.

1. Break it down

Every large task consists of a series of smaller and more tangible tasks.
In a first brainstorm session, I always sketch the roadmap which I plan to follow for completion of the task ahead. Sometimes I make a mindmap, sometimes I sketch the smaller tasks. Once I have an idea of what needs to be done, I write a list of the steps I plan to go through from start to end.

2. Estimate the time needed

It's easier to estimate how much time a smaller task needs than to estimate to time needed for the entire task. This helps to plan the time needed for completion and to add these required blocks of time to your planning.

For example, it's easy to estimate that you need:
- 2 hours to read a paper,
- 15 minutes to archive it and add it to your references managing system, and
- 45 minutes to type out the important information into the literature review.
If you have a certain amount of papers which need to be read for a background study, you can guess how long it takes to process the papers. Continuing with this example, you could estimate that after processing the papers, you need 1 day to proofread and mark up your notes with important information and 2 days to rewrite the document.

3. Sharpen your pencil

I like having all the necessary tools and documents within my reach before I get started. Having to go after a missing document can really disturb my train of thought, so I like to have all my armor ready and shining before I enter the battlefield.

4. Keep track of your questions and assumptions

I recently started using a few extra sheets/documents while working on a larger task. In one document, I jot down all questions I need to ask my supervisor for verification. In another document, I list all the assumptions I have made. This makes it easier to talk through a large task with others (for example, my advisor).

5. Document the process

I keep all my draft document with their date in the title and I keep notes and to do lists in binders. It's like keeping a research journal or a lab book, but then for a different task. The longer I'm in doctoral school, the more it appears to me of the utmost importance to document all the steps I make.

This method might seem more time consuming than simply getting started and work towards the end, but I've noticed that a little extra effort at the start brings me faster and more reliably to the finish.

My analysis report or How to analyze large amounts of test data

The past two weeks and today, I've been continuously working on my analysis report. Today, just before lunch, my first draft (which still needs introduction and conclusions) was rolling out of the printer. I thought it was not so bad how I put together a 23k words document and a large number of graphs and tables in only 11 days' time (including the time to make the analysis calculations).

I wasn't in my best shape in terms of concentration (my housing situation has cause me a lot of tension lately, although the final solution is very near), so I've been randomly clicking around the interwebs too much. However, I still think my workflow with regard to making this document was neatly organized.

Only a few months ago, I spent about the same amount of days on an analysis document of less than half the size of this one, and I spent all those days working until 8pm (instead of 5 - 6pm as I'm trying to do now).

So here's how I organized this project:

1. Review what is already done.

I already had two previous versions of the analysis report of my experimental work, so I could recycle at least some material. I ended up mainly recycling the style of my graphs, and reanalyzing my data since my new test results were screaming to be included in every possible subchapter. I also knew my advisor had suggested changing the amount of data points I'm squeezing into the plots. I waited until this version to make this change.

2. Check the expectations.

Before starting (or better, before realizing another deadline in our project was coming up), I had an appointment with my daily supervisor who told me very clear which questions our funder wants to be answered. I really appreciated that I knew exactly in advance what the expectations for this report are, so I can work towards this in as much as I can.

3. Know what needs to be done.

So I knew what the expectations were. I printed out a previous version of the report and started to reread it. In every section I jotted down what had to be altered, recalculated or added. I also changed the order of the sections, and ended up with a document filled with pencil-scribbling to guide me what had to be done, section by section. I started off with putting the sections in my word document into the right order, and then I could get started altering, improving and adding material to the sections.

4. Give the reader some framework.

Previously, I just referred to the reports with the test data. I now added a short chapter with a sketch of the test setup and some basic information about the specimens. I think that was a good idea.

5. Study the parameters as resulting from the tests.

And so I've spent 11 days playing around with data in Excel and having rows and rows and columns and columns of data flying around before my eyes. My first action was to filter my data into nice plots and tables per parameter which we had been testing.

6. Compare to calculation methods in general.

My second action then was to compare the experimental values to the calculated values. Turn out, I had to recalculate most of my calculated values as I had only made rough predictions before the tests, and I did not implement the properties as we had measured them on the test data. Luckily, I have a nice set of MathCad sheets that do the job for me. Also, once I had a spreadsheet set up to analyze my data through one method, using the next method was only a matter of copy and paste.

7. Compare how the studied parameters are reflected by these methods.

Since the comparison with the Dutch code as calculation method gave me quite disappointing results, I decided to go and check per parameter the comparison of test value to calculated value to see where exactly the weak spots of the methods are. Doing that, I did some nice observations, which motivated me to play around some more with all my data.

8. Give recommendations.

It doesn't really help the fund to produce graphs and tables and let them look for the answers to their questions in all the material I've produced. So today, I printed out the document, started reading from the beginning, and jotted down the most important recommendations - per calculation method and in general.

9. Review your material.

Does it make sense? When reviewing my material today, I found that one of my tables raised my eyebrows. I went back to check it, doublechecked my calculations, and then I discovered that I had been reading results from the wrong column.

How do you analyze large amounts of test data? Any advice for me? I'm just hoping to give my funder a report which gives them as clear as possible the answers to their questions, but also gives them enough background to these answers.