Not That Kind of Doctor - Tech Tips Every Academic Needs to Track Progress and Succeed
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11/05/2024
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In this episode of Not That Kind of Doctor, Nick Husbye and Guy Trainin break down the best technology and tools to support your academic journey, especially when navigating the tenure process. They share insights on organizing your teaching, research, and service, from choosing the right citation management system to setting up sustainable workflows. Learn how to avoid the pitfalls of shiny new apps, back up your work effectively, and create systems that will save you time and reduce stress. Whether you’re a grad student, an assistant professor, or just someone looking to streamline your academic life, this episode has practical advice and plenty of laughs.
Key Takeaways:
Choose sustainable tech that integrates with your workflow.
Back up your work using both cloud and hard drive solutions.
Get started with a citation management system to simplify writing and referencing.
Avoid productive procrastination by focusing on tools that truly save time.
Download our Tenure Without Losing Your Mind workbook at NotThatKindOfDoctor.net.
#AcademicProductivity #TenureTips #HigherEdTools #TeachingTech #ResearchEfficiency #AcademicLife #CitationManagement #OrganizedAcademia #FacultySuccess #AcademicWorkflows #HigherEducationTechnology to Try - Not That Kind of Doctor with Nick Husbye and Guy Trainin
www.youtube.com/@tltenotthatkindofdoctor
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- [00:00:00.300]All right, so on today's episodes,
- [00:00:03.030]we're taking a critical question that we hear often
- [00:00:07.650]to what technology can you and do you want to use
- [00:00:13.050]to really figure out the supports for the tenure process?
- [00:00:17.400]So how do you document the research, the teaching,
- [00:00:23.550]and the service that you do
- [00:00:25.230]to make sure you're making progress?
- [00:00:26.790]And we have our lovely workbook that can help you.
- [00:00:32.940]Yes, which if you haven't downloaded yet, go download it.
- [00:00:36.420]And when you're thinking about tenure and promotion
- [00:00:39.600]and you're thinking about teaching, research,
- [00:00:42.240]and service,
- [00:00:43.620]you want to ensure
- [00:00:45.270]that you're not just finding shiny new apps.
- [00:00:48.120]We love a shiny new app, though, don't we?
- [00:00:49.650]Yes, we do.
- [00:00:51.420]However, it's not always about the shiny new apps.
- [00:00:53.640]It's about the apps
- [00:00:54.630]that you're going to actually be able to use
- [00:00:57.180]to be productive,
- [00:00:58.620]that are going to actually help you
- [00:01:00.630]and be reliable over multiple years.
- [00:01:03.630]And we've seen many generations of these apps,
- [00:01:06.330]and we really talked, we did it ourselves,
- [00:01:09.480]and we talked to a lot of faculty members
- [00:01:11.370]that are doing the same.
- [00:01:12.360]We supported them and mentored them throughout the process.
- [00:01:15.180]So we have that wisdom of how do you pick that,
- [00:01:18.390]what do you let go of,
- [00:01:20.670]and how do you make progress with that?
- [00:01:22.500]And by wisdom he means mistakes.
- [00:01:24.420]We've made a lot of mistakes in terms of the technology
- [00:01:27.930]that we've brought into our existing workflows.
- [00:01:31.680]And so whether you are committed to your paper system,
- [00:01:38.460]the trees love you,
- [00:01:40.020]or you're looking for a new solution,
- [00:01:43.230]we're gonna have something for you in this episode
- [00:01:45.360]that fits into your existing workflows.
- [00:01:48.030]I'm Nick Husbye.
- [00:01:48.930]I'm an associate professor
- [00:01:50.040]of elementary education K-6 here at UNL.
- [00:01:53.430]I'm Guy Trainin,
- [00:01:54.263]and I'm a full professor of education here at UNL.
- [00:01:58.446]Are you ready to get organized?
- [00:01:59.850]We are. Let's go.
- [00:02:01.695](upbeat music)
- [00:02:10.140]Okay, back into it.
- [00:02:12.960]So what digital tools do you use
- [00:02:17.820]as you think about tracking your progress
- [00:02:20.460]and being able to report on it easily?
- [00:02:23.130]Well, so for me, I want to take a step back
- [00:02:26.850]and I wanna think about what are the kinds of work
- [00:02:30.300]that I'm being asked to do.
- [00:02:32.340]So if we're thinking about our job as professors,
- [00:02:36.000]whether we're associates or assistants,
- [00:02:38.640]we're thinking through those areas of teaching, research,
- [00:02:42.360]and service.
- [00:02:43.860]And it's important
- [00:02:45.780]that we align our tools with the works that,
- [00:02:50.010]with the work that we're doing
- [00:02:51.150]in each of those spaces, right?
- [00:02:53.250]So research is probably the easier space to begin
- [00:02:58.590]because there's some pretty clear things
- [00:03:02.460]to be talking about, right?
- [00:03:03.810]So I always talk to grad students a lot
- [00:03:06.570]about citation management systems.
- [00:03:09.690]And there's a ton out there.
- [00:03:11.040]And man, have I gone through them.
- [00:03:14.586](Guy laughs) (Nick exhales deeply)
- [00:03:16.140]And I'm still doing it out of a list
- [00:03:18.990]that I created myself.
- [00:03:20.550]Oh, you know, that just made my heart die a little bit.
- [00:03:22.950]Yes, I do know that.
- [00:03:24.515](Nick groans)
- [00:03:25.950]So here's why.
- [00:03:28.920]Guy. Yes.
- [00:03:30.450]And audience.
- [00:03:31.283]Here's why you need a citation management system.
- [00:03:34.387]And I do. And I do.
- [00:03:35.700]And you do. Yeah.
- [00:03:36.540]So here's why you need a citation management system.
- [00:03:38.850]Because when you're writing,
- [00:03:42.000]or let's step back,
- [00:03:43.020]let's just move back for a second.
- [00:03:44.430]When you're reading,
- [00:03:45.390]because reading feeds your writing,
- [00:03:47.730]you are going to have annotations, you're gonna have notes,
- [00:03:50.280]you're gonna have insights,
- [00:03:51.300]you're gonna have epiphanies, hopefully.
- [00:03:53.880]Yeah.
- [00:03:54.713]That come out of reading those materials.
- [00:03:57.030]And you want a space to capture them
- [00:04:00.480]so that when you go to leverage those epiphanies
- [00:04:03.270]in your writing- They're available.
- [00:04:05.190]They're somewhere, they're captured somewhere.
- [00:04:07.770]And a citation management system,
- [00:04:10.890]a citation management software,
- [00:04:12.960]a good one is going to allow you to digitally annotate
- [00:04:19.920]that PDF of that article or that ebook, whatever it is,
- [00:04:25.380]make your notes in some fields,
- [00:04:27.900]and then upload it into your citation management database.
- [00:04:32.670]Now the cool thing here is
- [00:04:37.050]when you then go to write that paper,
- [00:04:39.330]you use that citation management software
- [00:04:42.210]to structure your citations,
- [00:04:44.550]and then it creates your bibliography for you as you go.
- [00:04:48.390]So you're not having to deal with like the list.
- [00:04:52.170]Yes.
- [00:04:53.280]And so what's nice about that
- [00:04:55.500]is you then have this massive database of things
- [00:05:00.060]that you're continually adding to,
- [00:05:02.160]and it just makes your writing process easier.
- [00:05:06.570]You don't have to keep going back to your citation list.
- [00:05:13.080]Or frantically searching for references online.
- [00:05:16.500]Right. This is a bad idea.
- [00:05:17.333]Because how many times have you,
- [00:05:19.260]I know I have suffered from this.
- [00:05:21.420]I go to submit a paper.
- [00:05:22.770]Yeah.
- [00:05:24.300]Takes me an hour to remember
- [00:05:25.590]what my sign-in credentials are for that journal.
- [00:05:28.170]And then I go, "Oh, I don't have a citations page."
- [00:05:31.320]And then I spend four hours,
- [00:05:33.510]I used to do this in grad school, actually.
- [00:05:36.900]Spent way too long trying to construct my citations page.
- [00:05:41.460]And so this can be a long-term time saver
- [00:05:46.800]because you build it and then it's available to you
- [00:05:50.910]and you keep updating it as you go.
- [00:05:53.220]So when you're looking at that software,
- [00:05:54.840]because this is one example of a piece software,
- [00:05:57.510]there are lots of other ways to support research.
- [00:06:00.600]But when you're choosing which one,
- [00:06:03.450]what are the things you're thinking about?
- [00:06:05.730]So I'm thinking about my own workflow.
- [00:06:08.160]And your workflow might be different from my workflow.
- [00:06:11.550]And you want to pick a tool that's going to work for you.
- [00:06:14.340]So I want something
- [00:06:15.540]that's going to host across multiple devices.
- [00:06:18.150]I want to be able to access PDFs on my iPad.
- [00:06:21.900]Yeah.
- [00:06:22.733]I want the PDFs that are on my iPad
- [00:06:25.110]to be uploaded to my computer on the web.
- [00:06:29.430]So that ability to store in multiple places,
- [00:06:33.150]that ability to integrate,
- [00:06:34.320]becomes really, really important for me.
- [00:06:36.870]I need it to...
- [00:06:38.160]I use Google Docs when I write because I collaborate a lot.
- [00:06:41.670]Versus like, I'm sorry, Microsoft,
- [00:06:44.820]but Collaborative Word, oof.
- [00:06:47.940]Not where we wanna be right now.
- [00:06:49.560]Oh, not where I wanna be ever.
- [00:06:51.930]Ever.
- [00:06:53.850]But I use Google Drive a lot to collaborate,
- [00:06:56.640]so I need something that integrates with Google Drive.
- [00:06:59.460]And so right now I'm using EndNote.
- [00:07:01.980]I started with EndNote as a grad student
- [00:07:05.280]because I kept taking so much time
- [00:07:07.350]to pull together citations.
- [00:07:08.490]And Carolyn Woven was like, "Why are you doing that?"
- [00:07:11.760]And I was like, "What else should I do?"
- [00:07:13.020]And she was like, "EndNote."
- [00:07:15.090]And so I've done EndNote, I've done Papers,
- [00:07:17.860]I've done Paperpile.
- [00:07:21.570]I haven't done Mendeley.
- [00:07:23.100]And then now I'm back to EndNote again,
- [00:07:27.000]so you can switch systems if a tool changes,
- [00:07:29.940]as sometimes they do. They do.
- [00:07:31.410]Or disappears. That's also a thing.
- [00:07:34.530]And you can switch them.
- [00:07:36.120]Normally there's gonna be a little bit of pain,
- [00:07:39.030]but it's minimally painful.
- [00:07:41.550]But I try to find something that works
- [00:07:44.610]with the way that I write.
- [00:07:46.350]I want the opposite of a Tesla.
- [00:07:48.510]Like I feel like a Tesla demands I drive
- [00:07:51.570]in a particular way.
- [00:07:52.950]Yeah, okay. I don't want that.
- [00:07:54.390]I want an app that's going to be-
- [00:07:56.640]Your speed.
- [00:07:57.473]Hug my work processes, right?
- [00:08:01.410]The speedometer is not on a screen facing forward
- [00:08:04.440]in the middle of the dashboard.
- [00:08:06.660]I don't want that, right?
- [00:08:08.160]So I want a citation management,
- [00:08:10.080]I want a citation management software
- [00:08:11.910]that's going to hug my processes,
- [00:08:13.920]but I have to be aware of what my process is.
- [00:08:15.900]Yes.
- [00:08:16.733]So the first thing is,
- [00:08:18.090]and that's really good to think as a young scholar,
- [00:08:21.030]whether you're a graduate student
- [00:08:23.100]or just starting your way through academia,
- [00:08:25.560]this is the time to think about it
- [00:08:27.300]because you don't wanna wait like I have
- [00:08:29.760]and now having to backfill.
- [00:08:31.086]Oh, I'm gonna revise- A huge-
- [00:08:32.400]I'm gonna revise this. Yes, okay.
- [00:08:34.038]The time to start is now. Is now.
- [00:08:36.120]Yes.
- [00:08:37.110]Now. Yes.
- [00:08:38.010]It's going to be painful. At the beginning.
- [00:08:40.710]At the beginning,
- [00:08:41.760]and you're gonna feel like,
- [00:08:42.593]"Oh, this would be faster if I did it this other way,"
- [00:08:44.040]because you've done it so long.
- [00:08:45.420]Yes.
- [00:08:46.253]But in the long term, it is going to save you more time.
- [00:08:49.200]It's going to make your life more efficient.
- [00:08:51.960]And it's one of the best gifts that you can give yourself
- [00:08:55.230]is the additional time.
- [00:08:58.008]Yeah.
- [00:08:58.841]That you will fill with not having a hobby.
- [00:09:00.510]But this is the other thing to notice.
- [00:09:03.360]And that is, this is where you might experience time sink.
- [00:09:06.900]So time sink in the beginning is perfectly fine.
- [00:09:08.940]But if the system
- [00:09:10.740]keeps taking a tremendous amount of your time,
- [00:09:13.440]it's probably the wrong system.
- [00:09:15.180]Yes, and at some point, like, give yourself a good,
- [00:09:20.250]I like to give myself two solid months
- [00:09:22.350]of trying a new system regularly.
- [00:09:25.129]EndNote had a really high learning curve this next time
- [00:09:28.260]from when I first started using it 12 years ago.
- [00:09:31.800]About two months in,
- [00:09:33.120]I felt like I knew where everything was
- [00:09:35.010]and how it was working,
- [00:09:35.850]but I did have to invest a lot of time.
- [00:09:37.800]But we're in a much better,
- [00:09:39.630]we're in a much better space now.
- [00:09:41.100]We've gone to couples therapy, we've worked it out.
- [00:09:43.230]We understand our roles.
- [00:09:45.060]Things are fine. Yes.
- [00:09:47.010]So that's one, you do wanna make sure,
- [00:09:50.310]we always go back to it.
- [00:09:51.600]It's so basic.
- [00:09:52.500]It's really sad to remind people.
- [00:09:54.540]But you do have to back up your information.
- [00:09:57.900]And whatever files you have,
- [00:09:59.940]you don't just want to have on your device, and that's it.
- [00:10:03.390]You've gotta make sure you've got the cloud backup
- [00:10:05.820]and probably a hard drive backup
- [00:10:08.820]as a secondary source just to make sure you're safe.
- [00:10:12.480]I'd flip that.
- [00:10:14.370]Always have a hard drive backup
- [00:10:17.250]because what do you do?
- [00:10:18.420]Like, it's fine to have it in the cloud,
- [00:10:20.070]but what do you do on a clear day?
- [00:10:23.445](Guy chuckles) Literally, what do you do?
- [00:10:25.710]Yeah. There's no cloud.
- [00:10:27.480]Yeah. There's no cloud.
- [00:10:29.580]And it happens every once in a while.
- [00:10:30.990]And so invest in a nice UBC solid state drive.
- [00:10:37.260]Yeah.
- [00:10:39.270]And backup up to that
- [00:10:40.230]and have regular scheduled backups because stuff happens.
- [00:10:44.580]And then have a cloud.
- [00:10:45.690]Think about the cloud as your backup of your backup.
- [00:10:48.270]Yes.
- [00:10:49.103]And the cloud, I mean, there are two ways to do the cloud.
- [00:10:51.660]And often what we have is we have the cloud
- [00:10:54.390]as part of our job,
- [00:10:56.880]so it belongs to the university.
- [00:10:58.920]Which means that if you decide one day to pack up and go,
- [00:11:02.160]as we talked about in our previous episode,
- [00:11:05.400]you will be cut off from that cloud.
- [00:11:07.100]Oh yeah.
- [00:11:07.933]We have seen that multiple times
- [00:11:09.450]with collaborators we worked with.
- [00:11:11.160]They have left the university,
- [00:11:12.330]and suddenly the cloud is gone,
- [00:11:14.100]and- Poof.
- [00:11:15.000]all of these files are somewhere, but nobody's got access.
- [00:11:18.210]So having a backup drive solves that problem
- [00:11:22.440]and gives you constant access without having to go,
- [00:11:25.657]"Oh wait, we were in the middle of research
- [00:11:28.050]and now we're disconnected.
- [00:11:29.850]Help us."
- [00:11:30.683]And sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.
- [00:11:32.520]This solves that problem.
- [00:11:33.600]So make sure you have a backup
- [00:11:35.880]and then think about what other opportunities there are.
- [00:11:41.370]Because you talked a little bit about Google.
- [00:11:43.860]Google has Google Scholar, and you can create a profile.
- [00:11:47.730]So there are lots of opportunities to create free profiles
- [00:11:51.270]that give you visibility but also keep all of your stuff.
- [00:11:53.850]That's always a good idea.
- [00:11:56.100]Yeah, and you wanna be thinking about,
- [00:11:59.670]whenever you're considering a new tool,
- [00:12:02.160]think about what bells and whistles do you absolutely need.
- [00:12:08.700]Yeah.
- [00:12:09.533]What are the features that you're actually going to use
- [00:12:12.090]and ignore all the rest of it
- [00:12:14.280]because it might be nice to have,
- [00:12:16.860]but at the end of the day,
- [00:12:18.120]you're going to wanna use these tools very basically.
- [00:12:21.360]Also, what are the,
- [00:12:24.540]how do these software pieces get updated?
- [00:12:27.330]So like EndNote gives you an update for free
- [00:12:30.840]and then the next one you have to pay for.
- [00:12:32.460]So keeping those kinds of things in mind
- [00:12:35.070]because your technology is going to continue to age.
- [00:12:37.950]You will remain forever youthful,
- [00:12:39.870]but your technology will age,
- [00:12:41.700]and your software is going to keep up
- [00:12:44.250]with the newest technology,
- [00:12:45.270]not that technology that you have.
- [00:12:46.530]So keep that in mind.
- [00:12:48.810]So, Nick, you've moved between institutions,
- [00:12:51.630]so you've seen how it plays out as you move
- [00:12:55.620]and as you enter new institutions.
- [00:12:57.720]What are the biggest challenges to the move?
- [00:12:59.700]And especially with technology in mind.
- [00:13:02.250]I think the technology in mind,
- [00:13:04.320]this brings me back to the summer
- [00:13:06.960]where I was between Milwaukee and Nebraska.
- [00:13:10.680]And this was less of a software issue.
- [00:13:14.280]This was more of a hardware issue
- [00:13:15.960]because oftentimes your university will give you a laptop
- [00:13:19.680]as part of your job, right?
- [00:13:20.970]Your work computer that you're supposed to do work on.
- [00:13:24.840]And I no longer had a work computer.
- [00:13:27.900]I didn't have a computer
- [00:13:30.480]because, I don't know, I was stupid.
- [00:13:33.292](Guy laughs)
- [00:13:34.440]I had an iPad Pro. Yeah.
- [00:13:37.080]Which is not enough.
- [00:13:38.130]It's great. Which is not enough.
- [00:13:39.750]Not enough. It was the first-
- [00:13:40.761]It's not a computer.
- [00:13:41.594]It was the first generation of the iPad Pro,
- [00:13:44.100]and they were like,
- [00:13:44.933]"Oh yeah, this can replace your computer."
- [00:13:47.070]Dear viewer, it did not replace my computer.
- [00:13:50.310]It has not replaced my computer.
- [00:13:52.530]It's a good minimal production device.
- [00:13:54.990]But the kinds of work that we were doing at that point
- [00:13:59.130]was not sustainable on an iPad Pro.
- [00:14:03.090]So there's that.
- [00:14:05.700]Think through,
- [00:14:07.980]if you're thinking about switching institutions,
- [00:14:11.130]keep in mind technology,
- [00:14:13.710]and even if you're moving into a new position,
- [00:14:16.830]think through what are the ways
- [00:14:18.540]that you're going to use your work computer,
- [00:14:20.460]knowing that, in terms of university regulations,
- [00:14:24.390]they pretty much have access.
- [00:14:25.710]They can ask for that computer at any time.
- [00:14:27.630]So it's your computer, but it's not really your computer.
- [00:14:31.020]It's not.
- [00:14:31.853]And more than they can ask you for access,
- [00:14:34.440]they can actually not ask you for access-
- [00:14:37.410]Right. And look into it.
- [00:14:39.690]Most of work computers right now have the ability
- [00:14:42.750]for remote access for somebody from IT
- [00:14:45.960]if they need to recover something.
- [00:14:47.580]Usually, in most institutions,
- [00:14:49.860]they will ask you before they do it,
- [00:14:51.720]but they don't actually have to.
- [00:14:53.640]Right.
- [00:14:54.473]And so you always wanna be aware of that.
- [00:14:56.490]And there's the notion of, like,
- [00:15:00.690]what is the purpose of this device?
- [00:15:03.780]I think I would not go back to having just a work computer.
- [00:15:09.870]For a while there I was like,
- [00:15:10.867]"I'm just gonna have a work computer
- [00:15:12.270]'cause worky, worky, worky.
- [00:15:14.550]And I now have a personal device that I do personal things.
- [00:15:21.060]I also do some work things. Yeah.
- [00:15:22.980]But the majority of my work happens on my work computer,
- [00:15:27.450]and personal stuff stays to my personal computer.
- [00:15:32.160]So planning for that
- [00:15:33.150]because institutions are going to have different policies.
- [00:15:37.860]Additionally, the software that's available
- [00:15:41.010]from institution to institution-
- [00:15:42.570]Is very different. is very different.
- [00:15:44.490]So here I had to pay for EndNote.
- [00:15:48.000]Yep.
- [00:15:48.833]Milwaukee, I wouldn't have had to have paid for EndNote.
- [00:15:52.260]At St. Louis, I would've had a discounted rate for EndNote.
- [00:15:55.230]So being aware of what kinds of software are available,
- [00:16:00.210]both for free download as well as a fraction of the price,
- [00:16:05.880]is really helpful.
- [00:16:07.680]And if you're moving into a new position,
- [00:16:11.100]thinking about how to allocate some of those startup funds
- [00:16:14.370]to build those structures if you haven't already.
- [00:16:17.370]And also, when an institution gives you access
- [00:16:20.880]to specific software,
- [00:16:22.020]they also give you access to the support for that software.
- [00:16:24.930]So it's not just that you're getting that software,
- [00:16:27.660]you're getting the support.
- [00:16:29.760]And so the IT department will support you with that.
- [00:16:32.310]Whereas if it's something you buy on your own
- [00:16:34.500]and they don't provide,
- [00:16:35.520]they will also not provide the support.
- [00:16:38.220]So that creates again, another impetus
- [00:16:41.280]for maybe having your own device
- [00:16:43.290]and definitely thinking what is my institution giving me?
- [00:16:47.850]Even if I have something like EndNote,
- [00:16:50.220]if they're giving me something else
- [00:16:51.840]that is easily transported and I can figure out,
- [00:16:54.480]maybe it's worth considering, maybe it's not.
- [00:16:57.930]And if you're having multiple devices,
- [00:17:00.240]keeping in mind
- [00:17:01.073]that because of the back and forth that you'll have,
- [00:17:05.310]am I on my personal device?
- [00:17:06.555]Am I my work device?
- [00:17:08.520]What are the integration points?
- [00:17:10.320]And we talked a little bit about that with the cloud.
- [00:17:12.508]Yeah.
- [00:17:13.341]And Google Drive does that for me
- [00:17:16.320]in terms of if I want to work on an article,
- [00:17:21.060]it's in Google Drive,
- [00:17:23.370]I can access that from my work computer.
- [00:17:25.249]Yeah.
- [00:17:26.082]EndNote's on my work computer,
- [00:17:27.270]it's also on my personal computer.
- [00:17:29.640]And they all talk to each other.
- [00:17:30.960]So thinking about what's your device management kind of plan
- [00:17:37.020]is helpful as you're going into it
- [00:17:39.450]because, yeah, not every institution's going to be the same.
- [00:17:42.870]Yeah, they're definitely not going to be the same.
- [00:17:44.940]They're not gonna be the same.
- [00:17:45.773]We do know that for a fact.
- [00:17:47.610]And you to also make decisions.
- [00:17:51.960]So, for example,
- [00:17:53.040]our institutions have some analysis software
- [00:17:55.740]for qualitative inquiry that they support.
- [00:17:59.130]And I have tried to use it multiple times,
- [00:18:01.290]and eventually I went back to something that I know,
- [00:18:04.380]I trust, and I can operate effectively.
- [00:18:07.110]And so I have actually made a different decision.
- [00:18:10.350]So I looked repeatedly at what our institution offers
- [00:18:14.550]and eventually went a different way.
- [00:18:16.590]And I'm happy about this.
- [00:18:17.850]But then you have to have resources
- [00:18:19.740]because then you've gotta pay for it and maintain it.
- [00:18:23.160]There's not gonna be that support,
- [00:18:24.630]there's not gonna be that training.
- [00:18:25.980]So there's a decision-making tree
- [00:18:30.120]about which one do I want to use?
- [00:18:32.370]Behold the consequences of your actions, right?
- [00:18:35.310]Like, you can choose to engage in a software
- [00:18:37.890]that's not endorsed by the institution, right?
- [00:18:42.330]Like, I use Transana a lot for qualitative work.
- [00:18:46.230]And I don't know if David Woods sleeps,
- [00:18:50.730]but you email that man a question about that software,
- [00:18:54.690]and he gets back to you like that. (fingers snap)
- [00:18:56.820]Yeah. It's ridiculous.
- [00:18:58.230]I don't know if, like,
- [00:18:59.550]does he just live perpetually in his email?
- [00:19:02.880]But what that's allowed me to do is,
- [00:19:06.240]even though it's not a software that UNL supports,
- [00:19:12.240]it's given me a lot of confidence in terms of, like,
- [00:19:15.720]oh, I can grow with this software.
- [00:19:18.570]This is another software I've been using
- [00:19:20.550]since I was a little itty-bitty grad student.
- [00:19:24.300]Yeah. And it's just been so nice
- [00:19:28.980]to have his support throughout like 12 years of that.
- [00:19:33.810]But again, I've had to make sure that that support's there
- [00:19:36.870]because UNL doesn't provide it.
- [00:19:38.730]And that's something you learn along the way.
- [00:19:41.130]And that brings me back to the opportunity.
- [00:19:43.260]If you are a grad student,
- [00:19:44.760]this is the time to figure out
- [00:19:46.050]some of these workflow things.
- [00:19:48.420]Now is the time, Guy. Now is the time.
- [00:19:50.173]Even you. Even I can do that.
- [00:19:52.620]But so many of us, (laughs)
- [00:19:55.890]so many of us are using some things we've learned,
- [00:19:59.610]some systems we've used in graduate school.
- [00:20:01.950]So you use an analysis software,
- [00:20:05.130]I've tried multiple qualitative analysis software,
- [00:20:08.430]and I am back to where I started with AtlasAI
- [00:20:11.820]because that has always worked for me.
- [00:20:13.710]It made total sense to me and it still does.
- [00:20:16.680]And everything else I've tried that we have here
- [00:20:19.500]just did not work as excitingly.
- [00:20:21.450]And I've tried about three different packages,
- [00:20:23.640]so it's not like I haven't.
- [00:20:25.230]And I think this really comes back
- [00:20:27.030]to you gotta constantly be auditing,
- [00:20:29.640]not constantly, but like once a year audit your system,
- [00:20:33.030]audit your processes.
- [00:20:34.320]What is it that you do and be aware of them.
- [00:20:38.850]And is there potentially
- [00:20:41.490]some other software package out there
- [00:20:44.220]that is going to be more helpful, more useful,
- [00:20:48.150]and try it out.
- [00:20:51.210]'Cause sometimes programs just don't grow with you.
- [00:20:55.470]So I've used Transana ever since graduate school.
- [00:20:58.560]It's grown with me. Yeah.
- [00:21:00.120]We've been really good partners.
- [00:21:02.580]EndNote and I,
- [00:21:03.953]EndNote didn't support Google Drive when it first came out
- [00:21:07.110]and I used Google Drive a lot
- [00:21:08.730]and that's one of the reasons why I left it.
- [00:21:10.350]And now I'm back to it
- [00:21:12.690]because it supports Google Drive again.
- [00:21:15.180]So there's no, like,
- [00:21:18.420]you don't have to dance with the one you came with.
- [00:21:21.600]Yeah.
- [00:21:22.433]But makes smart decisions
- [00:21:23.880]because you can fall into like a productive procrastination.
- [00:21:31.080]These tools are meant to keep you productive.
- [00:21:33.840]Trying out all of the new apps,
- [00:21:35.580]that feels like productivity but it's not actually.
- [00:21:38.040]You always wanna be thinking about,
- [00:21:39.600]how does this help me get something done more efficiently?
- [00:21:42.960]That's the role of tech.
- [00:21:44.820]And you need to try it and you need to give it time.
- [00:21:47.250]For example, right now I'm trying
- [00:21:49.680]the Microsoft Project Management piece of software.
- [00:21:56.790]Right now the, (laughs)
- [00:21:58.530]it's not going that great,
- [00:22:00.180]but I'm giving it a serious try,
- [00:22:04.170]seeing is this really helping my projects?
- [00:22:07.620]Because I'm managing quite a few projects right now
- [00:22:10.170]and sometimes it feels unwieldy,
- [00:22:12.900]so having a way to organize them
- [00:22:14.850]made a lot of sense to me at the time.
- [00:22:16.980]I'm working with a graduate student.
- [00:22:18.450]Together, we're trying to make it work
- [00:22:20.700]and at the same time, we put a timeline on it.
- [00:22:23.910]We said we're trying this for two months.
- [00:22:26.400]If it's actually helping us,
- [00:22:28.110]and there's a sense that we are benefiting
- [00:22:31.410]from the timelines and everything it organizes, great.
- [00:22:36.480]How much work is it taking?
- [00:22:38.100]Is it sustainable?
- [00:22:39.690]Is really, really important.
- [00:22:40.817]That's the question.
- [00:22:42.270]That's always the question.
- [00:22:43.103]Because if I'm constantly spending 45 minutes,
- [00:22:46.950]an hour a week on a piece of software
- [00:22:49.410]is too much for me for management.
- [00:22:51.630]If I'm working, it's fine.
- [00:22:53.550]But if I am spending too much time,
- [00:22:55.890]going back to the one thing we want the software
- [00:22:58.350]to give us back is time.
- [00:23:00.210]If it's doing the opposite, it's time to let go.
- [00:23:03.030]Well, and you have to think like,
- [00:23:05.520]not necessarily long game.
- [00:23:07.170]But if you want it to give you back time,
- [00:23:10.290]it's the 20/80 rule, right? Yeah.
- [00:23:13.170]Like, 20% of effort's
- [00:23:14.520]going to impact 80% of the effect, right?
- [00:23:18.360]And if you put in the effort
- [00:23:21.150]during that concentrated period of time,
- [00:23:23.940]you'll have a good sense
- [00:23:25.290]of whether or not it's gonna do that.
- [00:23:26.670]And what I love about what you just said
- [00:23:29.820]is you have very clear metrics
- [00:23:32.370]for how successful that technology is going to be
- [00:23:35.700]within the work that you do.
- [00:23:38.400]And oftentimes, I feel like we might take on a software
- [00:23:44.730]and think, "Oh, I'm just gonna use this software,"
- [00:23:47.430]but have no ideas about how to judge
- [00:23:52.320]whether or not it's actually helping us.
- [00:23:56.760]Whether or not it's actually, like, going to save you time.
- [00:24:03.990]So I know you, you like shiny new tech,
- [00:24:07.320]you like shiny new apps.
- [00:24:08.153]Yes, I do like shiny new apps.
- [00:24:10.170]So talk to me about what is it you do
- [00:24:14.070]when someone brings you a shiny new app and says, "Try me.
- [00:24:19.500]I'm gonna fix you."
- [00:24:21.294](Guy laughs)
- [00:24:22.560]Which is a tall order.
- [00:24:24.540]So I really think about,
- [00:24:26.670]okay, so first you've gotta set that time.
- [00:24:28.980]There's going to be, you talked about learning curve,
- [00:24:33.030]whatever it is,
- [00:24:33.870]there's going to be a little bit of pain at the beginning
- [00:24:36.450]or a lot depending on what it is.
- [00:24:39.240]The second thing is I've started looking actually more
- [00:24:43.740]at how long has this company or this outfit had been around
- [00:24:48.270]because I've done,
- [00:24:50.010]I've had the AI email assistant very early.
- [00:24:53.970]It was lovely. I loved that.
- [00:24:56.370]But they- Past tense?
- [00:24:58.010]Past tense. Oh sad.
- [00:25:00.060]It was one of the original ones.
- [00:25:02.400]And it worked great.
- [00:25:04.320]Everybody loved her. (Nick laughs)
- [00:25:07.470]It was- I loved her.
- [00:25:09.240]Yes, because they called it, it was Amy Ingram.
- [00:25:12.060]And so people thought it was real person for a while,
- [00:25:14.430]even though it said very clearly, "I am an AI."
- [00:25:19.440]And then they disappeared because they ran outta money.
- [00:25:21.720]And I'm like, "I loved you, but now you're gone."
- [00:25:24.120]So I tend to look at- You got ghosted by an AI.
- [00:25:27.510]Yes, yes, I have.
- [00:25:29.670]And so looking at what is the potential
- [00:25:33.000]that this will stick in that is,
- [00:25:34.800]it's worth investing the time
- [00:25:36.180]because they will be with me six months from now
- [00:25:38.580]is actually a really important thing.
- [00:25:40.710]And the second thing is,
- [00:25:42.000]is it transferable is really important to me early.
- [00:25:45.180]That is does it talk to other systems?
- [00:25:46.950]You talked about if it doesn't work with Google Docs,
- [00:25:49.800]do I really want it?
- [00:25:50.910]Does it work, in the case of an AI assistant,
- [00:25:53.430]if you can't work with my email system, I'm out.
- [00:25:57.240]This is not working for me.
- [00:25:58.410]So really finding out those.
- [00:26:00.210]And then, on the benefits side,
- [00:26:01.680]really be very concrete about how much time do I wanna save?
- [00:26:05.700]Where should it show up?
- [00:26:07.170]So if I have a project meeting
- [00:26:09.030]and I'm still not consulting my project management software,
- [00:26:12.420]either my meeting is wrong or the software isn't working.
- [00:26:16.320]And so maybe it's time to move on.
- [00:26:19.080]I really need it to be more efficient than the past.
- [00:26:22.020]That's sometimes hard.
- [00:26:23.190]But it's like, am I making less mistakes,
- [00:26:26.820]in the case of project management,
- [00:26:28.350]this is the example in front of me.
- [00:26:30.450]Am I forgetting less things that need to get done?
- [00:26:33.480]Is it really keeping me on my toes
- [00:26:35.760]and making sure my projects actually move faster
- [00:26:38.400]and more efficiently without panic moments?
- [00:26:40.800]That's great.
- [00:26:41.633]But if it's not doing that, am I doing anything?
- [00:26:44.160]And of course, does it improve workflow?
- [00:26:46.770]In my case, I measure that by reduced anxiety on projects.
- [00:26:51.540]That is, I know it's a,
- [00:26:53.670]it's a personal metric,
- [00:26:54.900]but it is an important metric when you're-
- [00:26:56.260]I mean, look, it's something that you can give-
- [00:26:57.093]When you're managing.
- [00:26:58.710]Am I one to five today? Yes.
- [00:27:00.510]Do I know what's happening?
- [00:27:01.860]Do I know who's doing it? Yes.
- [00:27:03.690]Do we have a check-in? Yeah.
- [00:27:05.160]Can I just go into my software
- [00:27:06.930]and find out exactly where we are?
- [00:27:08.430]And if I do, this is great.
- [00:27:10.200]If I still have to send an email,
- [00:27:12.030]is the software really working?
- [00:27:13.980]And I think we've touched on this a couple of times,
- [00:27:15.960]but that notion of like trying the shiny new stuff out.
- [00:27:19.920]Yeah.
- [00:27:20.910]Being careful around, are they gonna run outta money?
- [00:27:25.590]Yes. Right?
- [00:27:26.423]Or are they gonna get bought out because they're a startup?
- [00:27:28.680]'Cause sometimes startups, like this was Papers for me.
- [00:27:31.470]Yeah.
- [00:27:32.303]Beautiful citation software,
- [00:27:34.020]gorgeous interface on a Mac device, iPad, delightful.
- [00:27:39.120]And then they got sold
- [00:27:41.070]and changed everything about that software.
- [00:27:43.200]And that's why I ended up leaving
- [00:27:45.630]because it just was not, it wasn't helpful.
- [00:27:49.590]So being aware of that,
- [00:27:50.550]like, it can be shiny and new,
- [00:27:52.710]but be prepared to pivot if it's,
- [00:27:55.560]if it is something that is,
- [00:27:59.280]you know, newer or startup because it could go away.
- [00:28:03.180]And just to remember that the goal,
- [00:28:05.490]especially with the software we're talking about,
- [00:28:07.620]the goal for us is to support you
- [00:28:10.950]and for each one of us to support ourselves
- [00:28:13.110]throughout our academic career.
- [00:28:15.120]So it is really what kind of tech will support me
- [00:28:18.840]in getting to tenure, in being able to report my annual,
- [00:28:23.970]my annual accomplishments without a lot of extra work.
- [00:28:27.450]So how does that go into that workflow?
- [00:28:31.050]Because I remember in the first few years,
- [00:28:33.240]at the end of the year, I needed to do an annual review,
- [00:28:35.940]and I would literally go into my,
- [00:28:41.400]my calendar app,
- [00:28:42.690]and even before calendar apps, into my physical calendar,
- [00:28:45.540]and look at every day to say, "What did I do last year?"
- [00:28:48.930]Now that's 365 days,
- [00:28:51.840]and so that's way too complicated and inefficient.
- [00:28:57.120]You want to find the systems that make you efficient.
- [00:28:59.700]Yeah, you want to find the systems
- [00:29:00.840]that make you efficient.
- [00:29:01.860]And you want to keep in mind
- [00:29:04.890]that those systems aren't always gonna be the newest
- [00:29:07.800]or the most expensive.
- [00:29:08.820]So like annual review, I have a spreadsheet.
- [00:29:10.800]Yeah, that works well.
- [00:29:12.210]Part of my weekly meeting with myself
- [00:29:13.740]is I fill in here's my teaching this week,
- [00:29:16.410]here's my service this week, here's my research this week,
- [00:29:18.420]here's what I got done.
- [00:29:20.070]And then when that annual review comes up,
- [00:29:22.560]I pop- It's there.
- [00:29:23.460]I pull that spreadsheet, run an analysis,
- [00:29:27.030]and that's kind of my turn in. Yeah.
- [00:29:30.450]And so we've covered a lot of ground today
- [00:29:33.510]in thinking about tech for academic documentation.
- [00:29:37.260]Choose sustainable systems, back things up,
- [00:29:40.830]and beware of quick or shiny new fixes.
- [00:29:44.700]They might not be what you really want.
- [00:29:48.720]And get a citation management system.
- [00:29:50.460]Yes, I will get-
- [00:29:51.293]For the love of all that is good in the world.
- [00:29:55.020]Please. All right.
- [00:29:56.580]You've been promising me for several episodes.
- [00:29:58.350]Yes. Several seasons, actually.
- [00:29:59.880]I'm actually on it.
- [00:30:01.890]I'm working inside Zotero,
- [00:30:03.570]so we will see how that plays out.
- [00:30:04.780]Okay, I'll take that. I'll take that.
- [00:30:07.260]All right, so, I think, yeah.
- [00:30:12.510]So I will share on our Not That Kind of Blog lots of apps
- [00:30:19.650]that I think are very, very useful,
- [00:30:22.320]and you'll add some of yours,
- [00:30:24.240]so you will be able to see what we're using
- [00:30:26.580]because we talked about a few things.
- [00:30:28.020]But really it is about the principle-
- [00:30:31.050]Greater sense.
- [00:30:31.883]and then choosing the right tools for you.
- [00:30:34.980]But things to try.
- [00:30:36.150]Things to try out and have some fun with.
- [00:30:38.010]And hopefully on this episode
- [00:30:42.180]you've been thinking through how you use your technology.
- [00:30:45.420]So may you keep your backups current
- [00:30:49.710]and your tenure files organized.
- [00:30:52.410]And if you haven't done that yet,
- [00:30:54.210]go download our workbook on the blog.
- [00:30:57.720]See you next time.
- [00:30:59.580]On "Not That Kind of Doctor."
- [00:31:01.331](upbeat music)
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