We spoke on Thursday about productivity. To reiterate, I don't expect anyone to be at full steam right now. I can't pretend that I don't feel worry or pressure about our inability to do lab work. I think we all feel that, and it is normal to struggle with expectations when the world has been turned upside down. But going on as if things aren't any different than they were a month ago is not a solution to the problem at hand. We have to take our current situation and see what is possible for each of us. I hope in the weeks to come that we can continue to challenge ourselves to think differently about our work so that we are prepared to hit the ground running. I hope each of us will have the opportunity to better understand ourselves and be more resilient in the face of pressure.
The Cruelest Month
Do You Feel Fine
I am writing to all of you before my next planned update because these are such challenging times, and I feel the need to connect. How are you? Are you working from home? Pulling extra clinical time in preparation for a patient surge? Both? I am sending my best to you and your loved ones, especially the vulnerable people in your circle. At this moment I don’t feel like I have advice or answers; I hope my thoughts help you feel seen/ validated.
Unfocus
Today’s question: Has anyone told you to “focus” or “find your niche” or “narrow down your interests?” This is extremely common advice for early-career academics, and I think it is 100% wrong. I am a generalist by training and inclination, and I like following my interests where they lead. However, I find this advice wrong-headed for reasons that have more to do with external factors than with me.
Nice to Meeting You
Hello February! How are those resolutions going? My January was packed with meetings, an experience that you can undoubtedly relate to. While it’s easy to complain about meetings, I also believe that bringing people together is critical for creativity and effectiveness in academia. Here are my five core meeting principles:
Lessons
Dear friends,
Happy new year! I am writing this post early, in preparation for a truly unplugged vacation. I recently facilitated a time-management session with a group of UCSF junior faculty in our K-scholars’ program, all junior faculty with career development awards. It won’t surprise you to learn that I asked everyone to log their time for a week and bring their time log with them to the session. Today I want to share some of the main lessons from that group session. They’re a self-selected group of talented and busy people. I hope that their reflections help you start the year with optimism and energy!
Too Many Balls in the Air?
Dear friends,
Hope these short winter days are finding you warm and cozy! This time of year can be overwhelming with a wave of family and social obligations in addition to work craziness. Do you experience the year-end game of Hot Potato in which everyone tries to clear their own plate by handing things to collaborators? I wish I could give you a clever hack to avoid that move! It gets me every year.
Fairest of Them All
It’s November- how are you?! I’m footsore from trudging all over the neighborhood and sluggish after the candy consumption! I had a number of work setbacks in October, as did some of my mentees. This is normal, especially if you are trying new things and stretching your capabilities. After spending some time consoling myself by (1) ignoring email in favor of reading novels, and (2) eating all the chocolate, I decided it was time to try a new tool for learning from unwanted results: self-reflection.
Where Credit is Due
It’s that spooky time of year when you start to think, “Can I really get all of this done before the holidays?” Don’t worry, you’ve totally got it! Remember that saying no is a wonderful way to shorten your to-do list, and put your tasks on your calendar right away so that you can see how committed your time is already.
Study Thyself
Here we are, gearing up for another fast-paced fall! Lately I have had a number of conversations about how to manage transitions. For the parents on this list, our kids are entering a new grade and perhaps a new school this year, and many of us have new roles ramping up at work as well. Here at ZSFG, we’ve had a massively disruptive innovation - implementation of a new electronic health record, EPIC. At this time of year, change is in the air, and it can test our resilience.
Shut Up And Dance
I hope that August finds you rested, rejuvenated, and ready to tackle the real new year- September. This month’s musings stem from a recent lunchtime conversation with a lovely colleague. She was talking about how to streamline her life to enhance her effectiveness. (As an aside, I’ve noticed that this topic seems to be top-of-mind for the most productive people I know!) She asked me what action has most improved my productivity in recent memory, and my own answer surprised me – returning to dance classes.
Start-and End-with the Basics
Time away has led me to reflect on some of the basics of work. I recently listened to an episode of the podcast HBR Ideacast called “Basic Competence Can Be a Strategy.” It is based on professor Raffaella Sadun’s study of private companies that demonstrates that the vast majority do not meet minimum standards for competent management. Many of her observations hold true for academia as well, and I love the idea of doubling down on competence…
No #fakenews here!
I feel like I barely made it through the endless conferences, summits, meetings, and convenings of May with my sanity intact (debatable perhaps). The silver lining was finding a lot of inspiration for these emails. So, let’s talk about a frequent companion at professional gatherings- imposter syndrome.
Merriam Webster defines imposter syndrome as “a false and sometimes crippling belief that one's successes are the product of luck or fraud rather than skill.” As I am sure you know, it’s common among high achievers. Women and under-represented minority groups are also more likely than white men to experience imposter syndrome. The extent of imposter syndrome can range from intermittent discomfort to outright paralysis. There is a lot of advice out there about how to overcome imposter syndrome. I want to talk specifically about how I see it play out at conferences.
Do the Write Thing
Hope this message finds you in full spring mode! My dear friend and walking partner Diana talks about the “hundred days of May,” because there is always so much going on! Between holidays/family birthdays, the end of the school year, the push to get work done before the summer, and conference travel, I feel maxed out, and I bet you can all relate.
When Opportunity Keeps On Knocking. . .
Hope this message finds you thriving! I’m looking out the window at the rain and wondering when it will start to feel like spring. This month’s theme is inspired by two recent meetings with mid-career faculty, who are in the position of being asked to do many more things- mentor a junior person, give a talk, teach a class, take on a new project or role- than are humanly possible. Talking with them forced me to crystallize my framework for deciding whether to add something new to my plate. I’ll walk you through questions in the picture, with a recent example from my own career decision-making.
Of Mice and Men
Hope this message finds you well, perhaps emerging from the winter tunnel. This month I want to share some recent thoughts about how to manage the unexpected things that collide with your best-laid plans. Sometimes an unexpected opportunity comes along- it could be a funding opportunity with a short turn-around, an invitation to give a talk, or a special issue in a high-impact journal that fits with your work. At other times, your bandwidth shrinks, because you or someone in your family is sick or needs you, or maybe a collaborator or staffer leaves and you have to figure out how to get the work done. I struggle with this myself, and have made lots of mistakes in trying to reconcile plans with reality. I’ve organized these ideas by timing- what you can do to prevent surprises from breaking your plans, what you can do in the moment, and then how to look ahead when you see that a disruption will be ongoing. I would love to hear more strategies from all of you!
There is an "I" in "team"!
It’s February already! Many of us feel discouraged at this time of year. By now our new year’s resolutions have lost their novelty but not their challenge, and it can be difficult to keep up the momentum. Winter weather doesn’t help either! If you’re having difficulty keeping your resolution, check out this interview with my friend and colleague, Dawna Ballard, PhD, a communication scientist at UT Austin. I appreciated her point that our bodies are not in an energized, new-beginning kind of mode in winter, at the time of the Western new year. She notes that most traditional cultures celebrate the new year either in fall or spring, and that these times may better harness our natural rhythms to support change. So, if you’re having a hard time with you latest goal or habit, don’t feel bad. Admit it, re-examine it, and either adjust or recommit from a place of self-compassion.
New Year, New Ideas!
I am writing this email from the snowy comfort of a ramshackle cabin in the woods near Lake Tahoe, and I hope all of you are likewise recharging at the year’s end. It is an opportune time to reflect on the new ideas and practices I tried last year and deciding what to focus on in the coming year. Below I share my best lightning hacks from 2018- each one is easy to implement and has significantly improved my work life. You can think of them like (purely secular) stocking stuffers from me to you!
Mentors and sponsors and peers, oh my!
We are sprinting towards the finish line of 2018, trying to meet our year-end work expectations in the midst of holiday obligations. I find it helpful to remember two things at this time of you: (1) you can’t do everything, and (2) find the fun! I like asking my colleagues what holiday tradition they most enjoy- it reminds us that this time of year is special, if exhausting!
I was recently asked to give a talk about mentorship, which I plan to call “Beyond mentorship and sponsorship: a personal board of directors.” The concept of a personal board of directors is not new (read more here), but it is useful. It resonated with me because it encompasses two key points about mentoring: you need multiple mentors, and you need them throughout your career. Here are some thoughts to get started.
Giving Work Thanks
Hope this message finds you all doing well! I can’t believe it’s November already. With the coming Thanksgiving holiday, it seems appropriate to talk about gratitude at work. Though it seems like an optional, warm-and-fuzzy topic, in reality it’s vital to express our gratitude to colleagues. Gratitude strengthens relationships and imparts resilience, and we could all use more of that at work, right?
There was a New York Times article about the science of gratitude earlier this year that concluded that people appreciate expressions of gratitude (specifically emailed thank-you notes) more than the sender thought they would. This sparked my curiosity and I delved a bit more into the literature. Experimental evidence suggests that the most effective thank-you messages are specific, either because they are tied to an action or event, or because they mention a specific trait that you appreciate. A reflexive “great job” is easily shrugged off whereas, “thank you for preparing such a strong draft that I barely had to edit it,” sparks warm feelings. Interestingly, people who express gratitude also experience a mood boost.