I spent some time rereading some of my old blog posts recently. First of all, the last time I blogged was fall 2015. I am surprised, and I'm not surprised. The last three (academic) years of my life have been a rollercoaster. I have wanted to quit. I have wished a million and one times that I'd never created the program that I've started. I've been scared, proud, defeated, ecstatic, angry, sad, satisfied, and elated. Just like having a child, I had absolutely no idea what I was in for. I survived the first class of our program, I enjoyed the second, and now we're halfway through the third. And I think that I've become a different person in some respects. Maybe that's the program, maybe that's getting older - who knows. Either way, it's not a bad thing.
This past year, I taught a double teaching load both semesters and mentored quite a few research students as well as running the program. I thought I'd managed everything pretty well (I didn't hit the 80+ hour workweeks I had in early 2016 which pretty much cost me my sanity, and the lab didn't burn down), but I really felt burnt out by the end of spring. Like I just had no craps to give any more. I felt like things had been accomplished, but I was perpetually stressed because all I did was juggle. And I felt that I hadn't done any of it very well.
After the end of spring semester, I was able to work at a quieter pace, mostly from my home office. I could focus! No one was popping in to talk, ask a question, ask me to solve a problem, etc. (Now, I love my students and I love my colleagues, but have you ever had a day where it felt like all you did was answer questions and solve problems and at the end of the day you were still left with the same pile of work that you started with? Yeah, there were a lot of those days.) I felt like no one task or person got my full attention. And while stuff got done, I felt like my days of eating lunch while prepping for a class while answering some email with a student in my office at the same time were not sustainable. I wanted to give someone asking a question my full attention. I wanted to focus on 1 problem at a time. This really hit home for me this week when, after a few weeks of working peacefully, I had 4 groups of people who all needed things seemingly at the same time. I realized then that I wasn't willing to go back to the craziness.
I actually started out googling articles on multitasking - I was looking for ways to do it better. After all, isn't it all about multitasking? Having it all? Being able to do it all and make it look effortless? But I found article after article on how multitasking reduces productivity (by up to 40%, according to one article), lowers IQ, increases, stress, etc. What??? Isn't this supposed to be the goal of every professional? One article described it as task-switching - doing one thing for 5 minutes, being interrupted by something, going back, etc. It takes the brain time to refocus, and according to some, our brains just aren't built for that, no matter how much we want them to be.
Why Multitasking Is Bad for You
The True Cost of Multi-tasking
And this post describes a simple test that you can do on yourself if you're not convinced.
Now, I know. It's summer. I don't have very many students, phone calls, classes, etc all needing stuff. But I thought, what if I implement some practices this summer in hopes that at least some habits will stick around during the academic year? So, I tried it yesterday. After reading several more articles with helpful suggestions, I challenged myself to go to work and try unitasking. Even just saying it felt like I was stepping back. Like I was admitting multitasking defeat. And maybe I am. But you know what? I did some very simple things and IT WORKED! I was more productive. Less stressed. And not one person that I explained it to at work thought I was crazy. Ok, that was all of 2 people, but they were both my bosses, so that counts, right?
I'll tell you what I did in a followup post. I haven't posted in almost three years - I don't want to spill every detail in one post. It's good to be back. :)
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