Time management and mental health

Mental health and time management continue to be a big issue for many, including me. Both challenges are compounded by the upheaval associated with the pandemic.

I have only recently come to see that time management is not just an issue of efficiency and productivity. It is but also about stress reduction and good mental health. I like order and so I am less anxious and less prone to overstimulation if my environment is free of clutter and I have well-defined tasks. Clutter (books, papers, folders,...) in plain view reminds me of unfinished tasks and can distract me. Clutter can also be electronic (e.g., on my computer "desktop" or email inbox).

  

Things I need to be more disciplined about include the following.

I love learning new things. Hence, I am easily distracted, particularly when online.

I need a clear goal for each task.


I am finding regularly reviewing these questions and suggestions helpful. In particular, I try to have built into my schedule the following before dinner.

a. Take Priya (our cute dog) to the park for ball time. This helps clear my head and        keeps her happy. 

b. Get ready for the next day.

    Put away all files, papers, and books, both physical and electronic.

    Plan the following day, especially making time blocks for specific tasks, both large and small.

    Collect all the materials I need for tomorrow.


On a related matter, a colleague has been singing the praises of Cal Newport's new book, A World Without Email: Reimaging Work in the Age of Overload. Just reading the first chapter reminds me how deep the problem is. Fortunately, he has some concrete suggestions of possible solutions.

If you have read it, I welcome comments on it.


Another colleague told me that Newport's book, Deep Work, revolutionised his professional life. Previously, I have posted about Deep Work, including his argument that we should quit social media. 

    


Comments

  1. D NorthemSeptember 25, 2021 at 11:53 PM

    Try reading "Mind Management Not Time Management" by David Kadavy. He puts forth the thesis that you need to work in accordance to your mental state, not solely by a time schedule.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is Herzberg-Teller coupling?

Image
Is it something to do with breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation? In molecular spectroscopy you occasionally hear this term thrown around. Google scholar yields more than 3000 hits. But I have found its precise meaning and the relevant physics hard to pin down. Quantum mechanics in chemistry by Schatz and Ratner is an excellent book , but the discussion on page 204 did not help me. "Herzberg-Teller" never appears in Atkins' Molecular quantum mechanics. So here is my limited understanding. Herzberg and Teller wanted to understand why one observed certain vibronic (combined electronic and vibrational) transitions that were not expected, particularly some that were expected to be forbidden on symmetry grounds. " Intensity borrowing " occurred. Herzberg and Teller pointed out that his could be understood if the dipole transition moment for the electronic transition depended on the nuclear co-ordinate associated with the vibration. In the Franck-Condo
Read more

Is it an Unidentified Superconducting Object (USO)?

If you look on the arXiv and in Nature journals there is a continuing stream of people claiming to observe superconductivity in some new material. There is a long history of this and it is worth considering the wise observations of Robert Cava , back in 1997, contained in a tutorial lecture. It would have been useful indeed in the early days of the field [cuprate superconductors] to have set up a "commission" to set some minimum standard of data quality and reproducibility for reporting new superconductors. An almost countless number of "false alarms" have been reported in the past decade, some truly spectacular. Koichi Kitazawa from the University of Tokyo coined these reports "USOs", for Unidentified Superconducting Objects , in a clever cross-cultural double entendre likening them to UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects, which certainly are their equivalent in many ways) and to "lies" in the Japanese translation of USO.   These have caused g
Read more

What should be the order of authors on a conference poster or talk?

I welcome discussion on this point. I don't think it is as sensitive or as important a topic as the author order on papers. With regard to paper authorship my general rule is that the person who does the bulk of the work, including actually writing the paper should be the first author. Doug Natelson has a good post on co-authorship , that I largely agree with. My only difference is that I am not really convinced that good practice prevails in the majority of circumstances. I fear there are increasing numbers of co-authors, particularly senior ones, with marginal contributions. But, what about conference talks and posters? Many of these are based on work that is already or about to be published. Should the author order be identical as the associated papers? I am not sure it should necessarily be. My tentative view is that the person who writes and submits the abstract and actually prepares and presents the post/talk should be the first author. Perhaps they should also highlig
Read more