It’s easy to stand around the copier and complain about meetings, travel expense reimbursement forms, employee evaluation schemes that don’t match up with job responsibilities, clueless administrators, and so on. But have you ever considered the alternatives to these systems? Continue reading
Category Archives: Book Reviews
The Organized Student
Donna Goldberg pretty much launched the field of student organizing, and her 2005 book The Organized Student: Teaching Children the Skills for Success in School and Beyond is the first title I recommend for parents and teachers of middle and high school students. That said, there’s much in this volume that speaks to the needs of the university community, especially graduate students and faculty. Continue reading
The Progress Principle
The Progress Principle uses more than 11,000 work diaries to argue that the most essential aspect of a satisfying work life is to make noticeable progress on meaningful projects on a daily basis. Progress leads to positive emotions, which leads to more creativity and more productivity. The end result is a spiral of goodness. Continue reading
Get Out of Your Mind
Feeling anxious? You’re not alone. In my experience, anxiety seems to be quite prevalent among academics. What’s interesting is how some people are really bothered by the experience, and others aren’t. One difference? Mindfulness. Continue reading
Lean In
Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In keeps generating media coverage, much of it critical, and much of it predicted in her text. I was surprised, however, by how much level-headed and pithy commentary around time-management Sandberg included. Continue reading