Category: Productivity

  • Choosing Rhythms of Consistent, Predictable Joy – Teaching in Higher Ed

    Choosing Rhythms of Consistent, Predictable Joy – Teaching in Higher Ed

    These are the drawings from the instructor. Look lower in the post for information about the course she teaches, plus to see my drawings, as they are emerging….

    I don’t want to throw any shade on people who enjoy setting goals for yourselves in a new year. Hooray to Taylor Kay Phillips, who took over Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week post this time, and said that she wants New Year’s Resolution Wet Blankets to settle down and let other people have their things. This year, one reflective approach that is resonating with me immensely this time around comes from Robert Talbert, in the form of his My Start/Stop/Continue for 2026 post. CW: He’s a bit down on resolutions in the beginning, but if you’re a big fan of setting them, just skip to his Start section about Going Analog and enjoy seeing what he’s up to…

    Start: Creating with Regularity

    Through an impulse purchase via Instagram advertising, I bought a year-long membership to the Art Makers Club at the tail end of the year. This all started with our son asking if he could participate in our revised advent plans for the holiday season (my goodness did our first attempt ever fail miserably) by doing digital art, instead of the watercolor the rest of us were doing. He likes using Procreate and mentioned offhand that it was one of those kinds of apps that you buy once (as in I/we already own it), which didn’t become relevant until weeks later, when I considered this purchase.

    My Art Makers Club purchase didn’t start with an entire year, but rather a highly structured course. The Kickstart Your Creativity with Procreate got me excited from the premise. I’m a huge fan of being able to track my progress toward goals, so the included progress tracker was super appleaing to me. Wait a second? I get to take 15-20 minute tutorials from an encouraging, down-to-earth, clear communicator and learn to actually use an app I already own instead of continuing to gather virtual dust, like I had been? And I get to save my various drawings in the form of a tracker all along, so I can see how far I’ve come and where I’m going?

    That was the hook, but it kept getting better from there. I also got a second Kickstart Your Creativity Course to go with it. But wait. There’s more. A ton of other courses, such as:

    • Imaginative Map-Making in Procreate
    • Getting Started with Procreate Dreams: Animation for Everyone (ever since seeing Mike Wesch’s very first animation video 10+ years ago: The Sleeper, I’ve dreamed of learning animation)
    • Easy, Eye-Catching Animations in Procreate
    • Realistic Paper Cut Illustrations in Procreate

    There are ~5 other full length courses and then a bunch of previously-recorded live sessions, the opportunity to be a part of a community of people going through the courses, etc. I have now drawn from the orange through the poppy, as of January 3, 2026, not too shabby a result of a person who hasn’t really taken art classes before.

    An unfinished grid of drawings... Created drawings include an orange, pear, fried egg, and some plants... there are still about 17 drawings to go on the tracker
    Here is my progress tracker so far for the course… I love how I can so easily see where I’ve been and where I’m headed. Those who know me well will know how excited I am to get to the bird!

    Depending on how you define art, of course…

    I also had bought one copy of Daily Drawing Prompts: A Year of Sketchbook Inspiration, by Jordan DeWilde for my Mom for Christmas and “accidentally” ordered a second copy for me. 😂😇 It has provided supplemental opportunities for reinforcing some of the skills I’m learning through the more structured courses.

    Tracing of a woman's hand, with a silver wedding band on the ring finger
    This was the first exercise in the book… to trace your hand and then add in details, like jewelry, etc. My hand does not look this young in real life, but if you look closely, you can tell that I at least tried to draw in the wrinkles.

    As excited as I clearly am about these drawing resources, I want to keep my definition of regular creation broad. Alan Levine recently shared his reflections on having achieved an entire year of capturing daily photos throughout 2025. He has previously been such an inspiration for me in those years when we don’t quite check every single box that we had hoped to… as in those years when he didn’t quite get to 365 days/photos. Still, it was fun to see him share stories of what his daily photo habit looked like in 2025 and in years past.

    I don’t want to say up front that I’m shooting for a daily goal. My streaks habits seem to be multiplying and I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. As of today, I’ve used the Bend App to support 280 days of stretching. However, they let you “reset” your streak, once you’ve been consistent with it. So somewhere around 4-5 days, I missed stretching. But the following day was able to restore my streak without resetting the counter. I would love something like that for my daily create goal that is emerging, but I also am not inclined to figure out a whole system at this exact moment.

    Stop: Checking Work Email on My Mobile Devices

    This is one of those “I should 100% know better” things. I’ve gotta stop checking my work email on my mobile devices. One reason has to do with overall productivity. In The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain, Annie Murphy Paul describes the benefits researchers found of working on a large display (versus on a laptop or mobile device):

    When using a large display, they engaged in higher-order thinking, arrived at a greater number of discoveries and achieved broader, more integrative insights. Such gains are not a matter of individual differences or preferences, Ball emphasizes; everyone who engages with the larger display finds that their thinking is enhanced.

    Before reading The Extended Mind, I always felt like I worked more effectively at either of my two big-screen set ups (home and work offices), but Murphy Paul uncovered a number of researchers exploring this hypothesis much more soundly than my anecdotal evidence. I just feel better and more able to focus in constructive ways when I’m engaging with my work via a large monitor.

    Another reason I don’t want to keep doing this in 2026 is just that it tends to get me feeling all the negative feels during a time when I’m not going to proactively going to be able to dig in with problem solving or attempts to communicate about issues. If an email is going to evoke a sense that things aren’t right in a particular context, why not wait until I’m “in the saddle” and ready to “ride” toward a resolution vs stewing in the frustration needlessly. I don’t get that many emails that make me angry, by the way. I’ve got it pretty darn good in that department. But even if it is just an email that is going to require some kind of follow up, I tend to delay taking any steps toward moving forward until such time that I’m back at my computer. Why not just enjoy the time more in whatever context I may have been in when I succumbed to the temptation to just “dip my toe” into my work email to “check in”.

    As I prepare to live into this commitment (once again, as I have failed at this in the past), I will revisit Robert Talbert’s Grand Unified Theory of Academic Email: Fixing the Missing Piece of the Clarify Process, as he helps those of us who may have a tendency to over-function to ask ourselves if whatever may have bubbled up in our email is actually ours to do something with… I would probably do well to re-listen to Brené Brown’s Unlocking Us Podcast Episode: On Anxiety, Calm, and Over-/Under-Functioning. And Karen Costa’s conversation with me on Episode 505: How Role Clarity and Boundaries Can Help Us Thrive.

    Rinse and repeat. I feel a playlist coming on…

    Continue: Finding Times to Go to Jazzercise with My Mom

    Speaking of playlists, I’ve been having a bunch of opportunities to find great workout music, since I’ve been driving to Oceanside a number of times each week during this holiday break. If you’ve been listening to Teaching in Higher Ed for more than a couple of years, you may have “met” my Mom back on Episode 462: Teaching Lessons I Learned From Mom. During the episode, I read her a column I wrote for EdSurge about her: Teaching Lessons I Learned from Mom and then reflected with my mom on the death of her sister, Judy.

    It takes ~45 minutes to make the drive from where I live to the Oceanside Jazzercise location where my Mom takes classes. The class, itself, is an hour, and then it’s another hour to say my goodbyes and get back home. Yes, that’s three hours anytime I go take a class with her. However, I’ve been telling myself that if I set a goal to take a class with her once or twice a month, during regular work weeks, and then a few times a week when we are on Spring break, that it would quickly add up to a whole lot more joy in my life. I rarely take lunch breaks at work, though I do often go for walks during the day with work friends (and sometimes former students, etc.). I’m having this inner dialog with myself about how much time I would actually “lose” from work if I were to keep this commitment vs what I would “gain” from the experiences.

    Lest anyone reading this feel like you want to “fix” my stinkin’ thinking on this front and tell me stories about how much time you wish you still had with someone you’ve lost… you may be somewhat relieved of your duties to know that I’ve already put some things in motion toward this idea. Kerry Mandulak (who has been on Teaching in Higher Ed a couple times before) was down in Oceanside with her family this past week and we hung out together after I went to Jazzercise with my Mom. She raved about the Airbnb where her family was staying. I’ve already booked one in the same complex for Spring Break and blocked out four opportunities to join my Mom for Jazzercise that week.

    Two women smile together with an Airbnb in the backgroundTwo women smile together with an Airbnb in the background
    What a joy is was getting to spend some time with Kerry during her family’s trip to Oceanside.

    I’m headed down to the Lilly Conference on Tuesday and will stop and do a class with her on the way down. At this point, I just need to block a few more times in my calendar for Spring 2026 and I’ll have just the structure I need to turn this all into a reality and a bunch of memories with my Mom… That, plus an ever-growing playlist of energizing workout songs…

    Related Goals

    Robert Talbert mentions how poorly people, in general, tend to do with our resolutions. However, on my goal-setting, I tend to do ok, much of the time. To that end, I plan on continuing a few other things throughout 2026. I commit to:

    • Read at least 24 books (connect with me on StoryGraph, if you want to see how that’s going and what I’m reading)
    • Keep stretching daily using the Bend App
    • Continue closing my Apple Watch rings (currently at an 845 days streak, which kinda scares me a bit, just because I think occasional breaks are ok and even healthy to take)
    • Apply to present at a conference at another country with a couple of collaborators and see if we’re successful at getting to share our work in an entirely difference context than I will have ever experienced in my life (and I used to travel a ton for work in my younger days, so that’s saying something)
    • Air an episode of Teaching in Higher Ed each week for the entire year, keeping yet-another streak alive… making it 12+ years of consistent conversations about teaching and learning

    What are you up to in the new year? Anything you’re committing to stoping, starting, or continuing?

    Source link

  • Atomic Habits Book Study

    Atomic Habits Book Study

    Atomic Habits Book Study for Educators

    Join us for a powerful six-week book study of Atomic Habits by James Clear, exclusively for ALL ACCESS Members!

    This study will explore how small, consistent habits can lead to big changes in both personal and professional growth. Together, we’ll discuss key takeaways, share insights, and apply strategies from Atomic Habits to build better routines, break unproductive patterns, and create lasting change in our classrooms and lives.

    • 📅 Starts January 7
    • 🏆 Earn 3 Hours PD Credit 
    • 🔑 ALL ACCESS Members Only
    • ➡️ Get the book here

     

    💡 How It Works:

    • Read the assigned chapters each week.
    • Participate in asynchronous discussions in the community.
    • Reflect on how to apply the book’s insights.

    📚 Not a member yet? Join now and get access to the book study, exclusive PD courses, and more!

    Source link

  • Experts react to artificial intelligence plan – Campus Review

    Experts react to artificial intelligence plan – Campus Review

    Australia’s first national plan for artificial intelligence aims to upskill workers to boost productivity, but will leave the tech largely unregulated and without its own legislation to operate under.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • Universities in the age of intelligent machines – Campus Review

    Universities in the age of intelligent machines – Campus Review

    When Geoffrey Hinton, the so-called ‘godfather of AI’, declared in 2016 that ‘we should stop training radiologists now,’ his warning caused a stir.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • Jennifer Westacott on economic roundtable – Campus Review

    Jennifer Westacott on economic roundtable – Campus Review

    Universities should offer shorter, cheaper and more accessible courses that recognise prior learning to help boost Australia’s productivity, Canberra’s economic roundtable has agreed.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • Productivity Commission to push RPL – Campus Review

    Productivity Commission to push RPL – Campus Review

    The Productivity Commission (PC) has urged the federal government to focus on recognition of prior learning ahead of the Treasurer’s economic roundtable.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • How skills drive productivity – Campus Review

    How skills drive productivity – Campus Review

    Sector voices discussed how skills could drive productivity at the Applied Learning Conference at the Singapore Institute of Technology.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • Higher education leadership is at an inflection point – we must transform, or be transformed

    Higher education leadership is at an inflection point – we must transform, or be transformed

    At a recent “fireside chat” at a sector event, after I had outlined to those present some details of the transformational journey the University of East London (UEL) has been on in the past six years, one of those attending said to me: “Until UEL has produced Nobel Prize winners, you can’t say it has transformed.”

    While I chose not to address the comment immediately – the sharp intake of breath and rebuttals that followed from other colleagues present seemed enough at the time – it has played on my mind since.

    It wasn’t so much the comment’s narrow mindedness that shocked, but the confidence with which it was delivered. Yet, looking at the ways in which we often celebrate and highlight sector success – through league tables, mission groups, or otherwise – it is little wonder my interlocutor felt so assured in his worldview.

    Value judgement

    This experience leads me to offer this provocation: as a sector, many of our metrics are failing us, and we must embrace the task of redefining value in 21st century higher education with increased seriousness.

    If you disagree, and feel that traditional proxies such as the number of Nobel Prizes awarded to an institution should continue to count as the bellwethers for quality, you may wish to pause and consider a few uncomfortable truths.

    Yes, the UK is a global leader in scientific excellence. But we are also among the worst in the OECD for translating that science into commercial or productivity gains. The UK is a leading global research hub, producing 57 per cent more academic publications than the US in per capita terms. Yet compared to the US, the UK lags significantly behind in development and scale-up metrics like business-funded R&D, patents, venture capital and unicorns.

    Universities have been strongly incentivised to increase research volume in recent years, but as the outgoing chief executive of UKRI Ottoline Leyser recently posited to the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology committee do we need to address this relatively unstrategic expansion of research activity across a range of topics, detached from economic growth and national priorities? Our global rankings – built on proxies like Nobel Prizes – are celebrated, while our real-world economic outcomes stagnate. We excel in research, yet struggle in relevance. That disconnect comes at a cost.

    I recently contributed to a collection of essays on entrepreneurial university leadership, edited by Ceri Nursaw and published by HEPI – a collection that received a somewhat critical response in the pages of Research Professional, with the reviewer dismissing the notion of bold transformation on the basis that: “The avoidance of risk-taking is why universities have endured since the Middle Ages.”

    Yes. And the same mindset that preserved medieval institutions also kept them closed to women, divorced from industry, and indifferent to poverty for centuries. Longevity is not the same as leadership – and it’s time we stopped confusing the two. While we should all be rightfully proud of the great heritage of our sector, we’re at real risk of that pride choking progress at a critical inflection point.

    Lead or be led

    Universities UK chief executive Vivienne Stern’s recent keynote at the HEPI Annual Conference reminded us that higher education has evolved through tectonic shifts such as the industrial revolution’s technical institutes, the social revolution that admitted women, the 1960s “white heat” of technological change, and the rise of mass higher education.

    Now we are on the edge of the next seismic evolution. The question is: will the sector lead it, or be shaped by it? At the University of East London, we’ve chosen to lead by pressing ahead with a bold transformation built on a central premise that a careers-first approach can drive success in every part of the university – not on precedents that leave us scrambling for relevance in a changing world.

    Under this steam, we’ve achieved the UK’s fastest, most diversified, debt-free revenue growth. We’ve become an engine of inclusive enterprise, moving from 90th to 2nd in the UK for annual student start-ups in six years, with a more than 1,000 per cent increase in the survival of student-backed businesses. We’ve overseen a 25-point increase in positive graduate outcomes – the largest, fastest rise in graduate success – as well as ranking first in England for graduating students’ overall positivity. We use money like we use ideas: to close gaps, not widen them. To combat inequality, not entrench it.

    So, let me return to the Nobel Prize comment. The metrics that matter most to our economy and society, the achievements that tangibly improve lives, are not displayed in glass cabinets – rather those that matter most are felt every day by every member of our society. Recent polling shows what the public wants from growth: improved health and wellbeing, better education and skills, reduced trade barriers. Our government’s policy frameworks – from the industrial strategy to the AI strategy – depend on us as a sector to deliver those outcomes.

    Yet how well do our reputational rankings align with these national imperatives? How well does our regulatory framework reward the institutions that deliver on them? Are we optimising for prestige – or for purpose? We are living at a pivot point in history. The institutions that thrive through it will not be those that retreat into tradition. They will be those that rethink leadership, rewire purpose, and reinvent practice.

    Too much of higher education innovation is incremental; transformational innovation is rare. But it is happening – if we choose to see it, support it, and scale it. I urge others to join me in making the case for such a choice, because the next chapter of higher education will be written by those who act boldly now – or rewritten for those who don’t.

    Source link

  • Prime Minister announces productivity roundtable – Campus Review

    Prime Minister announces productivity roundtable – Campus Review

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a productivity roundtable between business leaders, unions and community associations with the aim of boosting economic growth and wages, in his National Press Club address on Tuesday.

    Please login below to view content or subscribe now.

    Membership Login

    Source link

  • Achieving work-life balance (or is that even possible?) – Teaching in Higher Ed

    Achieving work-life balance (or is that even possible?) – Teaching in Higher Ed

    A friend and colleague asked me about how to achieve work-life balance and what tools are best for doing that. Let’s just say I got a bit energized by her question that I recorded a video for her and sent her some key points from what I shared. If you’re wondering about these same questions, check out the comments for a link to the video I sent to her, which is now on my YouTube channel.

    RESPONSE

    I appreciate you reaching out with your concerns about achieving a more effective work-life balance and integrating tools like Microsoft Planner with your team. Here are some insights and recommendations based on what you’ve shared, which I share in more detail in the video:

    View Work-Life Balance as a Journey: Rather than seeing work-life balance as a fixed destination, it’s more helpful to view it as an ongoing journey. This perspective allows for flexibility and adaptation, acknowledging that some days or weeks might be more challenging than others.

    Incorporate Consistent Tools and Habits: To achieve effective work-life integration, it’s crucial to not only have the right tools but also to establish consistent habits that make the use of these tools part of your daily routine. Just as I shared in my video, using apps like Calm for meditation has helped me manage stress and maintain productivity through structured breaks like the Pomodoro technique.

    Maintaining Flexibility in Tool Usage: It’s okay to step away from certain tools occasionally. What’s important is returning to them when you realize they bring balance and peace to your life. This adaptability is key in managing not just tasks but also your mental well-being.

    Implement Practical, Routine-Based Strategies: Strategies such as a weekly review can dramatically reduce feelings of being overwhelmed and improve your organizational habits. Scheduling regular check-ins on your progress can guide you in managing your workload without feeling inundated.

    Choose and Stick to Appropriate Technologies: The effectiveness of any tool depends on it being integrated thoughtfully into your day-to-day activities. My experience with tools like Raindrop for bookmarking and Zotero for academic references emphasizes choosing technologies that fit seamlessly with your workflow. Also, avoiding frequent changes in your toolset helps in building a routine that you and your team can rely on.

    Continuous Commitment to Your Tools: Commit to your tools unless there’s a compelling reason to change. This consistency will help not only you but also your team in becoming more proficient with the technologies adopted and ultimately, more cohesive and functional as a unit.

    VIDEO

    Remember, the key to integrating any new tool or process effectively into your work-life system relies heavily on consistent usage and the development of supportive habits around it.

    Source link