Academic "life hacks"

....even though I hate the term "life hack," I can't think of an easier way to say it.

This is inspired by something that came up on ITFF. Someone linked to this article: Career Advice from a Not-Quite-Geezer and while some took exception to the fact that the guy writing it might not have had the full perspective (e.g., he was tenured back when tenured positions were more common than they are now, and he probably has a wife to do some of the heavy lifting at home), still, there are some important things there.

Like: have a hobby. I would not be nearly so well-balanced as I am (and how well-balanced I am is debatable, some days) if I didn't knit, quilt, embroider, play the piano, read big thick books that have little to do with my research, do my own yardwork, cook for myself....you get the idea. I need stuff that is FOR ME, and I need stuff that STAYS DONE.

I have a quilt on my bed right now that I made six or seven years ago. I didn't have to revise it, it didn't get rejected from anywhere. Barring some kind of tragedy like a fire, it will never go anywhere. In fact, I will probably have to plan for where my quilts will wind up when I'm no longer here. (I have but one niece and she might turn out - horrors - not to like quilts)

And I need stuff that's just for me. I do a fair amount for others in my day to day life, and so sometimes it's a relief to cook for JUST ME. (Especially to make things in small portions - one of the cooking-for-one cookbooks I have mentions this - "This is my portion, and no one can have it," referring to something like rice pudding made in single-serving ramekins)

"Stay away from jerks" is also sage advice and something I try very hard to follow. You can't, always: sometimes you wind up co-teaching with a jerk (fortunately, I never have had to, at least not in my career as a professor). Sometimes you wind up with a jerk supervising you (That happened to me once, when I was a TA). Having to work closely with a jerk is pretty miserable. (And it goes without saying: strive not to be a jerk to other people, because you don't want the stain on your soul that you made someone else's life miserable.)

I would also add that sometimes someone who appears on the surface to be a jerk may just be monumentally socially awkward. Academia tends to attract that kind of person. I've known a few people I side-eyed at the first who, once you broke through their awkward shell, were good and decent people, just, they didn't phrase things very well. And academia even attracts its share of borderline-Asperger's people, or people like me, who are extreme introverts who can fall apart a little with too much human interaction, and it pays to be able to differentiate a true jerk (who generally has poor intentions) from the merely awkward (who has generally good intentions, but can't successfully put them into words).

Anyway. I have a few items of my own that I might call by the hated term, "Life Hacks," because they are simple and not entirely obvious things that make your life easier:

1. If you are expected to do committeework, figure out which committees have the least drama involved with them and ask to be on those. Often, these are the very low-profile, behind the scenes committees - but I like that. I was pleased to be reappointed to the Library Committee - here, that's about the calmest committee there is. Our one big problem is "not enough money for what we'd like to do," but that tends to engender a spirit of camaraderie ("we're all in this together") and also a tendency to try to think of solutions.

Generally any committee with 'grievance' in its title, or "honesty," or "appeals" is going to be higher-drama.

2. If you are starting life from scratch on campus, try to find housing as close to campus as practicable. In some cities this is easier than others; some campuses have hovels near campus and nicer housing only at a distance of some miles away. I was lucky to find a nice house in a quiet-ish neighborhood about a mile and a half from campus. I have a five- minute commute and I could walk it (if people didn't let their dogs run free in town and if there weren't so many feral dogs). I can run home at lunch on days when I have an early class and my next class isn't until late in the day. It's easy for me to get home if I need to. I think this is the biggest thing I did that has made my life better here.

3. If you live in a campus culture where leaving before 4 pm or so is not frowned upon, on days when you don't have late classes, leave early and take your grading and stuff home with you. I've actually gotten to the point where I try to schedule exams on days when I know I can break away early in the afternoon: I go home, make some tea, put on some stupid television, and sit and grade in comfort and without people knocking on my door. Do as much routine type work as possible at home. Or at the library, if you don't live close to campus and you can get a carrell in the library.

4. Bring your lunch. On my campus, this is kind of necessary - there are really no decent restaurants close by, the few good restaurants in town are over-run at the lunch hour (I hate to have to eat fast and run, or eat while worrying about whether I will get back). I don't like the cafeteria food (and it's expensive for faculty to eat there, and it's crowded, and it's far from my office). By carrying a lunch, I can sit at my desk, catch up on e-mail (or Ravelry), and decompress a little. Alternatively, in some departments, people gather and eat lunch together, which can be nice, too. (We all have such weird schedules that rarely more than 2 or 3 of us are free for lunch at the same time). It's also cheaper, and if you're on any kind of special diet, it's way easier.

5. Do some little thing first, and then the bigger things seem easier. For me, the "little thing" might be setting up the lab for the day, and then I feel equipped to go on to research work. Or maybe I grade a lab, and then feel ready to grade exams or papers.

6. Cook something big on the weekend and learn to love leftovers. Or figure out some quick-to-go meals. I've eaten a lot of black beans and rice this spring after finding a good brand of low-sodium canned black beans (almost no time to fix) and rice cooks in 20 minutes, during which you can be doing something else.
If you're not on a restricted diet, do carry-out occasionally without guilt. I'd do it more if I weren't watching sodium so closely.

7. Designate a laundry day. For me, this is either Thursday or Friday evening. I just do three or four loads of laundry, whatever it takes, in succession. This is probably easier for single people or at least people without kids, though.

8. Don't feel guilty about "floating" some things. The local DA (who is a friendly acquaintance of mine; we go to church together) was the speaker at graduation and one of her points was that "people see me and think I have such a perfect life, but trust me: when I'm making time to go to my sons' ballgames, there are cases I should be working on but am not, and if I'm working hard on a case, I'm missing their ballgames" - that life is full of tradeoffs). For me, a lot of times, this means "floating" cleaning house. Oh, I pick up the public rooms and keep them swept but I don't wash the windows monthly or do any of the other Martha Stewart type tasks you're "supposed" to do in order to have a gracious home. For other people, this might mean sending your laundry out (I have a colleague who does that) or hiring a yard service, or whatever.