Productivity

Table of contents

1. Productivity
   1. Build capacity first
   2. A/B/C Time
   3. Say No to things
   4. Meetings
   5. Work Sustainably

Note: This advice is merely a suggestion, take some time to figure out what keeps you productive.

Build capacity first

It may feel like you can get more stuff done by focusing on small, object-level tasks. For example, you might be tempted to prepare and run many atomic structures individually (spending a large amount of time on each job) in order to avoid writing a script that can automate this task. However, it is far more important for you to streamline the way you work, especially early in your research. Though it will come with some time investment, automating routine tasks will make you much more productive in the long run.

Towards the beginning of a project, when you have a good sense of the types of tasks you will need to perform, set aside some time to get organized and write scripts to accelerate these tasks. When you get to the data-processing stage of your work, put an emphasis on automatically obtaining data from output files and plotting it, this is much faster and less error prone than processing data “by hand”.

Some things to consider:

• The group has written a lot of scripts which can carry out routine atomic manipulations and prepare input structures for you. Consider adapting this code to the task at hand.
• There are basic scripts to submit many computational jobs in parallel and several DFT steps can be packaged into a single job with the kT package.
• The linux command line has powerful tools to manipulate files, edit text, and synchronize files across computers, look into these solutions when you want to reorganize your files
• There may be scripts within the group that can be used to plot data. You will want to write scripts to plot data that can easily be reused for new datasets.

A/B/C Time

One useful approach is to divide your time based on how your productivity changes throughout the day. Break your goals up into small tasks, consider how demanding each task is, and schedule them into one of these bins:

“A time” is reserved for your most important and urgent tasks. This is typically the most cognitively demanding part of your day when you need to focus most. Tasks like writing, coding, or data analysis might fit here. Determine what time in your day you are most productive, and reserve that time to work. Turn off distractions (including Slack) and avoid meetings during this time. Many people find early mornings to be most productive, but everyone is different.

“B time” is reserved for slightly less demanding tasks like presentations, teaching, or reading papers. You might schedule these tasks after lunch for example.

“C time” is reserved for routine tasks which dont require much thinking like data entry, grading, checking on submitted jobs, or meetings. Schedule these tasks during times in your day when you aren’t as productive. The late afternoon may be good time for this.

Try to maintain a to-do list with specific, small tasks to complete and schedule them based on the A/B/C timeslots. Make sure your total workload is sustanable over the long term.

Say No to things

You have to be honest with yourself and others about what workload you can handle. It’s better to tell collaborators that you can’t work on a project than to make promises you can’t keep. If you feel like you are oversubscribed, prioritize your projects and let collaborators know that you have to prioritize other projects.

Meetings

Meetings (especially with your advisor) can be helpful. However, you can end up spending a lot of time in unproductive meetings if you don’t take specific steps to avoid this.

• Meetings are more productive when you prepare for them. You should try to have specific goals and an agenda for each meeting. If you are leading the meeting, set an agenda and send it to people. Use the agenda to avoid getting side-tracked during the meeting and take notes.
• Set the frequency of meetings based on the pace of research. You should meet with collaborators only when you have enough results to show and discuss. For outside collaborations, meeting once every ~3 weeks seems to be appropriate.
• Meetings tend to use up all of their alloted time. It’s usually better to set short meeting times and move quickly; 30 minute meetings are a good default when meeting with Ambar or students in the group. Less frequent meetings with collaborators may require 45 minutes or an hour.
• Keep meetings small, it’s very hard for large groups of people to be productive in meetings. Try to avoid large, unproductive meetings as much as possible.
• Try to schedule meetings during your “C time” and avoid having meetings during your “A time”

Work Sustainably

It’s important to ensure that your research effort is sustainable over the long term. It will take years to complete your degree, so you have to maintain healthy habits and steady effort over this period.

• Prioritize your mental and physical health
• Set reasonable goals for yourself
• Keep a steady pace and take regular breaks during the day. Make sure you are taking appropriate time off, getting enough sleep, and have time to do stuff outside of work.
• Make sure you have support within the group, department, or university. Its important to find people you can talk to when issues arise. Try to identify problems early and address them.