Recently, I read Michael Pollan’s new book “In Defense of Food”, which was #1 on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list for six weeks. It’s about eating good things, things that keep you healthy, and things that are good for the earth. The most famous line from the entire book are its first seven [...]
Let me be straight with you, I like the idea of routines. I like the idea of having a life where I know that at this time, I’m working, and at that time, Im not working, letting me thus “not work” guilt free. Fixed schedules seem to allow avoiding two deadly grad school traps: 1) [...]
Photo by: Michel Filion
I’ve written a couple posts about why I think working on important stuff is a lot better for your blood pressure than working in context. In fact, slowly, I realized I didn’t really need contexts at all.
One evening this week, I took a dose of my own medicine to great success, and [...]
Photo by: flattop341
Let’s get this out in the open once so we don’t have to mention it again and again: We are all busy. We all have too much stuff that we either have to do for ourselves, have to do for someone else or would like to do sometime. The first two categories can [...]
Photo by: roger jones
There’s something dangerous about a bunch of small, un-intimidating next actions on a single list. The things you should be doing are generally uncomfortable, larger, more intimidating than the things that aren’t that important. The things you should be doing are generally much fewer in number than the things that aren’t that [...]
Simply GTD posts are designed to provide simpler alternatives to productivity ridiculousness.
New internet based time and list management systems seem to show up faster than TMZ articles on Britney Spears. Each one seeks to do the same thing: make it easier for you to get stuff done. How? By learning their system and using their [...]
I’ve been a PC user all my life, but in June, I got my first Mac, a black MacBook. It immediately became my primary computer and my overall experience has been rather positive. Right now I can’t see myself switching back.There are many great features in OS X, and also some downsides (why is Office [...]
Photo by: josef.stuefer
I’m sick of working during the day. I’m sick of email, I’m sick of dealing with “productive” people that haven’t eaten or slept in a year. I’m sick of running into friends when I should be working and I’m really sick of instruments being booked when I need to use them. I’ve been [...]
Photo by: .Fabio
In the quest for productivity, blogs with the word “hack” in the title and other similar literature often end up discussing in detail ways to increase efficiency. What does that mean, efficiency? Efficiency is most often some metric for gauging output per unit time; how much work you are getting done in a [...]
Photo by: chris.merwe
I’ve noticed a pattern. A large amount of productivity literature, blogs, and “hacks”, in the end tell a single story: Have the confidence to jump right in to your work. Often, they notice that there are certain barriers (self-created, or not) that are blocking your confidence or clouding your judgment so [...]
Grad Hacker is a blog dedicated to making you very, very productive. I’m talking really productive. No seriously, there here will be no end to your productivity. I’m a grad student and posts are often geared towards grad students, but most content can apply to anyone. I joke around a lot about our quests for “productivity”.
In addition to science research I do other things, one of which is play with this blog, another is English editing of academic papers with AJE.
Questions? Complaints? I can be reached here.
