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> Turning her attention to the weekend, Elizabeth arranged for her husband to take the kids from 12:00 to 4:00 every Saturday, freeing up another four-hour rese

> Turning her attention to the weekend, Elizabeth arranged for her husband to take the kids from 12:00 to 4:00 every Saturday, freeing up another four-hour research block. Being deliberate about schedule management is great. However, my goal with schedule management is to get work done during the work week so I can spend more time with my kids, not carve out a large chunk of the weekend to avoid the kids while I work more. There were some decent points in this article, but it really needed some better examples. Obviously parents can get more work done if we conveniently have our spouses watch the kids alone every weekend while we work more on Saturday, but I didn't really need a long blog post to tell me that. Nor do I want it. Realistically, I've found a lot of success in being more ruthless about my own schedule management: Withdrawing from meetings I don't need to be in. Requesting smaller 30-minute time slots where people unnecessarily schedule 1-hour meetings. Leaving meetings entirely if the scheduler doesn't show up within 5 minutes of the start time, sending them an e-mail asking to reschedule when they're available. Forcing meetings into e-mails when they don't need to be a meeting. Requesting agendas and pre-work before meetings so we avoid design by committee. Implemented tactfully, these can squeeze out a lot of the time wasters that happen during the course of a week. I'd much rather do things like that than to give up and work weekends.

cgrealy 4y ago
My other favourite tactic is block booking my own time. When I was doing more dev, I'd quite happily block 4 hours out of my calendar to do some coding, and if you're booking a meeting during that time, the world better be exploding.
Helmut10001 4y ago
Absolutely agree. Having finished my PhD 7 years ago, now with a child of 4 years, more work does not work if you look at your life holistically. My strategies evolve around: Gradual, incremental, consistent and focused steps, instead of bold deadlines, weekend work, and trying to press in more. While having a family is great, I still want to deliver quality at work. In the past, weekend shifts have always resulting in quality deteriorating. Skip what is not necessary, decline what is impossible within the given time frame, ignore requests to deliver more in less. It will look as if your chances of staying employed decline, but the opposite was the case for me: People seem to expect that things cannot be done as fast as they wish and will trust you more, if you deliver consistently but slighlty beyond schedule.
sfvegandude 4y ago
As a PM —- you know the guy who is filling your calendar up with meetings and preventing you from doing the real work —- I love this. Please send us and others signals. Be brutal and direct. “This meeting doesn’t have an agenda, so I won’t attend. Feel free to send me notes and highlight your ask.” “I am happy to meet, but only for 15 minutes instead of 30.” You don’t even need to justify it, unless that justification is intended to send a signal to the person trying to take up your time that they must do better if they want to succeed in doing so.
gautamdivgi 4y ago
Here's the thing with academia and why you do want the weekends. She was on a tenure track. Essentially that's an up or out situation. She has 7 years or so to get tenure and then she's set for life. Case in point Amy Wax from Harvard who is a tenured professor and is hugely controversial but still cannot be fired. That's the sort of job security you're aiming for. It's the only one possible - if you're not granted tenure its a massive miss and you need to begin your professional life anew. So given that context, weekend work makes sense. It's not ideal but neither is the academic tenure track.

cgrealy 4y ago

My other favourite tactic is block booking my own time. When I was doing more dev, I'd quite happily block 4 hours out of my calendar to do some coding, and if you're booking a meeting during that time, the world better be exploding.

Helmut10001 4y ago

Absolutely agree. Having finished my PhD 7 years ago, now with a child of 4 years, more work does not work if you look at your life holistically. My strategies evolve around: Gradual, incremental, consistent and focused steps, instead of bold deadlines, weekend work, and trying to press in more. While having a family is great, I still want to deliver quality at work. In the past, weekend shifts have always resulting in quality deteriorating. Skip what is not necessary, decline what is impossible within the given time frame, ignore requests to deliver more in less. It will look as if your chances of staying employed decline, but the opposite was the case for me: People seem to expect that things cannot be done as fast as they wish and will trust you more, if you deliver consistently but slighlty beyond schedule.

sfvegandude 4y ago

As a PM —- you know the guy who is filling your calendar up with meetings and preventing you from doing the real work —- I love this. Please send us and others signals. Be brutal and direct. “This meeting doesn’t have an agenda, so I won’t attend. Feel free to send me notes and highlight your ask.” “I am happy to meet, but only for 15 minutes instead of 30.” You don’t even need to justify it, unless that justification is intended to send a signal to the person trying to take up your time that they must do better if they want to succeed in doing so.

gautamdivgi 4y ago

Here's the thing with academia and why you do want the weekends. She was on a tenure track. Essentially that's an up or out situation. She has 7 years or so to get tenure and then she's set for life. Case in point Amy Wax from Harvard who is a tenured professor and is hugely controversial but still cannot be fired. That's the sort of job security you're aiming for. It's the only one possible - if you're not granted tenure its a massive miss and you need to begin your professional life anew. So given that context, weekend work makes sense. It's not ideal but neither is the academic tenure track.