Productivity
Urmimala Sarkar
The Long View

Dear friends,

Does it feel like spring yet? I’m writing this on yet another cold and rainy day, cheering myself up with a cup of tea and wildflower daydreams. I hope April brings sunshine to all of us!

The Long View
Productivity
Urmimala Sarkar
Sound the Retreat

Understanding that we as humans have seasonal rhythms, and taking these into account, has made me both happier and more productive. The pace of work slows down in summer to accommodate vacations, social gatherings, and weather that lures us away from our desks. Instead of setting goals that don’t match this reality, I suggest a work retreat.

Resilience, Productivity
Urmimala Sarkar
Taking Off Our Masks

How are you? It’s been a long, hard pandemic slog, but June- Pride month- is great time to find our optimism. As a Gen Xer, I’ve seen a revolution in my lifetime in how we think about our LGBTQIA friends, neighbors, and colleagues, and it gives me hope that we can make progress towards racial and gender justice. I’m starting to feel like I can see my way through the fog of the past 15 months, and it’s a good time to take stock.

Productivity
Urmimala Sarkar
Switching Costs

This month’s topic was inspired by a mentee question about managing simultaneous deadlines. What do you do when you have multiple papers and a grant to push out the door? How do you efficiently work on more than one writing project? The more senior you become, the more critical it is to master this way of working. I don’t have a perfect solution, but I can share a few strategies.

Resilience
Urmimala Sarkar
Out of the Office

March was a tough month, wasn’t it? This month I want to talk about time away from work. Whether it’s for parental leave or sudden family needs of a less joyful nature, time away can cause stress for the person who taking time off, their colleagues, staff, and mentors. My underlying assumptions: (1) People experience life events in very different ways; (2) It is not a job requirement to have exemplary coping skills/ resilience in the face of life challenges, let alone personal tragedy.

Time-tracking lessons

Lessons

Dear friends,

Happy new year! I am writing this post early, in preparation for a truly unplugged vacation. I recently facilitated a time-management session with a group of UCSF junior faculty in our K-scholars’ program, all junior faculty with career development awards. It won’t surprise you to learn that I asked everyone to log their time for a week and bring their time log with them to the session. Today I want to share some of the main lessons from that group session. They’re a self-selected group of talented and busy people. I hope that their reflections help you start the year with optimism and energy!

Timing is Really Everything

Hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Today I want to share some thoughts on time and energy. Many of you have heard me talk about the work of my friend and colleague Dawna Ballard, PhD, a communications scientist at UT Austin. Even if I have told you about her mind-blowing re-conceptualization of time, please keep reading! I have some concrete strategies for acting more in concert with our natural rhythms below.

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