Shiri Noy

Hi Reader, One reason research to-do lists become overwhelming is that they flatten very different kinds of work. “Revise article,” “email coauthor,” “download PDFs,” “clean data,” and “figure out argument” can all sit next to one another, even though they require different kinds of attention and effort. Some are straightforward, some should be broken up into smaller tasks. I’ll talk about task units in a future newsletter. For now, let’s talk about prioritizing tasks. I lear

Hi Reader, There is something about September that feels like a new beginning. Gretchen Rubin has called September “the other January”: a point in the year when routines shift, calendars change, and it can feel natural to take stock and start again. For academics, that feeling is especially literal. A new semester or quarter changes the shape of our time. But even if your work does not follow an academic calendar, the beginning of fall can be a useful moment to look at the mo