How Do You Include "Teaching" In Your Semester Plans?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:04.800 | Hi, Kaljien here.

00:00:06.160 | A follow-up question to your semester plans,

00:00:09.440 | a fellow academic here as well.

00:00:11.880 | How do you factor in teaching in your semester plans?

00:00:16.680 | So I get the research component, but how

00:00:20.240 | do you factor in teaching in your semester strategic plans,

00:00:23.960 | that is prep and everything else?

00:00:27.040 | And then how do you factor in your personal semester goals

00:00:33.480 | or strategic goals, however you may want to call them,

00:00:37.440 | in the semester plans?

00:00:40.760 | So looking forward to hearing from you,

00:00:42.440 | and thank you so much for all you do.

00:00:45.680 | As I said, following you for the last many, many years,

00:00:48.360 | so appreciate it.

00:00:50.040 | Looking forward to hearing your take on incorporating

00:00:53.240 | all the wheels of academia into the strategic plans.

00:00:58.000 | Thank you.

00:01:00.120 | Well, when it comes to my plan for the upcoming semester,

00:01:02.800 | I start with teaching.

00:01:04.800 | That's my starting point, because obviously,

00:01:06.640 | the teaching is something that has to happen,

00:01:09.480 | and it has to happen at a consistently high level.

00:01:13.760 | Now, the good news about teaching

00:01:15.400 | is that after you've taught a class a few times,

00:01:18.440 | the work that's required becomes quite predictable.

00:01:22.760 | So you know what you're in for.

00:01:24.480 | It doesn't have the same uncertainty

00:01:26.080 | that research does, where you don't know,

00:01:27.960 | is this going to work or not?

00:01:29.280 | Are you going to come across a topic that's interesting?

00:01:31.120 | Is it going to take a ton of time?

00:01:32.240 | Are you going to have a quick breakthrough?

00:01:34.000 | That can be really hard to predict and plan.

00:01:36.320 | Teaching, you know.

00:01:37.680 | Taught this class twice before.

00:01:38.960 | I know what's involved.

00:01:40.680 | So my approach typically is to automate everything.

00:01:45.080 | I'm using the word automate here in an idiosyncratic way

00:01:48.400 | that's unique to the way I talk about work and productivity.

00:01:52.160 | I don't mean automate in the traditional way

00:01:54.200 | of some other system will do this for you,

00:01:57.360 | like automatically.

00:01:58.720 | When I use the term automate,

00:02:00.520 | I'm actually using a version of this term

00:02:02.600 | I introduced in my book, "A World Without Email."

00:02:04.560 | What I mean by that is you automate the thinking

00:02:08.040 | and scheduling process around the work.

00:02:10.520 | You don't have to make a decision each week or each day

00:02:13.840 | about what am I going to do next?

00:02:15.880 | You figure out when the work happens,

00:02:17.720 | how it happens, and where it's going to happen.

00:02:20.240 | So the stuff you know predictably

00:02:22.400 | goes into supporting this class.

00:02:24.600 | You figure out a system for that.

00:02:26.520 | This is when and where it happens every single week.

00:02:29.560 | The scheduling itself has become automated.

00:02:32.080 | That's in the foundation of my schedule for the semester.

00:02:35.920 | So now I know when this work's going to happen.

00:02:37.960 | It's on my calendar for the entire semester.

00:02:40.280 | Now I work around everything else.

00:02:43.440 | So that becomes the can't be compromised on anchor

00:02:48.040 | of my schedule.

00:02:48.960 | And I know exactly where and when that work happens.

00:02:51.440 | And then I figure out what am I going to do with what's left.

00:02:54.360 | So for example, I'm working right now

00:02:58.040 | on figuring out my semester plan

00:03:00.520 | for the upcoming spring semester at Georgetown.

00:03:04.320 | I'm teaching two courses.

00:03:05.600 | And the way those courses are arranged,

00:03:08.280 | which I feel good about,

00:03:09.840 | and doesn't always work out this way,

00:03:11.280 | but I think it's going to work quite well,

00:03:12.440 | is they're on the same days, Monday and Wednesday.

00:03:16.520 | And so I have one course that's at 11

00:03:18.360 | and another course is at 3.30.

00:03:20.120 | And that's the same on Monday and on Wednesday.

00:03:22.040 | So now I'm starting to work through,

00:03:23.200 | okay, how's this going to work?

00:03:25.400 | Prep is going to happen in the morning

00:03:28.440 | before I leave for campus.

00:03:29.720 | I have that pretty much dialed in.

00:03:31.160 | I'm teaching a course right now at 11.

00:03:32.440 | So it's a good amount of time to do prep.

00:03:35.200 | One of the courses I'm teaching right now in the fall,

00:03:38.440 | and it's been heavily prepped very well.

00:03:40.200 | And I put a lot of effort this fall

00:03:41.440 | into updating all my notes so that when I get to the spring,

00:03:44.280 | I don't really have to do new prep for that course.

00:03:45.960 | The prep time in the morning

00:03:46.960 | can go towards the second course.

00:03:48.880 | I'm going to use the time in between those two courses.

00:03:51.520 | I get lunch and I'm going to use all the time.

00:03:53.960 | That'll put me at one o'clock to 3.30, two and a half hours.

00:03:57.880 | That is going to be me in the office, right?

00:04:01.680 | Me in the office, academic time.

00:04:04.240 | So I'll probably open up that whole time

00:04:06.120 | to be office hours in my plans.

00:04:08.520 | So I have two classes full of students.

00:04:10.080 | There's a lot of access they need.

00:04:11.280 | So I'm just going to basically say,

00:04:12.240 | hey, one to 3.20,

00:04:14.400 | come by my office on Monday or Wednesdays.

00:04:16.040 | I'm always going to be there.

00:04:16.880 | That's when I'm going to be working on things.

00:04:19.160 | This is where I'm going,

00:04:20.120 | that window is where I'm going to schedule

00:04:23.120 | any of the other work related to these courses.

00:04:25.480 | So I've already figured out TA situations,

00:04:28.000 | who my TAs are going to be,

00:04:29.160 | the process with which those TAs are going to work.

00:04:31.720 | They're going to come to my, I'm figuring this all out.

00:04:33.600 | They're going to come to my office

00:04:35.520 | when we have a new problem set due for us to talk it over.

00:04:37.920 | That time comes out of that window.

00:04:39.920 | When it comes time to going through and checking grading,

00:04:43.200 | that's going to show up on my calendar during that window

00:04:45.720 | between the two courses.

00:04:47.000 | I mean, I'm really working out the whole thing.

00:04:49.920 | So that basically for me, for this particular semester,

00:04:53.240 | Monday and Wednesdays is all teaching

00:04:54.880 | and everything fits into there.

00:04:56.000 | Everything related to teaching fits into there just right.

00:04:58.840 | Tuesday, Thursday, Friday is not at all teaching.

00:05:02.200 | That's what I mean by automation.

00:05:03.320 | I'm making a plan.

00:05:04.160 | So I have time for everything I need

00:05:06.400 | to teach these courses well.

00:05:07.920 | And I know exactly where that time lands

00:05:11.480 | and I've configured it in a way

00:05:12.640 | that its footprint is reasonable.

00:05:15.200 | And then I'll move on and say, okay,

00:05:16.360 | what am I going to do with these other three days?

00:05:19.000 | Where am I going to do research?

00:05:20.120 | What about other meetings, like committee meetings?

00:05:22.240 | And I have a theory I'm putting together here

00:05:24.320 | where those are going to all happen after 2 p.m.

00:05:26.880 | And so the mornings are going to be just

00:05:28.400 | for research or writing.

00:05:29.360 | I'm trying to figure this all out,

00:05:31.440 | but that's what it looks like.

00:05:32.680 | That's what it looks like when I do that thinking.

00:05:34.520 | So that's what I'd recommend to you,

00:05:35.480 | but it's also what I would recommend more broadly

00:05:37.440 | outside of academia.

00:05:38.800 | Take the work that is non-negotiable.

00:05:42.040 | This is a part of my job that has to happen.

00:05:44.160 | It always has to happen, but it's predictable.

00:05:47.000 | And automate, automate, automate.

00:05:49.120 | This is when and how I do it.

00:05:50.640 | I don't want to have to think about it.

00:05:52.600 | I don't want to have to say, oh, should I prep today?

00:05:55.400 | Should I prep right now?

00:05:56.440 | Should I prep this afternoon?

00:05:57.560 | Should I meet with my TAs?

00:05:58.600 | When should I do that?

00:05:59.440 | I guess I should do that soon.

00:06:00.280 | The stuff you know that's going to happen,

00:06:01.920 | figure out when it's going to happen,

00:06:04.320 | get it on your calendar,

00:06:06.160 | and then forget about having to worry about it.

00:06:08.560 | When you get there, you get there.

00:06:09.640 | It'll get executed when it gets executed.

00:06:12.240 | That's the right way, I think,

00:06:13.520 | to most effectively deal with stuff

00:06:15.600 | that has to happen again and again.

00:06:17.880 | (upbeat music)

00:06:20.480 | (upbeat music)

00:06:23.060 | (upbeat music)

How Do You Include "Teaching" In Your Semester Plans?

Chapters