142: Project Management 101 for Academics

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Welcome back, everyone. This is Dra. Yvette, and you are listening to Grad School Femtoring, the podcast. For today's solo episode, I have a topic all about project management 101 for academics. I'm choosing to talk about this topic because it's one that has been coming up a lot for me with my clients, and my students, and my followers. Because a lot of people consider me a very organized person, and with being organized, it means that I've learned a thing or two about project management.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, when I'm referring to project management, I'm not talking about the specific field and industry for which you have to get a certificate to become a project manager or product manager. I am not someone who has experience in industry based jobs. But I am someone who has spent a great deal of time learning how to be productive and efficient, because- I always say this to people- I don't have a lot of time. I just don't. As someone with a chronic illness, someone who struggles with mental health issues, someone who has two young children, and I have no formal childcare for a toddler, I don't have a lot of work to do. So I've learned some project management strategies to help me make sure I stay on track and on task with the things that are high priority for me.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

If you are finding yourself feeling a little bit overwhelmed, and perhaps like you're all over the place, and maybe you have a big project that you have to get done- this could be a thesis, this could be a dissertation, this could be writing a book and submitting a manuscript to an editor. Whatever the case is, these systems that I'm going to talk about related to project management may be helpful for you, I actually think that it does pay off to spend a little bit of time getting organized and setting up a system for yourself before embarking on a big project. And if you are already in the middle of it, it doesn't hurt to assess whatever it is that you're doing as your current productivity system, and then make some tweaks in that system to again, work smarter and not harder.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So what are these three systems that I'm telling you would be useful to develop or enhance to help you with your productivity, and help you ultimately reach your goals? The first one has to do with setting up a filing system. The second one has to do with setting up a task management system. And the third one has to do with setting up a calendaring system.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now most of us already have systems or ways that we do things, but we don't necessarily take the time to think through the way that we have done things for many years. We just do it without thinking twice about it, but it doesn't hurt, like I said, to think a little bit more about how it is that you're doing the things- your method of doing things- and what are the things that come up? What are the obstacles? What are the frustrations? What are the pain points for you? Then based on those pain points, see- what can you do to improve your system?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Systems can change your life. Systems are there to ensure that you have things set in place for you to meet your goals. It's one thing to set goals, and it's another thing to actually follow through- little by little, over time- on those goals, especially long term goals.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, with the first one with the filing system, what do I mean by a filing system? If you're working on a dissertation or a thesis, then you're working with a lot of materials. You may be saving articles, primary sources, secondary sources. You may be saving drafts of writing that you're working on. You may be saving notes and feedback, and this is a lot of information to save and to keep organized. So my first recommendation when it comes to setting up your filing system is to make sure that you are choosing one container. You want to contain the work and you want to keep it in one place. You don't want to have to be combing through back and forth between multiple different locations. That could be choosing to use Dropbox, or choosing to use Box, or choosing to use Google Team Drive or Google Drive, choosing to use Microsoft OneDrive, choosing to use your desktop and having it automatically saved to an external hard drive.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

In general, I recommend that anywhere that you save your materials can be accessible either on a cloud or on some sort of external hard drive, so that if you, for some reason lose access to the materials on your computer- let's say your computer breaks down for any reason, then you don't actually lose the the information that you've been working on. I have witnessed many people who have saved chapters of their dissertation on a desktop, only to have that desktop die on them, and they lose all of that information. They thought that it was saved to an external hard drive, they hadn't backed it up in a while. They lost a lot of information and had to start over from scratch. I don't want that for you.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I also don't want you to be going back and forth between different containers. Maybe you have some materials saved on your Google Drive. Maybe you have some materials saved on your desktop. Maybe you have some materials saved on Box. Then you're spending and wasting all this time combing through each to try to find the one thing. If you know that, for everything, you have one container, it's a lot easier to contain the work and to then find it in the future. So with setting up your filing system, choose one container, whichever one you're most comfortable with.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then when you're saving materials, I highly recommend having very specific titles for information. Don't just call something CV draft, you know, because that doesn't tell you anything. Maybe you want to call it CV draft for blah, blah, blah. Actually give the specific occasion in which you had to draft that CV, or the job application that you drafted that CV for, and included date. At minimum, include the year that you drafted that, but you could also include a very specific date. When I worked on my dissertation, I saved my drafts based on date. I started with the year, then the month, then the day. An example would be 2014/05/09 dissertation draft, or chapter four draft, or whatever it was called. It would have the year, the month and the day. I knew exactly when I wrote it, and exactly which one was my most recent draft. You can label something- first draft, second, third, fourth final, and then all of a sudden your final draft turns out to be not the final draft. So you've got a final, than a final final, and this is your actual final draft. It can get confusing.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

In short, I recommend having specific and easy to find titles. However you title them, needs to be a way for you to think about your future self and how you would try to find that. Think about your titles as potential search terms in the future. That way, you don't have to spend a lot of time locating something. I, all the time, send people, drafts and templates and things of let's say like, for instance, with my clients, I'll send them fellowship drafts. My own fellowship drafts of applications that I submitted that were successful. These are from six, seven, eight years ago, and I have no problem finding that information. Why? Because I have it saved in the same container, and I know what folders I saved it in, and I know how I titled these. I know what my search terms are, and it doesn't take me very long to find these things.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So choose one container to save everything in, and then have easy to find titles. Make sure that you save things in folders within umbrella categories. Some people like to save their materials based on years, so having different umbrella categories and then saving things based on the year that they worked on that. Some folks prefer to just have the umbrella categories of the major areas in your life, and then saving things within there.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I actually prefer going based off the categories rather than the years, because I know I search for my materials and in my titles I have the year that I worked on materials. But it's up to you, whatever you think is going to help your future self to locate these materials. The reason why you're saving them is because you believe you're going to be using them either now, in the near future, or in the not so near future.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, the last thing I want to remind you about your filing system, is to make sure to set aside time to organize and file regularly. This is harder, because if you are not a person who is naturally inclined to wanting to organize, it can be hard to remember to save things. It's really easy for files to start to accumulate- let's say on your desktop, or on just like a general folder on the cloud. But it's useful to remind yourself, if you have five minutes, ten minutes in between meetings, if you have any spare time. Or even just remembering once a week, or even once a month, just putting it on your calendar, adding time to quickly file and organize things. That will help you. That will help you a lot, and that will help minimize the overwhelm. That way you don't, at the end of the semester and of the quarter, you're looking at your cloud or you're looking at your drive and thinking oh my goodness. I spent all this time organizing it, and now it's a mess again. Now if you do a little bit regularly, it will be a very sustainable filing system.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

For the second thing that I want to talk about, it has to do with task management. Now, this is the thing. A lot of folks who reach out to me, who chat with me, who want to work with me, who choose to become my clients, they are feeling overwhelmed. They've got a lot going on in their lives. They have multiple roles in their life, multiple jobs in some cases. When you're juggling a lot, it's really hard to keep track of everything. And so what could be helpful is having a system in place, and not just doing things here and there, based off what you remember, what you think is important, what's coming up, the day before you realize there's a deadline coming up. And all of a sudden you're not sleeping, or not spending time with your family or whatever the case is for the sake of meeting deadlines, or constantly having to ask for extensions and push them back. Instead, what if you had a way for you to keep track of your tasks, and then align those tasks and prioritizing them based on due dates and urgency. That way, you're constantly working on things that are important and that are time sensitive, and you're doing it well in advance of the deadline. So you don't have to play catch up later on. You don't have to sacrifice sleep or time or anything else that you need to do.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So task management systems. For that I recommend, again, very much like the filing system, to choose a container to keep track of all of your to do's. What is an example of this? I'm a big fan of project management software, websites, tools. By this I mean things like Trello, monday.com, Kanban flow. I'll add the links to these on the website for you to check out. Asana, notion. There's so many of them, and some are more advanced than others.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I personally recommend something very simple to start out with. I would recommend trying out, if you've never used these websites before, try out Kanban flow or Trello. These two are board based project management tools. The Kanban flow in specific works based off this method of productivity called Kanban. It's a Japanese method of productivity, where you separate and organize your to do's based off priority. So you have multiple columns, and the columns are based on when you have to do things. You will have a general to do column, and then you might have a column for things that you need to do today, things you need to do this week, things you need to do next week, and things you need to do later.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Visually having a place where you can dump all of the things that are stressing you out, that you know you need to do, and then being forced to prioritize by making sure you insert them in the proper columns every week. That can help to decrease your overwhelm and your stress, because it's a reminder of what the high priority task is. If you're having to work on a deadline that's coming up next week, and then you find yourself going in and checking emails, if you go back to your board and see what the urgency is, like what are the high priority tasks? You'll be able to see that actually, this email can wait. What shouldn't have to wait is this other thing, because that's higher priority. That's due sooner, or that's something that is more urgent. So choose a container.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And if you don't want to use a project management software, that's okay too. Several people will keep track of their tasks on a whiteboard, and they can still do the Kanban system with a whiteboard. Or some folks like to use post it's, although that makes me a little nervous, because I feel like you could potentially lose that post it. But you want a place to contain the overwhelm. You want to be able to take everything that's on your mind, that is taking up a lot of room, you want to be able to put that somewhere. Once you jot it down, then it helps to clear your mind. I remember, when I was a grad student before implementing this system, I would stay up at night. Sometimes these things would keep me up at night. I'm thinking oh my gosh. I'm gonna forget- I need to do this, I need to do that. The reason why I started to develop the system for myself is because I'm a very forgetful person. That's in my genes. My mom has a really bad memory. A lot of my siblings have a bad memory. My grandma had a better memory. There's not much I can do about it, other than making sure that whenever I remember something, to jot it down.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I do that by using Kanban flow. That is my project management tool of choice. I've been using it for many years. I've tried out some other ones, and they're fine. Some of them look really nice and neat and cute, and have fancy extra features. But I like the simplicity of Kanban flow. For me, having too many options and too many viewing settings, that can be too much and can distract me. Instead, if I focus on a very simple system with just four or five columns, and then I can see everything that I need to get done in one place. And I can see it from my laptop- I don't have to have multiple screens to see everything that I need to do. That helps. I also use the app. So whenever anything pops up in my head, I can open up my phone. Check my board, add things to my to do list and prioritize them. I see something, I'm like, oh yeah. I need to get this done, but it's not due until next month. I'll just put it on my do later list. So task management system, choose your container.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

The next thing that I recommend doing is to make sure you actually use the container and check it regularly, and incorporate it as part of your calendaring system. You want it to work hand in hand with your calendar. You should be vacillating back and forth between your to do list and your calendar, because your to do list, if you use the board system, you'll be able to prioritize what actually has to get done today and this week. Then based on high priority tasks- those are the things I recommend that you start to include in your calendar. I don't know if you're like me, but when things are in my calendar there, they have a much higher chance of me getting them done. And when I add things to my calendar, it gives me a more realistic view of how much time I have that week, and what I can and can't get done. Once I add things to my calendar, it also lets me know how much extra time I have. So I can actually say no to certain things that come up, if they're in conflict with my high priority tasks. If there's a meeting, someone wants to meet up this week, actually, I might not be able to meet up with them because I have already set aside time to do other things that are higher priority and that person can wait, or that task can wait. Just keep that in mind. Incorporate your task management system into your calendar.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then update it regularly. Try to keep it simple. Don't overdo it. I've see folks who create boards, and then they get so excited and so caught up, and create multiple columns and add a bunch of cute pictures, and too many subtasks and too many notes and it just becomes this big, overwhelming thing. The more simple you can make things, the better. Your filing system should be simple. Your task management system should be simple. You should be able to see everything that you have going on in one screen.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now with the last one, the calendaring system, same thing. Choose one to use. How many times have I seen folks who use a digital calendar and a planner. Then they're going back and forth trying to update both, and then it takes them double the time to try to add anything because they're having to handwrite it, and then add it to their digital calendar. That gets messy and complicated and increases your chances of double booking yourself or forgetting a meeting. So just choose one that you can use, and make sure to update it regularly.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

For any large projects, in addition to having a calendar and using it regularly, I also recommend creating a timeline and working backwards from a big deadline. If you're writing a dissertation, when are you filing that dissertation? If you're writing a book, when are you submitting the full manuscript to your editor? If you're working on a senior thesis, when are you submitting that thesis to your department for the final submission? Knowing what the final due date is, and then working backwards to set deadlines, smaller deadlines to meet milestones as you reach that big deadline. That's going to help give you a bird's eye view of where you are in relation to your long term goal. I highly recommend that.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And if you create a timeline, the timeline can look whatever way you want it to look like. I recommend a monthly timeline, and writing down all the sub goals or milestones you need to reach each month up until that final deadline. But it's up to you. You can go into a lot of detail, and write what you need to do every week. Or you can have it quarterly, you know, every two, three months what you need to get done. Whatever works for you. I recommend monthly, because then every month, at the start of the month, you can go back and check your progress. And then see, what did you get done? What did you not get done that needs to be moved over to the next month? But always having an eye on where you are, having a bird's eye view on how much progress you've made.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then going back to the way that you use your calendar, I used to use my calendar in a way where I updated and added everything that I did, down to my breaks and my lunch and every single meeting, and every single task that I did. That's a lot. It's a lot, and sometimes just looking at the calendar can feel overwhelming. Now, because I'm trying to keep things simple, I only include my meetings and my high priority tasks on my calendar. I don't include every single detail of my life on there, just because I like to be able to see what absolutely needs to get done in the day. What are my high priority things? That goes on my calendar. Everything else can wait.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So I recommend- if you like having every single minute jotted down on your calendar, and it helps you to maintain your productivity and to keep motivated and to sustain your momentum, if it helps you to maintain your momentum then yes, go ahead. Schedule every fifteen minutes if you want to. I know folks who who actually recommend that, who are college advisors who recommend that their students start to jot down every single thing that they do every fifteen minutes. If you're struggling with time management and you've never really gotten used to using a calendar, that's not a bad strategy to go back and actually assess and reflect on what you've done. How do you spend your time? How can you modify some of the habits that are not helpful? That's okay. But if you feel like you don't need to be every single fifteen minutes writing it down in your calendar, and you'll be okay if you only keep high priority tasks, then try that out.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

The key to project management, the key to ensuring that you meet your long term goals for big projects, is to set up a system that works for you. What might work for me might not work for you. So try these things. See what works, see what feels good. Keep that. What doesn't feel good- reassess, try out new strategies. Again, what works, keep it. What doesn't work, change it. Then eventually, you'll reach a point where you find something and you keep using it for years, because if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's how I am with my own system. My filing system has been the same for many years. I never realized other people didn't do this until folks started asking me, wait, how are you so organized? How do you do this? How do you do that? And I started teaching and showing people how like, wow. A lot of folks don't have systems set up, and it has changed my life. It has helped me to manage my anxiety and my overwhelm and get a lot of things done, despite not having a lot of time. So if any of these tips or strategies are useful for you, by all means, try it out. And if they're not, then you know, it doesn't hurt to look up other strategies, to look up other tools and keep trying. I don't want you to ever get stuck doing things one way if they are frustrating, if they're not helpful, if you find that you're constantly running into bumps and issues. No, you have opportunities to reflect on your system and change it, enhance it. Make it best suited to your own working style and needs.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's it. That's all about my project management 101 for academics. If you found this helpful, don't hesitate to reach out to me. Send me a DM on socials, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or email me GradSchoolFemtoring@gmail.com. I love hearing your feedback on my episodes. Alright, y'all. Have a good rest of the day.