Bonni Stachowiak, a professor at Vanguard University and host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, dives into family productivity with practical tips. She discusses under-scheduling commitments to create family margins and highlights the success of shared calendars for smooth scheduling. Bonni emphasizes involving kids in household chores, promoting collaboration and responsibility. The conversation also touches on the importance of establishing a family vision and balancing leadership with management to enhance family life.
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volunteer_activism ADVICE
Create Margin
Create margin by under-scheduling family commitments, especially on weekends.
Prioritize unscheduled time for flexibility and responsiveness to family needs.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Use Shared Systems
Use shared iCloud calendars and Acuity Scheduling to coordinate schedules and minimize conflicts.
Capture ideas and tasks in systems like the Drafts app, "someday/maybe" lists, or "incubation" lists.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Incubation List
Dave Stachowiak uses an "incubation" list to capture ideas he can't immediately address but wants to revisit later.
This helps him stay focused on current commitments while ensuring good ideas aren't lost.
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The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide
Bonni Stachowiak
This book offers practical strategies and tips to help higher education professionals efficiently manage their work and use various technologies and productivity tools. It addresses challenges such as managing asynchronous content, streamlining communication, grading productively, and keeping course materials current. The guide draws on productivity principles from authors like Stephen Covey and David Allen, and provides actionable steps for improving personal productivity in academic roles.
Range
Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
David Epstein
In this book, David Epstein examines the success of generalists in various fields, including sports, arts, music, invention, forecasting, and science. He argues that generalists, who often find their path late and juggle multiple interests, are more creative, agile, and able to make connections that specialists cannot. Epstein uses stories and research studies to show that wide sampling and late specialization can be more valuable than early specialization, especially in complex and unpredictable environments. He also discusses the distinction between 'kind' and 'wicked' learning environments and the importance of balancing specialization with range for long-term success[2][4][5].
Atomic Habits
James Clear
Atomic Habits by James Clear provides a practical and scientifically-backed guide to forming good habits and breaking bad ones. The book introduces the Four Laws of Behavior Change: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. It also emphasizes the importance of small, incremental changes (atomic habits) that compound over time to produce significant results. Clear discusses techniques such as habit stacking, optimizing the environment to support desired habits, and focusing on continuous improvement rather than goal fixation. The book is filled with actionable strategies, real-life examples, and stories from various fields, making it a valuable resource for anyone seeking to improve their habits and achieve personal growth[2][4][5].
Getting Things Done
David Allen
Getting Things Done (GTD) is a personal productivity system developed by David Allen. The book provides a detailed methodology for managing tasks, projects, and information, emphasizing the importance of capturing all tasks and ideas, clarifying their meaning, organizing them into actionable lists, reviewing the system regularly, and engaging in the tasks. The GTD method is designed to reduce stress and increase productivity by externalizing tasks and using a trusted system to manage them. The book is divided into three parts, covering the overview of the system, its implementation, and the deeper benefits of integrating GTD into one's work and life[2][3][5].
Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed
Bonni Stachowiak is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, a professor of business and management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, Bonni was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. She is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*.
Key Points
Create margin by under-scheduling family and kid commitments. Our default setting is to have a limited about scheduled on weekends.
We collaborate on schedules by using shared iCloud calendars as a family. Acuity Scheduling* supports both of us professionally in automating scheduling to ensure conflicts are rare.
We both use systems to capture ideas and activities before we decide to move on them. The Drafts app helps both of us do this quickly. Bonni keeps a “someday/maybe” list and Dave keeps an “incubation” list.
We get the kids involved with household responsibilities, so everybody learns to contribute and share daily work.
Take time to put on your leadership hat to make decisions about what’s important. Then, you can manage from there.
Resources Mentioned
The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide* by Bonni Stachowiak
Full Focus Planner* from Michael Hyatt
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World* by David Epstein
Who Killed the Weekend? by Katrina Onstad
Kourosh Dini: Mind, Music, & Productivity
Streaks app
Related Episodes
Getting Things Done, with David Allen (episode 184)
How to Become the Person You Want to Be, with James Clear (episode 376)
Finding Joy Through Intentional Choices, with Bonni Stachowiak (episode 417)
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