To get from strategy to action, we break down our tasks.
Subdivide until they are small & actionable.
Ideal size per task: 2-4 hrs.
An example from my PhD.
We break down the big, strategic task:
"Predicting the Future of a New Zealand Forest" 🌳
⚡️ Convert cards to notes
Our tasks are now small enough, to tackle them.
The "cards" on the canvas need to become notes.
These are displayed in the Kanban.
For better overview: Use emojis ✅ / 🟥 in the title.
The notes need to contain some meta-data (next step) to work.
⚡️ Add Meta Data aka. Frontmatter
This is a machine readable entry at the top of your notes.
You won't see it, but plugins can read it.
Use the fields "due", "prio" and "status" for now.
The date format must be YYYY-MM-DD.
⚡️ Folder Structure
I prefer to keep my projects in a separate folder.
This way tasks from separate projects won't mix.
A project for me consists of a bunch of tasks
and our mind map (canvas) to bind them together.
⚡️ We will use the "Projects" plugin.
Go to Settings > Community Plugins.
Search for "Projects by Marcus Olsson"
Download and install it.
Open the Project view, with the little button on the left.
⚡️ Create your first Project
Specify a path to your notes.
That is why we put the project into a separate folder.
Tasks do not mix between projects.
Optional: Make your life a bit easier by specifying a template
and a default title.
⚡️ Using the Table View
Your notes (from the canvas) are now entries in a table.
It is like a simplified excel or google spread sheet.
It shines when you have many tasks.
You can filter and color code them.
Your columns are just the front matter fields. Add more as needed.
⚠️ Set values for "state"
We have not yet defined what "status" can be.
Simplest form: backlog, done, doing, blocked
Click the 3 dots next to status and add the 4 states.
We need this for our Kanban/Board view.
⚡️ Using the Kanban/Board View
We can now create our first Kanban board!
Click "new" on the top right.
Select "Board" as type from the popup.
On the top left of the view: Set status and priority drop downs.
(Nothing will display until you set these)
⚡️ Move tasks from left to right
Each column is the "state" of the task.
We start left: "Backlog"
We finish right: "Done"
Drag and Drop your tasks.
Use "Blocked" for tasks, where you wait on someone for example.
😵 Now you have complete overview of the project!
⚡️ Use the calendar to view time-critical tasks
We now create another view: "Calendar"
Just like you did for "Board view", use the blue button at the top right.
When you created the view, set the Date dropdown to "due".
This should display your tasks as a calendar:
🚀 It is not magic
We take fields in your frontmatter,
and display them in different views.
Understand this and you unlock your creativity.
Add fields & views as desired to suit your project!
(When you complete a task, you need to manually change the 🟥 to ✅ in the title)
🧠 Summary
Represent tasks in 4 views:
• Mind maps: For a strategic plan
• Tables: To filter tasks
• Kanban-Boards: See the progress of the ENTIRE project.
• Calendars: Identify what's urgent.
It's your Swiss army knife of planning.
You can literally do anything with it.
A lot to cover in a few tweets!
You can find a much more detailed,
beginner-friendly version in my 📩 Newsletter.
The link is in my profile.
Let your friends know ♻️, if you enjoyed this ❤️!
May your academic life,
be effortless 🕊️.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Use SCRUM - a scheduling technique most companies use. It's perfect for academics.
Details in text below:
👇
Summary:
1. Create a backlog of tasks and assign a difficulty to each (1,2,4,8 for the number of hours it takes to complete)
2. Plan meetings and seminars etc as they also take time.
3. Before starting your week distribute the tasks from the backlog to the days of the week. Don't plan more than 8hr of work a day (or less if you have other commitments).
4. During the week: Check off what you have completed (and how long it took you).
5. At the end of the week: Understand what you got done and what you didn't.
Understand that if you didn't get everything done it is a planning error. It does not mean you need to work harder/more (this is just recipe for burnout and I have been there myself). It just means you need to plan better. Efficiency comes in relaxation.
Every day you manage to accomplish what you planned you will feel great about yourself.
6. Next week you can copy and paste the open tasks to the next week and start the process again. Some people prefer to have a bi-weekly instead.
What tools can you use?
There are dozens of tools for kanban boards. The simplest one is of course Trello.
Replace Zotero with a reference map and leverage your spatial memory.
Here is how:
👇
1. Reference manager vs map
Take a look at this screenshot: Which one looks more approachable and interesting? On the right is Zotero displaying all your papers in an endless list. On the left is a reference map.
Reference maps lay out your papers or PDFs in 2D on an endless surface called a "canvas" or "whiteboard". There are many tools that are capable of doing it: Obsidian is an obvious choice, Heptabase is great too, DrawIO is more complex but also good.
2. Zooming in and out / Finding things
Using the scroll wheel or pinch gesture you can fluidly navigate between the bird's eye view and the detailed view with your own notes on a single paper. Left: Detail, Right: All Papers.
To find papers you "fly up" and then "land on" the paper you are looking for. It feels incredibly natural and easier than scrolling through a list.
3. Why it works: Spatial Memory
Humans evolved moving around as hunter gatherers and spatial memory is a key trait needed for navigation. You leverage it by laying out your papers in a landscape, not a list. Your papers gain location and relation.
4. Headers and Topics: Location
Now that your papers are on a landscape or map you can have "countries" on this map. Every country is a topic, further subdivided in sub-topics. Here is the "Machine Learning Country" in the far south west of my map:
I can refer to "papers in the south west" - this is spatial memory being leveraged to remember where things are.
5. Semantic Connections: Relation
The next step is to build the "roads" between locations on the map. Simply draw an arrow and write on it what this relation signifies.
In the above example Swenson 2020 (top) wrote "the trait-demography relationship is weak (Yang 2018)".
So I read Yang 2018 (left) and added a connection. Later I found that (Lynn 2023) suggested a few solutions and linked those two as well.
By just looking at this map you can immediately write a sentence for your literature review. A narrative emerges and synthesis begins.
Summary:
Lay out papers on a spatial canvas using e.g. Obsidian instead of Zotero. Remembering them will be much easier because you can use your spatial memory. Synthesis starts happening automatically when you annotate connections between papers.
Do you do something like this?
Share a screenshot with us!
This is one of the methods you can learn about in my upcoming webinar: