Tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education.

Tag Archives: planning

Scheduling 101: The Ideal Academic App

February 11, 2010 in Productivity, ProfHacker 101 by George H. Williams

Today I'd like to brainstorm with ProfHacker readers about what the ideal academic scheduling service or app might look like. I've taken the various comments that ProfHacker readers have shared over the last few months and combined them with some ideas of my own. So consider this an open letter of sorts.

Scheduling 101: Using Tungle.me for Committee Meetings and Student Appointments

February 1, 2010 in How-To, ProfHacker 101 by George H. Williams

Since using scheduling & calendaring services Doodle and Jiffle, I've learned about Tungle. Conclusion? It combines the best features of the other two and offers some features they don't, making it the best choice of the three for academics (though it's not without drawbacks). In this post I explain why.

Community Supported Agriculture

November 17, 2009 in Food, Life by Prof. Hacker

Guest author Heather Whitney explains how buying a share in a Community Supported Agriculture group can simplify meal planning.

H1N1: Two mid-semester observations, and the importance of a plan

November 4, 2009 in Pedagogy by Jason B. Jones

Just a mid-semester reminder: H1N1 is a pandemic flu--it should be handled a bit differently.

Scheduling: Using Doodle to find the best time for a committee meeting

September 24, 2009 in How-To, ProfHacker 101 by George H. Williams

This "ProfHacker 101" post explains how to use Doodle.com, a dead-simple and user-friendly service for scheduling meetings or surveying people. There are basically just three steps to take every time you use Doodle: create your poll; share the poll with other participants; check the poll after everyone has responded. In this post, we'll walk you through each of these steps.

Scheduling & Surveying 101: Introduction

September 17, 2009 in How-To, ProfHacker 101 by George H. Williams

Whether you’re an instructor, a student, or a staff member, part of your responsibilities inevitably involve meeting with other people for collaborative work or discussion. And there aren’t many things more tedious or unnecessarily difficult than trying to find a meeting time that works for everyone. Fortunately, there are several possible solutions to the problem.

Preparing for a new semester: Anticipate the commute

August 19, 2009 in Productivity by George H. Williams
Whether you’re driving a 1972 Oldsmobile like the one pictured here or a 2009 Prius, now’s the time for you to take care of a few things if you drive to campus. Soon enough the busy-ness of the semester will engulf you, and getting your car serviced will be the last thing on your mind–until [...]

Preparing for a new semester: Have a life, with help from your calendar

August 18, 2009 in Life, Productivity by George H. Williams

Unfortunately, it's all too easy to let work-related responsibilities expand to the point where they obscure our responsibilities that aren't work-related. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be this way. You can use your calendar to protect the time you need for exercise, for dinner parties, birthday parties, dates, time with your family, and other essential parts of life. I learned in graduate school that unless I write something down in my calendar, I tend not to treat it as important.