What’s Cooking on Your Productivity Stove?
front burners, back burners, and other metaphors
Quick Announcements: 4 Cool Free Things
Are you an academic writer looking for free support on your writing practice? Join Dr. Katy Peplin and me for a month of free resources at AcWriMo this November. Sign up here.
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I was recently featured on the Meet the PhDs podcast talking about slow productivity and my journey through graduate school to coaching other academics. Listen here.
This month I’m participating in a cool resource giveaway called the Rabbit Hole Rebellion, led by writer and coach Dr. Christina Larocco, to help writers climb out of a research rabbit hole and get their pen back to the page. You can check out the list of cool free resources created by writers, for writers here. Dr. Larocco will donate $1 to the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society for each person who signs up (you’ll also be subscribed to her newsletter, and it is a good one!).
Let’s talk about the “front burners and back burners” approach to prioritization.
This is a framework I use frequently in my own life and with my coaching clients. I like how personalized we can get with the metaphor of cooking on a stovetop, and I’m always looking for ways to hack productivity tools to help us be productive in a way that feels good to us.
When we say we put things on the “front burner” or the “back burner,” it means we are prioritizing. Some tasks require active attention and effort, like stirring a pot that is boiling on the front burner. Other tasks will require less work right now, but we don’t want to forget about them simmering on the back of the stovetop and let them burn.
For example, preparing lesson plans for tomorrow would be a front burner task, but writing a final exam that you don’t need for 2 months should probably sit on a back burner. You don’t want to totally forget about the exam so that you’re forced to hustle and write it at midnight the day before you run it, but you also don’t need to work ahead on it right now.
If something is on the back burner of your literal or metaphorical oven, it’s a good idea to set a timer and check on it or give it a stir once in a while. When I first begin working with Success & Accountability Coaching clients, I create a to-do list for them that separates front burner and back burner tasks. Then, as we meet every other week, we strategize on whether anything sitting on the back burner needs to be started now, or if it can simmer and wait until a later date. This helps us make sure the client isn’t feeling overwhelmed or rushed as a deadline gets closer.
Get Creative With Your Metaphor!
My client Deb shared on a coaching call that she wanted to keep something on the counter. It wasn’t a front burner urgent task, and it also wasn’t technically a back burner task that she needed to complete in the near future. While she didn’t need to work on it soon, she didn’t want to forget that it was on the docket for the upcoming year, so we added made a note to return to it later, knowing it will be waiting for her on the metaphorical counter by her metaphorical stove.
I invite you get curious about how other metaphors in the kitchen could help you prioritize your work:
What do you need to put on ice in the freezer and return to later? Do you want to schedule a calendar reminder so you remember to defrost it and start working on it in the future?
Is there anything you need to complete quickly and could throw into the blender for a short, timed work session?
What have you already made that can be stirred up, warmed in the microwave, and enjoyed again?
Would it make you feel better to meal-prep a whole batch of meals at once, or prepare each unique dish along the way?
Is there something that’s been stinking up the back of your fridge way past its expiration date? What might you compost so you can free up space to work on something new?
If you like the Front and Back Burner Approach, You Might Also Like…
The Eisenhower Matrix is a visual matrix for determining priorities by categorizing the urgency and the importance of different tasks. Here’s a blog post I wrote about using the Eisenhower Matrix in 2018 to get the most out of a visit to an archive for a research trip.
The Must-Do Method remains one of my favorite and most used productivity tools. The idea is to shift from one long, running to-do list to using a must-do list that assigns tasks to the days and times when you truly need to begin working on them. Here’s a blog post where I talk through my process for using the tool in 2019, which is similar to the way I use it now except now I do my weekly planning session on Fridays and I write in a bullet journal instead of the Todoist app.
The Power Hour is a framework I learned from Gretchen Rubin, who schedules an hour each week to work on small tasks she wants to do but which don’t have a deadline, which means she kept putting them off. If an important but not urgent task pops into your mind throughout the week, could you write it down on your “power hour” list and do it during a designated 1-hour time block?
Curiosities
My friend Stephanie Graham (an upcoming guest on Honing In!) started an Artists Admin Hour for $30/mo (sliding scale rate available) where artists can show up and do their admin in community with other creatives. I invite you to check it out!
I read the new Rebecca F. Kuang novel Katabasis in four days. It was a great dark academic exploration of what it means to feel intertwined with academia as a graduate student, and I appreciate the tender way Kuang incorporated chronic illness into the novel. It’s definitely one to devour!
I made pickled fennel and pickled beets using the quick pickles recipe in Nisha Vora’s Big Vegan Flavor. They were both good, but I especially liked the fennel. I’m allergic to whey and casein in dairy, so I mostly cook vegan recipes and add meat when I want to. I can’t wait to try Vora’s recipe to make a fermented cashew cheese. Wish me luck!
Take care and talk soon,
Dr. Kate
Email: kate@katehenry.com
Website: katehenry.com
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