Three Principles That More Than Doubled My Academic Productivity
Three Principles That More Than Doubled My Academic Productivity
God has commanded believers to make the best use of the time we have. I have taken this command to mean that, when possible, we should seek to be efficient in our work. Between 2021 and 2022 my academic methods became more efficient. In 2021, I read all summer for independent studies course and, with what felt like a lot of effort, pulled together a sixteen-page paper at the end of the course. In 2022, I studied the topic of emotion exegesis all summer and, with what felt like minimal effort, pulled together a sixty-page rough draft. What made the difference? This week I want to share the three principles that helped me the most.
1. I take Smart Notes
I started taking all my notes using a “Smart Notes” system. This system is built on the insight that fluency in the tools we use to think allows us to think new (and better) thoughts with greater ease. Let me illustrate this with writing. When we first learned to write the alphabet, we spent a lot of energy thinking about the mechanics of how we would write instead of what we would write. As we became better at writing, our ability to think through the process of writing increased. As adults, most of us keep track of things using written lists and even brainstorm using whiteboards. Instead of thinking about the mechanics of writing, we use writing as a process for generating thoughts. In the same way as we developed the skill to write, we can develop skills and systems for capturing our thoughts, processing our thoughts, and storing our thoughts, so that we become free to simply think.
I used the guidelines provided by Smart Notes to develop my own system. All of my notes are stored with proper Chicago Manual inline citations and bibliographic information. These notes become the fuel for developing my own thoughts, presentations, academic papers, and even these weekly emails.
If you are interested in learning more about smart notes, I suggest beginning by watching this wonderful summary video of the book.
2. I skim many articles and deeply interact with crucial articles
This summer, I “skimmed” articles that were useful, but not essential. I skimmed many articles by turning the PDFs of articles into mp3s using Balabolka. The ability to listen to the material freed me up to take in content while working around the house. After listening to the article, I would jot down notes about the most important points and any ideas they inspired. Later, I returned to relevant sections of the articles and expanded my initial notes. Wide exposure to the literature tremendously deepened my understanding of the field I was studying.
I deeply interacted with articles most relevant to my work. For example, I took extensive notes on The Return of Oral Hermeneutics and on Passions of the Christ. I took such thorough notes on The Return of Oral Hermeneutics that, when I was offered to teach two 1-hour lessons on the topic, it took minimal effort to turn my notes into a lesson plan.
3. I organize notes topically
I now organize my notes topically so that I am more likely to come across older notes when I need to write about or present on the topic. As notes in a topic accrue, I put notes into appropriate subtopic sections by making a new note with references to them. At the beginning of the summer, my note on emotions only had a few references in it. By the end of the summer, I had turned the topic of “emotions” into 11 subtopics and had over 150 notes of 200-500 words each (30,000-75,000 words total). Because of my citation system, mentioned above, all my notes are written with Chicago-style citations.
These notes, organized by topic, became the perfect basis for turning my insights into the sixty-page rough draft mentioned in the introduction. This draft felt like it took minimal effort to compile because I was working from documents of my own thoughts and meticulously cited sources.
My challenge for You
Pray about how God would have you wisely make the best use of your time. Think about how you work. Could any of these principles improve your efficiency?
If you have a principle that has helped you a lot, let me know! I am always eager to turn the hard-earned insights of others into action.