One of the best things about being a professor is the flexibility and control over one’s time. This is something I’ve missed as an administrator the last few years – and something I’m looking forward to when I return to the faculty full-time next year. This flexibility can also be challenging, though. Without any external constraints, it’s up to us to choose how we spend our time.
 
I know that for me, this isn’t always easy. I often feel like a ship being tossed around in a storm. It’s so frustrating looking back over the week and realizing that I didn’t accomplish much of substance aside from reacting to others’ concerns or responding to emails. In the absence of some kind of hard deadline like a conference proposal submission deadline, it can be hard to make time for things like reading journal articles, exploring new options for teaching (link), or dedicating time for writing. When I go back to faculty in the summer, I’m determined to be more strategic with how I spend my time, and I think Benjamin Franklin can help.
 
Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule
When I was reviewing my list of blog feeds recently, I came across this great post by Shawn Blanc on Franklin’s daily schedule. In the post, he reviews the approach around which this creative genius structured his work and life. To summarize, Franklin segmented his days into the following six blocks of time:

• Getting ready for the day: shower, breakfast, personal study, and prepare for work (3 hours)
• Morning work (2 hours)
• Review of current projects and to eat lunch (2 hours)
• Afternoon work (4 hours)
• Dinner and rest and wrapping up the day (4 hours)
• Sleep (7 hours)

 
Three things strike me about this schedule. First, there is significant time allotted to prepare and rest at various points during the day. Second, margin is accounted for every day. Third, there is an emphasis on evaluating and recalibrating during the day as the inevitable unexpected opportunities and challenges arise. I’m thinking there’s a lot we can learn and appropriate from Franklin’s schedule to make our 21st century lives more purposeful and productive.
 
My Version of the Schedule
Getting ready for the day: my tasks would look pretty similar to Mr. Franklin’s here. In terms of personal study, I’d want to include reading around topics, issues and ideas that are important to me. I don’t mean digging into a collection of journal articles as part of writing a paper. What I’d like to focus on is reading a curated collection of blogs, podcasts, and non-fiction books that are related to something I’m interested in. For example, in my study on innovation, I’ve been enjoying reading Little Bets by Peter Sims. I’d conclude this portion of my day with goal setting. I’d try to identify 2-3 key tasks or goals that I want to pursue. This would set up the subsequent work sessions later in the day. I might finally spend 15-20 minutes on triaging my email to make sure there isn’t anything critical that I’d need to plan around for later in the day.
 
Morning work: the morning is when I do my best thinking. In this block of time I’d make sure to keep my email closed (with no alerts or notifications) to make sure I can focus on one of my key goals for the day. This is when I would typically do any significant writing or synthesizing of information. This point of the day is perfect for more academic reading or course planning Or providing students with feedback on their work.
 
Midday “reset”: like Mr. Franklin, I would take this opportunity to break for lunch. Rather than review projects, which I would have already done, I’d take some time to get outside and stretch my legs. I find that this really helps clear my head and helps me to transition into the next portion of the day.
 
Afternoon work: during this block of time, I would do more routine tasks and meet with others. Because I’m not as fresh mentally at this point, it would be helpful to save these kinds of tasks for the afternoon. If I have heavy-duty work to do at this point of the day, I might get out of the office to work in a coffee shop or park, which usually helps me to focus.
 
Dinner, rest, and wrapping up the day: I think it’s really important to take the last 30-60 minutes of the day to wrap up and position myself for the next day. This is where I’d attend to email, Twitter, and update my Todoist task list. Ideally, I’d review the day and identify and celebrate the progress I’ve made. After I’ve done this, I can make a hard break with work and enjoy the evening with my family.
 
Sleep: I’m more of an 8-hour a night guy, myself.
 
This schedule is perhaps a bit idealistic. Things don’t always work out so cleanly in the real world. I think, though, that if we aspire to a schedule that builds in time for reflection and rest, situating tasks according to our energy levels, and prioritizing proactive over reactive work, we’d all be better off.

What tips and strategies do you use to make the most of your day?
Please post your comments below.

Several of my colleagues at William & Mary and around the country have recently acquired iPad Pros. Many others are trying desperately to be more productive on their iPads or iPad Minis. The truth is, while iPads and other tablets offer great potential to make us more productive, you have to be strategic in setting up your device, finding the right apps, and working through some of the limitations with these mobile devices.
 
I thought it might be helpful if I shared some of the essential services, tools, and apps to help us all get the most out of our iPads. What follows are my ideas on what every iPad owner should at least consider for maximum productivity on their device. In each category, I offer some alternatives with a slightly deeper dive into my service, tool or app of choice. I hope that you find this post helpful. If you have additional suggestions to share, please post a comment below.
 
File Management
One of the biggest challenges for new iPad owners and those who want to move beyond content consumption on their device is file management. It can be a bit of a mystery as to how to get files on and off the device from your computer. Apple has tried to address this with iCloud integration. If you are an iCloud user on your Mac, you can synchronize files back and forth with your iPad and iPhone fairly easily. For many of us, though, we have an existing file structure, folders, and resources that may not work well with iCloud. In this case, we need a simpler solution to synchronize our existing documents using a cloud storage service. If you’re new to cloud storage, you may want to view this video overview of how Dropbox works before continuing.
 
I’ve extensively used four of the main cloud storage services – Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, and Google Drive. All four offer free accounts which can be upgraded to include additional storage space or features and all include the ability to synchronize files automatically on your computer and devices. In my opinion, it is essential to subscribe to and use a cloud storage service to get the most out of your device. Choosing one can be a bit of a challenge, but here are some rules of thumb:

• If you work mostly in Microsoft Office, I’d suggest OneDrive.
• If you want integration with the largest numbers of apps in the AppStore, I’d suggest Dropbox.
• If you live in Google, I’d suggest Google Drive.
• If you need enhanced security and a variety of file sharing features, I’d choose Box.

 
Still confused? Read this great post from Sarah Mitroff at CNET for more guidance. Whichever service you choose, it’s best to go “all in” and move all of the documents you regularly work with into your cloud account. Once there, it is relatively easy to access these files on your iPad and save documents there as well.  
 
Note-Taking
One of the things I like the most about an iPad versus a laptop is the size and relative unobtrusiveness of these devices. In contrast to having the laptop screen between you and others during a meeting, referencing materials and taking notes on an iPad puts up much less of a barrier between you and others – particularly when you use a stylus or the onscreen keyboard, rather than using your iPad with a keyboard. For this reason, I see a note-taking app as an essential tool in your toolkit.
 
If you work primarily in Office, you can use the Word app that works great on the iPad. If you prefer dedicated note-taking apps, I’ve tried a number of the great ones available in the AppStore. For me, I look for three things: a simple interface, notes have to be searchable/”organizable,” and they need to be able to sync to a desktop app or at least to my other devices. The two most widely used note-taking apps are Evernote and OneNote. Both have all the features you'd most likely need and are free. OneNote offers more unintuitive ways to group and organize your notes, but Evernote has connections with more additional plug-ins and services. I think it’s just a question of preference.
 
If you have an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil (or any iPad with a stylus you can at least tolerate), you may want to explore note-taking apps that enable you to take handwritten notes. This has always been my preference. I’ve enjoyed using Penultimate (which integrates with Evernote) and OneNote. On a recommendation from a friend, I’m eager to try Noteshelf which offers a great set of tools for different kinds of notebooks, paper, etc.
 
Document Creating/Editing
To make your iPad even moderately productive, you need to be able to access, edit, and create documents. You’ll then need to be able to sync these documents with your computer. If you’re a Google Drive user, this is easily accomplished with the Google Drive app. All you need to do is install the app, login, and you’re in.
 
For many of us, though, we need to be able to work with Microsoft Office files. A few years ago, this was a royal pain. Fortunately, Microsoft has developed a great suite of apps for Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote that are optimized for the iPad. While you don’t have access to all the features of the desktop app, you can do most everything you’d need to do. While you can save files on the iPad, it’s much better to integrate with a cloud storage service. OneDrive is definitely the easiest and most robust service that works with these apps flawlessly. You can also make other services like Dropbox and Box work – it just requires a little more effort to set up these services and make sure that your files are syncing reliably.
 
To-Do List Management
One essential for a productive life is to have an app that helps you with organizing and managing your to-do list. While there are a number of great apps and services available (e.g., Omnifocus, Wunderlist, and Remember the Milk), in my opinion, no app offers the simplicity with all the features I need in a rock-solid app that works on the iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows – Todoist. Honestly, I wouldn’t waste my time exploring the others (trust me, I have) and just sign up for a free Todoist account. I predict that you’ll upgrade to the very affordable Premium service. If you need more convincing, check out my post on Todoist.

PDF Reading/Annotating
iPads are great for reading and annotating PDF documents. I find it much easier and more enjoyable to read a digital document on the iPad flat on the table in front of me compared to a computer screen. I also enjoy the ability to highlight text and make quick notes or annotations on the documents. The experience is exceptionally good on the iPad Pro paired with an Apple Pencil.
 
I’ve recently written an overview of how to choose the best PDF reading/annotation app for your needs. To boil down the substance of that post, I think either Adobe Acrobat Reader for basic use and iAnnotate PDF for increased features will meet most everyone’s needs. Just make sure that whatever service you choose integrates with your cloud storage service, as this can be a bit hit-and-miss across the apps.
 
What other essential tools would you add to this list?
Please post your comments below. 

When teaching hybrid or fully online courses, one effective teaching approach is to create screencasts to explain course content and concepts. Our friends at Wikipedia define a screencast as “a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. The term screencast compares with the related term screenshot; whereas screenshot generates a single picture of a computer screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on a computer screen, enhanced with audio narration.”

I typically create screencasts to either record a narrated slide presentation to share with students via the course Web site (or learning management system) or to create a demo of a particular technology tool or resource. Faculty who teach different types of quantitative courses (e.g., mathematics, statistics) might also create pencasts, which are video recordings that capture writing or annotating with narration. Screencasts and pencasts work really well to capture processes and to “make thinking visible.”

Screencasting tool options
I’ve written about creating screencasts with Office Mix, but there are a number of different tools you can use. Mac users can quickly and easily create basic screencasts using QuickTime Recorder. Windows 10 users can use the built-in screen recorder. If you want more features and editing capabilities, you might want to explore either Screenflow (my personal favorite) or Camtasia. There are a number of other possibilities as well.

So which tool is right for you? I always suggest finding the tool with the fewest features that will enable you to create what you want to create. So, for example, if you just want to make a quick recording of your screen to demonstrate how to use a Web site, I’d use QuickTime or the Windows screen recorder. If you want to record a narrated slide show with some checks for understanding, Office Mix is probably the best bet. If you know you’ll need multiple takes and want the potential to edit what you’ve recorded, you might want to opt for a more feature-rich tool like Screenflow or Camtasia. More important than the tool, is how you prepare for and actually record your content. The following tips will help you to address these points and get started.
 
Screencasting tips

1. Preparation is key. There are few things more annoying than watching a rambling, disjointed video presentation. While the content doesn’t need to be scripted or fully storyboarded out, you should at least begin with a careful outline of your content. This will help you to make sure that you cover all the key points you desire, ensure that they are appropriately sequenced, and that you stay with the program as you record your video. If you want to provide examples as you go, be sure to determine them in advance so that you’re not fumbling around for an example on the fly that might not help you make your point in the most effective way. Finally, if you’re demonstrating software or a Web site, be sure you have the appropriate login information and note and run through the steps in advance so that the demo flows smoothly.
2. Plan for interactivity. Even a series of brief videos can lose students’ attention. It’s critical to plan for different kinds of experiences and interactivity in the screencast. I typically break a longer screencast into short “chunks” that I intersperse with questions to consider, a diagram to complete, or some sort of quiz or input similar to what you can do with Office Mix. If you’re not able to chunk your content, I’d suggest either incorporating prompts that encourage the viewer to pause the video and consider an idea or provide some sort of companion worksheet or organizer that students can complete as they watch the video. Any of these strategies promote greater student engagement than just passively watching a video, no matter how well planned and produced.
3. Capture good audio. Speaking of production, it’s critical to capture good quality audio for your narration. While you might be able to capture decent quality audio from a laptop’s built-in microphone, I’d suggest investing in a good quality headset/microphone (I like the Logitech H390) or a USB condenser microphone (my favorite is the Samson C01U Pro).
4. Scripts help for clarity. This is maybe the most “controversial” tip in the list. Some would argue that the most engaging screencasts are more conversational and less scripted. This is certainly true when read in a monotone voice, but I think there are benefits to scripting your content. First, it helps to ensure that you stick to the outline of the content. More importantly, though, it gives you the opportunity to think through the best examples, illustrations, and nuances of what you’re presenting. It also helps me to be more engaging, I think, than if I’m having to think things through as I’m speaking. It makes the recording process go much more quickly. And it helps dramatically with the final recommendation.
5. Make your content accessible. If you’re creating screencasts for your courses, they should be accessible to all learners. This means that they should be close captioned – ideally word for word. You might also include an outline or script of your content with the videos, but this doesn’t technically meet the standards of ADA compliance.  This is one limitation with using one of the free software options above. To my knowledge, I don’t believe you can add captions with these. With Screenflow or Camtasia, however, it’s much easier to add captions. If you’ve scripted your content, it’s as simple as copy/paste.

 
I hope that these recommendations will help you to “up your game” when it comes to creating screencasts in the classroom. I’m still relatively new to the process and have a lot to learn myself. If you’ve been screencasting and have additional ideas and advice, please share with the community through a comment below.

What else do you consider in creating screencast recordings?
Please post your comments below. 

A career in higher education affords a significant amount of autonomy and flexibility. My friends in other fields marvel at the freedom and perceived quality of life that faculty can enjoy. The strange thing is for me and several other folks I know, we tend to fill up this time with projects, research, redesigning a class and more. So while the structure of our jobs may provide the space to “think deep thoughts,” enjoy meaningful conversations over coffee with our students, travel to connect with colleagues around the world, in reality the typical response to how things are going is either “busy” or “crazy busy.”
 
In other words, while we should have considerable “margin” in our lives, we often take on so much that we lose this wonderful benefit of the academy. Dr. Richard Swenson, author of Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, defines margin as “... the space between our load and our limits. It is the amount allowed beyond that which is needed. It is something held in reserve for contingencies or unanticipated situations. Margin is the gap between rest and exhaustion, the space between breathing freely and suffocating” (p. 69). Margin is essentially the emotional and mental space we need to make the kinds of contributions we all hope to make in higher education.
 
Why is margin important and yet so hard to maintain?
Maintaining margin is important for our health. Limited margin leads to increased stress and, in extreme cases, mental and physical exhaustion. When our margin is limited, so are our natural reserves. When we’re over-scheduled, overwhelmed, and just plain worn out, we can’t be at our best. We can’t think clearly, be fully present with our students or colleagues, and simply cannot contribute what we’re capable of.
 
I think working in academia is a little like eating at a really good buffet. It seems like everywhere you turn there’s a great opportunity. Maybe it’s an invitation to contribute a chapter to a book a colleague is editing. It might be a request from a student to work with you on an independent study. It might be a request from your Dean or a foundation representative to write a concept paper for a project you’d like to launch. The challenge is, each time we say yes to a new opportunity, we not only reduce our margin, we also limit our future options. We really need to be more conscious of what we say yes to.
 
How can we restore some margin in our lives?
Maintaining margin isn’t something I’m great at, unfortunately. When I read Swenson's book, however, I recognized the importance of making changes. Below you’ll find five of his strategies I’ve been working on and enjoying some success with. I hope they inspire you!

1. Take a walk. When I’ve had a busy day and need to shift gears to teach a class, meet with a student or attend an important meeting, I try to get outside for a 15-minute walk. Fortunately, we have a beautiful walking path behind our building. Just these 15 minutes outdoors in nature helps me to clear my head and return to whatever is waiting for me with renewed energy, clarity and focus.
2. Turn off notifications. If you’re like me, you frequently work on your computer, tablet and/or phone. Your devices attempt to alert you to all manner of updates – a text message, an email, a Twitter message, etc. Most apps have notifications turned on by default. The result is a seemingly never-ending stream of beeps, buzzes, and alerts. Turn off all but the most critical. There’s no need to be continually interrupted and further reminded of all there is to do. Trust me, they’ll wait for you.
3. Schedule time to read. We all need to read to stay on top of new developments and contributions in our fields. Unfortunately, this is the kind of activity that while important, isn’t urgent. Consequently, it’s easy to put this off in favor of doing more time sensitive or pressing tasks. The solution? Put it on your calendar. Schedule reading time at least a few times a week – preferably when you know your creative energies will be low. For me, this is late afternoons, especially at the end of the week. Once it’s scheduled, don’t put it off. Consider it a commitment to yourself and your personal development.
4. Reserve white space on your calendar. Whether you use a paper-based calendar or a digital version, it’s easy to see when your unscheduled time is shrinking. It’s critical to reserve some white space in your calendar – both as a buffer when appointments or meetings go longer than planned, and as a means to provide you with needed breaks. If you have to, block out some time each day as downtime. I even use a white label on my Exchange calendar so that it reminds me that I have some breathing room.
5. Get your rest. We live in an always-connected world. We could literally work 24 hours a day with the Internet and access to our files from anywhere. Getting good rest (shoot for 7-8 solid hours a night), taking time off, and disconnecting from email, students, and colleagues from time to time is critical. While it can be difficult at first to set these kinds of boundaries, it’s critical for us to maintain our margin.
   
   

How else do you maintain margin in your life?
Please post your comments below. 

Like you, I imagine, I read a lot of documents, including journal articles, student assignments, documents from Web sites, and even digital books. For me to process the information effectively, I find that I need to mark them up. In fact, before I got my first iPad and nubby stylus, I preferred printed copies of documents for this reason. I felt like if I couldn’t highlight ideas and add my own notes, I wasn’t really getting the most out of them.
 
Of course, printed documents have limitations. First, there’s the simple cost of printing. You then need to organize and store the printed documents somewhere. And invariably, I always need to review my notes on a document when I don’t have it physically with me. For all these reasons, I prefer digital annotations and notes. Fortunately over time, apps that enable users to mark up and annotate digital documents have improved greatly. Then, either within the app, or via a cloud storage service like Box or Dropbox, you can organize your documents in folders that can then be accessed on any device.
 
My history with digital annotation
Over the years, I’ve tried a range of tools, devices and apps to annotate documents. One of the earlier tools I remember using for this purpose was the Kindle DX. The large format of the device (9.7 inches) and the ability to highlight text and even type notes was promising. Unfortunately, the rather clunky highlighting interface, awkward keyboard, and extreme difficulty in accessing notes later turned me off.
 
With the release of the iPad, though, the options and capabilities improved drastically. Dozens of apps are available – some for free like Adobe Reader, and others that cost anywhere from $2.99 to $9.99. Of course, each has different features and a unique look and feel. I'm sure I’ve used them all at one point or another. In fact, when I look back through my download history, it looks like I’ve tested about 12 different PDF annotation tools.
 
Key features
When you search for an app, particularly when there are a number of alternatives available, it helps to know what you’re looking for. You might have different needs, but for me, I want:

• a really intuitive interface that makes scrolling through pages easy and fast.
• the ability to make both highlights and handwritten notes.
• an easy way to share annotated files via email.
• connections with cloud services so that I can easily get documents into and out of the app.
• an easy way to see and review the annotations I’ve made and link back to the original text.

 
The following three apps both meet my criteria and I’ve found work very well. The reviews below are by no means exhaustive, but I hope they’ll help provide at least some guidance as you select one of these or begin to continue your search for the ideal app.
 
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Acrobat Reader is a simple, but effective free annotation app. The interface makes it easy to read documents and add simple annotations, including highlighting text and adding typed notes. You can also securely sign documents as well. Adobe offers a free Adobe Cloud service to store your documents. A variety of in-app purchases allow users to convert PDF’s to Word or Excel documents, create PDF’s, etc. All in all, while somewhat basic in its free version, Reader is a good app to help you get started annotating PDF’s.

LiquidText
LiquidText is a relatively new entry in the document annotation marketplace. In many ways it’s similar to Acrobat Reader, with a different approach to viewing your notes and highlights. One interesting feature is the ability to take a snapshot image of a portion of a document as a highlight, which is great for more graphic intensive documents. Each of the highlights you make in a document are “popped out” to the margin outside the document itself.

This view provides a great way to review the various notes and annotations you’ve made throughout a document. If you want to view the context for a particular note, just click on the bubble in the margin, and it takes you directly to that portion of the document. It also provides a nifty feature that allows you to “pinch” two portions of a document together to compare different sections. You can also reorder, arrange and even link multiple notes or highlights in the margin to help you to synthesize the content. Honestly, this one app I’m still trying to get my head around, but it’s a really innovative approach that’s unique to this app. To really get a sense for how LiquidText works, I suggest you watch this video overview.
 
iAnnotate PDF
In my review of the iPad Pro, I mentioned how much I enjoyed annotating PDF files on the device using PDF Highlighter.  I also really like iAnnotate PDF, a full-featured app that adds some useful additional features. It includes many of the features I mentioned in the first two apps above, plus several others. With iAnnotate, you can annotate not only PDF files, but also Word documents and PowerPoint slides. This comes in really handy for providing feedback on student work. You can modify the color and thickness of your highlighter or pen with a really quick and intuitive interface. You can open and save documents directly from a variety of cloud storage services including Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and OneDrive. One feature I find really useful that is unique to iAnnotate is the ability to email yourself a summary of annotations. All things considered, if you’re serious about using your tablet to annotate documents, the $9.99 price tag for iAnnotate is a real bargain.
 
What tools do you use to annotate and organize documents?
Please post your comments below.