Academic workflow: From first note to publication
Channel: Thinking in public
Date: 2022-03-07

If you're interested in information management for academics, check out my online course at  https://academic-headspace.com/course/information-management-for-academics/.

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In this video I speak to Dave Nicholls about his academic workflow for writing, from capturing the first notes, to the final publication.

Dave is a Professor at the Auckland University of Technology, founder of the Critical Physiotherapy Network, and the Physiotherapy History Association, and the co-founder of the Environmental Physiotherapy Association. He is a prolific author, sharing his ideas and insights through his blog posts, conference presentations, books, academic articles, podcasts, and social media.

One key aspect of effective information management for academics is distinguishing between consumption and creation modes of working. While gathering information, taking notes, and reading papers, it's important to have a system for capturing ideas, quotes, and references. However, this "consumption" phase should be separate from your "creation" workflows for writing, analysing, and synthesising new knowledge.

Many academics struggle because they do both simultaneously; taking notes while writing, or getting distracted by new reading while trying to work on a draft. Keeping these two modes distinct can help reduce context switching costs and allow you to focus in more depth.

Dave and I talk about the tools and services we both use in our writing process, as well as our intentions that guide those choices. Ultimately, we decide that ‘academic workflow for writing’ is about creating space to spend more time on the work that matters, rather than simply doing more.

During the conversation, Dave talks about listening to a podcast called "On the Reg", where the hosts talk about their experiences using Obsidian. Here's the link to that episode, in case you want to follow it up: https://onthereg.buzzsprout.com/1187141/11511148-where-jason-and-inger-go-way-too-deep-on-obsidian.

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Note: When we recorded this conversation I made a technical mistake that meant that Dave's audio was very quiet. I've tried to boost the volume during periods when Dave is speaking but the result is that the audio levels aren't equal. I apologise for this. I hope that it's still useful. There was also an issue where the video platform didn't switch between us as we took turns speaking. I don't know why this happened.