Finish On Time

A little over a week ago, I was invited to speak at the annual gathering of the National Graduate School in Historical Studies in Höör, Scania. I was part of the section “Perspectives on Life as a PhD Student” and my task was to discuss how the course Finish On Time had played a role in relation to how I work. I attended this course in the winter of 2011/2012, about a year before I defended my thesis. In practical terms, this course has been the most important course I have ever taken. That is why I found it exciting to talk about it in front of and together with a new generation of PhD students. 

Finish On Time was created by philosopher Åsa Burman. During her own PhD studies, she worked out of Berkeley for a longer period of time. Here, everyone attended courses and workshops focusing on practical academic work. This meant that she came into contact with productivity techniques as well as tools used for planning and time management. This world was completely alien to a Swedish PhD student in the field of philosophy. David Allen’s Getting Things Done (2001) and Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989) may be common reading for entrepreneurs and business executives. But they don’t constitute typical bedtime reading for academics. Particularly not in the humanities. 

For Åsa, however, this encounter with the unknown ended up being fruitful. She tried the techniques and felt that many of these produced good results. An important aspect was that she felt as if she had more control over her work and that she experienced less stress. She wondered why no one had taught her this stuff. Hence, the idea of starting up something on her own was born. After completing her PhD and working as a consultant at McKinsey in Copenhagen for a couple of years, she took the plunge and launched the company Finish On Time. My PhD colleagues and I in Lund were one of the first groups given the opportunity to take the course.

For me, Finish On Time was an eye-opener. Sure, I had already analyzed the way I worked. When meeting Åsa, however, it became clear that I had lacked a language for thinking and talking about this. Furthermore, my toolbox was limited in scope. During the course, we were encouraged to try out new working methods. I still use some of these, and that is what I talked about at the gathering in Höör. 

On a very fundamental level, I base my work on distinguishing planning from execution. I never come to the office in the morning wondering what to do. No, this has been decided much earlier. This means that my day can be devoted to doing what I’ve set out to do. This may come across as rigid, but I feel that it offers me freedom and control. I don’t experience that someone else is stopping me from doing what I’ve planned to do. The key is identifying the most important task for that particular day. In my case, it is almost always some form of writing. That is where I start. Other things have to be adapted to this. 

In practical terms, I then use the unit method, which means working with great focus during 40-minute sessions. I set the timer on my cellphone, put it out of sight, and when it signals, I take a break and leave the office. I do this regardless of whether or not I experience flow at that particular time. I then drink a glass of water or go out to get some air. If I succeed in achieving four such sessions, I consider the day a really good working day. However, it is typically possible to squeeze in one or two units even on days filled with meetings, seminars, teaching and writing emails. 

This approach takes some time to get used to and also requires continuous planning, both for the short and the long term. At the gathering in Höör, I talked about – and demonstrated – my one-year planning, semester planning, four-week planning, weekly planning and one-day planning. In addition, there is obviously also a five-year plan (which I didn’t show the participants). Nevertheless, all of this requires its own blog post, or perhaps several. To be continued.

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