Task Management for Humans

Overview

Questions

• How can you use tools and frameworks to work more effectively, not so you can do more work for your employer but as a form of self care?

Objectives

• Introduce various tools and frameworks.
• Give examples of how these tools can be used to work more effectively.
• Share case studies of how people have used these frameworks to improve their own mental health.

Introduction

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Developing software for research can be challenging. Many people work on multiple projects, often to tight deadlines, regularly working in fields that we know nothing about. On top of that, we have to do training, keep up with constantly evolving technologies and try to fit in extra activities to advance our careers. It will come as no surprise to most RSEs to hear that anxiety, burnout and impostor syndrome are common in this industry.

But what can we practically do to protect our mental health while working in this field? We have little control over our actual workloads, and telling a almost-burned-out engineer to do some yoga or mindfulness exercises is seldom well received.

In this lesson, we will introduce you to a number of tools and frameworks that can help you manage your workload more effectively. The aim here is not to boost your productivity per se, but as a form of self-care; to help keep on top of everything, ease anxiety and help you to leave the office at the end of the day and have a life outside of work, without constantly worrying about tasks you may have forgotten or not completed.

Overview

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In the first part of this lesson, we will introduce you to a number of tools and frameworks, including:

• Examples of
• Specific
• Frameworks

We will also present some examples of how to perform common actions using these frameworks, such as:

• Task Generation
• More
• Others

Finally, we will present some case studies from individuals who have used these frameworks in their own work. These case studies will show how elements of these tools and frameworks can be adopted and used to manage your workload and minimise the impact on your mental health.

Aims & Objectives

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We are not trying to present a one-size-fits-all solution. We also no not necessarily suggest adopting these frameworks and sticking rigidly to them in their entirety. As you will see from the case studies, the best solution is often to explore these frameworks and select elements from them that work well for you. There will be things that don’t work for you specifically, or which are not relevant to working in the world of research software development.

Key Points

• Introducing people who work in research software to a range of tools and frameworks designed to help with task management, not to improve productivity but as a form of self care.
• Give examples of how these tools can be used in the context of working as a software engineer in academia.
• Present case studies showing how people have adopted elements of these frameworks into their working life and how/whether it has improved their mental health at work.