For those starting their first academic post-PhD job July 1, a hearty congratulations! A recommendation for something you probably don't know about - the annual report. 1/6

You'll likely be asked to write an annual report every year. Hopefully you're in a good habit of updating your CV as things happen (lol?). But this asks for an even more fine grained accounting of your teaching, research, and service activities. 2/6

If you're like me, you will not remember HALF of what you do in this all encompassing job. I keep a word doc for every year. At the end of each month, i go in and record all the big and small things i've done. conference presentations, letters of rec, peer reviews. 3/6

I record papers i submit (even if they eventually get rejected), virtual visits to classes, small requests of time that don't have a space on the CV but represent the WORK we do. 4/6

I use this doc to then write my annual report and kill the deans with details (and then facing the reality that probably no one reads these). But this ongoing list saves SO much time and i highly recommend. I'm sure other's have strategies for coping with the annual report. 5/6

This thread brought to you by neglecting for the first time to make this document and trying to reconstruct what happened in my pre-pandemic career. 6/6