I get this question a lot from students, friends, and family, but I’m never quite sure how to answer it. Research? Teaching? Service? Those don’t really capture what the job is really like. So I decided to write everything down in a big long list at the end of today, capturing every single goal accomplished, every single e-mail I sent, and every single conversation I had. See if you can find the  research!

• 6:30-6:31 Woke up at 6:30 am still feeling under the weather and with another recurring corneal abrasion in my right eye. Applied eye-drops.
• 6:32-6:40 Read e-mail in bed for a few minutes.
• 7:00-7:15 Read more e-mail while eating breakfast, set meeting with tech transfer department for next week.
• 7:15-7:30 Loaded CHI PC chairing site and assigned a few 2ACs
• 7:35-7:50 Left for work and arrived in the central garage
• 7:50-8:00 Got coffee from Mary Gates cafe and briefly said hi to Karen Fisher and Joe Tennis in the hallway.
• 8:00-8:02 Sent e-mail about paper conflicts for CHI PC for assigning 2ACs.
• 8:00-8:05 Scheduled doctor’s appointment about eye.
• 8:05-8:35 Spent 30 minutes assigning 2ACs to 25 papers
• 8:35-9:10 Spent 35 minutes crafting epic e-mail to junior Ph.D. student who is worried about his Ph.D. topic and unsure about next steps.
• 9:10:9:30 Revised slides for lecture for 18 minutes, improving clarity over last year’s version.
• 9:30-9:32 Responded to followup e-mail from director of corporate relations about corporate connections I made at last week’s research fair.
• 9:32-9:35 Responded to e-mail about affiliate status renewal for affiliate faculty
• 9:35-9:45 Spent 10 more minutes assigning 2AC reviewers for CHI papers
• 9:45-10:10 Spent more time improving slides for lecture
• 10:20-11:00 Left for class and lectured for 30 minutes about limitations and assumptions in designs
• 11:00-11:20 Led activity using simulated impairments on mobile devices to elicit assumptions
• 11:20-12:15 Led activity in which teams brainstormed assumptions in their own design projects
• 12:15-12:25 Finished class at 12:15 and spend 10 minutes eating lunch
• 12:25-12:30 Responded to e-mail about planning dub retreat
• 12:30-12:35 Responded to e-mail about when 2ACs need to finish their reviews by
• 12:35-12:40 Responded to e-mail about corporatizing universities
• 12:40-12:45 Spoke briefly with Scott Barker about how many in-class hours the new capstone should include
• 12:45-12:50 E-mails to student who wants into INFO 461 next quarter
• 12:45-1:15 Drove to Kirkland to work at library to avoid traffic from 1
• 1:15-1:18 Responded to e-mail approving new member to EUSES consortium
• 1:18-3:18 Copied proposal draft to hard drive for writing and worked on diagrams for Cyberlearning proposal draft.
• 3:18-3:23 Driving to car line
• 3:23-3:30 Waiting in car line
• 3:30-4:20 Getting snacks for Elle before swim practice
• 4:20-4:35 Writing e-mail to colleagues about frustration around methodological rifts among faculty
• 4:35-4:45 Taking Elle into swim practice
• 4:45-4:58 Writing student services staff about Spring capstone event
• 4:58-5:00 Replying to student about spring capstone team
• 5:00-5:08 Replying to request about all school meeting participation conflicting with my final exam schedule
• 5:08-5:15 Writing co-PI about updated figures in proposal draft
• 5:15-5:25 Writing this list
• 5:25-5:30 Call with ex about Thanksgiving plans
• 5:35-5:41 Finishing this list
• 5:41-5:48 Editing this list and pressing the publish post button.