Things to do when you're leaving!
I shall be leaving the University of Warwick: my last day here will be on 30th April. Many researchers must go through the process of leaving an institution. What are the basic things that need to be done to make this a smooth transition?
Here are the things that I've been trying to put in order, as I prepare to leave Warwick:
1) Use my personal e-mail account properly - unsubscribe from all that junk mail that always clogs up the inbox and start creating meaningful folders there.
2) Use Evernote to forward useful e-mails and copy useful files to. Tags on all kinds of items in Evernote are more efficient than trying to replicate folder structures in e-mail and desktops and cloud based document stores. But then again, duplication guards against loss and acts as a back up, so I'll probably create an archive file from Outlook, too.
3) I have lots of online accounts that are infrequently accessed so I need to transfer the useful accounts to my personal e-mail address because password reminders going to a dead e-mail account are of no use at all! Or, make a note of the passwords to avoid needing to use those reminders.
4) Add my Twitter handle to my signature on my work e-mails: this will stay with me even when my e-mail address changes, and so it's a way for people to find me later when they want to contact me and all they've got is an old e-mail I sent them from my Warwick account.
5) Update/complete my profile on LinkedIn: I haven't done this yet but intend to. If there is a hierarchy of social networking sites, then this one is at the top of my pile: then others can be updated in time, too.
6) Start a new blog: well I created one over on Wordpress but I haven't got started blogging there yet. I plan to write a farewell post here and introduce my new blog at a later date. Not every researcher will be using their institution's proprietary blogging system and so need to transfer in this way, of course. Since I'll have blog content across two sites, I've been clipping my blog entries into Evernote, as a way of collating and curating them.
There's bound to be more that I need to do, but that'll do for starters!
Jenny Delasalle
11 Mar 2013 17:51
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Tags: Researcher Profiles Researchers Tools
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Emma Cragg
A useful list, thanks Jen. I would add “it’s never too early to start writing your handover document”.
12 Mar 2013, 09:48
Jenny Delasalle
Oh yes, I’m writing that too! And tidying up my paperwork, plastering each piece with post-it notes to explain why I’ve kept it. Or shredding or recycling… And I am yet to tackle a tidy of the digital files, but that should be simple: I create a folder called “old stuff” and dump most of it in there, leaving only stuff that has potential use for my successor in other folders. That’s the plan!
12 Mar 2013, 10:14
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