What do professors do all day?

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.