Academic Productivity is a blog that focuses on various topics and categories on the production, acquisition, and dissemination of knowledge.  Aside from topics related to academic knowledge, the blog also contains content on new technologies and various productivity strategies.  The site is aimed at providing tips, advice, and general information to the modern-day researcher.  Academic Productivity features articles like “Benjamin Franklin: the grandfather of personal productivity?“, which discusses Franklin’s autobiography in relation to his study and research habits, and his general disposition toward productivity.

A fresh twist on an age-old concept

What I like most about Academic Productivity is the fact that it has a rather unique perspective.  Although there are loads of self-help and productivity blogs out there, few of them take on the same angle as Academic Productivity.  The age-old concepts of academics and productivity have been discussed, debated over, and philosophized ever since the earliest civilizations.  Academic Productivity, however, has the unique edge of catering to 21st century scholars, researchers, and practically anyone else who likes reading about such topics.  This perspective makes the blog much more appealing for younger generations of researchers, much like the blog authors themselves.

A few qualms

My main problem with Academic Productivity is the overall design and layout of the blog.  At first sight, the blog isn’t exactly what I would describe as “a sight for sore eyes.” In fact, there may just be one eye sore too many on the site.  Here are some of the eye sores that need some fixing:

–  The long list of tags and categories along the margin makes the site seem as though it was designed with a tacky-looking template.  Customizing the look of the blog into a more sleek, easily navigable, and less-cluttered layout would do wonders to improve the visual appeal and the overall feel of the site.  Considering the site is made for scholars and researchers, it would be nice to have a layout that is neat, makes sense, and is intuitive — much like the way researchers would organize their notes.

–  Another problem that I find with Academic Productivity is that the list of topics seems to be too wide and varied.  Although it is nice to have so many topics to look up and read about on the blog, it would help if the blog focused on fewer topics and categories that are better-geared towards the target audience.