I sometimes work long days, but I try not to fill my weekend with working. This weekend, however, I had promised myself that I would take the notes from the SDSS-V review I led in Denver and turn them into a draft report for the project. I can't believe it, but I succeeded!
Are you going to be on a review panel? I have advice (unsolicited advice, which I try not to give, but after this weekend, I can't help myself):
Make sure you do lots of writing while in session. If you just listen and talk for the period of the review, you leave the review with nothing written, and then you have to reconstruct it from memory and your notes. Instead, schedule executive-session writing time during the review and come away from the review with everyone's notes and comments compiled into one jointly editable document. I learned this from Mike Hauser (formerly STScI), who chaired the Spitzer Oversight Committee for many years.
Act fast. If you don't write your report immediately, you will never write it. So kill your procrastination and write the hell out of it immediately. And then your panel members will be so shocked at your turnaround time, they will be inspired to act fast themselves. They will take the draft you write fast and turn it into a final version.
Be helpful and constructive. Think carefully about and (more importantly) discuss with the team precisely what they want out of the report and what they can do. Make sure you are answering the questions they want answered, and that the answers you give can be implemented usefully and without huge burden. Report from reviews are about the future not the past.
I love the SDSS-V Project and Collaboration and I want both to succeed. I very much hope that what we have written will help them meet their goals.
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