phd advice

How to Plan Your Work

How do you plan your work? I’m always intrigued by people who schedule every project, cutting their projects into bite-size chunks, then organising them into their week. I’ve never been able to do that, and sometimes I wonder whether anybody can really tame academic work into cooperating like that?? With academic work everything always seems to take endlessly longer than you think it would. It seems frustrating to always come up short. What’s the alternative? In my experience simplifying and prioritising are what is called for, followed by implementation. It means you come up with a clear idea of what [...]

November 10th, 2016|
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The Power of the Mind

How do we prevent our inner critic from taking over? How do we become more resilient in the face of criticism? How do we not succumb to feeling stuck when the pressure rises? How do we make it though a rough patch? How do we allow more joy and curiosity in? In the academic world the mind skills we develop and refine are our intellectual muscles, our critical capacity. The part that isn’t paid as much, or any attention to, is how to harness the power of the mind more broadly, on how work with our thoughts, and the feelings [...]

October 25th, 2016|
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Building Your Academic Network

Disclaimer: This isn’t a post which will give you ‘Ten tips to network at academic conferences’. I don’t think it quite works like that. Building a ‘network’ isn’t the academic equivalent of cold calling. It is about building relationships with your academic peers and mentors… Imagine your academic field as a giant global network of scholars, some of whom work together (and some of whom will absolutely not!), and all of whom together shape the current academic debate on your topic. This will include the top scholars, as well as academics in your department (your supervisors perhaps), other departments nationally [...]

October 11th, 2016|
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The Nudge: Coming to You Next Week

In academia workdays never seem to end. Firstly because there's a culture of long hours (which isn't necessarily the best way to go about it), and secondly because it just never ends...even when you're not working, the project is still on your mind. The two combined can make for exhaustion and discouragement. I thought it would be a good idea to spend some time reflecting on how that happens, and what we might do instead. How we might create a schedule that isn't quite as 24/7. How to work less, but get more done, and feel better too. If this [...]

September 16th, 2016|
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‘Not everyone should get a PhD’ and other academic productivity fallacies

A few weeks ago I taught a workshop on academic productivity, and how self-care and perhaps counter-intuitive strategies such as shortening your workday may help. The audience were economists: PhD students, as well as a few faculty. Let’s just say it was an interesting experience! The dynamics were completely different compared to the other workshops I have taught, where the atmosphere tends to be relatively open, laid-back and sort of intimate. This time, however, that didn’t happen. Instead, there was a more challenging atmosphere, with more critical questions asked. By the supervisors, not the PhDs, I must add. The resistance [...]

July 18th, 2016|
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Staring at the Ocean – When Work Is Overwhelming

One of the difficulties of PhD research is the magnitude and scope of it. The end product, the thesis, reflects your work of four years (or a bit more if you’re unlucky): how on earth to design and define such a project? What to include, what to exclude? So much material that may be relevant. Which angle to take? Where to start? How to reconcile all the findings? How in-depth to discuss different strands of the literature? If you're in the middle of it it can be difficult to see the wood for the trees. You may end up in [...]

May 12th, 2016|
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LIBRARY

Free Resources Library

I have compiled some free resources for you to download. An e-book, a short course with encouraging emails to nudge your writing productivity alive, and a worksheet with a mini-course to create an effective and very zen work routine.
Leave your email to get access.

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