Category: Uncategorized

I (finally) took a break. It was the key to getting literally anything done.

I’ve been feeling tired lately. Not the usual “I’m a bit underslept” tired, but deep-in-my-bones tired. Soul tired. People who know me will say I’m a naturally motivated person (I mean, they won’t, but they might think it). I’m very productive and want to get shit done. I rarely meet my own standards for productivity on any given day, but my wellspring of motivation is deep. Even outside the PhD, I get satisfaction from doing things well (poetry, calligraphy, dishes) so the motivation flows. I feel incredibly lucky that this motivation is reliably present. If I'm tired, a few hours of relaxing – maybe up to a day or two – will make me antsy enough to get back to work. But for the past few months, my motivation has run dry. I’ve been feeling too tired to want to do things...

Play Tetris while you listen to lectures

All through academia, the tyranny of the lecture looms. As an undergrad, I kind of got away with not paying my fullest attention to lectures. However, in my recent adventures as a sessional academic, things have changed. As a tutor, it's my job to provide advice and feedback to students that align with the lecturer's advice and feedback. This means I now get to listen to lectures on subjects with which I am already familiar, as well as the lectures/materials providing assessment guidance. The problem is, I get distracted...

I launched my study today. Part 1: a nervous lament

A list of unexpected things that happened today after I launched my study. 1. People shared it on Twitter. I posted about my study on Twitter and directed participants to the link to my survey. I expected one or two people from my office to retweet this post and maybe 5-10 people to like it. As it stands, three hours after posting, 22 people have retweeted it – only six of whom I know personally. 18 have liked it. One of my supervisors commented to say congrats, as well as messaging me privately to say I should include a textual description of image in my post (good advice, duly noted and amended). I know these numbers may sound low, but imagine it like this. You go to a party. You know one person. You expect to talk to that one person, then leave. Instead, twenty people gather around you and show interest in what you have to say. It’s unexpected, and pleasant, and a touch overwhelming. I don’t interact on Twitter much, so this was a huge surprise to me...

What do I listen to while working?

Well thanks for asking. PhD’ing involves a lot of reading and writing [citation needed]. If you’re like me, you need noise or music to help you concentrate (or to pipe into your noise-cancelling headphones to drown out the sounds of your coworkers having lunch in the kitchenette). I also find that music is a trigger that gets my brain into a certain state. I have conditioned my brain through repetition so these songs mean work time is occurring (anyone who has set a song they like as their wake-up alarm, then later felt a jolt of panic when that song came on the radio, knows how this conditioning works). To that end, I never listen to these songs/tracks/sounds outside of work time. Be prepared to sacrifice your chosen work music to the PhD gods. Here’s a list of songs and sounds I use for work...

Effort does not equal value

Why Lazy Academics Write Better Papers is a great read from PhD Voice, go check it out. To summarise (though seriously, go look, it’s a 5 minute read), “lazy” researchers put minimum effort into their papers. This causes them to exclude extraneous information and produce more succinct, readable papers. I *kind of* agree. I think it’s a good premise – limiting the resources you spend on an article makes you think hard about what makes the cut. However, I would argue that just because you don’t include every excruciating detail, it doesn’t mean you’ll do a good job prioritising the important stuff...

“I must be missing something”

Sometimes I encounter ideas, artistic works or online forms that I don’t understand. My usual thought in this place is, “I must be missing something” or “I’m too stupid to get this”. This thought is unpleasant. I quite dislike feeling stupid. But I submit to you, dear reader, that 1. this is a healthy and useful thought to have, and 2. you’re more likely to have this thought if you’re more engaged, though 3. you should take steps to avoid it crushing your soul...

How I learned to touch type (and why my PhD was the time to do it)

At the start of my PhD, I couldn’t touch type. I had to look at my hands to type, which was fine, except that I couldn’t spot errors onscreen as they occurred – I had to look up to read, check for mistakes, move the flashy line in Word, then look down to revise. I had the suspicion this was both inefficient and worthy of improvement (I was right). Here's how I did it...

The non-obvious ways ‘networking’ helps you

I was isolated at the start of my PhD because of COVID restrictions. While this had its challenges, I feel it now provides me unique insight into the way networking could have helped me earlier on. It also starkly illuminates the way networking helped me later. The information we can glean from networking that I outline below feels to me like unthought knowns, stuff we know but don't realise we know. Actively seeking out friendships and learning more about the culture of our offices/schools/faculties can help in subtle but important ways...