Category: Getting things done

Is there any evidence to support the idea that the presence of senior professors and VC’s at university events is co-related with a higher quality of catering?

If you make and use scaffolds they can help you form different writing habits. Over time, the ways of thinking scaffolds encourage become habitual and words start to come out of your hands ‘pre-fabricated’ in a more academically legible way…

“This is the somewhat convoluted story of how I shaved over two years from my Ph.D, by choosing not to stay on the path I was on.”

Huh.”

“Although intellectually you may be aware of the fact, I can personally attest to the fact that computers are not necessary if you want to write.”

“It’s time to be rid of this. Write until it hurts, then just keep writing. You develop a bizarre clarity about the context of your work, you see the patterns, it all makes sense. Your best friend’s divorce? Who cares! You don’t know how to finish this paragraph, why are these people even talking to you!”

Dr Emma Kimberley: “In the writing-up phase of my PhD, at the same time as my word count was going steadily upwards I was trying to decrease another important life-statistic. I joined Weightwatchers in my final year, hoping to lose weight gained over 7 years of undergraduate and postgraduate study. As it turned out, I lost 4 stones and learned a lot about writing a thesis in the process.”

I was under the naive assumption that finishing my PhD would mean this need to balance my work time with family life would change, but sadly this is not the case. Becoming an academic is like signing up for a whole lifetime of study, so the challenges are still there. I’ve been talking to other PhD parents since this incident and I’ve come up with 5 ways your PhD might affect your school aged child

In a long, extended project like a doctoral dissertation, it’s all too easy to allow ourselves to get distracted, both by potentially interesting research ideas, and by humdrum everyday interruptions.

Karenmca reminds us to celebrate along the way – if nothing else it helps you stay sane!

Where I try out yet another productivity technique