Category: Getting things done

In this post I hone in on the first problem almost every PhD student confronts – how to make sense of all that information out there…

This guest post is written by Elizabeth Humphrys, who has recently completed her Masters Thesis. Her day job is investigating student complaints and misconduct at a public university. Here Elizabeth shares her thoughts on the feelings she experienced just before submitting. I submitted my Masters thesis in October 2010. I recently received the examiners’ reports …continue reading.

This guest post is by Eva Lantsoght who is a PhD student at Delft University of Technology. Here Eva reflects on how knowing yourself is an integral part of developing effective working habits This post is inspired by a course for PhD students which I am doing, in which a small group of PhD students …continue reading.

Squisy Scientist talks about getting the academic bonding process going

In which I share an experience of ‘threshold crossing’ as a way to understand being ‘stuck’

In which I wonder what Foucault would have to say about word processing software.

The following is a book review in the style of the McSweeney Open Letters to entities that are unlikely to respond. If you are not really a Twitter devotee you could insert Facebook or email – any digital application which connects you to the crowd and sometimes gets in the way of your work. Hi …continue reading.

Recently I grabbed a book from the RMIT library called “Detox your desk: declutter your life and mind” by Theo Theobald and Cary Cooper. Have a look at this picture and you’ll see why: This is my at home desk – not my at work desk (which is in such embarrassing condition I am not …continue reading.

PhD students are an interesting cohort. At our university the average age of a PhD student is 36, which means you can safely bet that most students have some family responsibilities – either to a spouse, elderly parents, animals or children. Parenting is challenging for PhD students because, in addition to the caring work that …continue reading.

A friend of mine tells the story of her first day as a PhD student with equal parts amusement and horror. One day she had a busy life as an academic, working with a wide range of students and colleagues, the next she was a PhD student who just had to hand in a thesis …continue reading.