Category: Getting things done

The incredible hulk complex – too much thesis, too little shirt. Here’s some ways to tell when your topic is not too green and muscly for comfort

Want to write a winning grant application? The Whisperer rethinks the problem in a non listy kind of way.

Addicted to email? You need a system darling.

The post where I get conflicted about ambivalence.

A blog can be an archive of reflections about what it means to do a PhD. It can be a placeholder for the vignettes that build to become arguments in the thesis and, unlike a personal journal, the thoughts and arguments are open for scrutiny and feedback.

This is a picture of one of the rather nice glass doors in my apartment. If you look closely you will notice there’s a big crack in it, right next to the handle. I blame this crack on Chapter five of my PhD. To this day I don’t know how it happened, but I managed …continue reading.

One way a humble whiteboard can help you think more clearly about your research

On the tram this afternoon a friend commented that learning is a very inefficient process. I think this is especially true for PhD students, partly because it is so easy to get distracted. When I was doing my PhD I suspended my facebook account –  but the fridge was still a great source of distraction. …continue reading.

A PhD thesis or dissertation is supposed to make a “significant and original contribution to knowledge”. This can create a lot of angst amongst research students, partly because originality is often defined, but rarely talked about in actionable ways. In “How to get a PhD”, Phillips and Pugh set out 16 ways to be original …continue reading.

Apple are geniuses at showing us how technology can be used in novel ways within our everyday lives. The latest and greatest of all these gadgets is, of course, the iPad. I have heard all sorts of uses they have been put to: as an ebook reader, as a toy for the kids, as a …continue reading.