Is it time for another catch up post? What happened to the last two weeks? Oh that’s right! I was out of the house delivering several workshops and facilitating one of Liverpool’s First Year Development Workshops – busy times! Fun times though. I’ve got a couple of other little projects that I’ve been pushing forward – I had cause to tweet the following a few days ago:
Fun Fact: Creating a folder in your Work directory called “Product Development” can lead to a big smile on your face. It just did for me. 😀
— Nathan Ryder (@DrRyder) November 6, 2014
Watch this space I guess!
On This Blog
Around a fortnight back I was mulling over my creative playlist, before I introduced the Patreon campaign for the Viva Survivors Podcast. Regular readers will know that I’m really passionate about helping PhD candidates prepare for the viva, and the podcast is just one of the things that I do to support that goal. I’m looking to increase what I do with that resource, and through Patreon I hope to do more. Will you become a Patron to the Podcast?
After the Patreon post, I posted a total of six posts in my “Common Qs About The Viva” series, and there are more on this blog as well – and more to come! Do you have a question about the PhD viva? Let me know and maybe it will be the subject of a post in the future.
Meanwhile, elsewhere
I scour Twitter and various news/blog feeds on a daily basis, and here are a few things that I’ve come across in the last fortnight.
Announcing Academic Writing Month 2014 – AcWriMo 2014 is already a week in! Are you doing it this year? How’s it going? What tips do you have? And if you’re not doing it, might you consider joining up to it now – or setting some goals for the future?
the serendipitous career – This post seemed serendipitous actually! A great little post from Think Ahead Sheffield; how do you make your own luck?
How can you treat your PhD like a project? – a great post on the Thesis Whisperer by Fiona Saunders; I love the description of possible phases to the PhD, and can really identify with the “lost in the fog” feeling.
Shorter, Better, Faster, Stronger – I was alerted to this post by my friend Dr Jen Allanson, and it chimes in with some of the themes that I was exploring recently. If you want to get more done, as the article suggests, maybe it’s better to work fewer hours!
Viva Survivors Podcast, Episode 29 – the latest episode of the podcast is an Academic Jobs Special; I chatted with Dr Jennifer Cromwell about her experiences of being an ECR over the last seven years, and she offered some advice for PhD candidates who want to pursue academia. Episode 30 arrives on November 17th!
Let me know if you’ve read anything good lately!
Looking Ahead
This coming week I’m away facilitating a Grad School for the KESS programme – very happy to be back in Wales and working with KESS Scholars! Then I have a little time at home coming up, so I’ll be doing a fair bit of writing, planning for workshops and moving ideas forward for two new projects. In terms of upcoming posts, this week there’s a creative thinking post, a book review and another common question about the viva; and next week I’ll return to more musing on helpful productivity things, and share the results of little experiments that I’ve done.
Thanks for reading!
Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)
PS – please take a look at my Patreon campaign for the Viva Survivors Podcast!