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series

To-Do Lists: Pseudo-Scheduling

In yesterday’s post I introduced a few little experiments that I had tried as a means to hack the to do list: putting tasks on separate pieces of paper, using dice as a means to prioritise and also using a nail stuck to my desk with blu-tack! These have all worked well for me at different times, I use them in rotation; some weeks I have a gut feeling that dice will be more helpful than the spike – I guess I like variety in my task organising.

Another piece of the puzzle

All of these things help me with the day-to-day, but it can be a bit of a chore to sit down every day and write anew my to do list scraps. And while it helps me organise on a particular day, it can also still mean that I reach the end of the week and find that not everything I wanted to achieve has even been considered. This thought helped me to start looking ahead – not in the long term, but on a weekly basis.

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series

To Do Lists: First Experiments With Scrap Paper

Yesterday I talked about how I started using to do lists during my PhD; I mentioned how they didn’t work that well for me and why. When I started working for myself I fell back on to old habits, but earlier this year I decided to do things a bit different. I had an instinct that to do lists were helpful for my work preferences…I just needed to make them work for me.

First Things First

The most useful thing that I realised – I think it was after leafing through Getting Things Done again – was that I was way too optimistic about the scope of work that I could get done. In particular, I was often too focussed on the outcome to the detriment of seeing all of the steps in a project. My to do list would have “Book 2” written on it to get me tuned in to the big outcome, when what was much more helpful was to be specific about what I needed to accomplish that day.

Obvious in hindsight, right? By being really clear about the tasks that you want to do, you’re more likely to be able to engage with them. If you put the headline down, which has fifty-seven steps to get to it, you’re unlikely to tick it off that day.

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series

The To Do List

Last month I wrote a few posts about time, the PhD and habits; while my own habits now are aimed at me being productive in my current work, I can’t help but think back to my PhD – and I wonder if some of the little experiments that I’ve done in the last few months might be of interest to postgrads? Over the next few days I guess we’ll find out!

Making a List…

During most of my PhD I was a to do list devotee. I had one every day. I would load up a sheet of paper at the start of each week with the things that I wanted to do, and each day would choose – like choosing from an a la carte menu. I would write down the people who I needed to correspond with, the outcomes I was aiming for, make a note of specific appointments that I had on each day. It was great to feel so busy, I was doing lots of work.

Except I wasn’t very productive.

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viva

Common Qs About The Viva: What’s The Worst Question They Can Ask?

They being The Examiners of course. The all-seeing, all-knowing Examiners. Yikes! I often encounter candidates with a fear that Examiners are trying to find a way to really make them uncomfortable, and pull their work apart. Now, hopefully if you’re reading this you don’t think or feel that way – but you might still be worried about how “bad” questions can get. So:

What’s the worst question they can ask?

I’ve mulled this over for some time, and have several possibilities:

They could ask a question not in your field. Despite being a mathematician they ask you about Art in Florence during the American Revolution. If you’re a historian, they could ask you to derive general relativity from first principles.

Except that’s not going to happen. Your examiners want to know about your research and you as a researcher. Asking about a topic that is genuinely out of your field is not going to be productive in assessing your PhD worthiness.

They could ask you a question that you have never considered. They could ask something speculative or something that you have to reason out from first principles. It might be about applying your techniques or methodology to data that you don’t have access to. Or they could ask you to think about something with very little information to hand.

But is that so bad? If you’ve got to the viva you’re up to the task. You have spent three or more years learning how to think as a researcher. Your examiners are not going to ask something totally beyond someone in your field: they would reasonably expect that this is something you can do.

And you can.

These two possibilities aren’t so bad. Is there no worst question?

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review

Nathan Reads: The Path Of A Doer

I was first introduced to “The Path Of A Doer” (David Hieatt with illustrations by Andy Smith) by Paul Spencer (who blogs fairly often over at The Digital Doctorate); Paul was directing a local GRADschool, and used this book in his introductions to emphasise some great attitudes and behaviours for participants. It was inspiring stuff, and so afterwards I tracked it down.

Here’s my review:

It’s brilliant. Only 68 pages long, direct and to the point. Every page has a neat illustration of the point being made. Every page takes you a step further along the path of being a Doer. The book has the subtitle “A simple tale on how to get things done.” It is simple, but powerful. No fluff, no fat – follow the steps and you’ll see results. It doesn’t share a complex system, or answer every question – but it will make a difference.

I don’t think I need to say more: if you want some inspiration, or you want a great little gift for a friend (Christmas is coming!) then pick this up.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

PS – please take a look at my Patreon campaign for the Viva Survivors Podcast!

Categories
creative thinking

Creative Thinking Tuesday, 11th November 2014

Got a problem, situation or challenge that you need ideas for? Here’s a simple process for getting 20+ ideas that requires nothing more than two sheets of A4 paper (you can choose for yourself whether they’re lined or not).

Step 1

If you don’t already have a question for your situation, write down on one of the sheets a clear question about what you need ideas for. Read it aloud to make sure you’re happy with it. Put this to one side.

Step 2

Find the nearest book. Open it to a random page and point to a word on the left hand page. So long as this word is a verb, noun or adjective write it down on your second sheet of paper. (flip to a different page if you land on “the” “a” “her” or any other kind of preposition). Underline this word.

Step 3

Consider this randomly selected word and list beneath it as many associations as you can to this word. Take at least three minutes. If you start to slow down keep going. Push yourself!

Step 4

Bring back your first sheet with your question on. Use your list of associations, one-by-one, as inspiration for answers – ideas – to that question. As with Step 3, push yourself if you need to: thoughts may come quite quickly for some words and not for others. Your mind is a pattern-making system, and will try to fill in gaps. Don’t dismiss any idea.

From start to finish, this might take up to twenty minutes, and a reasonable expectation is to have twenty or more ideas by that point. Then the hard part begins: reviewing and selecting ideas that you want to take forwards!

Want to see an example?

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news

Catch Up, 10th November 2014

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:

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.

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viva

Common Qs About The Viva: What Should I Know About My Examiners?

I’ve been talking to PhD candidates about viva prep for over four years, and there are some questions that regularly come up at workshops. I’ve started answering some of these on this blog, but thought it might be useful to answer some of the most frequently asked questions all of this week. Let me know what you think in the comments, and please give me some questions for future posts!

What should I know about my examiners?

I think that this question is often asked in my workshops because candidates think there might be some special knowledge that they need. Like a cheat code on an early video game console, if they know the right bits of info, they will get an easy ride – or infinite turns at answering questions maybe! Of course, things don’t work like that, but there are some really useful things to know about your examiners in advance.

Many candidates know a little about their internal and external ahead of time (assuming that this is the examination team that you have; check your institution’s guidelines). Maybe you have met your external at conferences – perhaps even cited some of their papers in your thesis. And it’s likely that you’ve had the opportunity to meet your internal before, and know a little about them. There are three things though that will be really useful to know about your examiners.

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viva

Common Qs About The Viva: What Are Minor Corrections?

I’ve been talking to PhD candidates about viva prep for over four years, and there are some questions that regularly come up at workshops. I’ve started answering some of these on this blog, but thought it might be useful to answer some of the most frequently asked questions all of this week. Let me know what you think in the comments, and please give me some questions for future posts!

What are minor corrections?

I think that this question comes up a lot in my viva preparation workshops because people want to know what might be in their future. Hopefully they know that most PhD candidates have to make some amendments to their thesis, and so it’s useful to know what sorts of things come up. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, typical items on a list of minor corrections could include:

  • spelling mistakes and typos: I was terrible for missing “the the” in my thesis!
  • corrections to grammar: some grammar rules are easy to miss; if your examiners spot things they are not just being pedantic – they want your thesis to be the best it can be.
  • amendments to tables, references, diagrams: usually to make things more clear.
  • small amounts of copyediting: rewording sentences and paragraphs to make the meaning more clear.

There is a hope that a thesis will be read at some future date by someone wanting to build on your research. Corrections are asked for, in part, so that the book you have produced will as helpful as possible.

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viva

Common Qs About The Viva: What If I Find Mistakes?

I’ve been talking to PhD candidates about viva prep for over four years, and there are some questions that regularly come up at workshops. I’ve started answering some of these on this blog, but thought it might be useful to answer some of the most frequently asked questions all of this week. Let me know what you think in the comments, and please give me some questions for future posts!

What if I find mistakes in my thesis after submission?

I think that this question comes up a lot for lots of possible reasons. Most common, I think, is a fear that mistakes will somehow lessen the impact of academic work – examiners might find a typo and instantly think “This candidate was doing so well… Such a shame!”

In preparing for your viva you are going to read your thesis; you are bound to find things that you would want to be different. Sometimes this will just be phrasing, but sometimes you might find things that need to be different: spelling mistakes, awkward phrasing or even errors in your work. What can you do?

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