Tag: work

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news writing

Eight Years After Room 524

It dawned on me a few days ago that today is eight years since I started my life as a skills trainer. On September 15th 2008, I registered my business. I was a guy with a PhD in maths, a few ideas about what I might do as a freelancer, but no real clue. This was me:

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My last day in the postgraduate office

I left behind Room 524, my workspace for nearly four years. One day I was working surrounded by interesting people who loved research. The next day I was working alone at the dining room table: What to do? How to start? It seems like yesterday sometimes, and also like another life. A lot has happened in eight years (I got married! I have a daughter!). Work highlights include:

I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of great people, and I know that I’ve learned a lot along the way. It’s not always easy to be a freelancer. There can be a lot of disappointments. But you can work to your values: it is very liberating to realise that you can step back from something that isn’t satisfying. You can say no to things that you think will get in the way, and say yes to things that excite you or you think can make a difference.

One of the things I like most is the freedom to do fun things, to play. You can do something “just because”. I have thoughts for more little experiments and “just because” ideas; let me know in the comments if you want to hear more.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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quick thought

Seven Years

I often think about my PhD as being one of the defining things that I’ve done with my life (thus far). It was a huge deal, doing research in that field, and I know that it’s something that has set me up for the rest of my life – good or bad!

But it was actually a long time ago now. For me, perhaps because of the kind of work that I do, it feels like it was much more recent, but I woke up today and realised that I’ve been in business for seven years now.

Twice as long as my PhD.

Like my PhD, it’s not what I thought it would be at the start, I’ve learned a whole lot of things that I never would have imagined. I break my working life up into smaller projects, but unlike the PhD I have no deadline for when this job will be done. It’s changed (most recently, the business became a partnership between me and my wife), and it will continue to change.

I love what I do. I grew into this job, thinking “I wonder…” and where I am now is completely different from where I was at the beginning. That’s no bad thing. I wonder what I’ll do next… Any ideas?

If you have been, thanks for reading.

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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work

Stand & Deliver

Last week I facilitated on my first workshop in almost a month. The break was halfway-intentional: a few clients have had changes in the last year. This meant that workshops which previously made the end of May and start of June a very busy time made it a very quiet time. As this became apparent I fixed the time as a pause from delivering workshops, shifting new bookings to either side of the break.

As the three week gap approached I thought, “This is great! I love doing workshops, but a break, time to step back and write more regularly, to plan some projects – that will be wonderful.”

As the end of that three week gap approached I thought, “This is great! It’s been fun working from home, and I’m really excited about these projects, but I really need to get out there and delivering stuff again!”

A change is as good as a rest? The grass is always greener on the other side? I don’t know! I’m thankful that I have a job which allows me this much flexibility. It’s great to have an area to focus on – helping postgraduate researchers – and several different ways that I can do that.

I’m looking ahead to the next academic year, and contacting my regular clients to put together my diary. I have some openings for new clients, and if you’re looking for someone to come and work with you and your postgraduate researchers then please email me. This blog and the courses page can give you some idea of what I do and what I’m interested in, but if you have any questions then please just ask.

What are the top three areas that you want workshops on or help with? Let me know, and if I can offer any thoughts I will, or if I can point you in the direction of someone else who could help then I’ll try to connect you. But please, get in touch!

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

Categories
quick thought

Taking Your Own Advice

Whatever job you have, there are lots of things that you will recognise as being “the worst part of the job”. There’s never just one thing, there’s only whatever the thing is when you think of it. In what I think of as my day job, facilitating and delivering workshops to researchers, things that I have thought of as the worst part of the job have included:

  • interrupting people to move on to the next discussion/activity in a workshop;
  • travelling long distances;
  • being away from my daughter;
  • doubt about whether or not you’re connecting with a quiet room.

Today I have a new one: not taking my own advice.

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Categories
quick thought

Three Weeks

Three weeks into a month, my mind starts thinking about the next one: “What have I accomplished, what am I unlikely to get done, what do I need to start on the first of the next month?”

I do this a lot, sometimes I set goals so realistic that I don’t do anything but what I set out to do. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with this; I don’t think I or anyone needs to work flat out all the time. I have noticed in the last week or so, though, that when I work from home I’m setting more and more realistic goals – to the point of finishing everything early, doing a little extra and then feeling pleased with myself. But on the following day(s) I don’t take time for myself, or for my family, I just wonder what else I could do to “get ahead.”

There are so many tensions here! The tension between doing too little, too much and “enough” – the tension between getting things done and getting more done – work expanding to fill the time available versus being realistic… Am I alone in thinking about these areas? Have you experienced similar thoughts, either in work on a PhD or in other creative work? Let me know in the comments if any of this resonates with you.

Next week I am going to review where I’m up to, and I am going to plan for June – but not before I do my best to really make the most of the last week of May, and any opportunities that that might bring.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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news

Interesting Things, May 18th 2015

A few weeks back I did the first of these regenerated round-up posts. A lot has happened since then, not least of which I published my second book. I also had a busy couple of weeks, working on the Manchester GRADschool and a First Year Development Workshop at Liverpool. With finishing a project like publishing a book, my brain is at once happy that it’s done, sad that it’s over and curious to know what I’ll be working on next. As a way to try and wrap things up I wrote a couple of posts about writing The Viva: Who? What? How? last week that you might be interested in. Meanwhile, elsewhere…

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Categories
news

Catch Up, 24th November 2014

Is it that time already? Seems like only yesterday that I was writing one of these posts, where does the time go… It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me, delivering more than a few workshops and keeping a few plates spinning. I was very happy to facilitate on a KESS Grad School recently; I’ve been involved with the programme for a number of years now, and it’s great that that’s continued on. Long train journeys to get to south Wales though, but perfect for lots of reading!

On This Blog

Almost two weeks ago I shared a favourite idea generation process of mine, which resulted in me coming up with some more Christmas presents for my wife! I reviewed The Path Of A Doer, and answered a common question about the viva (“what’s the worst question they can ask?“), before sharing a series of posts that started with me thinking about to do lists. I shared some experiments that I’ve run on myself to try to find things that work for me. In fact this week I’m doing another, capturing things in three columns on a big sheet of paper. Column headings are Tasks, Short and Emails (Short is for the little tasks that are not urgent but need doing at some point OR need doing soon but are not important). It’s just another little test to see what works. What works for you?

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