Categories
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
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…

Categories
work

Workshop: Viva Survivor

Earlier this week I wrote about two of the workshops that I deliver, How To Work With Your Supervisor and Creativity for Researchers. Aside from some of the Grad Schools that I’m a facilitator for, the workshop that I deliver most often – and which I think I am most well known for – is Viva Survivor. So in the last post for this week I’ll talk a little about how I came to do this, what I do – and most importantly why I love doing it.

Categories
work

Workshop: Creativity for Researchers

I started writing about some of the courses I deliver on Monday. First up was How To Work With Your Supervisor. Today, I want to muse a little on Creativity for Researchers, which is a workshop I’ve been developing since 2010.

Categories
work

Workshop: How To Work With Your Supervisor

To get back into the swing of writing here regularly, I thought that this week I would talk about my day job, which is delivering workshops to postgraduate researchers. I’m aiming to make these a mix of the why and the what – why I do the workshop and what I see and do. First up, How To Work With Your Supervisor, a session I regularly run to help PGRs explore working with their supervisor.

Categories
news

Goals for 2015

On Monday I shared some of my highlights for 2014, but of course a New Year is not all about looking back, it’s about thinking and planning ahead too. I’ve written about setting objectives and goals before, so I’ll try and follow my own advice when it comes to thinking about my year ahead! Some of these are objectives, some are announcements, some are hopes and dreams for 2015.

Categories
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.

Categories
news

Catch Up, 27th October 2014

What have you been up to lately? I’ve been in Sheffield delivering some workshops, and I’ve been preparing for a few more in the North West and Wales. I’ve also been recording more episodes of the Viva Survivors Podcast after a call for interviewees was answered by lots of people all at once – a good problem to have! I’ve also been writing for the coming weeks, as I’ll be away a little and didn’t want to break the chain of publication that I’ve been forging.

On This Blog

Almost two weeks ago I shared a post about inspiration, which was followed the next day by my first book review (a monthly feature of this blog from now on). I rounded that week out by answering a common question about the viva: is there a dress code? Last week was a bit reflective around here, and I shared a total of four posts loosely themed around “Time and the PhD“. These were some ideas that I’ve been chewing over for a while now, and they’re starting to poke out from among my brain cells and make themselves known more and more. I’m sure that it’s a topic I’ll be returning to in the future, as I try to draw thoughts together.

Anyway: let’s take a look at what else I’ve seen that’s piqued my curiosity!