Getting your PhD (back) on track 2: other tasks

In my PhD workshops, there are also plenty of students who can do the deep work, but struggle to get all the other tasks done that ensure they can complete their PhD. This includes organising meetings, organising interviews or data collection, calling people on the phone, getting progress reports completed, organising childcare and assisting their... Continue Reading →

How I held it together and reorganized my book manuscript without being reduced to an embarrassing mess (and other lies)

"Oh crap." I thought, for the six hundred millionth time since I had opened my overdue manuscript. Other common thoughts included: "This is total crap." "Did I write this crap?" "This isn't quite so crappy." "Oh crap, that needs a lot of work." And so on, for several hours a day, for almost the entire... Continue Reading →

Saying yes, saying no: 4 years tracking my voluntary academic activities

Recently in my Twitter circle, I've been part of a few conversations about academic workloads, work-life balance, and managing the pressure of early career researcher decision-making. It forced me to recall a post from January 2017, where I committed to putting some limits on the 'voluntary' parts of our job. But as you may recall... Continue Reading →

Writing your Book Proposal II: What happens after submitting your proposal?

After submitting your proposal, it's time for the waiting game. It will go to peer review, then you will need to respond, then it might go before a board, all before it is time to organise the advance contract. 1. Peer Review For most good academic publishers, after your book proposal is received it is... Continue Reading →

You Won’t Believe How These New Zealand Undergraduates Email Their Lecturers

My tongue-in-cheek clickbait title is meant to illustrate via awkward engagement how inappropriate the norms of social media are to academia. Nowhere is this more obvious than when students try to email me. Here's a recent example* I reproduce in full: Hi I missed my second lab and I think the Cencus data for completely assignment... Continue Reading →

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