You Are Here

Tag: reflection

Nathan

When The Tide Goes Out

Daily Post

I love walking along the promenade near where I live.

Every day looks different depending on the weather, the light and the tide. Sometimes you can’t see the shore. Some days waves crash over the railings, threatening to soak you if you walk too close.

On a quiet day when the tide is out you can get a really good look though. Just stand there and stare. See what you can see.

All the details of the shoreline jump out. The little features that get lost under ten feet of water. You have to stop at the right time or you’ll only see a blue-grey surface.

Doing a PhD sometimes you just keep going to get the research done and your thesis submitted. Work work work through good days and bad, great results and imposter syndrome, nervous talks and valuable conversations, you push on through until you’re done.

Then the tide goes out.

You can stop, and you can stand, and you can stare.

What do you see?

Nathan

Skills

Daily Post

I have that phrase about “a particular set of skills” from the movie Taken in my mind a lot when I start workshops. Not for the attitude, because I don’t want PhD candidates to see the viva as a fight to the death. The phrase resonates because candidates come equipped with a skill set, knowledge and experience to match what their examiners bring to the table. When it comes to examiners’ questions, candidates know a lot and can work out a lot because of the talent they’ve built up during their research.

Don’t forget: you can’t do a PhD without developing your particular set of skills.

Nathan

A Comparison

Daily Post

Compare two days…

Black Friday: “Today is the only chance to get what you want! Maybe you will, maybe you won’t! We’ll tell you what’s available and you’ll know it when you see it! And then you’d better be quick or you’ll lose this opportunity forever!”

The Viva: “Today is another chance to show what you know. You’re here to pass because you know your stuff. You won’t know every question in advance, but you’ll know what to do when you’re asked. And you can take your time to make the most of this opportunity.”

…two very, very different days…

Nathan

Thankful

Daily Post

We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK, but the act of being thankful is something that’s really had an impact on me in the last year. Taking time to step back and think, “What am I thankful for?” has helped a lot through difficult periods. It puts things in perspective and it helps to focus on the positive.

If the end of your PhD is approaching, what are you thankful for? When have you been fortunate? What ideas or theories have spurred you on? Who has helped you?

Remind yourself. Take time to take stock and be thankful.

Nathan

Unanswered

Daily Post

As you get to the end of your PhD you might have some questions without answers. That doesn’t mean you’ve missed something. Three, four or seven years is a long time, but it’s still a finite period. You might not have been able to cover everything you wanted to.

Examiners can still be interested, and it’s likely that you are too. Make a list for your own benefit. Keep it clear. What’s your question and what got in the way of answering it?

Nathan

Puzzles & Problems

Daily Post

During my PhD I became obsessed with certain kinds of puzzles. Killer sudoku is a variant on regular sudoku with different conditions on the grid. I would spend hours and hours playing them. I infected my friends with the killer sudoku bug. For a time we would compete to solve them, nothing but our honour and bragging rights at stake.

We discovered kakuro puzzles. We lost weeks of lunch breaks when a Scrabble clone was launched on Facebook. We turned our brains to becoming office champion. While I wouldn’t say I was champ, I still feel proud at earning 390 points in a two-player game once!

Puzzles are awesome. They teach the skills and processes to help solve problems. A PhD is a mix of puzzles and problems. In some cases you do things to practise a method or explore an already understood idea. Then later you apply what you know to something that’s a problem: something that’s believed to be true or which people think there is something interesting but which isn’t known for certain.

All of my play with killer sudoku and kakuro helped me. My mind raced faster looking for connections in my research. I used notation from puzzles to solve research problems. Bizarrely, playing a lot of Scrabble made it easier for me to focus on problems.

Puzzles and problems go hand in hand. When the viva comes around, you can take all you’ve learned in with you. All of the skill you amass from playing and exploring and researching. It doesn’t go away. It’s right there, a rich resource to draw on.

Think about all of the puzzles and problems you’ve encountered. With everything you do during a PhD, is it really that likely your examiners can find something that will be out of your reach?

Nathan

Three Acts

Daily Post

In short:

  • Beginning: ideas and talent…
  • Middle: work and wondering…
  • End: knowledge and skill…

However you feel in the middle of the PhD, you’re in the right place for fortune to find you. You started and people agreed that this was a good path for you. When you finish you’ve necessarily built up a body of research and skill to match.

If you’re reading this at the start of the PhD, you’re supposed to be here. If you’re in the middle, hang in there. If you’re near the end, congratulations. Keep going. You can’t get to where you are just by being lucky. You can’t finish a PhD by accident.

Nathan

Different Audiences

Daily Post

Here’s a thirty minute viva prep exercise. It aims to help you think differently about your thesis by considering how you could communicate your work with other people. All you need is something to write on and write with.

Take 5 minutes to make general notes, first thoughts about your research and how you share it with others.

Take 5 minutes to plot out a conference talk about your best work. What must you include?

Take 5 minutes to sketch a thirty minute talk at a local high school. How would you begin?

Take 5 minutes to brainstorm for a Three Minute Thesis talk. What would you have to cut out of your normal explanations?

Take 5 minutes to think about your elevator pitch. What would you say if you were in a lift with the head of your university?

Finally, take 5 minutes to review. What ideas or themes consistently showed up? What surprised you? What can you do with these ideas now? How does this help you to frame your work for others?

Exploring different perspectives and looking at your work in a fresh way is valuable. Make time to take a step back in your viva preparations and consider what someone else might think of your thesis. And think: you have the outline for four or five different kinds of talks about your work now. Why not give one of them?

Nathan

Either Way

Daily Post

If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.

(Henry Ford probably said something like this, but he probably heard something like it from someone else; see here)

A reflection for today: if your viva is coming up, honestly, truthfully, do you think you can pass it? If you do, what are you going to do to make it a certainty? If you think you can’t, what are you going to do to get help? Either way, what are you going to do?

Nathan

How To Juggle

Daily Post

One of my heroes, Seth Godin, describes in one of his books why people struggle when they learn to juggle. Wannabe jugglers focus so much on trying to catch balls that they don’t throw them enough. They want the catch to be perfect so they hesitate. The secret, as he shares it, is that you need to throw the ball a lot more and not worry about a perfect catch. Better to start the action first before worrying about how you’ll complete it. Seth’s really talking about projects, and fear, and hesitating before making something good. Every project is throwing the ball from right hand to left, a chance to do something well.

PhDs unfold over a long period of time. A PhD is like a big project, but it’s wrong to see it as a single throw of a ball. There’s so much more involved. Like juggling, you get good at doing the PhD by doing it. Reading more, writing more, doing more. Each step is a single throw. When you’re near submission or the viva you’ve caught the ball a lot. You must have become good at doing your research. You must have become good at being a researcher.

The viva is a big deal. It’s normal to be nervous. If you’re feeling uncertain, reflect on your skills. Reflect on your progress. Reflect on what exists now that didn’t exist when you started your PhD. Your thesis didn’t just happen: you’ve made a lot of catches.

1 … 29 30 31 32 33 … 35