For the month of January, and in celebration of our two year and 100th post anniversaries, we’re revisiting some of our most viewed columns. Today we’re re-posting a primer on the difference between your writing and editing brains and how to train them so you can get some sh*t done. Read more…
For the month of January, and in celebration of our two year and 100th post anniversaries, we’re revisiting some of our most viewed columns. It seems fitting that one of our first posts ever was about breaking goals down into macros, mids, and micros. If you’re a regular reader you’ll Read more…
Welcome back, Beloved! We are so happy that you are here! We’ve been so in the work that we haven’t noticed a couple of big milestones have happened. First, we had our two year anniversary back in November! Holy Cow! It seems amazing that this little site has been around Read more…
Executive function is the set of cognitive functions that enables you to do things. In broad terms, executive function covers three areas: working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control (including self-control). Together, these three areas make up a lot of what we do. If you haven’t heard the term “executive Read more…
Humanities PhD programs will pull you in a lot of different directions. Almost every humanities PhD student I have ever met is trying to be their best researcher-self, teacher-self, activist-self, and human-self. It’s a lot. We’ve talked before about learning to balance these multiple desires and multiple expectations. One part Read more…
It seems like a simple question: we all know what it means to learn. We’ve been learning our whole lives and, if you got into grad school, you’re probably pretty good at learning. Sometimes, when we are good at something, we don’t think much about how that thing works. Addressing Read more…
You are working too hard on teaching and you need to stop. I know you think you’re not doing enough, but I promise you that you are doing too much. How do I know this? Because all new professors do too much. (And, yes, if you have yet to defend Read more…
Earlier this week we shared that a crucial part of making progress on your dissertation isn’t just letting go of perfection but actively giving yourself the freedom to fail. Today, we’re going to share our favorite ways to fail. If you take lessons in acrobatics, stagecraft, or tumbling, one of Read more…
One of the wisest pieces of advice I got while I was writing my dissertation was from a senior faculty member who observed that, “Sometimes, through no fault of their own, advisors and advisees get stuck in a loop rehashing the same issues in the text.” Again, in it’s own Read more…
Happy Halloween! Our goal for this month was to make dissertating feel exciting rather than terrifying. There is, however, a fundamental truth of dissertating which we may have mentioned before: It is hard. Even if you love your project, even if you have the world’s best committee, even if you Read more…