Secrets of Researcher Success 2
Organising Yourself
“It is not enough to be busy..the question is: what are we busy about?”
Henry David Thoreau
Three Components
Overwhelmed by all the “stuff” you have to cope with? (Supervisors, meetings, deciding on research, reading, networking, doing-work, teaching…and normal life too). Welcome to academia! On the positive side, what a great opportunity to find and develop effective capacities for coping with stress and task overload. At school and undergraduate level the timetable is provided for you (as it is in workplaces too).
But at postgraduate level you are far more responsible for your own tasks and timetable, which is a big step. And if you get a lecturing appointment, the load will definitely increase dramatically. Yet the image of someone with a Doctorate is of a person who can cope with all of this very well. If you think that’s something you need to work on, then what exactly are you going to do and practice to gain that mastery between now and when you graduate? Clearly it’s different from your research itself. These sessions are a mixture of presentation and interaction, and you’ll work with what’s on your mind.
Session A – Get Control of Research Literature and Information
What’s impressive about people you regard as excellent researchers? Their command of information and mastery of the relevant literature in their field? It’s certainly a key part of it. There’s so much information and reading, and we need to take that in and make appropriate use of it when we need it. It’s overwhelming, but that’s what research is about. In this part we’ll look at “mind tools” to accelerate our capacity as scholars.
Session B – Get Control of the ‘Tasks’ that plague our Minds
The daily calls on your attention can be an overwhelming mountain of small events, tasks and interruptions, including half-baked thoughts, inspirations and ideas that come up. Bigger plans or ideas don’t a get a look in even though we know they are important, and all the while there’s a sense of life passing us by. We need to get a handle on this or there’s no hope. To do this we’ll use the well-known approach by David Allen, because you can then get support from other people who are trying that out too, over time. And we’ll approach it in the context of postgraduate research.
Session C – Get Control of Life’s Projects
Our lives consist of many ‘projects’ (loosely defined). In addition to keeping track of it all, how do you manage and work with these ‘projects’, given that heavy-weight project management approaches aren’t appropriate or motivating? We need a light-weight way that delivers progress and achieves results for us as individuals. We’ll cover that in this session.
These 3 Sessions are offered as stand alone components online of 2.5 hours each for up to 50 delegates, or as a 1 day face to face event for up to 25 delegates.
Skill Development
This event is suitable for Postgraduate Researchers at any stage of their research, and offers the opportunity to gain skills across these domains:
- Knowledge and intellectual abilities: Knowledge Base, Cognitive abilities
- Personal effectiveness: Personal Qualities, Self management, Professional and career development
- Research governance and organisation: Research Management
- Also bears relation to: Engagement, influence and impact: Working with others, Communication and dissemination
“I can honestly say, without exaggerating that your events were not only beneficial, enjoyable and interesting, but life-changing at the same time – “Getting Organised” was the best one for me…I have noticed a real change in my attitude because of the practicality shown during the session.”
Imane Ghezal, PhD Researcher, of online session
