thehungryscholar

I've tried time blocking many times and for some reason it never seems to work for me. Inevitably, my days always kind of fall apart and I end up working on whatever seems most pressing, regardless of what I had planned. I'm sure this has something to do with the way my supervisor operates (e.g. sending me 100 emails per day). I know some people who time block very well, but I guess I just haven't found a way to do it myself.

Yes! Forest is a great app. I use it every day to keep myself off my phone while working. The little trees are cute. Plus you can use the points you earn to plant actual, real trees. It's a very cool app.

If any of you are on twitter, there is a really amazing hashtag -- #stateofmyphddesk. You guessed it- PhD students post photos of their desks. I love it.

Thanks for this. I wondered if that was the case. All the official announcements I've seen online from previous years appear to happen to October... so I figured as much. Just curious - have you had to do any interviews or anything like that?

I'm female and my supervisor is female. She has never hugged me. Only ever awkward handshakes. When I won the Vanier I wondered if she would hug me but nope - only handshakes.

Spring term is now officially done (at least in most North American schools) and Summer term has begun. I'm just curious how people plan to structure their time over the Summer. I know some people really like to get into a whole different mindset in the Summer months and read, write, etc. -- especially if they aren't taking classes. Myself - I'm finishing up 2nd year of my PhD, so I will be doing RA work 10 hours a week and spending the rest of the time reading, writing, and finalizing my ethics application. How about all of you? Planning to get into a different routine this Summer?

Hopefully they notify you soon! This is getting to be very late in the season...

Funny to see so much variation with this across universities. I just got notification of OGS from McMaster today.

Oh my goodness. I'm so glad you shared that blog. I am now obsessed with his Instagram

Strange that nothing came. People in Hamilton started getting theirs today and I would have thought that would take longer. Fingers crossed for yours tomorrow.

I rely on a few key apps for my studies and organization. For a digital to-do list, I use Wunderlist. It's fantastic. Great for syncing to-dos across multiple devices, sharing a to-do list with someone, scheduling tasks in advance, etc. Highly recommend. For little notes and reminders, ideas, inspiration, etc., I use Google Keep. Nothing fancy. Essentially just digital sticky notes that sync across devices. The search function is great. For my references, I use Mendeley. I have it on both my computers and my tablet. It syncs everything across so you can see notes/highlights you've made in certain articles even when you're viewing on your iPad, etc. I also have f.lux installed on both my computes. This little app gradually adjusts the blue light being displayed from your screen throughout the day so that if you're working late, the blue light won't affect your sleep (at least as much). Finally, i have to recommend Spotify as a grad school app simply because there are so many fantastic playlists of music & sounds to help you focus, relax, wake-up, or whatever you need to do.

Hi all - I'm looking to take some type of online writing course this Summer as a bit of a refresh. Does anyone have a specific online writing course that they would recommend? Lots of universities offer them, and many online education websites (e.g. Coursera) have them, but I don't know what would be best. Recommendations? Thanks!

I love this app. Simple and effective way to stay away from distracting sites when you need to focus.

Nothing in Hamilton yet...

I'm reading a very interesting book right now called The Slow Professor by Barbara Seeber and Maggie Berg (two female academics). It's a quick read about the corporatization of the university and how it impacts life as a scholar. It is mostly confirming what I already know to be true (at least in Canada) but it's worth a read.