Hi Reader!As other obligations eat into the time I normally dedicate to write "A Happy PhD" blog posts and newsletters, I can't help but think more and more about productivity: my own, and of doctoral students (especially those that have to juggle multiple obligations/jobs/priorities). This week, I bring you an early preview of an upcoming post on doctoral productivity (and some arguments against it), as well as a flashback to an strategy that has (counter-intuitively) boosted my own productivity in these last years: keeping a journal. Enjoy! Flashback: Journaling for the doctorate (II): How to journal effectively(Tweet-length gists of past posts, so that you don't have to read through the whole blog backlog) Journaling is one of the secret weapons I use to keep myself motivated and productive (yes, even if it takes some time and effort away from other tasks). But, how to do it effectively? Keep it honest and flexible – and review it! More details at https://ahappyphd.org/posts/journaling-tips/ Early preview: Is Doctoral Productivity Bad?In this blog I have written a lot about doctoral productivity tools and advice. Yet, many doctoral students out there may also think that the focus on productivity is exploitative, dehumanizing and counter to the very spirit of the scientific endeavor. Should we reject the quest for being productive altogether? Should we “quiet quit” our PhDs? This post tries to clarify what I mean by (doctoral) productivity, which may not be the “narrow productivity” view you find in certain research policy or journalistic articles about the topic. That way, you can decide whether it makes sense for you to follow my advice, or get it elsewhere. When I started this blog back in 2019, a productivity geek with a mild case of burnout baffled by the challenges of supervising five doctoral students at the same time (and by the challenges they faced), it did not occur to me that someone might not want to be very productive. Fast forward to 2024, through a global pandemic and with rates of mental health issues (including burnout) increasing even after the global catastrophe receded. In recent years, I have come across ideas against being highly productive (as a doctoral student, researcher and knowledge worker in general) quite a few times, from the (apparently pandemic-induced) “great resignation” to cultural phenomena like “quiet quitting”. This post then tries to answer the question that never occurred to me back in 2019 which many readers of this blog (struggling with their PhDs, maybe part of the so-called “Gen Z”) may have in their minds when reading all this: “is doctoral productivity actually worth pursuing?” Since I was so ill-prepared to consider this question myself, I enlisted some help from the algorithmic fairies to help me understand some of the key arguments against productivity (both doctoral productivity and productivity in knowledge work more generally). These are the main productivity anti-theses I got (fun fact: the algorithm gave me one of my own blog posts to support some of the arguments!): The arguments against (doctoral) productivityInterestingly, the algorithm prefaced its responses with the fact that doctoral productivity is often defined as the amount and quality of publications (or other research output) that a doctoral student produces. This is in fact supported by recent scholarly articles I’ve read on the topic, and with the way most people conceive “progress in the PhD” at the workshops we run with both doctoral students and supervisors. What are then some key arguments against a focus on this kind of productivity?
Pitfalls of anti-productivity thinkingTo be honest, I kinda agree with all the anti-productivity arguments above… as long as we preface the focus on productivity with the word “excessive” (e.g., “an excessive focus on doctoral productivity…”). The obsession with productivity, like any other addiction, can be quite harmful for ourselves and for the research system we wish so hard to become a part of. However, when I see those anti-productivity arguments thrown around, I sometimes sense that people create a caricaturesque “productivity strawman” that not so many people (even the productivity geeks like myself) really fall into. Indeed, having an excessive focus on anti-productivity as per the arguments above can also present its own pitfalls and dangers:
Towards a value-aligned version of (doctoral) productivityOK, then… if we dismiss the “narrow view” of productivity, but also the anti-productivity arguments taken to extremes, what do I mean by “productivity” when I write about it in this blog, the newsletter and in our doctoral workshops? I mean a productivity that is…
I hope these few notes help clarify what I mean by productivity, so that you can take in (if you agree this is a worthy goal) or reject (if you disagree) all the productivity writing that you can find here in the blog and the newsletter. May you stay productive… and make sure to know what you mean by “productive”! Did this content help you? Hit reply and send us feedback (I cannot reply to all the emails we get, but I do read all of them), buy us a coffee, or help us spread the word! Forward this email to a friend you think may find this kind of advice useful. If you are reading this and you have not joined the newsletter yet, you can subscribe and get exclusive access to a worksheet to make the strategic plan towards your next dissertation goal, in the button below:
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Looking for tips, tricks and advice to finish your doctoral thesis on time and with high spirits? Baffled by how little information is out there about how to support PhD students to become independent researchers? As an ex-doctoral student now co-supervising five students, I feel your pain. “A Happy PhD” is a blog (and a series of doctoral/supervisory courses) where I distil what has worked for me, as well as recent research in doctoral education, psychology and many other fields. Join our mailing list and get short doctoral advice in you inbox every week!
Hi Reader! The summer has come in full force (heatwaves, I'm looking at you!) here in the Northern hemisphere. Maybe now the teaching and other obligations are slowly receding, and many of you are rushing to finish research studies and papers before a much-needed holiday/break. This week's newsletter brings two simple but powerful tips that may be relevant in such a season: a new post about managing feedback in multi-author paper writing; and a flashback to a post where I describe a pet...
Hi Reader! After a long hiatus, made of colliding deadlines and a general "falling off the productivity wagon", we're back on track! This week, we ramp up our newsletter activity with a flashback to a post on how to face an addiction to social media, and a new tiny practice that helped me get through some of the difficult episodes in this intervening time without newsletters. Flashback: Facing addiction to social media in the PhD (Tweet-length gists of past posts, so that you don't have to...
Hi Reader! This week, we touch upon the two largest themes of our blog/newsletter. A new post in the blog continues our series on alternative ways to think about (and do) doctoral productivity. We also flash back to a post on dealing with addiction during the PhD. Oh, and you can see me talking about the actual research we do about these topics, in a recent webinar I did. New Post: Two Hundred Weeks: Productivity for Mortal PhD Students (book extract) Is there a way to be productive in our...