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 PhD without falling into all-out work obsession and burnout? What habits and systems could help us make good use of our (inherently limited) time and effort, taking into account that we could die tomorrow? In this second part of our Four Thousand Weeks book summary, we look at some of the tactical and strategic advice stemming from the productivity mindset shifts the book suggests – filtered and contextualized for doctoral students aware of their finitude.

​

Flashback: Addiction and the PhD (book extract)​

(Tweet-length gists of past posts, so that you don't have to read through the whole blog backlog)

Many doctoral students in our workshops declare (often anonymously) that they are addicted to something and that such addiction is becoming an obstacle to more important things in their lives, including their dissertations. This post, based on Anna Lembke's book Dopamine Nation, lays out science-backed strategies to fight such addictions:

​

Event/Talk: "A happier technology-enhanced PhD? Value-sensitive design of single-case learning analytics for doctoral education"

I recently was invited by SNOLA (the Spanish network of learning analytics researchers) to give a talk about the research we are currently doing at the University of Valladolid (Spain). Our research (and the talk itselft) overlaps greatly with the topic of our blog and newsletter, as it tries to uncover how technology (including AI and learning analytics) could help support doctoral students face widespread well-being and dropout problems. In the talk, I go over the particular approach we are using to design such technologies, and some initial findings of our inquiry. You can watch the full webinar or take a closer look at the slides. The talk is in English, although the preamble and final Q&A are in Spanish. Also, it is an academic research talk, so expect a lot of nerdy details and fancy terminology. Enjoy!

​

May productivity never become your addiction!

​

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:

​