Posts & Reflections
Thoughts on philosophy and theology; helpful advice on teaching, learning, and coding.
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Research hacks #20: Why it pays to plan your ideal week, and an Excel workbook to help you
In my last post I pointed out how time logging can help you build an accurate picture of how much time you are really spending on different tasks. That is only half the battle of taming your timetable however. The other half is working out how you want and ought to be spending your time, and
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Research hacks #19: Three benefits of time logging for academics, and one easy-to-use time logging app
Time logging is for executives, not academics, right? It’s for lawyers with billable hours, not for researchers with theses and books that take years to complete. Wrong. I have found that tracking the time I spend on different tasks has brought me three distinct benefits, and in this post I want to share some reflections
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Research hacks #18: 20 further tips on fielding questions after a conference paper
This is the second of two posts on how to field questions after your paper at an academic conference. The first one, which covers preparing for question time and knowing your main point, can be found here. Get to know the main types of question If you want to know how to answer any given
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Research hacks #17: 15 tips on fielding questions after a conference paper
In this fourth post on presenting a conference paper (following on from planning and writing a conference paper, delivering a paper and timekeeping and technology), I want to think through the often panic-inducing issue of how to approach the question and answer time at the end of your paper. This is the first of two posts on fielding
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Research hacks #16: 20 tips on timekeeping and technology for your conference presentation
This is the third post in a mini-series on presenting at conferences. Previous posts covered planning and writing a conference paper and delivering a paper. In this post I offer some tips and advice in relation to two aspects of giving a conference paper that can often sneak up and ambush unwitting presenters: timekeeping and technology. Timekeeping Know
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Research hacks #15: 15 Tips on delivering a conference paper
In the previous research hack I discussed how to plan and write a conference paper. Now we move on to delivering the paper to your conference audience. Delivering the paper Be enthusiastic, but not manic. If you don’t look interested in what your saying, why should your audience be? But if you come over like the Duracell
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Research hacks #14: 15 tips on planning and writing a conference paper
Judging by their behaviour, people seem to approach to the prospect of giving a conference paper wildly divergent ways. Watching some poor souls present, it looks for all the world as if they consider a conference paper to be the modern-day answer to trial by ordeal. Others seem to be approaching the exercise as a gladiatorial duel, the
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Research Hacks # 13: The power of planning your research project
Today I want to share one of the earliest research productivity hacks I ever learned, and one that has served me faithfully over many years. The principle behind it is simple: planning increases productivity, and things that get planned get done more often than things that don’t. By and large, and allowing for all necessary caveats, what
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Research hacks intermezzo: A cornucopia of writing and publishing advice from Stuart Elden
Over at Progressive Geographies Stuart Elden has curated a list of “some of the posts about writing and publishing from this blog”. The list contains around fifty posts and articles (some by Stuart, some external links) with lots of helpful and thought-provoking advice about research, writing and publishing. It’s well worth a browse. To read all the research hacks
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Research hacks #12: Seven ways of keeping up to date with developments in your field
Whether we like it or not, research trends dictate to a significant extent what is published and read in most fields. It’s all part of the room of conversations that I described in a previous post in this series. In order to draw readers to your work and contribute to a conversation that others are