Then I realised.
For the past ten weeks, on a Wednesday, I have been reading and interacting with others on a MOOC. The MOOC was an edX course, How to Survive your PhD. My Wednesday nights have been #survivephd15 nights, where I have been focused on learning, on catching up with all that has gone on since the last time I checked in with this 13,500-strong community, on the edX site, on Twitter, on Fb and in sourcing readings.
But tonight is different.
It is different because the MOOC is over.
I didn't think I would miss it, but I do.
The title of this blog post comes from my old HR lecturer: it was something he would say regularly in class (along with his prescriptive instructions for us taking our notes "Now, take a new line..."!).
What he meant by that was that if we repeated a behaviour enough, we would build it into our psyche. We didn't build habits by not repeating the behaviour we wanted: we built habits by doing the work. Regularly. Often. Ad nauseam.
I built a habit: Wednesday night MOOCing for ten weeks. There is no more MOOC; thus I am suffering #survivephd15 withdrawal.
<sigh>
I am sad, and lost. Two emotions that we didn't cover on the MOOC. Perhaps I should tweet Dr Mewburn and suggest another course...?!
...so instead I went and read all the #HDRblog15 challenge posts. Maybe Debsnet's challenge will become my new Wednesday night treat. Or maybe I should put on my big girl panties and make my own entertainment.
But I want to keep the habit I have built, and keep working on how a PhD works, not just in it :-)
Sam
References:
- Mewburn, Dr Inger (2015). How to Survive Your PhD: Activity Description | Final Activity. Retrieved 7 November 2015 from https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:ANUx+RSIT-01x+3T2015/courseware/db2b871a078e455cb2fa43f78e5b362e/771699afb7244bc787923d85be817b01/?discussion_page=1
- the édu flâneuse (2015). The Research Student Blog Challenge – #HDRblog15 – November 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2015 from https://theeduflaneuse.wordpress.com/2015/10/22/hdr-blog-challenge-2015/
Great idea to make your Wednesday nights blog nights in lieu of #survivephd15. Looking forward to reading more (perhaps weekly!) posts in the future.
ReplyDeleteI had withdrawal symptoms too!
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to keep the momentum going too. But maybe it wasn't a practice long enough to fully imprint my brain....
Good luck with it all!