Perfect is the enemy of done or done is better than perfect

I first encountered Inger Mewburn when doing my Masters, and quickly became a big fan. I liked her realism, her ability to talk straight, an...

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The what, the how, and the why

Sometimes I have had students who have obviously put loads of time into their research. They have worked really hard at assembling the right...

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How to stop catastrophising

I recently watched a Tara Brabazon vlog (2021) which detailed ten tips to help us stop creating our own dramas, or as she said, to stop ...

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Ten Questions to Circumvent Over-Thinking

Ruminating too much on things can catch us all at times, usually when we are feeling vulnerability due to a change of some sort. To compen...

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Research Lostness Repairs

I have written about research lostness before ( here , here and here ), but read a great guest post on Thesis Whisperer blog by RMIT Univ...

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Recovering project enthusiasm

I was talking to my research students the other day about the doldrums; that patch of equatorial still air, where sailing ships stalled i...

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Regaining momentum when lost

What contributes to us losing our way on a research project? The 'monsters in our box' are a lack of planning, a lack of planning ...

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Lostness

It's funny (funny-strange) , but I get a sense of when students are derailing from their research projects. However, that is only whe...

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Help with Research Lostness

I have been writing for a while on research 'lostness'. I thought that as a resource for students, I should link a range of my ...

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Academic Dishonesty

I have a student whom I know has cheated on their final report. This student has obviously purchased their assignment - sub-contracted the...

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Want Growth? Only Praise for Hard Work

Professor Carol Dweck is interested in what influences us. As a teacher, she has got interested in what happens in the brains of children,...

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Practice Practice Practice = Habit

My husband said about two hours ago that he was going to bed. Instead of thinking, "Yay! I can go to bed early!", I have been m...

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Knowledge, expectations and fear

When I had just started doing my Master's, my supervisor asked me to present my research at a highly specialist and elite conference (...

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The Slap in the Face with a Dead Fish Moment

I am currently undertaking Inger Mewburn's MOOC called How to Survive Your PhD, on edX. One of the first discussion topics explores ...

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The Harder I Work the Luckier I Get

A friend of mine, Kenn Butler (2015), reposted a story originally told by Ange Fonce (2014), about a 'gifted' person who travell...

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