Your basket is currently empty!
Use research projects to build academic skills
Design small research projects to build academic skills. We have a fairly good understanding of how to get better at music, or sport. But when it comes to improving academic performance, it can be difficult to describe exactly what this looks like. Based on our understanding of expert performance in other domains, any programme aimed…
Set up your environment to make it harder to work from home
What would you do if you couldn’t work from home? One of the biggest benefits of being an academic is that you can work anywhere, any time. And one of the biggest problems with being an academic, is that you end up working everywhere, all the time. But imagine getting home in the evening and…
Strategy drives outcomes
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. Lao Tzu Your current approach to work is going to keep delivering the same results because strategy drives outcomes. You can’t hope for different outcomes without a change in how you plan your days and weeks. Without a change in workflow,…
Work-life balance can fuel innovation
The academic myth promotes an imbalanced life consumed by work. However, discipline in life breeds creativity in work. Structured lives allow academics the mental space for innovation. The key is a work-life balance that cultivates a well-rested mind, ready for meaningful academic contributions.
You must read a lot, and write a lot
Read extensively and write regularly to become a better academic writer. Consuming diverse content builds skills, while consistent practice makes the writing process more intuitive. Developing these habits can help you produce high-quality work more efficiently and with less stress.
Excellent work is mundane
Excellent work is simply the outcome of doing ordinary things, with focus, for prolonged periods of time. We often think of excellence as the product of something special. Either an extraordinarily gifted person with talent, or someone starting from a position of relative advantage. We find reasons for why those people are excellent, and why…
Use small routines to build good habits
Building good habits when you’re short on time means that you reduce the scope of what you want to do, but stick to the schedule. James Clear (2018). Atomic Habits. Building a habit means that you integrate the activity into your daily routine, even if you can’t do the activity at the scale you’d like.…