Building a Reading Habit

Six steps to building a reading habit: Trigger the desire by making the reading material obvious (i.e., place articles around the house/lab/office). Acknowledge the positives you’ll gain from reading. Make it easy to succeed (e.g., easy material, short time or small number of pages). Reward success. Publicly state your reading intention (the crowd can help […]

Building a Reading Habit

Six steps to building a reading habit: Trigger the desire by making the reading material obvious (i.e., place articles around the house/lab/office). Acknowledge the positives you’ll gain from reading. Make it easy to succeed (e.g., easy material, short time or small number of pages). Reward success. Publicly state your reading intention (the crowd can help […]

You Should Be Making Slow Gains

So much of research is measured by short term goals – grants, papers, and presentations – when longer term outcomes are the real target – cures, change, and improvements. So, instead of chasing short term goals, aim for slow (but regular) gains. Start reading 5 minutes a workday, then increase it by a minute a […]

Eleven Things I’ve learned About Running Writing Groups

In September last year, I started some new writing groups. Even though my role is facilitator and training, I have learned a lot about writing itself. Here are 11 ideas that came to mind: Writing is annoying and rewarding. Writing shared is writing halved. Ignore the basics. Set up for success. Share your progress. Imagine […]

Being a More Creative Grant Proposal or Social Media Writer

If you’ve ever tried writing a grant, proposal, cover letter, social media or podcast you’ll have likely encountered difficulties being creative. One approach to overcoming this is to use oblique strategies. Transcript: One of the things about grant, and proposal or thesis writing is sometimes, we need to get more creative. Not to necessarily make stuff up but […]

How to Read More Articles

A key part of academic life is reading – reading all of the necessary research literature. Now, you could never hope to read it all. But you could improve your reading through marginal gains. Making changes that result in small improvements that compound. Read daily. Queue your reading. Read on devices, not just computer or […]

Eleven Things I’ve learned About Running Writing Groups

In September last year, I started some new writing groups. Even though my role is facilitator and training, I have learned a lot about writing itself. Here are 11 ideas that came to mind: 1. Writing is annoying and rewarding. 2. Writing shared is writing halved. 3. Ignore the basics. 4. Set up for success. […]