Welcome to a series of eight episodes that focus on writing well and being well for writing. This is the seventh.You will need to write an Acknowledgements section in your thesis, and you can have fun working out who you will thank and how you’ll include acknowledgements in your thesis. But you might also want to make a less formal, less constrained, more honest version. Here, for example, is my gratitude list. This practice comes from Chapter 7, ‘Rewriting’  in Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond.Come listen to a lot of lovely things that make me grateful, and think about what you are grateful for.  Read more of Katherine’s reflections and practices on her blog, Research Degree Insiders https://researchinsiders.blogRead Katherine’s other books https://researchinsiders.blog/books/ Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-firth-0786b026/ Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education: Embracing Positive Solutions (Book series that Katherine’s book is about) https://www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE Find out more about the book series edited by Narelle Lemon http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/book-series-wellbeing-selfcare-in-higher-education  

Welcome to a series of eight episodes that focus on writing well and being well for writing. This is the eighth.Mindfulness is about being present in the moment with your writing, but there may be difficult feelings there. It can help to move from rehearsing how badly you feel, to articulating a beneficial wish for everything and everyone around you, including yourself. And apply it more specifically to your writing practice. This practice comes from Chapter 8, ‘Conclusion’  in Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond.Maybe you could dial up the positive talk, to yourself and others. How does that feel? What grace could be experienced?  Read more of Katherine’s reflections and practices on her blog, Research Degree Insiders https://researchinsiders.blogRead Katherine’s other books https://researchinsiders.blog/books/ Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-firth-0786b026/ Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education: Embracing Positive Solutions (Book series that Katherine’s book is about) https://www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE Find out more about the book series edited by Narelle Lemon http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/book-series-wellbeing-selfcare-in-higher-education  

Welcome to a series of eight episodes that focus on writing well and being well for writing. This is the sixth. Some days, what we need is moderation. Your breath can help you get into the right headspace for that too. Here is an equal breath practice for balanced thinking.This exercise is all about the counting. It’s just complicated enough that you can’t multitask. The equal breathing means your brain should settle into a state that’s not too sleepy and not too fired up but just-Goldilocks-right for the task. This practice comes from Chapter 5, ‘Editing’  in Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond. Even everything out so you are balanced in this 2-minute breathing practice.  Read more of Katherine’s reflections and practices on her blog, Research Degree Insiders https://researchinsiders.blogRead Katherine’s other books https://researchinsiders.blog/books/ Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-firth-0786b026/ Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education: Embracing Positive Solutions (Book series that Katherine’s book is about) https://www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE Find out more about the book series edited by Narelle Lemon http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/book-series-wellbeing-selfcare-in-higher-education  

Welcome to a series of eight episodes that focus on writing well and being well for writing. This is the third.The English-language proverb ‘they can’t see the forest for the trees’ means that someone is so involved in the details (the trees) that they can’t see the big picture (the forest). As a PhD researcher, you need to spend a lot of time looking at tiny details. Microscopic particles, items of code, codicils, footnotes, referencing databases and commas. Sometimes you need to look at the bigger picture, like when you are editing the thesis as a whole. But the big picture is bigger than that. The big picture is your whole life, your whole community, all human knowledge and beyond, to the whole universe. This practice comes from Chapter 4, ‘Recharging’ in Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond. Close your eyes, and put your work into context.  Read more of Katherine’s reflections and practices on her blog, Research Degree Insiders https://researchinsiders.blogRead Katherine’s other books https://researchinsiders.blog/books/ Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-firth-0786b026/ Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education: Embracing Positive Solutions (Book series that Katherine’s book is about) https://www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE Find out more about the book series edited by Narelle Lemon http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/book-series-wellbeing-selfcare-in-higher-education  

Welcome to a series of eight episodes that focus on writing well and being well for writing. This is the fifth.Taking a deep breath often makes us think about calming down. But we can use our breathing to get fired up too. The other part of the ‘flight and freeze’ response is the ‘fight’ instinct. If you find feeling like fighting gets you excited about writing, then a calming breath isn’t going to help you, you’ll need something to fire you up instead. Here is an energizing breath for firing up your writing. This practice comes from Chapter 5, ‘Editing’  in Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond. Wake up your breath and your brain and your writing in this 2-minute breathing practice.  Read more of Katherine’s reflections and practices on her blog, Research Degree Insiders https://researchinsiders.blogRead Katherine’s other books https://researchinsiders.blog/books/ Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-firth-0786b026/ Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education: Embracing Positive Solutions (Book series that Katherine’s book is about) https://www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE Find out more about the book series edited by Narelle Lemon http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/book-series-wellbeing-selfcare-in-higher-education  

Welcome to a series of eight episodes that focus on writing well and being well for writing. This is the first. Put your headphones on, lace up your shoes, and plan to get away from your desk with a walking practice to help stir up thoughts and get your writing going. This practice comes from Chapter 1, ‘Reading and Thinking’ in Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond. In A Philosophy of Walking, Frédéric Gros explores ways that walking and thinking are intertwined. Rebecca Solnit in Wanderlust and Walter Benjamin in The Arcades Project are two of my favourite examples of people walking and thinking through urban spaces. In ‘Kinds of Water’, the poet Anne Carson walks the pilgrimage trail to Santiago di Compostela, accompanied by epigraphs of Japanese poets. Above Heidelberg University is a beautiful walk called the ‘Philosopher’s Way’, and behind some of the oldest colleges in Cambridge is a walk called ‘The Backs’—both places where scholars could jog their thinking by getting physically moving, either alone or in company.Come along on a thinking and planning walking practice. Read more of Katherine’s reflections and practices on her blog, Research Degree Insiders https://researchinsiders.blogRead Katherine’s other books https://researchinsiders.blog/books/ Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-firth-0786b026/ Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education: Embracing Positive Solutions (Book series that Katherine’s book is about) https://www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE Find out more about the book series edited by Narelle Lemon http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/book-series-wellbeing-selfcare-in-higher-education 

Welcome to a series of eight episodes that focus on writing well and being well for writing. This is the fourthBreathing is amazing. Your brain checks in on your breathing to find out how things are going in the body, including to work out if it should help out by pumping out stress or calm reactions. So choosing your breath can help you influence your emotions. If you sit down to write and feel your ‘flight’ or ‘freeze’ stress reaction activate because you want to run away from the scary writing, then that will get in the way of the thing you want to do, which is stick at the desk and write some words. Here is a calming breath practice for when writing stresses you out in a bad way.This practice comes from Chapter 5, ‘Editing’  in Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond.Take a deep breath, find some calm before you start writing in this 2-minute breathing practice. Read more of Katherine’s reflections and practices on her blog, Research Degree Insiders https://researchinsiders.blogRead Katherine’s other books https://researchinsiders.blog/books/ Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-firth-0786b026/ Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education: Embracing Positive Solutions (Book series that Katherine’s book is about) https://www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE Find out more about the book series edited by Narelle Lemon http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/book-series-wellbeing-selfcare-in-higher-education 

Welcome to a series of eight episodes that focus on writing well and being well for writing. This is the second.As you sit down to work at your computer, check in with your task, time, energy, body and mind. What would make your writing five to ten percent more productive? What would make your writing five to ten percent more joyful, luxurious, or comfortable? This practice comes from Chapter 3, ‘Writing’ in Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond. As I wrote the first draft of this section, I was in an online writing group. Someone was  in bed with their camera off. Someone was on the sofa. People were alone in a room, or sharing with others. People were drinking water, tea, coffee and chai. People are eating snacks. Come and join us to make your worn writing space perfect, for you, for now.  Read more of Katherine’s reflections and practices on her blog, Research Degree Insiders https://researchinsiders.blogRead Katherine’s other books https://researchinsiders.blog/books/ Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-firth-0786b026/ Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education: Embracing Positive Solutions (Book series that Katherine’s book is about) https://www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE Find out more about the book series edited by Narelle Lemon http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/book-series-wellbeing-selfcare-in-higher-education 

Do you struggle to find time to write? Do you get distracted by important or urgent tasks, feel blocked, or fail to make progress with writing projects? Does writing often feel like a grind? If so, this interview with Prolifiko's Bec Evans and Chris Smith are the experts you need to hear from! They're in conversation with the Research Whisperers, Tseen Khoo and Jonathan O’Donnell.Bec and Chris’ expert-led training and coaching programmes improve writing productivity and publishing performance – vital for impact. In this podcast, they discuss questions around:prioritising your writing and making time for it.setting motivating and achievable writing goals.beating distraction by understanding what stops you writing.improving your productivity and feel positive about your progress.shifting your mindset to keep you going long term.REFERENCES FROM THE INTERVIEW Prolifiko-related resources and links: There are 2 blogposts on Research Whisperer by Chris Smith - 1) Should we really write daily? and 2) Five benefits of a writing 'system'.Blogpost on Time confetti – snatching time to write when you have none (by Bec Evans). 'How to find time to write using the traffic light approach' (worksheet) The life of a productive scholarly author: 5 findings from research (Slideshare) What's your writing personality? (Prolifiko quiz)Ellen J. Langer – Mindfulness (Da Capo Lifelong Books). This Harvard Business Review piece with Langer might interest you. Kellogg, R. T. (1994). The psychology of writing. Oxford University Press. This article  about Kellogg's work appeared in The Marginalian: The Psychology of Writing and the Cognitive Science of the Perfect Daily RoutineJamie Burford’s Research Whisperer post about romancing your writing.  GUEST SPEAKER BIOSProlifiko delivers specialist coaching services for writers, researchers and academics. Founded by writing productivity coaches Bec Evans and Chris Smith who have over 20 years’ experience supporting writers to write. Bec and Chris are also the authors of Written: How to Keep Writing and Build a Habit that Lasts. Published in the UK by Icon, Written is available for pre-order now in Australia and New Zealand.You can - and should! - sign up for their great newsletter Breakthroughs & Blocks. 

This podcast episode is with the wonderful minds behind the Conference Inference blog, Jamie Burford and Emily Henderson, both based in the Department of Education Studies at the University of Warwick in the UK. They both research in the area of International Higher Education, with a shared focus on conferences, doctoral education, academic mobilities, gender, and queer theory. Together, they founded the academic blog Conference Inference, which is a hub for thinking about and researching conferences.Conference Inference blogJohn Adlam's article on the spiral configurationRead more about Jamie and Emily's research on conferences: Emily’s 2020 book with Routledge Gender, Definitional Politics and 'Live' Knowledge Production: Contesting Concepts at ConferencesSpecial issue that Jamie and Emily co-edited for the Gender and Education journal called “Thoughtful gatherings: gendering conferences as spaces of learning, knowledge production and community” (2020)Insider’s Guide to Success in Academia - Making sense of academic conferences (2023)