will that work for me? experimental approaches to scholarly life
If we all could succeed as scholars by scheduling our fifteen minutes of writing a day, an entire industry of scholarly productivity advice would wither. But we can’t, so we are here to offer you an alternative: experimental approaches to actually discover what works for you, and under what conditions.
in this all new workshop by Dr. Kate Henry and Dr. Katy Peplin, we’ll take you through structured and hands on activities to help you understand:
how you determine what does and doesn’t work for you in your work life
how to ask questions beyond “will this piece of writing get done on time” to measure how you are spending your time and energy
how to design experiments to test new (or revised) strategies, and actually feel confident interpreting and acting on the data (even if it isn’t what you expect)
how to use all of this information to create a repeatable, sustainable system that you can use again and again for when life and working conditions change, again
the workshop will be live and recorded
saturday, february 7 2026
12 - 3 pm EST
who is this for
People who are tired of bouncing from strategy to strategy that just don’t work for them, or at least not sustainably
People who find it hard to be self-confident and self-compassionate enough to work differently
Anyone who feels left out of the traditional (ableist) productivity and scheduling tools
People who struggle to find strategies that work when the conditions of their lives, brains, and research shift
what you get
A three hour workshop (with plenty of breaks) designed by Dr. Henry and Dr. Peplin exclusively for this collaboration
Guided activities to help you develop a repeatable, adjustable method for designing and undertaking scholarly experiments
Tools and support to create your own personalized productivity plan based on your results
Our brand new workbook to accompany, structure, and expand on the workshop during and after the live event
A recording, with transcription, to help you continue the work after our container has closed
Two live sessions, two and four weeks after our workshop, to answer questions and troubleshoot your experiments as you create them
why we made this
Because we’re huge fans of each other - and we want to celebrate the overlap in our approaches
Because a lot of the planning tools presuppose stability and predictability - but what if your body, brain, life, and/or work make that difficult to find?
Because many people hear “experiment” and think “results” - and we believe that the experimental method has benefits and insight all along the cycle of design and implementation
Because many workshops are theory only - this gives you a chance to actually make tools that you can use
cost
$111
discount available for precarious and undersupported scholars - email katy at hello@thrive-phd.com to learn more.
This workshop is co-facilitated by:
Dr. Kate Henry is a Productivity Coach who specializes in sustainable and well-being-oriented productivity. Dr. Henry holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a MA and PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As a Productivity Coach, she guides academics and entrepreneurs to develop actionable and achievable productivity and time management practices so they can achieve short-term and long-term goals without feeling overwhelmed. In addition to her work as a Productivity Coach, Dr. Henry is an independent researcher and author. You can learn more about Dr. Henry and her work at katehenry.com.
Dr. Katy Peplin is the founder of Thrive PhD, a business born out of her own journey through the PhD, and the joys and challenges of being a grad student and a human at the same time. She earned her doctorate at the University of Michigan, with a dissertation centered on animals on film and media. Throughout her degree, she also worked as a teaching consultant at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, practiced yoga regularly, and lived with chronic illness and anxiety. These days, she's super into knitting, colorful water bottles, and helping graduate students around the world treat graduate school like part of their career and life, and not just the holding period before the real stuff begins. Learn more at thrive-phd.com.
