AcWriMo Ask Us Anything with Dr. Kate Henry!

i am so excited to be back! and what better to kick off season five with than an Ask Us Anything Q and A with my colleague and frequent collaborator, Dr. Kate Henry! we answer questions about being bored with a long project, working on your scholarship in very limited time, writing for "the general public", and more! get into it!

• transcript

    📍 Welcome to Grad School is Hard, But... A Thrive PhD podcast. I'm Dr. Katy Peplin and this is a show for everyone who's doing the hard work of being a human and a scholar.

  In this season,

  I'll be sharing the anchor phrases, tools, and strategies that underpin all of the work that I do with clients as part of Thrive PhD, and of course, the things that work for me as I attempt to be a human and a scholar.

  And make sure you check out the link in the show notes for my working more intentionally tool kit. Which is available for you totally for free. Now let's get into it

  As part of this year's Akraimo celebrations, as part of this year's Akraimo celebrations, I worked with my colleague and frequent collaborator, Dr. Kate Hendry. You might know her at the tending year on Instagram or at her website. The Kate Henry dot com or maybe her amazing book, but it's been my joy and pleasure to work with her.

  As part of this year's AcWriMo celebrations, I worked with my colleague and frequent collaborator Dr. Kate Henry. You might know her from The Tending Year and at Instagram or her website, katehenry. com, or maybe even her book. Scholars from all over the world submitted questions to us about productivity, workflows, academic writing, and being a human while you do all that stuff.

  It was a joy to answer these questions and I hope you learn as much from Dr. Henry as I did.

   All right, I am so excited. So let's hop right into it with our first question. Hi, Kate and Katie. I've been working on my dissertation for a couple of years, and I recently haven't been feeling as much motivation to show up and write. I frequently get distracted and procrastinate, maybe just because I'm feeling a little bit bored.

  Do you have suggestions for ways I can jumpstart my excitement about my research again? Oh, this is such a good question. I'm curious, Kate, what, like, jumps to mind for you, first of all? What jumps to mind for me, first of all, is to go and read other dissertations for inspiration. Like, to read dissertations by folks who are in your department, or folks who are doing similar work to you, and to allow that to both inspire you, and also to remind you that You can do it like to remind you like, Oh, I can fill in an outline with similar things to this.

  And I imagine that that might get you excited about the project again. So that's the first thing that comes to my mind is to seek out inspiration around the project. And I think that's so important for like, expectation setting too. I know that for me, when I would work on my dissertation, like, I frequently had to like, bring it back down to what I would call like, a dissertation size project.

  Because like, the more research I would do, the more I'd be like, okay, well, this is now six manuscripts worth of stuff. And so I need to bring it back down. And reading other dissertations was like, oh, I don't need to write six different books. I can do what this person did. So I love that advice. I will do, I will say that for me the middle is when I always get a little bit bored.

  I have like a lot of like shiny new thing energy and I also will be like, oh yeah, I can push through to the finish line, like if that's in sight, but in the middle I need. rewards and like gamification, not unlike, you know, like dog training or like potty training, like I need to be able to see it. So for me, the middle is when I start to do like, okay, I'm going to color in my hundred Pomodoro chart.

  And it, once I get to a hundred, I get like, you know, a nice new hand cream or whatever the reward is, or I, you know, make sticker charts, or I do word counts, or I try to keep a streak, all of those like Duolingo style gamifications can be really helpful for me. So like, if the motivation's not in the project, I try and put it in the habit, or the practice, or the, the measurement, because sometimes that can like, bring a little sparkle back for me too.

  Yeah, I totally hear that and like the reward setting for it that also makes me think for this particularly like if you need like a change of scenery, even if it's like a different space and you're like, are you going to a coffee shop or to a library or like some place that you could feel inspired or like treat yourself by and like that might jumpstart your focus, even if it's just for like, I'm doing this for a half hour, like something that might Might spark it.

  Yeah, I used to go and use my kitchen counter as a standing desk for that. Like, I would just be like, okay, let's just type for an hour over here and maybe that'll feel a little bit different. So sometimes body first can really help. Okay. Well, I think that's a couple of suggestions for that. So, how about this second question, which I'm also really excited to hear what you have to think about it.

  So because of my work schedule, this person asks, I can really only work on my scholarship one day a week. Do you have tips on how I can get the most out of my limited work time? Yes, I bring a fresh new perspective to this having a nine month old chaos agent in my house. So I'm definitely, but I would love to hear what works for you first.

  Yeah, I'm definitely, yeah, I'm definitely curious to hear from you around your experience with parenting. I just have a two year old chihuahua who is, has a lot of, probably, An equal amount. Needed care, you know but not quite the same. But I think about this question, I think for the folks that I work with, and I'm sure also the folks that you work with, it's very common due to health or caretaking or work to have little limited amounts of time to work on scholarship.

  And two things come to my mind. The first is if you only have a limited amount of time. To get incredibly clear on what you are working on. So to right size your tasks for the amount of time that you have. So you're not just like I'm writing my dissertation. It becomes, I'm doing my topic sentences for my introduction, like much more accessible and doable.

  And the second thing that comes to my mind is setting up accountability during those work sessions. So this might be coworking with a colleague or a friend or Either like, live on zoom or in person, or having a shared checklist in a Google doc or something where you can report back or even just if you're on your own, like, having a Pomodoro timer, like, something that will set up maybe gamify the approach and have some sort of external accountability.

  So you can. be more efficient during shorter time blocks. So that's what comes to my mind when I think about how to maximize a small amount of time. But what do you think, Katie? Yeah, so I definitely agree with all of those suggestions. And the other thing that I would add is that I think that time spent planning, either in the beginning of that session or like throughout the week when like maybe, you know, you don't quite have the energy to like work on your scholarship, say after work or like after caretaking, but you do have the energy to kind of make a checklist, like make some plans.

  I know that. For me personally, I've been finding it really, really helpful to set up everything so that when the like stars align, and that's truly what it feels like sometimes, like the, the brain and the body and the work and the environment all come together and you only have an hour that you have a sense, like you said, of like, this is the specific two or three things that I can do.

  And for me, having a choice has also been really helpful. Like, okay, I can either do this or I can do this. And having that outsourced into a task manager, or a to do list, or a journal, or somewhere where I can like, park my brain. Because I find that, for me personally, my brain is working at like, a low level in waves throughout the week.

  And I work with so many people who carry so much shame around not working every day. And then I'm like, you are working on it, though. You're thinking about it, you're, you're imagining, you may be reading, you might be checking emails, you might be teaching on something similar. Like, you're engaged in it.

  Give yourself credit for that work, and then, if you need to, Give yourself permission to spend a little bit extra energy in the capturing of those thoughts, like yell into a voice note, send your friend a text about those things, scribble maniacal notes to yourself in a planner, and you know, maybe only 40 of them, 40 percent of them will make sense later, but capturing those thoughts when they happen so that you don't have to rely on your brain to To remember all of those things and immediately jump into it.

  That would be my, my advice because the you're working on it all the time. Even if it's only like a 1 or 2 or 10 percent level. So give yourself credit for it. Capture it when you can. And. Do your best to

  capture it when you can. Yeah. I that's so brilliant. The idea to record that, like to record it when you have these ideas, even if it's not during a work session, I'll often do this with like, I have to remember to do X and I'll just throw it in my Google calendar for later this week. So it pops up and it's a reminder to me like, Oh, don't forget to do X.

  And it just was like, Arbitrarily thrown in there, like not on a to do list, but like, I know I'll see the notification later, right? So I like this idea of record it when it's in your mind, even if it's not totally fleshed out yet. Yeah, and I think that offloading some of that to some other system, whether it's your Google calendar or a piece of paper or a planner or something, I think that a lot of us expect that like real academics or good academics can just like hold it all up there and And I haven't met anyone who hasn't found it helpful to be able to look at a physical reflection of at least part of those ideas, whatever form that takes.

  So yeah. Okay. Excellent question. Thank you to our reader for sending that in. Okay. Thank you for this Q and A, Dr. Peplin and Dr. Henry. You're welcome. You have both written for academia, like your dissertations and journal articles, but you. Also, both have transitioned to writing newsletters and blog posts.

  I'm curious to hear how you made that transition. And if you think your academic training helps you with writing for more general audiences, as a book author, Dr. Henry, I am at your, like your knees to, you know, as a, as a student to hear this, because I really look to you as somebody who's made this transition really brilliantly.

  Thank you. That's so kind. That feels great to hear. What came to my mind when I read this question was thinking how academic writing really follows a template that's already laid out before us. Of course, we can get creative and, you know, do lots of interesting stuff, but like, I was always able to read sample dissertations, like read other things in reverse outline, which I know you have lots of wonderful like lessons on that.

  And that set me up to like, you know, create my own templates that I would utilize for blog posts. For newsletters now, like I, it's often like I outline things ahead of time and outlining was a skill. I developed in graduate school and I'm doing that. And similar for my book, like it was similar in terms of like the outlining.

  It was not the same thing as a dissertation. The book was a little bit more like, Oh, what do I want this to look like? It can look like all it doesn't have to have a method section. Right. So there was more freedom there, but I still definitely. You know, benefit from the reverse outlining the templates that outlines that I utilized in school.

  But I also think for writing online, this is not directly an answer to the question, but I really love how there's like so little gatekeeping. Like I'm like, Oh, I can write whatever I want and I can share this. It doesn't have to go through like peer review. It doesn't have to take like a year to get published and maybe it doesn't.

  So that's something that, you know, academia. You know, was much slower and I find it wonderful that it's much more accessible to be publishing online. I imagine you concur with that, so I'm curious to hear your thoughts. I do. So, this is like kind of a tender question for me because I still have a lot of baggage, I think, around my identity as a writer.

  I, when I was in grad school and even afterward, never identified myself as a writer. I almost always was like, oh, I'm a teacher. And I sometimes write that down. And that was really useful for me when I was writing because I was like, okay, I would imagine when I would get stuck on things, if I had to teach this to a very smart undergrad, what would I teach it to?

  You know, how would I teach this to them? And I would basically like write down a lecture and then sort of make it more dissertation like, and so I, And I think what really made that transition to writing for more general audiences is being like, Oh, this is also just like teaching. So if I wanted to outline how to use this tool, for example, in a blog post, how would I have explained it to, you know, my colleagues?

  How would I have explained it to my clients? And that teacherly voice always felt much more comfortable to me. But as I sort of get further and further away from the dissertation, the more I'm finding that I still do have some kind of knots around the, like, I'm a good teacher, but I'm maybe not a good writer.

  And so I am really working to kind of untangle those things. And remember that, like you said, there is so little judgment around what makes a blog post a blog post, or like, what makes it worthy to be a newsletter. And I found that it's actually been really healing for me in certain ways to have people react to my writing and be like, this is really useful for me, and this is really positive, or I really liked it when you said this, or like, reply to a newsletter and say like, oh, this was great.

  Because I felt like So much of my scholarship was just me either writing to absolute crickets, no one reading it, no one giving me any feedback, or feedback that was to put it mildly, less than constructive. So a lot of the scholarship process really left me feeling insecure, and so a lot of my business journey has been reclaiming that skill.

  Hopefully that's not too vulnerable to share, but I think it's sometimes helpful for people to realize that, like, yes, I do write newsletters and blog posts, but, like, I'm not at all. You know, firing them off and being like, Ooh, good job, self, like, there's still some of that insecurity and double thinking and going back and forth that lots of us, I imagine, struggle with.

  Mm. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. That is vulnerable and also validating to hear. Like, I imagine lots of folks listening feel that way too. As well around like, no, I have this great skill and sharing my knowledge in this way and then publishing for. You know, I don't know, sort of like performing our knowledge, which I think is really what we did in graduate school.

  That was also something like while I really enjoy, and I think I grad school did prepare me to outline my writing very well. It also prepared me to like. Sort of perform my knowledge with jargon and that's something I've really worked hard to unlearn and undo and because it's really important for me to make scholarship accessible.

  Right. Right. And, you know, so that is also something as well where I'm certainly. Yeah, that's been a learning curve for me as well, like unlearning using all the jargony theory terms. Absolutely. Yeah, there are so few opportunities for me to talk about it like epistemology in this particular line of work.

  And that's both a blessing and a curse. They're like, I have to sort of take down some of that jargon, but it also challenges me in the same way that teaching did to be like, okay, like, if you can't use that word, you can't use that sort of phrasing. Do you know this well enough to translate it in a different.

  Different language, almost. Yes. Awesome. I am excited for your wisdom in that particular genre. So we have one more question, which I'm really excited to talk about because it's something that I am feeling too. Hi, Katie and Kate. I am feeling really behind with all that I have to do between now and the end of the year.

  And it's really discouraging. How do you deal with this wrap everything up rush? And so do you feel this rush, Kate? I actually, when I read this question, I was like, should I plan out the end of my year? Y'all know, not in a bad way, not in a bad way. But I, I actually like what came to my mind when I read this is like, okay, it's time to do a brain dump.

  It's time to just get everything that could be done out of your head and onto the page to, you know, then. Like that can be its own step. So then you can be like, I don't have to remember everything. And I know that can feel really overwhelming for some folks to see everything you have to do. For me, I really love seeing a brain dump because then I can start to sort of say like, okay, what needs to be done good enough?

  Like, what can I really do good enough? And like, also like within the realm of academia at the end of the year, I'm like, When are folks signing off for the end of the year? Like when are folks checking out? Everyone's really busy, you know? So those sort of things came to my mind, like what really needs to be done super well and what can just be delayed or, you know, just done well enough.

  And also what came to my mind is thinking around like, Oh, making sure to like plan time off. Like particularly if this person is feeling rushed, like, is there a way that they can ensure that they are. Setting aside time to really rest and take a break, like, are there ways if they have you know, vacation or breaks scheduled around holidays, like, is there a way to actually make sure that they have that rest space?

  That came to my mind as well. But what do you think? Absolutely. So this is something that I actually really struggle with because I love fresh starts so much. I am on the record in several places as being. Like. You know, really drawn to the magic of, like, new years and new moons and new weeks and new days and, like, that kind of, like, starting over energy and through the years I've kind of really dug into what itch that scratches for me and part of it is this idea that, like, I can only rest when everything's done.

  And I think that so many of us feel that, and as a scholar, and so many of the people that I'm working with are like, well, I'll rest when I hit this milestone, I'll rest when the prospectus is done, I'll rest when this class is finished, I'll rest when my exams are passed, when I get this chapter done, and the problem with achievement based rest.

  Like, that like rest you have to unlock is what I call like the moving goal line problem. That like, it just keeps going. And that as soon as you pass your exams, you have to start working on that prospectus. And then it's the chapter, and then it's the journal article, and the next class, like the pace really is relentless.

  And so if you are always saying like, I will rest when I've worked enough for it to be worth it, I'm, I'm here to tell you from personal experience that you will experience some level of exhaustion, if not straight up clinical burnout, but also you're reinforcing the idea that your rest is predicated on you achieving enough to be worth it.

  And like you said, like so many of us look forward to the end of the year as the a time where we can be with family or be with loved ones or take a break or enjoy the twinkle lights or sort of whatever it looks like for you, but that if you don't protect that space, if you don't actually genuinely plan for it, it is so easy to wake up on January 15th.

  when your new semester starts and be like, wow, not only did I not get what I wanted to done, I also didn't rest. So for, I love the idea of a brain dump. I think that's really helpful. And I often go through my brain dump just like you do and be like, These are the things that must absolutely get done.

  Here are the things that would be great to do if I have a little bit of extra energy or time in the tank. And here are things that I am explicitly giving myself permission not to do until the new year, the new semester starts. Whatever that sort of like reset period is and for me giving that like explicit permission like I give myself Explicit permission to not prep that next syllabus until after the holidays or like I give myself explicit permission To put off this journal article That's due in February until January really helps me because then it's not, I've closed that folder instead of leaving it on my desk, like maybe I'll get to it because I find that it's those open tasks that really make it difficult for me to unplug and actually rest.

  Yes. Oh, thank you for all of that. That's excellent. That makes me think about, like, I also am like a new person, like I've already got my new bullet journal for the year that I've started to set up, you know, like, and it makes me think too, like for me, like, I'm like, Oh, I had all these 2024 goals. What if I didn't finish any?

  And like you mentioned, like things I must get done, things I could do if I had some energy, you know, like things I may need to postpone. And I wonder if there's also like a fourth thing where it's like, do you want to Not do this anymore. Like, do you want to like give yourself permission to be like, I don't have to carry that with me into the new year.

  Like I wanted to do this article or I wanted to apply for this job and actually like, I don't want to do that. I think especially if you're like a new year new me, that could be a nice thing to be like, yeah, I changed my mind about that one. That's okay. It's funny that you mentioned that because I was talking with my husband who's a software engineer about that exact issue.

  And like in software engineering terms, they call that like, Backlog grooming, like you go through your backlog of like all of the things that have kind of accumulated and you make explicit decisions Like oh, that was a good idea But we're not going to do that or like and you close those things out because otherwise like I just imagine a person Like putting more and more things in their backpack and like I have this goal and I have this goal and sometimes it's really Helpful to be like, you know what that was a great goal for me nine months ago But it's not a great goal for me anymore.

  And I'm giving myself permission to be like, you know what? I'm not the same person that set those goals. And there's no shame in letting them go and picking goals that actually feel good and useful and supportive for me. I love this. Yeah, maybe we should do a little workshop on like, I don't know, rinse and rinse and repeat, like clear your, clear your goals, close the backlog or something.

  Absolutely. That's cool. I love it. Yeah, we will think about that. For maybe later, but I just want to say thank you so much for sharing your time and your wisdom with all of us. I'm so excited to get this out to all of our listeners. So wherever this finds you, when it finds you. We are wishing you, at least I am, but I'm pretty sure that Dr.

  Henry is too a restful and restorative end of the year. Thanks so much. Bye bye.

  📍 Thank you for listening to Grad School is Hard, but... You can find more information and resources in the show notes and at thrive-phd.com. Every month, I'll select one reviewer for a free 45 minute session with me. So please subscribe, rate, and review to help spread the word about the show. Thanks so much and I'll see you again soon!