I have a scientist friend who beats himself up constantly, so many papers to write ,so many lectures to prepare, always feeling on edge, do you think you need to cut back? You are amazing producing utube on top of everything else.
I'm nowhere nearly experienced compared to you in writing papers, of course. I'm a 3rd year medical student and english is my 2nd language. I have 0 acedemic papers. But, my faculty wants us to participate in "student projects" each year and write some sort of paper with it and do a presentation about it at the end of the year and we get marked from our work. They are group projects. Reason I'm talking about all that is, I completed 3 projects so far and at the start of all 3 I was extremly motivated. But as time passed on, at the end of the year we have our last final exams where you have no choice but to success or repeat the whole year, and this is the time when they want us to present the projects. So I found myself being forced to write some stuffs about the project and also study on the final simultaneously. It is so hard and I'm still not used to deal with that type of workload, but I realised sooner I finish with the writing better the outcome for me. So when I sit down to write, I gather all my sources and findings etc. then I do a look back on the whole year and project. I try to remember if I thought of anything interesting about the project that I'd want to mention during the presentation or in the paper. And start writing every sentence that I can form with my mind. The last product looks like garbage and nobody in the world can understand anything from it other than me. Even I'd not understand if I come back to read it 4 days later. But after I'm finished with that mixed sentence soup, I try to put the references for each sentence and close that microsoft word file. I comeback to it the next day and read it with a relatively clear mind and try to put things together to make it look more like an actual paper. After that I generally comeback to do some editing or include some tables or something. That way, somehow, I end up with something decent. Infact, we'll present this year's project 2 weeks later and this time it looks really good that we are actually considering sending it to a journal. Sorry if I talked none-sense or took it too long but that's my experience of writing papers for the projects. Just wanted to share it maybe it can be helpful. About the motivation, my general motivation is, if I do something really good it may get published which would be so good for me in my career. If its not so good and don't get published, well then I'm learning by failure to get there. Also faculty kinda pushing that on us and grade percentage of projects are really good too. But I'd guess these are the things you left behind in your career. I hope you find a good motivation for yourself and share it with us.
Hi Sam, I am exactly in the same boat as you, modulo across the pond and different (new) science domain. Funnily enough, I watched this vlog while lingering on YT instead of revising a journal paper AND it inspired me to get right on it! Well, more seriously (or not), what helps me at times to carry on steadily is to 'pretend' that I am helping someone or maybe correcting my student's writeup. Works well for me, especially if the imagined student is good 😀 Cheers!
Potential project off the top of my head: How much and to what degree of specificity is the "average" (oh dear, must limit this...) person aware of her/his/their body in the course of a typical day, not including experiences of medical/physical catastrophes? How much can one be *able* to notice? I am thinking partly of Alexander Technique, which is a method of awareness of ones true physical structure in order to not impede safe, comfortable, beneficial, and/or intentional movement. Another name for this kind of physical awareness is "body mapping." If you're not familiar with Alexander Technique, named after the actor who examined self-awareness and unencumbered movement, I recommend it. Musicians, actors, and dancers are among those who learn and apply this technique to their specific needs and practices.
Indeed I'm blocking out 4 hour-chunks in the todo list for each project. And indeed nothing gets done without a deadline so I decided that these blocks must come with deadlines attached to them. The big question is what these deadlines should be among other tasks (marking, preparing a lecture or an exam, reviewing a paper, etc) that are already time-critical by nature. That's where some handy algorithms come in which calculate how busy I am and so where new todos can fit in. (Unfortunately YT doesn't seem to let me link my LinkedIn article on this.) Since I figured then scripted these simple rules for myself I could stop worrying about running out of deadlines or (not) getting projects done. The scripts took over the demanding task of picking the next thing to do.
Can your motivation partly be the needs of the group of investigators/authors whom you worked with on the project? Can you set deadlines for one another, and then have a fantastic dinner together as you launch the paper?
If you don't think it would have a negative effect, try the reward system. Write for 20-30 minutes and then reward yourself with something you like to do. For me, it was always going outside and getting some fresh air. Sometimes it would clear my head but sometimes it would help me organize my thoughts even better.
Speaking only from my own experience, one of the obstacles to finishing is determining what "finished" looks like. Is it always clear in following the scientific method? Or can it be ambiguous?
Another query I've heard about transplanting the great toe to the hand to create an opposable thumb, when the thumb has been lost because of a trauma. So, if you transplant the toe to the hand, what happens to the function of the new "thumb" when it has been moved to the hand?
You are my mentor...Do more of these videos because its so real what, I go through of course, but to be successful...these talks are essential in reducing stress of such.
I asked an scholar a few years ago,.if it was possible that we can state that we "hear" our thoughts. He answered me that we simply can't here our thoughts. What do you think about if we do or not hear our thoughts?
I have a scientist friend who beats himself up constantly, so many papers to write ,so many lectures to prepare, always feeling on edge, do you think you need to cut back? You are amazing producing utube on top of everything else.
I'm nowhere nearly experienced compared to you in writing papers, of course. I'm a 3rd year medical student and english is my 2nd language. I have 0 acedemic papers. But, my faculty wants us to participate in "student projects" each year and write some sort of paper with it and do a presentation about it at the end of the year and we get marked from our work. They are group projects. Reason I'm talking about all that is, I completed 3 projects so far and at the start of all 3 I was extremly motivated. But as time passed on, at the end of the year we have our last final exams where you have no choice but to success or repeat the whole year, and this is the time when they want us to present the projects. So I found myself being forced to write some stuffs about the project and also study on the final simultaneously. It is so hard and I'm still not used to deal with that type of workload, but I realised sooner I finish with the writing better the outcome for me. So when I sit down to write, I gather all my sources and findings etc. then I do a look back on the whole year and project. I try to remember if I thought of anything interesting about the project that I'd want to mention during the presentation or in the paper. And start writing every sentence that I can form with my mind. The last product looks like garbage and nobody in the world can understand anything from it other than me. Even I'd not understand if I come back to read it 4 days later. But after I'm finished with that mixed sentence soup, I try to put the references for each sentence and close that microsoft word file. I comeback to it the next day and read it with a relatively clear mind and try to put things together to make it look more like an actual paper. After that I generally comeback to do some editing or include some tables or something. That way, somehow, I end up with something decent. Infact, we'll present this year's project 2 weeks later and this time it looks really good that we are actually considering sending it to a journal.
Sorry if I talked none-sense or took it too long but that's my experience of writing papers for the projects. Just wanted to share it maybe it can be helpful.
About the motivation, my general motivation is, if I do something really good it may get published which would be so good for me in my career. If its not so good and don't get published, well then I'm learning by failure to get there. Also faculty kinda pushing that on us and grade percentage of projects are really good too. But I'd guess these are the things you left behind in your career. I hope you find a good motivation for yourself and share it with us.
Hi Sam, I am exactly in the same boat as you, modulo across the pond and different (new) science domain. Funnily enough, I watched this vlog while lingering on YT instead of revising a journal paper AND it inspired me to get right on it! Well, more seriously (or not), what helps me at times to carry on steadily is to 'pretend' that I am helping someone or maybe correcting my student's writeup. Works well for me, especially if the imagined student is good 😀 Cheers!
Potential project off the top of my head:
How much and to what degree of specificity is the "average" (oh dear, must limit this...) person aware of her/his/their body in the course of a typical day, not including experiences of medical/physical catastrophes? How much can one be *able* to notice? I am thinking partly of Alexander Technique, which is a method of awareness of ones true physical structure in order to not impede safe, comfortable, beneficial, and/or intentional movement. Another name for this kind of physical awareness is "body mapping." If you're not familiar with Alexander Technique, named after the actor who examined self-awareness and unencumbered movement, I recommend it. Musicians, actors, and dancers are among those who learn and apply this technique to their specific needs and practices.
"I can't think of anything that i want" 😂
Indeed I'm blocking out 4 hour-chunks in the todo list for each project. And indeed nothing gets done without a deadline so I decided that these blocks must come with deadlines attached to them.
The big question is what these deadlines should be among other tasks (marking, preparing a lecture or an exam, reviewing a paper, etc) that are already time-critical by nature. That's where some handy algorithms come in which calculate how busy I am and so where new todos can fit in. (Unfortunately YT doesn't seem to let me link my LinkedIn article on this.)
Since I figured then scripted these simple rules for myself I could stop worrying about running out of deadlines or (not) getting projects done. The scripts took over the demanding task of picking the next thing to do.
Big fan sir❤
🌷🖤
Big fan of yours sir from Nigeria 🇳🇬
Well done I've watched almost all your videos and download all the regions folders
Sir you're an motivation
Can your motivation partly be the needs of the group of investigators/authors whom you worked with on the project? Can you set deadlines for one another, and then have a fantastic dinner together as you launch the paper?
If you don't think it would have a negative effect, try the reward system. Write for 20-30 minutes and then reward yourself with something you like to do. For me, it was always going outside and getting some fresh air. Sometimes it would clear my head but sometimes it would help me organize my thoughts even better.
Speaking only from my own experience, one of the obstacles to finishing is determining what "finished" looks like. Is it always clear in following the scientific method? Or can it be ambiguous?
Another query I've heard about transplanting the great toe to the hand to create an opposable thumb, when the thumb has been lost because of a trauma. So, if you transplant the toe to the hand, what happens to the function of the new "thumb" when it has been moved to the hand?
You are my mentor...Do more of these videos because its so real what, I go through of course, but to be successful...these talks are essential in reducing stress of such.
I asked an scholar a few years ago,.if it was possible that we can state that we "hear" our thoughts. He answered me that we simply can't here our thoughts. What do you think about if we do or not hear our thoughts?
You need a haircut