Procrastination

Source: Procrastination

Procrastination

Hi guys. It is a beautiful day here. I did not go to my office. Instead I decided to be here at home.

I have had troubles with procrastination in the last couple of weeks. I have to finish several tasks, all of them very important, but i am still doing nothing. I am very concern because I feel the pressure; my supervisor asks me for results and I am not in the mood. However I think, why should I call this feeling “procrastination”? I believe i am tired… I just want to rest… to do other things, to “do nothing”.

cheers;

Ric.

Improving writing skills

Hi guys. When I started my PhD, two of the most common activities people suggested me to do was writing and walking. I knew how to walk but I did not know how to write in English. However, I did not understand that when people talked about “writing” was in fact, “academic writing”. Improving my academic writing skills has become a dream that I haven’t accomplished yet.

As all objectives in life, improving writing is a hard task. It is not hard because it is difficult… it is hard because I need a routine, commitment, and desire, and of course, I have to understand several secrets for academic writing.

When I was living in my home country, I used to have good writing skills. I used to run a personal blog and to do beautifully written letters, posts, essays and emails. I could write formally and informally and I never paid attention to differences between academic and non academic writing because I just knew how to write in both ways. Nowadays my situation has changed: I had to be aware that there are ways to write in English and I have to improve them. For instance, my teacher told me I had too choose between the British English or the American English and when I started my PhD I knew there are huge differences between the academic and the informal English. Although I am not an expert when I write my academic papers which are not too bad, I know something is still there that I have to boost it.  English is not impossible to learn but it takes time and dedication.

I would like to write like my supervisor: he writes concisely and clearly. I know I use the double of words to express an idea. This is an issue when I submit abstracts for conferences. My supervisor gives me a hand and he suggests to change some sentences that express the same, even better ideas.

I wish to improve my writing skills-academic and informal-. I know that writing here will give me confidence that I will use to express my ideas in other contexts and places. I hope it is soon.

Thank you for having the time to read me.

Cheers.

Ricc.

 

 

Over-supervised?

Hi guys. This is my first blog. The first thing I have to say is that I apologise if you find grammar errors and mistakes: this is not my mother language. I’ve been learning English for a couple of years and it hasn’t been easy. However I believe I have done a big progress.

I am excited because I am writing here. I’ve read hundreds of good bloggers and all of them say that having a blog is not easy… I hope to accomplish the first and most important goal of a blogger: perseverance.

I am a third year PhD candidate at a prestigious Australian university. My supervisor is a well known professional in his field and people say that I am lucky of having him as a mentor. I agree.

Nevertheless my good luck, I am not completely happy. Although I have published several papers, more than the best PhD candidate at my university, things are not clear for me. I know that the process of getting a PhD is sometimes painful but there is something more important that I would like to find.

When I started my PhD, one of the things that I read about this was that it is much better having a supervisor that really follows your process. My supervisor is a good one. Probably the best one. However I feel that I am over supervised. I am not feeling confident; I don’t feel that I can argue my topic with him… because I feel that I am doing the PhD that he wanted for me.

I have analysed these thoughts and I believe it is because of my learning process: I am learning how to do a PhD and I am still learning this language. I remember a few years ago when I was a successful clinician, a good  professional who helped the companies where I was working…a person who did not have any fears about his life, profession and knowledge. However I am different now… I feel I am an strange here; a person who is following another’s ideas and a guy who is fear of the future and a robot who was not programmed to overcome procrastination.

I really don’t know how to feel better; how to be the expert that my supervisor and other people told me I was going to be; how to be that successful professional that I used to be.

If you have some words, I really appreciate you let your comments.

thank you 🙂

Ric.