Newsletter

Explore | Embrace | Enjoy -🧠 STREAMLine 3️⃣2️⃣

It has been a busy week on the Knowledge Ecology front!

Skills - Writing Featured

The Joy of Writing | A 30 day workbook for researchers

Written for researchers | Inspired by nature | Designed for action

Skills - Communication

When Everything is Urgent, Nothing is Urgent🧠 Brain STREAM 3️⃣1️⃣

Communicating biodiversity loss without using some aspect of 'death' in the headline.

Newsletter

Hybridisation as a Tool To Manage Multiple Specialisms in Research; 🧠 Brain STREAM Issue 30

How blending specialisms and using 'hybrid vigour' creates something greater than the sum of its parts.

Skills - Information Management

Three Reminders to Myself on the 'Nature-based' Database

In Day 5 of my word challenge, I consider databases by giving myself three nature-based reminders on how to make them.

Skills - Writing

Get Serious - Call Writing a "Manuscript", Not a Draft

In Day 4 of my word a day challenge, I consider how using the word 'manuscript' can change your thinking around writing.

Soil Ecophysics

"Biodiversity" is Life; We Should Care

Learn why 'biodiversity' can be misrepresented, yet is critical to life on earth. Part of my Word a Day challenge.

Skills - Research

"Analysis" and "Synthesis"; Two Key Words for PKM and Research

Day 2 of my word a day challenge brings 'synthesis'. A fascinating concept, central to the research process.

Skills - Writing

“Methods” and “Methodology” — Just Academic Lingo?

It seems not. We need both.

Skills - Time Management

Annual Planning for PhD Students: A Feel-Good Bottom-Up Approach

Overwhelmed by annual goals? Try this approach instead that builds upon what you enjoy at the day to day level.

Newsletter

Daily Field Notes: Morning Pages as Research Practice

When I let my research mind wander. Here's what I thought about in five days of morning pages.

Skills - Time Management

My 2024 Journey: What Worked, What Didn't, and What's Next

A look back at 2024, what worked and what didn't, and a look forwards to 2025.

Newsletter

The Ecology Behind Why Your Progress Feels Slow (And Why That's OK): 🧠 Brain STREAM 2️⃣8️⃣

If anyone is slow to grow, it's me. But I'm at peace with that, because I understand the ecological principles behind it.

Skills - Information Management

Building a Second Brain for Your PhD: A Researcher's Guide to PKM

Like an overgrown garden where seeds had been scattered randomly, my PhD research was everywhere. Discovering PKM has helped to transform this chaos into a thriving ecosystem of connected ideas.

Newsletter

The Writing Ecosystem: Life, Death, and Rebirth in Our Creative Process [🧠 Brain STREAM 27]

Rainforest and tundra are equally valuable in the writing ecosystem

Newsletter

The Journal of Personal Experimentation: 🧠 Brain STREAM 2️⃣6️⃣

Just floating an idea - let me know what you think in the comments!

PhD - Day-to-Day

Predictable Imbalance; The Hard-Wired Nature of Efficiency

Let’s reframe the Pareto Principle towards predictable imbalance and limiting factors we can practically apply within our research.

Newsletter

Predictable Imbalance; the Nature of the Pareto Principle and How it Can Help Our Research: 🧠 Brain STREAM 2️⃣5️⃣

Is it in our nature to conform to the Pareto Principle? Nature says yes, so how can we reframe its principles to help with our research work?

Newsletter

The Pareto Principle - LLMs vs Nature 🧠 Brain STREAM 2️⃣4️⃣

Can we engineer the 80/20 rule, or is it inevitable? Within my own academic-in-training context, I consider LLMs and nature to find out.

Newsletter

Why the ‘Rule of Three’ is such a powerful concept 🤯: Brain STREAM 2️⃣3️⃣

There's more to the Rule of Three than you might think.

Creative Writing

What's In a Walk? How Taking Different Types of Walk Inspires Different Types of Thinking

What is in a walk? If not all walks are the same, does that mean we could choose what type of walk we take to engage different parts of ourselves to think differently?

Skills - Wellbeing

What’s in a Prompt? A 5 Minute Journaling Exercise for Researchers

As I have mentioned previously on the socials, I’m trying to start a journaling habit. I try to do it at the end of the day as a wind down…

Newsletter

The Lessons Learned Register: 🧠 Brain STREAM 21

Discover the unique benefits of having a 'Lessons Learned Register' for use throughout your research.

🧠 Brain STREAM 20: Exposure to Joy in Writing is Infectious

It can be quite easy to fall out of love with hobbies when we push beyond the remit of doing them just for enjoyment. Sometimes when I extend myself too much beyond this boundary it removes some of the joy I found in it originally. Though I would never say

Creative Writing

The Fleeting Transience of the Writing Flame and How to Keep it Lit

How can we return to half-finished writing more efficiently and effectively? Here's 3 things to try.