Inger and Jason talk about work, but you know - not in a boring way. Practical, implementable productivity hacks to help you live a more balanced life. Find us talking to each other between episodes on Mastodon: @thesiswhisperer@aus.social and @jasondowns@ravenation.club
Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us!Jason lost the annual Downs family hosted hot cross bun competition, but Inger's political team comprehensively won the federal election, so we figure we came out even. There's a bulging mail bag with lots of interesting questions from listeners - some of which we could even answer.Then we chat about the first ten months of our business 'On The Reg Team'. What lessons has Jason learned about being an entreprenerd? loyalty wont save your Higher Ed job... so how do you start your own thing (even if it's just a lifeboat for now).Clearly we had a lot to say because Inger's AirPods gave up before the end! (Inger snippity doo dah'd over half an hour... Sadly, you don't get to hear about Jason painting his boat)Things we mentioned:The first hot cross bun episode (where Jason accidentally bought secular buns)Guardian episode on Australia's obsession with sexy (!?) hot cross bun varietiesJason's pictures of the HCB off and trophy#DemocracySausage price list on InstagramInger's pictures of her election day work for PocockList of reading for nurses going into academia (thanks Sally-Anne Wherry!)Timing app and Co-Typist + our TextExpander bookMaxQDA tailwind AI assistant and ConsensusGoblin toolsDo the work by Steven PressfieldInger's enshittification postXero and Paris FinancialGot thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com- Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break).- Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us!We're back! It's been six weeks - sorry about that!Jason was finally struck down by covid... for the first time. Yes, really! Now he finally understands what everyone is complaining about. There's a lot to catch up on: the election, a digression into 'Married at first sight' and what happens to a sander when you use it for 6 hours straight on your boat hull. We get half way through a very full mailbag, before getting on to our dissection of chapter one of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This is the third time we've talked about this book, and we're only now doing Habit One: proactivity ... look, we have a lot to say! Check out episode 17, where we discuss how the book is really Mormonism pretending to be productivity, and chapter 38 where we talk about chapter three.Be warned - it gets very deep and meaningful. In fact, we get so into it that we forgot to do a two minute tip! We'll make it up to you, we promise.Things we mentionPrevious discussions of 7 Habits: episode 17 and chapter 38Academic Mean Girls Inger reckons Andy Kirk is your go to for Data visualisationBack to Zero - the paper Book: The voices within: the history and science of how we talk to ourselvesBook: Team DogBook: The presentation of self in everyday lifeThe Valley of Shit (blog post about Jason when he was doing his PhD)Book: Striking Ore: the rise and fall of union power in the PilbaraBook: Enemy FeGot thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com- Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break).- Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us!Longtime listeners who have been asking for Jason to read another romance novel: Inger has delivered! Jason reads Rebecca Yarros's 'The Fourth Wing' and only throws up a little bit in his mouth :-)After a bit of mail bag, we go deep on the subject of reading: how much of it there is; how tedious academic reading can be; how tired this reading makes us; the feelings of Guilt when you read for pleasure; and the myth of 'keeping up with the literature'. Finally we talk about how many books we own: how much is too many and when/how should you slim down a collection? Inger feels better about her massive collection when she compares herself to Umberto Eco, and Jason has a mild panic attack at the idea of putting together a display shelf.We finish with a tribute to the late, great Professor Peter Elbow (one of Inger's most beloved writers about writing) and a two minute tip about buying study aids.Note, we were going to try to put out a video version of this one - but there were technical problems. Hence the references to showing the camera books. We will try again next time.What we talked aboutCornell template techniqueNote taking Matrix instructionsUmberto Eco in his 50,000 book library (video evidence!)Marie Kondo's life changing magic of tidying upRebecca Yarros - The Fourth WingWriting without TeachersGot thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com- Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break).- Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us!Inger and Jason have been on summer holidays. Jason's family acquired a 10 year old ginger cat, while Inger has committed to #puppyproject and put a deposit on a dangerously adorable, small fluffy puppy. Prepare for a lot of pet talk this year!In the mailbag there's a good description of a workflow with Todoist and a lively discussion of bullet journals. The work problems segment was produced with the help of Inger's work Husband, Claude who (it seems) has a frighteningly good grasp of the problems of late stage capitalism. We're talking about the pressures of the sector, work burn out and health, so if you'd rather not listen to that, skip to our reading segment where Inger convinces Jason to read another romance novel!We close out with a brief chat about Omnifocus (again!)Things we mentioned:Coton De Trulear (dog breed)Tofu Eating Wokerati commentMigoals daily plannerTodoistZoe PodcastGenerative AI for academicsGot thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com- Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break).- Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us!Inger and Jason catch up at the kitchen table... in Casa Downs this time. The sound on this one is ok, considering we were in a huge open space downstairs!While Jack Downs washes Inger's new car, she catches Jason up on the first Shut up and Write symposium at Cambridge University. Jason tells Inger why Jack Downs is happy to earn 20 bucks by washing her car...There's a bit of mail bag before the Work Problems segment, where the team talk about the idea of 'technology stacks', zero-ing in on OmniFocus as a project management tool.Inger's read a shit ton of books and both have a two minute tip, for once. Happy Christmas listening everyone!We talked about...If you're interested in the idea of Bali Bootcamp, you can express interest here.Writing partnersInger's new Volvo EX30ScrivenerZoteroObsidianOmnifocusText ExpanderTiny TakeBuzzsproutANU woesOmni showChecklist manifestoThe art of explanationExtra Focus, the Quick Start Guide to Adult ADHD Writing for Busy ReadersElastic HabitsPaper about ChatGPT expecting you to be helpful: Usage-based constructionist approaches and large language modelsMappifyWe've changed our email address!! You can email us on Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Visit our (pretty terrible) website: www.ontheregteam.comJason is having a break from the Socials, but you can still find Inger as @thesiswhisperer pretty much everywhere (and she will friend anyone on LinkedIn). You can read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. Subscribe to the monthly On The Reg newsletter hereIt costs us about $1000 a year to produce this podcast. If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us!Jason is dying of a cold. Inger is surrounded by an ocean of redundancies at ANU. Anyone would think winter was coming, but no - it's the start of Spring (at least here in the Southern Hemisphere).After a bit of mutual whingeing on the State of The World, the team zip through the mail bag. We answer a few burning questions about AI from listeners. There's also wise words from listeners on how to use MS Word properly to do cross referencing and such. All good stuff. Thank you for making us smarter everyone!In the work problems segment, Inger tells Jason all about her theory of why LLMs and AI are not going to take our jobs. Something, something Capitalism doesn't want us to have no money, something. To support her theory, she leans heavily on David Graeber's excellent book 'Bullshit Jobs' and of course, our friend ChattieG.No time for what we are reading (again!) but Jason does drop the knowledge on 'OmniBuJo' and how to create custom perspectives that act like Bullet Journal spreads. Mostly though, we are just pleased we got through this episode with Jason fully coughing up a lung. Enjoy!Stuff we talked about:Chat GPT is the best teammate Why people hide their use of AIOpenAI is burning moneyBullshit jobs - the original essay Bullshit Jobs - the bookInger's notes towards a theory of LLMs and Bullshit JobsWe've changed our email address!! You can email us on Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Visit our (pretty terrible) website: www.ontheregteam.comJason is having a break from the Socials, but you can still find Inger as @thesiswhisperer pretty much everywhere (and she will friend anyone on LinkedIn). You can read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. It costs us about $1000 a year to produce this podcast. If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us!The OTR team have been travelling around the country, and around the world, delivering workshop goodness. Jason was temporarily at the Canberra Branch of OTR Team on the way back from a Sydney gig, so Inger set up a podcast studio from the kitchen table to hear about his glamorous post-Latrobe life, complete with $10 cups of coffee in Hong Kong.The team discuss the usual, you know AI in project management, writing and all that. ChattieG (ChatGPT) helped us with the work problems segment. Chattie had some thoughts why some people have a hard time doing the low key writing exercises Inger has in her workshops. Turns out, the perfectionism is real. This one is off the hook people. We were constantly interrupted by meetings, Thesiswhisperer family members making coffee and the dishwasher being on in the next room. Despite all this, the sound was... not too bad! Things we mentionedRich Academic / Poor AcademicLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email us: Jason is having a break from the Socials, but you can still find Inger as @thesiswhisperer pretty much everywhere. You can read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. It costs us about $1000 a year to produce this podcast. If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us!Jason is living his best life, free of Latrobe - but Inger has immediately put him to work! On The Reg Team, their new consulting company, is struggling to life through multiple stages of paperwork. More to come...The team talk about various doings, including Doen's Jnr's laundry skills, Inger's campaign to get a Puppy and getting caught up in the Blue Screen of Death global IT meltdown! There's a full mailbag with some side dashes of Claude before the team embark on the central question: how can you be a less crap manager in academia? God knows, we need them - we have many Thoughts. Reading hasn't been high on the agenda, but there's still a two minute tip or two at the end!Stuff we mentioned:Inger's blog post on how AI is saving her 12 hours a weekAlison Hardy's podcast@thehulry on ThreadsOpen AI is Testing Its Powers of Persuasion - Wired MagazineLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email us: Jason is having a break from the Socials, but you can still find Inger as @thesiswhisperer pretty much everywhere. You can read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. It costs us about $1000 a year to produce this podcast. If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
The On The Reg team have been busy with All The Things. In Jason's case, making salami and in Inger's case, possibly signing up to one too many book projects.In the mailbag we marvel over dashboards for packing lists and cool new AI tools recommended by listeners. This week Inger read Cal Newports's latest book 'Slow Productivity: the lost art of accomplishment without burnout' where Cal (maybe?) discovers the point of unions and even name checks Marx. The team segue onto an article about workplace burnout, which is a good pastry course accompaniment.There's some two minute tip action at the end where Inger confesses that she's now in a love triangle with ChattieG and Claude.Hey - we teach workshops now! If you want us to come to your uni, check out what we do!Stuff we mentioned:Boring headshots Level up your essays ChipoloThe Helmut Rosa book Daniel recommended was 'Social Acceleration'ExpansoAlternativeto.netConsensusTeachableSlow ProfessorBristol Stool ChartCal Newport's podcastZen and the art of motorcycle maintenanceThe Extended MindInger's survey of academic workSlow professor review on Thesis Whisperer5 ways to deal with burn out at workLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email us: Jason is having a break from the Socials, but you can still find Inger as @thesiswhisperer pretty much everywhere. You can read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. It costs us about $1000 a year to produce this podcast. If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
Jason has consciously uncoupled from his employer. Inger's getting a Volvo. There is clearly a lot to discuss in the first half an hour, including the survey that Inger finally has out (participate here!)Jason's had some time to wrangle the mailbag, so he's cleaned up Inger's mess and made a spreadsheet. People have a lot to say about our travel episode and we are ready to hear it!In work problems, Jason brings Inger up to speed about Apple Intelligence and we have a chat about AI, privacy and the fact that Inger seems to be saving 12 hours a week by outsourcing to Claude...Jason had to go to coffee, so there was no time for mailbag, but if you have kids, stick around for a top tip about AI study buddies!Stuff we mentioned:Kaitlin Salze's omni focus websiteTrippitApple intelligence videoBlue Ribbon FoundationStyle: 10 lessons in clarity and grace (so expensive! Library I reckon) (Inger's survey on academic work)Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email us: Jason is having a break from the Socials, but you can still find Inger as @thesiswhisperer pretty much everywhere. You can read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. It costs us about $1000 a year to produce this podcast. If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
Jason is having some time off work to get his health back in order. Inger takes the opportunity to share the whole story of her burn out episode. Be warned, this one gets a bit heavy...We lighten it up in the middle by responding to Ben's question about travelling with a laundry list of suggestions and hacks. Inger confesses her bag and spare cord obsession and Jason reveals his genius hack for making a personalised guide book. There's a lot of love for AirTags.In this show we also launch our new email address! See the footer for more information - non stop excitement here at On The Reg HQ!Stuff:Slide deck of Inger's teams's employability researchDoing doctoral research at a distanceInger's bookshelves on InstaInger's Crumpler bagMuji Packing cubesAnylist AppChipolo cardsThe Dip by Seth GodinDeveloping theory through qualitative InquiryCindy Dee's books on Romance TropesCyclic Sighing: Balban, MY, Neri, E, Kogon, MM, Weed, L, Nouriani, B, Jo, B, Holl, G, Zeitzer, JM, Spiegel, D & Huberman, AD 2023, ‘Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal', Cell Reports Medicine, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 100895.Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email us: Jason is having a break from the Socials, but you can still find Inger as @thesiswhisperer pretty much everywhere. You can read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. It costs us about $1000 a year to produce this podcast. If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site
Inger and Jason convene for the long awaited mailbag episode! (but first there's a bit of old-person whinging about health and other stuff). Inger explains how she and Narelle wrote a 36000 word book in a single weekend with Claude.The mail bag is full to overflowing! There's gold in there - which prompts a very wide ranging conversation about Bujo, task managers, screen capture software, politics and - well, the usual stuff. The speak pipes failed after the first one... (which is also a bit quiet for reasons Inger can't work out), so we'll have to bring you these next time. Enjoy!Stuff we mentioned:Rich Aademic / Poor Academic bookA blog post explaining what Rich Academic / Poor Academic is aboutNarelle Lemon's Explore and Create Co websiteAlternative to (software information site)So. Many. Feelings sticker book for bujoKaitlin Salzke Omnifocus plug insOmnivore book marking appKindle highlights plug in for obsidianObsidian web clipperTaskadeQuit by Annie DukeCo-intelligence by ethan mollickFirst rule of mastery - stop worrying what other people think of you by Michael GervaisLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics' book off Thesiswhisperer.com
It's been quite the month. Jason was pulled over in the Tinny (again), Inger had a mole taken off her foot. We skipped the mailbag in favour of a deep nerd chat about Obsidian starting at 32:51. The discussion gets waylaid part way through by a mutual existential freakout about Claude Opus. It's... a lot. Enjoy!Things we mentioned:Kangaroo time - Winner of the Dance Your PhD competitionBe visible or vanish - the book Inger wrote with her colleague Simon ClewsPostAc (on Inger's research page)Quit by Annie DukeMac Sparky Field GuidesBuilding a second brain and PARA from Tiago Forte (and his post on Tags)Markdown explainerAn article Inger wrote about ClaudeOne useful thing blog from Ethan MollickInger's sample 'coffee Vault' (down these files from Dropbox and point Obsidian at it to open)Marie Kondo's life changing magic of tidying upYAML explainerMarked2 (markdown text convertor) ScrivenerElicitConnected Papersliterature review matrix explainerZotero Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics' book off Thesiswhisperer.com
Jason had pneumonia when he recorded this very long pod with Inger. It's a testament to his brainy-ness (and Inger's sound engineering skills) that it turned out as well as it did, given he coughed and sweated his way through it.Warning: in the chat section at the top there's a lot of talk about TEQSA. If you're confused, here's their webpage. Jason was too sick to do mailbag, but please keep sending in your letters and speak pipes!At we switch to our work problems section (26:04) Large Language Models (LLMs) - we recommend you have a look at our Discussion Guide as we talk, or after you get back from your walk/gardening/gym/cooking or what every you are doing. You can read the briefing note that Inger wrote for her boss here.We skip the reading section and coast out with some two minute tips (1:38:22) for planning large complex tasks and reading all the instructions before you start doing a thing.The good news is that Jason did not die of his pneumonia and is back on his feet again - phew!Things we mentioned:On the Reg discussion guide for this episode (free to share)The briefing paper Inger wrote for her boss on how researchers are using ChattieGTimothy Snyder On Tyranny BookManchester Phrase BankRandy Olsen 'and but therefore' writing tip is in 'Houston, We have a Narrative'Team Human podcastLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics' book off Thesiswhisperer.com
Inger and Jason are at the end of the holidays. For Jason this meant going to a hash den in Thailand (it's a long story) and for Inger it meant organising all her rococo style porcelain figurines (yes, really).The mailbag (18:53) is full of interesting letters and provokes only one moment of feminist rage from Inger. Ok, maybe two. In the Work Problems segment (56:35) Jason gives us an alternative way to think about the year ahead with the VRIO model from Jay Barney and there's quite a lot of talk about late stage capitalism.Reading time (1:24) Inger's been reading romance books about audio p*rn stars (you read that right), while Jason has been reading about how to be younger. In the Two minute tips (1:38) Inger shares her library thing project and Jason talks about his State Of Mind.Then the first episode of season 5 was in the can- can you believe it?!Stuff we mentionedThesiswhisperer on InstagramWhy so slow, on the advancement of women Invisible women: exposing data bias in a world designed for menTiago Forte's PARA bookMcSparky's new productivity field guidePlain English Podcast episode with Oliver Burkeman that enraged IngerCounter Productive by Mel GreggMind the gap in the literature blog post on Thesis WhispererFated Mates podcastCan I tell you something? (romance novel)The productivity Project by Chris BaileyThe man who invented HitlerYounger next yearLibrary Thing Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger and Jason recorded an episode at 9pm at night on the 15th of November, before Inger took off for the UK. Inger was meant to edit and post this sometime in December, while travelling in the UK, but due to the vagaries of wifi and Christmas shopping, she ended up doing it at Heathrow airport on Christmas eve. So look, it's a little bit ... unplugged? But at least it's short (well, for us) and there's some good stuff in here - including a surprisingly long digression on KanBan boards. We figure there's got to be some dishwashing or gardening to do over the Christmas break when you can enjoy this nerd out. Happy Christmas to all who celebrate (and we hope the rest of you get a well earned break too).We'll be back sometime in January :-)Things we mentionedArticle Kevin sent us about leaders and managersPersonal Kanban: mapping work, navigating lifeMind the gap in the literatureCapacities appObsidian Field guide by mcsparkyLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
This one has been in the can for a while - but it was recorded only a week after the previous one about the Meat Grinder. You'd think that would make the banter session shorter, but ...not really. Jason has largely avoided having his face squished at Brazilian Jujitsu and Inger has been writing whiny emails to her boss. The team finish up the Cambridge hiatus mailbag (13:32), including one from Janet Davey that was lost at the bottom (sorry about that Janet!). This prompts a lengthly discussion about Teams and autocorrect, so the usual nerdy stuff.In the Work Problems session (49:38) Jason confesses to Inger that he doesn't know how to gossip well, but Inger proves to him that he has got his academic gossip skills Just Right. Along the way Foucault is not mentioned, but he might as well have been given how much the word 'power' popped up.Inger's read her friend Stan Emmerson's new book 'What is the It' (1:28:44) and gives a completely biased review. Jason features a couple of 50 cent app shop bargains. Finally In two minute tips (1:37:10) Inger reports back on taking her own advice and Jason shares the rather tragic news that his email address is now on the Dark Web, which seems appropriate for a Halloween episode!Mentioned:We work to earn the right to work video Inger's blog post on Hot Academic GossipInger's academic paper 'Assembling the PhD candidate: troubles talk'Stan's book on editing 'What is the 'it'? A Handbook for proofing court judgementsAustin Kleon Steal like an ArtistClip at the end is The Fine Print: outer worlds song by Stupendium Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger and Jason are back, a bit later than anticipated because the audio the first time this episode was recorded was borked (that's a technical term). We promise the re-record is much better, and also, much longer.There's some unscripted banter at the start, which Inger had to cut as it went on a bit long. Jason can tell you about his new bike another time and you really don't need to hear all about Inger's struggle to find supplies of Ozempic. We dig into the mailbag (18:22), but not all the way to the bottom, then we get side tracked with a rave about MacSparkey's new Obsidian Field guide.In the work problems section (52:49), Jason drops all the knowledge about teaching large classes, drawn from his experience of teaching 1000 students a year in the same subject, over three countries and time zones. Yes you read that right, Inger is amazed - - and also horrified.Inger read some books (1:33:38). They include a cook book, which Jason was interested in, and a romance novel, which he was not. The two minute tip section (1:42:48) actually takes around 17 minutes and includes at least four tips, so it's a bonus episode! Enjoy.Things we mentioned:Mac Sparky Obsidian field guideDownload Obsidian for Mac or PC (it's free!)Clean text (Mac app)ScrivenerMathpixOverleafZoteroTimingThings appMarked 2Teaching for quality learning at university by Jamie BiggsStyle, 10 lessons in clarity and graceWorkflowyPARA - Tiago ForteExtra focus: a quick start guide to adult ADHDMy kitchen year: 137 recipes that saved my lifeThe stand in by Lily ChuInfo click (mail.app search tool)Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
The Downs household has suffered a loss, while one member of the Mewburn household has discovered hither to unknown talents. Somehow the team still end up crapping about Obsidian a lot in the banter section. This is our second sabbatical mailbag episode (starting 20:44), which prompts a series of incredibly nerdy conversations about Microsoft Teams, Omnifocus, Text Expander, Obsidian, Bullet Journal etc - Even Nvivo and MaxQDA. In other words: the greatest hits. (A comment from listener Aaron has us wondering why most people's eyes glaze over when we start talking about this stuff, prompting Inger to wonder out loud if being interested in productivity is a bit like being a vegan. You decide!)Jason is reading Hunter S Thompson (starts 1:12:17) to avoid Inger giving him yet another romance novel. Oh, and Inger read the new Tiago Forte book so you don't have to - you're welcome. Lastly: Two Minute Tips (1:33:13) lasts heaps longer than two minutes, fair warning.Stuff we mentioned:The Cat protection societyDavid Sparks Obsidian Field GuideOur first Obsidian Episode (mysteriously popular with listeners - warning. Super Nerdy)Danah Byrd Context CollapseLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
WE'RE BACK BABY!Inger sums up her whole Cambridge University experience in one anecdote about dinner. Jason has gone up a notch in Brazilian Ju Jitsu, which puts him in a position to comment on Mark Zuckerberg's training routine. In other words, it's a normal catch up, but twice as long!This episode is all a mailbag, starting with a speak pipe from Jonathan O'Donnell challenging the team to regular lunches and a content warning at 30 minutes about weight talk. If you don't want to hear a discussion about losing weight, skip ahead to 40 :46.We follow with a letter from Alessa Teunisse about Bullet Journalling with all kinds of #bujo spreads to share. At 58:40 we get to a speak pipe from Ben Archer, who is asking about old technology and what to with it At 1 hour 17 minutes with a letter from Marcel Cardinali with all kinds of cool automations in Obsidian.In the reading segment at 1 hour 27 minutes, the team tease their new book project. Finally, two minute tips happens at 1 hour 32, In the sign off, we explain that @thesiswhisperer on Twitter will shortly be shut down. If you're one of the 52,000 odd followers to that account, have a look below for other options.Oh - and the first two episodes of the Academics talk about Severance pod have finally dropped! Listen and subscribe here.Things we mentioned:Google document with the images from Alessa and Marcel Focussed pod and yearly wall calendar Sadie James art from Ningaloo reefE-waste donation in CanberraAutomater app Jason used to create his Fantasia File ProblemDavid Kadavy: Mind Management not Time ManagementInger's video about Obsidian plug ins for ZoteroJoplin app for transferring Evernote dataThe enshittification of academic social media and Inger on ABC radio talking about it Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger and Jason pop in for a brief, 2 minute-ish pod. The quickest episode in OTR pod history! It's not really an episode, just a reminder that we will be back next month. Thanks for all the amazing emails and speak pipes so far - we're enjoying them all and planning a big mailbag episode when we get back!Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
On The Reg is officially on hiatus until Inger returns from her sabbatical in August. Listen to our quick explainer so you know what is happening until then. We're asking you send in all your questions and thoughts so we can put together a reader mailbag episode when we come back.The claim here that Severance Pod has dropped are false, but honestly, it will be here really soon. Follow on Thesiswhisperer pod The claims about blog posts about writing with ChattieG etc are entirely true and can be fact checked on the Thesiswhisperer blog. Have a look at the latest one here, which is all about using ConnectedPapers.If you're in the UK, you can meet Inger at a couple of public talks in Cambridge:A lecture at Wolfson College, Cambridge on Tuesday 6 June at 5:30pm, which touches on themes from hernew book with Simon Clews ‘Be visible or Vanish'. There's an in-person option if you can get to Cambridge, and an online version if you can't: you can book here.She's also giving a lecture about the PhD in uncertain times where she will talk about the latest data on the UK market for research skills, at Kings College, Cambridge on Monday 10 July, 5:30 – 7:30pm: you can book hereWe'll be back.... Until August friends! Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger's dusty in this episode, after an epic David Lodge style dinner party the night before, but her blood pressure is the best her doctor has seen in years. By the time you listen to this she'll be in Cambridge, punting or something.Jason didn't win the annual hot cross bun off, but did invite Inger into the WhatsApp group so she could share the fun this year. There is also an unexpectedly long digression about workplace exploitation, so - a normal catch up.There was nothing in the mailbag! [28:53] (although we did get a bunch of letters the day after we recorded this, so some of you still love us- thank you). In the work problems segment [30:47] we talk about the new book from Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner called 'How big things get done', which Inger partially distilled into a Discussion Guide. It's an excellent book and Inger sees a lot of cross overs between how high speed rail projects fail and the length of time most people take to get a PhD. Enough crossovers at least to get on her ranty high horse, like - a lot. Jason listens patiently while she has All The Feelings about the PhD. Again.Moving on. Jason's been reading The Upside of irrationality, while Inger's been reading Navy SEALS romances (again) [1:14:06]. The real surprise is left for the end of this episode: the 2 minute tips section [1:17:37] which turns into an epic, agonised conversation about just how much of our jobs to delegate to ChattieG and the future of the university. It's heavy. You may need a drink or four, just like Inger did the night before. Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Jason has been doing BJJ, the gym, eat sleep and repeat - with an occasional visit to country Victoria. Inger has been doing ALL the event organising and somehow managing to make a podcast with her sister about the Apple TV show Severance at the same time. You'll have to subscribe to the Thesiswhisperer podcast channel to get the episodes when they drop.In other words, it's been busy.Which means we didn't have time to prepare for this episode, other than to book an actual studio to record in, as we happened to be in the same space time continuum for once. Hear what we sound like when someone else does the levels - it's pretty amazing.After our catch up there's a very full mail bag [12:54] before we get to our work problems segment [37:15]. This time we are doing a Frequently Asked Questions episode where we report back on two of our most asked about work problems: getting to inbox zero and how to write 'on top of everything else'. We talk about our systems and processes. There's a discussion guide for you to follow along.Finally, the two minute tips [1:39:35} segment is all about Microsoft Teams - but interesting, we promise!Links to things we mentioned:Discussion guide for this episodePotPlant Productions (where we recorded this ep)If you want to listen to Academics talk about Severance, you'll need to subscribe to the Thesiswhisperer podcast channel Inger's Nature article about time tracking (yes, you read that right)The Syrian Underground library storyWhen McKinsley comes to TownLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger's happy her Apple Watch has declared her 'fit' while Jason surprised his team with actually putting on an interesting strategy day. Inger finally bought a ticket to the UK for her sabbatical in Cambridge, so Jason is on notice that the pod will be his while she is away. He's got Plans.The Mailbag [21:14] has a speak pipe and a letter about Inger and Jason's current objects of obsession: ChattieG and ADHD. For once they don't talk about Obsidian the whole time... in the Work Problems segment [33:54] the duo move on to talking about Influence, specifically Robert Caildini's 1984 book 'Influence: the psychology of persuasion', which Inger read in an attempt to better understand the addictive stickiness of social media. There's a discussion guide which you can use to follow along with the conversation, which is (as usual) pretty wide ranging. After you have learned the Weapons of Influence you will not be able to unsee them in everyday life.The conversation is so long, in fact, that Jason makes the executive decision to cut the reading part and only just lets Inger do a 2 minute tip [1:32:48] because it's a good one. But you'll have to listen all the way to the end!What we talked about:Influence: the psychology of persuasiondiscussion guide That paper Inger sent Luke about programmers writing worse code with AI assistantsAdam Kendon, gesture research guruLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger was late to the microphone but Jason is in the lead this time, so the show actually happened! Jason didn't win at the first annual 'Meat Off' competition, but it was a tough field. At work it's all Chat GPT all the time, or, as Inger's sister Anitra calls it 'ChattieG'. Inger's been on the road again, this time at Monash Uni where she ran a session on Bullet Journalling. She also wrote 5000 words of her new book without even noticing, using Obsidian. The mailbag (19:15) also has a bit of an Obsidian theme, with some thanks and a question, which gets Jason going on the ChattieG again and inger complaining about the over 700 pages she has managed to put on the ANU website without even noticing.In the Work Problems section (32:10), Jason takes Inger at length through a strategic thinking exercise, using her research team's 'PostAc' product (more information on PostAc here). You can access Jason's discussion guide slides here.Inger finds this way of thinking fascinating and the team wonders all over the place touching on how universities will cope with Zoomers and dead birds being turned into Zombie robot drones. Yes. It's a lot. The What Have You Been Reading section (1:29) is fairly short this time before we head into 2 Minute Tips (1:44) where Jason drops the knowledge on pen holders and Inger has suggestions for a Digital Colonic - yes you heard that right.We mentioned:Quit by Annie Duke Discussion guideLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger and Jason have been on holidays, so there's a lot to catch up on. Jason was off the grid, finding boxes of romance novels in country opp shops while Inger borked all the authenticator apps on her phone and was locked out of ANU email. There's a brief foray into Power Ballads and the Australian 80s band Noiseworks. There's a rather large mail bag to get through (13:53), which also prompts a bit of a discussion about AI (again) before the duo get to their work problems segment at 30:52. This time David Allen's classic 'Getting things done' gets a bit of an airing, along with some reflection on tools and techniques that the pair think will carry on into 2023. There''s a slide deck you can follow with the episode if you want more detail. For once, Inger does not have a feminist critique and wonders if Allen got a sensitivity editor. Jason has read three books (starting at 1:18:39) - Inger guesses correctly they are all Navy Seal related so he feels both judged and seen. Inger has been reading a romance set in a Strictly Ballroom reality TV show world as well as a couple of useful things on managing events, thinking about ADHD and the Digital Zettlecasten. In the Two minutes tips (1:35:52) Inger publicly commits Jason to the next On The Reg book project - listen to the end to find out!Mentioned in this episodeVideo of Noiseworks 'Take me back'- for those unfamiliar, Noiseworks was THE premier 80's Australian power ballad band (16 year old. Inger had a crush on the lead singer and 52 year old Inger stands by her judgement)The second edition of Getting Things Done (2016)Can't Hurt Me by David GrogginNo Easy Day by Mark OwenDesert Fire by Phil Campion (not as recommended reading, just to validate Inger's comments on the forearms)Getting Things Done as an Audio book (what Inger listened to at the gym)Getting things done workbook (Inger uses this in teaching) Event managers bible D.G. ConwayADHD 2.0 by Hallowell and RateyDigital Zettelcasten: principles, methods and examples by David KadavyLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
You might have noticed this episode is rather... long. But it's your last episode before February, 2023. so we figure you can digest this omnibus episodes in parts!Look, there's a lot of Spider Talk in our catch up, so you might want to skip it if you're an arachnophobe. There's some very interesting questions from listeners in the Mailbag section [22:54], which gives us the chance to drop the knowledge on difficult publishing problems and how to tell someone they look nice at work. In our Work Problems segment [46:35] we talk about the new wave of Generative AI tools about to 'disrupt' higher ed (or are they?). You can follow along in the discussion guide we made for this episode.The reading section (1:44:00) has more podcasts than actual reading and the two minute tip section (1:52:00) returns to the problem of spiders via Obsidian back ups. Happy Holidays everyone!Stuff we mentioned:Inger's mosquito death bio-chamber thingyHuntsman Spider info (CW: spiders!)Pre-order Inger and Simon's new book Be Visible or Vanish at a cheapish price.Thesiswhisperer pod cast channel Secrets to winning at office politicsChat GPT3 from OpenAIDiscussion Guide for this episode on Google DocsChokepoint CapitalismHard ForkPosting Through itOddly influencedCautionary TalesStory of the WeekObsidian Github back upsLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger's had Covid Bingo, where she scored almost every symptom in the book. Meanwhile Jason has been been out there, having a life, which involves a story about the physics of gumboots. It makes sense in context, we promise.Inger snippety doodah-ded our catch up a bit, but it's still kind of long, so if you want to skip it, go straight to (24:02) when we open Mailbag. We have our first message from Mastodon and Jason got recognised in the street. Thanks to @bron@aus.social, who wrote a nice pocket review of our Text Expander book. There's a discussion guide for for this week's topic: transitions (which starts at 30:15:09). We talk about the pain points of starting or starting again (which ended up being a topic suggested by PETA the pirate, who left a review - thanks Peta!). We go to many places in this discussion, from Monkey cortex sizes to Obsidian MOCs, university branded sweat shirts and horrible colleagues. Inger also reveals why you never use an apostrophe 's' when you write about The Australian National University (yes, it's really in the style guide).In our reading session (1:28:26) we talk about some books we've read and a little bit about generative AI, but decided to hold over a fuller discussion to next time. In our two minute tips section (1:37:34), Jason reminds us about the value of starting projects with 'Who, What, Where, Why and How' and Inger needs Jason's help with making check lists to deal with Covid brain fog...Things we mentioned on the show:Academic Assholes and the circle of nicenessWhat not to wear: the academic edition The Curated closetWhy so slow: the advancement of womenSecrets to winning at office politicsObject Secure by Nick LaveryBulldozed by Nikki SavaAnyList appCheckvist appMastodon app 'Toot!'Max QDAObsidianLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Buckle up folks, this is a long one! It's been a big couple of weeks since Jason and Inger caught up. Inger went to Tassie and experienced crossing bass strait in gale force winds on the way back while Jason got rained on while camping and discovered 'Truckie Twitter' on the UHF band radio during an unexpected 2.5 hour journey home from work.... Oh, and Thesiswhisperer Jnr is now being paid to play with puppies at a pet store, which Inger and Jason agree is a great career choice and maybe one they should consider.There's a very full mailbag (17:23), with lots of nice feedback on our Obsidian episode and a speak pipe by friend of the Pod, Shainal - who is going to be car pooling with Jase now he's working at Latrobe too.Our work problem segment (26.37) is the big story of the week: The Big Twitter Meltdown. Inger and Jason dig in for more than an hour on the topic of tweeting/tooting while academic and it goes to a surprisingly reflective place. There's a discussion guide that will be helpful we think and talk of algorithmically shaped behaviours, soft power, vitality and server architectures constructing realists - even Erving Goffman gets a mention. Even if you don't Tweet or Toot, there's stuff to think about in here because online life is still real life and this Twitter ruckus has real world consequences, but if you are looking to make the jump of Twitter, Inger has lots of Thoughts and a few suggestions for getting started.Inger has been doing nothing but attending to the Great Twitter Migration, so Jason is left to do the honours with the reading section (1:52:06) and the 2 minute tip section, which features a bit of 'is this book bullshit' talk and the problem of too much WIP. Look, this is a long one, so get down to some cleaning and gardening or a long walk!Things we mentioned:The discussion guide for this episode (which has links to all the services and articles mentioned).Book: coach to coachAtul GawandeLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger and Jason catch up to get their nerd on HARD in this episode - you have been warned. After the usual catch up - with only a little bit of old person health problems - Inger reads out some nice feedback (17:50). People loved our last episode on 'Building a second brain for writing' where we talked about Tiago Forte's book. Because of this conversation, Jason had an epiphany and started using Obsidian - a database program which Inger describes as 'your own personal Wikipedia'.Because Jason had such a conversion moment about Obsidian, Inger had to hear all about it. Basically Inger's career success is built on copying everything Jason does so she needs him to talk her through it. Which he does. For over an hour. Two things for listeners to note about this conversation:1) It's nerdy. Like, really, really nerdy. Not only about Obsidian, but about TEQSA and accrediting universities and stuff like that. We don't blame you if it's too much. We'll be back to a more audience friendly format next time.2) It is not necessarily good pod fodder because it relies a bit on seeing what Jason is doing when he talks. So Inger has made a quick, edited video of what Jason is showing her. We highly recommend having a look at this video before, or while, you are listening.We are so exhausted by this conversation, but all we can talk about in the rest of the episode is shopping and watching TV.Things we mentioned:Obsidian - download it here.The video that Inger made of what Jason was showing herKarst desk plannerLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
There's a lot of sweary words in this one, headphones in!Inger brought a sword to work and Jason is back on the mats at Brazillian Ju Jitsu (BJJ) so it's business as usual at On The Reg. Big shout out to Jason's wife Cath, who has nearly finished her course, which somehow leads to a long discussion of Jason's first experience of removing unwanted body hair. In other words, the usual catch up, but if you want to skip it, go straight to 24:32, where Siobhan calls in on Speakpipe to ask Inger if she's read 'How to take smart notes' by Sonke Ahrens. Siobhan's call is a great segue into Inger and Jason's discussion, starting at 28:58, about 'Building a Second Brain: a proven method to organise your digital life and unlock your creative potential' by Tiago Forte of Forte Labs. Inger LOVED this book and spends an hour telling Jason all about it, which caused Jason to spend yet more money on books and software. There's a lot of talk about the relative merits of (and how to integrate) Pocket, Evernote, Obsidian, Roam Research, Notion and the #bujo (Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger and Jason have been busy, you know - the usual. Inger has been deep in three minute thesis land (ie: the annual ANU 'high school musical') and Jason paid $250 to learn he doesn't have to have surgery (yay!).There's only a little bit of 'old people complaining about their health' in the first bit before they listen to a speak pipe from Tseen Khoo (17:14). Tseen has finally read and reviewed the Navy SEALs romance that Inger sent her, and points out the trope that ruins the book for Inger, forever (and how well the hero fills out his Dress Whites). Tseen's expert review forces Jason to finally Share His Feelings about 'Ordinary Everyday Jones', the Navy SEALs romance Inger sent him at the same time. Needless to say, He has Notes and finds the book terribly confusing... but does actually admit it was a fun read. Look, this whole bit goes on much longer than expected, but hopefully it's the review that Inger's friend Nick Hill has been waiting for!The duo move on to their work problems segment (35:48) where they do a Bristol Stool chart analysis of 'The 80/20 principle: how to work less and achieve more' by Richard Koch. Inger prepared an On The Reg discussion guide, complete with the Bristol Stool chart so the pair could do an accurate bullshit rating. Inger reckons that Richard needs to knock off the single malt whiskey a bit, while Jason talks her into seeing the valuable bits amongst all that rampant capitalism.Finally the pair get to two minute tips (1:26:17). Jason talks about bomb disposal and reports back on the timers he bought the other week. Inger talks about how a colleague nearly killed her laptop by knocking over a bottle of water and takes the opportunity to wax lyrical about backup plans.Things we mentioned:Get Lucky by Suzanne BrockmannEveryday Average Jones - Suzanne Brockmann (on GoodReads)The 80/20 principle by Richard Koch.The On The Reg discussion guide for the 80/20 principle (complete with Bristol Stool chart - beware!)Darling, M, Parry, C & Moore, J 2005, 'Learning In The Thick Of It', Harvard Business Review, vol. 83, no. 7/8, pp. 84–92'Don't Ditch Your Paper Calendar' October 9, 2022, Harvard Business Review, vol. Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger and Jason are both complaining about their health again. Jason has 'mild degeneration' of his shoulder joint and Inger has 'mild degeneration' of her eye lens. The duo agree that it means they are falling apart, but as Jason says ' slowly'. After the whinging about health, and a few things about the Jeep/Tesla/Tinny there 's a bit about academic administration before a Speakpipe from Dasha from Finland (27:10) and another email from Heather Brown and finally, the point of the podcast: our work problems segment (34:49).This week we're talking about Making work Visible: exposing time theft to optimise work and flow by Dominica DeGrandis. This is an amazingly useful book and to help convince you, Inger produced a reading guide, which you can access on Google Slides as you listen. During the discussion, Inger shares the PERT formula, which is below:Most Likely Estimate (Tm)Optimistic Estimate (To)Pessimistic Estimate (Tp)PERT Estimate = (To + 4Tm + Tp) / 6Standard Deviation = (Tp – To) / 6Give it a try - Inger and Jason both think it's amazing. Since the team are on the clock with Jason going off to a Jeep show, they zoom through the reading segment (1:36:56), but promise to come back to talk in more detail about Navy SEAL romance novels next time (much to Jason's disgust). There's only time for a quick discussion of slime robots at 1:38:31. Two minute tips (1:42:40) are strangely in synch this time, and there's merch you can buy! Link to said merch and all the things we mentioned in the show should be in the links, below:Stuff we mentioned: Making work Visible: exposing time theft to optimise work and flow by Dominica DeGrandis.+ reading guide to the book, which you can access on Google SlidesOmni show episode with usOmni show ep with Kaitlin Salke about automating time calculationsInger's neglected project: The Whisper CollectiveMagnetic slime robotsWhy we did it: the Republican road to hell by Tim MillerWork won't love you back: how devotion to our jobs keeps us exploited, exhausted and alone. by Sarah Jaffee"The 80/20 individual on GoodreadsLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger and Jason catch up on Inger's 24th wedding anniversary (with Mr Thesis Whisperer's permission!). Inger went to Newcastle in the Tesla and had fun doing a workshop in a bathroom. It's been a weird couple of weeks: she also encountered giant animatronic wombats on the lawns of parliament house while taking part in an NTEU event. Jason's had Covid in the house (9:47), but avoided getting it, despite using his Aunt's method of taking temperature of kids via hugging. He's finally going back to just two jobs (thank goodness) and trying to work out how to not overwhelm the big boss when she gets back.Jason and Inger talk about how they were interview by Andrew for The Omni Show (18:48) and are just a little bit excited that they got retweeted by Ken Case (squee!). At 24:46 there's some talk about Navy SEALS and our #deathcagematchreadathon with @tseenster on Twitter. Inger's been reading 'Extreme Ownership' by Jocko Willing and Leif Babin while Jason has been reading a romance called 'Everyday, Average Jones' by Susan Brockmann. They also made @tseenster read one, but she hasn't left a speak pipe review yet (no pressure Tseen!).Then they both unpack the lessons from 'Extreme Ownership: how US Navy SEALs lead and win' (40:38) Using a slide deck to guide the conversation. Inger applies three of the lessons (extreme ownership, Believe and Plan) to the problems of academic life, specifically designing a career for yourself (1:01:58). The pair discuss her theory there are two types of academic 'elbow patch' (who spend their careers in deep study becoming The Expert) and Entrepreneur (the ones who are agile to survive). They debate the pros and cons of both career choices and then how to fit into the broader mission of a university (1:13:39) and then go on to drop the knowledge about how to use the university strategic planning process to basically Get What You Need (1:22:48).They close out with talk about necrotic robots (yes, reanimating dead spiders - shudder) and the terrifying footage of a robot dog with a crazy accurate machine gun strapped to its back (1:42:59). The two minute tips are there, but trust us when we say that you will STILL be thinking about killer robots by the end of this episode - hasta la vista! Thanks to Riverside.fm for supporting the show. We recommend it for all your podcasting and remote recording needs: enter ONTHEREG for a 15% discount or use this link.Stuff we mentioned:Jason and Inger guested on the The Omni Show podcastThe romance novels of Suzanne BrockmannOur notes on 'Extreme Ownership' in slide formExtLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Jason has Novid now, but he dragged himself to the mic. Inger's been sick again and, honestly - the first 20 minutes or so of this podcast is just ‘old people complaining about their health' (but we know some of you really like that stuff, so we left it in). Katherine Firth rings in (18m:17s) to give Jason another romance novel recommendation for the upcoming On the Reg competitive reading cage death match.In our work problems segment (25m:43s) the team leverage the advice offered by James Clear in his book ‘Atomic habits' and apply it to helping you write more productively. They are using a teaching slide deck which Inger made, so if you want to read along with the segment you can access the slide deck here. Jason has been reading up for a forthcoming episode on stakeholder engagement (1h:22m). Meanwhile, despite being sick Inger has been reading ALL the books, but really quickly: just so she can add them to the bibliography in her book. Finally, in two minute tips (1hr:32m) Jason suggests a new app which Inger thinks sounds very handy. Inger's tip involves compares skim reading to smoking Weed... Not that the team have ever done that. Ever. Finally, the sound on this one is GREAT - Inger finally implemented all the tips suggested by Martin Emo last time and is amazed by what a towel on a desk can do! Thanks Martin! Thanks to Riverside.fm for supporting the show. We recommend it for all your podcasting and remote recording needs: enter ONTHEREG for a 15% discount or use this link.Links to stuff we mentioned in the PodBooks we discussed in our work segment:Atomic Habits: the easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones by James ClearLink to the slide deck that we used to structure this discussion, where Inger has notes on how to apply the lessons in Atomic habits to your writing.Writing without teachers Peter ElbowWriting your dissertation in 15 minutes a day Jean BolkerLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Jason and Inger are behind on their podcasting schedule because Inger had Not-Covid/ Not-flu and too sick to record last Sunday. Meanwhile Jason has injured himself at Brazilian Ju Jitsu - again. Jason texts a picture of his inner thigh to Inger, live on air, to show her the damage. She is shocked (not at the body part itself, because she lives with a pair of 50 year old male inner thighs) because she didn't know bruises could actually be that big. In our listener feedback section, Martin Emo speak pipe's in some Good Advice on making our sound better. Inger tried to action with a 'there I fixed it' style home brew 'confuse and diffuse' set up .... with egg cartons, and a towel. Further work needs to be done, but she's quite happy with how it turned out. Matthew sent us in a good #bujo numbering system by email, so the pair are really benefitting from all the free consulting offered by their audience!In our work problems segment, we give Chapter three of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People the full 'is this book bullshit?' treatment. As usual, Inger is exasperated with Covey and suggests the book should come with a content warning 'essence of patriarchy', but Jason does a good job of convincing her that a certain amount of preachy-ness is part of the self help genre. Both agree that they could have less Mormonism but that Chapter three is full of excellent productivity tips.In our reading section Inger drops the knowledge on a couple of books for distressed thesis writers and finally tells Jason what romance novels she is reading. Inger argues they are 'the instruction manual for women' and Jason reluctantly agrees to try reading one. Jason has been reading about academic integrity, which is a good thing because Inger just wants to benefit from this knowledge and not have to actually do this kind of reading herself. Inger has a two minute tip - and it's quite a good one. Jason has been doing 50+ hour work weeks, so he gets a pass this time!Thanks to Riverside.fm for supporting the show. We recommend it for all your podcasting and remote recording needs: enter ONTHEREG for a 15% discount or use this link.Links to things mentioned in the showSeven habits of highly effective people by Stephen CoveyStory machine - An AI writing generatorCanada's Worst Drivers on YoutubeRomance novels by Kylie Scott (Inger recommends you start with the Stage Dive series)Cheating Academic Integrity by David Rettinger and Tricia GallantWrite your dissertation in 15 minutes a day by Jean BolkerFrom dissertation to book by William GermanoI didn't do tLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger and Jason are back to their usual format now the election is done. This is the first weekend in 18 months that Inger doesn't have any political activism planned for the weekend - and she is happy about the election result because a well hung parliament is a good parliament in her book (totally worth a 6 vodka hang over). Meanwhile, Jason has been super busy with being #bigboss but he does have an awesome executive assistant who is now in charge of his diary (which is weird, but in a good way). In the work problems segment, the duo revisit their bullet journal practice, 18 months in, to see what's changed. (If you don't use a bullet journal or #bujo, it's a good idea to watch this 4 minute video before you listen otherwise the whole segment probably won't make sense. )Will Inger give up Omni? What actual page number is Jason up to now? What happens when you lose your #bujo on the train and a kindly soul returns it to you? (Well, this last one won't happen to Jason because he's sorted that out with an RFID card). You'll have to listen to the episode to find out! (Or skip if if it seems like incomprehensible gibberish, we honestly don't mind). Jason's commute and Brazilian Ju Jitsu practice has made it difficult to read, while Inger has been reading, but a LOT of trash. She does share an article on the seven varieties of stupidity by Ian Leslie, which the duo agree explains a lot of their life inside universities.Finally, in the two minute tip section, Jason is experimenting with 'Hook', a new kind of linking software on the map and Inger is using travel time to put more buffers in her day. In other words, a pretty typical episode of On The Reg, but a long one because, well - it's been awhile and we've missed our nerd chats. Queue up a long drive, some gardening, housework or be like Siobhan and get out the knitting :-)Links4 minute video about how to do a #bujoseven varieties of stupidityIf you're interested in the timing app, you can find out more here.If you're interested in Omni focus, have a look at this video Inger's toying with moving to Todoist to manage tasksJason is playing with Hook, here's their manifestoLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Warning - there's a LOT of swearing in this one, so if there are sensitive little ears present, maybe save it till later...We recorded this on the 10th of April as Scott Morrison called the election. It's another short one as Inger was already deep in campaigning for the Greens, We did manage to cover a lot of ground though (actually, it's not that short because we can't shut up once we get going). Jason is still enjoying #newjob where he is temporarily #bigboss. He's thinking about how to keep his people safe by planning a fire drill... which gives Inger the chance to tell him about the time she ignored the fire alarms because a teacher told her too and had to be evacuated from an RMIT building by hunky fire fighters. Jason then shares the existential crisis he had at breakfast time from reading Oliver Burkemans '4000 weeks' but the good news is he has worked out why he keeps losing the damn book around the house. Inger has a big old rant about the stupid new rule the Australian government has brought in about international students and look - she swears. Like a lot. You can read the article she wrote later that afternoon 'is this now the federal government's most bone headed idea ever'. Inger did find some research to share about podcast listeners though, which shows you are very agreeable types, so hopefully you'll forgive the swearing...Finally, Jason has a new Chipolo 'spot card' for tracking his bullet journal in case he loses it and Inger shares her new found love for MicroSoft Teams. Yes. Really.It was fun! Stay tuned for an 'unplugged' episode which will drop in a week or so. This campaign campaign is so hectic we don't even have time to write show notes right now, but regular programming will return soon we promise xxMentioned: Oliver Burkemans '4000 weeks'Podcast listeners likely to be more agreeable and less neuroticChipolo spot cardLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
We've been busy, but you know - in a good way. Inger and Jason are both exhausterated - both exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. Sort of like how you feel after a good workout.Jason has started his new job at Latrobe, where he has an office above the pub and #awesometeam. Meanwhile Inger has a huge face to face teaching thing after 2 years of teaching via a screen, and is swinging into full election campaign mode with the Greens. While election campaign season is on, we are making some short episodes of On The Reg, squeezing recording in between Inger's weekend door knocking schedule. Will Scott Morrison just call the election already?? Maybe by the time you listened to this one, we will know what day our democracy sausages will be on the BBQ!It's a short one, for us, but we still had time to talk about some books and stuff, so enjoy.Stuff we mentioned:Laziness does not exist by Devon Price4000 weeks by Oliver BurkemanFind out how to Volunteer for the Greens! Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Warning - there's a lot of swearing in this one, so maybe shield from sensitive little ears...Jason is between jobs, which means he's nearly killing his family on a hike and getting suits delivered. Oh - and reading Cal Newport's book 'So good they can't ignore you'. Meanwhile Inger is surprised she hasn't caught Covid at any of the 50 year old birthday parties. Oh, and Mr Thesiswhisperer laughed at her for shopping in the 'Influencer' section of JB Hi Fi. Shainul, friend of the pod and co-tinny owner calls in and asks a rather tricky question.For most of this episode we discuss Cal Newport's book 'So Good They can't ignore you'. It turns out we had a LOT to say about this book's central theory about job markets and so called 'career capital'. Jason really brought his nerd to the table and convinced Inger that maybe it wasn't as good a book as she thought...If you want to leave us a message, got to Speakpipe.com/thesiswhispererThings we mentioned:So good they can't ignore you by Cal NewportResearchfish accused of ‘intimidating' academics SherpaBuy our TextExpander Book from the Thesis WhispererLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
This episode of On the Reg is slightly delayed because of children being stranded in Western Port Bay, internet upload speeds and an ill-advised attempt to record in the evening after work. In other words, it took time to get our shit together (and not just because we are both now over 50 and the government is starting to show an interest in the contents of our poo (long story).This is the first of our special episode series called 'Is This Book Bullshit?' where we examine the giants of the productivity literature to see if what they say about being productive really stacks up. We start with Inger reading 'The Four Hour Work Week' by Tim Ferris in less than four hours and subjecting it to a rigorous feminist critique. Jason comes along for the ride, providing very necessary context and commentary along the way. Inger eventually rates this book as a 'Type 5' on the Brisol Stool Chart (soft blobs with clear cut edges - passed easily).The team go on to take about the Victoria special forces ('The Soggies'), why your brain does a 15 second refresh, why driving a Tesla is like riding a nervous stallion, hyper grooming, the Doom Scrolling Reminder Bot and many other side topics. In other words, it's a pretty standard episode of On The Reg, just a little late!PS: there's a bit of the odd crackle and background noise in this one - we were both recording under different circumstances than usual, apologies!Things we mentioned: Sons of God by Heath O'loaughlin : Amazon LinkFour Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss : Amazon LinkEverything we see is a mash-up of the brain's last 15 seconds of visual information : The ConversationFuture Fit by Andrea Clarke : Amazon LinkDoomscrolling Reminder Bot : Profile on TwitterEndless Scream Bot : Profile on TwitterClean Text: removes all the shitty bits from PDFs etc when you cut and paste: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clean-text/id414782261?mt=12Omnifocus: https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus/Buy our Textexpander book Buy TextExpander viaLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Content warning! In this episode we talk briefly about anxiety and addiction. If either of those two topics are not your thing today, click away friend!Jason and Inger are back from holidays - if you can call it that. December and January were marred by the Omicron Surge which, like all bad sci-fi novels, has produced a lot of boredom. Inger made progress on her book and the rest of her 'holiday to do list' while Jason actually got to doing some actual recreating.Speaking of leisure, Inger delves into the literature on obsessive hobbies, which has some useful insights for academics who do writing on the holidays. Jason meanwhile enrolled in a master class in Texas BBQ. Can you tell which one ended up more relaxed?!There's a lot of other stuff in here, including sexist robotics, how to write 10,000 words a day and the reason why Inger bought a whole lot of fidget toys. We finish off with a couple of handy apps. Hope you enjoy!Stuff we mentioned in this episodeTiming App LinkEpisode with Jonathan O'Donnell about Good Waste LinkEpisode with Ben Kraal about articulation work LinkOliver Burkeman 4000 weeks book LinkKanban boards LinkObsessive passion paper LinkNavy SEALS book on nutrition LinkRacheal Aaron 2000 - 10000 words a day book LinkEzra Klein interview with Annie Murphy Paul on the Extended Mind LinkAndy Clark and Brian Chalmers extended mind essay that Inger read for her thesis LinkKaiko Fidget toys LinkYolande Strengers and Jenny Kennedy The Smart Wife book LinkWaiting List app LinkTL;DR Papers Link Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Jason and Inger are on summer holidays! This episode is one Inger recorded last year with Mark Carrigan and Tyler shores. There's lot of nerdy stuff about productivity in here, including name checking a whole lot of note taking apps. We kept this one in the can for the summer break and it has fresh resonance now that Australia seems to be in the 'trickledown responsibility' part of the pandemic where we aren't having a lockdown, but seem to be spending an awful lot of time inside, trying to avoid getting Covid.You can find Mark Carrigan on his website and check out his latest book The Public and their Platforms.You can find Tyler Shores via his Website and also the ThinkLab at Cambridge University.Links to stuff we talked about:Bear note taking appRoam note taking toolDevonthinkThe Zimbabwe Bush Pump: mechanics of a fluid technologyThe new future of work report MicrosoftNew pandemics, old politicsThe Over story (novel)Inger did make that podcast about Academics talk about The Chair (link to first episode - stream has now been repurposed to Your Brain on Writing)Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
It's been a busy couple of weeks leading up to the end of the year for both Inger and Jason. There's a lot of cars on their respective work highways. While Inger was 'snappish', Jason suddenly found himself Overwhelmed by everything. Jason describes his terrible, no good Tuesday and tells Inger how he ate hot chips, went to afternoon Brazillian JuJitsu and bullet journaled his way out of it. Inger knows the ways of Burnout after she got carried out of a lecture theatre to hospital in 2018, after a terrible no good 2017. Inger explains to Jason why his strategies worked according to Science, using the wonderful feminist self help book 'Burnout' by the Nagoski sisters. Apparently it's all about running away from the lion, which is why Jason deciding to have his face mashed into the mat by a BJJ sparring partner was exactly The Right Thing To Do.In other news, Jason has been trying to read 'Risk: a user's guide', but is annoyed about the writing style. Inger had the opposite reaction to 'The Game' by Sean Kelly (she even sent him an admiring note about his use of Gerunds. In the 2 minute tips section Jason shares a new #bujo innovation and Inger shares the 'one decision that saves 100 decisions' about peer reviewing. Links:Burnout: the secret to unlocking the stress cycleRisk: a user's guideThe Game: a portrait of Scott Morrison The Year America's Hair Fell OutAnd in case you were wondering, of course Inger bought the new Version Two Bullet Journal A billion-dollar donation: estimating the cost of researchers' time spent on peer reviewMy personal reviewing policy: No more billion-dollar donationsLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger had a unexpected visit to the hospital and Jason had trouble getting the tinny out to sea and back again, so it was quite a week for the On The Reg Team. Full of the dramas.Inger digs out a paper her 'interesting shit' folder on Zotero, which is basically stuff she found while Jason was on #epictrip and saved for later. The findings of the paper send the pair into a deep nerd spiral on all things email but you know, in a fun way.Inger muses on the 1970s books on lectures she stole from the compactus in building 10T1, while Jason tells Inger about the one thing he found worth watching on Disney+We finish with some 2 minute tips which deal with anxiety and procrastination, in other words - the good stuff. Inger didn't edit much of this one out, so dial up a long walk or some gardening and let us give you some good nerd company!LinksLinks to stuff we mentioned in the Pod:Research Article: Should I open this email? Links to previous On The Reg eps we mentioned in this episode:That other episode where we talked about emailProcrastination (Part 1) [episode 20]Procrastination (Part 2) [episode 21]Procrastination (Part 3)[episode 22]Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Jason and Inger finally have time to really catch up properly... with a well over 2 hour conversation... Inger edited it down to 1 hour 53, so hey - listen in segments? Crank it up for a long session of housework or gardening? Go for a really long run? We believe in you!It's long because frankly, there was a lot of backed up conversation to be had after Jason had 14 weeks off. We discuss the origins and future of the idea of long service leave and the value of taking a break from work to reflect on the meaning of life and renegotiate your relationships, personal and professional. This is followed by a long discussion of Simon Sinek's 'The Infinite Game', which it turns out Inger has been playing with the Thesis Whisperer for over a decade now. This is followed by a philosophical digression into the idea of a hyper object and whether academia is (maybe) a form of techno-bureaucratic climate change?In two minute tips, Jason brings us up to date with the cool new iPhone features for limiting your access to work after hours (and people's access to you after hours). Look - it's long, but we enjoyed it. Hope you do too!LinksWhisper collective portalWhisper collective launchSimon Sinek The Infinite GameTimothy Morton: Introducing the idea of hyperobjectsOur book!: The text expander guide for academicsLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Jason just got back from 14 weeks driving around Australia on #epictrip2021! So it seemed like a good idea to throw him right into podcasting via a live key note for Australian Educational Podcast Conference 2021. The event was called "Planning for podcasting: dissecting the process", so we did a normal On The Reg... but with a time limit, in front of a live audience, while people watched the show notes scroll by... This wasn't at ALL anxiety provoking.We talk about the problem of Context collapse, why young people think about computers like they are laundry baskets and the benefits of meditation (yes, really) for the first 42 minutes. Then Narelle Lemon from Swinburne university interviewed us about the process of putting together an episode. We left this bit in! If you're interested in podcasting, we have a lot of tips and tricks for getting a show together, on the reg as they say!Links mentioned in the episode:File not FoundHyperfocusDescript editing softwareThe TextExpander guide for academicsBuzzcast podcastLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger recorded this guestapooloza version of On The Reg just before Canberra was locked down... as she says in the pod "things might change before you hear this".Luckily her guest was Narelle Lemon from the Wellbeing Whisperer, who was able to impact many relaxation tips. Inger is crap at relaxing, so Narelle's suggestions were extremely helpful. The pair have a surprisingly intense conversation about sleep: how to fall asleep, stay asleep and annoy your partner with the pillow that must go between your knees when you have 'academic back'.Amongst other topics discussed are 'data knitting', the importance of the inner rebel, how to take a compliment, acupuncture and the online attention economy. In other words, this was a pretty typical episode of On The Reg, sans JD - but he does call from On The Road in Covid Free WA!LinksWhy you can't escape the attention economy:All about sleep stages You may have heard that adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night. But, the quality of sleep you get also matters.Why it breaks your brain to take a complimentTeaching matters podcastBrene Brown Unlocking us Beating the Odds: A practical guide to navigating sexism in Australian universitiesLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
After hearing briefly from Jason, who seems to be making progress on his digital detox, Inger is joined by Dr Ben Kraal. Ben used to be an academic, but escaped into the wilds of UX consulting where he makes a very nice living - but still runs an excellent academic-ish newsletter on the side which is called '1992'.Ben tells Inger about the inspiration for 1992, particularly the concept of Articulation work. This is a concept which comes from an early book on the Social organisation of Medical work by Straus, Fagerhaugh, Suczek and Weiner. Articulation work is a fancy way of talking about:Putting tasks in an order (to complete some arc or work)Doing tasks sequentially or simultaneously (to complete some arc of work)Assigning people to do tasks (to complete some arc of work)Basically all the stuff Inger and Jason do in their #Bujos or Omni or whatever else. Ben explains to Inger that Kjeld Schmidt and Liam Bannon applied the ideas from articulation work to computers and invented Google Docs and Zoom in 1992 - or rather, imagined them in a paper called 'Taking CSCW seriously: Supporting Articulation Work'. This paper is pretty amazing when you consider at the time you had to use a physical phone hand set to access the internet through a phone line. This short history lesson on human computer interaction (naturally?) leads into a discussion of what meetings are really FOR and how Cal Newport has discovered the principles of Agile Project Management, not a whole new way to email. The nerd is very strong in this discussion, but Inger came away from it very enlightened and now understands why all those books that promise to solve your project management problems, never will (and why everyone hates Jira).In our reading section, Ben recommends a book on forest management (that is very relevant for understanding public health in pandemics - just trust us) and Inger shares an article on the importance of 'cooling off' before saying 'yes' to a new idea. In the 2 minute tips section, Inger shares some writing planning secrets and Ben changes your life with the Highlighted App.LinksSocial organisation of Medical work by Straus, Fagerhaugh, Suczek and Weiner.Taking CSCW seriously: Supporting Articulation Work' Schmidt and BannonThe Mythical Man Month Jason is reading: Seeing like a StateInger is reading: Julia Bank's Power PlayLoleen Berdahl on Substack “Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.
Inger has a guest host while @Jasondowns is gallivanting his way around Australia on #epictrip2021. Tseen Khoo (@tseenster) from the Research Whisperer Blog joins Inger to talk about a topic that gets them both fired up: networking. They share their networking tips and techniques, especially the stuff that works online during Covid times when the dreaded wine and cheese events are no longer available (hooray!). Inger reckons they are both pretty judgy about how networking is taught to researchers, but Tseen prefers to think they are 'discerning'. They share their tips for shy people who want to network, as well as musing about the burnt tire aroma of International Roast coffee and the reason their children don't know how to send actual letters.Inger has been reading a book about doomsday bunkers while Tseen has a couple of excellent newsletters scooped from Substack. We finish with 2 minute tips as usual, and include a bonus bit of Jason who phoned in from an underground cafe in Cooper Pedy. If you want to leave a message like his, you can do it via a webrowser using SpeakpipeLinks we mentioned:Research Whisperer BlogPostAc appJason's Epic Trip on InstagramProlifiko newsletterOliver Burkeman's newsletter 'The Imperfectionist'NicoleDonutBunker: building for the end of timesLeave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. You can support the pod by buying our Text Expander guide for academics from the Thesis Whisperer website.