Viva Survivor: I’m delivering a Viva Survivor session in Manchester tomorrow. It’s been a few months since I last delivered Viva Survivor, and I’m really looking forward to it; I like talking to PhD candidates about their theses and what they think and feel about the viva. It’s surprising sometimes hearing some of the myths that float around about them. Coincidentally it’ll be four years next week since I submitted my thesis. Doesn’t seem that long in some ways, and in others it feels like a lifetime.

Viva Survivors Podcast: Things are moving on with this project, which in a way came to me as a spin out of the workshops that I do. I am going to look into setting up a mailing list (I understand that it is not that hard to do through some automated process) so that people can get information about when it is going to be released and how it is progressing. I have one interview recorded, it’s probable that I will get another two squeezed in during the next week, and I have one lined up for early May. Still a lot more people that I want to talk to – if you would be interested in talking to me about your viva, and to sharing your story with the world, please let me know!

GRADschools: I got the confirmation I was waiting for last week, and I now have lots of GRADschools in my diary for over the summer months! Within the next month I have just two, and I’m looking forward to the Manchester GRADschool, which I’m also preparing some new collaboration resources for. I might be getting interviewed for a mini-podcast tomorrow, so that participants can get an advance indication of what that session will be about. I’m working on it this morning too, so had best wrap this up.

Getting back to GTD: I think I’m getting my groove back with Getting Things Done; I had started to fall back into old habits, letting things pile up in places, not reviewing my in-tray properly. I’m experimenting today with writing down everything I get done so I can see what happens and when, to check that I am spending time well. This is just an experiment, and is not really a part of GTD as I understand it, but I think it might be interesting to know exactly how I am spending my time.