Hello everyone!
It’s been a while and a lot of things have changed during this time. Most obviously POC2 has had to be put on extended hold. Though we’re not starting everything up again currently (beyond this small piece) rest asured that after we’re all done with our PhD’s and such, we will be coming back to make more for POC2 .
Right now we find ourselves in a situation that is sadly becoming more common – having to/preparing to finish our PhDs after our funding runs out. This should all be explained in a Physics World article thatI have written but I am waiting on being edited and such, but physics world has limited space (articles are usually an a4 page) and there is more I would like to share regarding these circumstances.
Unlike many of the experiences we have all shared (and kept private) regarding our short careers in academia this – though extremely upsetting and frankly annoying – is something we anticipated as the pandemic slowed our research progress and it became clear that funded extensions PhD students are receiving are simply not enough.
Despite all that has happened in the last couple of years, we would like to complete our doctorates, and like many, many other people similar in age to us, a pandemic, a race war, an economy in shambles, mental, physical and special learning difficulties have left us fairly jaded. Living through all of this, it doesn’t take much to radicalise the average person struggling to make ends meet in 2022, but if you need more proof here you can find that medieval peasants had more spare time than the average person doing a 40 hour work week. 🙃
So why am I speaking on this? Recently, I was asked what my dream is and beyond finishing a successful PhD, and I realised I really didn’t have one. Yes I have some things i’d like to do but a PhD, the title of “Doctor” until I die is an absolute goal of mine. Beyond that? I have no more desire to work towards something – I simply want to finally get out of my overdraft, have an easy job with comfortable working hours that I don’t take home with me and pays reasonbly well.
As I now think about what is next, how to transition into part time work and part time PhD research, and ultimately what I want to do with my life I know that the unending grind is not something that is sustainable (I tried in my UG and masters, it left us me massive physical and mental health issues i’m dealing with) or that I even want to do. Luckily i’m not alone in this way of thinking. Not wanting to be a cog in the machine and to have to work never ending, 40+ hour weeks to the point of not even being able to clean my home on the weekend, is becoming more popular, and a life away from the “grind + side hustle” culture is emerging.
How do I achieve this? This is where this page and crucially: personal preparation, comes in. I don’t have the magical perfect job Idescribed above waiting for me (SAD), but below is a list of resources that I have found specifically helpful and why/how I found them. No more unending grind culture, no more meetings outside of work hours, no more work consuming your entire life and being who you are. It’s time strive for the work that pays the bills to become the smallest part of your life.
Below is a list of resources and then creators that might help some of you along the way
Resources📚
University Careers Services 🤔
I wont link anything specific here as this is highly personalised for each individual, but I have found that the bulk of my work is being done here.
I have been to my careers services multiple times, for many different issues and have always had a positive experience. I will be using the skills, help and resources they gave me to look for part time work, with a focus on finding something suitable for me. I identified my needs based on my life situation and ideally would like a part time job, with remote options. I would also like to be able to drive and park if I need to come in person and I worked out the minimum wage I would like by working backwards on what I want to take home and then used a generic online tax calculator to estimate what the wage would be in the advertisement.
Seasonal Planning 🌸⛅🍂⛄
You’ll hear about this more with the creators i’ve linked below but between COVID and just generally growing up and seeing how quickly things can change both personally and professionally (jobs can and do fire people with very little notice!) I’ve realised there is no point trying to plan more than 3 months in advance. This has been great as it helps stop me from getting overwhelmed with amorphous things that “will eventually need to get done” but that I can’t nail down. It also has the added bonus of 3 months being the length of a season.
There are lots of resources for this online (have some fun and go down a google rabbit-hole for it!) but briefly I have been:
- Focusing/planning for work and life events only 3 months in the future.
- Decorating my house according to each season (swapping out linens and buying a wreath to match has been a lot of fun).
- Trying to base how I care for myself according to the actual weather.
- An example being that since it’s dark for most of the day during the winter, I try to be kinder to myself and allow for more rest and recovery instead of trying to force myself to work long hours that I can’t manage.
Some places to get started:
https://www.hackingyouradhd.com/podcast/get-ready-for-spring-with-seasonal-planning
https://www.drkatielinder.com/your-seasonal-planning-guide/
Libraries 📗📘📙📕 (both online and real life services)
Using my library for free physical and audiobooks has been an absolute game changer for me. That combined with libraries being the last public indoor space that is completely neutral has done wonders for my mental health.
Though retail spaces such as coffee shops and places of faith do offer a semblance of public rest you are expected to spend money or otherwise engage with the situation. Libraries are different from this however, as those of us who aren’t religious orn are trying to save money they can be a great space to utilise. Though on a level I knew they were free the excitement I experienced from joining, browsing, borrwing and taking part has been both lovely and frustrating knowing that libraries are largely underfunded + in danger and that more public services should be this way.
Parks are a close second to libraries imo, but being outdoors in the cold winter isn’t my favourite. Outside of enjoying the winter sun, sky (when it blesses us with its presence) and getting a nice walk in I can spend a day warming up in the library.
Journaling
Yes journaling is cliché, yes journaling works. Despite the unwarranted shame around it there is something that genuinely fixes your brain about just writing all of your thoughts, positive, negative and mundane on a page every now and again.
There are a lot of resources out there that give you ideas beyond the intimidating “dear diary” type of writing we normally see. Dividing up a page into sections for you to tackle can be a much lower barrier for entry.
Get a nice pen, a fancy notebook (blank, squared, dotted or lined), keep the notebook thin to make it easier to finish (dopamine), light a candle, out on some music and reclaim some time back from screens and advertisers trying to get you to buy things on it.
Some places to get started:
https://www.stylist.co.uk/fitness-health/wellbeing/journaling-mental-health-sleep/451824
https://www.yopandtom.com/blogs/news/moon-journaling
https://darktea.co.uk/first-page-of-your-journal-or-notebook/
Therapy
Therapy is an amazing resource that many people should take up. More often than not it is for a specific amount of time (say 3 months) and not forever as one might expect, and as many will agree you don’t need to be completely collapsing to be worthy of therapy. In fact it usually works better if you go there before everything come crashing down.
I’ve made use of therapy for many reasons, including situation depression and even the stage fright that never disappeared like it seemed to for other people. For all of these problems and more it was extremely helpful.
Additionally when it finished: self therapy. Taking the time to sit down with myself once a week, month, quarter or whenever I can manage it is such a simple and helpful idea, but for some reason not one I thought of until my therapist recommended it and gave me some resources.
I would highly recommend this practise and it is important to look after yourself or you will otherwise succumn to capitalism, and this idea combined with journaling (above) will hopefully make all the difference.
If you are in immediate danger or distress call 999, otherwise this may help – https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/self-help-therapies/
Unions
Join a union. Set boundaries.
Many people will know that right wing politicians of the past (and now lol) have decimated what unions used to be, and though it can seem intimidating they will only benefit you.
You don’t even have to join a “formal established union” simply setting boundaries, doing the best you can and refusing to overwork yourself is a form of resistance. Be honest about what you can achieve in a week and if the work environment is terrible do your best to find another job and then leave!
More on this massive issue:
https://www.thecreativepandemic.com/post/blog-join-a-union-a-beginner-s-guide
https://www.tuc.org.uk/joinunion
https://www.gov.uk/join-trade-union
Creators✨
First, a list of creators, how I found them, what they made/researched that interests me all based around themes of anti-capitalism, slow productivity and focusing on both times of work but also times of rest.
Tricia Hersey 🌐 http://www.triciahersey.com/
“By the founder and creator of The Nap Ministry Rest is Resistance is not self-care: it is the urgent wake-up call you need to nap, rest and, most importantly, dream once more.”
What more can I say? Tricia Hersey is on a mission to reclaim rest. Here she speaks about how, for specifically black people, rest was stolen from us primarily during the atrocities of slavery, and then this morphed into the capitalistic regime we see today. With both historical and modern day evidence as well as how to move forward, Tricia is leading the way in this new, calmer, restoring movement many of us seem to be reaching for.
Jenny Odell 🌐 https://jennyodell.com
I found ‘How to do nothing’ by Jenny Odell sometime in the midst of the pandemic. Somewhere during the first lockdown in 2020, when the BLM protests were at their peak and the US president (gigantic clown fool idiot) at the time was being horrendous. We’re in the grip of capitalism and as such forced to work online, so social media was playing a part in driving me insane as I, much like everyone else, was on it way more than I normally would be as we couldn’t go outside.
Here Jenny states, right at the beginning of the talk (which is the first chapter of the book), that this isn’t about how to ‘unplug’ or get off social media, there’s plenty of that out there already. Instead she focuses on reclaiming rest as a form of radical activism, along the lines of Audrey Lorde or the 8 hour work day union movement. She really stresses how even just surviving in a way capitalism doesn’t want you to – not always griding to make capital and/or being “productive” (in the new bastardised way jobs are now) is not only better for yourself but is, in its own way, fighting against the machine-like world we’re expected to live in.
I would really recommend consuming all of this, but for a smaller introduction watch the first 15 minutes of the talk.
Taylor Behnke 🌐 https://www.taylorbehnke.com/
Another socially minded creator, Taylor (ItsradishTime on youtube) videos help me decide how I want to interact with the world we’re currently living in. She has a great way of approaching what are massive topics, from climate change, to her many videos on politics and human rights all the way down to more personal problems – like her lifelong, ongoing battle with depression.
She manages to speak on some of the most tough events that have happened to us in the last ~7 years with amazing insight and she does this remarkably quickly. I constantly find myself realing from the horrendous reality of modern events (COVID, police voicence, attacks on reproductive rights by US+UK governments, attacks on LGBT+ people by US+UK governments to name a few) and though she doesn’t provide an escape from them she somehow manages to counter it, through a left leaning, LGBT WOC lens. It was a struggle narrowing down my selection to just 3 videos, and I honestly could fill up pages of notebooks on her thoughts from her videos. (Maybe i’ll start doing that soon…).
Rachael Stephen 🌐 https://www.rachaelstephen.com/
Though not explicitly focusing on social change Rachael Stephens videos have been a surprising delight. I first listened to her as soothing background noise while working from home during the pandemic. This was perfect for me as I find watching science videos as I do my own scientific research akin to someone counting whilst you’re counting.
Then she started to evolve away from her initial channel topic (writing) as her interests changed and I only found she became more interesting as this occurred. Rachael is self employed, but she is the first person I have seen to not be crazily focused on making money in her work.
This really impacted me (in a positive way) when she decided to take a break from her work (she teaches story writing) to focus on her deteoriating mental health. She doesn’t have an external team to keep everything running, she simply stated that she’s truly struggling to meet even her basic needs and since she has enough money to survive until the next enrolment period of her writing classes, she’s taking time off.
Despite me spouting all my support for being anti-capitalist, I was genuinely in awe. She wasn’t continuously grinding now she saw success in her business, but taking it slow and prioritising maintinece and recovery over what capitalism would consider productivity – working on her bussiness.
I genuinely love Rachel’s work. One thing that really stands out to me is how her channel isn’t monetised, so even when I watch her videos on my phone there aren’t any adverts. Finally she is also developing what she calls the constellation system (another coincidence is we both realised we had ADHD around the same time, so a lot of the tools she makes and develops works well with my brain). I’m invested enough in her work to be a Patreon and I’m using it heavily to try and manage my way through the end of this PhD.
Dr. Kate Henry 🌐 https://thetendingyear.com/ 🌐 https://katehenry.com/
Dr. Kate Henry (née Litterer) is a productivity coach who focuses on what she calls slow productivity. After having massive health issues during her PhD she quickly realised if she was going to finish it, she would actually have to de-prioritise it to focus on her declining physical health first! This then spiraled into more research on how to manage all of the life events happened to her and she ended up setting up her productivity business as it exists today.
Kate had been a wealth of information. Her blog – The Tending Year – has been a great resources in trying to find new tools to practise setting working boundaries and would be an excellent place for anyone looking to try the same to start!
This is all I have. I am currently using the above information to try and carve out a meaningful and happy life for myself. Don’t feel bad if you’re working hard just to make ends meet – as stated in the introduction we’re either living off savings or working two jobs and only being paid for one. I don’t think many people are in their ideal situation. The main point I want to make here is that we are prioritising rest and our health as much as possible and that it’s ok to be tired. We’re saying yes to as many social events as we can manage, exercising outside (forest walks!), keeping up with hobbies (reading, games, archery etc…), more than we ever have before, and hopefully we’ll get to a point where we’re comfortable, in a job that doesn’t ration sick days and pays well for part time hours so we can live a more balanced life.
Header Photo by Billy Huynh on Unsplash
POC Squared