Finding a working rhythm

We are midway through the ECR Writing Club Pilot and members are finding it worthwhile to carve out a dedicated space and time for academic writing every week among like-minded colleagues.

To this end, we have agreed to try and continue the collaborative sessions every Friday throughout Semester 1 and aim to develop further ideas to encourage a supportive research environment.

If you would like to get involved, please reserve a place using the doodle poll (see previous posts for the link).

What’s the experience like?

The view from the ECR Writing Club windows

The group aims to do 7 pomodoro sessions interspersed by 5 minute breaks usually with shared snacks. We take a longer break for lunch.

  • We begin at 9am by discussing our writing aims for the day, and start the first silent pomodoro session.
  • Week 1, we started using 25 minute pomodoros and changed gears to try 45 minute sessions post-lunch.
  • Week 2 we experimented again (longer 45 minute sessions in the morning, and 25 minute focused bursts in the afternoon), which seemed to work well, depending on the task you are trying to achieve.
  • Around 4pm we finish by discussing our day’s progress, reflecting on what worked and what we could improve.

***Finally, we appreciate having access to the coffee and tea machine during the short breaks and would like to thank Fiona Whitehurst and June at Newcastle University Business School and the Newcastle University Organisational Development Team at the Core for their tokens of support.

Thanks to the Organisational Development Team for the literal tokens of support

Academic sustenance – coffee and tea supplied by Newcastle University Business School

 

 

 

 

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