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academic otters

A row of vintage lightbulbs hanging without lightshades from an industrial building ceiling and glowing a warm yellow colour from the visible filaments. The lightbulbs represent multiple ideas happening at once.

When another project is distracting you from this one

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

This post is part of a series on Optimizing Focus. Finding it hard to focus is normal. Self-flagellation does not work to improve your focus. Furthermore it takes time and energy that takes you away from your writing; it is another distraction. I firmly believe that you can approach your work compassionately rather than violently. […]

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a painted image of paths over flat ground in the foreground with mountains in the background; circles magnify 3 different areas on the image to illustrate options

Research produces more questions than answers

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

The popular view of research is that it produces answers. This is not untrue. If you need answers, research is going to help you find them. The problem is that research also produces questions. In fact, it produces more questions than answers, which can have a big impact on your ability to publish and on your […]

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The research you want to make happen

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

Research produces more questions than answers. (Liz Gloyn calls these “academic otters“. Her strategies reflect her position as an early career research in the humanities.) The successful researchers I know have far more questions and projects they could be working on than they could possibly pursue in their lifetimes, even if they had fewer service […]

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An interesting tactic for managing ideas

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

We all know that research produces more questions than answers. You can quickly get overwhelmed with those questions and lose the focus necessary to finish work on one of those questions. The best advice I got as a newish PhD student (some time ago), was to make a file for all the things I would […]

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