Monday Accountability Thread-🙌🏾 (Sept 19th-25th)

Great!! Best of luck!! You’ve got this Queen. Can’t wait to hear your progress ☺️

Ooh, you make zines? Any kind of particular topic? Nice goals btw!! You sound ready to open your own school over there. 🤩

I do make zines. I have a lot of them from my semi pickmeisha days, so some of them are about how a scrote broke my heart. The others, which I'm happier with, are about party autobiographical partly academic experiences! Thank you for your sweet words! I'd love to contribute and improve but I'm not sure how I'll go about the goal.

Haha yes, in fact! Depends on how flexible you are.

- I can sit on a chair and lift my leg on to the table that my computer is on. This depends on your flexibility and the height of the table.

- I have done sitting on a chair, computer on table, and ankle resting on a second chair. Blankets or a pillow on the second chair to cushion the ankle, otherwise my heel gets sore from pushing against the wood. This doesn't keep your ankle lifted above your heart usually, but it's higher up than just keeping it down.

- Also, sitting on the bed with my legs straight out, or propped up on pillows, with the computer on my lap. If I have only one leg lifted, I have a pillow or something across my hips to even out a space for the computer. This isn't always the best ergonomic position for typing, so watch out for your wrists getting twisted or cramped in weird positions.

I would say none of these positions are super comfortable for hours and hours straight of computer work, so don't be afraid to switch it up every once in a while. ☺️

Aaahh thank you so much for taking the time to give me advice for this. 💌 You are very kind.

Ice, heat, always end with ice to reduce inflammation.

Hi! I'm so glad there's other women in the academia hell in here.

I'm trying to work a little bit every day after work (I'm clearly insane for this, but I have a 9 to 6 job as well). Then I try to power focus on weekends, with varying degrees of success.

I think it's time to mix up my routines, because whatever I'm doing is clearly not getting consistent results so far haha.

I've started using Click Up (there's an app, but it's better as a browser website) to lay down my tasks and thesis timelines.

I've gone back to the gym (the pilates class today was lovely), but that means my time after work has shrunk considerably.

I'm starting to wake up earlier, and over the past week I've managed to push back my waking up time 1 and a half hours. Now I just need to start actually putting in thesis work during the morning!

Do you have a system in place? I'm 100% open to suggestions :)

Academia hell is right! I actually had to take a semester off due to mental health reasons, and all that is left is thesis writing and a final presentation. I did leave my job in 2020 in the thick of the pandemic and start my course that I'm currently doing, and the faculty here were extremely inconsiderate and harsh on our batch. This has made me lose interest in pursuing a PhD as of now. I also want to have my financial independence and start a passive income source soon. That's why the attempt to oraganize everything about my life, including my emotional state. You have a 9 to 6 job? Girl, how. I am in so much awe of you. I feel like sometimes I can only do one thing at a time. Like i can either do x or y. It's a headspace issue that I need to resolve. I'll take a look at click up. Currently I'm using Google Keep, Notion and One note in a bizarre mix to stay on top of things. I'm glad that you are enjoying gym. One thing I didn't add to my week was physical exercise. I'm still finding out what I enjoy. Walks are the best, and since it's a closed and very safe campus I could go out for one at 2 am and still be unscathed. Waking up early makes you automatically feel like you have more time doesn't it?? But honestly finding out what time you are the most productive is also so useful!! I've been doing things effectively mainly at night from 12 to 3 am. Idk why that is when my brain is amped up if I'm not sleep deprived! I'm planning to apply for some remote part time work so I will be making some money at the least. Could you share how you switch from one mindset to the other? We're in the same need to mix up schedules storm so yaay us! Would you want to be my accountability buddy for academic purposes here on the sub? Love, Reva

Hi again :D

I'm really sorry for your bad experience with the local faculty. That's unacceptable, and I hope that the mental health semester helped you through it <3 I still need to gather my results and write about 60% of the thesis before I can deliver it, so I'm definitely a bit behind haha.

I totally get the "I can only do X or Y" headspace, which is why I tend to do my best work during the weekends (but that's also when I'm the least motivated, RIP). It's also a work in progress for me.

In all honesty, I'm also more productive at night! If it weren't for my job, I'd probably be doing the same as you. Just do what works for your specific situation.

Although my "work" and "thesis" mindsets are very similar, I try to switch between them by getting some snacks for my thesis work (tea and fruit, or something else that's at least marginally healthy). I also have 2 different ambient soundtracks for them: actual music for work and relaxing nature noises for my thesis. It's only mildly effective, so I've also been trying to add a quick meditation session and/or reading between those.

I think I've only been able to conciliate both things because my work is 100% remote (I'm a software developer), which saves me considerable time in the day. So I definitely think that the best part-time job for you would be remote, too :)

I'd love to have an accountability partner! Is there a chat function in the sub?

Love,

Cetim