Silver Linings: For the love of reading, and my Kindle

As a child, reading was one of my favorite pass-times. I bonded with one of my best friends as we discovered we both liked the same author. During the summer holidays, I could easily sit in the garden all day long,reading a book.

And then I went to university, and something I called "letter-fatigue" struck me. After finishing reading in a course book, my eyes were tired of seeing letters and I couldn't bring myself back to reading. I'd only read during a week in summer, and that'd be all for a year.

I gradually started to pick up the pace again during my time at Georgia Tech, and afterwards, as I was flying back and forth between Europe and the US more frequently. I started to trade in the in-flight movies for books. I discovered some contemporary satire that I deeply enjoyed. I started to track my reading in Goodreads, and browsing for suggestions.

And then, about 4 months ago, I got my Kindle. At first, I was planning to only use the device during trips abroad in airports and during flights. I'd still carry paper books for the part of the flight during which electronic devices can't be used.

However, I started reading tons on my Kindle: fiction, papers, my own writing as a second screen now that I am only using my laptop, e-books and more. My Kindle is hands-down one of the best purchases I've made in a long time. Not just for my personal enjoyment, but I comes in useful for my research too.

I love books. I love the smell of books, having paper in my hand - and I was terribly skeptical of using an e-reader. My fear and scepsis turned out to prove me wrong.

For us researchers, reading is almost as important as writing - and you can't have one without the other. I've stated it before: reading sparks creativity. Or as my favorite tweet of a few weeks ago mentioned:

@evalantsoght @NSRiazat @lifehackorg @writtenbykrissy The best way to become a better writer is to become a better reader.
— U.S. Dhuga (@USDhuga) August 8, 2013

 One of the best features of a dedicated e-reader as a Kindle, is that it basically is just meant for reading. Unlike a tablet pc where you might want to hop from app to app, the Kindle keeps your attention to your reading. Some critics might fear that we'd hop from book to book and lose the ability to get lost in a fantasy world while reading, but my experience is that I get as much engrossed in a paper book as in a digital book - the story is what matters.

Also, since the Kindle is small, it fits my smallest purse, and I've been dragging it along to many different locations. You can spot me in waiting in line, engrossed in the Kindle.

The color of the screen doesn't seem to tire my eyes, I enjoy the option of highlighting text as I read and I appreciate the fact that I can increase the font - I am by far a very happy Kindle user.

Do you enjoy reading? Do you use an e-reader? And do you also use the e-reader for your research?

Thesis Distance: Inner resistance

Mid November I finished the first draft of my thesis, printed it and handed a copy of it to my 2 supervisors. Shortly afterwards, I headed to Pittsburgh for holidays. I intended to take my thesis print with me, and proofread it in the beautiful library of Pittsburgh.

And then, I decided to take a step back.

I decided to take a Real Holiday and not to touch my thesis until returning.

I forced myself to create a distance between what I wrote and myself.

And to be honest, it was very hard. Here, I give you some insights in why I found it difficult to take a break (you'd think I'd be more than happy to relax after such a big effort, no?):

1. Tunnel vision

For many months, I have been planning my writing and have been focused on the thesis and the thesis alone. Finishing the thesis not only became my first priority, but also took over my entire mind. Realizing how much of tunnel vision I am experiencing is already one step towards returning to the world outside of the thesis again.

2. Stress

Admittedly, I am terrified by the idea of not graduating within the 4 years of my program. It creates a certain type of stress that makes me act like a hamster in a wheel: keep running keep running and keep busy to make sure it will all get done in time.

3. Perfectionism

I dislike the opening lines of my first chapter. I've wanted to change them around again recently, but I decided that instead I should ask the opinions of my supervisors. As a perfectionist, I want to keep on editing my text and polishing it and proofreading it. Again, taking a step aside and waiting two weeks to continue working on my thesis, helps me to reflect on which editing is necessary and which comes out of perfectionism.

Have you walked away from your thesis at a certain point in the process? I'd love to hear your stories in the comments below!

Reading loads: Archiving after reading

This post is part of a series on reading loads, in which I discussed the different levels of reading and keeping up with the output previously.

What do you do after you finish reading a paper? Do you simply throw the article on a pile on your desk? Do you take any action at all?

In my opinion, archiving a paper is as important as reading it. Nothing is as annoying as when you realize you read something interesting, but can't remember the author nor title. And that's exactly the pitfall you want to avoid if you keep up with the output.

By investing just a few minutes of time after reading a paper, you can archive your articles and find these back when necessary. Here's a few things to consider:

1. Electronic archive

If you undertake a research project that spans multiple years, you will need referencing software. I use Endnote, and I archive all papers I have read into my PhDBibliography library. At the university network, I use ISI Web of Knowledge to look up the paper I read, and most of the times I can simply download the information (full reference, abstract, keywords, times cited,...) into Endnote. I then add the .pdf version of the paper to the reference, to make sure I can always find the reference back.

2. Paper archive

In this regard, I'm totally old-fashioned: I still print everything I read (some day, I'll switch to a tablet reader). I don't want to toss the paper that I read into the thrash, also because most of the time I sketch and comment in the sideline. Therefore, I archive all hard copies of articles. As I described here, I have everything in alphabetical order for the first author. When I'm not sure who wrote the paper I'm after, I can still search in my Endnote library on the keyword or date.

3. Notes on paper

Besides sketching and commenting in the sideline, I also note down a few keywords or a short summary on the first page of the paper. This method not only helps me to summarize what I just read, but it also helps to bring back the topic if I revisit the article.

4. Notes and tags  

In Endnote, I try to add keywords or some additional comments such that I can make a search for a keyword and have all relevant articles showing up. A search for "sustainability" or "compression strut" for example can be very helpful when I prepare a paper and need to write the introduction and literature review by referring to the relevant papers on that topic.

Blogs I am currently following

Here's the list of what I currently have in my Google Reader:

About writing

Aliventures: Ali Luke's blog in which she shares ideas and strategies for better writing.
Explorations of style: On academic writing

Useful tips and advice

addictivetips: Useful tips and tricks with regard to software
Church of the Customer: Business blog
Dumb little man: Tips for life, with content covering a wide range of subjects
Get rich slowly: On money... because frugality blogs are very helpful when you are in graduate school
Lifehacker: Tips, tricks, hacks,...
Mark's daily apple: Mainly about the primal diet (about which I don't care), but every now and then an interesting article about the food industry shows up here
Seth's blog: Short, to the point and well written posts
Stepcase Lifehack: Another blog filled with tips, tricks and lifehacks
Steve Pavlina: On personal development
The Positivity Blog: Covering a lot of topics which make me smile
The Simple Dollar: Personal finance blog
Time Management Ninja: To the point posts on time management
Whole Health Source: Another blog with a primal perspective
Zen habits: Very inspiring material

Science

About science: Posts on several news items in science
Geology Geek: On geology, and much more

PhD Student blogs and blogs about doing a PhD

Alternative PhD: On academia, and outside academia
Daniel and I: Heart-warming blog of a fellow PhD student
Happy Science: On science, doing a PhD, and skepticism of ungrounded popular beliefs
Jane Davis: Blog of fellow PhD student and phd-chatter Jane Davis
jbdeaton.com: On (structural) engineering, teaching and research.
Jennifer Jones' PhD Notebook: Research on the olympics and observations from a PhD candidate
Jenn's studious life: Graduate student blog, counting down to her first paper
Literature Review HQ: A blog devoted to the literature review, because so many of us struggle with this
Peoplegogy: Blog covering doctoral school, education, arts, life...
PhD2Published: Great content for all PhD students, Post-docs and academics out there
Louter promoveren: Dutch blog from a coach for PhD students
Sara Batts - Research project progress: PhD candidate blog
Sarah Stewart: On education, teaching, research and learning
Silence and Voice: Jeffrey Keefer's blog on educational research
The research whisperer: Great posts on how to do research
The thesis whisperer: Every PhD student's staple food
The 3 month thesis: How to write a PhD thesis in 3 months
To Do: Dissertation: Great archives and tools available

Fashion blogs

(because these provide great inspiration on how to put outfits together on a small budget)

Calivintage
Constance-Victoria
Crimson Rosella
Delightful Dozen
Delightfully Tacky
Elegantly academic (special kudos to a PhD student who runs a fashion blog)
Flashes of Style
Hummingbird Girls
Light Witch Spell Book
Scrapbook de la Emma
Selective Potential
Strutt
The Styling Dutchman
Tick tock vintage
Waking Life
What would a nerd wear

I skim read all posts at first glance, and then read the ones which seem relevant to me.
Recommendations for more reading are very welcome :)

How to handle a large amount of literature

These days, I am less busy in the lab (my setup needs to be changed so I won't be carrying out experiments for about a month), so I've totally dived into my literature review again. Since I am trying to get a good insight on several topics (existing bridges, load distribution, shear in beams, shear in slabs and failure criteria from fracture mechanics) I have gathered a depressingly large amount of papers which I want to work my way through.

Bit by bit I've developed a way to tackle this task.

1. Read by theme or period of time

Initially, I thought that it would help me if I'd be reading several topics parallel. Now, I've found out that it helps me much more to see the connections between different papers when I gather information on the same subject and read everything I can find on the same subject until I've finished that topic. Every now and then I do feel tempting to vary topics or required level of understanding for the considered papers. I tend to alternate papers on experimental work with papers on purely theoretical work.

2. Speed reading

As I wrote before, I've been doing some attempts to speed up my reading. I still feel tempted to savor each and every sentence, but working with a stopwatch has made me more conscious of my time.

3. The egg timer trick

I'm now using the old egg timer trick to track my time. Instead of the egg timer I am using the stopwatch of my phone (a 6-year-old fridge-shaped Nokia), to see how long I can concentrate before I drift off and go walk around the hallway for another cup of tea. I'm trying to stretch my concentration span from 20 minutes to 45 minutes. My attempts to regain focus through meditation seem to have a positive effect on this.

4. Summarize

What was special about this paper? What is the main thought I need to capture? I jot down a few words on the first or last page of the paper for further reference. I also make some notes at the sides of the columns whenever I come across an interesting thought, but I feel it is also important to get the key message and write that down for later in order to avoid having to reread the paper.
 

5. Archive

I use Endnote to organize my references. Most of the papers I read can be found through the online version of Endnote, so I can import all the relevant information to the data entry and attach the paper to it. Searching, as well as looking how much work of a certain author or from a certain period of time I have read, have become much easier this way.

6. Use the relevant data right away

Whatever I need for the report of my literature review goes in the right section of the document - straight away. I also keep some separate files on the influence of different parameters on shear. I don't have any written text in those files yet (the literature review needs to be done first), but I copy the most important graphs and sentences about the studied parameter, together with the reference in those files. I expect that this will speed up my writing process significantly once I start writing about these parameters. In the end, I will only have to mix all the information together, and then discuss it with regard to my own experiments, instead of looking for that information in papers again.

Admittedly, I print out all my papers (reading on the screen hurts my eyes, and I just am a paper and pencil person), so the physical papers themselves also have to be stored. That system is not as good as my Endnote library - I find myself often going through binders, trying to remember under which keyword I stored the paper I need. Any advice on this would be very much appreciated!

7. Let the ideas melt together

While reading all this information, I feel like all ideas are melting together in my head. I plan to start drafting some mindmaps rather soon, to get the links between these ideas and to point out what I will use for my own theoretical work.



   

First steps in speed reading

I'm naturally a slow reader, a very slow reader even. When I read a book, I create an entire universe in which I can visualize the characters. I can imagine how they look like, how they act amongst eachother (outside of the story of the book), how they are dressed, what their voices sound like...
However, having this habit of slow reading isn't helping when there are piles and piles of papers waiting to be read. I've been reading around the internet about speed reading, selective reading, skimming and more of those fashionable terms, and I decided to give it a try. As for now, I'm very positive about my results.

At the moment, I have a folder of papers on my desk which basically gives background to my research. It is not exactly about my topic, but I need to know more about the general background and the application of my research. So I've decided to read all of these papers, and try to read them fast.

My first attempts have been based on this method:
1. Read the abstract.
2. Read the introduction.
3. Skim through the text, paying special attention to graphs and (sub)titles.
4. Write down a few keywords.
5. Go to the conclusions.

These actions I perform in one wave of concentration, and afterwards I "relax" by putting the reference into my system to manage references (Endnote, in my case) and by adding the relevant information to the "scope" chapter of my literature review.

I've only been using this method for a few days now, and I will write about my progress.