the encouragement lounge: 2014

Saturday, March 1, 2014

The Encouragement Lounge - open but no new posts

Thanks to everyone who has followed The Encouragement Lounge! I am going to step away from this blog -- I'm involved in several scholarly projects and am clearly having trouble making time to post. However I'm going to leave the blog available as much of the advice and many of the resources are timeless and helpful. The links on the right (popular posts) will take you to some of the most helpful posts.

Cheering for you!
Harriet

Photo by HLS

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Check your workspace ergonomics

Hi all and welcome back from break (for those of you who had a break!). For those who had to work through the between semester time, I hope that you were able to relax at least a little bit along the way and that you were otherwise productive.

As we begin a new semester, I invite you to read the following article that will help you assess your workspaces - this piece is written by a grad student, for grad students on a budget.

Hack Your Workspace with Ergonomics

All the best,
Harriet

Photo by HLS

Working adult students, on my mind...

I hope this blog will be helpful to friends and others involved in a variety of endeavors. However, I created the blog with students in mind and continue to develop it with that specific group as my focus.

I believe that with the increase in evening, weekend, and low-residency programs, students are working more and more in isolation. If we were all full-time students on campus, we would have the informal support that comes with being able to go down the hall and talk with a colleague, etc. But instead, we are working late nights and weekends at home in front of the laptop.

With that in mind, I hope the encouragement lounge provides brief moments of respite and energizing connection. This does not at all replace valuable face-to-face contact. Many aspects of the academic journey can only be addressed via in-depth conversations with colleagues and teachers. And I would always rather sit down and talk with someone than to communicate online. Nonetheless, my aim is to give you one more channel for quick hits of support.