Burnout Archives - PhD Pathfinder

How to return to work after a summer vacation?

Once again a summer has come and gone. I hope you had a good summer? Most of us are returning to work after a summer vacation. Even though I love my job, I was feeling really bummed out that the summer is over. Some might not even have had the…

How much is enough? Unreasonable tasks and intent to leave academia

This is a Research Highlight, where I present published research on doctoral student wellbeing. In this Research Highlight I focus on an article by Bramlage, Julmi, Pereira and Jackenkroll (2021) on unreasonable tasks and intent to leave academia. I’ve written about reasons for leaving academia in a previous Research Highlight….

How to help your brain survive virtual work

I’ve written about Zoom Gloom in a previous post (see here) but since issues with remote work are only getting worse, I believe it’s good to revisit that subject. A recent article in Nature revealed some depressing figures about academic burnout during the pandemic. Stress and anxiety, caused by remote…

Why is academic supervision so bad?

Sorry for the provocative title. I’m sure not all supervision is bad – there are obviously some gems out there. But I’m also sure that a lot of the supervision could be a lot better. If we would prioritize it. One of the most pervasive issues doctoral students deal with…

Let’s talk about burnout in academia

In academia, it’s easy to think that the next break is just around the corner. “I can focus on my writing next month when the teaching is over.” It’s easy to tell yourself that the amount of workload is normal. “Everyone else seems to manage the same workload so I…

EDIT: I am currently working at Metacore games as Wellbeing & Performance Lead and will be updating these pages soon. So bear with me! 🙂

Whether you need support to survive and thrive on your PhD journey or you want to improve your self-management skills as a scientist, the PhD Pathfinder is the right place for you.

Serving as your PhD Pathfinder is me, Maria Törnroos, a work and organizational psychologist (PhD) with plenty of experience and expertise of all the ups and downs of doing a PhD. At the moment, I am working as a psychologist, advancing wellbeing for doctoral researchers and early career researchers at Aalto University in Finland. You can read more about me, my academic past and my visions for the future in the ‘About me’ section.

The Best Thing Today

The Best Thing Today is a podcast series by Aalto study, career and advanced study psychologists. With their guests they discuss issues like remote working, social distancing, the effects of the Covid pandemic on studies, and much more. They also give advice for the everyday life in Aalto. The Best Thing Today is – naturally – in English, and the podcast’s counterpart in Finnish is called Paras hetki päivässä.

Maria Törnroos’s Audio columns are based on her blog PhD Pathfinder, www.mariatornroos.fi

As a master’s student at Aalto University, there are many opportunities to build one’s own life out of student life. How is it done? In this podcast episode, you can hear the experiences of Maria Karesoja, a master’s student in economics, and maybe even small tips are promised. Host: study psychologist Paula Sjöblom.