Self-care Archives - PhD Pathfinder

Give your brain a break!

Have you noticed that you are having trouble concentrating, that you have headaches after a day’s work or that you feel exhausted during your free time? Your brain might be telling you to take a break. Expert, creative, independent work requires concentration, self-regulation, and recovery. All of these are tools…

What are you looking forward to?

Now that the fall semester is in full swing, it’s good to take a moment and reflect on the path that lies ahead. Coming back from the summer holidays is not always easy, as I wrote in a previous blog post. But once the dust has settled you could ask…

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…

ADHD in doctoral studies

With this blog post I wish to increase awareness of (high-functioning) ADHD in doctoral studies, reduce the stigma around it, and help doctoral students with ADHD (or suspecting having ADHD) find tools, that can help them succeed on their doctoral journey. I also want to spread the word that ADHD…

Which ghost are you listening to?

Have you ever thought about how much time you spend thinking about the past or fantasizing about the future? It’s been suggested, that we spend only half our time focused on the present. And when we wander around in the past or in the future, we tend to be less…

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…

“I’ll do it tomorrow” – procrastination in doctoral studies

While talking to doctoral students about self-leadership the other day, one student brought up the topic of procrastination. As this is an important topic, that many struggle with, especially during remote work, I thought a blog post would be in order. What makes procrastination so prevalent in academia? The academic…

Find your superpower

What are your strengths and your weaknesses? This is a question most often heard from a recruiter’s mouth. But it’s a question that everyone should think about once in a while. Because you might be surprised by what you discover about yourself – if you keep an open mind. A…

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.