Hey everyone!
Welcome back to my channel.
I'm whispering because I'm at the library.
I'm going to do a study session.
And I wanted to invite you to see if you wanted
to come study or write with me this evening.
It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada,
and I'm actually surprised at how many students
are in the library on a Sunday evening.
Maybe some students are from away or they
don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but the number
was actually quite interesting.
There's a big number of folks here.
Which made me feel a little bit better because
I've got lots going on academically and I
typically like to spend most of Thanksgiving
weekend with my family.
And I advise you to try to plan your life
in a way that you can spend time with your
family when you want to.
That being said, there's going to be times
in academic life when you're not able to.
Or you're going to have to make a little bit
of sacrifices in terms of your time.
You're family's going to understand.
And so, I thought one way of that I could
make this a more social experience would be
to invite you to study with me this evening,
or write with me this evening.
And show solidarity with all of you who are
having to do some of that on what is a long
weekend here in Canada.
The other reason why we're doing this video
is because I came to the library earlier this
afternoon and decided to try having someone's
"study with me"- so there's these videos on
YouTube called "study with me" where people
will pretty much take a video of them studying.
And I didn't really know what to think of
it.
Having someone studying with you can actually
be quite motivating and you might not always
have someone around and so I turned on one
of the videos on my iPad while I was working
on my computer.
And surprisingly I found that actually quite
helpful.
To further motivate me and keep me on task.
And so I was wondering, you know, is this
something that doctoral students would find
helpful in any way, shape, or form?
So I'm just going to try this out this evening.
I'm recording on my iPad.
I'll upload it at a later time.
What I really want to demonstrate this evening
is the Pomodoro concept, which many of you
are familiar with.
What we are going to be doing is studying
intently or writing intently for about 25
minutes, taking a break, and then doing another
25 minutes, ok?
And I'm going to show you some of the things
that I use to help me make the most of those
25-minute spurts.
So that's what we're going to do this evening.
If you already know about that, then I just
invite you to join me and read, write, study,
do whatever you need to do.
So with that, let's get going.
So the first thing I'm going to do is set
a timer for 25 minutes on my iPhone using
the Forest app.
This is a fun little app.
It's again called Forest.
Many of you already know about it, but if
you don't: what you basically do is you press
this button and it will plant a metaphorical
tree in a plot for 25 minutes.
And if you leave your phone, then the tree
will die.
So there's some encouragement to not have
that happen.
And sort of the goal is, over the course of
a week, a month- to see as many trees as you
can in your plot.
That gives you a sense of how much focused
time you spent on something like studying.
Ok?
So that's what we're going to do.
The other thing is I have made myself a cup
of tea in this lovely mug- thank you, mom,
for this mug.
We're actually trying out a pumpkin spice
tea for the very first time- I've never had
pumpkin spice tea.
The great thing about it though is that it's
decaf and it's the evening here, so I'm looking
forward to enjoying that.
So, I know you're eager to write...
Let's do this.
25 minutes on the clock.
And we'll go now.
So the first thing I'm doing is writing down
a to-do list for what I hope to accomplish
within reason in the next 25 minutes.
First thing I have to do is send an email
to my supervisor.
Here goes!
Ok, so I just finished sending two emails
to my supervisor.
I actually replied to one he sent and I sort
of want to keep that in conversation and sent
him a new email with an update on all things
dissertation.
So the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going
to...
I'm actually going back to a project that
I haven't worked on in a little bit.
And so I actually right now need to review
to see what I've done so far so it's back
fresh in my memory and I can determine my
next steps.
So, you might not see as much typing but there's
lots of reading going on on the screen.
And I might turn on some music.
The reason why I am using my headphones is
because well first of all, I typically study
with these headphones.
I find that they're noise-cancelling and they
really help me to focus.
The other thing being that I can't play music
on YouTube that's not copyrighted.
So if I listen to it here then my video will
be ok.
And just like that folks, our tree has grown.
You've got 9 coins I guess... sort of points
that you can then use to do a couple of things.
First, you can purchase other tree species
to plant in your plot.
Or you can actually use I think 3000 of them
or something like that to donate a tree to
a place in the world where trees are needed.
And I think you can donate up to five when
you download the app.
So, there you go!
Ok.
So we're now going to take a little break.
We're going to take a five-minute break and
I encourage you to do whatever you feel like
you want to do.
You might want to get up and stretch, you
might want to read.
I'd encourage you to get away from the screen
for five minutes.
So anything that doesn't involve a screen
for five minutes... although, if you really
want to do something with a screen, that's
totally fine.
But it's good to give your eyes a break.
So we're going to do that.
I'm going to put a little timer on 
for five minutes and I will let you know well
I guess the timer will let us know when we're
done.
Ok.
So the five minutes starts now.
That means we're done.
So during the break, I was reading this book
High-Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard.
And I've read some of the content before but
I wanted to re-read it.
It's a really great book to just really think
about what are some ways that you can be thinking
and things you can be doing to be all you
can be on a daily basis.
So I am re-reading this because I enjoyed
it.
So now we're going to get started on our next
25 minutes pomodoro.
Let me know in the comments section what you
did during your five-minute break.
Ok, computer back up.
So the whole idea of the pomodoro method is
that you work for a time period that our brains
tend to be able to focus for pretty well.
So as humans, we tend to be pretty decent
at focusing for 25 minutes.
When we go too much longer... well, everyone's
different.
But for a lot of people, if they go too much
longer, that's when their focus starts to
drop.
And so the idea being that you focus for that
amount of time on a task that you've stated
upfront.
Then you can take the break to refresh your
brain, and that's why I closed my screen and
did some reading.
And then you do another 25 minutes.
And typically people will do up to 5- 25-minute
rounds, or maybe even six in a given pomodoro
set.
And then they'll take a much longer break...
maybe half an hour or something like that.
And if they have the time to choose to come
back and do another round of all that.
So that's what the pomodoro method is.
And let's get back to Forest.
Ok so.
If you want to see our tree from the last
time, there he is, or she, or they.
There's our tree.
And we're going to add another one to that
plot.
So here we go.
I'm going to continue to do what I was doing,
which is kind of going over what I did on
this project in the past, and I was already
making some edits to it as I was going through
it.
Anyways, good luck on whatever you're working
on.
Let me know in the comments what you're working
on during this hour and yeah...
I'd just love to know in my community what
people are up to.
Good luck!
That's it folks!
So I just concentrated on redoing a paragraph
in a section of the project that I've been
working on for the past 25 minutes.
I don't know if you agree, but I think the
25-minute intervals go by pretty quickly.
It's hard to believe that, you know, that
was 25 minutes.
But here we are.
So I'll show you on the plot, you'll see there
will be a second tree now.
Yeah.
So again if you'd like to download this app,
it's called Forest.
Myself and a number of other graduate students
in my program really enjoy using this one.
So this is one of several that you can use.
But it's just one.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed studying this
evening.
This is just an experiment.
I want to see if anyone would enjoy it.
So please let me know in the comments section
if you felt it helpful to have a study buddy
this evening.
I know that I felt that having you even though
you haven't even seen this video yet.
That this is something... you're going to
be there at a later point in time.
It actually sort of helped me feel a little
bit... helped me to stay on task.
And to also just feel a sense of company this
evening.
And I might do another one of these if you
like it.
So anyways, in the meantime- for those of
you in Canada, wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving.
I'm going to sign off and get back to work.
In the meantime, have a beautiful and productive
week.
Bye!
