Having taken one week off from work (that is, the work that pays my food and rent) after the recent Ph.D. colloquium, I promised myself to devote those 7 days to writing on my thesis. So, I get up early in the morning, take care of the cats, have breakfast and green tea (no coffee, this week) and sit down to write. I have three favorite places: the terace, the dining table and the sofa which I change quite regularly during the day. In the breaks I look at pictures in home decorating magazines. In the evening, just before my night writing sequence, I go running.
Just because man is no machine and I guess it takes muse to have a real “flow”, I haven’t written half as much as I planned to. (However, I am proud to have worked through 4 papers, taken a lot of notes and to be writing the second blog post of today already.)
While I think about writing or not writing or wishing to start writing eventually, I click through my favorite blogs which I consult quite regularly to learn more about scientific writing and motivational tricks:
The first one is called “Research as a second Language” -> http://secondlanguage.blogspot.com/. It is maintained by Mr. Basbøll, who is a writing consultant at Copenhagen Business School. His tips and guidance really helped me a lot in the past, particularly when I was running out of time to get an article submitted. His structured approaches are a real remedy 
.
The second great blog I consult as a writing Ph.D. student is called “Stupid Motivational Tricks” -> http://prosedoctor.blogspot.com/. It is also maintained by Jonathan Mayhew, together with Mr. Basbøll and others. I love it for their small hints and thoughts. Sometimes, I just rummage around in their blog posts to prevent myself from writing and, having such a fun time, I actually do forget all about my thesis or paper and feel much better 
. No, seriously, it’s great! Check it out!
Then, I just discovered another blog which deals with scholarly writing. To be honest, it was mainly its name that made it attractive: “Get a Life, PhD” -> http://getalifephd.blogspot.com/ sounded like another great way of keeping me from writing. I actually hoped to get some nice excuses for not working so hard served on a silver platter. 
But, oh well, another blog with valuable tips and tricks… I once read a dictum on one of those tear-off calendars saying: “You never get what you want, but what you deserve.” *haha*
So, I will return to my thesis now and continue writing…
