You and Me – Podcast
This is a podcast I recorded with another Open University associate lecturer, discussing our experiences of being neurodivergent tutors at the OU. We share how strategies designed to support neurodivergent students often benefit all learners, and why empathy, compassion and flexibility matter so much to our work.
Make Points, not Topics
Melanie’s Massive Compendium of Productivity Hacks
I’ll update this list as more things occur to me. Feel free to add your own productivity life hacks in the comments.
Headphones on, open these three tabs on your browser in order
- YouTube video of 24 Hour Crackling Fireplace
- rainymood.com – rain and thunder sounds
- Endless looping YouTube video of a smooth jazz track
H/T to Reddit user Tadallagash and their viral Reddit post Time to get classy
Alternatively, choose your own soundtrack that makes your brain focus, and use it EXCLUSIVELY for when you’re being productive. You can train your brain to associate these sounds with focusing on work.
Book recommendations
The Anti-Planner: How to Get Sh*t Done When You Don’t Feel Like It by Dani Donovan
$48 plus shipping
Yes I know it’s expensive for a planner (it’s not a planner, though), but there are 2 reasons it’s worth it. First, it has many features that make the book more effective as an interactive workbook that also make it more expensive to manufacture, such as being comb-bound to lie flat in use, thick pages so your sharpies won’t bleed through, tabs to organise the info, etc. Second, it works. It has saved my hide so many times because I was stuck, frozen, bogged down, unable to do what I needed to do, and this book got me going again. It is packed with hundreds of tips, strategies, and lifehacks for every situation. I highly recommend this book.
£7.99 for the ebook. Weirdly, also available as an audio CD for £38.87
Full of excellent and encouraging advice for ALL students, especially (but not only) neurodivergent students. This is the book I wish I had had when I was an undergraduate. However, it is long and in-depth. If you struggle to take in information from walls of text you will need some strategies for approaching this book
£10, also available as audiobook
Clear combines his personal and professional experience advising people about building habits that serve them, with cutting-edge psychology and neuroscience. The result is an evidence-based system for reflecting on your life; the habits you have, the habits you want, and the effect your habits have on you. He sets out step-by-step processes (I love a step-by-step process!) for changing your habits. It’s oversimplified in some ways. For example, it neglects the effects of trauma and other psychological problems that might impede the step-by-step process from unfolding as he sets it out. But there’s a lot of applicable wisdom here for most people.
App Recommendations
Currently £3.99 one-off purchase. No in-app purchases.
A productivity app for iOS and Android, as well as add-ons for Chrome and Firefox. Fundamentally it’s a timer (I usually set it for 25 minutes). A little tree will grow as long as you don’t interact with your phone while the timer runs down. Over time you can grow a little forest, representing how much time you have spent focusing. It doesn’t lock your phone – you can still use it, but the tree will die. Works well with the Pomodoro technique.
Free
Turn your to-do list into a fantasy roleplaying game. Gather experience points, gain levels, and boost your stats by completing user-defined quests (such as doing your laundry or booking a dentist appointment)
Free for individual users
Web-based kanban-style organiser. Or you can make a physical kanban board (see below).
Other Life Hacks
Free
Get stuff done by focusing for 25 minutes at a time. You don’t have to buy anything or download anything. The website explains how to do it.
Free (you just need any pen and any notebook)
Ignore what you see on Pinterest and Instagram. It’s not an art project. You don’t need a new fancy notebook, new fancy pen, stencils, stickers, or any art supplies. It’s a simple system for organising your time and your tasks. Use a pen and notebook you already have – you could use one of those notebooks you wrote in the first 4 pages of and then abandoned. Tear out the old pages, or just start on the next empty page. The website explains how to do it.
Free (you may wish to buy a whiteboard, or you can make do with things you already have)
A system for tracking your tasks that need doing, are in progress, waiting for something (eg an email reply) or done. There are numerous apps that do this electronically eg trello.com, or todoist.com. Or you can go old school with a whiteboard and post-it notes. Or you can use the back of a door or a big piece of paper. The system is what matters, not the tools.
Free, although paid options are available
A category of strategies in which the presence of another person helps you stay on task. Here are some variations.
- Arrange informally with a friend to join a video call whilst you both focus on your own tasks.
- Arrange informally with someone at your home or workplace to keep you on task. This is not a full-time commitment for them, it’s very low-level. For example, when my daughter sees me scrolling on my phone during work hours, she asks “What are you doing” in a neutral, non-judgemental tone. This may help me realise I’m doom-scrolling, and snap me out of the spell. Or I may explain that I’m researching apps for a blog article I’m writing.
- Arrange informally to get together with someone in person. For example, you may arrange to go to a friend’s house because she really wants to declutter the kitchen cupboards but never gets round to it, and you really want to work on your assignment but keep getting distracted. On Thursday at 2pm you go to sit at her kitchen table with your laptop whilst she organises her cupboards. You’re both more likely to get your tasks done under this arrangement.
- Simply going to a public space like a cafe or library may help you stay focused. I’d feel pretty odd sitting in a cafe playing The Sims or scrolling Facebook on a laptop, so I tend to remain focused on work.
- Pay to join a video call with one or several other people. Sometimes I attend online or in-person Study Hubs. Being connected online with other people helps me focus better than I can when I am working alone. There’s a (US-centric) list of body-doubling apps here, but I haven’t tried them.
Frame it as a favour for someone else
I’ve got no link for this one. Some years ago I saw a thread on Reddit or Twitter or somewhere, in which a user asked people what tasks they were procrastinating right now. Then he reframed each one as asking the person to do that task as a favour for him. E.g., if one user said they were procrastinating posting a cheque to pay a bill, the original user would say “Hey, could you just do me a favour and post that cheque to the electricity company. I’ve been meaning to do it but I keep forgetting, and I’m worried they’re going to cut me off. You may have to buy a stamp first. Is that OK”? The users reported that this had enabled them to do tasks they had been unable to complete for themselves, by instead imagining they were doing a favour for someone who was depending on them. What was especially lovely was that the thread quickly became huge, with vast numbers of people sharing tasks they were stuck on. The original user couldn’t possibly reply to them all. So users began responding to each other with the same reframing. It was beautiful and powerful to see. But now I can’t find it again.
A variation of this is to do tasks as a favour for yourself in the future. If I wash the bedding now, future Melanie will have clean bedding tonight. I seem to more easily motivate myself to perform acts of service for others than to do tasks for myself. By thinking of future-Melanie as a different person, I can strip the bed and wash the bedding as a favour for her. I also remember to feel gratitude to past-Melanie when I get into the fresh-smelling bed at night.
What does critical thinking mean?
While studying geography at school, I was taught how oxbow lakes were formed. We had to copy diagrams from the blackboard into our exercise books about the stages of oxbow lake formation. We were expected to understand and remember the information and regurgitate it from memory in an exam. We weren’t told how we know that’s how oxbow lakes are formed. We weren’t told who first proved how they are formed, or what evidence that person used to demonstrate it. We weren’t told how confident geographers are that this is really how they are formed, or whether there are any alternative theories. In other words, we weren’t expected to think critically about it. We were just expected to believe it and remember it.
It’s very different at degree level. You aren’t just told a set of facts. You aren’t expected to believe everything you are told without question. You’ll notice that you’re also told HOW we know the things we know; who did the research, what studies they did, what results they got, and whether there are any competing theories. You are expected to engage with all this information, not just skip to the “answer”. That’s what we mean by “critical thinking”.
Here is a list of statements that a student might write in an essay, arranged from “least critical thinking” to “most critical thinking”. See if you can identify the important changes between each statement:
- Aggressive, competitive, driven people (known as Type A) are more likely to have a heart attack than laid-back, easy-going people (Type B).
- Aggressive, competitive, driven people (known as Type A) are more likely to have a heart attack than laid-back, easy-going people (Type B) (Friedman and Rosenman, 1959).
- Friedman and Rosenman (1959) compared rates of coronary heart disease among over 200 men, and found that those with an aggressive, competitive, driven personality (known as Type A) were seven times more likely to have coronary heart disease than men with a laid-back, easy-going personality (Type B).
- Friedman and Rosenman (1959) compared rates of coronary heart disease among over 200 men, and found that those with an aggressive, competitive, driven personality (known as Type A) were seven times more likely to have coronary heart disease than men with a laid-back, easy-going personality (Type B). However, a systematic review of the evidence found that only a small proportion of studies replicated the finding, and far more studies found no evidence of a relationship between personality type and coronary heart disease (Petticrew, Lee, and McKee, 2012).
The first statement presents a claim as though it is a simple, unarguable fact.
The second statement at least says where the claim comes from i.e. it contains a reference.
The third statement briefly describes the research evidence supporting the claim.
The fourth statement briefly describes the research and then identifies a more recent study that contradicts it. This is the only statement on the list that I would award marks for critical thinking in an undergraduate essay.
You won’t always be able to find a study that contradicts the one you need to write about. So how else can you demonstrate critical thinking?
- a study that supports the one you’re writing about can also demonstrate critical thinking, especially if you can talk about how the second study adds extra information, insight, or nuance.
- if someone else has criticised the study you’re writing about, including this information demonstrates critical thinking.
- identifying any weaknesses or limitations in the study counts as critical thinking. For example, is the sample size very small, or unrepresentative? Were the measurements valid? Were they reliable? Were confounding variables accounted for? Can you think of an alternative explanation for the results? And so on.
- developing a nuanced answer to the essay question, based on the evidence discussed in your essay, can demonstrate critical thinking. For example, if the question was “Is the relationship with the mother the most important in a child’s life”?, then “In conclusion, the mother is the most important relationship in a child’s life” is not a very nuanced answer. But the following is; “In conclusion, research evidence shows that although a child will have many important relationships in its life, the relationship with the primary caregiver is the most important. This is very often the mother, but any person who gives consistent care can fulfill this role, regardless of gender or biological relationship to the infant. Additionally, not all primary caregivers, including mothers, have a beneficial relationship. Sadly, some are neglectful, abusive, or expose their dependents to harm. In such cases, the relationship can still be categorised as the most important, but for ill rather than for good”. This is because it addresses such questions as “to what extent”? “Under what circumstances”? And “What do we mean by important”?
You can demonstrate critical thinking by discussing and analysing the research methods and evidence, not just the headline results of research.
References
Friedman, M. and Rosenman, R.H., 1959. Association of specific overt behavior pattern with blood and cardiovascular findings: blood cholesterol level, blood clotting time, incidence of arcus senilis, and clinical coronary artery disease. Journal of the American medical association, 169(12), pp.1286-1296.
Petticrew, M.P., Lee, K. and McKee, M., 2012. Type A behavior pattern and coronary heart disease: Philip Morris’s “crown jewel”. American journal of public health, 102(11), pp.2018-2025.
Formatting paragraphs
A paragraph is a series of sentences that are all about the same main point or idea. When you start a new main point or new idea, you should start a new paragraph. In a paragraph, the sentences all follow on from one another, separated by a full stop followed by a space. Don’t separate sentences in the same paragraph with a paragraph break, which makes the next paragraph start on a new line (you might know this as a return, enter, new line, or something else).
I’ve noticed some students starting to do something new with their paragraphs in essays.
They start every sentence on a new line.
To me, this looks like lots of very short, single-sentence paragraphs.
But I think the students intend for them all to be understood as the same paragraph.
Then, when the student wants to start a new paragraph, they put two paragraph breaks.
It probably has something to do with how people write on the internet, in direct messages, WhatsApp, or something like that. Perhaps this will become the new convention for setting out paragraphs in time. But right now, this is not the conventionally correct way to set out a paragraph. So please separate your sentences with a full stop followed by a space, and separate your paragraphs with a paragraph break.
When to use secondary citations
In academic writing it is important to acknowledge where the ideas and information you are writing about comes from. That’s why we give citations. For example, if I wrote “Humankind’s central problem is the question of how to become fully human”, I’d need to acknowledge that this isn’t my original idea (although I have expressed it in my own words) by adding a citation showing where I got the idea from, like this:
“Humankind’s central problem is the question of how to become fully human (Friere, 1972)”
I’d include an entry with the full details of Friere’s book in my References section, so the reader could find the same source I used.
But what if I want to cite a scholar I’ve only read about in a textbook? For example, if I was reading about Piaget’s stage theory in a psychology textbook, should I cite Piaget, even if I haven’t read his work myself? Or should I cite the textbook author, even though it’s not her theory? In that situation, I need to give a secondary citation, like this:
(Piaget, 1954, cited in Gjersoe, 2020)
What this means is the idea I’m writing about is Piaget’s, but I read about it in a book chapter by Gjersoe. I would not include an entry in my References list for Piaget, but I would include an entry for Gjersoe’s chapter so the reader could find the same source I used.
References
Freire, P., (1972). Pedagogy of the Oppressed, tr. Myra Bergman Ramos. Penguin Modern Classics.
Gjersoe, N., (2020). ‘Chapter 3: Representation in the early years’, in E219 Psychology of childhood and youth: A reader. The Open University, Milton Keynes
Feedback is not a rebuke
I like the New York Times puzzle, Wordle. You have 6 attempts to guess a five-letter word. After each guess, you are given feedback about how well your guess matches the target word. If you have a correct letter in the wrong place, it is coloured yellow. A correct letter in the correct place gets coloured green. You use these clues to inform your next guess, until you guess the target word.
The goal of Wordle is not to guess the word correctly on the first try. If you ever did that, it wouldn’t be skill but sheer luck. The purpose of your first try is to get the feedback – the first set of clues that will shape your second guess. After that, it’s a repeating loop of guesses leading to more and more feedback until you can home in on the correct word.
Assignments are much the same. The goal is not to get 100% with no feedback. In fact, if that ever happened, the whole exercise would be pointless because you wouldn’t be able to learn anything from it. The feedback you get on your assignments is not a rebuke because you got something wrong. It’s literally just teaching. And the fact that you didn’t know something and needed to be taught it is not a failure. It’s literally your job. As a student, your job is to not know things, and to be in the process of learning them. That’s what “student” means. The cycle of essays (the word “essay” means “an attempt”) and feedback is how that process proceeds.
Studying When You Think Differently
I was a guest on a 90-minute StudentHub Live broadcast on 21st March 2024, about Studying When You Think Differently. I was there as both an associate lecturer supporting neurodiverse students, and also as a neurodivergent person myself who is currently a PhD student and has been an undergrad student. This is the recording of the event.
We’re on the same team
Remember that you and your tutor are both on the same team. So you need never feel afraid about admitting that you’re finding something a challenge, or you’re falling behind, or anything like that. It’s understandable and admirable to think “I’ll try to sort this problem out on my own”. But if you can’t sort it out on your own quite quickly, it’s better to contact me and ask for help. I don’t mind. It’s literally my job, and I love my job. Most students tend to leave it much longer to ask for help than they should. They let problems build up, and with it their own stress, anxiety, and unhappiness. I’d prefer them to contact me sooner. I usually have the answers to the questions they are struggling with. I know about solutions and strategies they would never think of. I can help.
Think about me as a leader on a hike. All my students have joined this hike because they’re excited about being part of it, getting to the end, and seeing all the interesting things along the way. And I’m excited about taking them on the hike, making sure they all get to the end, see the interesting things, and have a good experience. If you get out of breath, or twist your ankle, or your bootlace snaps, I need to know so I can help you out. The last thing I want is to leave you behind and lose you. I’m not about judging people or punishing them or anything like that. That’s not what we’re here for. So there’s no need to hide anything from me that is affecting your ability to keep up with the hike/keep up with the module.
Melanie Rimmer 