Syaza Nazura

Hi there! :)

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I'm doing good, not up to anything much except jobhunting here and there. I'm also considering rewriting my master's dissertation as a journal article but currently waiting for that inspiration and motivation to kick in lol.

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I don't particularly use any specific apps to help me 'focus' and all, except perhaps using Chrome's extension (StayFocusd) to help me limit how many hours I spend on my browser on certain websites (social media, etc). It also ocassionally helps me to block some websites for a set number of hours / days (i.e. when I'm nearing deadlines and really really really need to focus).

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Grammarly also helps when you're writing papers and assignments, though too bad I actually downloaded it AFTER I finished my master's lol. It would have been much much easier to use it while doing my master's, but meh.

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Some of the newsletters I subscribe to: PositiveTom (for a dose of motivation, inspiration, and stuff), DailySkimm (to help me keep up with what's going on in the world), Aiman Azlan's newsletter, Robert Glazer's Friday Forward (found this through LinkedIn), and FutureCrunch (to hear about all the good news happening worldwide).

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One thing that kind of helps (but then I abandoned it) was having a Google spreadsheet of all the articles/book chapters/websites, etc that I read for my dissertation. I wrote down the title, the authors, the year, the journal (everything in APA-ready format so I can copy & paste for my reference page) along with a snippet of the main ideas and arguments that I could use. I did this for the first ~10 or so, and then I forgot about the whole spreadsheet and never used it lol.

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I also followed quite a few academic-related Instagram accounts (like academeology, academicmami, diversityinacademia, and scholarculture) so I can get some inspiration and motivation from other people on the academic journey. I even got my #100DaysofDissertation motivation from the people at academeology, so they're a great source of inspiration. And some of them also do sharing sessions for people in the academic field, etc so you can learn from each other as well. I also started following more academic-people on Twitter as well for the same reasons.

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One thing that would definitely help is to start small. Set small little goals to accomplish every day (@ELindstromPhD on Twitter calls this their '3 bear minimum goals') and work on finishing those. The goals can be small - read a journal article, sending an email, work on a proposal, etc). Start small, and once you're back on track, increase it and set bigger goals. :)

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Not sure if this helps, but, yeah. I wish you all the best! :) Remember, you are stronger than you think, and you'll make it through. Just believe in yourself and push through. :)

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Hi there!

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Thank youuu so much ❤️❤️ Am glad to get this phase of my life done and over with 😂

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Well, regarding my jump from Actuarial Science -> Higher Education, I wrote a little about it here (
http://syazanazura.com/2018/03/daily30-from-actuarial-science-to-higher-education.html).

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I kind of knew since my 3rd year of university that I didn’t want to pursue a career in Actuarial Science. I was actually contemplating on switching my major to Human Resources & Management, but that would involve a lot of procedures with MARA and I was too lazy to go ahead with it. I did ended up taking up a Certificate in Education & Educational Services alongside my BBA, so I guess that’s alright.

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I guess it’s more of how I realized that I would very much love to have a career where I can work with students on a daily basis. I enjoy talking and engaging with students and helping them achieve their goals, and realized that I can actually make a career out of doing something that I enjoy.

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Me pursuing my MA Education was more of a personal thing because I wanted to learn more about how I could help students (i.e. this is why I chose the Mentoring & Coaching module as my elective module). It may not be actually needed for what I want to do (work in Higher Education / universities), so it’s more of a personal challenge to improve my understanding and doing something for myself for once in my life 😂

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Don’t know if that answers your question, but, yeah, I just enjoy working with people, students specifically, and this line allows me to do so. :)

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It’s like what Aida Riko (Kuroko No Basuke) says - Nothing beats cultivating talent ☺️💪🏻

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