Report by Nicole Steele, PhD Candidate, ADSRI

In January I attended the inaugural three-day ANU Thesis Boot Camp (TBC). I had no idea what to expect, except that it had its own hashtag, acronym TBC, and the famous Thesis Whisperer, Dr Inger Mewburn, at the core. Day 1 commenced at 4pm Friday, and after a full day at work I was hoping it wouldn’t be brutal. A quick welcome from the Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Research Training) was followed by an encouraging talk from the creator of the TBC (Dr Liam Connell from University of Melbourne) telling us to not edit, polish, or get stuck in the perfect-sentence vortex, and we were off and running (well, writing).

There were 24 of us, from all disciplines, at the ‘writing-up’ phase of our PhDs. By the end of Friday night one student admitted to writing more that night than what she had over the past year. That night she had given herself permission to just write, not to critique her every word, and what was up in her head just flowed out.

For every 5000 words we wrote we were given a different colour lego-style stress block. These non-monetary rewards seemed to spark fierce internal drive within yourself – you desperately needed to collect all four colours on offer!

Meals were provided, snacks were plentiful ranging from Lindt balls and Reece’s peanut butter cups through to fresh fruits and nuts. Coffee pods ranged in strength from 4 to 12. On Saturday and Sunday we had an hour where we were not allowed to write (4-5pm). Saturday I went to yoga with the group, and Sunday I went for a walk around the campus and learnt some surprising facts.

All through this, Dr Mewburn and her team were there to support us. I think this was what really made it a success. They had a room set aside with tissues and were there to offer words of advice, and they even had a room with a mattress in case you needed a quick nap.

Two people achieved the coveted gold block meaning that they had written 20000+ words. I was very happy with my two blocks and a plan of attack for the weeks ahead. Across all TBC attendees, 270,785 words were written.

There are two Veteran Days in the next two months to keep the momentum going.

This was a great initiative, one that needed the dedication of the Thesis Whisperer and her team within the University's Research Skills and Training to instigate. I am hopeful that plans to conduct another TBC mid-year in Kioloa gets the support that it deserves.