TUB-Thump

When you’re distracted or bothered by something, get rid of it.

If you can’t do that, work out how to move past the distraction or deal with it differently instead.

It’s time…for a different…TUB-Thump.

Don’t worry, it’s only for Episode 036…The intro and ending will be back next time. Promise!

And so will the more detailed show notes. For now, it’s all about making a point:

Keep taking action. Even when it’s basic.

And, of course, keep being awesome.

When a friend of a friend is the right person to speak with, what’s the best way to get an introduction to them?

Ben Casnocha refers to a great way to ask for something, while putting no pressure on the person you’re asking.

It’s a good technique. But not everyone will feel comfortable saying that they have no expectations from the request.

Episode 34 of TUB-Thump takes a look at another way of asking for something. And it’s a potential win-win. Because there aren’t that many times when acknowledging your lack of control can be in your favour.

Here are the show notes for the 5-min episode:

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

Do I demonstrate a point? Or do I merely claim it?

Sometimes you want to refer to a text in a positive light, while other times you want to pull back a bit on the emotion.

That’s where your choice of verbs comes in. The words you use in your coursework matter.

The super-useful pocket guide, Writing For University, by Jeanne Godfrey, describes the power of using different verbs to show “your evaluation of what the author does”.

Episode 034 of TUB-Thump checks out the different words you can use, depending on the message you want to convey. You need never again confuse someone illustrating and establishing something with someone claiming or assuming!

I believe you’ll find this useful. But, hey, I’ll now let you be the judge of that!

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Wait, don’t answer that. No matter how well you have your future planned, things never turn out quite that way.

For some, the outcome is mostly as expected. But you’re still been dealt a few surprises along the way.

For others, the outcome isn’t even close to what you imagined it to be.

And don’t forget those who don’t have a clue what their future holds. The mystery all but guarantees a surprising ride.

Even a steady path can see a sudden change in direction.

Take Brooke Storer-Church, for example. A decade into a restaurant career wasn’t enough to stop her trading it all in and moving back towards higher education.

Take technological advances, for another example. Who knows how you’ll live your life and what type of jobs will be needed a decade down the line?

When you do look back in five years, in a decade, or when you retire, you’ll have a story to tell. That story will be a bit more certain and easy to tell than the reality as you were living that story.

That’s why I wanted to take a few words from Brooke Storer-Church as inspiration for Episode 033 of TUB-Thump.

Wherever you see yourself in the future, get ready for an exciting ride of worthwhile twists and turns.

Here are the show notes for the 5-min episode:

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

Why are you going to that lecture? Why are you taking those notes? Why have you got things on your mind?

Everything you’re doing right now has some sort of end goal attached to it. Do you know what your end goals are?

Episode 032 of TUB-Thump takes a look at the importance of combining future context with the present moment. Focus on the end goals in order to achieve your best in your current tasks.

Here are the show notes for the 4-min episode:

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

I had stuff going on in the house. I was looking after the baby. I wanted a cup of tea.

“The kitchen has a lot of echo,” I thought. “What a perfect time to record an episode of TUB-Thump.”

The idea was to hit record on the device in my pocket and start talking about how easily we can do whatever we want.

It doesn’t always feel easy.

Sending a photo or video to a mate on Snapchat seems easier than publishing a video to the whole world. Having a conversation about your interests is okay in private, but it’s another thing to broadcast it globally.

Or is it?

Episode 31 of TUB-Thump is simply a nudge in the right direction for you to start your quest for awesomeness today.

Don’t let a lack of professional resources and equipment stop you.

Reid Hoffman, who founded LinkedIn, said:

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

Let the embarrassment in, otherwise you may not let anything out.

And the world needs you. We need you, darn it! Even if you’re busy being responsible for a little human being and you’re standing in a kitchen with an echo.

Here are the show notes for the 4-min episode:

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

Are you ready to fight with feedback?

Do you shudder at the thought of reading what your tutor has said about your essay? Or do you read the advice and think, “Challenge accepted”?

Episode 030 of TUB-Thump urges you to choose the latter. Get back in the ring and defeat the beast of feedback.

Using Colin Neville’s book, How To Improve Your Assignment Results, I take at look at what it means when you act (or not) in Flight, Fright and Fight modes.

The upshot is not to put your head in the sand. You may shrug off a bad result and hope to do better next time. But your grades will thank you if you take a stand and tackle the beast.

Ding ding! The next round starts now.

Here are the show notes for the 8-min episode:

Also, here’s a PDF guide by Colin Neville with more information: Your Assignment Results and How To Improve Them

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

High tuition fees mean that a lot of people want to make the most of their time at university.

For some, that means knuckling down and focusing solely on the academic work.

Episode 029 of TUB-Thump has a different suggestion.

Your academic work is just one strand of your learning and development. You can get a totally different set of qualities and skills from the activities and experiences outside of class.

To broaden your horizons to the fullest extent, it’s time to face more than one learning path. When it’s time to plot your next destination in life, more than one path will give you a bigger choice toward the quickest route to success.

No need to feel guilty about spending some time away from the books. It’s expected of you.

Here are the show notes for the 7-min episode:

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

When we aim to have fun, we want as much fun as possible from the activity. That’s obvious!

But when I heard that scheduling your free time can take away some of that fun, I thought “Uh-oh…How do I deal with that?”

Since I go on so much about making sure you plan your time well–including your free time–I was worried that the sensible advice may be inadvertently spoiling your enjoyment.

Luckily, the study by Selin Malkoc and Gabriela Tonietto also suggests how to have the best of both worlds. That’s what I talk about in Episode 028 of TUB-Thump.

Even better, the study seems to confirm what I recently talked about too. You can combine routines and spontaneity in student life.

In fact, that combo could be the answer to ALL THE THINGS. (Okay, okay. Some of the things.)

Now you’ve got no excuse for not scheduling!

And I’ve got no excuse for double negatives…

Here are the show notes for the 5-min episode:

Here’s a video with the authors of the paper explaining what they found:

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!

Do you like to plan ahead before you work, or do you like to crack on with a clean canvas?

I hadn’t really considered this so much until I’d seen a presentation by Tristram Hooley with various writing tips.

A couple of Hooley’s slides look at two different types of working that resonate with me, because they have a similar outlook to one of the ways I look at learning new things.

For learning, I like to look at the bigger picture and drill down to the details from there. But some people start with some choice details and work outward to uncover that big picture.

In many ways, how you choose to write may have similarities in that learning choice too. And that’s what I talk about in Episode 027 of TUB-Thump.

I wonder if you’ve read this plan of the episode first, or if you’ve jumped straight into listening. I guess that depends on how you like to do things!

What’s your choice?

Here are the show notes for the 5-min episode:

Music for TUB-Thump is Life, by Tobu, which is released under a Creative Commons license. Check out more of Tobu’s great sounds on Soundcloud, YouTube, and his official site.

TUB-Thump is part of the Learning Always Network.

Keep being awesome!