Lifelines
I’ve struggled to keep up these past few weeks. Work has been relentless, family life has been full. Days blurred, and I barely managed any significant reading. But at least I found a couple of ways to keep my mind engaged, which I want to share with you.
Lifeline 1.
Slap on some headphones, open PDF documents in Microsoft Word, and have them read aloud. It’s not ideal. It’s not the formal act of sitting with a text, making notes, properly engaging. But it’s something. A lifeline enough to allow me to bounce back. I have the MS Word app also on my phone, so I can listen while driving, hanging clothes, or doing the dishes! Here’s how:
- Open your PDF document in MS Word. Proceed through whatever mumbo-jumbo dialogue boxes pop up until you have your document displayed.
- In the menu, click Review, and then Read Aloud.
- You can also play around with the voices. Try Female American English for a chirpy, slightly manic, surreal salesperson trying to sell you nihilist pessimism.
Lifeline 2.
Meanwhile, given how unsatisfied I’ve been with my writing progress, I figured out a way to streamline writing notes and reflections by using Google Forms. Necessity is the mother of invention! It’s already making a difference. I’ll explain this method in a separate post.
O proposal, where art thou?!
The proposal is still elusive. My aim was January/February. I haven’t drafted anything yet, let alone submitted it, but the shape of it is becoming clearer. I’m circling ideas, seeing connections, figuring out what really matters. The challenge is getting it down in a way that feels structured rather than just a mess of interesting but scattered thoughts.
One real limitation is access. Since I’m not officially enrolled, I don’t have full access to academic journals, which makes deep research frustrating. But my mentor suggested PhilPapers, and it’s proving invaluable -not just for papers but for getting a sense of ongoing conversations in the field. Even without institutional access, there are ways to stay in the game.
By this time next week, I want a formal draft of the proposal. It may be ambitious, but there’s a deadline. À bientôt!
