Navigating Challenges: How to Set Boundaries, Say No (Really), and Stop Procrastinating / 26-5-NCG-4

Participation

Doctoral researchers (all disciplines) of the Berlin University Alliance. 

Before booking a workshop, please make sure that you can attend for the entire duration to receive a certificate. Please check our terms and conditions.   

 

Objectives & Content

Getting things done can be difficult, especially for academics and researchers, who often have to set their own goals. Without external deadlines it’s easy to put off tasks that don’t feel urgent and end up stressed as unfinished work piles up. Saying no can be a great tool to help us stay on track, but in practice it can feel almost impossible to say no, especially to supervisors and valued colleagues. Building confidence in turning down requests from colleagues and supervisors that don’t align with our priorities and learning how to stop procrastinating is essential for managing our workload in academia and beyond.
In this workshop we’ll look at why we procrastinate, how to organize tasks so they actually get done, and how to manage requests from others in a way that works for us. We will work on strategies for saying no, setting priorities that align with our goals, and creating approaches that reduce stress and make our workload more realistic.

• Why do we procrastinate? Why do I put certain tasks off and complete others?
• How do I set realistic priorities that are in line with my goals?
• How can I approach my tasks in a way that helps me to complete them when I want to? What can I do to make sure that I get things done on time?
• How can I best manage requests from colleagues or my supervisor(s) when their expectations don’t align with my schedule? How do I know when I should say no, and when it makes sense to say yes?
• What do I do to feel confident about saying no? What makes it so difficult, and why is it so important?

 

Please note

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Also check out workshops at the BUA partner institutions that are available for you free of charge: Graduate Studies Support Program.

For workshops held online, participation is allowed under the following conditions: a working camera that is turned on and a microphone to allow active participation in discussions and group work. Headphones must also be used to protect other participants from office eavesdroppers. Regardless of on-site or online workshops, we would like to refer to the rules at Freie Universität Berlin, which can be found in the Code of Conduct.

 

Further Information

Postdocs are welcome to participate if spots are available.

Doctoral programs calculate credits based on the number of work units earned through workshop participation. Each work unit represents 45 minutes of workshop time, and 8 work units equal 0.5 credit points. For mini workshops (less than 8 work units), credits are calculated proportionally based on the work units. Please note: To be eligible for credit transfer, you must accumulate enough work units from short workshops. For example, attending two 3-hour workshops results in 8 work units (2 workshops x 4 work units each), which equals 0.5 credits.