This summer, we're all about making space in your work life for those things YOU consider a priority. So we've asked our University of Graz researcher community about aspects of their daily work life that they have developed a useful routine for - and aspects that still need a “research life hack”.
Interview partner:
- Bojana Radovanović, Institut für Religionswissenschaft
Bojana Radovanović's daily work:
- She is an FWF Astra fellow, researching heterdoxy in religious expression in South-Eastern Europe from the Middle Ages to Modernity
The "happy hack" that makes Bojana more efficient/creative/motivated at work:
"The question of how to access the creative part of the mind has long been important to me, and also features in my mentoring with colleagues earlier in their career. For the work as a researcher, you don't need only the analytical part of your brain - you need another part as well. This part can be accessed through different practices, such as during the fluid and fragile state of waking up. This liminal state between dreaming and waking is often when the best ideas come to me, and I keep a notebook next to my bed, because you can forget the ideas very quickly. Similarly, you can enter this creative state when you focus on the nature passing by outside a train window, or when you practice mindful noticing of your environment during a walk.
On a practical day-to-day level, what helps me is also to listen to myself and see which tasks fit my current situation: maybe I can postpone the writing for a day if I'm not creative enough right now, but I can do research admin more productively.
And in terms of funding, I also have a great “hack” that served me well: reach out to Robert Fuchs of the FMS, he is a fantastic resource!"
And the challenge in her research life that she still needs a hack for:
“Being flooded with tasks that all seem urgent, and the feeling that time is escaping. I handle this by taking it step-by-step, and by making priorities among several tasks that I have to accomplish. It is important in research not to burn out!”
What is your own happy hack? Let us know!
Find the full series of interviews here: How to hack your research life - Research Careers Campus Graz
(Interview: Johanna Stadlbauer, 17.06.2026, picture credit: Stadlbauer)