When I last left you I was starting spring semester, anticipating pleasant weather, and starting to prepare for comps. I write today, pretty much in the same boat. While the weather has gotten marginally better, I am still waiting for it to warm up a bit! I have been outside enjoying running and biking, now I am itching to get swimming in the open water. It’s still too cold for that yet!
I have made some progress on preparation for comprehensive exams. There is a lot of reading and I am also trying to stay on top of writing, both to practise for comps and to publish. So right now, my key skills are in organizing the workload and preventing procrastination. The beginning of each semester has brought with it a new routine. This semester, with a lack of innate structure from classes, has been the most challenging. I am someone who responds well to routine and the structure that comes from weekly classes and deadlines. So I have had to arrange these things for myself and it has been a case of trial and error to find what works for me. I want to share some of the strategies that have worked.
The first essential is a calendar. No surprise there. I am sure most grad students are as chained to theirs as I am to mine. I have found that a paper calendar works best for me. When I was working full time, I used an electronic calendar, which worked fine. But there is something different about grad school with a combination of short term and long term goals and deadlines that requires a tangible calendar that I can flip through and hold in my hand.
In addition to that calendar, I do up weekly schedules, like this one, that breaks down each day hourly and allows me to fill in tasks for the week. Again, I’m pretty devoted to paper for this process. Usually Sunday evenings, I sit down and figure out what I have to do for the coming week. The key in figuring out my schedule is identifying what I call my “anchor activities.” This is the stuff that I have to do during the week that requires me to be somewhere at a specific time. For example, I teach a weekly spin class, or some weeks I have family stuff or meetings for school. Those activities go in the schedule first. These obligations help with the structure that I know works for me. From there, I have two priorities, school work and triathlon training. I add my tri training next because it is often time dependent or I am meeting with a group, or my training partner. Then, I can schedule school work and usually have some good blocks of time to work with. This system has been helpful because everything is all planned out, with some room for flexibility and a social life.
Even with this well-thought-out schedule, there is still room for me to procrastinate and put off some stuff in favour of a beautiful day outside or the new release on Netflix. So I have my second line of defence: friends to check in with. I have a good friend who I met in grad school this year and we check in daily to apprise each other of the work we are doing (or not doing.) This is helpful to create some accountability and to give each other encouragement when things may not be going as well as we would like. Additionally, I have friends outside of grad school who help me to stay on track by checking in with me and giving encouragement.
Finally, I have used some on line tools that help me to stay motivated and connected to an academic community. Phinished.org is a great community of students working on finishing PhD programs. While I am not at the dissertation point yet, it is still a helpful resource to stay on track, set goals and seek advice. I have also found some goal setting sites that have been helpful. Beeminder is “automated accountability.” It’s not academic specific, but you enter in any goal you might have and it tracks your progress. You can also set it up to penalize you if you do not meet your goals. For example, you can set it that you have to do a certain number of readings per day, you have to track when you meet your goal. If you don’t do the work, (or forget to track it) the site will charge you $5. You don’t have to set up with a credit card for payment, but it certainly increases your accountability! Another helpful hint is to go public with your goals. It can be helpful to tell others what your goals are for that layer of accountability and encouragement from others. You could post to facebook, or start a blog. While looking for advice on how to prepare for comps, someone suggested I start a blog to write about what I was reading. I think that this may be a great place to go next as I keep on working. I think a blog could be helpful in a number of ways. A blog would help to practise writing and would also allow me to process what I am reading, as I would need to create summaries of articles and books if I want anyone to read my blog. It may also be a helpful way to draw connections between readings through using tags. Also, it would be great to engage in discussion! That’s one big thing I miss from classes. So sounds like I have talked myself into writing a blog about my comp readings. Stay tuned!
I am discovering as I engage in the process of pursuing a PhD, that the program is as much learning about myself as it is about learning course material or how to do research. I am reflecting much more on myself and how I operate and it has been a great learning experience.
http://credit-n.ru/zaymyi-next.html