#phd tips

But how?

This fear is like gravity. I can't feel it pulling me down, it is not prominent. It is not in the top of my head and making me fret every moment. It is not crushing or intense, it is not making me implode.

But it is there. It is keeping me from moving. I am paralyzed without even realizing. It has stopped me from being hopeful, or even looking at the future.

What's the cause? The distance between where I am and where I want to be, rather where I have to be. It is so far because I lagged behind once. And I am lagging behind still because the distance is daunting me now.

It's a loop. One thing feeds the other and vice versa. As time passes, the distance just keeps growing and I am standstill right where I was a year ago. And with the distance grows the fear. I get anxious more and more, and even simple tasks feel monstrous now. It is only a matter of time for me to succumb into the loop: to spiral into a blackhole.

How do I get out of this loop? How do I break this loop? How do I not let the distance scare me? Right now, I am all questions and no answers. I am writing this blog post to lift some weight off my chest and put it out in the open.

It's an entirely different skill set and the key skills are resilience, passion, and creativity. Passion being the most important by a long shot. During the course of the PhD any gaps in knowledge or weak areas will be filled. But PhDs are challenging and the thing that's going to get you to the end is passion and creativity. And that's what people are looking for most of all.

I'm not in Linguistics (but omg I wish I was, I love Linguistics so much I'm considering going back to uni and combining it with Arabic which I've been learning for a few years - your resources have helped so much!), but to give you an idea of numbers, I applied to 21 programmes here in the UK, I got 2 interviews, and I got 1 offer (I only went to one interview). But I didn't have a Master's degree, just the BSc, which was a disadvantage. The point being is to cast your net wide and don't give up or be too discouraged if it takes a while. If you want it to happen it'll happen - this stranger on the internet believes in you!

One interview tip: at the end, after you've pitched your thesis proposal and told them how passionate and dedicated you are, they'll say: "do you have any questions for us?". At this point, show them how serious you are and ask them: "given everything I've told you about my goals and intentions, is this the place for me? Can you provide me with the environment and resources I need to achieve my goals?". It shows that you aren't just desperate for any position, you're willing to look elsewhere, you have options. It might be a bluff, but it'll make them want you more, especially if they suddenly think you might go somewhere else.

Best of luck! Sorry for the long ask!

Thank you so much for the tips! And don't worry about the length of the ask :)

I'm definitely going to keep this in mind! I'm planning on applying for a handful of places with good funding opportunities and just hope I'm lucky (or try again next year) and I definitely have a lot of passion. Like a lot. I've been telling every living soul about my current thesis project for a year now.

✨10 pieces of advice for incoming PhD students ✨

As the new academic year is here, I thought I’d share some pieces of advice for PhD students starting this fall.

Good luck to you all!!

Tomorrow im going back to work after a holiday and im really dreading it. I just really enjoy doing nothing and getting to hobbies (although at the same time i feel like im not really doing a lot hobby-wise either). It gets the point where i am unsure of my decision to pursue a phd

3/100 days of productivity • 27-Oct-23, Friday

In light of my #NoZeroDays promise I didn't want to let this day go "unproductive". I have been struggling with untying my self-worth with my productivity level. And hence by extension to my PhD progress. I feel so guilty that I didn't work on my PhD at all. But I just couldn't get myself to work - It's something I've been struggling for the past few weeks. So I decided to be productive in a different way: art.

Productivity is not just academic work. Productivity shouldn't mean working full 8 hours on your PhD. You don't have to be 'productive' when you are sick. Taking rest is not unproductive. Indulging in a hobby is not unproductive. Moving slowly is not unproductive.

-- this is something I told myself today. I don't know if I fully believe when I say this, but I want to ❤️

About today

Still sick. I was so tired and demotivated today. Couldn't sleep early last night and so the day began at noon today

Lunch and dinner with friends

Completed a painting that I was postponing since september. It's called A sunset at the sunflowers' 🌻

Started a new painting, which is at 80% completion. (it's in the picture)

My Final Year PhD Motto: "Do the Bare Minimum"

10/100 days of productivity • 03-11-23, Friday

I've got a radical motto to share with you all: "Do the Bare Minimum." Bare Minimum Beyond Your PhD Here's the deal: the final year of your PhD is like a marathon, and you've been sprinting for far too long. It's easy to burn out if you keep pushing yourself to the max in all aspects of life. So, consider doing the bare minimum when it comes to anything other than your research.

Why?

Your PhD is the star of the show. You need to conserve your energy for research, and ensure that you're giving it your best shot.

Instead of spreading yourself too thin, focus on the quality of your work, than quantity of things on your CV. Doing less elsewhere allows you to excel where it counts the most.

Overcommitting can lead to exhaustion and burnout. Doing the bare minimum in other areas helps protect your mental and physical well-being.

But how to do that without feeling guilty?

Remind yourself that your PhD is a major commitment and a unique opportunity. It's okay to prioritize it above other things right now.

Just for the next few months, please please, forget "if not me, then who?" when it comes to admin tasks or anything that doesn't directly contribute to your PhD. Ask yourself "if no one else is doing it, why me?". It's okay to prioritize yourself, it's not selfish. "No" is your new friend. If you can't say no, then go ahead and do the barest of the bare minimums.

Let go of perfectionism. Do just what you are asked to do. don't do above and beyond to design a workshop flyer that you won't even be acknowledged for.

In the final year of your PhD, it's not about doing less because you're lazy; it's about strategically allocating your resources where they will have the greatest impact. So, I am embracing "Do the Bare Minimum"

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About today

Exam supervision duty - MSc practicals

Mail Merten, ask for next meeting ✔️

Post the parcel home✔️

Enquire bank about transfer, ask PM for ✔️

Update Irene on details ✔️

7/100 days of productivity • 31-Oct-23, Tuesday

About today

Predict Rossler, learn how to change the model ✓

Try forecasting timeseries >>

Send writeup to advisor >>

Get eclipsing binary data set from T ✓

Explore astro timeseries datasets ✓

Dinner with girls - garlic chicken, momos and custard

Phone off by 9:45, meditate and off to bed by 10:30 Was on a call with my best friend and it has been a long time since we talked, so I had to

My technique for Quick Literature Review

Literature Reviews were one of the most confusing things for me when I began my PhD. I would get lost in searching for papers, wallowing in tangential directions, sometimes looking at entirely unrelated stuff. Other times, I'd be trying so hard to read an article and stuck without moving forward.

From my fair share of struggle with literature reviews, I deviced a technique that helped me do quick literature surveys, especially when I needed to write a proposal or improve half-written manuscript or to understand a new method/theory. So, here you go...

1. Collecting literature: Research Rabbit App🐇

This is my go-to tool for literature discovery. In addition to quickly build a literature collection, it helps to see how all the papers in my collection are connected! This is very essential when you write your LitRev, as you will need to draw connections between different works.

Go to www.researchrabbit.ai and search the topic you need articles for, and add them to a collection.

The app will automatically suggest more papers based on your selections and will make connections between the articles in terms of authors, citations or references!

You can also look for other papers by a certain author or similar papers to the one you choose.

(Make sure to stop when you find yourself going down the Rabbit Hole ;) )

2. Extracting information: Skim & Annotate 📑

Once you finish collecting the literature,

quicky read the abstract and decide which ones are important, relevant or new.

Now and skim the chosen papers, and annotate the most important things you find. I usually go for paper and highlighters, sometimes use the annotator in Mendeley

Optional: categorize the articles and assign a colour for each.

(Don't spend more than 10 minutes per paper. You can always go back and read the article thoroughly after completing this task)

3. Organizing thoughts: The Sticky Note Method 🗂

Here comes my favourite part. I developed this technique inspired by a lot of tools I found on the internet. The Sticky Note Method is to capture, rearrange and construct thoughts.

From the now annotated, categorized collection, write down the essence of each article in a separate sticky note.

(here is where the colour-coding might come in handy: you can use different coloured sticky notes for different categories.)

After doing this for all the papers, stick them in a board/notebook

Rearrange them till you get a coherent flow!