#PhDSupervisors: Encourage your student to take notes during meetings and send you a copy afterwards. Just because they're nodding doesn't mean they understand or will remember. Free template: buff.ly/2L0YISj
#research #science #STEM
Take notes during your meetings with your supervisor and send them a summary afterwards. Everybody thinks they have perfect recall but think back to meetings you've had. Can you remember who said what?
#PhDstudents: You need to take notes during supervisory meetings. You won't remember everything afterwards. Free template for meeting notes here: buff.ly/2L0YISj
#PhDForum #PhDchat
PhD students: Use an agenda for meetings. Keeps meetings on track and deals with your questions. Download free template www.ithinkwell.com.au/resources #PhDchat #PhDforum #ECRchat #postdoc #AcademicChatter
Wondering where to start? All seem a bit overwhelming?
Start with the first step. Once you do that you've started and it doesn't feel so bad.
Open the document.
Make the first change.
Analyse that first bit of data.
Make a start.
The weekend is near. Time to rest and regenerate. Then come back next week with more energy to tackle next week's issues. It's OK to have time out. It will make you more efficient and definitely more sustainable.
Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
Forget about finishing the chapter or paper. Start with the first sentence. Start close in. Don't worry about the second step. Start close in.
#Perfectionism: “Better to do something imperfectly than do nothing perfectly.” Robert H. Schuller. Stop waiting for the perfect sentence, the perfect analysis, the perfect time to start. Jump in now, get it wrong, improve it and repeat. #PhDchat #ECRchat #postdoc
Saw this sign in Sligo, Ireland. Could only have been written by a perfectionist.
Ramps for 113m.
Not 110m or 120m. Exactly 113m.
And although it's probably perfectly accurate, it's not that helpful.
#Perfectionism: Strive for progress - not perfection.
Stop trying to make that paragraph perfect. Make it better and get it in.
Stop waiting for the perfect idea - work with what you've got and get on with it.
Stop waiting for the perfect time - make a start now.
A good thesis is a finished thesis.
A great thesis is a published thesis.
A perfect thesis is neither.
Stop going round in perfectionistic circles and get it done.
#PhDchat #ECRchat #postdoc #PhDforum
If you ever have a moment of clarity about your research question then get out a big sheet of paper and write it down and stick it on the wall behind your computer. That moment of clarity will not last long. Capture it. #PhDchat #ECRchat #postdoc
Displacement activities. The things we do to avoid doing the thing we should be doing.
Tutoring
Other projects
Formatting
Organising references
Housework
Helping others
Planning
and so much more.
We often ignore our own deadlines. We know they're not real.
So make them more real.
Tell people about them.
Organise a meeting where you have to deliver.
Commit to a seminar where you have to present.
When looking for feedback, ask specific questions.
If you just say "Give me feedback" you're leaving it up to chance.
What most advisers want is a student who comes to them with suggestions and solutions as well as problems, gets things done and makes the job of advising easier. We call it the 'care and maintenance' of your adviser.
Full article: buff.ly/2PKIX7V
To be fair, e-mailing a chapter to an adviser and saying “Give me feedback” is like walking into a restaurant and saying “Give me food.” You need to be a bit more specific.
Full article: buff.ly/2PKIX7V
One student described her feedback experience as similar to being a victim in a drive-by shooting — she handed over her work, it was riddled with bullets and she was left with a bloodied mess as the shooter drove off.
Full article: buff.ly/2PKIX7V
You can't assume that your adviser hosts productive meetings or can intuit what you need to know. You need a specific, uncomplicated agenda that could include such action items as what you've done in the past two weeks; feedback on written work; what you'll do next
Read article here. buff.ly/2PKIX7V
Students often assume that once they call someone an adviser, they automatically acquire all the skills of advising. After all, if your adviser is the world leader in stem-cell technology, they must excel at the seemingly simple task of advising.
Full article: buff.ly/2PKIX7V
Ever since the advent of graduate school, students have complained about their advisers. It is almost an article of faith. The adviser is never available or is too available; gives too much feedback or not enough; is too critical or isn't providing enough direction;
Article here. buff.ly/2PKIX7V
When you're doing a #PhD you are learning how to do research.
You're learning how to:
- read the research literature
- design a project
- analyse data
- write research
It's OK not to know these and to ask lots of questions.
In your research plan it is all smooth and straight.
In reality, your research will littered with potholes and setbacks.
That's research.
#Supervisors/#Advisors: A few kind words can make a big difference to your research student or post-doc. And it doesn't cost anything. #ECRchat #EMCRForum #PhDchat #PhDforum #postdoc
Writing Genres:
First draft: Horror
Abstract: Action thriller
Hypothesis section: Fantasy
Results section: Tragedy
Limitations section: True crime
Implications section: Satire
Grant application: Science fiction
I'm a fiction writer in the grant proposal genre.
#ECRchat #postdoc #PhDforum #PhDchat #acwri
Expectations v reality. |Leunig
Dictionary!
The writer's delusion: I don't want to practice. I want to skip ahead to the part where I'm awesome. #phdchat #phdforum #acwri #ECRchat #postdoc #academicchatter | Doug Savage
Cards for researchers.
#PhDchat #ECRchat #postdoc @tomgauld
