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"Productivity"
This post was originally about the importance of prioritizing your work in order to be a successful grad student. I had a rough time determining what to work on last week, only to notice that for both professional and personal reasons, my typical ways of prioritizing work were beginning to fail me. As I [...]
As I prepared to write this post, I found myself distracted by dozens of “important” little things – sending text messages, reading I “should” do, and trying to plan out my week. Many of these things needed to be done, but did I have to do them today? Were they more important than writing [...]
The internet contains a wealth of information – we are all aware of that. But this enormous amount of information can make us feel overloaded and overstimulated. Our brains turn jittery, wanting to check the news again, or wondering what’s new in our Twitter streams. We become afraid of missing out on information, [...]
“Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal” – Unknown
We receive many positive comments regarding our GradHacker posts, but we also receive advice that warns us (and our readers) that some of our tips will provide people with procrastination mechanisms rather than ways to move their work forward. Think of how [...]
I was at a retreat this past weekend for MSU’s Council of Graduate Students Executive Board. We were newly elected or re-elected, and this was our first opportunity as the new E-Board to discuss expectations, how to work together well, and plans for the year. One of the topics that came up was how [...]
Just reread that title, and let the idea sink in: Depriving yourself of sleep is a terrible idea.
Yes, you have tons of work to do in graduate school. But cutting back on sleep is never ever a good solution. In fact, the opposite is true: healthy, sound sleep can be your key [...]
As I write this, I am stuck in a small town in Ohio after an accident on the freeway on my way home from a conference. (I hit a semi wheel that came off a truck and smashed my car’s suspension system. I’m fine but, sadly, my car is not.) Whether it’s a [...]
Andrea Zellner is a PhD student in the Ed Psych/Ed Tech Program at Michigan State University and a co-host of the GradHacker podcast. You can follow her on twitter at @AndreaZellner.
A few weeks ago I stumbled across this essay by Amy Boesky in The Kenyon Review that reflected [...]
Does the following situation sound familiar to you?
Your supervisor gave you some papers to start exploring your topic. You start reading, excited to learn more about the subject. Then you start looking up all the references and continue reading from there. You follow a few journals in your field and print out all the [...]
K.D. Shives is a pursuing a PhD in Microbiology at the University of Colorado. She can be found blogging about microbes on her site kdshives.com and on Twitter at @KDShives.
The dreaded written comprehensive exam. Many graduate students will have to pass some form of comprehensive exam at some point in their program.
This can [...]
