Hi there, this is my first post. Currently, I am a 4th year graduate student. Maybe I should know how to be a graduate student very well by now. But the truth is that I am still constantly facing new situations that I am not sure what to do. I want to write about my recent struggles on accomplishing research tasks and resource I found helpful to me when dealing with these problems.
For example, I have 3 tasks at hand: writing the first paper, starting a new project and learn a new technique for an ongoing project. All of them are new to me and make me struggle in some ways. I imagine this is the common situation for many graduate students. The isolation and loneliness is also probably also famililar to all research students. The question is how should I learn to accomplish these new tasks? My advisor is supportive and gives good advice on directions but his job is not figuring out the details on my tasks. Also, I realize that I am probably less competent than he was as a Ph.D. student. So he might not understand some of my struggles since he never ran into it. Thus, I want to find some tutorials that walk me through on how these type of tasks (e.g. write a 1st paper) usually get done. As everything is becoming open source today, I thought I could use some advice from advisors online, let the community educate me.
I’ve read through a lot of online posts and some books. Most of them are either too generic or too specific for me. Lucily, here are a few posts I found really helpful to my case, and likely applicable to many fields.
how to use the unstructured time effectively?
I have done all the coursework now. So I have all the unstructured time trying to solve some problem I don’t really know how to solve. That’s the way it supposed to be. But it is actually very new to me. How can I spend my time to make progress? This posts shows me how to make a ‘task schedule’ of my own to help me meet my goals.
https://livefreeordichotomize.com/2018/09/14/one-year-to-dissertate/
how to do ‘deep work’ in a distracted world?
I strongly recommend the book deep work. I used to be online (email, slack etc) all the time. I now practice some of the adivce: only be checking email/social media once every few hours as a break from deep work instead of getting distracted all the time. I find I didn’t miss anything important so far. Sometimes it’s good to be “on bottom of things” instead of “on top of things”.
https://usability.typepad.com/confusability/2008/04/knuths-advice-f.html
I included the amazon link here just as reference, I actually borrowed the book from library.
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692
how to write a first paper?
I am working on writing a research paper these days for the first time. I have no idea what the process should be like. This link is very helpful.
https://github.com/jtleek/firstpaper
https://github.com/neurodata/nd_template/tree/master/Draft
how to read papers?
My advisor always encourage me to read broadly. I never knew how to really implement this idea until reading this post. I always spend like 1 hour or more reading from start to end, and sometimes got lost in details (e.g. can’t figure out how the math work in the methods section). I don’t even get the major takeaways from lots of papers I read.
After reading this post, I find I could start with a “BFS” approach before going “DFS”. I will practice using this approach.
how to work with my advisor?
Thinking in another person’s shoes sometimes get difficult. It’s hard to imagine how a professor feels so this is a very helpful post to read. Besides, communication is something I feel always worth learning and improving:
http://www.pgbovine.net/managing-me-as-your-advisor.htm
There is also some good advice to be mindful of advisor’s time. This is from a document our graduate school coach give to me when I ask about “align mentor trainee expectations”. I’ve made the mistake of submitting stuff to my advisor with very short notice.
“Be mindful of the constraints on my time. When we set a deadline, I will block off time to read and respond to your work. If I do not receive your materials, I will move your project to the end of my queue.
Allow a minimum of one week prior to submission deadlines for me to read and respond to short materials such as conference abstracts and three weeks for me to work on manuscripts or grant proposals.
Please do not assume I can read materials within a day or two, especially when I am traveling.”
how to deal with self-doubt?
Sometimes (probably often) I get stuck on my projects and I wonder: am I just not good enough for this project? Maybe I am not smart enough? Maybe I don’t have the right resources?
These questions have puzzled me a lot. I searched quite a bit. Here is a way of thinking I found helpful: stop obsessing over whether you are good or worthy enough – just decide what you want to do, commit and “commit hard”. It is not about you being the best athelete, but you becoming better at it though doing. Here is a good post on it:
http://pgbovine.net/maximizing-personal-potential.htm
http://www.theexclusive.org/2018/04/worth.html
A piece I found related is a quote, probably you’ve seen it many times. It’s from the Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus.
“I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
There’s also a good one from Bertrand Russell
“Gradually I learned to be indifferent to myself and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention increasingly upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection.”
I have to admit sometimes nothing helps. But I think it’s probably okay to acknowledge that and experience the feelings for a while.
If you are in graduate school as well, may the forth be with you and hope we can all make it a fulfilling experience!