Written by Aishwarya Borate
I am a doctoral student in the School of Social Ecology. I am going to share my experience and a few tips and tools with you that have helped me stay organized during the first year of my Ph.D. This is a general post for doctoral students from all disciplines.
Importance of Work-Life Balance: You will hear this a lot throughout your time in graduate school. Graduate school is a long-term commitment and a work-life balance is crucial to success. During a Ph.D. program you will have to juggle with multiple tasks – do research, teach, attend seminars and conferences, take courses. To succeed you need to utilize your time carefully. Here are some keys to staying organized in graduate school:
- Set a weekly schedule for activities like when you come to the office/lab/library, when you leave, your weekly goals, and set some time for yourself. Whatever your schedule and plan, consistency is the most important – work steadily and incrementally, putting your time and effort in a structured way. Some good sources for improving your time management and organizational skills are:
- “Getting things done” by David Allen
- “Getting what you came for” by Robert Peters – This book consists of interviews with graduate students and professors about their real-life experiences.
- Take regular breaks to relax and rejuvenate. Graduate school experience can be very rewarding but it can also be challenging at times.
Administrative Tasks: In the past one year, the most unexpected aspect of my graduate work has been administrative work. You will spend a lot of time writing grants, applying to conferences, editing proposals, contracts, budgets, etc, which might feel like an unproductive use of time. Additionally, there can be a lot of internal guidelines and forms that you must follow. I will suggest the following things:
- Start early so that you do not have to rush towards the end and these formalities do not become a barrier to your productivity.
- Always, know who your department administrative staff is and do not hesitate to ask them questions. Talking to my department graduate coordinator has always been helpful to understand the program requirements, policies, and resources.
Tools and Resources
- Individual Development Plan (IDP): All doctoral students at UCI must work with their faculty advisors each year to complete an IDP. IDP consists of various sections to mention strategies for grant applications, target journals for publications, annual research, and quarterly coursework plan, etc. Every department has its own format of an Individual Development Plan. You can find a link to this document on your department’s website or in the orientation packet provided to you by your department. Some advisors might prefer to use their own forms. In the school of Social Ecology, all students are required to submit an IDP at the end of every year, but you can also fill one out in the beginning. This is an excellent tool to get started thinking about where you are as a researcher and where you want to be in the course of the next few years. During my first year in graduate school, I have tracked my individual progress in the program using an IDP and have used it to get feedback from my advisor.
- Use Technology to help
- Time management: Use digital calendars to include all your deadlines, classes, or activities. Putting activities on the calendar helps you prioritize it. Many students use time tracking software (Toggl, RescueTime) to record and manage the time spent on various activities.
- Note-taking: Depending on your learning style you can decide which system to use for note-taking. Microsoft OneNote and Evernote are some of the options available for taking notes. Evernote works best for me – I have recorded lectures and linked it to the notes, and taken pictures of the whiteboard and conceptual diagrams.
- Citation Management Software: Many students in graduate school find it difficult to organize documents and articles involved in their research projects. Therefore, using a citation manager (e.g. Zotero, Mendeley) to organize your research articles might help when working on assignments and final papers as well as in the long-term. The UCI library has a number of resources to help you decide the most appropriate management software for your research. So far Mendeley has been the best fit for me.
Finally, the guidelines or handbook provided by your department is the most useful resource in tracking progress in the program and staying organized.