Book review: How to get a PhD effectively - Joseph Helpman

Recently, I was contacted by a scientist who uses the pseudonym Joseph Helpman to review his book, "How to get a PhD effectively". The subtitle of the book is "The untold time-management secrets of the most successful scientists" and the synopsis of the book is the following:

This is not another typical guidebook about the methodological issues of earning a PhD. It is a bible of productivity in science. The contents include not only time-management strategies, but also a mindset that will help you earn a high-quality PhD faster. It is specifically aimed at showing you how to use the tools that most successful scientists would rather hide for themselves. The goal is to organize a PhD research project without harm to your personal life. We live in the era of knowledge and hard work is no longer the best solution. Nowadays, it is smart work that counts and provides the best results. This is why, from now on – don’t be just a dreamer, be an achiever. Get a PhD fast and smart.

Let me show you how to do it!!

For those of you who follow me on Goodreads, you might have already seen that I rated the book as 2 stars ("it was ok"). The main reason why I didn't rate the book higher, is that I feel like at some points the author is encouraging PhD students to cut corners. I am completely opposed to the advise of the author to stick to the bare minimum when it comes to reading papers for your literature review - I think reading broadly in your discipline is a necessary part of keeping up to date with your field.

The books is subdivided into three main chapters:

1. Before you start
2. Time-management principles for scientist
3. The mindset of a productive scientist

Since a third of the book focuses on things you should know (or wished you knew) before you start your PhD, the book seems to be mostly aimed at students who are contemplating applying for a PhD program. While this information is useful for future PhD students, it might not really cover the main topic of the book, which is essentially time management for PhD students and all scientists. Somehow, this off-topic introduction makes the book feel a bit like a diesel engine - slow to start.

The second chapter on time management for scientists is a good overview of effective time management methods that are easy to apply.
While I think there is a thin line between what is ethical and not when it comes to outsourcing tasks for your PhD research, I understand the point the author is making where he suggests to hire as much help as possible. However, for most PhD students on a small scholarship, I don't think this option is valid.
The author seems to borrow a lot from The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss (which I just did not like), and it just makes me wonder why you would do a PhD in the first place if you try to shove off as many tasks as possible to someone else.
Don't get me wrong though - I think outsourcing smaller chunks of research to, for example, master's students as a thesis topic is perfectly fine. But in this case we are talking about learning to delegate some work, and educating a younger graduate student into your topic - and you won't be paying for this.
Simply hiring a student who is even poorer than you to go and browse the library seems to me a little strange (but maybe that's because I never disliked sniffing around the library - I always ended up finding more hidden gems than what I came in for in the first place...)

The third chapter mostly deals with work-life balance and staying sane and healthy in graduate school. This chapter is certainly important, and it's good to find it along with and in a book about scientific productivity. Without a healthy, rested mind and body, it becomes very difficult to produce high-quality research. The book subdivides this into "Social Relations", "Health", "Finance" and "Private Life". The best reminder for me was the subchapter on social relations. As I tend to be very focused on work, sports and music, I tend to leave very little time for just hanging out with people in my schedule. I like the idea from the book to be more conscious about phone calls and visits - and it was a good reminder for me to isolate myself a little less from the rest of the world.

To conclude, "How to get a PhD effectively" is a book I would recommend to a graduate student planning to pursue a PhD.
While I think some of the time management strategies sound more like cutting corners than enjoying the depth of your research work, the book does summarize very well how to learn planning your time in a way that is rather similar to my own time management system.
Finally, the chapter that deals with work-life balance is an important reminder of the fact that there's much more to life than just your PhD. I especially found the reminder about social relations (i.e. do not hide away from the world because of your PhD) refreshing to read. Certainly not the best PhD book out there, but it's a fast and pleasant read.

On Google Books, you can access the first two chapters of the book, if you want to get an idea of what the book covers.

QS GradSchool Guide 2015/2016

Today, I'd like to invite you all to have a look at the QS GradSchool Guide for the academic year 2015/2016. It is 128 pages full of great information for anyone considering to do a PhD, as well as for current PhD students. You'll need to sign up for a free account on the QS website - a rather painless and quick process - to access the document.

On page 17 of the guide, you can find an article for which Laura Tucker from topuniversities.com interviewed me, as well as other bloggers who write about life after the PhD. Even though the focus of my blog is not essentially on finding employment after the PhD, I've written a fair amount about this topic as I transitioned from being a PhD student to a professor.

That's all for today - you have 128 pages of assigned reading waiting for you elsewhere ;)

I am Gabriela Hajduk and This is How I Work

Today, I am interviewing Gabriela Hajduk in the "This is How I Work" series. Gabriela has a background in behavioral ecology. She has done her undergraduate degree with integrated masters year at the University of Sheffield (MBiolSci in Animal Behavior, graduated summer 2014). Her masters year project focused on the mechanisms of sperm storage in avian female reproductive tract. She is currently pursuing a PhD in evolutionary ecology at the University of Edinburgh. Birds are her preferred study organism and she has a particular interest in the genetic and evolutionary basis of their reproductive and social behaviours. Beyond that she has a wider interest in wildlife conservation and animal welfare, as well as science communication and the challenges faced by minorities in science and academia. In her free time she enjoys the great outdoors and is a keen rock climber, when at home she enjoys drawing, as well as food-related things. Follow her on Twitter @AmidstScience and/or check out her blog.

Current Job:PhD Researcher
Current Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Current mobile device: cheapy Android smartphone (not getting much use)
Current computer: MacBook Pro (13 inch)

Can you briefly explain your current situation and research to us?
I am an Evolutionary Ecology PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh. Due to the nature of my project I also have strong links to the Australian National University.

My work focuses on inbreeding and infidelity in an Australian passerine bird, the cooperatively breeding superb fairy-wren. It is an absolutely fascinating system! Socially monogamous pairs are often supported during breeding season by male helpers. The whole group takes care of the chicks, yet due to extreme rates of female infidelity most nests have at least one chick fathered by a male from a different territory - the social male and all those helpers are raising babies who are unrelated to them. I am trying to understand the dynamics of this system: do females cheat to avoid mating with relatives, with whom they are socially paired? Or maybe they paired up with those relatives because they were going to cheat anyway?

On the more practical side the project involves analysis of multigenerational long-term dataset, working with pedigrees and statistical modelling, as well as behavioural observations of wild birds during their breeding season.

What tools, apps and software are essential to your workflow?
I do the majority of my work on my laptop. I use Scrivener for scientific papers’ note taking and any work-in-progress that is likely to require substantial changes (especially structural changes), LaTeX for later stages such as sorting out figures/tables, formatting references (from Mendeley) and final output. I use Skim for reading and do data analysis in R. I have recently started using Aquamacs for all my R and LaTeX needs. This set up gives me enough options so that I can use the right tool for each job and the majority of the programs work together very nicely, for example the combination of R and LaTeX allows me to create dynamic reports of my analysis (I am a sucker for literate programming and reproducible science).
When it comes to organisation Evernote is my weapon of choice, it is great for note taking during seminars and meetings, for collecting bits of random information and keeping those “must have” emails, lab rotas and event schedules handy. I also use it as a Lab Journal, which helps me get closer to working paperless. I also couldn’t really do without a digital calendar to keep track of my life.

You can read more about my PhD tools on my blog too

What does your workspace setup look like?
I have been allocated a workspace in a mixed PhD office (there are 8 of us, mainly first and second years, all working under different supervisors). I have a fairly nice set up in the office, although I do wish I had a more comfy chair. I try to keep my desk clear of clutter and I love having two screens dedicated to work. I do the majority of my work at the office, but every now and then I need a change of scenery so I work from home. Being able to work from home also comes in handy when the office is getting too chatty or when I need to catch up on house chores (I can squeeze the chores, one at a time, between pomodoros of work). My home desk tends to be a bit more messy than my office desk, but benefits from a higher quality secondary screen and a tea maker. I don’t do any lab work, but I do go away for fieldwork.



What is your best advice for productive academic work?
I am right at the start of my academic career, so I am probably not the best person to give advice! One thing I would say is to not be scared to experiment in order to find the time, place, set up or workflow that makes you more productive AND to stop messing with it once you found it! Otherwise it turns into never-ending playing with new “productivity hacks”, which is actually counterproductive.

How do you keep an overview of projects and tasks?
I split the PhD into several questions and arranged those to be tackled in a particular order. It is easier to think of one “chunk” rather than try to deal with the entire PhD all at once. Each question then needs several analyses in order to be answered. At the moment I simply keep a list of those things and a list of other ideas that appear along the way, but I think it might work better as a mind-map, as all those ideas are very interconnected and all feed into one PhD project.

On a weekly and day-to-day basis I use my Lab Journal in Evernote; each Monday morning I review the week before to see what got done and what’s slipping throughout the cracks, and then I plan the week ahead. While planning I use my Calendar, so that I can take into account all scheduled events and any approaching deadlines. Obviously this relays on inputting all those important things into the Calendar in the first place! For weekly planning I focus on the Calendar events for that week, but I also have a quick look at the month ahead for anything “big” like a fieldwork trip on which I’m demonstrating, a stats course or a conference. I also plan weekends to ensure that in all this madness I can see my partner regularly (like so many others in academia, we have the infamous two body problem).

This helps to put my mind at ease, I can focus on one week or even one day at a time, but I don’t have the nagging feeling at the back of my mind that I have forgotten about something important in a slightly more distant future.

Besides phone and computer, do you use other technological tools in work and daily life?
I have an iPad mini that accompanies me to all lectures, seminars, talks and meetings - I use it to take notes in Evernote. The notes sync to my account and are ready for me when I get back to my laptop. It is also very handy to have access to my calendar and Lab Journal during meetings. I thought I would do more reading on it, but that doesn’t seem to be happening (Skim iPad app would likely change that!).

Which skill makes you stand out as an academic?
Perseverance.

What do you listen to when you work?
I rarely listen to anything while working, I actually find it quite distracting. Sometimes, when office is going through one of the chatty days, I will listen to classical or instrumental music (it is still distracting, but less so than a conversation). If I’m doing something less taxing, for instance looking for papers or sorting out references I might listen to science-related podcasts or TED talks.

What are you currently reading?
Dune by Frank Herbert. To be honest I struggle to find as much time for reading as I would like and it is something that I definitely need to sort out. I think that the best shot at regular reading is incorporating it into my evening/bedtime routine. I read shorter things like essays and blog posts on my iPad when I am on public transport, but I prefer to read books when I can really immerse in the story. I am a book person and love having the physical copy of a book… But travelling is much easier with my Kindle than with a bunch of heavy books.

What's your sleep routine like?
I try to get 7 hours of sleep every night. I can “make do” with less than that, but it is not sustainable long term and my productivity drops too. I try to keep a regular schedule and go to bed at the same time each night, but it is incredibly hard to do since I’m away from home very often. I use f.lux on my computers so that the backlight gets adjusted according to the time of day and I read on a Kindle rather than on a backlit device. I also have one of those wake-up lamps that gets progressively brighter. I was initially sceptical about it, but winter in Edinburgh left me with little choice - I now love the lamp, it really works for me.

I generally have no problems falling asleep and sleep quite well. However, in order to avoid any anxiousness that could reduce the quality of my sleep I spend a little time organising and prepping things in the evening - I might make a task list or a grocery list, check what needs to be done the next day and note it all down, so I don’t need to worry about forgetting things. Each evening I also tidy up the house, wash up the dishes, prepare my lunch and breakfast for the next day. This makes the mornings less stressful and so makes relaxing before bed easier.

What's your work routine like?
Just like my sleep routine, I try to keep my work routine fairly consistent, but often life gets in the way. During a regular week I’m in the office and ready to start work by 8 am. I work till anywhere between 4:30 and 6:30 pm, although try to leave no later than 5ish. On Monday mornings I spend a little time planning the week and figuring out what needs to be done and what is feasible given the events scheduled for that particular week (some weeks are more meeting/seminar heavy than other).

I like to start every day with an hour or two of reading and writing - mostly notes and ideas at this stage, although hopefully will move onto putting it all together soon. I have set up Shut up & Write sessions on Tuesday mornings to get some company, which works really well for me. I wish I had a writing buddy for every morning!

I then have a look at emails and/or tackle something small on my to-do list, after which it is time for a quick break chatting to people & having a snack while they enjoy their morning coffee. The next couple of hours or so are usually dedicated to data analysis (read: fighting with R and still getting amused by its error messages including “FUN is missing”). By lunchtime I have an idea of what needs to be sorted and how smoothly a particular bit of analysis will go. Now that it is getting warmer I hope to have my lunch outside every day and go for a little stroll.

After lunch I carry on with analysis till the inevitable afternoon slump. Then, depending on how I feel, I either have a proper break and go back to work or I move onto less demanding tasks (emails, literature searches, sorting references, admin/expenses etc.). Once my brain feels useless or I get too frustrated I stop for the day.

Of course not every day looks exactly like this, but my Monday morning planning allows me to customise this general schedule and adjust as needed. In addition to my own research I do a little bit of demonstrating for undergraduate courses from time to time and participate in various workshops. My Wednesdays are jam-packed with meetings (3-4 hrs) and seminars (1-2 hrs), so I rarely do much analysis in between those. Instead, I try to sort out other things from my to-do list to free up time for work on other days.

What's the best advice you ever received?
Make your own choices because you are the one who will have to live with the consequences.

Q&A: When your sensitivity undermines your work

Another long since overdue post in the category of Questions and Answers!

Some time ago, a PhD student sent me the following question:

Good afternoon. I'm PhD student. Thanks for the nice articles in this blog. Would like to share with you Eva. I'm very sensitive person. Whenever people use harsh words to me, It makes me feel very sad and upset most of the time. During this time, i'm not able to focus in my studies which affects my studies so much. What i should do?

Here are a few tips I can give you:

1. Understand your sensitivity

First and foremost: there is nothing wrong with being sensitive. You can gain a lot of benefit from knowing yourself though. Figure out if you are very sensitive for words, or if you would classify as a highly sensitive person (I am, and understanding that I am has been tremendously beneficial). Here's a test you can take to see if you are a highly sensitive person. Here's a book that I recommend you read:



By all means, try to deeply understand the nature of your sensitivity, and understand all the benefits and beauty of it. Don't ever let anybody tell you that you are "weak" because you are sensitive.

2. Meditate and let go

If you feel particularly shaken by an event, if somebody has mistreated you, then don't force yourself to delve back into your work. Look for a quiet place, try a short relaxation exercise, and try to let the dark cloud float out of the sky. If you need to lock yourself down in the bathroom for 15 minutes to recover - do it. It's not because society thinks that is wrong, that it really is wrong. Regroup your soldiers and prepare for your next step.

3. Get out for a walk

Another option would be to go out and enjoy some fresh air, sun and nature. If you are close to a forest or park, spending 15 minutes in a quiet place while walking might be just what you need - even more so if you are a sensitive person.

4. Do something you enjoy

Another trick to lift the dark mood that has settled upon you, is to go and do something you enjoy. As a sensitive person, you might like to listen to some beautiful music, go visit a museum, talk to a friend, or anything that makes you feel good. Realize that as bad as you feel when you experience something negative, you also feel deeply touched and happy when you have a positive experience. Try to swing the pendulum back into the positive spectrum.

5. Let others know your limits

People should not mistreat you and use harsh words on you - whether you are sensitive to their behavior or not. If people mistreat you a number of times, you should tell them that they have crossed the line. No swearing, no aggressive biting back at them - but just be clear and concise that you do not appreciate their behavior and would them rather not to repeat treating you like that in the future.

The Case for Arrogance

Today I have the pleasure of hosting 3rd year social science PhD student at a prominent university in the United States, who would like to remain anonymous.

During the last week of a frigid New York February, I walk home from a party with a friend who is in her second year of a doctoral program. Her concerns are familiar: depression, a fear of being alone, a sense of isolation and loneliness from her classmates, and a vague, nagging, terrific disorientation. We joke that we're in relationships with our computers, hauling them along in some way on every task from work to recreation to spiritual wind-down. While our concerns touch on issues of PhD self care, our laughter acknowledges something more existential: a despair that the women I know seem to encounter in PhD-land and with which my male associates seem blithely unacquainted. What is it about being in a doctoral program that triggers in women this special type of depression? What about it flies in the face of everything we have been taught and at the same time reinforces so many of our most deeply programmed beliefs?

Especially for the older student (i.e., one who has not come straight from college), doctoral programs are a paradox, a constant sense of responsibility paired with ambiguity. On the one hand, you're a student, with enormous tasks ahead of you to demonstrate your competencies; on the other hand, you are chosen, someone who the department already decided was exceptional and worthy of the presumption that you can and will contribute unique ideas to your field. On the one hand you are an adult with adult friends, relationships, responsibilities, concerns, and physical limitations. On the other hand, you are a student, a mentee, and in the eyes of some, in some ways, a child.

Expectations of women in the working world are a similar paradox. On the one hand, we were told we were adults and were responsible for our own futures; on the other hand, we were told our bodies made us vulnerable to danger and that we must be protected at all times. For those of us who have always been "good" students, we found this a very comfortable way to be female. We knew we were successful because of the praise we got, and could find familiarity and even comfort in the ever-present potential to do even better. Putting ourselves down was a means of connection. A woman who is smart but a little under-confident is charming and worthy of attention; a woman who is smart, arrogant, and irreverent, however, is dangerous and unattractive. So we kept our egos and above average intellects in check, never wanting to threaten our status or anyone else's. We even came to enjoy this complicated mixture of success and self-deprecation that formed an endless cycle of seeking approval and doubting it.

The PhD process, with all its ambiguities and high expectations, serves as an alien environment to these habits of mind. The intellect is not a tool for gaining the approval of others; to the contrary, it must become the voice of the ego. In other words, it must say not, "Here is what I know, that you may accept it," as we said so often in grade school and college. In the PhD program, the intellect must say, RI exist, so my truth is legitimate.S This intellect-as-ego is not the reason many women succeed in or enjoy succeeding in school: usually, it is our ability to anticipate what is expected of us and to meet that expectation that leads to successful academic performance for females.

And unsurprisingly, even as we are held to these new emotional expectations, we are still treated in many ways as less valuable than our male colleagues. The pressures placed upon us by spouses and children are dismissed by our advisors because, as modern women, we are expected to demonstrate commitment to career by setting aside everything else. Our male classmates receive close tutelage from our male professors, who keep their distance from us lest relations become uncomfortably close and unseemly. Most of all, and most insidiously, the key to academia is arrogance, and we as women are never taught to be arrogant. We may even be chastised for it, told explicitly or implicitly to back off, to not push so hard.

Going into my proposal defense, I was anxious and nervous about what questions my chair and external readers, all men, might ask me. I did nothing intellectually or academically to prepare; I'd worked all semester on this document and knew there was nothing more I could do to it. I just focused on speaking with gusto until I heard some semblance of an answer come out of my mouth, and then I stopped talking and waited for the next question. My professors could have poked holes in my defense for hours and decided not to pass me; I truly believe it was my bravado, as much as my reasoning, that inspired their confidence. As a feminist, I believe in plurality and provide space for my undergraduates to disagree. But in that defense, my goal was to not be defeated.

PhD benchmarks are called "defenses" because they test the tenacity to insist that one's own reasoning -one's own piecing together of data and theory to make a new set of knowledge- is better than anyone else's. Instead of telling the female doc student that she will succeed because she is smart, tell her she will succeed because she is tenacious, that she is dogged, that she is strong and self-assured. Remind her that the seeds of those necessary characteristics, like the ability to write consistently and persistently, are in her, and she will make them grow. We want our female academics to be fierce scholars, who don't get caught up in the throes of their own egos and can put all of their energy into identifying and advocating cures to society's ills. We want them to come to each other not to hide and cry, not to be reassured by each other's vulnerability. We want them coming to each other -and to us- full of their brilliant ideas, full of themselves.

Q & A: What should you already know when you start a PhD

Time to answer some more of your questions, folks!

Here's a recent submission from a reader (I obviously took out the personal details of the writer, and replaced these by Someone, Somewhere, My Field, and in Countries X and Y).

Dear Eva

This is Someone I am a new PhD student at Somewhere.

Actually I have experience in My Field because I was in Country X for 2 years before my PhD fellowship in Country Y but I am afraid of new techniques I will find in the new lab in Country Y I do not know much more about it before so do you think I am right with my fears or not ???

Should I know everything at my new lab. what they are expecting from me.

Thanks

Yours

Someone

As always, let me break this question down into a few different elements.

I have experience in My Field

That's already great - not all new PhD students have had the chance to learn in different countries and build up some experience. Some might come into their program with a few years of work or lab experience. Others might be completely new to the lab work they will be doing (I, for one, was completely new to lab work when I started my PhD).

I am afraid of new techniques I will find in the new lab in Country Y

A PhD is a learning process, and learning new skills is part of that. Besides the new lab skills that you will learn, there is so much more that you will learn along the way in your program - academic writing is a big one for most of us, for example.

Do you think I am right with my fears or not

You are right to have your doubts, fears and more about starting a PhD - because it's a big project and it will take you some years to finish. However, the reasons why you are doubting and fearing shouldn't really be causes for fear.

Should I know everything at my new lab

They know that a new PhD student is an apprentice. The older PhD students might take you under their wing and teach you how to use the equipment in the lab, or the lab technicians might help you with that. As long as you keep an open mind and attitude, they will all be happy to help you out. Just don't take on an arrogant attitude, saying you know things and all that - just patiently listen and learn how things in the new lab work. And of course, bringing coffee and cookies to the other folks in the lab at some point is always a good way to win some sympathy, make friends, find a time to discuss and have a great break together.

What they are expecting from me?

That's a question I can't really answer - it depends on your project, your lab and your professor. If you have any doubts, if it isn't clear to you on which actions you should be devoting more time, then please speak up and ask them.

Writers' Lab: One Day, It Will Be Done

Today, we're returning to the Writer's Lab. Tamara Girardi shares with us how she managed to finish her dissertation, with a baby in her arms. Tamara holds a PhD in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation, It Can Be Acquired and Learned: Building a Writer-Centered Pedagogical Approach to Creative Writing focuses on the field of creative writing studies. She studied creative writing at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and writes young adult fiction. She's a member of the English faculty for Virtual Learning at Harrisburg Area Community College and primarily works from home with her colleagues: a computer-programming husband, a three-year old son, and an 18-month old daughter. Follow her on Twitter @TamaraGirardi.

The thought of writing a dissertation spikes my heart rate, which is saying something since I've already written, defended, and earned a degree for one. The task - choosing a focus, developing the idea, reading the literature that never ends, formulating quality research questions, theorizing appropriate methods for addressing the questions, executing the study, and finally determining what is worth saying about the results - is, needless to say, daunting.

Additionally, when I was finishing my doctoral coursework in the Composition and TESOL Program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, my husband and I decided we should start a family. After all, my coursework would be well behind me by the time the baby was born. Nine months was a long time to prepare. And that was true, but then there was the dissertation. Our son was born in September. In November, I began reading for my literature review. With my infant in his bouncy chair, I piled books all around us and read, earmarked, annotated them. To ensure he was stimulated, I often read aloud. He often fell asleep. I don't blame him. I would have fallen asleep too if I could have.

Around this time, I shared a progress update with my dissertation advisor. Although I didn't reveal my apprehensions directly, he must have noticed certain cues. Or perhaps he has advised enough students to anticipate apprehension as a general rule. His advice was not ground-breaking, but it was perfect. He said, "Just sit down and do a bit every day, and one day, it will be done." Of course, I thought! Theoretically, and theory was part of my every thought, one day it would have to end. I needn't think of that last day or every day. Just one day. Today.

The advice is similar to Anne Lamott's ever popular text on writing, Bird by Bird. She tells the story of her brother who procrastinated a research essay on birds one year. She recalls her father sitting down with him at the kitchen table the night before the essay was due telling him, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird."

As is often the case with simple advice, the recommendation is certainly wise. Investing time every day in the dissertation kept my mind focused on the topic and the unique challenges that developed throughout my study. Even when I wasn't reading or writing, I was simmering the ideas from my last reading or writing session. Daily connections propelled my work forward. Sometimes, I read or wrote for only an hour a day, but over time, I came to believe that an hour per day was more effective for my thought processes than seven hours every Saturday or Sunday. I notice a similar experience with my fiction writing. If I write for even 15 minutes daily I'm able to follow my own story and innovate with unique setting, character, and plot details. If I write weekly or monthly, I spend much of my time reading my previous work to remind myself of my decisions from the last writing session.

Although I'm advocating for daily connections to doctoral candidates' dissertations, I realize schedules vary. That said, I believe in this approach. If you can read one chapter or one article, if you can write a few pages or brainstorm ideas, you are connected to your work. Writing process theorist and Pulitzer Prize winning writer, Donald Murray believed that rehearsal, or the time writers spend thinking about writing, is a valuable part of the writing process. In a way, that's what the daily connection to writing suggests. Being connected to your focus, idea, literature review, research questions, research methods, and study results could spark new ideas as your mind "rehearses." In addition to the fact that if you invest a little time each day, one day, the dissertation will be done, daily progress could enrich your research project in ways you never imagined.

So when your heart rate spikes and the task seems daunting, disempower the overwhelming pile of books and the blank word processing page and follow some good advice: do a bit every day, and one day, it will be done.

Challenge Your Office Mentality

Today I have the pleasure of inviting Amber Davis once more for a series of two guest posts. Amber wrote last year on Optimizing your Workday for Productivity, amongst other. Amber is a political scientist and a PhD coach. She studied at the London School of Economics and Leiden University, and holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence. She teaches stress-management and productivity seminars for PhD candidates and created the HappyPhD Online Course to help you write your PhD (almost) effortlessly. On her blog, she is giving away the online course twice to celebrate the new academic year. Click here to enter the competition.

Many academics work ‘always, everywhere’. They work weekends, evenings, and holidays, and there is no clear distinction between ‘time at work’ and ‘time off’. With flexible schedules, why not finish that abstract while you’re waiting for your plane, or type up your results on a Sunday afternoon? ‘Work’ can slowly start to take up the largest part of your waking hours. Worse: when you’re not ‘working’ you may feel guilty about it. Work-life balance, they call it. The balance often goes askew.

The reasons for an out-of-whack work-life balance tend to vary depending on where you are in your academic career. In the PhD stage, the most common reason tends to be a combination of procrastination, combined with an inability to switch off from work at the end of the day because ‘I didn’t get anything done’. In the ECR and tenure stages (oh, if we would only be there already!) it is mostly the result of being completely swamped with responsibilities and obligations. Workload starts to take on an entirely different meaning (oh, life was good during our PhD days!). In any stage of the academic career, the message that working ‘hard’, in the sense of working long hours and being available is laudable is reinforced. We start believing that we indeed need to ‘work all the time’ to get our work done, and that nothing less will do when it comes to being, and being perceived as, a ‘hard-working’, prolific, serious academic.

The troubling aspect of this way of approaching your work is not the flexibility of schedules. It is the assumption that endlessly sitting at your computer with your documents or email open is virtuous and constitutes work. The truth of it is that it is NOT the best way to get your best work done. Or any work, for that matter. At least not if you don’t want to be wasting your time more than half of the time! Our brains aren’t wired for long-term, steady state achievement. It’s a shame that plugging away for unlimited hours seems to be the norm, a norm that can be daunting to challenge. But if you dare do so, you may become more prolific than you could have previously imagined. Your energy will lift, your ability to focus will improve. And you’ll be able to shut your laptop, without the worry and the guilt.

The first step in challenging this ‘work-til-you-drop’ paradigm is to challenge the 9-5, or 9-6, or 8-8 or even 8-10 paradigm. The current norm is still very much centred around the idea of ‘office hours’: you work from 9-5 (or longer), with a lunch break in the middle, and maybe a coffee or tea break in the morning and afternoon. Entertain the idea that this might not be the best way to structure your workday. Rather than attempting to work at a steady state and in a linear fashion, envision your workday as a series of sprints.

Work in intervals that are long enough to get things done, but short enough to force you to focus without letting your energy slump. When followed by a period of relaxation you will allow your energy, focus and spirits to remain high. The relaxation part, the ‘non-working’ part is as essential as the part that we normally think of as ‘work’. It is the part where your brain re-sets and recharges, and shifts from analytical thought, which is of crucial importance for thinking logically, hermetically and analytically, to a more free-flowing state of being which allows for sudden new insights to occur. Both are needed for academic work. You need analytical focused thought for running your analyses, making sense of your results and constructing a logically sound argument. But the insights, the breakthroughs, the previously unimagined solutions, do not present themselves when you are focusing on the task at hand. They happen when you let yourself daydream, when you relax, and when you are unfocused (read an article about the brain science behind it here). The bottom line: to foster original thought, and to allow for the more creative parts of mental processes to happen the brain needs to relax, not be narrowly focused.  

If you give working in intervals a try you will see you’ll be able to work much shorter hours while getting more done, because you are taking advantage of the way your brain is designed to work. Even better: you can start enjoying time off without the guilt! For all the workaholics amongst us: now you can be ‘productive’ while doing absolutely nothing except letting your mind wander. What a revolutionary idea! To start, I would suggest experimenting with three 45-minute sessions of focused work, followed by 15-minute breaks, preferably in the morning, and before you have overloaded yourself with other stimuli and distractions. Maybe you’ll find that you get more done in those three hours, than you would have done in a whole day previously. You could use the afternoon to do less mentally challenging work: reading, say, or looking up references, answering email, and doing routine and organisational tasks. I would urge you to leave work early. Yes, you have permission! I believe that a 6-hour workday is often more than long enough (depending of course on your particular commitments). In the long run it’s the only way to keep it sustainable. It is not humanly possible to do intellectually challenging sprints for more than so many hours a day. Fewer than you probably think. Challenge your office mentality. You need to spend less time working, not more. Trust me on this.

To make working in intervals work, there is one catch. You need to focus, and work as intensely as you can, during those 45-minute intervals. It’s a sprint, not a marathon! Don’t pace yourself. Go all out. Give it everything. Pour your heart into it. A simple but helpful tip: disconnect from the Internet while you’re working. Looking up references can wait. So can those news sites and Facebook! A second tip: get very clear on what you actually want to be working on in that work session. Make it as specific as possible. That way it becomes doable. With distractions out of the way, and a clear focus, you can start chipping away at that next paper or chapter.

Being smart is not enough - Four factors necessary for success

While being smart can be a necessary condition for making it to the end of your PhD (or, more general, for being successful in life, regardless of what you do), it is not the only important factor. It might not even be the single most important factor.

When working towards a goal, four factors are equally important:

1. Intelligence

I just said that it is not the only factor that determines the outcome of your undertaking, but it is an important factor nonetheless. And we're talking about intelligence in the broad sense here - not just having a high IQ. We're also considering emotional intelligence, street smarts, wisdom when it comes to making choices in life, and tactic thinking when it comes to making career decisions, or deciding what to spend your time on.

2. Organization

If you take on a large project you want to bring to completion, such as a PhD, then you need to be organized. We've covered time management, managing a research project and more topics on getting organized and being productive on this blog before. Now is the day that we put everything in perspective, and I would like you to realize how all these elements are part of a bigger set of behaviors that increases your chances of positive outcomes.

3. Optimism

Don't worry be happy! We're not talking in the sense of going off to the beach and drinking cocktails (although you certainly should do this every now and then, just not continuously), but in the sense of taking life with ease and expecting the best. I've seen good students getting torn under by the quicksand of pessimism. Don't fall prey to this trap, just keep your dreams and hopes high and expect them to be fulfilled sooner or later if you work hard. You'll be a more pleasant person in your family and with your friends if you decide to replace your frown by a smile. Yes, it might be hard in the sour environment of academia, but remember that all that whining and going between eachothers backs has never made anyone's life better. Go for smiles and gratitude instead.

4. Perseverance

And when the going gets tough, you need to be able to hold on tight and continue the ride. I've been writing about the importance of perseverance before, and that piece ties in with my message of today on how these different elements are interrelated. The gist of the message is that, at times, you will need to roll up your sleeves and clean out your stables. Do it bit by bit, maybe with the help of the pomodoro technique. Think about the bigger picture, and know that this tedious part is a step towards figuring out something pretty cool. Get comfortable in a good chair, with some good music and a nice cuppa tea. Don't start browsing around the internet to procrastinate - you'll feel better if you stay in your office for less hours but finishing more work. And at the end of the day, go do something fun: exercise, good food, reading - reap you reward of a day of hard work.

PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: How to know when to change course in your research

This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands.

These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those of you interested in pursuing a research position in the Netherlands.

If these posts raise your interest in working as a researcher in the Netherlands, even better - and feel free to fire away any questions you might have on this topic!

Research is not a linear process at all. More than anything, doing research is like trying to solve a maze.

At times, you will get stuck in dead ends. And very often, it will take quite some time to realize that you are blocked by a dead end and just shuffling in place. Maybe your advisor will be convinced that your dead end has a hidden door, somewhere. Maybe you yourself are staring yourself blind on a possibility that does not seem to work.

And always, movement forward in your research does not happen incrementally, but it happens by building up friction and frustration, and then taking a leap forward. So maybe you just need to push through a little more, and something will click and it all will fall in its place...

How can you know whether you have hit a real roadblock and need to change gears, or are just building up friction and doing the work necessary to move forward?

Probably, this question is one of the toughest questions that haunt us in the research process. If we'd know in advance where the dead ends are, we wouldn't even take ourselves in there and spend months (or even years) trying to force a breakthrough on a lost path.

Granted, I don't believe there is a cut-and-paste ready solution for this problem. Research is like this: you need to chew through the hard parts, you need to do the deep work, and there are no shortcuts in the process. There are plenty of tools that can make our lives easier and help us manage our time, but for deep work, for what really matters to research, there are no hacks.

Nonetheless, I think there are some red flags that might indicate that you are wasting your time on a lost track that I would like to discuss today.

1. You are manipulating your data

First, and biggest red flag in here. Never manipulate your data to make them fit to a theory. Never make up some results. You don't want to follow down the path of Diederik Stapel and other not-so-glorious science fraudsters. If your theory turns to be proven wrong by your data, don't try to make a square peg fit into a round hole, and acknowledge that something is missing in your strategy. But hey, don't you think it is more exciting to try and figure out why your assumptions were proven wrong than to make them fit? Finding ways that don't work is progress too, always keep that in mind!

2. When you look at results from other labs, yours stick out like a sore thumb

This red flag would mean that something in your measurements is not working, or -unlikely- that you are on to something really new and exciting. If your test results do not match similar tests from other labs, you need to carefully revisit the techniques that you are using. Review all the steps you take in your experimental procedures, check your input (whether that is raw materials from providers, or data) to make sure you have those well-described, and do a few classic benchmark tests to assess if you really have a good grasp of your test setup. If possible, talk to senior colleagues in your lab - they might have ran into the same trouble a couple of years ago, or see if you can get in touch with researchers from other labs, to discuss your deviant results.

3. You can't think of new ways to approach your problem from the same perspective

You are just utterly, completely stuck. Stuck stucker than stuck. Your motivation is at a subzero level. You try to brainstorm, you try to mindmap and what not, but you can't feel a spark of excitement about a possible different turn to take. You are just shuffling in place. And since you are the expert in your field, you should learn to recognize that "shuffling in place" feeling. It's awful and we all get confronted with it some day or another. And when that day comes, don't get mad at yourself, but take it as a valuable lesson.

4. Your intuition tells you something is wrong

Along the same lines as number 3, your intuition does know something about your research. If your motivation went down the drain, if you feel every morning as if you are being faced with an impossibly daunting task, and if your enthusiasm is completely MIA, then your intuition is as well giving you some signs that something is not working. Worse even, if you start to eat crap, surf the internet all time, stay late in the lab to get nothing really done, start getting strange headaches, being unable to sleep at night or generally feel miserable, your intuition is shouting at you to stop and slow down or change course. Stop beating yourself up, and spend a day going over your possible other approaches, away from what you were developing earlier.

5. You are violating basic assumptions

Big red flag here. If you are applying a theory or method, and you are violating the basic assumptions, then you should not be using said theory or method. Often, the basic assumptions make perfect sense at first sight, and you will have an immediate understanding of their importance for your approach. Sometimes, the basic assumptions are a little more obscure, and then you might need to review the background of the method or theory that you are trying to apply, and spend some extra time understanding and investigating the original assumptions. Theories are only valid when you state their assumptions, remember that very well.

6. You can't return to basic principles from the path you've taken

If you can't match a benchmark test to your theory, something is missing. If you can't solve a supersimple basic case, something is wrong. If you can't return to basic principles and standard cases from the path you have taken, then you should not apply your method to more complex cases. The beauty of science is often in simplicity and clarity. If you need pages of code and a grocery list of assumptions to make something work for a specific case, you are essentially back to the situation of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

7. You are applying methods outside of their bounds

In same conditions, you might be able to stretch the application boundaries of certain methods and theories a little bit, but in most cases, there are well-defined reasons why you can't take a theory outside of its domain. Here, I am thinking of a domain as we describe it in mathematics - I'm all for you taking methods from different disciplines and applying them in new and innovative ways. Multi-disciplinarity and learning new skills totally rock, don't get me wrong. But if you take a formula that was derived for certain conditions, then keep it within its conditions (read the background to make sure if those conditions were based on calculations or experiments).

8. You can't make your boundary conditions make sense

Along the same lines as number 7: if you are either running outside of the bounds of the domain of application, or you are not able to make your boundary conditions to make sense, then something is rather iffy. As always, go and check the original references to figure out how your precursor researchers dealt with the boundary conditions, and what they were based on, and then judge for yourself to see if it is time to pack your bags and leave the point of no return.

9. You need extremely complicated formulas

The solutions of complex problems are often beautifully simple. If you need extremely complicated formulas, ask yourself if you can simplify these formulas into something much more useful and handy, and still have a result that is within 20% bounds of the experimental results (20 - 30% for structural concrete problems is an acceptable level of uncertainty for a simplified method - in your field these values might differ of course!). If you can't reduce your solution to something simpler that works good enough as well, then something is not working properly.

10. You get irrational values

Ah, the mother of all frustrations. You program an entire suit of assumptions and theories that you applied together to come up with a prediction calculation, and after looking at your computer screen for a couple of minutes while your machine churns away the numbers, you get a result of 1562111+732i - absolute nonsense in other words. Typically, you will get awful results like that when you are violating basic assumptions, are applying methods outside of their bounds or don't master your boundary conditions (or, you might have a coding error of course).

11. You require extraordinary amounts of computational time

If you can't solve it in a beautifully simple way and understand the physics/mechanics behind the problem, then you don't have a solid understanding of the problem, and you're most likely overcomplicating things. Your code or finite element analysis that takes forever to run, might be just a waste of computational time and capacity. Granted, I know that Monte Carlo simulations with many iterations and nonlinear finite element analyses take as much time as they take, but you should have an idea of the time it takes before you run your code. And if it takes much much longer than expected, something is most likely missing.

12. You start to feel protective about your strategy

If you start to feel emotional about your strategy, and protect it as if it were your baby, you are walking away from the wonderful lands of science and uncertainty. Never become obsessed with a certain approach. Instead, acknowledge the limitations of the theories you are working with, and embrace these limitations. Remain humble - chances that you just invented the hot water are very small. Don't pick up a fight with others when they question your methods, instead, use constructive discussions with your colleagues and supervisors to sharpen your ax and improve your method. Or, if you start to get emotionally intertwined with the strategy you are applying, recognize that it is time to put this strategy in the freezer for a moment, and go and dabble in another approach.

Have you hit a roadblock during your research? Do you recognize any of these red flags? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Organizing your literature review

More Q&A - and remember, you are always free to drop me your questions as well, and I'll do my very best to either send you a personal mail with my thoughts, or turn it into a Q&A post.

A reader sent me the following question:

Hi, 

I’m writing my first literature review for an honors paper and I need so help clarifying a issue. Let’s say most studies looked at A and C, but in my study I want to look at what will happen if we look at B.

Now apart from sketching the background of the are field you are researching etc. they say you should also show and talk about where your research (B) fits into the picture and what you will be looking at.

Where in your literature review do you put this in, in its own section or try to work it into various other sections? Do you talk in future tense or how does one go about this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 
Thank you

My research fell in a similar situation. In my case, "A" would have been one-way shear, or beam shear, and "C" would have been punching shear or two-way shear. "B" then is my research on shear in slabs, a transition zone between A and C. I'm assuming your work has some aspects in common with A and C.

I would discuss A and C separately first, and not mix my own thoughts and plans with what is currently known. Then, I would put a next section that can be a "discussion". You can look at the similarities and differences between A and C and explain how B fits in there. Then, finally, I would add an "outlook" or "future research" section in which you outline your plans for researching B based on what you now know about A and C.

As for the tense: it depends. Some people write their literature review in past tense, and some in present tense. I personally prefer present tense, and would also write the "future research" part in present tense (mostly). You can introduce this part by saying: "Given XXX (= what we learned in the previous sections), the focus of the research will be on the following elements:" and from there you can list which elements you are planning to study and how you would study these.

What do you think, readers? How did you organize your literature review? Let us know in the comments below!

Ten Tips for Surviving your PhD Defense

In the weeks following my PhD defense and graduation, I wrote about how I prepared for my PhD defense and about my experience during the defense itself. Long before my own defense, I had already written a post about the process and schedule of a PhD defense at TU Delft (and in the rest of the Netherlands).

These previous posts were mostly written from my point of view, and tied very closely to my personal experience during the preparation for my defense and the Big Day itself.

Now that it's almost been a year since my defense, and the whole experience has been digested and thought over, I want to give something of more general value (or at least, that's what I hope).

Here is my list of ten tips for the defense, regardless of your field.

1. Know your committee

If you have not had the chance to meet your committee members before the defense, then at least read up on their latest work, and use this knowledge to get an idea of what type of questions you can expect from them. If possible, ask some people who had your committee members for their defense to see how they behave during the defense. Do they like quizzing you on general knowledge about your research field, do they like to go into the nitty-gritty of your research, do they care more about the broader societal impact?

2. Know your assumptions and limitations of your conclusions

It's very unlikely that your PhD thesis is the Holy Grail, the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything (well, we know that is 42), or the Theory that Replaces All Previous Theories. So, revise the assumptions that you made in your analysis parts. Know the limitations of the assumptions, and prepare for questions that might be just out of the scope of your assumptions (and have an idea of what to do when your assumptions are not valid).

3. Bring something visual

Bring something to show - this could be a scale model of your experiment, a simple "experiment" to demonstrate a basic principle that you used, copies of important papers on which you based your work to put on the projector, some additional graphs,... If you got an idea from the meetings with your committee members what they might ask (something that is maybe missing in your dissertation), then work through that problem and bring it along with you to show them.

4. Prepare for questions that are right at the edge of your work

One of my colleagues told me the following: "Your committee members are going to look at the periphery of your work, and tie that to something they have been working on (and find the intersection between your respective fields of expertise), and from there they will try to pull you out of your circle of comfort and into their own circle. That's where the dangerous questions come from." Absolutely true.

5. Trust yourself

Come on, you've come so far as to actually defend your thesis, and by now you are the big expert in your (tiny) field of expertise. You've been working on this dissertation for 3 to 4 years, and unless you were playing Farmville or Angry Birds all the time, you should know this stuff by heart.

6. Brush up on your literature knowledge

When did you write your literature review? Chances are, you wrote that maybe 2 years ago. In those 2 years, a whole slew of new papers have been published. Try to identify the most important papers of the last year, read up on the latest developments, and -if possible- attend a few conferences to know what is hot at the moment and what new research folks are working on. Be ready to show your committee members that you know what is going on.

7. Know your schedule for the Big Day

Know who has to be where at which time, and communicate this to all parties involved (promotor, committee members, paranymphs, friends, families and fans). Since I'm a bit obsessed with planning, and because I had a nightmare a few weeks before the defense that my promotor forgot about my defense and arrive too late, I had my itinerary for the day very well planned out, and I repeated to everybody ad nauseum where they were expected to be and at what time.

8. Eat well

And now for the Granny Eva advice: eat your veggies in the days before the defense for great energy. Right before the defense, it depends on you personally. I think I ate some bread with cheese to avoid being so hungry that I'd want to eat my committee or faint during the defense. Just avoid that food becomes a worry (right) before your defense. Oh, and of course, don't drink yourself into stupor the night before, thinking that it might help you relax.

9. Get enough sleep

Zzzzzzs are good for your brain, so try to relax the afternoon and evening before your defense. I tend to get nervous and unable to sleep before big events, but I did all my magic tricks to make sure I'd sleep well the night before my defense (I washed my hair -for some reason I sleep better with wet hair and believe that fresh hair brings me good luck (don't ask)-, I spent some time reading a novel on my bed with my husband and cat by my side, I had everything packed up and ready for the next day,...) and I actually really slept very well and woke up feeling rested and refreshed (and nervous, of course).

10. Enjoy your big day

You're only defending once in your life, so enjoy it. Most likely, all your friends and family will be coming out to see the event and then celebrate with you - so except for big birthday bashes and weddings, you don't often get the chance to get all your loved ones together. You're going to be in the center of attention for a day, so bask in the light!

These are my best tips for the PhD defense. What worked well for you? Let me know in the comments below!

One Week until The Best Way to a Successful PhD!

Before Arjenne's webinar, I wrote about her new course, which will start soon, "The Best Way to a Successful PhD"

Do you want to finish your thesis successfully and in time? Make sure you join ‘The best way to a successful PhD!’, starting April 10th.

Here is a glimpse of what you can expect:

- your writing process as efficient and effective as possible

- clear steps to deal with your literature

- tools to stay motivated

- a daily, weekly and PhD planning that will actually support you

- ways to get the right kind of feedback from your supervisors

- tips on communication to achieve your goals

And that is just the beginning…

In 50 days you will learn everything you need to know to become a successful academic. To good to be true? Not in this case. Previous participants have reported back about the amazing results they got. In this program, you’ll learn

•Exactly those skills to finish your PhD successfully and in time
•No more no less -> that’s the benefit of my experience
•Work with the materials at times that suit you (because the program is online)
•Weekly accountability (to keep you on track)
•Weekly webinar and Q&A session (so you can ask everything you need to know)

Check it out here and make sure you join in time. The course starts next week, April 10th.

Note: I'm using an affiliate link in this post.

The Best Way to a Successful PhD

Arjenne Louter, better known as The Dutch PhD Coach, is starting a new course titled, "The Best Way to a Successful PhD".

Before the course, there will be a free webinar on March 27th (you ALL should attend this, my dear PhD student-readers!), and then the course will be from April 10th to June 5th.

Let's first look at the contents of the webinar!
If you want to learn:
• Why some PhD students do and others don't finish in time
• The 3 biggest mistakes PhD students make
• The exact steps you need to take to make sure YOU finish successfully and in time
then join March 27th for the free webinar; you can click to subscribe. And... special bonuses for everyone who joins!

This webinar is conducted by Arjenne Louter, the Dutch PhD coach. She has 20+ years experience in teaching and researching academic skills and helped hundreds of PhD students to finish their thesis successfully and in time.

So, given that the webinar is free - why wait? Just go ahead and subscribe!

Then, there is the excellent course. I've had a chance to review the material of this course, and I'd like to recommend this course for students in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year of a 4 year PhD program. The material of this course is of high quality, and consists of teleseminars, reading assignments, videos, forum discussions, and more - a wide variety of (visually) engaging material that won't feel like a chore when you work through it during your evenings.

What I like most about the course is that it deals with both the technical aspects of doing research (such as planning, writing, delving through the literature and more), the soft skills involved (dealing with your supervisor(s), negotiation techniques,...) and the energy work that is related to doing a PhD (staying healthy and happy, keeping your spirits high). In those terms, Arjenne's approach is fully in line with the academic lifestyle that I promote, which is based on hard work during a limited number of hours, and then plenty of time to refresh and replenish, to keep your creative side happy and energized.

If you feel like you're stuck in a rut with your PhD, or if you are just starting in your PhD program and you could use some training to sharpen your research skills, I cordially recommend you check out the course on The Best Way to a Successful PhD (you can thank me later for this recommendation - this course is similar to a course I took in the 2nd year of my PhD and which I credit to a good part of the success I had in my program, and which helped me to learn more about myself, my working styles and my necessities and limitations).