Preparing for your first PhD semester

I was recently talking to an incoming freshman PhD student and she asked me tips on how to prepare for her first semester. This got me thinking what I wish someone told me prior to starting my PhD journey.

Actually, I think I was ready to a certain extent, as I was 35 years old when I matriculated into my PhD in Public Health (concentration in Epidemiology) program at UNTHSC. I had in me the maturity and wisdom to know that the PhD is not a sprint but a marathon, and that I knew I had to be focused, disciplined, and organized if I want to graduate within the prescribed time (and allotted funding, of course).

I have read and heard many horror stories of PhD students not finishing/completing their degree. Most stories I've heard of dropping out were due to their burn out or mental health suffering in grad school. As an incoming third year student, I've encountered these feelings but not because of grad school per se, rather because of culture shock. 

For my graduate studies, I've lived in Australia and the United States and studied under scholarships. It wasn't the curriculum or workload of both degrees, master's and PhD, that made me depressed or emotionally incapacitated or burned out. It was being in a foreign land, alone (especially in the US), speaking a language that made me communicate and express myself less (despite being proficient in English), and overwhelmed by the feeling of inferiority. This was what culture shock did to me. Fortunately, it was just a phase. It came around in the fourth month of my residency, both in Oz and the US, and lasted for about three to four months. After which things started to pick up again, and that feeling of inferiority slowly diminished. However, sometimes, I still feel a bit uncomfortable expressing myself as a gnawing feeling of, "your English is not good enough", creeps in. Well, I just need to talk more to people to overcome this.

Anyway, as for tips on preparing for your first PhD semester, based on my experience:

It's all about setting up your environment/surroundings for you to be able to execute your routine work (i.e. studying and doing assignments). You need to get your apartment/room/study area/sleeping area/ bathroom/ kitchen, EVERYTHING, ready to work around your routine. Some activities I do include:

    1. Cleaning my entire apartment - this involves dusting my shelves and tables, sweeping and mopping my floors, organizing my kitchen and bathroom, doing laundry (clothes, bedsheets, rags, rugs, throw pillows, shoes), watering my plants, cleaning my pet rats' enclosures.

    2. Preparing meals - I try to cook as little as possible during weekdays so I do meal preps on weekends. This can give me more time to study and work during weekdays instead of cooking and cleaning up.

    3. I make sure to assign a time slot/schedule to all my activities, including resting, gym, and Netflix times. And I make sure to stick to the schedule - I have a big ass clock that I can easily see as I work. 

It's a visual cue to remind me of what I need to be doing and what I need to do and how much time is left. I normally start preparing my dinner by 6PM, then I stop eating by 7PM. This also helps in my time-restricted intermittent fasting. By 9PM I am already starting my nightly skincare regimen (i.e. brushing teeth, washing face, RLT for 15mins, and tretinoin), and by 10PM I start my shut down routine (i.e. write in my planner what I need to do the next day, review the chapter that will be discussed for the upcoming class). By 11PM I crawl into bed, read a book, and by 12MN it's lights off. Unfortunately, I don't immediately fall asleep, which sucks, but then I try not to do anything and just lay there until I fall asleep around 1 or 2AM. 

    4. Marking important dates on both of my calendars: the hard copy on the fridge, and my Outlook calendar - planning is key. And visualising it on a physical calendar serves as a reminder for me not to procrastinate.

    5. Lastly, on my physical calendar, I cross out the date once I'm done with it - this serves as my 'achievement' board that I was able to go through that day and finished my tasks. On days I'm able to exercise, I cross it out with a green highlight, while the blue highlights mean rest days. 

I also put in here the days I need to do laundry or change my pillowcases and towels and clothes, which is every week. I also put in when I need to water my plants. All these VISUAL CUES serve as reminders for me to complete that task and stay on schedule.

These tips are a product of being in grad school since 2007 (yes, I started my master's in UP in this year). It took me 14 years to EXECUTE all this perfectly. Executing is different from just knowing/learning. I've learned these techniques early on, but knowing what techniques fit me and executing it is a whole different creature altogether. It's a trial-and-error thing wherein I made many mistakes. And through those mistakes, I was able to learn and grow.

It is my hope, that whoever is reading this for the purpose of gaining insight for your PhD journey, that you'd be able find the grad school habits that work for you, and that you'd be consistent in executing them.

Caveat: these tips I'm sharing are based on my experience LIVING ALONE. If you have children or live with your spouse, your schedule would need to accommodate family time, which in turn, may eat up some of  your study time. So, schedule accordingly and STICK WITH YOUR SCHEDULE!

All the best to you and your first semester of PhD!

Until then,