Grad School Resolutions

[poco_puffs]

I never really made any New Year's Resolutions at, well, New Years. In fact, I haven't for years. I never saw the difference between one year and the last, and I'm not one for supposedly big but really arbitrarily-timed life changes.

Grad school, though. Hoo-boy. This really is a whole new world, and my life is changing a lot from years of undergrad and a food service/cocktailing job. So I've been working on a sort of list in the back of my mind, and I'm calling it my Grad School Resolutions. Things are going to be substantially different for me, and I really WILL be turning a new leaf in a new city at a new school around new people (as opposed to just a new month when I sign checks). This definitely calls for some conscious effort to remedy some bad habits that won't be getting me anywhere in grad school.

Mine include:

1. Actually finishing reading assignments, or at least completing 75% of them instead of just 50%.

2. Saying "Yes" to invitations to happy hours, hang-outs, study-sessions, and lunches, instead of just running off by myself.

3. Listening more in class, and not raising my hand to contribute on every possible thread of discussion (probably my worst school habit of all time).

4. No more negativity about ANYONE. Too many awkward moments have resulted when I accidentally insulted someones friend, relative, or significant other with some off-handed remark. I'd like to avoid that sort of faux pas when I am getting to know a whole school of people.

So, I'm curious if anyone else is gearing up for some self-administered habit/outlook changes as well? Is this the time for it?

[dithius_9]

I'll just add my 2 cents.

1. Good luck, I commend you for your effort. Doing 75% would really be spectacular, and is honestly about the maximum anyone could be expected to do with a heavy reading load. I think I finished around 60% last semester and I was very proud of myself.

2. My take on #2 is that I do also feel the need to remain chummy with my colleagues (keep tabs on the gossip, assert your presence as a community member, get advice about doing academic-ish things), and this does mandate things like happy hours. For me, this is mostly a survival mechanism (though there are a lot of cool, fun people in my department). We are simply each other's competition, and I get stressed out by posturing and such within the department (yes, it even manages to infiltrate casual social events in very subtle ways). For this reason, I generally seek out interesting, friendly people from unrelated departments to hang out with whenever possible. I learned a lot about theoretical topologies last year from a math student, while not once having to stress about whether she had a better fellowship than me.

3. I've more or less muzzled myself since my first year. In seminars, I get my obligatory share of comments in to demonstrate active participation, and then sit back and let the egos in the room bruise each other up. Now I try to save all of my "blurting out" for written assignments, where is belongs.

4. Yes, passing/generating negative gossip (especially about other students) is a huge liability in a grad program. Although, I haven't met anyone able to resist doing it on occasion. I think faculty are generally a safe target for venting. I mean honestly, they are the weirdest people in the world .

I would ad a 5th "resolution" for myself, though this is one I made last year, one whose realization I am still working towards.

5. Graduating and getting a job is my priority. Anything which gets in the way of that objective must be avoided. Grad school is no place for me to hang about -- get in and get out!

[rachaelski]

I like this thread!

1. Submit and present at 3 or more research conferences this year.

2. Submit and attempt to get an article published.

3. Keep to my schedule, and do not wait until a week before a paper is due to start it!

4. Have fun!

[coyabean]

I love this board! So many like minds. I actually have such a list in my journal. It includes:

1. Keep the end game in mind at all times.

This is about having a meta-value that orders my priorities. If I know that the end game is to be a proficient, useful scholar with work of which I am proud? Then all of my other priorities line themselves up accordingly. If something competes with that then it should be excised and avoided.

2. Remember that my dissert doesn't have to change the world; it need only pass inspection.

3. Honor my process.

I can really punish myself by constantly worrying about getting things done, excelling, etc. But when I'm being rational I realize that I almost get things done and I usually do them well. I have to respect my writing and learning process and enjoy the lulls that invariably happen between my moments of hyper-productivity.

4. Respect differences of opinion and perspective but do not let anyone marginalize me or my work.

Never. Again.

5. And on a more personal note I want to keep an eye on my budget. My last year and a half have been bohemian and I've taken a break from being as responsible as I used to be in my "before life". While I don't want to go back to being OCD about every little thing I do realize that this is real life time. I need to keep an eye on money, debt, planning, etc.

[artist_lily]

Love this thread! Good call on starting it, poco_puffs.

I think I'm going to steal a couple of yours to add onto:

1. Try to complete at least 75% of the assigned reading. (Can I be completely honest and say that it makes me feel a LOT better that this is one of your -- that is, poco_puff's -- goals, too? I recently read in a graduate student guide something to the effect of that if you ever, ever skimped on a reading assignment in undergrad, you should not be considering grad school in the humanities. That sent me for a nosedive -- sometimes doing it all really ISN'T humanly possible. I'm relieved to hear that I'm not the only literature student who occasionally finds it hard to keep up!)

2. Attend as many happy hours, study sessions, lunch hang-outs, and department socials as I'm lucky enough to garner an invite to. I have a tendency to recede into myself, and I'm hoping that I can avoid that this year (the coming six years?).

3. Like coyabean, I want to focus on the end-goal, rather than letting trivial concerns like departmental politics, intracohort gossip, and external negative voices interfere with my work. I don't want to have a one-track only mind, but really, what am I there for? And what am I doing?

4. Remember that I deserve to be in the program and that no matter how inferior I personally think my work is, it's been validated by several scholars whom I truly respect and whom I strive to emulate. Because if anything's going to kill me this coming year, it's the self-confidence thing... I've never had very much of it, and it's hard to imagine it improving (or even staying level) when I consider the mighty talent by which I'm going to be surrounded.

Whew! Now to copy these down and post them in a place where I won't forget them come the first day of orientation...

[poco_puffs]

1. Try to complete at least 75% of the assigned reading. (Can I be completely honest and say that it makes me feel a LOT better that this is one of your -- that is, poco_puff's -- goals, too? I recently read in a graduate student guide something to the effect of that if you ever, ever skimped on a reading assignment in undergrad, you should not be considering grad school in the humanities. That sent me for a nosedive -- sometimes doing it all really ISN'T humanly possible. I'm relieved to hear that I'm not the only literature student who occasionally finds it hard to keep up!)

I went from being a VERY lazy student in high school (Probably only read a page of every assigned reading, and less than 10% of my homework was turned in on time) to being a selectively-lazy student as an undergrad (Read about 90% of narrative stuff, and sometimes nothing of the theory or history, depending on the class; went to almost every class and always got my homework turned in on time, though). Just that sort of improvement meant that my grades went from Cs and Ds in high school to mostly As in college. I figured out a formula for success in my English and History classes, and part of that formula was making sure I was at least working harder than all the non-majors and less serious people in the class. (Edit: It sounds terrible, and I'm not proud of it, but it kept me going through school long enough that when I had the turnaround and started busting ass, it all worked out.)

Someone, I don't remember who, made the very excellent point that grad school is going to be full of people who were *chosen* to be there. That includes us, now that we're admitted, but it also includes all the other people that worked very hard to get in to these programs. I'm preparing myself for a serious attitude adjustment. I know that I will need to buckle down and do as much of the reading as humanly possible so that I can

a. )really get every last drop of academic goodness out of grad school, with hopes of eventually landing a job or making a name for myself, and

b.) not get a rude awakening of embarrassment and/or some professor chastising me for my work ethic.

I do think that not having a job outside of the university is going to allow me some good chunks of time to just sit and read and annotate my little heart out. Gotta make it a habit!

3. Like coyabean, I want to focus on the end-goal, rather than letting trivial concerns like departmental politics, intracohort gossip, and external negative voices interfere with my work. I don't want to have a one-track only mind, but really, what am I there for? And what am I doing?

What coyabean and you have said really rings true. I've been looking down the long road for a few years now, and even now I have a decent and what seems like a fairly realistic perspective of what might be going on after I get my degree. I *do* see the possibility of getting bogged down and distracted by the trivials, or by anxiety about individual classes and papers, and that worries me a bit.

I thought about making myself an academic version of a WWJD bracelet, but I can't come up with a catchy acronym that encompasses an entire thread's worth of goals and reminders.

Edited July 26, 2010 by poco_puffs

[fuzzylogician]

I've found I need to do somewhat of the opposite of what a lot of the people here have said:

1. (selectively) do less!

This year I've learned to be happy with doing significantly-less-than-perfect work on homework assignments and readings. I regret not being able to put my all into everything I do, but experience has taught me that that drives me very close to sleep-deprived insanity, and that's just not going to be good for anyone. I've learned that I can make a good impression on my professors by investing in a handful of projects and publishable papers, and not so much in weekly assignments. I've also had professors tell me that they know there is too much assigned reading and no one really expects people to read everything. [i have to admit that I've never been very good at doing extensive reading in areas I care less about, so I was relieved to hear that]. I've also learned to accept that my published papers aren't going to be perfect; I've accepted that I'm never going to be completely happy with what I write [a character flaw, I suppose]. I'm now happy with simply thinking that the analysis I present is at least the most plausible I could come up with at the time, if not totally correct....what are follow-up publications for, if not to build on previous analyses with more data and new ideas?

2. learn to say 'no'.

This summer, my RAship which was supposed to produce just one experiment has been enlarged so that I am responsible for 3, possibly 4 experiments. The pay didn't increase.. Now, I believe I could turn some of these experiments into one of my two required Generals papers, and certainly they will all produce publications, so I've been happy to volunteer for some of these tasks. But I'm starting to feel like I'm not going to get much more out of this project if I keep racking up responsibilities, so my job for the summer is to keep telling myself "just say no." It's incredibly hard for me to do, I feel like I'm letting people down, but I think I need to start learning how to do that. Over the weekend a prof who I RAed for 2 years ago ask me to read a paper he wrote and comment on it--which is flattering, and I want to maintain my old connections--but I honestly don't have the time to do it. Maybe that will be my first 'no'!

3. do more non-academic things.

I've been steadily keeping my eyes on the prize all this year. Now I feel like if I don't make some non-linguist friends and get very drunk once in a while [or, ya know, just go out and have non-alcoholic fun], I'll go crazy. I also think a new relationship could be a nice addition to my life now. Non-academic activities will take away from the time I have to invest in my work, but I feel like they will help me unwind so that the time I do invest in my work will be more productive. Maybe it's also time to explore more of my surroundings, I've been living in a new country/city for a year now but I don't know nearly enough about it as I should. Anyway, having just one focus in my life is starting to become unhealthy, even if it is advancing my chosen career.

ETA: reading my post again, 1-3 are probably just all variations of "relax, don't stress so much." But breaking it down to bits and pieces just now is the first time I noticed it. Thanks, poco_puffs, for opening this thread!

Edited July 27, 2010 by fuzzylogician

[Riotbeard]

1. Have a good social life!

2. Finally get my poorhouse paper published (and some more hopefully)

3. Don't take back up smoking 2 packs a day

4. Keep my apartment clean and studies organized. Approach my work more professionally but keep my interactions casual. Don't try to outshine people, and judge my work against my own perceived potential.

5. Loose the ten pounds I have gained since college, the past year(This should be easy, I don't eat when I am stressed.)

That's about it...

[chickadee21]

1. Read, read, read.

2. Exercise regularly (not easy I know with being overwhelmed with work, but I know it's important to keep it up)

3. Learn how to really cook - I don't want to spend the next 5 years on a diet of eggs, chicken noodle soup, and bagels...

4. Practice public speaking more - I always shied away from giving presentations in college, but I really need to improve my public speaking if I ever hope to become a professor.

5. Write outlines before I start a paper - I never wrote outlines in college.

[Slorg]

1. Connect with my department

2. Stay connected with the world

3. Don't be insecure

4. Learn stuff

[timuralp]

1. (selectively) do less!

This is what I had to learn. According to my advisor B+ is the optimal grade, unless it's one of the courses in my area, so if you're doing research, this may be useful advice.

[RNadine21]

Oh man this is seriously necessary for me...

1. Learn to work on my desk and not on my bed or couch. It's worked out fine in the past but between my own work and TA work I think I'll need a clear distinction between work space and sleep/getting it on space.

2. Shove myself out of my shy state. I'm going to a new city where I can start over and just be me. This will also help me get along with my cohort since my initial shyness tends to come off as snobby.

3. Work out regularly so I can be more healthy, lose all the weight I gained in college, and ward off stress.

4. Stay in touch with my college friends for support/to keep my friendships going, but don't let them get in the way of making new friends.

5. Actually read the textbook, or at least go over my notes on a regular basis so I'm not cramming later.

6. Carry myself with authority, especially in my labs. I'm there for a reason, someone believed I am fit to be in this program so I should believe in myself too.

[artist_lily]

I thought about making myself an academic version of a WWJD bracelet, but I can't come up with a catchy acronym that encompasses an entire thread's worth of goals and reminders.

Haha! Love this idea -- if you come up with something, make sure to let us here on GradCafe know; a WWJD-type "reminder" bracelet for grad school is DEFINITELY something I could get behind. As it is, I've got notes-to-self galore, but I'm sure nothing -- nothing! -- will stick once I'm (to borrow a Sedaris phrase) "engulfed in [grad school's] flames"

[Halfpasser11]

Oh man this is seriously necessary for me...

1. Learn to work on my desk and not on my bed or couch. It's worked out fine in the past but between my own work and TA work I think I'll need a clear distinction between work space and sleep/getting it on space.

Ah hahaha! I love the way you put that. It couldn't be more true for me as well Robin N. I am most comfortable in my bed but I end up falling asleep instead of working. But no more!

1. The best advice that I got as an undergrad was "Keep your head down and do your work, everything else will take care of it self and you will excel." I plan on doing just that.

2. Actually try and make friends. I am like some of you guys and I have a hard time coming out of my shell, but moving to a new city where I will not know anyone will be hard the first couple weeks if I don't have any friends.

3. Don't overload myself with work. I am prone to do this. My undergrad advisor told me that the mark of a good grad student is someone who always has *just* a little too much on their plate. I don't like that, so I'm going to try and keep everything managable.

I love this thread, great ideas from everyone! I know I will be putting some of these on my wall in my office to stay motivated.

[UnlikelyGrad]

3. Listening more in class, and not raising my hand to contribute on every possible thread of discussion (probably my worst school habit of all time).

I'm glad there are more of me out there! Yes, I like to joke that I am the original Hermione Granger--at age 11 I was a bushy-haired, buck-toothed girl who was constantly waving her hand in the air. I learned to tame my hair somewhat, braces helped with the buck teeth, but by golly, I came to grad school with the waving-hand habit still firmly entrenched. I'd tried to stop it in the past, unsuccessfully. So I made a new goal: to count to 30 before answering a question. This gives other people a chance to answer first.

Here are my goals for this year:

(1) Exercise more. I think better after I exercise. Also, I've been exercising so much less since going to grad school that I put on 10+ pounds in my first year. Bleah.

(2) Read at least 10 scholarly papers a week, and submit one of my own. My methodology development is coming along nicely, and I actually have some results...just need to smooth out the wrinkles. I've already started writing the introduction section.

(3) Come up with one question to ask at every seminar (colloquium) I attend. I know a senior grad student who does this and he seems to understand everything better. I guess he has to listen more carefully in order to come up with a question.

Of course I have longer-term goals as well, but I keep those quiet.

[coyabean]

Haha! Love this idea -- if you come up with something, make sure to let us here on GradCafe know; a WWJD-type "reminder" bracelet for grad school is DEFINITELY something I could get behind. As it is, I've got notes-to-self galore, but I'm sure nothing -- nothing! -- will stick once I'm (to borrow a Sedaris phrase) "engulfed in [grad school's] flames"

You guys laugh and I do too but I seriously want some kind of talisman like this! A friend gave me one of those stretchy bracelets with all the catholic saints images on them. I'm thinking of rechristening each with something grad school related and wearing it.

[artist_lily]

You guys laugh and I do too but I seriously want some kind of talisman like this! A friend gave me one of those stretchy bracelets with all the catholic saints images on them. I'm thinking of rechristening each with something grad school related and wearing it.

AWESOME. As a life-long practicing Catholic, I do think Mother Mary would approve -- this is our FUTURE, after all!

[poco_puffs]

On 7/26/2010 at 9:57 PM, chickadee21 said:

3. Learn how to really cook - I don't want to spend the next 5 years on a diet of eggs, chicken noodle soup, and bagels...

I've been doing this for the last year or so. I actively invested in a full spice cupboard, where I bought a new spice every time I went to the store until I ran out of new ones (except cardamom and saffron, which run about 10$ for a normal sized container, yikes!). I'm working on building up my tupperware-type collection as well. My reasoning is this:

I figure I'm going to be spending a LOT of time on campus, especially if I can't create a really good work space in my own apartment. Rather than spend 3$-10$ every day for lunch, and even more for snacks, I'm going to go grade school retro and start bringing my lunch to campus to save money. It will probably be somewhat healthier, as well. I've been learning how to make endless variations of noodles, couscous, and other grains/starches mixed with cooked veggies, beans, lentils, tofu, chicken etc. It's a SLOW process, and I haven't mastered everything, but I hope to save a lot of money by bringing tupperware containers of tasty, healthy, filling whatever to school to reheat at my department.

My tips on the long road toward self-sufficient cooking:

- Either invest in a simple, basic-stuff cookbook OR keep your laptop open to about.com, which has step-by-step instructions and even videos on how to do stuff like fry an egg.

- Check out recipezaar.com, which is a search engine site filled with user-submitted recipes. It's gigantic, and always good for ideas or guidance. Lots of nutrition-specific stuff (for gluten-free, diabetic, whatnot) and food from ALL over the world. It's truly amazing, and completely free to use.

- Start building up your spice rack. If you ever get bored with the basic chicken noodle soup, you can always add some garlic and paprika! Or cumin and turmeric! Or ginger and sesame oil!

- Every time you go to the grocery store, try buying one type of vegetable or meat or anything that you've never tried to cook before. Then take it home, look up the recipes, and give it a shot. Beets weren't a huge success for me, but I discovered how easy asparagus is. Plantains, though, damn. They are my new obsession.

- If you are at someones house and they've cooked something delicious, ask them about it.

I think tasty food is a big quality of life issue, and I hear ya on the bagels and soup thing. We're all going to be on budgets for the next few years, and eating out every time we need delicious comfort food won't necessarily be an option anymore

[UnlikelyGrad]

On 7/27/2010 at 12:00 PM, poco_puffs said:

Rather than spend 3$-10$ every day for lunch, and even more for snacks, I'm going to go grade school retro and start bringing my lunch to campus to save money. It will probably be somewhat healthier, as well. I've been learning how to make endless variations of noodles, couscous, and other grains/starches mixed with cooked veggies, beans, lentils, tofu, chicken etc. It's a SLOW process, and I haven't mastered everything, but I hope to save a lot of money by bringing tupperware containers of tasty, healthy, filling whatever to school to reheat at my department.

I agree, but don't do what my mom did when I was in grade school and pack the same thing every day.

I like to make things that freeze well--I make in big batches and pull out whatever tickles my fancy for lunch. Vegetable soup plus rolls (I admit to getting the latter off the bargain rack, though I also freeze them), quiche (eggs are really cheap here--I use them as a meat substitute all the time), stir-fry w/ assorted veggies, crepes with various fillings, burritos...

I do the same thing for dinners as well. Beats having to cook every day; some days I just come home exhausted.

[zilch]

1) graduate on time. or graduate close to the average amount of time it takes to finish.

as for the bracelet. how about What Would Jorge Cham (of PhD comics) Do?

[alexan]

Glad to see I'm not the only socially awkward person here . So I'm thinking I should:

1) Learn how to socialize and make friends. I tend to head straight home from work and not have much of a social life. I see the same ~20 people nearly every day. When grad school starts I will try to be available for networking opportunities, academic or social.

2) Brush up on my presentation skills. The thought of a PowerPoint in front of a group of more than 2 sends me rocking back and forth in a fetal position. I grew up in a lot of areas therefore my accent is rather weird, this makes me avoid public speaking because I'm not sure if I'm being understood and simply dread the "so, where are you from? I cant quite pinpoint your accent"

3) Start and keep some semblance of organization. clutter-free workspace, make and abide by to do lists, do assignments on time & create and maintain a budget

[Jess77]

Haha, I really like this thread! As for me, well...

1.) Don't pull anymore all-nighters. Graduating a year ahead of time was not smart. I realize that I can't go walking around like a zombie anymore and pump out four papers beforehand and be thankful enough to have a lab that has a full size couch in it...and a professor who didn't mind that we used his lab as a second home, lol.

2.) I like the whole, "do less" thing. I was so anal before..I'm trying to relax a little bit more.

3.) Be more organized!!

4.) Publish a lot and network. I flat out told my advisor, I want to publish and go to conferences asap, even if I'm third author.

5.) Realize that the diss is just a diss and not try to make a mountain out of an anthole. It's important but not the end all be all.

6.) Enjoy the time. What better way, besides being a professor, to get paid to go do something you love?

[suspechosa]

This is a great thread!

1. Try to exude confidence/ stop being so dang shy.

2. Publish/present.

3. Stop comparing myself to others.

4. Read one article a day (M-F)

5. Try to have healthy balance between school work and home (time with my SO, pleasure reads, etc).

6. Exercise most days of the week.

7. Keep my stress levels low.

8. Keep my eye on the prize.

[VictorianTess]

1. Exercise at least twice a week.

2. Get reading done at least a day in advance, so that I'm not cramming right before class.

3. Keep my house presentable (i.e. the places that guests would see need to stay clean, the bedroom and the office may be messy at times).

4. Keep in contact with family and some friends from home. I'm ridiculously bad at this, and now I'm in a different state.

5. Go to two conferences a semester and network while I'm there.

6. Try to get one article published per year.

7. Stay on top of my own research instead of just focussing on classes.

To those who are introverted and/or shy:

As one of the earlier posters said, go to happy hour, even if you don't drink. At my previous job, I learned that happy hour is how you get to know people and helps you make friends. Yes, there's lots of gossip and bitching, but that's because people are relaxing (usually). Make sure that you don't go beyond a slight buzz and be friendly.

Also, a few people have mentioned being awkward. I think most of us here are to some degree. After all, we are pretty much all nerds, whether or not we are willing to embrace it. Even though I'm very outgoing and make friends easily, I'm terribly awkward from time to time.

[poco_puffs]

3. Keep my house presentable (i.e. the places that guests would see need to stay clean, the bedroom and the office may be messy at times).

Yeah, that's a part of my plan as well. My SO and I are moving into a place about twice as big as the one we're in now, and we're hoping we don't accumulate twice the mess. In the year that I've taken off school, my housekeeping skills have improved dramatically, but I'm worried that being a full-time grad student and TA (along with my guy now working a full-time job) will mean bad things for keeping our place presentable.

I'm wondering if, with all of this departmental socializing, if I'll ever be having people over to my place. I'm happy it's not terribly close to campus, which means fewer people would be randomly dropping by, but I still want to be prepared to host some people for cocktails and a potluck here and there.

I like your list in general-- a lot of it seems like stuff I've been mulling over but never really able to articulate