Tip for Grad Students
Find something you can complete. That you can see completed.
So much of academic graduate school is just a never ending list of writing, reading, and edits. It can feel like you’ve never actually accomplished anything, when really, your subconscious is getting so damn smart.
But sometimes it can really be hard to see anything as an accomplishment.
It also can feel really hard to find the time and energy to do anything outside of work and school. So much of you is spent trying to accomplish the never-ending lists. So make sure whatever you find to complete gives you some joy.
My “I completed this” is making dinner or dessert. Its something I need to spend time on anyways, so I add an extra hour to it so I can really go through the motions.
During D&D last night, I baked strawberry shortcake (we play via video chat). It, one, served to mellow my restlessness whenever I get anxiety because why am I doing anything other than schoolwork, and, two, was something that at the end had a reward. A tangible reward. It was something that I had set out to complete and managed to do it, unlike the dataset cleaning that I know is still going to need work when we finally run regressions with it. The baked good has no extra steps afterward, except to enjoy.
I know some of my peers like to do crafts and play video games (as do I) for similar reasons.
You might have to experiment. I love crafts and video games, but the completeness do not come quickly enough. You need to find just one thing that works for you. I know someone else who has a baseball podcast. He’s been doing it for years now. I have no doubt that in the never-ending stress of graduate school, he, in his 5th year, has kept with the podcast, at least in part because it is something he can complete much more quickly than that dissertation he’s working on.
So that’s my one tip. Experiment. Find that thing that you can complete on a semi-regular basis to remind yourself that you are making progress. Sometimes we all just need some tangible evidence.
