Happy Monday Guys!
How was your weekend?
Mine wasn’t too shabby. The weather was beautiful so I treated myself to a ‘Love It’ sized cup of Coldstone’s ‘That’s How I Roll’ while sitting outside and working on my dissertation. I hadn’t been to one since college and I forgot how much I love their ice cream. I was able to get my sweet tooth satisfied (if only temporarily, because it’s never truly satisfied) and get some work done. Win, win.
Now onto today’s post. I’m excited to get into this one because it’s such an important topic for anyone who’s a) currently in grad school, b) getting ready to start grad school, or c) seriously considering grad school.
Today I’m talking about how to set boundaries with your time as a grad student. Oh yeah, I can already hear the sighs.
Now this can be quite the controversial topic. I mean, are grad students even allowed to have time boundaries??
The answer is an emphatic hell yeah! It’s critical to our success, survival, and sanity.
Grad school can be a whirlwind. You find yourself in a new environment, surrounded by a lot of “interesting” people, and learning a lot of new things in a relatively short period of time.
There always seems to be something going on whether it’s a workshop, a journal club series, or a special guest lecture. In the excitement of it all there may be an urge to sign up for every activity and/or opportunity that comes your way. I’m here to say resist. that. urge.
While it may seem like a good idea, it’s not. I’ll tell you why in a second.
So how do you go about resisting that devilish urge? By being goal-oriented. You came to graduate school for a reason, probably several to be honest. What are they?
Besides getting the degree you may want to:
Get a certain number of publications
Publish in a certain journal
Present at a certain number of conferences
Present at a specific conference
Be the instructor of record for a particular course
Collaborate with certain people on research projects
Whatever it is that you’d like to accomplish in grad school, make a list and keep the list somewhere visible.
With this list you now have a way to evaluate every opportunity that’s presented to you. If you’re unable to match an activity/opportunity to at least one item on your list, then you should probably pass. Here’s why.
Your time is precious. Any time that you allocate to miscellaneous activities is time that you’re not spending on activities that could help you accomplish one of the goals on your list.
If someone asks if you want to work with them on research, think about whether it would lead to a conference presentation and/or a publication. What role do they expect you to serve, how much time will it require, what are their publication intentions, and if they plan to publish, will you be a co-author?
Also think about who the request has come from? If it’s a request that you don’t want to say yes to, but it’s coming from someone who you’d like to collaborate with, then don’t be so quick to say no. Think about whether participating now could lay the ground work for a collaboration with that person in the future.
In saying all of this, I’m not suggesting that you can’t be good-natured and engage in some activities for purely altruistic reasons. In fact I highly encourage this because you want to be seen as a team player. However, even with these activities you need to set some limits early on. Decide how many of these types of activities you want to accommodate on your calendar so you can avoid saying yes to too many things. If you give yourself room to do three of these types of activities in a semester, then when the 4th opportunity comes knocking it’s much easier to identify it as a “no.”
Using myself as an example, when I entered my PhD program I was very clear that I did not want to teach. I enjoy doing research so my primary focus was and has been on gaining more research experience. This meant that when teaching opportunities arose I passed on them to make sure that I was available for research opportunities.
Teaching takes a lot of time. Developing lectures, holding office hours/responding to students’ needs & inquiries, and grading assignments are all incredibly time consuming. Had I committed myself to teaching I wouldn’t have had as much time to participate in research, and I likely would have wound up feeling frustrated in the process.
This approach of leaving myself open for research projects ended up working quite well. Since starting my program I’ve worked on multiple NIH-funded research projects for research that has been/is being presented at conferences and submitted for publications, and I’m listed as a co-author.
However, I do make room on my calendar for other activities. I’ve done guest lectures for a faculty member who I regularly do research with, I say yes when faculty ask me to speak to PhD program applicants who are interested in alternative academic careers, and I’ve collaborated on research projects that are unrelated to my own research interests.
It’s a balancing act. You want to make sure that you’re prioritizing the goals that you have, while making sure that your relationships with peers and faculty aren’t one-sided. No one wants to feel short-changed. I don’t view engaging in these activities as separate from achieving my own goals though because they all work together. These individuals could bring opportunities that do explicitly relate to my goals, so by helping them, they’ll be more willing to help me.
So that’s how I decide what activities I choose to participate in. I deserve to get what I want out of my grad school experience as do you. It’s all about being strategic and intentional with your choices.
So remember, for any activity that doesn’t help you accomplish your grad school goals, much like drugs and anything related to the Kardashians, just say no.
Are there any strategies or tips that you all use to budget your time in grad school? Let me know in the comments!
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