When you are starting your PhD, you may experience quite some emotions: happiness at the start of your new endeavours, overwhelm because of the large amount of new information, or perhaps confusion about your role and the requirements.
There are many great resources out there for new PhD candidates, with excellent tips on how to set yourself up for success.
In planning, we often talk about having a “to do” and “stop doing” (or “don’t do”) list – and both are equally important for identifying what needs to be done and when.
Similarly, at the beginning of the PhD, it is important to consider what not to do as a new doctoral student. In this post, I have compiled 12 ideas on what not to do as a new doctoral student.
What not to do
So, what should you avoid doing as a new PhD student? In this list, I give you 12 ideas:
Focus too much on education
If you are taking courses in the PhD program, a part of your time will be taken up by the education component of the doctoral journey. It is important to know from the outset which percentage of your time you are expected to spend on education on your doctoral journey (25%? 15%? 30%?) and make sure you are not spending all your time on your courses to polish your projects and get the perfect grade, but neglect your research along the way.
Delve into research without reading
Getting started in the lab quickly is a good practice, but don’t skip the reading. You will need to read deeply and broadly to be able to fit your research within the literature, to identify the gap in the literature, to align your research questions to this gap, and to (later on) discuss the novelty and relevance of your work.
Work without a plan
For a long-term project such as a PhD, you will need a plan. You need an overall plan for your doctoral years, and you need to gradually narrow down this plan to a yearly, semestral, monthly, weekly and daily plan. Having a plan helps you to keep the main objectives and milestones in mind, and helps you focus on the most important aspects.
Isolate yourself
Research is a collaborative effort. You may feel that you have so much work to do and so little time that you decide to put your nose down and just do the work. It is important to get to know your cohort, your colleagues, and to keep in touch with your friends and family. Trust me, if you feel lonely and miserable, you will not be able to do your best work.
Ignore your location
Most PhD students move to a new town and a new university for their doctoral years. If that is the case for you, make sure you take the time to explore where you will be living for the next years. Explore your new town, your new country, and your new university. Take the time to familiarise yourself with the procedures of the university, the library, the support facilities, and everything you will need in the subsequent years.
Let your supervisor decide everything
During the PhD, you are driving the car of your research, and you will be driving that car over the finish line. If you take a passive approach and let your supervisor decide everything, it will become difficult to take ownership of your project. Make sure you come up with thoughts, ideas, and suggestions based on a thorough analysis and your reading from the beginning, as well as your planning to show how you intend to complete your tasks.
Skip supervision meetings
Too busy to meet with your supervisor? You may want to skip supervision meetings because you want to keep working, or because you are afraid you have not made sufficient progress. Nevertheless, skipping supervision meetings is generally not a good idea.
If you are going through a rough patch in your research, open up to your supervisor and inform them about your struggles. If you are fully engrossed in working on something, show your intended approach and intermediate results to check if you are on track or to see if your supervisor has any improvement suggestions.
Reject opportunities
First and foremost, we have to keep an eye on overwork in academia. At the same time, when you get the chance to build up additional skills, I think a direct rejection of the opportunity may not be in your best interest. So, if you get the chance to give a guest lecture, to present at an industry event, or review a paper, I invite you to have a good look at your schedule and plan to see if you could fit it in.
Misunderstand the requirements
We do not talk about the doctoral requirements and the expectations of supervision teams enough, and this silence can lead to confusion or a waste of time for the PhD candidate. Make sure from the beginning of your program that you know very well what is expected of you, and what the requirements for graduation will look like. It is not too early at the beginning of your PhD to see if your thesis will be a monograph or if you will graduate by publications. From the other side, as a supervisor, this onboarding checklist contains what I feel that I need to discuss with a new PhD candidate.
Assume you should know everything
Don’t be afraid to ask for help or clarifications. Yes, you may be very well-prepared by your master’s degree, but you are a novice researcher as a doctoral candidate, so it is not reasonable to think you should already know everything. If something is unclear, if you have doubts about selection of methodology, or if you need a tutorial on a machine, speak up and ask your colleagues or supervisor for help.
Get sidetracked
Avoid the sidequests. Always return to your main research question and subquestions, and know when to put an end to a certain rabbit hole. Every part of your research could go on and on with additional calculations, simulations, experiments, and more, but part of your research is knowing when you have done enough to round off a part of your work.
Neglect yourself
My last advice and most important one is to take good care of yourself and your “self”. Eat well, rest, and do what nourishes you and your soul. Take care of your health – both in the mental and physical sense. Lead a balanced life that allows you to balance your research work with your personal life.
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