Doing a PhD right: Actionable Insights

This post is a part of the series "Doing a PhD right".

For any embarked challenge, one of the best undertakings is to learn from those who have already come before you. Here I share key lessons learned during my PhD that made measurable impact.

Recording supervisor meetings

In my first year I vigorously took notes during the weekly Zoom meetings between myself and my supervisor. Despite my efforts, I felt that I was not quite recalling all the key points discussed, with gaps in my notes (and memory).

Opting to record every meeting instead was a monumental improvement. It immediately enabled me to extract much more value from our discussions by being able to revisit the talking points as needed.

Furthermore, the recordings doubled as my weekly planner: I simply worked on each topic discussed in turn. My process would be:

• Watch the recording until an actionable step was reached, then pause.
• Work on the step over the coming day(s).
• Return to the recording and continue where I left off, until the next actionable step is reached.
• Repeat process until recording's end.

Lastly, I recommend video recordings over strictly audio ones. Being able to see shared content during the meetings is valuable, such as websites, diagrams, and even just hand-wavings.

Proofreading

Utilise a proofreader, whether a professional or a favour from friends. Great writing influences the reader into subconsciously biasing that the perceived quality of your paper/thesis is of "higher quality". Grammar, spelling, and sentence issues stand out to a reader, and are difficult to catch as an author.

The ultimate proofreader is the 'Submit' button - without fail immediately after submitting your work you'll find a mistake!

Universities often have in-house proofreaders or ones to recommend, and you may be able to utilise your research funds to pay for their services.

Proofreaders are particularly impactful for your final PhD thesis; 150+ pages are guaranteed to house a myriad of mistakes within every chapter. Personally, I instead opted to send my finished thesis to 5 friends, each to focus on designated chapters. Despite my reading through each chapter dozens of times already, each friend promptly identified 5 or more found errors. No thesis will ever be 100% error-free, but too many errors can make a disastrous impact on your thesis examiners' recommendations.

PhD channels and blogs

Personally I gained immense value (and comfort) from following the journey of other PhD students, particularly those who were at the same stage as myself. YouTube has an excellent collection of PhD-related channels, with my favourites being:

• Dr Simon Clark - an excellent series cataloging his journey from beginning to end. The channel covers the high points, low points, the randomness and the challenges that all PhD students will inevitably face.
• Dr Lucy Kissick - a series with a lot of self-reflections and analyses of how to best overcome different challenges and improve the PhD process. I liked this series a lot, and wish there were more episodes.
• The PhD subreddit - not a blog, but an excellent resource to hear of the thoughts, challenges, and ideas from fellow PhD students worldwide. Reading this page highlighted strongly that I was not on this journey alone.

Alas multitudes exist, so best to find ones that resonate with you. Similarly, there are excellent PhD-centered blogs to be found too. Viewing videos and blogs benefits in two ways, providing 1) a sense of camaraderie along the treacherous PhD journey, and 2) a wealth of insights and tips adoptable for yourself.

Learn from other's mistakes

Always be discussing PhD with those around you and genuinely try to take in and listen to their stories. Embedded within is often extractable insights of what you can (or should) do differently, particularly to avoid their own experienced shortfalls.

Additionally, be sure to broaden your discussion circle beyond your supervisor and immediate PhD colleagues and friends, especially to those outside of your discipline or institute. There is a wealth of wisdom acquirable from even the most unexpected sources.

Conclusion

A PhD is hard, so best to find any insights to make it that little bit easier. I hope this post has assisted in that goal.