What’s the news in k-town lately? Well, there is lots and lots of work to do, but not much to report back to you just yet. Sometimes it’s hard to take a pause in the middle of all the busyness to look around and appreciate the chaos that grad students seem to thrive in, so I hope that my short summaries can be a quick look inside what’s going on without having to tell you just exactly what it is I do each and every day. (Sneaky, right?) So far, it feels like I spend hours upon hours taking in new information, but I still need hours and hours to unravel everything and make sense of it. (I’m also told that this will go on for ever and ever as an academic!)
My biggest challenge right now is deciding on a research topic. Truthfully, it’s difficult to pin one down, because a) there are so many interesting directions to take, and b) you need to make sure that it hasn’t already been covered in some way. So no, I don’t have a topic yet, and yes, please do not ask me about it. Ha ha.
So here are my latest thoughts as a followup to part 1.
1. Grades.
You still get them, but the administrative folks will tell you that you’re not here to be graded, therefore grades shouldn’t mean as much as they did in undergrad. After all, you’re here to expand knowledge, not regurgitate it! But, that doesn’t mean you still don’t want to ace the test or coyly compare your grades with your classmates just like you did in undergrad. Who am I kidding? Grades always matter.
2. You finally learn how to use the library (but still do most of your research online). I have to confess; I never really learned how to use the library when I was an undergraduate because I didn’t ever really have to use the library. So here I am, 26-years old and just learning how to use an academic library. That’s the bad news. The good news? Grad students have term loans so if I feel like hoarding books from the library, I can hoard them for an entire semester at a time!
3. You learn to avoid answering questions about your thesis/dissertation really fast. More senior students (PhD’s) will tell you that they don’t like to be asked, “So, what are you working on?” or, “How’s your dissertation coming?” because it will drive them crazy! They never feel like they have an answer and, because things aren’t always black and white, it’s hard to give a good answer really quickly. Funny how this feeling rubs off on masters students really fast; it’s just as tough to answer these questions, even when we’re on a shorter timeline doing a smaller project.
4. Learning how to avoid/kill/eliminate distractions is really tough. I’ve never wanted to be so focused in my life, but that’s not easy to achieve. But thanks to two tools / tricks I’m getting better and better every day.
- Trick 1: The pomodoro method of timing/breaks. This really helps with readings because I can reward myself after sticking with it for a straight chunk of time.
- Trick 2: Distraction pad / ideas pad. Have you ever been trying to concentrate, but things like “I have to do laundry!” or “Remember to buy bananas!” pop into your head? This happens to me all the time. I keep pen and paper nearby and jot things down as they come to me, and then deal with them later. This way they are out of my head and I can keep on focusing on the important stuff.
5. Even when distraction avoidance is tough, sometimes time just vanishes – in a really good way. You start reading one article, it leads to another, and another, and before you know it an entire afternoon flies by and you feel as if you could just keep going and going!
And now, it’s back to the books!
