Things I wish I’d known when I started my PhD

Calum Carson is a doctoral researcher in the Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change (CERIC), University of Leeds. 

Embarking on a PhD is a daunting task for anybody, and it is a very rare researcher who gets to the end of their project and thinks “I wouldn’t have done anything differently”. A doctoral degree is a steep learning curve, and the sheer length of time involved in conducting research and writing a thesis almost necessitates a degree of error over those years: there is no such thing as a “perfect PhD”, sadly, but there is such a thing as good practice. The following advice is given in this context, and looks to provide new doctoral researchers with some building blocks in how to establish effective habits from day one.

Find a routine that works for you: One of the most valuable aspects of a PhD is the freedom to almost entirely decide on your own working schedule and routine, and this is something that you should take full advantage of to figure out what works best for you. Some people work best by working a strict 9-5 in the office surrounded by other doctoral researchers, while others work best alone in coffee shops with their headphones on; for others they may prefer to work from home, or to run errands and relax in the morning before working later into the evening. For some, it may be a steady mix of all the above. It is useful to experiment with working in different ways and in different environments to see what you prefer, and what gets the most results: it’s unlikely that you’ll ever have a job with this much freedom to dictate your schedule again, so make the most of it!

Finding a decent work-life balance is crucial: While it is important to establish what working routine works best for you, it is just as important to maintain a healthy work-life balance between your research and the rest of your life. A PhD by its very nature can feel all-consuming very easily, with you being solely responsible for your own project and nobody else understanding it as well as you do, but it is essential to remember that it is not your entire life: everyone needs rest and relaxation, and you will find that you are much better equipped to deal with the more difficult aspects of your research when you are well rested and have had some time away from it (even when it feels like you just don’t have the time). See here for a useful (and non-preachy) guide as to why this is so important, and how to embed boundaries between your research and your personal life into your routine.

Plan ahead carefully for things that are out of your control: Make sure that you’re well organised far in advance of deadlines and procedures for things that are out of your control, and may require a lengthy process and/or degree of work and organisation from those at the receiving end. An example of this would be planning, writing, and submitting a paper to a journal earlier rather than later owing to the sometimes-extensive peer review process that no hard work on your part will speed up, or asking for interview dates with research participants far in advance so that they have enough time to plan their own schedules accordingly.

Be prepared for some things to go wrong: For a project as long and comprehensive as a PhD, you don’t just need effective planning and organisational skills: you also need a high degree of luck. Almost all researchers experience setbacks in their research, from participants or case studies unexpectedly dropping out to surveys not being completed, and many of these setbacks will be factors that are beyond your control to have anticipated. The important thing is to prepare yourself for the possibility that such circumstances may occur and to react accordingly, rather than panicking that it has derailed everything: more often than not, there are always alternative solutions in reach. There may also be

Write, write, write: The most useful advice I was ever given for my PhD, and that I see replicated in almost every advice blog post/article/book I come across, was to write, write, write, and to do this from the start. It is a common pitfall for PhD students to almost fetishize and idealise the actual writing aspect of a thesis, and to leave it until later and later “until I’m ready and everything else is in place”, at which point the sheer scale of the writing ahead of you feels like an intimidating and insurmountable task. It is much more effective to eliminate this fear before it’s even begun to manifest by starting to write almost immediately from the beginning of your PhD: you won’t end up using everything you scribble down in the final version of your thesis, but through that writing you’ll develop a keener familiarity and expertise with both your project and being able to describe and explain your research, as well as eliminating a psychological fear further down the line. Writing can also be a great way of brainstorming and working through practical or conceptual difficulties with your project, too: see here and here for some tips on this.

Make the most of your supervisors: Your supervisors are a crucial resource in helping a PhD project run smoothly, and you should make the most of this incredible source of knowledge and support at your fingertips. They will be able to advise you not just on your specific topic and the field you are contributing to, but on the nuts and bolts of research design, the most effective ways to structure your thesis, how to distil the findings of your literature review, and much more. Also remember that not only are they experts in the fields that you are researching, but in most circumstances, they will have also been through the PhD process themselves: never be afraid to ask for their advice on something for fear of sounding silly, as odds are, they were once sat in your position thinking the exact same thing.

Engage with your department: One important way of ensuring that a PhD does not become an isolating experience is to engage and get involved with the wider department that you are based in, and becoming part of both the postgraduate and wider academic community. Most university department’s calendars come packed with an extensive list of seminars, lectures and training sessions occurring on a regular basis: attending some of these, and interacting and socialising with your academic colleagues, is an important and rewarding aspect of any PhD.

More than anything else, however, remember that a PhD is a long and hard journey at times, but it is also an immensely satisfying and worthwhile one: take the time to enjoy it while you’re doing it, rather than just retrospectively. The above advice won’t shield you entirely from experiencing any difficulties during your projects, but it will, I hope, give you some resources and resilience to know how to be able to bounce back and push through those times.

And good luck!