Develop Your Quarter and Year Schedule
You should develop your own quarter schedule and discuss it with me. We will use this schedule for the basis of most of our conversations throughout the quarter. To help you develop this list I’ve included three steps to go from goals to weekly objectives based on Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.
- List all of the research goals that you would like to accomplish this semester. Look over this site (final deliverables, possible conferences, deadlines from the graduate school) and include your own ideas.
- The next step is to figure out when you are going to do it. Break your goals into tasks, arrange your tasks by month. Be realistic, not too optimistic but not too pessimistic either. Above everything be accountable to your own self.
- The point is to decide now when you will turn your attention to each task. Arrange your tasks by weeks. This will help you to keep on track and to feel less guilty about not dealing with everything at once.
- Keep in mind that breaking your goals into tasks is key! By performing the smaller tasks you are slowly (but surely!) making progress and make the most out of days that will not allow you to have a block of hours. To put it more simply… you just have to put one foot in front of the other.
Individual Meetings
General Advice and Thoughts
David Allen’s GTD (Getting Things Done) Workflow is a great resource to go over, reflect on, and ultimately even print and have close to your desk!
Randy Pausch‘s lecture on time management is a good one to watch and get inspired!
Randy Pausch also gave this fantastic talk entitled How to Really Achieve Your Childhood Dreams that you should see ASAP.
This resource can also be useful.
To-Do Lists
I recommend organizing your to do lists following Stephen Covey’s quadrant system. Often urgent but not important items the most of our times. Emails, student groups, meetings etc. can get in the way of writing and thinking (ultimately what is going to led to you completing your PhD).
