The Power of Focus
Whenever I am faced with an insurmountable amount of work that needs to be completed by a strict deadline, I remind myself of the following true story.
In college I had a friend called Alan, who was a very bright straight A student. He did have one small fault, however. While he was diligent about completing assignments and studying for exams, he did not update his calendar regularly. One Monday morning he woke up at 7 am and thought about enjoying a relaxing breakfast before his history class at 9 am. As he packed his books, however, an electric shock went through him. He noticed that his history exam was today, not in a week, as he originally thought. "Okay", he tried to calm himself. "I have until 8:30 to study if I want to get to class by 9 am."
Alan turned on his laser focusing skills and thought about the most likely questions they would ask at his exam. Since he only had 90 minutes, he did not let himself get distracted by anything and kept reading his notes to memorize as much as he could. At 8:30 sharp, he changed into his clothes and ran to class. "It was amazing how much I learned during that hour an a half," he later recalled. His test score was not perfect, but it was an A-. Not bad for an hour and a half of studying!
I frequently think of Alan's story when I have only have a short amount of time to complete a presentation or report. While I would normally schedule several hours for such an endeavor, I sometimes need to make do with just small blocks of time between other commitments. I actually found that I was more productive if I "laser" focused for one hour to a project than if I allotted two hours to it, but did not put my mind completely to it. This strategy is great for beating procrastination too. Next time you want to work on something that you have been putting off for a while (taxes or decluttering, perhaps?) commit just one hour to it. Set your timer, turn off cell phones and all other distractions, and see what happens. My guess is you will be amazed at your accomplishments after just half hour. Even if the project is so large that an hour is just a drop in the bucket, at least you will come away with a plan and increased motivation. To make this even more fun, reward yourself for your efforts. For example, after an hour of working without disruptions, take yourself out to the gym or an ice latte. If you can, take a walk outside - a great way to freshen up for the rest of your day!
Have you had similar experiences? Leave your comments here
Wishing you the best,
Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet
Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates."
One of the Few Things You Can Do to Get Kicked Out of Grad School
Take the following scenario. You worked really hard on a project and it is finally ready to be published. This study is the pinnacle of your accomplishments in graduate school, one that will bring you a great deal of respect when you interview for jobs. Your supervisor reviews the manuscript and he is so satisfied that he is ready to send it off immediately. The next day, however, he asks you to see him in his office. When you take a seat you sense that something is wrong, and start to get anxious as he closes the door. His voice is somber as starts speaking.
"You are a very productive graduate student, but results are not everything. I hold my group up the highest standards, and I expect everyone to respect the basic rules of ethics. I was so satisfied with your manuscript that I almost send it to a journal yesterday. Then, perhaps instinctively, I asked Professor Johnson to take a look at it." You cringe at the sound of the professor's name. "She called me this morning and was extremely upset. Do you know why?"
You take a deep breath, as you utter, "I think I do."
"Professor Johnson could have gotten us into a lot of trouble if she had read this paper after it was published. She told me that Janice Michaels from her lab generated all the data in Figures 1 and 2. Why did you leave off their names from the paper? I will assume it was an honest mistake rather a way for you to claim all the credit. I do find it surprising, however, that you did not even mention Professor Johnson in our discussion yesterday or suggest that she reviews the manuscript. Of course, there is no harm done because we caught it before the paper was published. But I do hope you learned your lesson and will not neglect anyone who contributed to this paper. "
You come out of your supervisor's office, still shaking. Was it an honest mistake, or did you want to get all the credit? After all, a paper with two authors (with you as first author), will certainly get you more credit than a paper with four or even more authors. It is too late to ponder now. Your manuscript will be submitted, but you lost your supervisor's respect.
Now, take the following even more serious scenario. You are in your 6th year, and have only published one 2nd author paper. Your supervisor does not think the other work (where you would be 1st author) is publishable. It is good enough to graduate, however, and he is letting you defend next semester. What will you do with such a minute publication record? Can you even apply to academia? In a moment of desperation, you write up the manuscript, giving credit to everyone who deserves it, and put your supervisor's name as the corresponding author. You are ready to send it off, but something holds you back. Is this the right thing to do?
The first scenario is serious, but one could argue that it was supervisor's fault as well, because he should have known where the data came from (in groups with many members it is common for professors to lose track of all the data, particularly from senior students whom they trust.)
In the second scenario, however, your supervisor told you specifically he did not want to publish it. If he finds out you submitted a paper without his approval, he could expel you. What can you do to convince him to publish? You can give him the typed up manuscript to see if he changes his mind once he sees how much effort you put into it.
Do these stories sound like outlandish scenarios? They are actually both based on true stories. You can read one of them on my Benchfly blog :
Have you had similar experiences? Leave your comments here
Wishing you the best,
Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet
Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates."
Now Available in Kindle and Softcover:
Supervising Others: You Mean Research is Not Solitary?
That's right, research is not solitary, at least most of the time. The toughest challenges in research actually involve managing interactions with other people, rather than solving technical difficulties. You don't even have to be in a supervisory role to relate to these situations. For example, suppose you are in a team of three people who are asked to put a presentation together. You did your part, but the others still have not submitted their materials the day before the deadline. Or, your boss asked you to supervise a less experienced graduate student but you were too busy to keep track of them and they destroyed valuable samples or damaged an instrument. Who is responsible?
Most graduate students admit that they were unprepared for the challenges of people management. While supervising can seem like a nuisance, getting some experience in graduate school will be very valuable for your career. Whether you stay in academia (and have to motivate graduate students) or go to industry (and participate in or lead teams), you will need to interact with people from different backgrounds and levels of experience.
When I was a graduate student I supervised a few college students, and I enjoyed mentoring very much. In order to supervise someone, I had to get organized and learn the material even better. I had run a few experiments with a certain toxic compound, and we got reproducible results consistently. Naturally, the higher the dose the more cells died. Then, one day my results became the exact opposite. Now, the higher the dose, the fewer cells died. I repeated the experiment several times, and the results were still "backwards". Did we just discover a protective effect of this toxic compound? This result was so surprising that my supervisor was ready to design a new study to investigate this phenomenon. Then, one day I found the answer, and it was not pretty. I was quite ashamed to tell my supervisor. I told him that I had been using the batch of the toxic compound prepared by one of my undergraduates, and the concentrations on the tubes were backwards. My supervisor was actually relieved and said: "Dora, I think you just learned one of the most valuable lessons in graduate school."
If you ever mentor undergraduates, remember that that's all it is: mentoring. They do not work for you and in the end the project is your responsibility. You always need to double-check their work and follow their progress closely. Naturally, you cannot use such a micromanaging approach with everyone. You would not want your supervisor to double check your calculations every day when you were a 6th year student. One needs to adjust the level of management depending on the ability of the person working with with them. Of course, when your thesis is on the line, it is for your benefit to catch every mistake, and the sooner the better! (Let's just say that the time I spent on my funny experiment above was not trivial, and could have been used in more productive ways - vacation, perhaps?)
Wishing you the best,
Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet
Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates."
Now Available in Kindle and Softcover!
Climbing Out Of Black Holes: The Power of Journaling
Did you ever have a "non-day"? Or possibly even a "non-week"? Days when your mind felt fuzzy and you were not able to concentrate? Everyone has days like that, and for some reason they are very common among graduate students. Sometimes a day when you were supposed to get a lot done goes by without the single trace of tangible result. You know you want to be more productive, but how can you be when it is difficult to get your mind to focus?
It turns out that the thing that is toughest to do is what will get your mind to open up: writing. Just when you think there is no way you can write a sentence for a manuscript, presentation or thesis, the act of writing is the best medicine. By writing, I do not necessarily mean work-related writing, but journaling. Ideas are born with writing, and if you begin putting ideas on paper about anything at all (it does not even need to be grammatically or stylistically correct), sentences will soon pour out of you.
One of the reasons that journaling is so effective, is that it will bring underlying personal issues to your awareness. During journaling you might realize errands that need to be taken care of or personal ides that must be dealt with before you can concentrate on your work. It is also common for to-do's to arise while you are writing because our minds like to wander, especially when we are faced with a challenge. I usually keep a little notepad next to my computer and write the to-do's on it to attend to after I finished writing (sometimes by then they do not seem so urgent).
Journaling is also a great tool to help you get organized for studies or experiments. Writing will clear your mind, get your thoughts in order, and (most importantly) get ideas on paper. A good rule of thumb for journaling is two pages a day. Just put anything on the paper so you can keep writing. It will work.
Are you struggling with writing blocks? Have you found journaling useful (or useless)? We would love to hear from you! Simply click the orange reply button at the end of this post.
Wishing you the best,
Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet
Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates."
Now Available in Kindle and Softcover!