Time management...

[Ollie123]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Wanted to start a thread for everyone (myself included) who lives their life from one "oh ****" to the next.

As semester one winds down, I'm now realizing how poorly I planned out many things, and how much more I could have achieved if I did things in a different order, spaced them out more, etc.. I swore I was never going to be THAT person, but I find myself worrying about my grades (not that I'm failing or anything, just the undergrad-ish concerns of "Oh god, what if I get a "B" in some of my classes"?!?? despite knowing that grades no longer matter) and especially now with finals coming up, I'm spending wayyyy more time than I should be on classwork when I should be reading articles for my research. I'm doing some cognitive reframing on myself, but that's not an overnight process🙂

So those of you who have been through the process, what do you find most helpful for time management? Do you "schedule" everything? I know one person who has a set amount of time for everything, be it read paper x from 12 to 12:30, write paper y from 1-3, read paper y from 3-4, etc. That seems excessive to me, but then again, I haven't gotten NEARLY as much done this semester as I want to, so its something to consider.

Is this a problem that everyone has when starting? I feel like others are a lot more organized than me since I've always been incredibly disorganized, but maybe that's just an alternative form of imposter syndrome😉 I want to try and get my act together for next semester, so any advice folks have would certainly be helpful for me, and I'm probably not the only one.

 

[psychanon]

While you're right that grades don't matter and that you shouldn't be fretting over a B, you also shouldn't expect to make great strides in your research during your first semester. Many programs are very course-work heavy in the first year, especially the first semester, so advisors typically realize this and don't expect you to devote as much time to research as you will later on.

When I was first starting and I felt underproductive on the research end of things, I set deadlines for myself along with my advisor, so that I felt that I needed to reach certain milestones in a certain amount of time. They wouldn't be too intense-- usually I had to make reasonable accomplishments within two weeks. Nowadays I don't do that much anymore, as I am no longer taking classes and can devote all of my time to research & clinical work (but maybe my dissertation data collection would get started sooner if I reimplemented the system!🙂)

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I literally just wrote a bit about balance (and secondarily about time management) in my SDN Blog, so that may be worth checking out.

And as if on cue, I'm going to go workout. I'll catch ya'll later.

-t

 

[Ollie123]

Good advice so far🙂 I realize that I'm not exactly expected to be super-productive research wise at this point, but they've done a great deal to pare down the coursework here so we have more time for research and I feel like I'm not taking full advantage of that.

 

[BorntoRun]

I'm not a grad student (yet [hopefully]), but I did a pretty excessive amount of extracurricular research as an undergrad, so I'm familiar with the time management crunch. I typically organized my time like the person you described, literally allotting a designated number of hours to complete each task. However, I only did this when I was in severe 'crunch mode' - i.e., those few all-nighters. For me it served two purposes- a) by estimating how long each step would take to finish and then allotting time for each step, I saw that I actually did have time to finish everything, which calmed me down, and b) it kept me from procrastinating, because I knew if I wasted those two hours, the project wouldn't get done.

Overall, I'm actually a fairly disorganized person. I think rigidly structuring my time was an overcompensation of some sort, but it worked for me.

 

[deleted176373]

I'm not a grad student (yet [hopefully]), but I did a pretty excessive amount of extracurricular research as an undergrad, so I'm familiar with the time management crunch.

No offense, but you have no idea! LOL. I thought, ok, I've got this... I had a lot to do before.

My first semster was an butt-kicker. In all fairness, I did only get one B, and I am happy about that because I scored a 97 on the final in that class. We are on a quarter system, our first quarter ended on Nov. 9th... We had the whole weekend to prepare for our second quarter on Nov. 12th! Talk about one "Oh crap" moment to the next... didn't even know our grades!

Mark

 

[JackD]

Well i'm not a grad student but the one time management issue i had this semester involved focusing so much energy on my upper level psychology courses , which i thought were going to be extremely difficult (they weren't), that i completely neglected my math course. I can probably pull out a B but not without that last minute mad dash to try and catch up.
Overall i am staring down a 3.8 semester GPA and somehow had a bunch of free time for my social life. So i must have did something right this semester.

 

[deleted176373]

Well i'm not a grad student but the one time management issue i had this semester involved focusing so much energy on my upper level psychology courses , which i thought were going to be extremely difficult (they weren't), that i completely neglected my math course. I can probably pull out a B but not without that last minute mad dash to try and catch up.
Overall i am staring down a 3.8 semester GPA and somehow had a bunch of free time for my social life. So i must have did something right this semester.

Actually my junior and senior level psych classes were easier than the freshman/sophmore ones. The only one that was supposed to be challenging was research methods and that wasn't because I took an honor's research seminar the semester before (which was a challenge.) I breezed through research methods and surfed the net in class.

Mark

 

[psychwanabe]

Ollie: boy to I identify with you. I am also going into the homestretch of my first semester of grad school and I could feel my stress level rise when I came back from Thanksgiving break. I have two papers due in the same week, four finals in a 36 hour period (that week the papers are due) and a $%^load of research that I need to get moving on. That's only part of the next 3-1/2 weeks of my life.

I am pretty rigid about scheduling "homework" time, and even which homework on which day, but I have never gone so far as to schedule "1 hr for this" and "2 hours for that." I know what I have to do any given day and I work until it's done, or I drop...whichever comes first.

The one thing I wish I had done was to start actually writing a couple of weeks ago. I did the research for both papers starting about week 6 (of an 18 week semester), but I keep procrastinating on the writing. I have an assessment class that is sucking all of my time, and it's really easy to put off what's not due for X weeks in order to do what is due tomorrow/next week. I think next semester I'm going to schedule "writing" time for at least a couple of hours a week in order to prevent the crush of work that is upon me now.

One thing I learned: you can't work 16/7. I tried, believe me! But I've read such good advice in this forum about setting rules: quit by 10 every night, schedule one full 24 hour period off every week, etc. I have learned that I must do these things in order to maintain any productive work level. One solid 8-10 hour day after a full day off and a week of good night's sleep is a much more productive day than a 14 hour day when you are exhausted!

I'm also with you on the grade thing. A, B, or probation! I'd read the advice from 3rd & 4th years about adjusting to the occasional B, but it doesn't make it any easier to see them!!! 🙁

Oh!!! I just read T4C's last blog entry and realized I didn't mention my trusty PDA. I would never have gotten ANYTHING done without it. As a matter of fact, I just synced it and realized I have a meeting tomorrow at 4 that I would have SWORN was not until Thursday. Thank God for technology!

 

[JackD]

Actually my junior and senior level psych classes were easier than the freshman/sophmore ones. The only one that was supposed to be challenging was research methods and that wasn't because I took an honor's research seminar the semester before (which was a challenge.) I breezed through research methods and surfed the net in class.

Mark

The only psychology class i found somewhat difficult was community psychology. It was so damn boring that it was hard to pay attention.

 

[Ollie123]

Yeah, its an ongoing battle of grades vs. inner (and outer, for that matter) perfectionist.

I'm not even hearing about occasional B's, I'm hearing not to care at all about your grades as long as you're meeting the minimum. One professor actually outright said straight B's is fine if you're a productive researcher.

My incredibly unreasonable plan is that for every B I get on my transcript I want one more line on my vita, be it a poster or a publication. Originally I was hoping for just pubs but once I realized I can't crap out A's the way I can in undergrad, I realized becoming the world's most prolific author overnight was probably not a reasonable goal.

We'll see if it happens or not, but so far that is among the things I'm doing to help justify it to myself.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Just remember.......B = Ph.D. A's are great and all, but not at the detriment of something else. Of course, my 'something else' was sleep, research, and the occasional gambling trip to Las Vegas or New Orleans. 😀

-t

 

[deleted176373]

Just remember.......B = Ph.D. A's are great and all, but not at the detriment of something else. Of course, my 'something else' was sleep, research, and the occasional gambling trip to Las Vegas or New Orleans. 😀

-t

The only reason I wanted to bank some good grades was for the C I am about to get in Physiology! I've never had less than an A before, simply have to get used to not doing as well. And your right, B still = Ph.D.

Mark

 

[BorntoRun]

I'm not even hearing about occasional B's, I'm hearing not to care at all about your grades as long as you're meeting the minimum. One professor actually outright said straight B's is fine if you're a productive researcher.

I've heard that too - I know that the vast majority of academia jobs don't require you to send a transcript, only proof that you got your doctorate, but do internships and/or post-docs take your GPA into consideration?

 

[Salsybabe]

I am a first year in a doctoral program, but did a master's degree and for me, having a planner has helped me throughout undergrad and grad school in terms of balancing time. I'm also a person who makes lists and has personal deadlines. I write in my planner what exactly I want to accomplish that day and have some time frame. The reinforcement for me is getting to cross out what I did on my list as being done. I make lists when I want to have an overall idea of what I need to complete that week, be it papers, assignments, etc. I'm taking a research methods class in which our major paper is going to be sort of like a master's thesis, so for that I make sure I schedule in blocks of time to work on it. It might be an hour one day and a 3-hour block another day. The planner also helps me in terms of scheduling when to see my advisor, research team stuff, meeting a professor for office hours.

I think it's also a matter of knowing when you're most productive during the day. Me, I'm a morning person. I'm up at 6 o'clock most days and I'm most productive for school work, reading, GA stuff, etc. in the mornings and afternoons. Nights, forget it. Most of my classes are in the afternoon or evening and it's difficult for me to even be productive at night doing any kind of work. That's my time to chill and I have to accept that at night, academics just ain't happenin'. I've always been a pretty organized person. I need to have an idea of what I need to do and when exactly to do them to stay on top of things. I have 5-year plan posted to my wall right now with all things I need to do each year to graduate on-time. So that's pretty much how I stay organized.

What I find is that sometimes you feel like it's never enough even when you know you've done all you can do. To that, I say, you need to also have down time as well and realize that when you feel like you can't go any further with school work, research, etc. Then stop. It can wait another day, as long as you truly stay on top of things, make your deadlines, etc. I think it's okay. You have to prioritize and make sure you're taking care of yourself (exercise, eating right, getting enough sleep) to make sure you have the energy to be as productive as you can, also.

 

[JockNerd]

On my first day at my grad school, the Grad Studies Dean, the Psych Dept chair, and the training director all told us not to care about marks, and to be happy with a B if it meant that we spent extra time on research instead of pouring over readings to eek out 5 extra points on a thought paper.

I had time management skills beaten into my by undergrad coursework, work, and volunteer positions. 🙂 A big part of it is making sure that the time you do spend working is optimally productive.

I could never schedule things like your friend does, Ollie. Some thing just end up taking way more time--if you're on a roll with writing or analyses, I don't see why you would stop because your schedule obligates you to.

One thing I found useful was that I get my coursework out of the way each week, as fast as humanly possible. Often I finish it the day it's assigned. That way, working on my own stuff is a "reward," and I'm not thinking at all about the coursework. (Ugh. Did I put myself on a behavioural management plan? Gross.)

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I've heard that too - I know that the vast majority of academia jobs don't require you to send a transcript, only proof that you got your doctorate, but do internships and/or post-docs take your GPA into consideration?

I'm not a TD so take my answer with a grain of salt........YES. Every single place I applied requires all graduate transcripts, and some places want undergrad also. I don't know how much they weigh it, but it is another data point for their evaluation.

-t

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

One thing I found useful was that I get my coursework out of the way each week, as fast as humanly possible. Often I finish it the day it's assigned. That way, working on my own stuff is a "reward," and I'm not thinking at all about the coursework. (Ugh. Did I put myself on a behavioural management plan? Gross.)

Busted!!!



Salsybabe made a great point about identifying when you do your best work. I am pretty much her opposite....I am the anti-morning person. I 'can' do basic tasks in the morning, but they better not include thinking. 😀 I am an afternoon and night person....with my best working coming between 10pm-2am. I am trying to step this back to 12am-1am (it use to be 3am).

-t

 

[spillsomepaint]

A) I breezed through research methods and surfed the net in class.

Mark

I feel like this class is hyped up at most universities. I was pretty apprehensive about taking it because most people said it was killer. I'm finally in it now, and it's ridiculous the topics we cover. It should honestly just be called Research Common Sense.

 

[phd2006]

One of my many hypotheses -- success in grad school is best predicted by time management skills! 🙂

The GRE should be replaced with a presenting a plan for managing such time demands as school work, TA/GA/RA, social, family, etc., during your first year as a grad student.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I feel like this class is hyped up at most universities. I was pretty apprehensive about taking it because most people said it was killer. I'm finally in it now, and it's ridiculous the topics we cover. It should honestly just be called Research Common Sense.

True...but they want to ensure a foundation. I'm sure you'll get into more details as your progress. I preferred my research studies to my stats....which seemed amorphous until we started play with real data.

-t

 

[razzled]

I've heard that some programs just kind of hand out A's to everyone since no one really cares about grades anyway and that getting a B in grad school is like getting an F in undergrad.

Is this true at anyone's program?

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I've heard that some programs just kind of hand out A's to everyone since no one really cares about grades anyway and that getting a B in grad school is like getting an F in undergrad.

Is this true at anyone's program?

Not at my program. C = F in my program (since you'll have to take the class over), and 3 C's (or worse) get you kicked out. In grad school in general you should have at least a 3.5 (more A's than B's), but some programs have a different emphasis on what is important. I think it was JN who said his program was very research focused, and classes were secondary. Other programs classes and research are equal, etc.

-t

 

[spillsomepaint]

there's been so much talk about PDA's basically keeping everyone's schedules from going crazy, so I was curious what everyone uses? I am a mac person, and would like to get on that syncs, but would like to know what is used by you guys nonetheless.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

there's been so much talk about PDA's basically keeping everyone's schedules from going crazy, so I was curious what everyone uses? I am a mac person, and would like to get on that syncs, but would like to know what is used by you guys nonetheless.

The Technology Forum is definitely worth checking out (I'm too lazy to make a link at the moment...but it is as the bottom of the forums, before feedback).

I use a Dell Axim x50v....though I need to reload the software on my laptop, so currently it is on my bureau doing a whole lotta nothing. I <3 it...though they stopped making it earlier this year (there is a link in my blog to a story about it). It really was the best PDA out there, but with the immergence of Pocket PC phones...it became obsolete (even though it is more powerful than the stuff out there now).

-t

 

[Ollie123]

I think that's the case here as well (that classes don't matter much).

The question is how all that factors in come internship time (though here, they also think internship doesn't matter beyond the fact that you need to get an APA one). I could be wrong, but it seems that is pretty common at research schools. Especially given that a fair number of the required classes will have a clinical work focus for APA guidelines, it makes sense that those would not be emphasized as much by a program that didn't want to produce clinicians. I don't get the impression B = F though (at least I hope not!). They're pretty common and most people get at least a few. I'm probably going to be in the 3.5ish range this semester, but only time will tell. I'm wondering how much internships will care if my GPA is about that level if I can swing a dozen pubs while I'm here🙂

I'm debating whether I want to pick up a blackberry or a PDA for next semester. I actually lean towards PDA since cell phones are possibly the one piece of technology I prefer to have as few options as possible (I don't even text on mine, and it only has a camera because its near-impossible to get one WITHOUT a camera).

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

The last 2 times I went to buy a cell phone, I had 3 requirements:

1. Must have a decent battery
2. Must be easy to text
3. Must be small

That's it. They tried to sell me phones that could take video, surf the web, play mp3's, etc. Don't get me wrong....I love technology and I'm an early adopter for most everything, but short of an iPhone...I don't want all of that extra stuff. I ended up with a Samsung u740 (something like that....and it is awesome).

As for Time Management.....it varies. Today I was not that productive. I worked for 5-6 hours (pretty good), did some blogging (always good), and......that was it.

-t