Starting data analysis is hard and daunting- but for me it was also one of my favourite parts of the PhD process. I get excited by data, like to the point that when UberEats releases their yearly data wrap-up I get super excited, perhaps lame I know! Although, I am most definitely not a statistician I wanted to share my […]
As some of you may know, Dr.ofwhat is no longer a spring chicken. This website turned 4 this year (which I like to say is atleast 20 in blog years). It started as a creative outlet for myself during my first year of a PhD, and has turned into a resource for PhD students across the globe and importantly a […]
You can actually get a lot done in a short period of time- Before I started working full time, I would be in my office for 9+ hours a day. Although in the last year or so I was definitely procrastinating less, I still found that I wasn’t being super productive. Now I get almost the same amount of work […]
Early Career Researchers often have a lot going on, between researching, teaching, and administration. There are a few lists ECRs should be keeping and continually adding too. Keeping the lists on Google Docs (or equivalent) means that they are always accessible. A list of research ideas- Research ideas can come to you at the strangest times. Jot down any idea […]
Ah, the big ‘I’ word. A PhD seems to be synonymous with Imposter Syndrome. Everytime I do a Q&A on Instagram or ask what kind of content people want to see on my blog, Imposter Syndrome is always mentioned. I have not posted much about it to date, mainly because I don’t really have any tips for overcoming it. However, […]
Cafes are your best friend- I like to get to the city early before work to sneak in 1-1.5 hours of PhD work with a coffee. Stay back at work- I often spend an extra hour at work (4.30-5.30pm) working on my PhD. I am in the ‘work zone’ when I am at the office so I find I am […]
To celebrate 75,000 views on dr.ofwhat, I asked what kind of content people wanted to see and this was one of the requests. There are a lot of deadlines during a PhD. Whether these be set by you, your supervisor, candidature milestones, or journals. These various deadlines mean that there is a lot of opportunities to miss deadlines, and when […]
If you haven’t read what I learnt during my first year of a PhD yet, go here. “Middle of PhD” lull exists- It is not a myth- when I hit the halfway mark I reallllllly started to lack motivation and I think others in my office felt the same. You start to realise why getting a PhD is such a […]
Being a psychology PhD student, I wanted to discuss one of my favourite psychology theoretical frameworks that I use to motivate myself. Operant Conditioning is a learning theory identified by Skinner (for more info click here) which in basic terms says that being rewarded encourages behaviour to continue (or increase) and receiving consequences encourages behaviour to stop (or decrease). It […]
I am sure that like me, you have said to multiple people during your thesis experience that “My PhD is a job” or “I am going to work”. As PhD students we are so quick to defensively argue that our PhD is a job, but many of us are much less likely to actually treat it like one. We will […]