The time is drawing closer, the time where I will be officially into my second year of my PhD, only I have no real idea of where that time has gone. Working at home during a pandemic certainly does not help separate the days but time feels more defined by books. Time before the Foucault books, time after. Time before Cohen’s critiques and time after. Not so much 52 weeks of the year, but 52 academic texts (at minimum). But despite how bleary-eyed I am, things have been learned. Not a lot, mind, but good enough to be getting on with.
I’ve wept and slept more than lived, laughed, loved; but there has been joy. There have been new brilliant people with even more brilliant minds to speak to. There have been opportunities that I have been humbled by, but immensely grateful for as they break up some of the tedium of filling in supervision forms. I’ve taught undergraduates about gamergate, I was murdered by my director of studies on Among Us, I’ve written academic texts, I’ve put over 30,000 words into my thesis which will certainly be entirely rewritten, I’ve established an academic network, I am arranging a conference, and I completed the Mass Effect remaster in just over a week (and yes, that was the most difficult task of them all).
There has also been a modicum of personal growth, although I hesitate to say that as I know I could undo it all at any moment given my naturally impetuous nature. But, I’ve learned to embrace sleep. I’ve napped more. I’ve cancelled plans to nap or simply be near my flowers and I’ve been polite and apologised but felt little guilt. I have resisted my restless nature and learned to accept quieter moments, but I still somehow take on too much as I am repeatedly scolded for. I am less hotheaded and have learned to suffer fools somewhat better than I once did – but it is constantly testing my resolve in an era of antivaxxers. In short, I have learned to put my needs first while my whims have taken less priority. I think this is why I am still immensely enjoying my PhD, while there are those I know who are struggling.
A PhD journey is difficult. It is immense fun but it is difficult, too. Here are some tips that I’ve learned from the last year for those contemplating doing a PhD. It may help a little.
Preparing a PhD proposal
Seek advice from people who have failed to complete their PhDs. This comes with a caveat: to take their very worst warnings with seriousness and a pinch of salt. There will be many who will line up to tell you not to do a PhD – they couldn’t do it so why should you be able to? The PhD process is long and gruelling, and it can be traumatic for some in toxic environments. That is true, and it is important to know going in so that you may put systems in place to give you the best chance. So be aware of what led them to leave the PhD process, but do not let it deter you. Find solutions to their problems and it will stand you in good stead. Ask: was it their supervisor? Their methodology? The topic? A combination? See what led to the discord, and adjust your own proposal where needed.
Read everything about your field. Going into the interview you may not need to have an extremely detailed plan of exactly how you expect your thesis to go. If you pick an area of research that could be developed or an original idea, and have demonstrable competence, then this usually is enough. However, knowing the landscape of research is extremely helpful for coming up with an original idea and it is best to do it early for one reason: it will cause less stress down the line when you are under more pressure. I know of academics who have gone into the process with a vague idea, which is fine, but time ticked away and they found themselves still in the same vague area only for someone else to publish the research before they did. It’s rare, but it happens. And the best way to avoid that is to develop your original idea as early as you can – and that’s more likely to happen if you know where the gaps in current research are.
Get a reference for your supervisors. A university website will only tell you about a person’s area of expertise but not what kind of person you are going to be stuck with for the next few years. Ask around, and if you are going to the same university as you studied in previously then ask staff members you trust for their input. Even seek out the Student Union and see if anyone associated can give you some advice.
Starting your first year.
Be prepared to be exasperated at the induction. Inductions are great for figuring out the situation with parking and how to make the most of referencing software. However, there is a tendency for them to focus on STEM research so there may be a lot that will feel irrelevant. Stick with it, you’ll never need to see STEM students again if you don’t want to. Think of it akin to lesbians and gay men at Pride who meet only fleetingly, but, sadly, with worse outfits.
Make new connections, and then mute them. You will likely to meeting quite a lot of new people at first: the dreaded STEM students at induction, new scholars in your field, and you will be offered the chance for department reading groups and meetings. Join all the group chats about work and mute them. Check in maybe once a week, apologise for missing messages but don’t let their stress or excessive posting become your stress. Meeting other academics is great, and allies help make the process smoother but they shouldn’t become your whole life. They are still colleagues, it is still work-related and you will need time that is not about your PhD.
Your PhD is what you want it to be. If you just want to focus on your thesis and research then that is fine. But some people also want to focus on developing their academic connections, profile and develop their teaching experience. The pandemic has been severely interrupting to university life which may well mean that there aren’t the same level of conferences and research seminars as there once were. If you want them, you’re probably going to have to organise them yourself. Shy bairns get nowt. If you want something then go for it.
Do your supervision record forms immediately after every meeting. You will forget otherwise, or you will forget what was discussed. Schedule completing the form in with your meeting time (even if you don’t do it literally in the meeting but immediately after). The forms will be one of the most irritating parts of the process, but it’s easier if you get them out the way rather than fill out 12 monthly record forms in a block at the end of the year.
Time to think counts as time working. Play games, sit and stare blankly at the screen, pace around, build a pillow fort to hide in. If you’re thinking about your work – what you’ve read, what you will write next – then that is still work. It is still producing something as it produces new ideas for you to then craft.
Be assertive over your time. Doing a PhD means that people may think you are extremely flexible because you’re not really working full-time, but you are. And it’s worse because you don’t get to just stop at a specific hour. Time away from work needs to be made up. Do go out, and do have fun but also be assertive when you know you need to get work done and people are trying to distract you. Your work is a job, and it is as important as anyone else’s office gig.
Mutant Theory 
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