Day in the Life as a PhD Student: Teaching on Campus | Tips for Juggling Research and Teaching

It's midterm season y'all. This semester I'm teaching an in-person course and I thought I'd take you along for a day in the life teaching on campus.

Although teaching is one of my favorite parts of the academic job, it can be difficult to figure out how to juggle teaching along with all of the other responsibilities we have as PhD students, so before diving into my day, here are some of my quick tips on how to balance teaching whilst also getting other research/writing work done at the same time.

• Task switching SUCKS. As much as we all want to believe we're amazing multitaskers, in reality, it's costing our brains time, energy, and motivation to switch between tasks. I'm as guilty of this as anyone - especially when it feels like every single task I'm doing is just as important as the last, but I try to stay on task by grouping similar tasks together so I don't have to lose time by switching my brain over to a different task.

• Give yourself something to look forward to! I am a VERY food motivated person so if I know I'm going to have a really long, busy day or have a task I know tends to be a drag for me (looking at you data analysis), I'll make a deal with myself that I get some kind of food or dessert if I finish the big thing on my to do list. It's very effective, especially when the reward is sushi or bubble tea 🙂

• Time yourself. Gameification is a real thing! Maybe you aren't as naturally lazy as me, but sometimes if I see a whole stack of papers on my desk I have to make it into a game where I time myself to see how many papers I can get graded in 15 minutes. Truthfully, you'd be shocked at how fast you are at things once you start to clock things this way.

I hope those tips were helpful! Now, onto this day in my life teaching on campus 🙂

7:00 AM: Good morning! coffee, a bit of journaling and setting the vibe with a cozy candle.

7:30 AM: Planning for the day, creating a to do list on my laptop! Today is a busier day where I'm running around on campus so I like to make my to do list digitally so I can access it on the go.

7:50 AM: Setting my pomodoro timer to stay focused on writing an abstract for submission to a conference. (plus setting up some ambient coffee shop background music!)

11:15 AM: Preparing exam instructions for an exam I'm giving in class today

12:50 PM: Headed to campus. It's starting to feel like fall!

1:00 PM: Holding office hours on campus for my students and preparing all the documents I need for class that day!

1:42 PM: Headed to class - today is more low-key for me. Though I usually lecture for several hours each week, this week, I get to sit back and proctor an exam for the day. Grading is no joke but at least for the time being, I get to relax a little!

4:20 PM: Exam finished!

7:00 PM: Ending the night with happy hour drinks with my co-hort! I always find that a night of commiserating and de-stressing is good for the soul!

Thanks so much for tuning into this little day in the life teaching on campus. What other day in the lifes would like to see? Let me know in the comments!

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My Planning and Organization System for Grad School | PhD & Productivity

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Y’all grad school is crazy. Pursuing a PhD is tough. Am I organized 100% of the time? Absolutely not! But having a plan in place for how you are going to organize all of your class assignments, teaching plans, and research projects is crucial for not only for my productivity but also my sanity 😜. I’ve received quite a few questions about how I organize my workflow and to-dos and I am so so excited to share with you the system that I use below. I love hearing from all of you so please keep sending your questions if you have them! Grad school can be very competitive and overwhelming but it always makes me feel so happy to share what makes life easier for me in the hopes that it'll make your life easier as well :) So, without further rambling - read on below for my full planning and organization system!

First off, I want to start out this topic by encouraging you to embrace flexibility. Your responsibilities in grad school (and frankly in life!) are constantly in flux. Your systems have to shift to accommodate those fluctuations and you shouldn’t feel any shame for ditching an old system that no longer works for you. In the past, I’ve struggled with committing to a specific planner for a whole academic year. Over time, I’ve realized that this is because my planning needs shift depending on the month, semester, my mood, how overwhelmed I am [insert literally anything here]. And there’s nothing wrong with this - because as human beings we are constantly shifting, changing, growing - and we need systems that change with us. So, long story short - don’t beat yourself up if your planning system doesn’t work right away and you need to tweak things, and definitely don’t beat yourself up if the system I use isn’t exactly what works for you - figure out what works best for you!

To organize my grad school life, I separate out my planning system into 3 distinct categories and tackle them each separately.

(1) Appointments - The category where I organize events in which I need to actually be in either a physical or Zoom seat for a meeting, a social gathering, a class, a lecture etc. Basically, the place where I track all of the appointments I have.

(2) Workflow - The category where I track the things I need to do (school, work, personal, all the things) and plan my workflow to make sure I get everything done before their respective deadlines.

(3) Projects - The category where I organize all the projects I have going on, track their progress, and where I nest project-specific tasks (because having all of my project-specific tasks in one place can be quite overwhelming!)

APPOINTMENTS

I track all of my appointments in the same calendar and affectionately call this my “butt in the seat calendar” because it’s where I actually have to physically be at a certain time or place. For this, I use my trusty friend Google Calendar.

Since schedules are a constantly shifting, I find it so helpful for my calendar to be easily accessible and easy to edit. Paper planners and calendars are too difficult to edit and I find that having things crossed out on paper actually stresses me out. It's also extremely useful to be able to access the calendar on any device I have (Google Calendar has phone apps, macbook apps, and iPad apps that make my calendar available on any device I'm using) so that I can easily reference my own availability if a meeting needs to be scheduled.

I am also an avid user of the color coding and multiple view functions in Google Calendar. I like to be able to see what I have going on at a glance and be able to gather what types of activities those are visually so I color code things based on whether they are social, work, or super important meetings (e.g., a dissertation meeting with my advisor). Depending on how busy the week is, I also like to be able to view my calendar in a monthly, weekly, or three day view - which Google Calendar easily allows me to toggle between.

WORKFLOW

My approach to managing my work and deadlines is by far the most complex and chaotic system - and truthfully, I think that's just the nature of academic work. Sometimes, you feel like you have all of your crap together, and sometimes, it's a massive chaotic mess and you're just scribblings things down as fast as you can. This part of my organization is by nature also the one that shifts the most and that's why I try to be as flexible with this system as possible depending on the day. Generally, however, I attempt to manage my workflow via (1) short term planning (2) long term planning and (3) an inbox dump.

Short Term Planning

In the mornings, I make a detailed list of my plans for the day - personal tasks, work tasks, as well as events for the day and workouts I plan to do that day. I usually choose to do this on either my iPad via Goodnotes (Learn more about my iPad setup for grad school here!) or on a paper daily planner sheet but this category is also where I am most flexible and the way in which I plan my day changes from week-to-week and from day-to-day.

• Digital/Paper Day Planning Pages: My favorite daily planner sheets are from The Daily Page, Day Designer, and Simplified Planner. I have both digital and paper versions of these planner pages so that if I'm feeling more productive on paper, I'll go for a paper sheet, and if I'd rather use my iPad, I can also use a digital PDF version of the same sheet. I find my self using paper sheets the most when I have a whole dedicated day at home to get work done and do not need to leave my home office for any reason.

• Notes App List: On super super busy days where I'm running around to meetings or other engagements, I will usually plan my days in an iCloud Note on my phone. On these days, I usually find that a daily planning sheet is too much work and I don't find myself referencing it at all. Instead, I will list all of the places I have to be and the tasks I need to get done using the list feature in iCloud Note so that I can check them off as I go - usually while I'm walking to the next event and can quickly whip out my phone and check things off.

Long Term Planning

Long-term planning is essential in grad school because most of our deadlines are months if not years in the future!

• Digital Planner: For weekly and monthly planning I use digital pages on my iPad and create my own "planner." For years and years I tried to stick to one paper planner per year but always found that I'd switch to another one before the end of the year. This is because my needs change depending on the season and the semester I'm in! During the semester, I find myself using my weekly spreads way more than my monthly spreads but in the summer months, the opposite is usually true because there are fewer reoccurring events. One thing I recommend for grad students is to choose a layout (there are tons of free ones online or you can create your own!) that has both a weekly spread but also has space for you to write down your goals/tasks for the week. I find that with grad school, only having boxes for the days of the week is limiting because there are just SO many tasks to accomplish that they don't all fit neatly into a day of the week box - so it's easier for me to make a list that supplements that week and transfer things to specific days as I go!

• Notes App Goal Setting: Finally, I also like to set goals on a monthly and annual basis that give me a bird's eye view of what I hope to accomplish. Since this is more of an overview, I like to have it in my Notes app on my phone because so that I can move things around if I don't get around to finishing a goal one month and need to shift it to the next month. I also love using emojis to label each goal and visually show whether I've accomplished a goal or not! Plus, once the goal is accomplished? I move it over to a note called "Accomplished!" where I have ever monthly and annual goal I've accomplished so that I can remember to celebrate all that I've done! PhD programs don't often allow you to celebrate what you have accomplished so you gotta create those opportunities for yourself 🙂

Inbox Dump

This one is probably the easiest system to implement but it's become absolutely ESSENTIAL for me. I am the queen of having random shower thoughts and needing to write them down ASAP so I don't forget them. As a super forgetful person that remembers to do things at the most random times of the day I always have a running note on my phone called "Inbox" that allows me to jot things down. Ideally, I'll schedule a 10-15 minute chunk each week to go over the things I've jotted down in my inbox and figure out when to actually get around to those tasks (though I don't always get to this and sometimes my inbox note gets cluttered - oops!).

PROJECTS

As a grad student, the two types of projects I track primarily consisted of research and classes/teaching. In your PhD, projects are super long, multi-faceted and extremely complex so every project I have usually has it's own little dashboard with it's own list of tasks that need to get done. For example, for a paper I'm working on, I need to not only collect the data but pay participants, clean the data, analyze the data, create graphs, etc - you get the idea!

• OneNote: To manage my projects, I use OneNote because I've found that it's most reliable and has the most flexibility in terms of being able to insert audio, photos, embed links, type down notes as well as write hand drawn notes via my apple pencil. Again, OneNote has apps for all of my devices so I can access and use OneNote on any device. I also track personal projects on here like my own vision board for my life and hobbies I want to pick up in the future!

• Notion: A secondary way I track my projects is via Notion! I use this to visually see where all of my projects are timeline-wise and which ones are on my plate vs. which ones are in someone else's hands for the time being. Though I'd love to track this in OneNote, I like the look of a kanban board style and have found that Notion is a good spot to track progress on ALL of my research projects at once.

Whew! That was a LONG one yeesh - planning and organizing is such a process sometimes isn't it? I hope this was helpful and that it will help to make your lives a little easier! 🙂 If you have any questions - drop me a message or comment below and I'd love to chat more or do a deep dive on how I plan on each of these platforms! Happy planning!

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How I Prepare for a New Semester as a PhD Student | My Back to Grad School Routine

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Hello friends! I recently posted a reel of my first day back to school as a 4th year PhD student and it really got me thinking about all of the things I like to do to set myself up for a * slightly less * stressful semester. Though I don't try to go over the top with prepping (because there are always things you can't really plan for), I thought I'd share some things that help me feel a little more settled before a hectic semester. Whether this list sets you up for the current semester or it brings life to your routine mid-semester, I hope it helps set you up for a healthy, happy, and focused return to school.

(1) Restock all the food and everyday essentials in your home (and in your office!)

Sure, you can spend all the time in world reviewing your work tasks but none of that really does you any good if you aren't making sure that your health and well-being are taken care of! Before the start of a semester, I like to make sure my pantry is stocked, that I have groceries for the next couple of weeks, and that I'm stocked up on basic home goods like toilet paper, dish soap, allergy medications (if you're like me) and laundry detergent. You'll be thanking yourself later in the semester when you can focus on your work and not have to worry about stopping to get more kleenex on the way back from class.

(2) Set month & semester goals for work

The Type A monster in me cannot start a new semester without setting goals! Though I know a lot of people who can get away with storing all of their important to do's in their heads, I am not one of those people. In grad school, I find myself setting primarily monthly and semester long goals for research. Research projects are long, time-consuming projects that can't be easily ticked off in a day or a week so I like to create big picture goals for what I want to accomplish each semester. By the end of this semester, I want to have a full draft of my dissertation done (no matter how crappy that first draft is) - we'll see how that pans out!

(3) Get into your routines (before things get too crazy)

I find getting into a routine before the craziness of the semester to be extremely helpful in maintaining those routines even when things get busier. For me, this involves incorporating regular workouts back into my everyday life and getting to bed at a reasonable hour. I also find it helpful to establish specifically how you'll get back into that routine and where it fits best within a 24 hour day so that you don't have room for excuses about how you're "too busy" once the semester is in full swing! For me, that means trying to fit in a workout during the evening hours when I’m usually a vegetable on the couch anyway because I know that working out in the mornings is wasting away the time when my brain is at its highest level of productivity!

(4) Schedule time in libraries and coffee shops

Let's be honest - I'm a homebody and I'm also inherently lazy (who isn't?!). All I want to do is work from home from my bed all day every day because #anxiety. BUT I know myself well enough to know that if I spend even just an hour or two a week in a library or coffee shop setting, I'm inspired by all of the people surrounding me working hard on their projects. It helps put a pep in my step if I at least spend a couple of hours a week admiring the hard work of those around me and reminding myself that I'm lucky to get to work on research I like and teaching topics I enjoy. Plus, since my partner now also works from home, the separation is sometimes nice and allows me to focus a bit better :P

(5) Research things to do and create a list of events you want to attend

This is something I do every semester because the first thing to go when I'm busy with work is always my social life - but it's so so necessary to maintain a life outside of your work. Whether that's establishing hobbies you want to build on, random activities you want to do, or events you want to attend - having things outside of work to turn to will help keep you afloat when the semester gets tough.

(7) Make a plan for rewarding yourself. Because you freakin' deserve it!

This is a non-negotiable, my friend. YES - looking at you! The start to a new school semester is rough. You're hit with tons of new deadlines, work gets piled on, and you have to start seeing people every day - which is exhausting. So, make a plan to treat yourself a little - because you're working hard, you're doing difficult things, and you deserve to enjoy things even in the midst of all the craziness. This semester, my first day of school reward was my favorite sushi and my end of the first month reward miiiiiiight be an espresso machine hehe :)

I hope this was helpful! If you have any tips of your own you’d like to share I’d love to hear them - leave me a comment down below :)

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