10. Know your role and don't overstep it!
In academia, most people are "Jack-of-all-trades" or Renaissance men. We wear many hats. As such, it can be difficult to discern what our unique roles are in any given situation. As graduate students, the lines are even more blurred. One semester, a grad student may be teaching alongside several professors and the next semester, that same graduate student is a student taking classes from those professors. It can be difficult to navigate the waters of professionalism and knowing your place. Sometimes, I see graduate students stretch beyond what their role calls for and other times, I see them not living up to the basic requirements of that role.
Over this last year, I have come to understand the importance of fully understanding your role and being careful not to overstep the demands of that role. This is true in collaborations, mentoring positions, research projects, co-authorship scenarios, and most other roles that graduate students take on. We have to be especially careful and remember that we are students first.
One of my biggest frustrations in graduate school is the constant struggle between doing what I want and working on my own research agenda while having to appease my committee and bosses. I'm very lucky in that my committee is supportive and allows me to work toward my research agenda, but it is still a constant battle.
9. Network, Network, Network
We attend conferences. We present papers. We publish manuscripts. We give guest lectures. We are guest speakers. We review for journals and conferences. We serve on committees. All of this is an effort to get our work disseminated to the masses. My greatest goal in graduate school is not to lose sight of why I began this journey in the first place - I want to help kids get a better education. That's it. In order to do this, we have to get our work out into the hands of other professionals in the field, including fellow researchers, teachers, and policy makers.
One of the most important things to do as a graduate student is NETWORK! When attending conferences, finding people who are doing work you are interested in and going and talking to them. It becomes even more important when on the job market, as these are the people who will be deciding how good of a colleague you are going to be. I had business cards finally printed up this holiday break, so now feel even more equipped to do my networking to the best of my ability. When I didn't have business cards, I collected them and would email each person I met upon returning home. Through networking, I have received offers to give guest presentations, review for journals, and co-author on manuscripts. It really is important! And, fun!
8. Reward yourself when you accomplish something, big or small
We work hard in graduate school. In fact, my least favorite question to get from anyone is "so your semester is over? How long are you out for?" While I understand the misconception, there is no break in graduate school. Yes, I get to determine, for the most part, how much I work and when, I also have to face the consequences if I fall behind or things don't get done. I work more now than I did as a teacher, and I don't get to enjoy breaks like I did as a teacher. It never ends. There is always another deadline. Always something more to do.
One thing I have learned, though, is I have to reward myself when I accomplish something. Because there is always more to do, I often keep plowing through even when I finish one task. What value does life hold if there is no celebration, though? Rewards are fun. Rewards can be given for doing something big like sending a completed manuscript out for publication or for something small like finishing a transcription. They can be for things we work hard to finish like a conference presentation or for things that we really don't have a lot to do with like a thank-you message from a student.
The rewards can also be big or small. The reward can be a day off to go shopping with a friend, dinner with a family member, or a night spent watching a movie sans computer. You decide. My favorite rewards include anything that lets me spend time with my loved ones or allows me to relax and not stress about work and school.
7. Set goals for each year, month, week, and day
This past year, graduate school got more busy than ever before. Crazy busy. I became so overwhelmed, I really didn't know which way was up. Or down. Or horizontal. Or vertical. That's when I started making weekly to-do lists. Every Sunday night right before bed, I would sit down and on a simple Word document cranked out what I needed to accomplish each day. I also put meetings and special events on the days. As the day progresses, I cross off the item as I complete it. At the end of the day, I can see what got done and what didn't get done.
This evolved in to me creating a list at the beginning of the week with broader goals. For example, I might want to finish the instruments for my writing study this week. In order to do that, I need to add a fifth scale to the pre- and post-surveys on Monday, edit the content analysis instrument on Tuesday, and upload the pre- and post-surveys to Qualtrics on Thursday. Now, I have weekly goals and daily goals. But, I didn't stop there.
Again, this morphed and evolved into monthly goals, but it looks a bit different. I have a timeline developed for each individual project, presentation, or paper (and even the courses I teach). I set an end goal of when the project should be completed, the date of the presentation, or the submission timeframe for the paper. Then, I back track each month all the way to the current month. Starting at the finish line, I begin listing what needs to be accomplished at that time. By the time I finish my timeline, I have an outline of what I need to accomplish each month for each project I am working on. These monthly goals are where I go to get my weekly goals, and the weekly goals become the daily goals. I also give myself some cushion in my timelines to account for "life". This allows me to accomplish what I want well before any deadline, so I am rarely scrambling to get everything done.
I have yet to attempt yearly goals, but that will change as 2014 begins. I definitely have a clearer vision of what I would like to accomplish in 2014. I am using my research agenda to drive these yearly goals.
Overall, setting the monthly, weekly, and daily goals has made me exponentially more productive. Even when I don't completely finish a goal in the timeframe I have planned, I still accomplish more than I would without goals.
More 2013 Lessons coming soon...
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