October 1999 Time Management / Success Strategies Marie desJardins CMSC 691B April 18, 2006

4/18/06 2 Sources u Robert L. Peters, Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student’s Guide to Earning a Master’s or Ph.D. (Revised Edition). NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, u Richard M. Reis, Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering, IEEE Press. u Janice Cuny, “Time management and family issues,” CRA-W Workshops. u H. T. Kung, “Useful things to know about Ph.D. thesis research,” prepared for CMU’s Immigration Course, 1987.

4/18/06 3 Outline u Early u Late u General

October 1999 The First Two Years (or So)

4/18/06 5 What Matters? u Taking comp classes is important... ...but not as important as finding an advisor... n...and a topic... t...which means that classes in your area matter most u Grades are important... ...but not as important as research

4/18/06 6 Peters: Things to Do Right Away u Buy a good computer u Set up a calendar system u Set up a filing system u Keep a log of daily progress u Apply for fellowships u Set up regular meetings with your advisor u Create or join a grad student support group u Start looking for a thesis topic

4/18/06 7 Balancing Classes and Research u Probably the biggest challenge of the first one to two years

October 1999 The Third (or So) Year and Beyond

4/18/06 9 What Matters? u Finishing the dissertation.  That’s it!

4/18/06 10 Graduate School Characteristics u Unstructured environment u Few landmarks or milestones u Have to balance:  Reading  Thinking  Sketching out ideas  Talking to colleagues, advisor  Implementing/building systems  Empirical evaluation  Theoretical analysis  Writing

4/18/06 11 Time Management u Divide and conquer  Make a list of tasks and refine them until they’re doable u Do something every day  Have easy tasks and hard tasks on your To-Do list u Set weekly goals  Review these with your advisor and/or “research buddy” u Set deadlines  Even if artificial, they help to create structure u Make time for other important activities  Professional service, extracurricular activities, exercise, socializing u Keep a journal  Jot down stray thoughts; review to assess your progress

4/18/06 12 Making Steady Progress u Probably the biggest challenge of the third year and beyond

October 1999 General Tips

4/18/06 14 Prioritize u What is most important? u What is most urgent? u Long-term vs. short-term priorities  Use your long-term goals to prioritize short-term tasks  Plan for the year/month/week, not for the day u Avoid extreme reactivity

4/18/06 15 Organization Systems u Timeline for graduate school  Classes, comps, prelims, deadlines u Monthly calendar u Weekly schedule u Daily log u Prioritized and organized task list  Bring this up to date periodically u Peters suggests monthly progress reports  Weekly progress reports, ed to your advisor, can be very helpful for both of you

4/18/06 16 Things to Track u Deadlines for filing paperwork, forms, etc. u Conference deadlines  Know what the important conferences are, when they are held, and when the paper deadlines are u Course assignments and exams u Meetings

4/18/06 17 Filing u Papers you read  organized by topic or author’s last name  cross-indexed in a BibTeX or other database u Papers you write  organized by topic or venue u Research ideas