1. Time Management / Success Strategies
Marie desJardins
CMSC 691B
March 30, 2004
Revised a little by Charles Nicholas
March 28, 2005

2. Sources
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, 1997.
Richard M. Reis, Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering, IEEE Press.
Janice Cuny, “Time management and family issues,” CRA-W Workshops.
H. T. Kung, “Useful things to know about Ph.D. thesis research,” prepared for CMU’s Immigration Course, 1987.
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3. Outline
Early
Late
General
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4. The First Two Years (or So)

5. What Matters? Taking comp classes is important...
...but not as important as finding an advisor...
...and a topic...
...which means that classes in your area matter most
Grades are important...
...but not as important as research
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6. Peters: Things to Do Right Away
Buy a good computer
Set up a calendar system
Set up a filing system
Keep a log of daily progress
Apply for fellowships
Set up regular meetings with your advisor
Create or join a grad student support group
Start looking for a thesis topic
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7. Balancing Classes and Research
Probably the biggest challenge of the first one to two years
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8. The Third (or So) Year and Beyond

9. What Matters? Finishing the dissertation. Not quite That’s it!?
Finish the dissertation
Establish a pattern of research productivity
Take your place in a scholarly community
Figure out what you want to do next, and prepare
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10. Graduate School Characteristics
Unstructured environment
Few landmarks or milestones
Have to balance:
Reading
Thinking
Sketching out ideas
Talking to colleagues, advisor
Implementing/building systems
Empirical evaluation
Theoretical analysis
Writing
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11. Time Management Divide and conquer Do something every day
Make a list of tasks and refine them until they’re doable
Do something every day
Have easy tasks and hard tasks on your To-Do list
Set weekly goals
Review these with your advisor and/or “research buddy”
Set deadlines
Even if artificial, they help to create structure
Make time for other important activities
Professional service, extracurricular activities, exercise, socializing
Keep a journal
Jot down stray thoughts; review to assess your progress
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12. Making Steady Progress
Probably the biggest challenge of the third year and beyond
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13. General Tips

14. Prioritize What is most important? What is most urgent?
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
Avoid extreme reactivity
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15. Organization Systems Timeline for graduate school Monthly calendar
Classes, comps, prelims, deadlines
Monthly calendar
Weekly schedule
Daily log
Prioritized and organized task list
Bring this up to date periodically
Peters suggests monthly progress reports
Weekly progress reports, ed to your advisor, can be very helpful for both of you
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16. Things to Track Deadlines for filing paperwork, forms, etc.
Conference deadlines
Know what the important conferences are, when they are held, and when the paper deadlines are
Course assignments and exams
Meetings
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17. Filing Papers you read Papers you write Research ideas
organized by topic or author’s last name
cross-indexed in a BibTeX or other database
Papers you write
organized by topic or venue
Research ideas
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