It is now officially two months since I started my PhD, and I’m happy to say I’m still enjoying (and getting frustrated by) the messy process of figuring out where my research project is going, what I need to know, and what I don’t know that I need to know. That last one is a…

The big news this week is that I started a course on quantitative methods, the first of my compulsory courses. The even bigger news is that I actually enjoyed the four-hour lecture on statistics and Excel. And trust me, that is big news. I loved maths at school. I LOATHED statistics. Yes, the capital letters…

This week, the institution arranged a group writing week: a space for doctoral students, junior researchers and senior researchers to gather, think, write and support each other. I used the time to keep working on the framing of my research proposal, while others worked on coursework or on articles for various conferences and journals. Honestly,…

And just like that, a month has gone by since I started. Crazy to think it’s already October. Where has the time gone? And why don’t I know everything yet? Seriously though, with all the time and effort I’ve spent on the eternal “so what?” question surrounding my research plan, I might have solved world…

I can’t believe it’s been four weeks already. It’s gone in a flash. I feel like I’ve done so much and nothing at all. There’s still that sense of trying to get my bearings: figuring out what courses I should be taking, which seminars, workshops, or conferences might be worth my time, and what on…

This week was again pretty free of meetings, so I had plenty of time to try one of the organisation techniques from Åsa Burman’s book Finish on Time. Burman recommends dividing the day into units, with the aim of completing four per day. A unit is a 45-minute period of undisturbed work, followed by a…

With no meetings this week, I used my time to work on rewriting my research proposal and trying to figure out some sort of plan, at least for this term: I started the week feeling like I was swimming in alphabet soup with no order to anything. But I’ve actually made it to Friday with…

I didn’t really know what to expect during my first week. Sure, there was an orientation meeting on the first day, a Higher Research Seminar planned for day two, and an introduction to life as a PhD student organised for day three, but beyond that I had no idea what awaited me. A gatekeeper, perhaps,…