Reflections - 9 months into the Ph.D.
It has been a long time since my last blog entry, as my first Progress Review Panel (a yearly review for Ph.D. students here at Coventry University) as well as the Research Centre for Fluids and Complex Systems Open Day demanded my full undivided attention. The process of preparing for these events did not go smoothly, and my lacking in key knowledge and core skills became alarmingly obvious over the past few weeks. This completely killed any celebratory mood I had, and in its place was a mixture of self-loathing and feelings of impending doom for the upcoming year. Emotions, however human, are immaterial in the end, and not something that can magically fix my crumbling foundation.
Problem: Time management
Time management has always been my weakness, but time management in itself is a very broad "catch-all" term. Further introspection and reflection is often needed to catch the source of my bad time management, and I think it's down to one simple thing - task prioritisation.
I often measured my Ph.D. output by the amount of time I spent either sitting in front of my P.C. at home, or in front of my work P.C. at the office. Once my hours are up, I check out, give myself a pat on the back and go playing Dota 2 with my buddies. However, my innate laziness often ensures that some tasks are unfinished, with the belief said task will be completed come the next day. It is not a big assumption then, that this specific task that I keep pushing away is often the literature review.
By satisfying myself with the fact that I have spent a lot of time doing the tasks I enjoy, (i.e. coding, learning how to use the high performance cluster (HPC), running and analysing simulation data), I have myself a pass to neglect aspects of the Ph.D. that are un-enjoyable, tedious but crucial nonetheless. This has to change
Prioritisation
I have always been aware of such concept as 'AGILE', 'Sprint' and 'Kanplans', but have never really saw the point in using these tools. To me, these fancy project management charts and graphics are simply useless boilerplate; a collection of colourful bubbles and vaguely connected timelines, goals and objectives, made at the start of the Ph.D. to appease the bean counters and paper pushers at the Doctoral College.
While I still stand firmly that these gimmicks are meant to keep HR personnel employed, Jira boards have proved to be extremely important for one thing: task prioritisation. I have recently started to use Jira board to manage my tasks on a weekly basis. Using any.do, I do the following on every Friday:
- List out tasks to be done by the next supervisory meeting and add them to the Jira board
- Arrange the tasks in order of most urgent to least urgent
- Add 3 articles to review to the bottom of the Jira board
- Arrange the tasks again, with articles to be reviewed arranged in order of importance.
I have found that, in order for the above to work, I have to be very specific about the task that needs to be finished and at the same time maintain a succinct, clean and simple Jira board. I liken this to the mission objectives checklist in video games; short and specific commands that guides the player on how to pass a specific level in a video game.
The above steps let me sear the image of the Jira board into the back of my eyes, ensuring there is never a waking moment in which I ask the question 'what shall I do today?'. Instead, I bombard myself with the question 'how shall I complete (insert name of task here)?' everyday; 7 days a week, 10 hours a day.
Final thoughts
This is by no means an exhaustive list of things that are wrong with me. I could spend an entire month just listing my shortfalls and weaknesses, but doing so will get me nowhere. After-all, knowing thyself simply gives the current state of mind; it does not change the fact that I am still weak, lazy and impulsive. Small and consistent action is what I truly require to become a person fitting of holding a Ph.D. in fluid dynamics.
I will not disappoint again come the next PRP.