Building your Identity as a Researcher – Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
If you have been accepted onto a post-graduate research degree, you deserve to be there. Academics are busy people and they have no inclination to accept candidates who aren’t able. They take students...
View ArticleChallenges of Freedom and Responsibility
One of the main benefits of researching at post-graduate level is that you have the freedom to follow your passion and interest, studying a subject you have selected. This freedom reflects that fact...
View ArticleLinking Back to Meaning and Goals
In section 1 – we talked about the importance of finding meaning both in your subject and in the process of your research. It can be helpful to return to this concept throughout your research degree,...
View ArticleMarking Your Progress – Celebrate Your Wins
Over the course of a long post-graduate research project it can be easy to focus on what is yet to be done. The fact that you will probably have a lot to do, before a clear deadline, can keep you...
View ArticlePredictable Time Off
One of the challenges of being a PGR student is that there is no obvious moment in the day when your work definitively finishes. Unless you set a structure yourself, you could be in the labs or at...
View ArticleStages of PGR Student Identity
The expectations you place on yourself at the beginning of your PGR studies and during your research can have a significant impact on your wellbeing overall. Becoming a PGR candidate is a process...
View ArticleThe Importance of Planned Structure
The idea of having nothing to do, of being able to drift through the day acting on our whims and working only when desire or inspiration strikes can seem very appealing. It would as if we were on a...
View ArticleUsing Multiple Identities to Your Advantage
As a PGR student, you may occupy a number of different identities at the same time, including student, researcher, collaborator, lecturer and employee, not to mention the identities you may hold...
View ArticleWorking with Uncertainty
Uncertainty is one of the things we find most difficult to manage. Not knowing something can mean we don’t know how to react or what to believe, leaving us in an uncomfortable limbo state. It can also...
View Article