Day 62: 6/1/2018
First of all, I have to say that I cannot believe this is my third month as a PhD student and living in the UK in general. Time flies so quickly and I start to think it is going fast, maybe too fast that I cannot handle it well.
Today was quite an okay day if I have to assess it. I got up as my alarm went off. → First accomplishment of the day, yay! Then I spent some time on my phone again. → Boo. T.T But the rest of it was pretty good I would say.
Spending time reading, I later had breakfast and got ready for the Educational Research Group (ERG) meeting. This is a weekly event organized by the Department of Education. It was recommended, though not required, for the first year students to attend it. So, this is something for me to look forward to every week. For this Friday, it was first not appealing to me and I even thought of not attending since there would be no academic presentations but ‘a free discussion about progression, conferences and other topics about our PhD Study’ (to quote the exact wordings in the email) instead. But then I thought I would go and observe it anyway. There is always something to learn in any discussion.
There were 5–6 PhD students showing up at first. As the discussion went on, a few more came and join us. Among 8–9 in total, there were only three students who were in their first year, of course, myself included. Apparently, I was at the most elementary stage comparing to other students who were in their second, third or even forth year.
The discussion was very fruitful, intriguing and exciting at the same time. I learned so much from the experiences of the more senior fellow PhD researchers. Each of us introduced ourselves and talked briefly about our research studies and challenges we had faced so far. I shared my study which is still at the very elementary stage and received some good comments and questions.
One thing I learned during their talks was that “there should always be Plan B and Plan C when it comes to conducting a study” because things can always go off the plan. There were two particular students whose research plans needed to change entirely. One of these two students had a problem with participant recruitment since the target school had been closed right before her data collection period. Another student was facing a more serious problem which had something to do with research plan in general — his supervisor suggested that he does something for his own country rather than the research in developed industrialized countries like the UK, European countries, and the US. Thus, he needed to change pretty much everything. Even worse, he was faced with another serious problem which I could not really understand due to his thick Spanish accent but I was able to grasp that he needed a Plan C .
The discussion was so friendly and intimate that I was able to share my thoughts and opinions with the least amount of hesitation or worries of being judged. Despite our diverse backgrounds in terms of academic, research interests and country of origin, I felt safe and secured throughout the discussion.
I learned so much not only about research but also discussion mediation from this sole event.
Thankfully, my decision to join this session paid off beautifully.
I then went to work at my office at the ReCSS on campus as planned after lunch. I was pretty productive during a few hours I spent there. It could be because of the book I started reading Mercer’s Minds and Works is extremely interesting and his writing is more digestible when compared with other theoretical or classic books I have read recently.
Again, I made a quick stop at the library to pick up even a few more books before heading home. Dinner was reheated and eaten, I was ready for an evening run. Today, I could feel my strong urge to exercise regularly which is a fantastic thing that I did not experience during my puberty and young adult years.
Unfortunately, I could only run for 6K, much shorter than my original plan due to the injury started at the second or third kilometer. As a result, I believe I need to take a break from running until fully recover from this injury to prevent further and worse situation.
Deciding to take a break from studying, I indulged a bit by binge-watch videos on YouTube after this week. I somehow feel not rested and not productive as if something is missing. Something I do not know what it is up to now.
Later another urge kicked in. I felt like becoming a bit more organized, thus, I put the calendars on my board hoping to see my goals and plans more visible and clearer than the first two months.
Considering the amount of time has passed, I now completely believe what Chris told me during the program orientation that ‘three years will go by very quickly’. Therefore, I certainly need to be wiser, more strategic, organized, and productive with my time management and research planning in general.
Self-evaluation on time and life management on this: 7.55/10
Research Related Notes:
Be wiser, more strategic, organized, and productive with time management and research planning.
6/2/2018 12.17 am.
