PhDs: a survival guide

 A five-step survival guide for all those who are about to start a PhD.

1. Eat healthily and exercise regularly. I know this sounds kind of intuitive, but your mental health is likely to take a beating throughout your PhD, so you might as well ensure you are at least physically healthy. Regular exercise is always a pain and a struggle, so perhaps consider joining a club so that the exercise is regular and there are people motivating you to push on. Also, don't fall into the trap of eating junk food because it is convenient, plan ahead so that when you are about to collapse after a long day at uni there is already a frozen meal ready to re-heat. Trust me, sitting behind a computer or a microscope all day, you will put on the pounds if you don't look after yourself.
2. Make time for social events. Without your mates you will have no one to bounce ideas off and just let off some steam with. During your PhD, it is likely your friends become your surrogate family, but to have friends you have to be a friend. So, try your best to turn up to events.
3. Organisation from the beginning. You've all heard it before and I reiterate: if you fall behind due to unforeseen problems, prior planning and staying on top of things will likely help you to meet that deadline or give you some time to come up with a contingency plan.
4. Choose a supervisory team and your readers wisely. So often I have seen students who have supervisors that are too busy, or just plain too scary to talk to. Furthermore, a friend of mine was dragged over the coals by an annoying reader for no apparent reason, there were no criticisms or feedback, just contradictions to the other readers because he/she could. If someone gives you a tip-off that a potential reader or supervisor is busy or unlikely to give you good feedback, can them. Don't waste your time.



If something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't...

5. If something doesn't feel right, stop, and reconsider your options. We've all heard a story about someone who did something in their PhD because their supervisor wanted them too, even though the student didn't feel it was right, then 3 years later the student finds out their gut feeling was right and they wasted 3 years doing something fruitless. IT'S TRUE. I know eight people where this has happened to them. If you feel uneasy or there are too many gaps in your experiment or model, sort the problem out immediately. Don't wait it out just because your supervisor says it will be fine. Time is a precious, precious commodity.