PhD life is like studying the dark arts

So… hear me out. I don’t mean that PhD life and research are the spawn of evil and researchers are like Death Eaters using their skills to destroy the world as we know it. In fact, the name for this blog was going to be something like “You can’t just tick things off a list” – but I thought this was way more interesting (and I haven’t mentioned Harry Potter for a while!).

What I mean, is that doing a PhD is not certain – you can’t just memorise a bunch of information and throw it out when you’re under pressure. A PhD is an ever-changing and complex thing, where you need to be able to think on your feet to adapt and respond to the situations that arise (Thank you to JK Rowling, in the words of Severus Snape, for the inspiration behind these sentiments.)

The PhD I applied for wasn’t the PhD that I arrived to take up, because the project hadn’t progressed in the anticipated way in the 9 months between my interview and start date. I had to figure out where we were as a team and understand the technology that I was going to be using and working with. By that point, it was time for me to think about how I’m going to put my own stamp on my project: what is it that I really want to do and is there a way that plays to my strengths to do it? Also, what do I want to learn from my PhD and what will help me with the direction I want my future career to go in? Okay, so that’s a lot of questions, but by this point there are a lot more options in the mix and I’m getting to grips with the limitations of the technology. So is there anything I can do to help overcome those limitations? How does that affect my project and the skills I need to complete it and what I am going to learn?

That’s a lot of questions for one brain to get around. Especially when the circumstances are changing and there are different ideas and inputs from external sources, e.g., funding, supervisor, etc.

Six months in, I’ve found myself doing a project I never thought I’d do with skills I didn’t think I had the capability to acquire and I love it! Granted, I freaked out *just a little* when things weren’t fitting to the exact plans and targets I’d drawn up in my head about 8 months ago, but it’s all a learning process, right?

This morning on my train journey, I mapped out the different aspects of my PhD and how they really are all related and linked. I guess that was more for my own peace of mind than anything. My supervisor is amazing and she is very aware and supportive of the requirements of a PhD whilst also making sure that each of her students has ownership of their project and that it’s going in the direction(s) that they (we) would like - all whilst keeping the other stakeholders happy. She has managed to put my previous fears to rest about not having enough engineering in my project or not being sure how to put what I’m doing together to  form an actual PhD or not feeling like I’m even the right person to achieve what she wants me to.

All of these different things that need to be worked on simultaneously, however, mean that you can’t make a list and tick them off one by one. That’s the situation I find myself in at the moment: I’m making an app, I’ve got a survey out (which will need analysing and writing up), I’m starting to design a protocol for the improvement of the sensors (which will then need implementing and the results, processing and analysing) and I’m starting to work on a new sub project to see if the sensors will be useful in a slightly different application (which means contextual research, planning, testing, analysis of results, potentially writing a new app). All of these things need doing and none of them have a higher priority than any other. They’re all important and all link to each other. I also have my Early Stage Assessment coming up in October, so I have to make sure that I’m writing up that report and preparing for the presentation/VIVA that goes with it. At least that helps me reflect on what I’ve done and where I’m intending to lead the project. So in a way, that is somewhat of a help!

It’s now that I realise why many PhD students can’t fit everything into a 40-hour week with regular hours. A PhD is not regular. Each one is unique and with each month, the situation changes. So one way of working might have been great for one situation, but not that great for another. I’m going to have to rethink how I manage my time and organise my tasks to get as much done as possible each day/week/month without burning out.

Shruti Turner (@ShrutiTurner) is a PhD Researcher at Imperial College London. This story was published on August 1, 2018, on Shruti’s blog, Shruti’s PhD (available here), and has been republished here with her permission.