PhD isn’t as simple as a walk in the park. All scholars have their fair share of struggles and to get some productivity and constructive outcome from their journey. If you are an avid reader and are fortunate enough to have an inspiring and encouraging mentor then you would have some good advice to simplify your journey. Hope some of these tips can help you in your journey:
Begin writing as soon as you can start: Writing often is the only way to learn how to write well. A consistent progress in your document would help you to deal with the obstacles as and when they get created. My suggestion to begin writing as early as possible in the course of your PhD is to improvise on your writing skills and become a seasoned writer by the time you are ready to deal with a full-fledged research paper. In addition, you collect content and re use at the subsequent stage of your course. Not only would it save your time when you sit to write your papers but it would also augment the quality of your document.
Read more than you can: For anyone who has told you that you need to read only research and topic related to your study, I wouldn’t support it. Reading a lot of papers gives you a very clear overview of your field of study and understand the important research done in your area but also gives you the understanding to avoid duplication of existing work and reinvention of the wheel but at the same time research is not the only challenge for a PhD scholar. There are challenges and hiccups related to non-academic issues such as time management, creativity, motivation and so on. Reading material that aids your dealing with such issues is a very good idea. It would help you to grow as a student and give you practical tips for development of essential soft skills required for the journey and the career ahead.
Look at the small signs of progress: It would become easier to lose motivation to continue working if you looked at only the bigger achievements as they would be only few and countable in the entire duration of the course. However, the small little accomplishments do pave the path for the bigger milestones an giving yourself a pat on the back for them now and then is a good idea to keep going ahead and moving forward.
Be generous with yourself, you and every PhD scholar deserves it.