How to be an organised MSc/MA/Mres/PhD student

Dr. Caspar Addyman

Birkbeck Babylab @BrainStraining

What s the point of a Masters or Doctorate?

A Masters/PhD is not another exam. It is an apprenticeship in being an academic. Academic n. 1. independent researcher. 2. a world expert (in something almost nobody else cares about.)

Key words INDEPENDENT and EXPERT

Independence
You are on your own But it is okay to ask advice. There are others in the same boat. You should be proud when you succeed. Masters/PhD is incredible achievement You deserve ALL the credit. Ability to work independently is a highly transferable skill.

Expertise
The bad news 10,000 - 50,000 hours (Simon & Chase, 1973) The not so bad news 10,000 hours (Ericsson, 1996) The good news Quality of practice, not quantity. Talent is far less important than determination The excellent news Practice can be fun & make you happy (FLOW - Csikszentmihalyi, 1992)

The secret is to make better use of your time

1. Meta-cognitive awareness Being aware of your bad habits will lead to good ones Work smarter, not harder According to the experts. Technology Your enemy and your friend. How to read Tips on active reading of literature Final tips

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1. Metacognitive awareness
We all have different strengths and weaknesses AND THATS OKAY!!

Doesnt mean you have to accept it Play to your strengths Work at your weaknesses

KNOW THYSELF It worked for Socrates!

Metacognitive Awareness Questionnaire

KNOWLEDGE ABOUT COGNITION What type of learner are you? 1.Procedural Learn by doing

>

Jump straight in

2.Declarative Learn well from facts

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Read widely.

1.Conditional/Contextual Need background knowledge & motivation

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Evaluate your goals.

(Schraw & Dennison, 1994) http://www.scribd.com/doc/175728784

Metacognitive Awareness Questionnaire

REGULATION OF COGNITION Where can you use help & external strategies? 1. 2. Planning

> >
3.
4. 5.

Organising time. Organising knowledge. Taking stock. Checklists. Get second opinions.
(Schraw & Dennison, 1994) http://www.scribd.com/doc/175728784

Information management

Comprehension monitoring

> > >

Debugging strategies Evaluation

2. The Experts

A lot of what they say will be marketing hype. Skim several different books to see where they agree. Pick and choose things that work for you

S.M.A.R.T.(E.R)
The SMART mnemonic is loved by business schools, has been around a long time and is a very useful guide for goal setting.

Applies equally well to whole projects or daily tasks.

E R

EVALUATE REVALUATE

Daily routine
Do eat breakfast!
Start each day with a plan Do difficult things first

Block your time

GO HOME!

Priorities

3. Technology is your enemy

Thousands of new ways to procrastinate Variable time reinforcements in Facebook, etc. are incredibly addictive. Divided attention & task switching hurt your productivity

Despite 30 years to get it right Microsoft Office products still crash and lose your work.

3. Technology is your friend

For Gods sake, have an automatic back up

Please consider time tracking tools

RescueTime.com TeamViz.com

Powerpoint as a lab notebook.

Documenting your experiments as you go is a very good idea: It clarifies your thinking Helps in communicating your ideas to your supervisor Creates diagrams you can adapt for your papers A complete record of what you did saves a LOT of time later on.

Powerpoint as a lab notebook.

You should include: Literature review (just the highlights) Your ideas & hypothesis (visualisations & graphics) Methods include pilots, stimuli, experimental design Results get into habit of copying & pasting stats & graphs.

Researchers online
Twitter & Blogs:
Follow specialists in your field and science communicators e.g. @deevybee, @vaughanbell, @brainstraining, @edyong209 and @YOU!

Academic social networks:

Keep you abreast of new research, share your papers, ask questions.

Reference management
Papers/citations are the currency of academia. Reviewers & examiners pay most attention to references.
Reference management software makes organising, handling & using papers & citations easy.

Papers Mekentosj.com

Papers Mekentosj.com

4. How NOT to read

You cant read everything. Dont even try.
But over 3 years you will be surprised by how much you can read

Dont print things out

You will quickly get swamped. You will lose important notes.

Dont believe the hype

Most published research findings are false (Ionaddis, 2005)

4. How to read
Stay digital
Read hierarchically I
Start with the most recent major review, then highly cited paper, work your way down

Read hierarchically II
Start with the title, abstract, main result, methods, references, intro, discussion

Highlight and annotate liberally. If you use someones method, read their paper(s) forensically.

5. Scientific writing tips

Avoid jargon. Write up your thesis as you go along 250 pages of PhD is a LOT to do all in one go! Get your supervisor to set lots of little deadlines rather than 1 BIG one. Stick to them! If you get an opportunity to write something up for publication, take it. Book reviews, review articles, book chapters Empirical papers can take up to a year to get published. Writing is rewriting

5. General productivity tips

Caffeine helps but only up to a point
Performance follows an Yerkes-Dodson inverted U-shaped curve (Watter, Martin & Schretter, 1997)

Sleep is wonderful
Less sleep = worse performance Sleep consolidates learning http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu

5. General productivity tips

Aerobic exercise is good for the brain
Better than any other form of brain training (Hillman, Erickson & Kramer, 2008)

Meditate
Helps with concentration / attention

Thank you for your time.

@BrainStraining

This presentation is available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/176137593/