Taking Care of Yourself!

Reflect and Evolve your Routines

Effective working habits and a good work life balance are central to staying healthy and prolific. In order to find the best routines for yourself, you may want to reflect on your processes once in a while and create your working time with more awareness on what helps you in the long run.

Procrastination? Perfectionism? Pragmatism!

Reflect upon your mindset and overcome procrastination.

If you tend to procrastinate, it might be helpful to reflect upon the mindset in which you approach the task. Procrastination can often be a result of perfectionism. We postpone tasks because we fear we will fail to meet our (perfectionist) standards. Instead of tackling our next task, we look for activities that seem easier to complete and that make it seem as though we're doing something useful - we respond to emails, clean the lab, track down references. But motivation for what we really need to do, like starting to write that next article, does not rise while doing something else. Motivation does not magically appear, but "action leads to motivation, which in turn leads to more action". And that's the real reason behind the tip by Kearns and Gardiner (2011): " You have to start before you feel ready; then you'll feel more motivated, and then you'll take more action."
It is also useful to break down big projects - such as an article and of course an entire dissertation -  into very small steps. Set a realistic goal, break it into small steps for the day or the week and stay focused and pragmatic. "This is what I want to get done. The result has to be good enough - not a hundred percent perfect." And then reward yourself!

Tips to avoid procrastinating:

• Start BEFORE you feel ready.
• Big projects need to be broken down into small goals and tiny specific "to dos" for the day. "I will start working on my method chapter today. In the morning, I will structure my thoughts on the topic with the help of a mind map. In the afternoon, I will write for 60 minutes to get a start on the topic."
• Be pragmatic. "I aim for results that are good enough - not better than enough."
• If you feel you're not focused, try using the Pomodoro Technique to structure your workflow and to plan your breaks.

Academia. Do I Really Belong?

Identify the impostor syndrome

"Oh dear, everybody will realise that I am not an expert!" The central point of the impostor syndrome is that you believe that you are nothing but a fraud. Those affected are sceptical about themselves and their abilities. They believe that they will not be able to fulfil their professional role and that one day people will find out about their „incompetence“. They do not link their success and their achievements to their abilities but relate them to external factors or fortunate coincidence. Doctoral candidates sometimes also doubt that they are capable of what they achieve and think that the world around them will soon realise that they do not belong to academia anyway.

How can you counteract impostor syndrome? The academic world is a place that nurtures the impostor syndrome. Researchers are under constant pressure of critique regarding their academic standing, be it at conferences, in working group meetings or in peer-review processes. An academic culture in which colleagues rigorously scan texts in search of inconsistencies – mainly to make a name for themselves - is likely to intensify the fear of failure. Doctoral candidates are furthermore in a phase in their academic career that is marked by informal grading and in the end by a formal evaluation.

In addition, one feature of the German academic system still is that the majority of the professors are white, middle class and male. That means that doctoral candidates of different backgrounds can easily feel alienated if they do not conform. They might feel they are “not good enough” since they do not comply with the academic environment.

All of these aspects may enhance a feeling of inferiority. However, becoming aware of these pitfalls and talking about them will be the first step in order to say “YES, I am in the right place here at the University. I am a true researcher.”

Ressources
Information and resources collected by the Max Planck PhDnet on Mental Health -  including an Immediate Help Document
The Wellbeing Thesis. An online resource for postgraduate research students to support your wellbeing, learning and research.
Petra Boynton: Being well in academia: ways to feel stronger, safer and more connected, Routledge, 2021.
Zoë J. Ayres: Managing your Mental Health during your PhD: A Survival Guide, Springer, 2022.
Wellbeing and mental health lens on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) - tool to reflect on and build your wellbeing and mental health literacy as a researcher

Background information on PhD life and mental health
Nature's 2019 PhD survey
Evidence for a mental health crisis in graduate education (Evans et al. 2018)
I don’t think there’s anything darker than doing a PhD (Pollak 2017, The Irish Times)