Now there's quite likely a little bit of
a fib in the title of this video as I'm
pretty sure it's closer to seven months
now from me starting my PhD. But seven
months seem like a not particularly
momentous amount of time so I hope
you'll excuse a little bit of creative
playing with the truth there. What I
wanted to do today is pick up on six
things that I've learned during the
start of my PhD study, partly as a
reflective thing for myself but also, if
anyone just started in January or might
be looking to start their PhD in
September (or another research degree
like an MA), that they might be able to
learn from some of the
mistakes or mis-steps that I've taken
and that I might be able to help out in
that way. So, here are six things that
I've learned in my first six months of
PhD study. Number one is that research is
challenging. And challenging in a
slightly different way than I think I'm
used to. I've always been someone that
has taken on quite big projects and looked to
do things which are slightly beyond what
I potentially have the skills at that
time to do. Because I'm aware I will
take the time to learn those skills
along the way and already having that
project or that deadline on the cards
will mean that I will pick up those
skills and that I'll push myself to be able
to do that. I already knew this about
research from my MA dissertation and
yet the MA dissertation was a
time-limited project. It took place in
the last term of my MA study and so
what's been most challenging about the
PhD is that it has been a very different
kind of challenge in that it's a long
and sustained one. And there's
very few moments of glory or triumphs
along the way. Not that it's not fun but
there's very few moments where everyone
comes and says well done or you get a round of
applause which is partly why I
started this vlog was to give me some kind of
weekly output where I got to have a
little tick and know that I'd done
something whereas the PhD is a much more
sustained kind of coal face digging away.
Number two is that research is
incredibly fun. And I think partly this
is because I chose a project for my PhD
that is something that I'm genuinely
really, really interested in and truly
really passionate about. I know there's a
lot of blog posts and videos out there
about making sure that, if you do a PhD,
you choose something that is going to
sustain you for three years. Because it
is actually an awfully long time. There
was about seven months between the putting
together of my research proposal and
actually beginning the PhD and about a
couple of months in I remember
having a day where I went "I'm really
glad that I am doing my research on the
subject that I've chosen because this
is something that really interests me
and I can see sustaining me for three
years through very tough and very often
sometimes tedious research". Lesson
number three is that impact is really
important. It's something that's
mentioned an awful lot around
University departments and the
Doctoral College mention it an awful lot.
And I think I've really found that I'm
excited by impact as well. I remember
listening to an episode of Stuff You
Should Know (the podcast) a little while
ago and they were talking about Carl
Sagan (the American
space presenter) and how he got a lot of
stick from the academic community
because he didn't do all that much of
his own research but actually just did
a lot of communicating of other people's
research. And I think one of the big
things for me over the last few months
has been to realize the importance of
both those positions. It's really
important in all fields that
research is going ahead and that new
discoveries are being made or new
theses are being written and that
thoughts are being had. But it's also
really important that those ideas are
communicated to a slightly wider
audience that perhaps isn't going to
pick up a research journal and I think
I've become increasingly passionate
about that, about finding ways to explain
those. Particularly to me I think it's about
analyzing different bits of theatre and
then being able to find a way of
presenting those to other
theatre-makers so that they can
learn from analyses of the work of
really great bits of theatre. Lesson number
four is that you can't do everything.
When we had our first induction day
I remember being really,
really excited about all the different
things that were going on both within
the Drama department,
around the College of Humanities and the
University as a whole and pretty
much every other day we get an email
through with loads of stuff that we can
get involved in or conferences we can
submit to or journals, both within the
university and outside, that we can
submit to. And at the very beginning I
like pretty much wrote a list of all of
those down.
However I think quite
early on I realized I probably wasn't
going to be able to do everything but it's
taken me a little bit longer to realize
that that's probably okay. I've kind of
gradually developed a system whereby I
will put most things on my to-do list but
if there is something that sticks on to
do list for three weeks then I
realized that that's probably not
something that's particularly calling me
as something that I particularly want to
do or need to do right now. There was an
internal journal in the university I
was keen to submit
something to that I then realized
that 'submit an abstract' had been on my
to-do list for like maybe a month and a
half. And and just having it there and
then realizing that it had stuck around
for quite a while without me going
"That's what I'm going to do today", really
helped me to realize that perhaps that
wasn't something that I was going to do
right now. And there weill probably be
another issue that I could try for next
time. Number five is that travel is
absolutely tiring. I've been doing a lot
of travel for my research, I've been
going to Birmingham and London and to
Leeds to see shows. And I think, initially,
I was like "Oh that's great I can work on
the train, I can go and see a show and I'll
work on the way up there and on
the way back, it'll basically be like being
at my desk but moving at the same time".
Actually, this travel has been really,
really tiring. I think there's been quite
a lot of weekends where I've spent a lot
of the time traveling and actually have
just barely managed to even read a book
on the train because I'll be falling
asleep or just the journey itself has been
a bit draining. That might be a
personal thing rather than a universal
thing that you might be able to take
away from this but that's been
definitely something that I've learned.
And I've factored in a bit more
time around my research trips as I move
forward. Number Six is that I really need to
develop talking about my research. I
realized quite early on this year that I
think I'm a lot
better at writing down my research than
I am at talking about it. I'm not
entirely sure why that is, I think partly
it might be having that extra time to
prepare when you're writing and
constructing sentences whereas, when I stand
up in front of people, I get quite
worried that I'm going to absolutely
kind of bugger it up and not be able to
do it. Even in this I get to edit the
video so that I take out the bits
where I stumble over words and I say
completely the wrong thing but I'm still
hoping that this might be a way that I
can start to get a little bit better at
that. Because actually I know that I
often find it much more exciting to
listen to research in seminars or in
lectures than I do to read off the page
because you get to listen to the
researcher who's come up with that work
and it's far more engaging to do that
and have them there to ask
questions and I'd love to be able to do
that in the future. I know I've spoken to
a few different people down in the
comments previously who are also
currently doing PhDs or are potentially
doing them or have done them in the past.
And do let me know if there's
anything, either whether you've got any
tips form me (that would be great!), or if
there's any big lessons that you've
learned over the past six months or even
before that. If you have enjoyed this
video then please do give it a thumbs up,
send me a comment or subscribe. That
would be absolutely wonderful and I will
see you on Tuesday with another video.
Cheers!