February 19, 2019, by Tatiana

5 PhD musts for your procrastination

Have you heard of productive procrastination?

Procrastination happens on a daily basis, let’s admit that! Our time is precious though, so what about taking your mind off what you currently do by completing little tasks that will become handy in the near future?

  1. Sort out your bibliography

Isn’t yours a mess? Mine is. Thank God for this tip and reference managers (Mendeley, Zotero, Endnote). Don’t want to download those apps on your laptop? It’s ok, there is citethisforme.com for you who are looking for a free online reference manager!

  1. Search related conferences and journals

Browse the internet to find which are the conferences you want to attend and make a list of them

  1. Make a list of paper ideas

Or you could put up abstracts for future conferences/publications! No need to explain this, there are always aha moments where we think oh I need to write a paper about this! Make a list with paper ideas and in your procrastination break. How would the abstract for each idea look like? Leave a row empty to fill it in with abstracts for each paper idea! Here you go, ready for the next CfP you will randomly see that ends tomorrow, YOU ARE PREPARED!

  1. Brush up your CV/ Linkedin

No need to say my Linkedin is my friend! It is our version of online, public, professional self and needs to depict all the hard work we have done. Make sure you always keep your CV and Linkedin updated. Linkedin is not only needed for job searching. It is also a tool for networking, finding someone you met at a conference, keep up with people that inspire you in your sector and so much more!

  1. Create content for your website

What? You don’t have a website? Yes, I totally get it. After 4 years of saying I will create my website I still don’t have one. I even learnt CSS and HTML in order to do it. Still nothing. But, fellow PhD friends: fear not!!!! WordPress, Squarespace, Wix just to mention the first three that come to mind are so easy to use! The problem is the CONTENT! SO, fight procrastination with adding bits and bobs of the things you would like to go up to your website! That summer school you enjoyed, that conference you presented your paper or even that networking event you met useful connections! Every little counts!

 

What are the little things you do during procrastination?

Posted in Tatiana