'On my last day in my Ph.D. lab ... I thanked my professors for the lab tradition of weekly progress reports. It helped me collect the small stones I ultimately used to construct the stairs to my Ph.D.' ScienceWorkingLife
During my early months of graduate school, I struggled with a weekly task: sitting down at my computer and writing an update for my advisers. More often than not, I felt stuck. I didn’t know what to write because I didn’t think I had done enough work worth sharing. My stress level skyrocketed, and I started to do experiments just for the sake of having something to report. It was the perfect recipe for making no progress.
I started to do experiments each week, usually frantically putting them together during the 2 or 3 days leading up to my weekly email. The experiments worked, but I had a nagging feeling I was getting lucky and that eventually I’d be discovered for being sloppy. During one group meeting, my adviser scolded a lab member for wasting time, energy, and money on a poorly designed experiment. The same could be said for much of my work up to that point, I knew. Something needed to change.
I wasn’t sure how my advisers would respond if I reverted to the experimental design stage, but I decided it was worth a try. I spent the weeks that followed reading papers and thinking about the big picture goals of my project. I was nervous when I wrote my first email update listing all the papers I’d read and ideas I’d explored—but lacking concrete data. To my relief, my advisers didn’t object.
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