Graduate student shares insights on a productive summer

June 28, 2019 - by Sarah Igram

The following story was written by Liberato Silva dos Santos. Liberato is a Ph.D. student at Iowa State in applied linguistics and technology. He also serves as an English Writing Consultant in the Center for Communication Excellence.

 

Welcome to what’s usually the least structured time of the year.

 

Over the summer, there are fewer assignments and deadlines to meet in comparison to the fall and spring semesters. Not all students have teaching or research assistantships to keep them busy from June to August. There are few conferences to attend, and campus life slows down considerably. No wonder this time can pose a challenge to graduate students who want to stay productive.

 

In spite of the challenge, advice from multiple sources indicate that a small but effective set of habits is all we need to stay productive. Create a road map of what you intend to accomplish during the summer. Break your intended accomplishments into the steps leading to them. Conquer procrastination by completing smaller tasks and working your way up to complete bigger tasks. Remember to give yourself credit for each accomplished step. Planning, goal-setting, and avoiding overkill can be your allies on the road to having a productive summer. 

 

Balancing work with fun and relaxation can also be a struggle. Some graduate students know they need some time off but feel guilty when they take it. But what if you could balance work and play? In a blog post, philosophy professor Justin Weinberg questions why some of us seem to treat work and play like they cannot coexist. Thinking like this, Weinberg argues, leads us to schedule long days of work with no play, and long days of play with no work, when we could instead balance both. He argues that summer is the perfect time to strike that balance and uses math to prove his point.

 

Summer is also a great time to self-assess your strengths, accomplishments, and weaknesses. Doing so can provide you with a much-needed reality check. It can help you better understand where you are now in relation to where you want to be by the time you finish your degree. To help you self-assess, you can use multiple sources such as your CV/résumé, academic year review form, and graduate student status information – just make sure you keep them updated. These documents can help you see how much you have already accomplished in terms of teaching, research, and publications. They can also help you see what is missing and where you are falling behind. Summer can then become the time to do some catching up.

 

For those who feel that you’re already on top of things, summer can be the time to write your thesis or dissertation and prepare for your upcoming defense—or it can be the time to write cover letters, research statements, teaching statements and applications for jobs in academia or in the industry.

 

Clearly, there is plenty to do over the summer, and these ideas are just a few examples of what one can choose to do. And you can always get help. If you would like to chat and get some ideas on how to get organized and stay productive during the summer, you can visit Graduate College Career Services or the Center for Communication Excellence. Both offer workshops and opportunities to make the most of your summer. To read more about what other people have done in order to stay productive, make sure you check my suggested reads and views below.

 

Suggested reads & views

Tags: summer series

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