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When You’re Feeling Doubts About Graduate School

Feeling self-doubt about whether or not you belong in graduate school is actually a normal experience for many Master’s and doctoral Students. These doubts and anxieties can arise for any number of reasons. Below are just a few that we’ve heard about from your peers, and maybe they will resonate with you as well. Included are tips and strategies on how to move through these feelings.

Feeling like an imposter. Ever feel like you’re not intelligent enough to be in graduate school: like somehow your peers or department will “find out that you’re just not cut out” to be at the UW? Also known as imposter syndrome, these nagging, negative feelings and self-talk are actually quite common for most graduate students, and can make you question your talents, strengths, and resilience. Remember that you do belong in graduate school because you are passionate about your research project, enhancing your professional development, or wanting to make a positive contribution to your communities by earning a graduate degree.

Accessing resources. Your life is busy: balancing your degree requirements, a job or two, and family or community responsibilities is quite a task even when all those areas of your life are important to you. During the thick of it all, anxiety can creep up and make you feel like you aren’t capable of fulfilling your goals and commitments. It’s in those moments, that you can pause and ask yourself: Am I getting my needs met? Maybe there’s a campus or community resource you need to access to make sure you are getting what you need on an individual level, whether that be your campus recreation center, alone or quiet time with a good book or a walk, quality time with friends off campus, mental health support, or even a good meal.

Feeling exhausted. We know you’re all working hard as graduate students, and hard work can get the best of us. Given the rigors of graduate school, this can lead to feelings of exhaustion or possibly even burnout. Again, take pause. Can you ask for an extension on a project? Do you need to take an academic leave of absence? Even better, is there someone you can check in with to help you make a plan for getting much-needed rest, along with ways to move forward after your break? The length of your break is particular to you and your circumstances. Recognizing that you need some time away doesn’t mean you’re a failure, it means you are invested in your success as a whole person.

Remembering your purpose. It’s good to reflect back on why you decided to be a graduate student. Once you are in graduate school, your reasons may actually change over time, especially as you continue to explore how your degree may get you where you want to be in the future. Sometimes your interests and needs really do change, and the path you are on may no longer serve you. This is also a normal experience for many graduate students, and you can talk about it with people you trust on your mentoring team, with close friends, or you can schedule an appointment to talk with us at Core Programs. Talking it over with people you trust can help make sure that your judgment isn’t being clouded by any of the reasons we discussed above. And making an informed decision to take what you have learned thus far, and bringing it into your next phase of life, can be just what you need to do.

We hope you find these strategies useful and let us know what has worked for you!

Best Regards,

Core Programs Team
#UWGradSuccess

5 tips to boost your productivity

All of us struggle with motivation at different times, and winter can be particularly challenging. That said, it can also be a good time to hunker down and get some work done. Whether you plan to stay in academia or not, you will need written products coming out of your postdoc years to demonstrate what you have accomplished. Perhaps you are also finishing up publications from your doctoral research or laying the groundwork for a new research direction. Recently, the National Center for Faculty Diversity and Development (NCFDD)’s “Monday Motivator featured 5 tips for productivity.

  1. Create a plan. How? Dr. Rockquemore writes: “It’s a simple process: 1) list your writing and wellness goals for the remainder of this calendar year, 2) map out all the steps that are needed to complete your goals, and 3) figure out when that work will get done.” While it may not be in your skill set yet, it is truly simple once you start. During your next work week, put “Planning” in your calendar for a 1-2 hour block and work through it. This is your work. This is a great time to revisit your Individualized Development Plan (IDP).
  2. Write every day. We also know that your own writing is the task that will consistently get put aside for other demands (e.g. lab meeting, responding to your advisor, looking up one more article, sifting through Facebook, etc.). Research shows that if you dedicate just 30 minutes a day to writing (really writing), you will make consistent progress toward a writing goal and complete a product faster than if you hope for a half-day or protected Saturday that never does emerge.
  3. Join a group of daily committed writers. You are not alone. We all have to write and produce. Just like a regular exercise or spiritual practice, if you are connected with others who are also committed, it helps you sustain the practice. You can meet face-to-face for your blocks of writing time or just stay connected online and check-in, which gets to the next point:
  4. Commit to regular accountability. Tell someone your goals and plans, and schedule a check-in meeting (virtually or in-person) to see how it is going. In the short-term, this can be yourself. Apps such as Grid Diary can help you self-assess at the end of the day what 3 things you accomplished, and set personal goals for how tomorrow can be better.
  5. Find dedicated mentors. All of this takes hard work, and sifting through the noise that comes at you on a daily basis. Find mentors—you should have a full team—who genuinely are invested in your success (see blog posts on mentoring). They can help hold you accountable, prioritize what needs to happen, strategize where products need to go, and troubleshoot when things fall through the cracks (which they will).

If you are interested in signing up for a weekly email with these Monday Motivator tips from NCFDD, or checking out other writing resources on their website, you can login with the UW membership.

Staying Motivated During the Winter

Whether you are new to the beautiful Pacific Northwest or have lived here for several years, the winter season can serve as a helpful reminder to engage in habits that motivate and inspire you to do your best work. Below are a few strategies that can help keep you energized throughout the quarter.

Stay hydrated. You may feel more fatigued during darker and colder weather. One way to increase your energy is to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Have you ever forgotten to stay hydrated because your work and personal lives are so busy? We have, too. It may sound silly, but try scheduling a daily reminder for yourself to drink a glass of water (at least once an hour) or to fill up your water bottle before heading to the classroom or work.

Fuel up. The Pacific Northwest is known for its love of caffeine. And while not everyone drinks coffee or tea — for those of us who do — caffeine offers that added boost of alertness during early winter mornings or afternoons. Another way to boost your energy is by incorporating fresh fruit, whole grains or nuts into your diet during the season. 

Connect with community. To maintain momentum throughout the quarter, it’s so important to connect with peers, advisors, mentors and friends. Maybe you need a studying, project or writing accountability partner. Or it might be time to schedule an appointment with your faculty advisor to check in about your project goals. Even still, the combination of the winter season and balancing a busy schedule can sometimes lead to unintentional isolation. So make time to connect with friends — over the phone or lunch, at the movies or at an event — as this is an important part of self-care.

Reach out for support. Stress in graduate school can contribute to periods of anxiety as well as feelings of self-doubt. If left unchecked, stress and anxiety can lead to serious mental health issues. If you are experiencing intense or prolonged periods of anxiety, or need emotional support for another reason, we encourage you to seek support from qualified mental health professionals on or off campus. And remember, there is no shame in doing so.

We hope you find these tips useful for navigating the winter quarter, and let us know what has worked for you!

Best,

Core Programs
#UWGradSuccess

Make your professional travel budget stretch! Here’s how.

Professional meetings, international workshops, and annual society gatherings are essential activities in your professional life. These regional, national, and international gatherings are where you hear about innovations in your field, grow your network, identify mentors and collaborators, receive critical feedback on your research, and learn about new and emerging directions. And yet, most of us have extremely limited travel budgets we can access, if any at all. The question is: how do you make your limited professional travel dollars stretch?

We pooled our collective experience, polled academics and trainees, reviewed travel advisors, and share just a few of the top tips here. This advice isn’t meant to endorse one service over another, but rather to give examples of ways you can seek alternatives when attending expensive national meetings.

  • Submit your work! It is easier to receive travel awards and cost reductions from the meeting organizers when you are presenting. Plus it is good for your career, obvi. Some conferences have childcare scholarships too.
  • Apply for travel scholarships from your professional society, or from other professional organizations that support young investigators. Email the Graduate Funding Information Service if you want help finding travel grant mechanisms that will fit your needs.
  • Volunteer! Often meetings need support with registration, panel facilitation, evaluation distribution, and numerous other tasks in exchange for a reduced registration rate. It can be a great way to meet people too.
  • Stay anywhere but the meeting hotel. Even with a meeting discount, you can often use a house-share site (like Airbnb or Couchsurf or Servas) to find something nearby for a fraction of the cost. Your dollars can stretch even further if you can room with colleagues and have access to a kitchen to use, even for morning coffee.
  • Take a ride-share or public transportation from the airport. If you take SeaTac as an example, you can take light rail into downtown for $2.75 vs. taxi in for $45 (plus tip). Innovations like UberPool let you have the convenience of a taxi without the cost.
  • Bring your own lunch or snacks for the airplane (healthier and cheaper!). If you are staying at the meeting hotel, consider shopping at a local market for snacks or beverages, rather than getting stuck with expensive hotel meals and refreshments.
  • Download “cheap eats” or happy hour apps for the area and seek deals for your meals not covered by the conference.
  • Choose a red-eye flight to arrive the day-of the meeting and save one night of lodging expenses. Find cheaper flights with a flight aggregator like Momondo.
  • Use your own wifi hotspot or find a local café rather than paying for the expensive hotel wireless access.
  • Join hotel membership groups (for free) and get access to benefits, like wireless, for free, and eventually earn points to use toward hotel nights or car rentals.
  • Mail your meeting materials in advance. it can be cheaper than paying for baggage fees depending on your airline.
  • Apply for an OPA travel award if you are presenting independent research and have specific career activities planned for a professional meeting. Check out our award winners and timeline for application.

    Some of these tips may also not be for you. Some of you will prioritize food over lodging, or decent flight times over everything else. Let us know what works for you!

Quick Tips for Fitting in Career Planning

Welcome back to all graduate students at Bothell, Seattle, and Tacoma campuses! We at Core Programs hope you created intentional space for yourself to relax and enjoy the holiday break. The start of a new calendar year is often a time to look ahead and set intentions that help you do well personally, academically and in your work life (current and future).

It can feel like a lot, but we know from experience that doing a little at a time can make a big project more manageable. Below are a few strategies you can incorporate into your weekly routine, so that intentional career planning becomes part of your graduate student experience.

Engage in self-exploration.  Across the UW, grad programs provide students with varying degrees (and breadth) of career guidance. Regardless of your discipline, career planning is an important life-long skill to learn and hone throughout your graduate school journey and beyond. To start get you started, consider doing assessments of your skills, interests, values, and strengths. These assessments can help you identify sectors, jobs and work environments that are a good match for you.

Break down each task. We see—and hear you—that you are busy fulfilling requirements for your degree, working a part-time or full-time job, and/or taking care of loved ones. Yet it’s also still true that only you can invest time in your career development before you graduate. Consider carving out 15 minutes in your schedule once a week to (1) make a list of careers you’re interested and the skills they require, (2) search and make note of professionals on LinkedIn who work in those careers, then soon after, (3) explore company or organization websites to get a feel for what they offer, and (4) set up a 30-min. informational interview with one of the individuals on your list, and so many more leads once you get started.

Utilize a range of resources that fits your availability.  Schedule an appointment with a career counselor at your UW campus for in-person guidance on developing concrete strategies for your career exploration. Come talk to any of us at Core Programs (Skype appointments available too). If it’s difficult for you to schedule an in-person appointment, get acquainted with free online career planning tools such as ImaginePhD or myIDP—each with their own assessments as well. Attend a graduate student career development event offered by a career center at Bothell or Seattle—and be on the lookout for upcoming events sponsored or co-organized by Core Programs!

Getting stuck—or did you discover an awesome career exploration tool? Let us know! And happy launch into 2018!

Best,

Core Programs Team
#UWGradSuccess

Diversify your research funding! Here’s how.

With federal budgets getting tighter and the future uncertain, having a strategy for diversifying your funding portfolio is key to success. Gone are the days where an academic researcher might have a career fully funded by a single organization. Not only is it good for your bottom line, but diversifying your funding sources can also be good for creativity: some foundations or non-governmental organizations have different parameters and flexibility about what kinds of projects they fund.

In December 2017, we heard from two highly successful UW faculty, Drs. Chet Moritz from the Departments of Rehabilitation Medicine, Physiology & Biophysics and Dan Ratner from Bioengineering, who shared their strategies for success with diverse funding sources. We share a few of their tips and insights here so you can try a few yourself:

  • Federal funding is diverse. Many UW faculty and postdocs have experience with NIH and NSF. But experience shows it can pay off to look beyond these traditional sources that are more competitive. For example, the Departments of Defense and Energy fund a significant amount of innovative research. Get creative about how your science can fit within other priorities and desired applications. Add a collaborator with relevant expertise, pivot to a new application, and find an informant with experience who can help you navigate the new language and formats of the applications.
  • Take your work to the next level. The NIH and NSF invest in basic science and innovative discovery. If you are interested in bringing your innovations to implementation, dissemination, translation, or commercialization, you often need to look elsewhere for funding support. Fortunately, many foundations are highly motivated to bring discoveries to impact, and other entities such as the State are interested in implementation and commercialization. Search the state budget for line items dedicated to specific problems lawmakers are motivated to solve. Search the Foundation Directory to find a match for your research area and a foundation who values and invests in those areas.
  • Don’t shy away from smaller grants. Do you need funds to kick-off new ideas? Small grants can help you get preliminary data or demonstrate a proof of concept. Smaller grants can help you build a relationship with a funder (governmental or private sector). At UW, postdocs have access to the Amazon Catalyst awards. Junior investigators can have an edge. Institutions and funding organizations want to invest in young, exciting researchers.
  • Build a relationship and grow your connections. Once you get your foot in the door, build a relationship with the funder. Success breeds success, no matter how small. Celebrate and make visible what you’ve accomplished and who made it possible, whether the funder, the institution, the state, Congress, etc. Know your audience (your funder) and dedicate some time to a feedback loop that will grow and sustain your relationship.

Finally, grant writing inevitably involves disappointment. It can take seven submissions to get to one successfully funded project. Pay attention to reviewer feedback, do your best to match your idea and proposal to the funder’s priorities and formats, and develop resilience and persistence. It will pay off! We know you can do it, and we are right there working at this alongside you. Funding your research is a lifelong endeavor and the landscape is always changing; your ability to be responsive and pivot when needed is key.

Additional references: 

The Grad School Guru – Equity in the Classroom: Putting names to faces

“How can I learn to recognize my students whose ethnicity is different from my own? I feel bad that it takes me much longer to remember their names and faces, and I have even mixed up some of the students, calling them by the wrong name.  They deserve better! I do study the photographs we get on MyUW of the students in a class, but that doesn’t seem to help much.”*

— Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for writing in! This is a complex and sensitive issue, and I really admire that you’ve recognized this problem and are taking the time to work through it. That’s a great first step!

To help answer your question, I’ve turned to my expert colleagues at the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and FIUTS (The Foundation for International Understanding Through Students). I’ve provided each of their answers below, along with some additional resources related to names and facial recognition. Some of their general advice is: get to know your students better by playing name-related games and asking ice-breaker questions in class, and, if you’re still stuck, ask the students to re-introduce themselves during the first few weeks of classes or to keep a name card at their desk. Finally, do some self-reflection, and investigate whether any implicit biases might be affecting how you learn students’ names.

I hope this advice helps you to recognize all of your students and learn their names faster. You got this!

Sincerely,

The Grad School Guru

THE CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
The CTL provided three strategies for learning to recognize your students: Collect more information; use other cues (besides their faces); and reflect on your biases and teaching strategies. Here they provide tips and ideas for pursuing each strategy.
Collect more information:

  • On the first day, use an ice breaker activity such as the “name story,” where students go around and share a brief story related to their name. This will help you attach the name to the person.
  • Ask your students to teach you how to pronounce their name.
  • Record students’ names and pronunciations on the UW photograph sheet when they introduce themselves.
  • Consult websites to learn name pronunciations (some websites included below!)
  • Before or after the class, chat with students to use their names.
  • In the first few weeks of class, have students say their names first when they ask a question.

Use other cues:

  • Have students use name tents. Collect them from students after every class and have them pick them up again to use at the beginning of the next class.
  • There are other ways to remember students than their faces: consider the tone of their voice, their hairstyles, their posture, clothing style, accessories, etc.
  • Use Canvas to have students share stories of their names and/or introduce themselves sharing their interests in the course or other interests (favorite places, foods).

Reflect:

  • Ask yourself why as an instructor or TA you are having a particularly hard time remembering some students’ names. We all hold implicit biases: attitudes and stereotypes that can affect our behaviors without us realizing. You may want to learn more about implicit bias: if so, check out the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and Harvard implicit Bias tests online. These tools can help you find out where you might have blind spots and what areas you might want to work on.
  • Use active listening strategies. Reflect on how you listen:
    • Are you allowing the student time to express themselves?
    • Are you concentrating on what the student is saying?
    • Are you attentive to verbal and non-verbal cues?

FIUTS
Ellen Frierson and Era Schrepfer, at FIUTS, offered a number of strategies for better remembering students and connecting their names to faces. Also, Ellen wants to assure you that “the longer I work with students, the better I get at learning names quickly (and I’m generally pretty bad with names across all demographic categories!). So, just a word of encouragement that this is a skill you truly are likely to get better at if you work at it.”
Here are their tips!

  1. It’s easier to remember someone’s name when you know something about them. Create an activity at the beginning of the year/class that gives you some context about each student. Maybe a fun icebreaker where they all make a name tag with a food they like that begins with the same letter as their name? If you can collect them at the end of the day, even better, as it gives you something to study with!
  2. Spend more time with people who look different from you! You’ll get better at remembering people’s names and faces with more practice. It sounds like you’re already being really thoughtful about examining your own biases, so being more conscious in general about how much time you’re spending with people from their same racial/ethnic background versus connecting more with others might be useful.
  3. Practice the usual memorization tips more often until you at least know all the names. Carry your list with you. Look over your list at different times of the day, while you’re doing other things. Record yourself saying the names and listen to the recording.
  4. Pair up with another T.A. and “introduce” each of your students to them (and vice versa), telling them something about each student.
  5. Focus on memorizing the stressed syllable of each name, and possibly coming up with an association just for that syllable. (So if the name is Xinlu, focus on remembering the “Xin” part, maybe by thinking of a rhyming word like “pin”). When I (Ellen) was a classroom teacher and trying to learn lots of names at once, I’d try to notice one particular feature of the student’s face and pair that with a mnemonic device for their name to help a) remember their name and b) connect it with that person: “Frank has freckles” or something silly like that. If you are having trouble distinguishing people of a specific race or ethnicity, this approach might also help you to start noticing the ways in which facial features vary among people of the same race or ethnicity.
  6. Use name tents in class if you need to. Have the students make name tents on the first day and collect them to be distributed in each class. You can practice by handing them out at the start of each class and it will reduce the chance that you will call on the wrong person.
  7. Create learning activities that will help you to learn as much as possible about each of your students: having them share helps both of you. Be sure to remind everyone to introduce themselves before sharing with the class, whether you already know their name or not.
  8. Don’t worry if you forget someone’s name, just ask and be honest about the challenge. It’s totally OK to say, “I have so much trouble remembering people’s names! Please help me by reminding me and let me know if I get it wrong!”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Here are some additional resources you might find useful, compiled by the CTL, FIUTS, and Graduate School staff:

*This question has been lightly edited to preserve anonymity. 

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Pushing Through to the End of the Quarter

It’s the home stretch of the quarter and we know you are actively working through your projects, grading, and other milestones, even while looking ahead to the break. We offer a few tips that can help you make the most of these final weeks.

Set Priorities. Look over your schedule for the next two weeks. Block out time slots you know you can’t be flexible on: hard deadlines for school, work, and family time. Hold off on meetings or appointments that can actually wait until after the quarter (and holiday break) is done. You’ll start to see where you have wiggle room for things like self-care. The reality is, there is always time take care of ourselves. This can be a glass of water, a healthy snack, getting up from your desk to stretch, a 10-minute walk outside, or even taking a nap to improve your productivity. Setting priorities allows us to realistically see that we do have control over our schedules, especially when stress makes us feel the complete opposite.

Writing. Carve out 30 minutes of time each day to work on your writing. Set a timer, close your web browsers, and unplug from social media. You’ll find that you’re eventually making progress on that larger writing project. For more support, remember that you can schedule an appointment with a writing tutor at your UW campus. You also have the option of reaching out to a peer or two in your department — or from outside of your program — to hold one another accountable for writing by organizing group writing sessions. If you’re considering something more structured beyond this quarter, here are some tips for organizing a thesis or dissertation writing group.

Connect with your support network. It can be a struggle to stay motivated these last few weeks of the quarter and complete what needs to get done. But as Andrea Zellner from GradHacker states, “Don’t underestimate the power of your cheering section. Maybe all you need to get moving is a pep talk.” Call, Skype, or meet up with a close friend or family member, so they can root you on! Attend a community gathering with like-minded peers, such as the upcoming Holiday Gathering for First-Gen Graduate Students in Seattle, or the Holiday Wine, Beer & Spirits Walk in Bothell, or organize a low-key, small potluck with peers to celebrate one another. If you’re needing mental health support — and there is no shame in this at all — reach out to your campus counseling center for an appointment or for community resource referrals.

Check in with advisors and mentors. Maybe you’re in a 9-month graduate program, about to complete the first quarter of your Master’s degree, or heading into the final months of your doctoral program. Maybe you and your advisor or mentor haven’t checked in with each other in a while (because life happens). Whether you are thinking through your goals for winter quarter or needing guidance on your research or next steps in your graduate program, it might be a good idea to schedule a time to meet with your advisor(s). Check in with them via email to see about scheduling a time to meet during early winter quarter. Just scheduling the meeting can give you piece of mind.

We hope you find these tips useful in helping you push through — and thrive — at the end of the quarter!

Best,

Core Programs Team
#UWGradSuccess

Control the email, don’t let it control you

I get a LOT of email (including this one, no offense), and I can’t keep up. How do I get off all of these email lists? Shouldn’t there be one place I can change my preferences? —Anonymous

This question was originally published in December 2015. The answer has been updated to reflect the University’s new email management system. 

Hi there,

I get it. We’re all swamped with emails. No offense taken.

Unfortunately, just due to the sheer size of this university and the autonomy of various units, there is no one definitive, central place to management your subscriptions. However, if you focus on a few key sources, you should be able to drastically reduce your inbox.

  1. You can manage many of your subscriptions through the Subscription Preference Center. Fill out the form with your email address, then you will receive an email with a link to your personal subscription preference center. In the subscription preference center, click on “Manage all UW Preferences” at the top of the page, then scroll through the units. Expand the options for unit-specific emails by clicking the “+” to the left of the unit name. Deselect an email to unsubscribe. This will allow you to manage communications sent through a particular software (Marketo).
  2.  Some units may use another software other than Marketo, such as MailChimp. You will have to manage subscriptions for those outlets separately. There should always be options to unsubscribe for the email at the bottom.
  3. Some emails may be coming from the Registar’s office, or Financial Aid, etc. You will not be able to get off of these lists.
  4. Some emails may be coming directly from your department or a professor. You’ll need to consult with the relevant unit.
  5. If you can’t get out at the source, take advantage of your email software: set rules and filters.

You should have control of how much communication you receive, of course, but I want to advise you to unsubscribe thoughtfully. There have been instances where students opted out of all emails from a unit and then were frustrated they were not getting some of the notices regarding funding opportunities, events, etc.

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Published November 30, 2017

Managing stress – a lifelong pursuit!

No question about it, being a postdoc is stressful. Academic life is stressful. Your future is uncertain, you are under pressure to produce, you may have family and life circumstances that add to the joy – and the stress – of your experience. Given the data on mental health among graduate students and postdocs, we at the Graduate School encourage open dialogue about how things are going. Check in with each other. And seek help and support when you need it.

Three practices have been shown to make a difference for resilience and well-being:

  1. Self-care. Sometimes things get so out of whack you have to remind yourself of the basics: enough sleep, healthy food, exercise. All of these things help you think better and perform better. We know there are times you have to push through, but this is a marathon and you have to sustain yourself for the long haul. Find the daily or weekly practice that keeps you on solid ground.
  2. Connecting with support networks. Seek out people you can be real with. These may be peers, part of your mentoring team, or friends or family from back home. You need a place to speak openly and honestly about how you are doing, a place where you can just be heard. Sometimes online communities can be strong points of connection too. When you find others that feel like you do, it helps you feel less alone and gain more perspective.
  3. Remembering your purpose. Why are you here? This could be the bigger picture reason you are here – is it love of science? Passion for problem-solving? A desire to make a contribution in the world? Keeping your driving purpose and passion closer to the front of your mind can help you regain focus and motivation when the details or deadlines are rushing in.

One study of postdocs at UT Austin showed that the difference between those who are flourishing and those who are languishing is more positive emotions. It makes sense, right? Positive emotions don’t just happen by themselves – you have to fuel them. Keep things in your life that bring you joy or passion. Check in about things you are grateful for, even – or especially – when times are dark and hard. It all helps keep your positive fire going!

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or thoughts of self-harm, please visit Samaritans or MentalHealth.gov. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a free, confidential 24-7 service that can provide people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, or those around them, with support, information and local resources. 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

 

 

References: